WEDNESDAY, 28 OCTOBER 2026
WORLD • IRAN & UNITED STATES
Trump Turns Away Iran’s Peace Overtures as Mines Burn a Tanker in Hormuz
At a rally in Mississippi on Monday, President Trump brushed aside Iran’s peace overtures. “We didn’t start the war with Iran,” he told the crowd. “Iran started the war with us.” Hours earlier he had said he would soon choose between making a deal and finishing the job. Back in the Gulf, the Iranian Navy said a tanker running with its tracker switched off hit mines in the eastern Strait of Hormuz and caught fire, and declared the strait closed to unauthorised ships. The US Central Command rejected a claim from the Revolutionary Guards that American forces had left the waterway, saying they remain.
The Houthis claim to have attacked Saudi Aramco’s Ras Tanura refinery, and the State Department has ordered non-emergency staff out of Saudi Arabia after missile and drone strikes disrupted flights. Qatar, which is mediating with Pakistan, says Iran must show good intentions, stop threatening its Gulf neighbours and open the strait if talks are to work. Iran’s security chief Mohsen Rezaei told Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan that American guarantees have proved empty and urged them to build a defence arrangement without Washington.
For ordinary families far from the Gulf, the question is simple: how long will fuel stay expensive? The White House says petrol prices will fall once the conflict ends, but there is no date. America’s midterm elections are on 3 November.
WORLD • ISRAEL
Israelis Queue in Record Numbers for a Vote on Netanyahu’s War Leadership
Israelis turned out on Tuesday in numbers not seen in decades. In the first three hours turnout reached 16.7 percent, the highest early figure since 1981, and by 8 p.m. local time it stood at 74.3 percent, already above the whole of the 2022 election, with polls open until 10 p.m. The vote is being treated as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership through the war and its aftermath.
WORLD • UNITED KINGDOM
Two London Men Charged Over Incident at RAF Fairford, a Base Used by US Bombers
British prosecutors have charged two men from London over a security incident at RAF Fairford, the Gloucestershire base used by American bombers. One faces a charge of assisting a foreign intelligence service, which officials identified as Iran’s. Both men are presumed innocent, and the court has yet to hear the case.
NIGERIA • POLITICS
“He Must Go Home”: Obi Tells Tinubu He Lacks the Energy to Lead
Speaking in Abuja on Tuesday at the inauguration of the NDC National Campaign Council, Peter Obi did not mince his words. “Tinubu does not have the energy and resolve required to lead Nigeria today, and he must go home,” the NDC presidential candidate declared, saying the country needs a leader who is “available and present” as hunger and insecurity bite. He pointed to rankings to make his case: Nigeria now ranks fourth on terrorism, he said, and its hunger ranking has slipped from 109th to 117th. He also criticised Tinubu for launching his campaign in Kaduna instead of explaining how borrowed money and past budgets were spent.
Rabiu Kwankwaso, the NDC’s vice-presidential candidate, and Seriake Dickson, the party’s national leader, were among those present. We saw no direct reply from Tinubu or the APC to Obi, but APC campaign figure Obafemi George has said no law obliges a presidential candidate to campaign in all 36 states. Tinubu has said he will take advice to avoid campaign distractions and rally personally in 12 states; at the APC campaign council inauguration on 14 October he said, “We have bills to pay.”
NIGERIA • POLITICS & FOREIGN DEBT
Atiku Questions Tinubu’s $20.52 Billion Loan Request: “A Campaign Financing Scheme Dressed Up as Infrastructure”?
President Tinubu has asked the Senate to approve external loans of $20.52 billion and €1.045 billion, and Atiku Abubakar wants every Nigerian to know what is in them. In a statement on Tuesday the ADC candidate said the request lists broad sectors but no projects, costs, locations or contractors, and he asked whether the money would fund development “or a campaign financing scheme dressed up as infrastructure,” with the election about 12 weeks away. He urged lawmakers to withhold approval until the details are published.
NIGERIA • POLITICS
Kaduna APC Tells Atiku to Step Aside and Back Tinubu
The APC’s Kaduna publicity secretary, Mohammed Sani Haruna, told a press briefing on Monday that Atiku should drop his 2027 bid. He said the turnout at Saturday’s flag-off shows the North has chosen Tinubu, that Tinubu gave Atiku “a platform in 2011,” and that Atiku, who is nearing 80, risks another embarrassing defeat. He dismissed social-media claims that the crowd was paid, or the footage was AI-generated, saying people camped at the venue and queued from about 4 a.m.: “You cannot buy that kind of sentiment.”
NIGERIA • JUSTICE
An Atiku Supporter Is Remanded in Kaduna Over a Fake Letter to the US President
A supporter of Atiku Abubakar is in custody in Kaduna after sharing a forged letter on Facebook. The Department of State Services has filed a three-count charge of cybercrime and defamation at the Federal High Court, Kaduna, over a fabricated letter purportedly signed by President Tinubu and addressed to the US President, posted with the caption “ATIKU IS COMING.” A magistrate ordered him remanded; no date has been fixed for the Federal High Court hearing. The man was arrested on 28 September and, during questioning, admitted sharing the document and expressed remorse.
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