Reuters World News - Saudi airport attacks, evicted Spanish woman dies and Christa Pike evidence

Episode Date: October 8, 2026

Saudi Arabia reports deadly attacks on the kingdom's airports as fighting escalates in Yemen. Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old woman whose eviction sparked housing protests in Spain, has died. A Tennessee judge orders the evidence from Christa Pike's botched execution to be preserved. And protests over education costs spread from France to Belgium. Podcasts, breaking news, and video analysis from the source.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download the Reuters app here.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen to the Morning Bid podcast ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Visit the ⁠⁠Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi, I'm Kim Vinal in Wanganui, New Zealand. It's Thursday, October 8th. Today, Syria considers military support for Saudi Arabia as the fight between the Saudi-backed government in Yemen and the Houthis escalates. Democrats in tight Midwest races deflect or move to the right on transgender issues. And the World Health Organization asks Russia for more information. after a death at a plague research lab in Siberia. This is Reuters World News,

bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. Saudi Arabia says three people have been killed and dozens wounded in attacks on two different airports as the fight between the Iran-backed houthis and the Saudi-backed government in neighboring Yemen escalates. The Saudi-back government is a few days into a campaign to retake all the territory the Houthis have gained in the past 12 years of war. Crucially, it wants to loosen the Houthi's grip on the Babal-Mandeb Strait,

a key shipping route that the group brought within reach as the U.S.-Israel-Iran war spread. Syria, meanwhile, is considering providing military assistance to Saudi Arabia, that's according to sources. options being considered include defensive aid to protect the kingdom from attacks or deploying forces in an offensive capacity to help Saudi-backed Yemeni troops fight the Houthis. Please pretend that I'm on the ballot, get out and vote. US President Donald Trump speaking in Texas at a rally for Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton the third time Trump has stumped for Paxton in a month. His speech was interrupted several times by protesters.

Trump, though, remained on message. His appearance, a sign of growing Republican concern for a state that's long being considered safe ground. A recent New York Times-C-Net College poll shows Paxton trailing Democrat James Tallerico in the upcoming midterms by six points. Paxton is one of several Republicans who have made transgender rights, or rather limiting those rights, a central issue of their campaign. Democrats, however, are split on how to handle the issue, particularly in the tight Midwest races. Reporter Leah Douglas has more on how Democrats are rethinking their strategies,

and in some cases, moving closer to the traditionally Republican position. In this midterm cycle, Republicans are continuing this messaging around limiting trans participation in sports, restricting gender affirming care for minors. These are aligned with priority. of the Trump administration as well. And in this cycle, we are seeing Democrats, especially in really tight competitive races, adjusting their messaging on trans topics.

For instance, in Ohio and Iowa, two states we looked at for this story, there are really tight races here, true toss-ups. And Democrats in those races are sort of picking from two strategies. One is to try to deflect and change the topic and say this isn't a relevant issue, for most of my constituents, and instead we should be talking about the cost of living, high gas prices, the war in Iran, other issues that are really top of mind for voters.

The other approach that many Democrats are using is to sort of move towards Republicans on some of their stances and to mirror some of the language that Republicans are using on these topics. And often to come out and say, I agree with Republicans that, for instance, transgender girls should not be allowed to participate on female sports teams or gender affirming care for minors should be restricted in some ways. Samsung says quarterly operating profit is on track to exceed $80 billion,

which would be the highest quarterly profit ever reported by a technology company fueled by the global rush for AI chips. For more markets news, here's Mike Dolan, host of our sister Markets podcast MorningBid. So the earning season is, upon us once again, and we can see the first indications, particularly of the AI boom, coming out of Asia. And South Korea's Samsung has given us an eye-popping almost 800% increase in operating profit over the past year.

And even despite that, its stock is down. Part of the reason for that is that sort of level of growth is inevitably going to slow, and I think underlying that, there is a slowdown in the huge chip price rises that have been driving it. Also in the backdrop of the world's biggest chipmaker, TSMC reported another beat. So that story keeps going on. But we have to wait until the Wall Street Giants report in the coming weeks. You can catch morning bid wherever you get your podcasts. A judge has ordered Tennessee officials to preserve materials used during the botched execution of Krista Pike.

I think she is angry and confused about everything right now. Pike's attorney, Randy Spivey, says she's now dealing with serious men. complications and remains in hospital after two lethal injections of pentobarbital failed to kill her last week. They say Pike is suffering from pneumonia, a blood clot, and severe injuries to her arms. She was kind and polite as they worked for an hour stabbing her arm with needle after needle and then she felt the burn of the penobarbital. And then she woke up in a hospital surrounded by people she didn't know with a tube down our throat. We don't know the toll all of this will take. But Krista is a survivor and we remain hopeful.

The now urging Governor Bill Lee to commute her sentence, arguing that a second attempt to execute her would be unthinkable. Protesters in Spain shout to assassinos or murderers as they march towards the Madrid Parliament building after an elderly woman whose dramatic eviction sparked mass housing protests, died. 87-year-old Marikarman Abascal had been in hospital since her eviction last month, when she was removed by police on a stretcher from the home she'd been in for 70 years. A cause of death has not been given. The protests that followed her eviction eventually led to the dissolution of government

and a snap election planned for the end of November. Demonstrators in Paris, many of them masked wrestle with riot police, as protests calling for improvements to France's education system continued on Wednesday. The French government announced it is pausing the use of stun grenades in its policing of the protests after a 15-year-old boy's hand was blown off during a clash earlier this week. And over in Belgium, similar protests are taking place. With authorities using water cannon to disperse the crowds, gathered to protest rising education costs,

overcrowded classrooms and difficulties accessing study materials. Initial media reports suggested pneumonia plague following an accidental lab exposure. WHO director Tedros Adhanam Gabriaisos says the World Health Organization has asked Russia for more information about the death of an employee at a Plague Research Institute in Siberia. Last week, 28-year-old Darya Shepilova fell ill and died.

Russia's health regulator says there are no risks of an epidemic. And while there's no confirmation she had plague, 200 people were initially placed in quarantine. Bacterial vaccinology expert Malik Gabani has more on what the pneumonic variant of the plague, which impacts the lungs, actually is. So this can cause a severe illness, fever, a sepsis syndrome, pneumonia, and that is theoretically can also be transmitted person to person. So that's why there is a little bit more interest in pneumonic plague from a public health

perspective. I think it is important to emphasise, however, that unlike some pathogens that might be considered highly contagious, they can be transmitted from person to person, but isn't as highly contagious as other pathogens. play can certainly be treated with antibiotics. For more on any of the stories from today, as well as more analysis and news shaping our world, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. There's a link in the description to download it and start getting pure news straight from the source.

Don't forget to follow us on your favourite podcast player. If you're listening on a smart speaker, just ask for the latest news from Reuters seven days a week. We'll be back a little later with an update.