Riyadh, a League party congress and an asteroid: the day in ten sections

We lead with the second attack in three days on King Khalid Airport in Riyadh: one dead and eleven wounded add to the toll of twelve victims and three hundred nine wounded from the October 10 episode. Two strikes on the same airport in less than a week, with the interception of three missiles also aimed at Khamis Mushait, describe an escalation that outweighs any other news of the day: that is why it opens the edition.

The ten sections are covered. In Italy, Salvini’s resignation as League secretary is a procedural step — needed in order to run again at the Milan congress on October 24-25 — not a political rupture, and we state this clearly in the piece. In Europe, the French Navy stops a tanker suspected of belonging to the Russian shadow fleet off Réunion. In Economy, the 2026 Nobel goes to Robert Hall and Michael Woodford for their models on macroeconomic stabilization. In News, the magnitude 6.2 quake off Panama: here the news comes from a single source, INGV, and we state this in the text — no death toll is available yet, and this is a normal phase, not an anomaly.

The same caveat applies to Health: the WHO’s appeal to move beyond institutional psychiatric care models, on the occasion of World Mental Health Day, comes so far only from the organization’s press release. No independent confirmation, no reticence in saying so.

For the rest, Culture follows the five discoveries in the running for the 2026 Palmyra Prize, from the submerged port of Taposiris Magna to the mosaics of Heraclea ad Latmum; Sport looks at the second Champions League matchday, with Inter and Napoli both needing redemption; Cinema tells the story of Zvyagintsev, the exiled Russian director representing France at the Oscars with a film about the war in Ukraine; Technology follows the Hera probe, a month ahead of schedule for its encounter with Dimorphos. Today’s Alla Fonte reads in full the EU press release on the 46 projects for critical raw materials in sixteen member states.

Two alternative versions of the stories on France and Zvyagintsev were discarded during production as redundant: the Europe and Cinema sections remain covered by the published articles, not by the discarded ones.

The Riyadh toll, updated as of October 12, remains the most significant data point of the day: two attacks on the same airport in less than seventy-two hours.