Zelensky resumes refinery strikes as Peshawar school collapse kills dozens of children

Volodymyr Zelensky told the Financial Times that Ukraine has resumed attacks on Russian refineries, ending a pause of about three days requested by Washington. He said Kyiv had held back while Russia kept hitting Ukrainian energy infrastructure, and he tied any future halt to the delivery of more American air defences, especially Patriot interceptors. The timing matters because the pause followed Donald Trump's proposed moratorium on attacks on refineries and energy facilities, and it came just after Washington and Moscow announced a diesel arrangement covering more than 300,000 tonnes for US and global markets.

The dispute now reaches beyond the battlefield. Zelensky said Ukrainian commanders had been told intelligence sharing could be blocked if the refinery strikes continued, while Kyiv also complained about Starlink slowdowns that hindered drone missions. Elon Musk replied that the US military, ultimately directed by the president, decides limits on the Starshield system. Moscow rejected Kyiv's version: Sergei Lavrov called the move a direct challenge to Trump, and Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov said Ukraine had never really observed a moratorium. Ryazan's governor reported a refinery fire after a large drone attack, while Zelensky said Russian strikes killed six people in Kirovohrad and Dnipropetrovsk and that Ukraine counted more than 850 Shahed drones between midnight and 9am on 15 October.

The next decision sits in Washington as much as in Kyiv. More air-defence deliveries could buy another pause; without them, both sides have signalled they will keep treating energy infrastructure as a legitimate pressure point. Russia says it is negotiating an energy-sector truce, but no such agreement has been announced.

A private school roof collapsed during lessons in Peshawar, crushing three classrooms where police said about 110 pupils were present. Hospital figures shifted during the rescue effort, but AFP later cited Lady Reading Hospital for a toll of 32 children and one female teacher dead, with most of the children aged 4 to 14. Around 20 injured children were taken to hospital, three with serious head injuries, while some local accounts put the total injured closer to 50. Residents reached the Al-Khair Educational Centre first, then rescue teams arrived and found one roof had fallen onto another, trapping children beneath the debris.

Police detained the school owner and opened an investigation into whether the building broke construction rules. Mian Saeed, the police chief, said the weak structure could not carry the load of extra construction work, while commissioner Farhan Ahmed told the BBC the building was in extremely poor technical condition and should not have held children. Heavy overnight rain may have worsened the damage, but investigators will now check building approvals, materials and past inspections. A relative of an injured child said he saw 10 to 15 children buried up to the neck before rescuers pulled them out.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered help for families and called for a thorough and transparent inquiry. The political test is practical: Pakistan suffers frequent roof and building collapses, and weak materials are often blamed after the fact. ANSA recalled that a private tuition-centre collapse in Lahore on 30 June killed 14 children.

Asian markets sold off sharply after hotter US inflation revived expectations that the Federal Reserve may keep borrowing costs high. MSCI's broad Asia-Pacific index outside Japan fell 3.3%, South Korea's Kospi dropped 8%, and Japan's Nikkei 225 lost 4.8%. The selling hit the AI supply chain hardest: Samsung Electronics fell 9.3%, SK Hynix and Kioxia each lost more than 11%, SoftBank Group dropped 9.4%, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company slipped 2% before its results. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 had fallen 1.1% and the Nasdaq Composite 1.9% the previous day.

Brazil's Senate approved a constitutional amendment ending the six-day work schedule by 75 votes to one, passing both required rounds in a single session. The lower house had already approved the same text, so the amendment can be promulgated without returning to deputies, with that step expected in the week of 19 October. The change gives workers two weekly rest days, cuts the maximum working week from 44 hours to 42 within 60 days of promulgation, and lowers it again to 40 hours about 14 months later. Pay cannot be cut under the amendment, and Lula's government estimates that more than 37 million formal-sector workers could benefit.

US prosecutors charged Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old OpenAI engineer and Saudi national, with using or attempting to use an electronic device to intercept oral communications. They allege he hid a recording device behind a television in an executive conference room at OpenAI's San Francisco office, where staff found it on 30 September wrapped in toilet paper and plugged into a USB port. Investigators estimate the device was installed around 28 September, but the stored data was encrypted and could not be accessed. Agents later found a similar custom device in a bag he had left elsewhere in the building, along with his wallet and identification card.

Court documents say Alfozan used an AI productivity assistant to research conference rooms, their schedules and where outside partners usually met OpenAI staff. Prosecutors also say a chatbot used by his wife received queries on how to assemble, install and remotely reach a recording device. Security cameras allegedly captured him near the room eight times in September despite lacking authorised access. OpenAI fired him and said it had no indication that he improperly accessed or extracted model weights, source code or customer data.

The charge carries a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Prosecutors sought to seal the complaint after saying Alfozan had booked a one-way flight to Saudi Arabia for 12 October with his wife and another family member. His lawyer, William Pernik, said the defence will contest the allegations and his continued detention, and argued that stressing his national origin revives dark chapters of US history. FBI Director Kash Patel framed the case as a counterintelligence matter.

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