BREAKING: Riyadh Airport Attacked Again, Diplomats Say, After Days of Houthi Strikes

 

Riyadh Airport Attacked Again, Diplomats Say, After Days of Houthi Strikes

 

Flights were diverted from the airport in the capital of Saudi Arabia, which has faced repeated deadly attacks from the Iran-backed militia in Yemen.

 

Vivian NereimEuan Ward

By Vivian Nereim and Euan Ward

Vivian Nereim reported from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Euan Ward from Beirut, Lebanon.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/10/world/middleeast/riyadh-airport-attack-energy-congress.html

Oct. 10, 2026, 12:03 p.m. ET

 

The international airport in Saudi Arabia’s capital was attacked again on Saturday, according to two Western diplomats briefed on the situation, as flights were once more disrupted after days of strikes by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia.

 

Officials did not say on Saturday evening whether there had been any casualties. But by repeatedly attacking the airport in the capital, Riyadh, this week, killing at least four people, the Houthis have struck at the heart of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plans to turn the city into a global travel and business hub.

 

A New York Times reporter near the airport saw backed-up traffic and several ambulances and emergency vehicles heading toward the main terminal buildings, where the police had blocked off roads.

 

The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, did not provide further details on the attack. There was no immediate statement from the Houthis, and Saudi officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

Many flights on the approach to the airport, King Khalid International, in Riyadh, were diverted on Saturday afternoon, according to data from Flightradar24, a flight-tracking service. In a statement, the airport advised passengers to contact their airlines before heading to the terminals.

 

The Houthis’ attacks this week on airports in Riyadh and Abha, in the south of the kingdom, have killed and injured several people and damaged facilities, according to the Saudi authorities. Across the border in Yemen, Saudi warplanes have been waging a bombing campaign against the Houthis, and the militia has said its attacks on Saudi Arabia are retaliatory.

 

The escalating fighting in Yemen has increasingly drawn the kingdom deeper into the regional turmoil from the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, the Houthis’ main backer.

 

Over the coming weeks, Riyadh was expected to host visitors from around the world for major global energy and investment conferences.

 

On Sunday, the city is set to open the W.P.C. Energy Congress, a major gathering of energy officials and executives.

 

In an email to participants late on Friday, organizers of the event said it would proceed as planned and offered alternative travel options, including coordinated flights with Saudia, the national carrier. The airline’s flights were among those diverted on Saturday, according to flight-tracking data.

 

Later this month, Riyadh is also expected to host the Future Investment Initiative, an annual meeting that typically draws world leaders, billionaires and top global executives.

 

Tensions between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis began to rise again in July, after the Houthis accused the kingdom of bombing the airport in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen. The Saudi-backed Yemeni government claimed responsibility for that bombing, saying they were acting to prevent an unauthorized Iranian plane from landing.

 

The tensions escalated further as the United States and Iran struggled for control of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for oil and gas shipping, and as the Houthis declared their own blockade on Saudi shipping in the Red Sea.

 

The Houthis seized swaths of Yemen’s Red Sea coastline last month in a lightning offensive that gave the group greater control over the Bab al-Mandab Strait, another important choke point for global trade. Backed by Saudi warplanes, Yemen’s internationally recognized government has mounted a counteroffensive in recent days to retake the territory, drawing the kingdom further into Yemen’s long civil war.

 

Vivian Nereim is the lead reporter for The Times covering the countries of the Arabian Peninsula. She is based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

 

Euan Ward is a Times reporter covering Lebanon and Syria. He is based in Beirut.

Portugal suspend Cristiano Ronaldo after walking out on national team

 

Portugal suspend Cristiano Ronaldo after walking out on national team

• Federation opens disciplinary proceedings
• Veteran has been critical of coach Jorge Jesus

 

Agence France-Presse and Reuters

Sat 10 Oct 2026 14.30 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/oct/10/portugal-suspend-cristiano-ronaldo

 

Cristiano Ronaldo has been provisionally suspended as the Portuguese football federation opened disciplinary proceedings against the 41-year-old after his decision to walk out on the national team.

Ronaldo apologised to supporters on Tuesday while criticising the Portugal coach, Jorge Jesus, and said he would serve any “suspension that is imposed” on him.

According to Portuguese newspaper A Bola, the FPF confirmed that disciplinary proceedings had been opened.

“Without prejudice to the automatic preventive suspension to which ‌he was subject until the date of initiation, a non-automatic preventive suspension ​of the player was determined, and the proceedings were given urgent status,” the federation was quoted as saying.

Ronaldo gave his ⁠account of the dispute ⁠that prompted his ​departure from Copenhagen before Portugal’s Nations League match against Denmark last week.

Ronaldo said Jesus had agreed a plan under which the forward would ⁠miss the Norway and Denmark matches to manage his fitness. However, on the day of the Norway game, the coach told him he would play for 30 ⁠minutes.

“Everyone knows the rest. I warmed up from half-time onwards, watched the minutes tick by and wasn’t called ​on,” Ronaldo said. “The manager had broken his ‌word to me.”

In the games, Ronaldo was either an unused substitute or absent, Portugal won all three and his replacement, Gonçalo Ramos, seized his chance by scoring three times.

Ronaldo ended the international break with a long post to his 679 million followers on Instagram, where he asked Jesus to acknowledge a mistake in asking him to warm up on the sidelines and then not send them on the field against Norway. The Portugal coach did not acknowledge any mistake.

Bottom of Form

Ronaldo wrote that he expected a suspension under federation rules but promised his fans “we will have one or more farewell matches.”

 

Germany warns EU that €159B budget cuts are not enough

 

Germany warns EU that €159B budget cuts are not enough

 

Frugal countries said an end-of-year agreement is less likely after Ireland’s proposal.

Friedrich Merz is pictured during a meeting with the British Prime Minister (not in picture) on October 8, 2026 at the Chancellery in Berlin. | Tobias Schwarz/AFP via Getty Images

October 10, 2026 4:43 pm CET

By Gregorio Sorgi

https://www.politico.eu/article/friedrich-merz-germany-warns-eu-e159b-budget-cuts-not-enough/

 

BRUSSELS — Germany and its allies rebuffed Ireland’s plan to downsize the bloc’s next seven-year budget, arguing that the proposed cuts are not enough.

On Saturday, the Irish presidency of the Council of the EU, which is steering the talks, proposed cutting around 8% from the bloc’s total budget from 2028 to 2034 in a bid to assuage a German-led camp demanding reductions of several hundred billions euros.

But Dublin’s hopes of facilitating a deal were immediately dashed by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, one the key players in the negotiations as his country contributes to approximately one-quarter of the bloc’s common budget.

“We are still a long way from an agreement. The amount of the new proposal is not a basis for an agreement. The EU budget must be affordable for those who bear the brunt of the financing,” Merz wrote in a statement on Saturday.

Germany leads a group of six “frugal” countries — Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland and Austria — which contribute 40% of the Union’s common budget.

Most frugal countries criticized Ireland’s proposed €159 billion in cuts in current prices from the Commission’s nearly €2 trillion proposal, saying they were insufficient.

Sweden’s Europe minister Jessica Rosencrantz described the negotiating document, or negobox, on X as a “wildly unaffordable increase,” as the overall amount would still be higher than the current budget.

Austrian Europe Minister Claudia Bauer echoed that criticism, saying that the new budget remained "miles away from an Austrian yes.”

Tensions will come to a head during a summit of EU leaders next Thursday and Friday, where they will discuss the negobox.

EU governments are racing to reach a budget deal among themselves by the end of the year — before elections in France, Italy and Poland in 2027 threaten to derail negotiations.

But Dutch Finance Minister Eelco Heinen warned on Saturday that “at this rate, there will be no deal by the end of the year.”

Ireland’s Minister of State for European Affairs Thomas Byrne, who leads the negotiations, dismissed criticism and described the proposal as a balanced compromise.

“The negotiating box acts to bridge the many differences between the Member states,” Byrne told reporters on Saturday.

Divided Union

The EU is split between frugal countries pushing for cuts across the board and a rival camp of southern and eastern states, the Friends of Cohesion, opposing reductions to farmers’ subsidies and regional payouts known as cohesion policy.

These areas account for almost half of the total budget and are politically sensitive because of pressure from farmers' lobbies and regions.

In a concession to the 17 Friends of Cohesion, Ireland left the agriculture and regional budgets untouched and focused cuts on other priorities such as competitiveness, defense and development aid.

“There was a strong support for heading one [agriculture and cohesion] from almost all of the member states, including some of the countries who would be considered to be net contributors” to the budget, Byrne told reporters.

Reactions to the negobox from the Friends of Cohesion were more conciliatory than those of their frugal peers.

“It’s an excellent starting point to have recovered the money for the CAP [Common Agricultural Policy], but we’re still not satisfied,” said Italy’s Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida.

Poland's Europe minister Ignacy Niemczycki welcomed the fact that his country "continues to receive the largest allocation," but noted that the "change in the overall size of the budget does not match the EU’s ambitions."

The frugals were also are disappointed that the cuts disproportionately target innovative policies such as defense and competitiveness, which they favor.

“They’re cutting the future to protect the past,” said one EU diplomat from the frugal camp.

 

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