Monday 5th October 2026. Latvia, Bosnia, Brazil elections. Ukraine bridges. Spain floods, protests. Saudi-Houthi offensive? France schools..

0:01 Good morning. This is Send7, World News in 7 Minutes. I'm Stephen Devincenzi. Today is Monday the 5th of October, 2026. Starting in Europe today, Latvia had parliamentary elections on Saturday, Out of 100 available seats, the centrist United List party of Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs won 41 seats, meaning that he will almost certainly remain as Prime Minister in a new coalition government. During the election campaign, Kulbergs promised to maintain Latvia's strong support of Ukraine. Bosnia and Herzegovina also held general elections yesterday. The counting process had just started at the time of recording this podcast. In Ukraine's capital city, Kiev, Russia hit an important transport bridge over the Dnipro River yesterday,

1:11 making yesterday the fourth day in a row in which Russia has hit important bridges over the Dnipro River. Video shows the moment that the drone hit the bridge, causing a large explosion as people were driving over it. People were injured, however no deaths were reported. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz arrived in Kiev for an unannounced visit yesterday. Since US President Donald Trump returned to power last year, Germany has become the biggest provider of military support for Ukraine.

1:48 as the US has greatly reduced support. During Mertz's visit, there were multiple air raid sirens because of Russian drones. In Spain, there was flooding in the north-eastern Catalonia region this weekend, with two deaths confirmed and at least one more person missing. Also in Spain, tens of thousands of people joined protests this weekend over the housing and rental situation.

2:18 In France, over 400 schools will remain closed today, after protests, which grew throughout last week, were expected to continue this week. In the Netherlands, a group of people living near a chip shop are taking the city of Amsterdam to court for giving a licence to the chip shop in the residential area. People living in Rundstraat say that the Fabelfried chip shop has a long queue of tourists seven days a week, which the residents call the TikTok queue because of people taking photos and videos for social media. They also say that there are problems of seagulls and rats coming to their street. However, Fabelfried says that it employs people to clean the streets around the shop. In Bulgaria,

3:16 there was a ceremony on Saturday to mark the arrival from Greece of the remains of medieval Bulgarian ruler Tsar Samuel, who died in the year 1014. America's Brazil held general elections yesterday. At the time of recording this podcast, the voting had just finished. In the presidential election, opinion polls have shown an extremely close race between President Lula da Silva and the far-right Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted of attempting to overturn democracy after losing the 2022 presidential election to Lula. The United States will not put a ban on exporting diesel, President Donald Trump said yesterday after he had suggested the possibility a few days ago because of the fast rise

4:17 in diesel prices in the US. Since Trump returned to office, the price of diesel has risen by around 75%. Speaking next to a helicopter, Trump said that European countries had agreed to release diesel stockpiles in order to control the price of diesel, and said that after the war with Iran ends, prices will return to normal. Europe has a lot of diesel, and they're going to be making a major world contribution, and so are we. And we're not going to be... Africa in Libya talks between the rival governments in the East and the West. have been put in doubt after allegations that the eastern government was responsible for a series of drone attacks in August. In August, three Libyans and one Spanish citizen were arrested in Tripoli

5:35 for allegedly having a role in the drone strikes on oil facilities, which caused electricity blackouts in western Libya. Recent reports suggest that Saddam Haftar, the son of Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar, was responsible for the attacks. Since 2011, control of Libya has been split between the internationally recognised government in the West and a rival government in the East, dominated by Khalifa Haftar. In Egypt, six journalists working for the investigative news agency Matsadash have been arrested and accused of spreading fake news in support of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, One of the journalists, Mohamed Ashraf, has been charged with joining a terrorist group. Rights groups have said that the

6:29 arrests are an attack on free media. Asia Saudi Arabia is planning an offensive against the Houthis in Yemen, according to Reuters news agency, who say that several officials from the Middle East and the West have confirmed that Saudi Arabia is planning an offensive against probably down the west coast of Yemen. In Japan, a United States soldier has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a woman's body was found in a hotel in Okinawa. And in South Korea, Estonian slackline world champion Jan Roos has entertained the people of Seoul by slackline walking 120 metres in the air between the Corriana Hotel and the Donga-A Media Centre. In 2024, Ruse became the first person to slackline walk the Strait

7:34 of Messina between Italy's mainland and the island of Sicily. That's your world news in seven minutes. If you enjoyed this podcast, then I think you will also like the free email newsletter that I write every Friday. It also combines the news with learning English. Sign up for free at send7. org slash newsletter. Tomorrow you will be with Juliet Martin.

7:59 Have a great day.