Newshour

The United States and Russia say they are ready to resume three-way peace talks with Ukraine. Earlier, Russia freed Stephen Hubbard, a retired US schoolteacher, who had been held in custody since 2022. We speak to Mr Hubbard's American lawyer, Martin De Luca.
Also on the programme: the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control has urged countries to share information about Nigeria’s first confirmed case of Ebola; and we hear from one of France's leading public intellectuals, Edouard Louis, on the wider reasons behind the country's demonstrations.
(US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff arrives in Saint Petersburg Credit: Reuters)

The Kremlin says President Putin is ready in principle to resume three-way peace talks between the US, Ukraine and Russia in mid-November. But a Kremlin spokesperson said Ukrainian and European plans lacked substance.
Also in the programme: How Mahvash Sabet, a prisoner from Iran's Baha'i religious minority wrote her memoir in prison; why the British government is giving the green light to more production of natural gas; and how will President Trump's deportation drive play in next month's midterm elections.
(Photo credit: Getty Images)

After the Sudanese army is blamed for killing more than 300 civilians in two separate drone strikes, we hear how both adversaries and their backers are using the country as a 'laboratory for drone technology'.
Also on the programme: US author Michael Lewis on his latest book "Blockers: Rebels in the Deep State", about career civil servants resisting the sweeping cuts sought by the short-lived Department for Government Efficiency; and a young Palestinian writer reflects on food in Italy, where she now studies, and back home in Gaza.
(Photo: Medical workers treat injured people at Ameth Bek hospital after a drone strike on a market in the disputed Abyei region along the border between South Sudan and Sudan, 19 October 2026. Credit: Reuters/Medecins Sans Frontieres/Handout)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has rejected as "scandalous" accusations that Ukrainians are dying because the US is withholding intelligence from Kyiv.
He was speaking after President Zelensky's military technical adviser, Serhii Beskrestnov, told the BBC that the lack of reliable US warnings meant lives were being lost.
Also in the programme: how many young Israelis appear to have tilted rightwards ahead of next week's election; how an AI tool can appear to predict cancer survival chances from a single selfie; and new research unlocks a Shakespearean mystery.
(Photo shows US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Mumbai, India on 20 October 2026. Credit: Kylie Cooper/Reuters)

A Kenyan court has found the doomsday cult leader Paul Mackenzie and 29 accomplices guilty of the murder of 190 children and one adult.
Also on the programme: the French government imposes overnight curfews in parts of central Paris and other major cities in a bid to end the violence and looting that has scarred France since Saturday; and as the western Canadian province of Alberta votes in a referendum on independence, we hear from one of the leaders of the separatist movement.
(Photo: Paul Mackenzie, a Kenyan cult leader accused of ordering his followers, who were members of the Good News International Church, to starve themselves to death in Shakahola forest, appears in court for his judgement at the Mombasa High Court, Kenya 19 October 2026. Credit: Reuters/Laban Walloga)