The World

BELGRADE — Serbian leader Aleksandar Vučić conceded defeat on Sunday night in the snap parliamentary election, saying a sample of votes showed the opposition Student List winning a majority. By his figures, the list would take 135 to 140 of the 250 seats, against 105 for his own list. He said final results were not yet available but added that it was clear his side had lost. Al Jazeera, citing the Belgrade news agency FoNet, reported cheers and tears at the Student List headquarters, and fireworks followed across the country. The movement grew out of nearly two years of street protests. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen congratulated the winners and offered support on rule of law, media freedom and anti-corruption reforms, and on Serbia's path toward EU membership. The official count and the formation of a government come next.

RIYADH — Yemen's Houthis fired missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia again over the weekend. King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh partially reopened on Sunday after suspending operations, and the Houthis warned airlines against using it. The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted 12 missiles and two drones on Sunday. Al Jazeera reported debris from intercepted missiles falling in Jeddah, Taif and Rabigh in Mecca province. The Houthis denied targeting the holy cities and said they were aiming at airports, oil sites and an airbase. Earlier Houthi strikes on the Riyadh airport reportedly killed 14 people and wounded more than 300. A UN-brokered 2022 truce collapsed in July, and Yemeni government forces opened a counteroffensive on October 5. Claims from all sides are largely unverified. Crisis Group analyst Ahmed Nagi says the attacks may harden Riyadh's resolve. The Houthis are also hitting Aden.

KYIV — Ukraine and Russia have said they will resume U.S.-brokered peace talks in the first half of November, with Abu Dhabi the expected venue. Envoy Steve Witkoff secured the commitment after meeting Zelenskyy in Oslo and Putin in St. Petersburg. It would be the fourth round under the Trump administration, after Geneva in February. Putin says talks must produce a final settlement, not a temporary truce. Zelenskyy backs freezing the front line first and wants guarantees backed by a strong army. He says Ukraine will not discuss limits on its forces or imposed neutrality. Moscow demands all of the four regions it annexed and says Kyiv must renounce NATO. Within hours of Putin's pledge, Russia hit Kyiv with ballistic missiles. Trump's October 11 energy ceasefire has produced no lasting result, according to CNBC.

KHARTOUM — Sudan's army has run a large-scale air campaign against Rapid Support Forces positions across Darfur and Kordofan for about two weeks, Sudan Tribune reported on October 22. A military source told the paper the aim is to prepare a ground sweep. Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said on October 6 that he would not negotiate and would retake all RSF-held territory. On October 17 the RSF said an army drone killed 30 civilians at a Nyala livestock market. The army said it killed dozens of RSF fighters in strikes on Nyala. Al Jazeera could not confirm either side's account. RSF drones are also hitting army-held areas, including near Khartoum's airport. The UN-backed IPC hunger monitor has warned of rising famine risk in Darfur and Kordofan. Crisis Group says the fighting will complicate diplomacy.

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is preparing to require every major installation in the continental United States to sustain essential operations for at least 90 days without civilian power or outside supply, according to internal documents reviewed by Fox News Digital. The standard falls under FORTRESS America, which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Sept. 30. The plan points to microgrids, battery storage and portable nuclear reactors. It also calls for strategic reserves of munitions, fuel, critical minerals and spare parts, and for at least two qualified supply sources for critical items. A Civil Reserve Manufacturing Network would pre-arrange the conversion of commercial factories to defense work. Chief spokesman Sean Parnell called reliance on municipal infrastructure an intolerable risk. At an Oct. 20 briefing, an official said energy needs are being assessed at about 500 sites. No total cost or completion date has been announced. Air & Space Forces Magazine has projected costs of scores of billions of dollars or more.

LONDON — At Woolwich Crown Court, Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, testified last week that his Iranian handlers told him to break the arms and legs of Iran International journalist Kambiz Hosseini and to hit colleague Mojtaba Pourmohsen. He said he was also told to assault two other men, Alon Farago and Jonathan Turner. He is tried with Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 57. All three deny charges under Britain's National Security Act. Prosecutors say the men gathered information for Iranian intelligence ahead of serious violence. Sepahvand accepts that he carried out surveillance but says he was coerced through threats to his family and tried to sabotage the plan. Prosecutor Emlyn Jones told him that claim was invented after his arrest, and pointed to his demand for £150,000. Sepahvand also said he met an alleged contact at the Iranian embassy in London in February 2025. Cross-examination resumes today.

Symantec has attributed attacks on two NATO member states to APT28, the Russian state-linked group also known as Fancy Bear. In one case, operators went into a naval shipbuilder's network and returned to a compromised host repeatedly over about a week, in what looked like hands-on-keyboard activity. Symantec says they stole credentials in two ways: by pushing an SSH key to open a persistent tunnel into the internal network, and by using a PowerShell script to capture an NTLM authentication handshake. They also dropped a previously undocumented reflective loader whose payload is unknown. The initial access used a malware called HOOKEDGE, a batch script delivered by spear-phishing. Symantec says it shares code and tradecraft with HEADLACE, an implant APT28 has used against diplomats since April 2023. The attribution comes from a vendor report relayed by The Hacker News, and no government has confirmed it. Neither the victim nor the countries were named in the coverage reviewed.