Friday 23rd October 2026. Website problems. Finland Google trees. Russian 'humanitarian' response. EU ICC award. Serbia, Brazil elections...

0:00 Good morning. This is Send7 World News in 7 Minutes. I'm Stephen Devincenzi. Today is Friday the 23rd of October, 2026. Starting in Europe today, across Europe and in other parts of the world, There were major problems with various websites yesterday after a vulnerability was found which affects millions of websites.

0:36 The governments of Germany, France, Finland, the Netherlands and Belgium temporarily shut down some websites in order to fix weaknesses in PHP, a computer language which is used to design about two-thirds of websites. On Tuesday, the United States National Security Agency said that all organisations that use PHP should take their websites offline until they have patched them, because the vulnerability could allow hackers direct access to their website's server system or database. Since the vulnerability was announced, there are reports of millions of hacking attempts. In Finland, Google has been accused of illegally cutting down 400,000 trees in order to build two data centres. The planned data centres

1:36 in Muhos and Otanmaki are part of a € 13 billion artificial intelligence infrastructure project in Finland. Google Finland manager Antti Jarmanen has apologised for clearing forests around the data centres and said that Google was using the best understanding we had of the legislation at the time. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared to mock a quote by United States Special Envoy to Russia, Steve Witkoff, yesterday during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. in which Russia agreed to release a US prisoner, Witkow said that Putin was a humanitarian.

2:26 He's a 75-year-old man, and you talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian.

2:35 You are a humanitarian also, sir.

2:38 And I salute that, I commend you, and I thank you again. Writing on social media yesterday, President Zelensky said, quote, Three waves of ballistic missiles have been launched at Kiev by Russian humanitarians since yesterday evening. They used 21 missiles. As of now, two people have been confirmed killed. The European Union has awarded its top human rights honour, the Sakharov Prize, to the International Criminal Court of Last week, the United States imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court, calling it a rogue court. Announcing the award in Strasbourg yesterday, European Parliament President Roberta Mazzola said that the European Union recognises the court's commitment to international law.

3:33 I am able to announce... that the 2026 Saharov Prize for Freedom of Thought has been awarded to the International Criminal Court and its officials. The European Union is built on respect for multilateralism and international institutions, and this prize recognises the important work of the Court in upholding international law and justice.

3:59 Serbia has a parliamentary election on Sunday. The SNS party of Aleksandar Vucic, who has been president for the last nine years, is expected to win the most seats, which means that it is likely that he could become prime minister. However, a new coalition called the Student List is also expected to win many seats. America's Brazil will hold the second round of its presidential election on Sunday. Opinion polls are generally showing a very small lead for right-wing candidate Flavio Bolsonaro over current left-wing president Lula da Silva. In the United States, the world's richest person, Elon Musk, has said that his two major companies, Tesla and SpaceX, are considering merging. Airbnb, the short-term rental company, has set new rules for hosts,

5:06 which include that guests cannot be told that they have to change beds or wash dishes, The new rules are believed to be because of repeated complaints from guests that they had to pay cleaning fees but were still asked to complete cleaning chores. Africa Nigeria's Lagos airport has introduced screening for Ebola after Nigeria recorded its first case of Ebola in over 10 years this week. Officials say that the case appears to have come from Uganda, where a small outbreak has recently occurred, and there is no sign of any transmission in Nigeria. In Libya, two European women have been freed after more than a year in captivity.

5:59 The 76-year-old Austrian woman and the 69-year-old Swiss woman were kidnapped in different incidents in Niger last year and were both handed over to authorities in in the Libyan city of Benghazi, without it being clear who had been holding them all this time. Asia and Oceania Taiwan and Japan are preparing for Typhoon Champi. Champi is expected to hit Taiwan's east coast today and move north along the coast tomorrow.

6:36 On Sunday, it is expected to reach Japan's southwestern islands, Over 200 flights have been cancelled in the region. Mobile phones on the east of Taiwan received alerts of waves over six metres tall. In Saudi Arabia, the United States has ordered its diplomats to leave because of attacks by Yemen's Houthi group. There are also reports of international companies moving their staff out of Saudi Arabia and an increase in people driving. to the United Arab Emirates or Bahrain, rather than flying, as Saudi airports have been a main target of Houthi attacks. And in Australia, a man was rescued from a sinking car in a flood by a journalist and another man. Will Murray, a journalist for Australia's public news channel ABC, was reporting on flooding in Brisbane

7:38 last when he saw a car drive into floodwater and start sinking. Murray's film crew recorded as he swam to the car and, with another man, helped to pull the door open, helping the man escape, seconds before it went completely underwater. An ABC camera operator said they definitely saved that man's life. That's your world news for this week.

8:05 This podcast exists because of Send7 supporters who have access to our interactive transcripts, ad-free episodes, vocabulary lists, worksheets, and a bonus quiz episode every Friday. You can become a supporter at Send7. org or by clicking the link in the description of this episode. Have a great weekend. I will see you on Monday.