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Today's Brief: Curfews, Wainwright, and Houthis

The Homebrew · · Posted · AI-drafted daily brief, synthesized from Left, Center, and Right coverage. Facts may be inaccurate — verify with the cited sources below.

France's prime minister asked some cities to impose curfews on Monday after a weekend of rioting and looting, NBC News reported, and the interior minister said authorities had "lost control" in major cities. In Alberta, the official toll from Saturday's fire at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright stands at four soldiers dead and 39 people taken to hospital, 19 of them in critical condition, CBC News reported. The U.S. Mission in Saudi Arabia warned that Houthi attacks on Saudi airports and infrastructure could "escalate rapidly." Ukraine hit oil sites in St. Petersburg as President Trump defended pausing Russia sanctions, an Australian lawmaker was critically injured by a car in what the prime minister called a deliberate act, and China's economy grew faster than expected.

France: curfews and a rejected resignation. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said after an emergency meeting Monday that he had asked some local authorities to introduce curfews, but dismissed the idea of putting all of Paris under one, NBC News reported; the New York Post reported that he told city prefects to impose "very limited" and "localized" curfews. "Despite scenes of severe violence and extensive property damage, no one was killed and that is a miracle," Lecornu said, according to NBC, adding that about 3,000 businesses had been looted or vandalized. The BBC put the figure at an estimated 1,500 shops and businesses looted and destroyed.

More than half a million people took part in the weekend's protests, nearly 2,400 people were arrested and almost 1,000 police officers and firefighters were injured, the interior ministry said, according to NBC. NPR reported the ministry's count as about 2,300 arrests and nearly 1,000 injured police officers; the BBC reported the ministry said about 1,000 police officers were hurt on Saturday, seven of them seriously. Police used tear gas and a water cannon on protesters in central Paris on Sunday, Anadolu Agency reported; NBC said police faced off with demonstrators at Place de la République. Marseille banned public gatherings for most of Monday, NBC reported. In Limoges, only shattered glass and the frame of the roof remain of the 19th-century town hall, NBC said.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez offered to resign, and President Emmanuel Macron rejected it, NBC reported. The Élysée said Macron asked him to stay "given the need for continued command of law enforcement in the current context," the New York Post reported. "I submitted my resignation because I am responsible for everything that is happening," Nuñez told France Inter radio, according to the Post. In a televised address Sunday, Macron blamed "troublemakers from far-left fringe groups" and said, "Nothing justifies it, nothing explains it, nothing excuses it," NBC reported; the BBC said the speech was widely criticized in the French media for lacking concrete detail. Trade unions and France's "yellow jacket" (gilets jaunes) movement have announced huge protests for Nov. 5, the BBC reported.

President Trump posted on Truth Social on Monday, "The migrants have taken over France," and "They must CLOSE THE BORDERS, FAST!" the New York Post reported. French officials have not blamed immigrants for the unrest, NBC reported. Vice President JD Vance wrote on X that the protests were a warning for Americans: "This is the future congressional Democrats seek for your country," according to NBC.

Wainwright: four soldiers dead, 19 critical. Four Canadian Armed Forces members were killed and 39 people were taken to hospital, 19 in critical condition, after a grass fire broke out while soldiers were training at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright at about 4 p.m. Saturday, officials said, according to CBC News. Sources had initially told CBC that seven people had been killed. The official count is lower than the at least seven dead Global News reported overnight Saturday, citing unnamed military sources. The Department of National Defence has identified the four soldiers, CBC reported. Prime Minister Mark Carney called the fire "one of the worst tragedies for the Forces on Canadian soil in peacetime," and flags are at half-mast at federal buildings, CBC said.

Maj.-Gen. Wade Rutland, commander of the 1st Canadian Division, said the fire broke out during a high-intensity combat training exercise using live munitions and that the cause is not yet known: "Quite frankly, it could have been any of that or none of it," CBC reported. Heavy gusts spread the fire a kilometre in less than a minute, he said. Range control knew about the fire on the base for several hours, but it was decided that training "could carry on for a certain amount of time," Rutland said, according to CBC. Rutland said there is no indication that oil and gas infrastructure was hit, CBC reported, and the BBC said the military does not believe any explosions were caused by oil or gas infrastructure. The defence department said there were no indications of "any terrorist activity," and Rutland expects the investigation to take at least a month, CBC reported. Alberta's provincial code orange response lasted 10 hours and sent 22 ground ambulances and eight aircraft to Wainwright, CBC said.

Russia: St. Petersburg oil sites hit as Trump defends sanctions pause. An overnight attack on St. Petersburg killed at least one person and hit two oil facilities, the BBC reported; Governor Alexander Beglov said fires were being put out at the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal and the Ruchyi oil depot after the attack, which also injured at least five. Pulkovo Airport was temporarily closed, and a logistics centre of the retailer Ozon and a data centre of the social network VK were also hit, the BBC said. Russia's defence ministry said it shot down more than 1,000 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight into Sunday; Kyiv had not commented, the BBC reported.

Trump said on Truth Social that he didn't want to "do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table," after blocking numerous Russia sanctions on Friday night, two days before they were due to take effect, the BBC reported. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has described it as a 60-day pause, the BBC said. Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev called it "an important and truly historic moment," and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told NBC News that siding with Putin would be a "historic mistake," according to the BBC. Zelensky also said on Telegram that he had spoken with Trump's negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the BBC reported. Oil fell early Monday after the sanctions move, with Brent down 2.5% to $107.16 a barrel and U.S. crude down 2.2% to $96.84, CBS News reported.

The Gulf: Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia. Iranian-supported Houthis have attacked Saudi civilian airports and other critical infrastructure, causing civilian casualties and severe travel disruptions, and "the hostilities have the potential to escalate rapidly beyond that immediate area," the U.S. Mission in Saudi Arabia said in an Oct. 18 security alert. U.S. government employees in Saudi Arabia need special authorization to use King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, the alert said. Houthi strikes on Saudi infrastructure have killed more than 20 people in recent weeks, and Trump has said he is considering joining Saudi operations against the rebels, CBS News reported. On Monday, Houthi ballistic missiles struck the al-Alam military camp in Yemen's government-controlled Shabwa province; the death toll rose to at least 50, with more than 100 people injured, Shabwa deputy governor Fahad al-Khalifi told AFP, CBS News reported.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is due in Tehran on Monday for talks he said are "aimed at preventing the return of a large-scale war," CBS reported. Iran's foreign minister said Sunday that Tehran's seven-day ceasefire proposal, with a phased reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, remains on the table, CBS said. The U.K. navy counted 10 attacks on commercial vessels in and near the strait last week, making October the worst month for attacks there since March, according to CBS.

Australia: lawmaker hit by car in "deliberate act". Helen Haines, a 65-year-old independent member of Australia's federal Parliament, was critically injured Monday when a Toyota Land Cruiser hit her outside her electoral office in Wangaratta, Victoria, police said, according to NPR. "This wasn't an accident. There was a deliberate act, it would appear. We don't know what the motivation is," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp., NPR reported; the national counterterrorism team is investigating. A passerby detained the driver at the scene, and police said a knife was found in the vehicle, NPR reported. Police said they are investigating whether it was an intentional act. Victoria Police Acting Superintendent Ashley Mason said police have no intelligence of any further threat to the community, the Washington Examiner reported.

China grows faster than forecast. China's GDP grew 4.5% year on year in the third quarter, up from 4.3% in the second, and 4.6% over the first three quarters, the National Bureau of Statistics said; third-quarter GDP rose 1.2% from the previous quarter. The figures beat economists' expectations, the Guardian reported. Industrial production rose 5.5% in September while retail sales grew 1.1%, and property investment fell 20.6% over the first nine months, the Guardian said. "This pickup in GDP growth mainly reflects ongoing export strength on the global AI/tech boom, more than offsetting drags from the Iran conflict and ongoing weakness in domestic demand," analysts at ABN Amro said, according to the Guardian.

Science: an early warning for IBD. Patterns of antibodies in the blood could predict inflammatory bowel disease up to a decade before diagnosis, according to research published in the journal Gut, the Guardian reported. Researchers tested 2,000 blood samples from 500 U.S. military personnel. "This is not yet a test that can tell someone they will become ill, but it is an important step towards catching the disease earlier," said Dr. Arno Bourgonje of University Medical Centre Groningen and Mount Sinai, according to the Guardian. The findings need to be confirmed in other groups and show a link rather than proving cause, the Guardian said.

Box office. "Street Fighter" opened to $31 million in weekend estimates, Deadline reported. A24's Elizabeth Holmes documentary "You Can See Everything" took in $15 million on 855 screens, the second-best opening ever for a documentary after "Fahrenheit 9/11" ($23.9 million), according to Deadline. "Whalefall," which Deadline called a $60 million film, opened to $8 million.

Sources used

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