# Thursday 15th October 2026. UK author sales. Ukraine Starlink. Vatican City Pope health. Ethiopia-Eritrea border. Kenya Ebola. Colombia...

An episode of [Simple English News Daily](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1505603790), 14 Oct 2026, 7:14.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/op3.dev/e/adbarker.com/stream/K1GF85x83ZWP88Cz18NfA8bx/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75794871/bm_1015_26.mp3

World news in 7 minutes. Thursday 15th October 2026. Today: UK author sales. Ukraine Starlink. Vatican City Pope health. Ethiopia-Eritrea border. Kenya Ebola. Colombia-Israel co-operation. US spying on AI. Hormuz ships. Singapore pollution. China-North Korea bridge. And Australia’s first Michelin stars. With Ben Mallett Become a SEND7 supporter! • Ad-free listening • Bonus quiz episode every Friday • Daily transcripts (written by us, not AI!) • Vocabulary lists • Wednesday worksheets • Ask questions in Ask Me Anything episodes • 10% of our profit goes to Effective Altruism charities. You can become a supporter at send7.supercast.com For more information about SEND7 visit send7.org/contact or send an email to podcast@send7.org

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Good morning, this is Send7, world news in 7 minutes.
[0:06] Speaker 1: I'm Ben Mallett, today is Thursday, the 15th of October, 2026.
[0:12] Speaker 1: Starting in Europe, in the United Kingdom, books by the
[0:24] Speaker 1: author Sally Rooney will no longer be sold due to
[0:28] Speaker 1: her support for a prescribed terrorist group. Palestine Action was
[0:34] Speaker 1: designated a terrorist group last year in the UK after
[0:39] Speaker 1: activists broke into a Royal Air Force base. Rooney, who
[0:44] Speaker 1: is Irish, said she planned on using royalties from her
[0:48] Speaker 1: book sales to support Palestine Action. Rooney is known for
[0:53] Speaker 1: bestsellers such as Normal People and Conversations with Friends. Ukraine
[1:01] Speaker 1: says that important satellite services from the US company SpaceX
[1:07] Speaker 1: are being limited on purpose. Ukrainian officials say that the
[1:12] Speaker 1: Starlink satellite network has stopped connecting to vehicles moving at
[1:18] Speaker 1: over 100 miles per hour. This will mainly affect Ukraine's
[1:23] Speaker 1: drone and missile defences. Poland's foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, has
[1:29] Speaker 1: accused SpaceX owner Elon Musk of playing politics by limiting
[1:35] Speaker 1: Starlink services to Ukraine. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky also arrived
[1:41] Speaker 1: in the UK yesterday to secure more military support, such
[1:46] Speaker 1: as the delivery of £ 45 million worth of anti-drone missiles.
[1:52] Speaker 1: UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said that the last few
[1:56] Speaker 1: days in Ukraine have been very dark and difficult due
[2:00] Speaker 1: to Russian drone attacks.
[2:02] Speaker 2: We know that the last few days, the last few
[2:05] Speaker 2: hours have been very dark and difficult. However, in these moments,
[2:09] Speaker 2: Britain will continue to provide you with whatever support that
[2:14] Speaker 2: we can. And today, I'm announcing that we are accelerating
[2:19] Speaker 2: the delivery of British-made air defences for you. And we
[2:23] Speaker 2: will make sure that they're in place as soon as possible.
[2:27] Speaker 1: The Vatican City says that Pope Leo is recovering after
[2:32] Speaker 1: a surgical treatment for his lung cancer. The Pope had
[2:36] Speaker 1: part of his right lung surgically removed on Tuesday, according
[2:41] Speaker 1: to doctors. Pope Leo is due to tour Uruguay, Argentina
[2:46] Speaker 1: and Peru in November if he recovers as expected. Ethiopia
[2:54] Speaker 1: Ethiopian soldiers have arrived on the border of Eritrea in
[2:59] Speaker 1: an area previously controlled by the Tigray People's Liberation Front.
[3:05] Speaker 1: Ethiopia has accused Eritrea of entering Ethiopia and supporting the
[3:11] Speaker 1: Tigray People's Liberation Front, who began fighting Ethiopian forces last month.
[3:17] Speaker 1: The United Nations Security Council met to discuss the conflict
[3:22] Speaker 1: earlier this week. Kenya has reported its second case of Ebola.
[3:29] Speaker 1: Kenya recorded its first ever Ebola infection recently when a
[3:34] Speaker 1: Kenyan man who had been living in the Democratic Republic
[3:38] Speaker 1: of Congo died in a hospital in Nairobi. The second
[3:43] Speaker 1: patient is a close relative of the first and is
[3:47] Speaker 1: already in quarantine, according to Kenya's health ministry. The Americas
[3:56] Speaker 1: Colombia has reopened its embassy in Israel and restarted a
[4:01] Speaker 1: free trade agreement. Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella, who
[4:06] Speaker 1: was elected in June, has reversed a decision by his
[4:10] Speaker 1: predecessor to end diplomatic relations with Israel over their actions
[4:16] Speaker 1: in Gaza. Colombia's embassy with Israel will be located in Jerusalem,
[4:21] Speaker 1: which Israel considers its capital, despite claims by Palestinians to
[4:27] Speaker 1: East Jerusalem. In the United States, federal agents have arrested
[4:34] Speaker 1: a man accused of installing spying gear at the AI
[4:38] Speaker 1: company OpenAI. Abdulrahman Alfazan was an engineer at OpenAI and
[4:45] Speaker 1: comes from Saudi Arabia. He faces up to five years
[4:49] Speaker 1: in prison for installing recording devices at the OpenAI offices.
[4:56] Speaker 1: It is currently unclear who Alfazan is accused of spying for.
[5:03] Speaker 1: Asia and Oceania In the Strait of Hormuz, two ships
[5:09] Speaker 1: registered with Singapore have been sunk. The container ships were
[5:14] Speaker 1: struck by unknown projectiles on Tuesday and Wednesday. All of
[5:19] Speaker 1: the crew aboard both ships managed to safely evacuate. Singapore
[5:26] Speaker 1: has registered their highest ever pollution levels due to ongoing
[5:31] Speaker 1: wildfires in nearby Indonesia. The nation of East Timor has
[5:37] Speaker 1: also been affected and has suspended all school classes for
[5:42] Speaker 1: three days due to the smoke pollution. One Malaysian politician
[5:47] Speaker 1: wants to treat Indonesia like an outcast in the region
[5:52] Speaker 1: for failing to do enough to control the wildfires. China
[5:58] Speaker 1: and North Korea will open a bridge connecting the two countries.
[6:03] Speaker 1: China completed its side of the New Yalu River Bridge
[6:08] Speaker 1: in 2014, although North Korea has only now completed its
[6:13] Speaker 1: side after long delays. The bridge will be the largest
[6:18] Speaker 1: land crossing for trade between the two countries. And Australia
[6:23] Speaker 1: has received its first ever Michelin stars across 11 restaurants.
[6:29] Speaker 1: Michelin stars originate from France's Michelin Guide, and are signs
[6:34] Speaker 1: of culinary excellence. All 11 Michelin stars were awarded in
[6:40] Speaker 1: the region of South Australia, which is the only Australian
[6:44] Speaker 1: state which paid for the Michelin inspectors to secretly visit
[6:49] Speaker 1: its restaurants. That's your world news in seven minutes. If
[6:53] Speaker 1: you enjoy this podcast, please leave a rating and review
[6:57] Speaker 1: in your podcast app. I'm Ben Mallett. Tomorrow, you will
[7:01] Speaker 1: be with Stephen Devincenzi. Have a great day.

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