Illustration of a white bus flying a white flag on a riverside road at dawn, between low houses and stacks of aid boxes

News 31 October 2026

Civilians begin leaving occupied Oleshky under a short local truce

The ceasefire the White House announced on Melania Trump's behalf took effect this week and is due to end late on Sunday. Between 1,700 and 2,000 people were still in the town across the Dnipro from Kherson, most of them elderly, plus around 50 children.

Civilians started leaving Oleshky on Friday. The Russian-occupied town sits on the left bank of the Dnipro, directly across the river from Kherson, and the evacuation is happening under a ceasefire that covers this one town only. It took effect this week and is due to expire late on Sunday.

What the deal covers

The truce was announced on 23 October in a statement from the Office of the First Lady, which credits Melania Trump, acting through a representative, with brokering it. Military activity in the town stops, aid goes in, and anyone who wants to leave gets safe passage, with Russian and Ukrainian teams coordinating the demining. Each resident chooses where to go, Ukrainian-held territory or Russia.

The White House puts Oleshky’s pre-war population at about 24,000. Somewhere between 1,700 and 2,000 people are thought to remain, mostly elderly, with around 50 children among them. Nobody has done a formal count since 2022. Roughly 90% of the town flooded when the Kakhovka dam was destroyed in June 2023.

What happened on Friday

Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, said Ukrainian teams had reached the town safely and that the roads had been cleared of mines. MP David Arakhamia confirmed that evacuation and aid distribution were under way. On the Russian side, Vladimir Saldo, Moscow’s appointed head of the Kherson region, said temporary housing had been prepared in Russia and in occupied areas including Crimea.

There is no count yet of how many people have left. Several hundred are reported to have chosen to stay.

What nobody can promise yet

Kyiv’s fear is that people taken into Russian-held territory will not be allowed back into Ukraine later, and it accuses Moscow of rejecting earlier corridor proposals and shooting down aid drones. Moscow says Ukraine has been shelling and blockading the town. None of those claims has been independently verified. As of Friday, the truce appeared to be holding.

It is a small deal in a very large war, with a very short shelf life. It is also one of the rare moments in which Moscow and Kyiv have agreed to coordinate anything on the ground, in a year when the war’s reach led Portugal to summon Russia’s ambassador over a drone attack in Germany.

By Marta Carneiro

Illustration: Tugadaily

Illustration of a school with its iron gate padlocked shut and a blue backpack left by the railings on an autumn morning

News 30 October 2026

Monday's public-sector strike could keep some Portuguese schools shut

The STTS union and the FESINAP federation have called a 24-hour strike for 2 November covering schools, health centres, hospitals, registry offices and Social Security. There are no minimum services in education, so some schools may not open. The Frente Comum has already set a second strike for 20 November.

A large slice of Portugal's public sector walks out on Monday, 2 November. The STTS public-services union and the FESINAP federation have called a 24-hour strike, and schools are already warning parents. One school grouping's own notice to families says outright that the strike "may even close schools". So if you have children in a state school, check before you set off. A quick call or a look at the school's website will save you a wasted trip.

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News 29 October 2026

Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, who founded Mexico’s PRD, dies at 92

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News 28 October 2026

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News 28 October 2026

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News 28 October 2026

Saudi Arabia downs Houthi missiles over Riyadh as Egypt votes to back the kingdom

The Saudi-led coalition says it destroyed five ballistic missiles fired from Yemen at Riyadh and the Eastern Province on Tuesday, along with several drones. Debris hit a building, a construction site and a car in Riyadh, with no casualties. The Houthis claim they struck the defence ministry and the Ras Tanura refinery.

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News 27 October 2026

Lisbon Metro strikes called off, and Friday's CP rail strike is off too

Unions Fectrans and STRUP dropped the partial Metro de Lisboa strikes on 28 and 30 October after an arbitration court set minimum services. The 24-hour strike by CP conductors and ticket staff called by the SFRCI union for the 30th was suspended on 28 October after a meeting with the infrastructure ministry.

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News 26 October 2026

Yasuo Fukuda, Japan's first prime minister whose father also held the job, dies at 90

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News 25 October 2026

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News 24 October 2026

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Tugadaily chart: 26 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more off northern Vanuatu on 24 October, two of them above 6

News 24 October 2026

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Tugadaily chart: sunset time on Sunday 25 October 2026 in Bragança, Porto, Faro, Lisbon, Ponta Delgada and Funchal, after the clocks go back

News 24 October 2026

Portugal's clocks go back an hour tonight. On Sunday, Lisbon's sun sets at 17:44

In the early hours of Sunday 25 October, 2:00 becomes 1:00 on the mainland and in Madeira, and 1:00 becomes midnight in the Azores. We worked out sunset in six cities: on Sunday it comes an hour earlier than on Saturday, from 17:30 in Bragança to 18:23 in Funchal.

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News 24 October 2026

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The UK government wants every household to be able to cope for three days on its own if the power, water, phones or internet go down. The campaign is called Be Ready, and the Cabinet Office launched it on 22 October as the first stage of a three-year push that will build gradually, with radio and social media advertising aimed at families with young children and older people.

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News 23 October 2026

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News 26 September 2026

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