# Friday 16th October 2026. Ukraine 'betrayed'. Romania shipwrecks. Albania protests. Pakistan roof collapse. Austria dog bottle...

An episode of [Simple English News Daily](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1505603790), 15 Oct 2026, 9:07.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/op3.dev/e/adbarker.com/stream/K1GF85x83ZWP88Cz18NfA8bx/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75815161/16_10_26.mp3

Become a SEND7 supporter at send7.supercast.com World news in 7 minutes. Friday 16th October 2026. Today: Ukraine 'betrayed'. Romania shipwrecks. Albania protests. Austria dog bottle. Pakistan roof collapse. Thailand Queen pilot. Australia rat poison. US voting. Costa Rica prison. Senegal LGBT target. Mauritius curfew. And language noise. With Stephen Devincenzi 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 Sign up for the free newsletter at send7.org/newsletter 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 Stephen Devincenzi. Today is Friday the 16th of October, 2026.
[0:18] Speaker 1: Starting in Europe today, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said
[0:24] Speaker 1: that Ukraine will restart its attacks on Russian oil refineries.
[0:30] Speaker 1: because Russia has continued to hit Ukrainian energy facilities. On Sunday,
[0:36] Speaker 1: United States President Donald Trump said on social media that
[0:40] Speaker 1: both Ukraine and Russia had agreed to an energy ceasefire.
[0:46] Speaker 1: It appears that Trump invented the ceasefire, as neither Ukraine
[0:50] Speaker 1: nor Russia said that they had agreed to a ceasefire,
[0:54] Speaker 1: and asked in an interview, Zelensky said that he had
[0:57] Speaker 1: never heard of it Despite that, Zelensky said that they
[1:01] Speaker 1: would stop attacking energy sites if Russia did the same.
[1:05] Speaker 1: The governor of Russia's Ryazan region said yesterday that a
[1:10] Speaker 1: Ukrainian attack had caused a fire at an oil refinery.
[1:15] Speaker 1: In an interview with British journalist Piers Morgan, Zelensky said
[1:20] Speaker 1: that he felt that Ukraine was losing the US and
[1:24] Speaker 1: that he felt betrayed. by Trump's recent decision to buy
[1:28] Speaker 1: diesel from Russia.
[1:30] Speaker 2: Do you feel betrayed by what has been happening? Really, yes. Really,
[1:36] Speaker 2: between us. But it's a little bit more complicated than
[1:42] Speaker 2: just my emotions or my feelings. Yes, it depends not
[1:47] Speaker 2: on me. I mean, our country has to survive.
[1:52] Speaker 1: Ukrainian soldiers have said that their use of Starlink has
[1:56] Speaker 1: been restricted. Ukraine uses the SpaceX Internet Connection System Starlink
[2:02] Speaker 1: for both defensive and offensive drone operations. Various Ukrainian sources
[2:09] Speaker 1: have said that they have not been able to use
[2:11] Speaker 1: Starlink using drones flying at more than 100 miles per hour.
[2:17] Speaker 1: and have said that this appears to be a decision
[2:19] Speaker 1: by SpaceX, the company of billionaire Elon Musk. Yesterday, Russia
[2:25] Speaker 1: used hundreds of drones and missiles to target various cities
[2:29] Speaker 1: and towns in all parts of Ukraine. Deaths were reported
[2:33] Speaker 1: in the central regions of Kirov-Horad and Dniprovskyi. Also in Ukraine,
[2:39] Speaker 1: a priest was arrested yesterday after reportedly shooting dead two
[2:43] Speaker 1: people in a small village close to the border with Romania.
[2:48] Speaker 1: Romania has said that it is searching for seven crew
[2:52] Speaker 1: members of a ship after a fire broke out yesterday.
[2:56] Speaker 1: Four crew members were rescued. Reuters has reported that a
[3:00] Speaker 1: NATO official said that Russian drones hit two tankers close
[3:04] Speaker 1: to Romania yesterday in the Black Sea. In Albania, there
[3:10] Speaker 1: have been anti-government protests over the last few days, with
[3:14] Speaker 1: protesters setting fires and clashing with police. Some protesters are
[3:19] Speaker 1: students who say that the education system is being neglected,
[3:24] Speaker 1: and protests are also a continuation of previous protests against
[3:28] Speaker 1: the planned sale of part of Albania's coastline to a
[3:32] Speaker 1: luxury resort project supported by US President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
[3:40] Speaker 1: In Austria, a district of the capital, Vienna, is insisting
[3:45] Speaker 1: that dog owners should wash away their dog's urine by
[3:49] Speaker 1: squirting water over it. In some countries, like Japan and Spain,
[3:54] Speaker 1: it is common for dog owners to carry a bottle
[3:57] Speaker 1: of water to rinse away their dog's urine. This year,
[4:02] Speaker 1: the city of Barcelona introduced a 300 euro fine for
[4:06] Speaker 1: anyone who doesn't do this. Apart from general cleanliness, the
[4:11] Speaker 1: Nobau district of Vienna has said that it is also
[4:14] Speaker 1: to protect vulnerable trees as extensive contact with urine can
[4:20] Speaker 1: damage trees' bark. Asia and Oceania In Pakistan, the roof
[4:29] Speaker 1: of a school collapsed yesterday, killing at least 34 children
[4:33] Speaker 1: and a teacher in the city of Peshawar. Thailand's Queen
[4:39] Speaker 1: Sutida has piloted a flight to Japan, the royal family
[4:44] Speaker 1: has said. Queen Sutida has been training as a pilot
[4:48] Speaker 1: for years after previously being a flight attendant before marrying
[4:53] Speaker 1: King Vajiralongkorn. In Australia, a woman has been arrested for
[5:00] Speaker 1: allegedly poisoning her work colleague's food with snail poison. Last year,
[5:06] Speaker 1: a woman in Australia was found guilty of murdering three
[5:09] Speaker 1: people by giving them food contaminated with poisonous mushrooms. Americas
[5:18] Speaker 1: In the United States, early voting has started in some
[5:22] Speaker 1: races of the midterm elections. Election day is November 3rd.
[5:28] Speaker 1: All 435 seats of the House of Representatives will be chosen,
[5:34] Speaker 1: as well as one-third of the seats of the Senate.
[5:38] Speaker 1: The Republicans currently control both the Senate and the House
[5:41] Speaker 1: of Representatives. Most opinion poll projections suggest that the Democrats
[5:47] Speaker 1: are likely to gain control of the House of Representatives. However,
[5:51] Speaker 1: control of the Senate is considered too close to call.
[5:56] Speaker 1: Also in the United States, President Trump has said that
[5:59] Speaker 1: he has decided that the execution of mass murderer Nidal
[6:04] Speaker 1: Hassan will not be live-streamed. Costa Rica has opened a
[6:10] Speaker 1: mega-prison intended to be used for prisoners connected to criminal gangs.
[6:16] Speaker 1: President Laura Fernandez opened the High Containment Center against Organized Crime,
[6:23] Speaker 1: which is modelled on the mega-prison being used for the
[6:26] Speaker 1: same purpose in El Salvador. Africa In Senegal, LGBT people
[6:35] Speaker 1: are being forced into hiding because of a fear of arrest,
[6:39] Speaker 1: according to a new report by Human Rights Watch. According
[6:44] Speaker 1: to the report, 320 people have been arrested on allegations
[6:49] Speaker 1: of acts against nature, Earlier this year, Senegal raised the
[6:54] Speaker 1: maximum penalty for consensual same-sex relations to 10 years in prison.
[7:01] Speaker 1: In Mauritius, an overnight curfew has been introduced after protests
[7:06] Speaker 1: turned into riots this week. Last week, there were protests
[7:10] Speaker 1: against water shortages and the cost of living. However, the
[7:15] Speaker 1: protests turned violent after a woman was shot and injured
[7:18] Speaker 1: by the police. Mauritius is generally considered the safest country
[7:22] Speaker 1: in Africa. And the best language learners hear foreign terms
[7:28] Speaker 1: more like random noise than actual words, according to a
[7:33] Speaker 1: new study. Researchers in the UK and Japan found that
[7:39] Speaker 1: better linguists were able to master completely new pronunciation much
[7:44] Speaker 1: easier than non-linguists. Using brain scans, researchers said that linguists'
[7:50] Speaker 1: brains recorded activity patterns more similar to when the brain
[7:55] Speaker 1: processes non-speech sounds. However, the less able linguists relied more
[8:02] Speaker 1: on the part of the brain used for language processing.
[8:06] Speaker 1: The scientists suggested that this could be why they were
[8:09] Speaker 1: more likely to rely on their mother tongue's pronunciation when
[8:14] Speaker 1: trying to speak the foreign language. Scientists involved in the
[8:18] Speaker 1: study said that schools should also focus on sounds, rather
[8:22] Speaker 1: than just grammar and vocabulary. If you like learning languages
[8:26] Speaker 1: through the news, then you should become a Send7 supporter.
[8:30] Speaker 1: As well as getting to listen to this podcast without adverts,
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[8:51] Speaker 1: at send7. org or by clicking the link in the episode description.
[8:56] Speaker 1: If you are a supporter, I will see you later
[8:58] Speaker 1: today for the World News Quiz. If not, I will
[9:02] Speaker 1: see you on Monday. Have a great weekend.

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