World News: 28 October 2026

In Toledo province, a Renfe high-speed train ran into the back of an Iryo train that had stopped. Two cars left the track, at least 64 people were killed and at least 80 were injured, according to regional president Emiliano Garcia-Page. Both trains were travelling from Madrid to Seville with 544 passengers between them, and services between Madrid, Ciudad Real and Andalusia were suspended. The cause is not yet known.

It is Spain's deadliest rail crash since 2013 and its second major one this year, after a January crash killed 45.

Citing a Wall Street Journal report, The Times of Israel says Washington has told several Gulf Arab states to be ready for a short but intensive military offensive after the US midterm elections. According to the report, a Patriot battery is being sent from Texas and troops are being moved away from exposed bases. The White House would not comment on military plans but said all options remain open.

Separately, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that he had seen no sign Iran was repairing nuclear sites damaged in US and Israeli strikes.

Senator Flavio Bolsonaro and his family landed in Miami after travelling through Argentina and Ecuador. He had refused to concede Brazil's presidential runoff to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and the Trump administration had granted the family US visas. Bolsonaro is under Supreme Court investigation in two cases involving alleged corruption, money laundering and tax evasion, and the court had ordered him to surrender his passports.

President Trump said he approved of the move and did not endorse Lula's victory, while Lula called the departure shameful.

During the annual General Assembly debate on a resolution condemning the decades-old US embargo on Cuba, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez and his delegation walked to the podium and called US ambassador Mike Waltz a liar. Waltz told Rodriguez to back away, and UN security staff stepped in. Last year the resolution passed 165 to 7 with 12 abstentions.

The debate comes as Cuba's financial crisis deepens and President Trump has again raised the prospect of US military intervention.

Medical sources said Israeli attacks killed five Palestinians and wounded 32 in the Gaza Strip on election day in Israel, and a six-year-old girl and a man died of wounds from earlier attacks. A drone strike on a Gaza government checkpoint in the Al-Mawasi area of Rafah killed three people and wounded 15. The checkpoint monitors commercial trucks entering through the Kerem Shalom crossing.

In northern Gaza, troops shot dead a 28-year-old man in the Jabalia refugee camp.

On Wednesday, Syrian security forces killed a French national in a gun battle with members of the Firqat al-Ghuraba, or Foreigners' Brigade, in northwestern Idlib province. Officials said they had seen someone leave the group's camp carrying weapons, which broke an earlier agreement with the government. At least one civilian was wounded.

Foreign jihadists who remain in Syria are a growing problem for the government as it seeks to present itself as a reliable partner to Western states.