# Thursday 8th October 2026. African Union credit. Eritrean soldiers. North Korea criticises. India Kumar sit-in. Israel memorial. Russia...

An episode of [Simple English News Daily](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1505603790), 7 Oct 2026, 7:07.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/op3.dev/e/adbarker.com/stream/K1GF85x83ZWP88Cz18NfA8bx/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75627716/bm_1008_26.mp3

World news in 7 minutes. Thursday 8th October 2026. Today: African Union credit. Eritrean soldiers. North Korea criticises. India Kumar sit-in. Israel memorial. Russia plague laboratory. Spain unions strike. Ukraine damage. Belgium protests. Canada Boots. And Argentina Messi retires. 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 8th of October, 2026.
[0:10] Speaker 1: Starting in Africa. The African Union will launch a credit
[0:25] Speaker 1: rating agency to challenge the big three global rating agencies.
[0:31] Speaker 1: The credit agency AFCRA will be based in Mauritius and
[0:35] Speaker 1: is expected to provide ratings to 23 African countries that
[0:41] Speaker 1: do not have a credit rating from a major agency.
[0:46] Speaker 1: Many African leaders have said that their countries are treated
[0:50] Speaker 1: unfairly by existing credit agencies. African countries currently owe $ 163
[0:58] Speaker 1: billion in external debt. Eritrean soldiers have been seen in
[1:05] Speaker 1: Ethiopia's Tigray region, according to eyewitnesses reported by Reuters. Eritrea
[1:12] Speaker 1: and Ethiopia cut diplomatic ties last week following the closure
[1:18] Speaker 1: of Eritrea's embassy in Ethiopia. Ethiopia has previously accused Eritrea
[1:25] Speaker 1: of supporting Tigrayan rebels who are currently in conflict with
[1:30] Speaker 1: the army of the Ethiopian government. Asia North Korea has
[1:38] Speaker 1: criticised the United States for its support of Taiwan, according
[1:43] Speaker 1: to North Korean state news. Last week, Taiwan received the
[1:48] Speaker 1: first shipments in an order of 66 fighter jets from
[1:53] Speaker 1: the US. China, which is a treaty ally of North Korea,
[1:58] Speaker 1: claims that Taiwan is a Chinese territory. Indian police have
[2:05] Speaker 1: dispersed a sit-in protest calling for the election chief to resign.
[2:11] Speaker 1: The protest was attended by leading politicians such as Congress
[2:16] Speaker 1: Party leader Rahul Gandhi. Protests against Chief Election Commissioner Ganesh
[2:22] Speaker 1: Kumar have been ongoing since the Indian Express newspaper first
[2:27] Speaker 1: reported issues with voter lists, which supposedly benefit the party
[2:33] Speaker 1: of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In Israel Yesterday marked three
[2:39] Speaker 1: years since the Hamas-led 7th of October attacks. Memorial events
[2:46] Speaker 1: were held across Israel for the 1,145 people killed and
[2:53] Speaker 1: 251 people kidnapped in the attacks. Ahi Aharon, who survived
[2:58] Speaker 1: the attacks, said that his focus was on his emotional recovery.
[3:04] Speaker 2: Until the hostages came back, it was the only thing
[3:08] Speaker 2: on our mind. Now it's our recovery, or some kind
[3:14] Speaker 2: of recovery, as much as we can.
[3:19] Speaker 1: Europe. Russia says there is no risk of an epidemic
[3:24] Speaker 1: after a laboratory worker died at a research institute for
[3:29] Speaker 1: the plague. The worker, who was 28, died last Friday
[3:34] Speaker 1: from a suspected case of pneumonia. Russian authorities then quarantined
[3:40] Speaker 1: 200 people, although most of these people have now been
[3:44] Speaker 1: released after testing negative for any infectious diseases. The World
[3:50] Speaker 1: Health Organization says the risk to the public is low,
[3:55] Speaker 1: but is seeking more information on the death. In Spain,
[4:01] Speaker 1: trade unions have announced a nationwide general strike. Spain's two
[4:07] Speaker 1: largest trade unions, UGT and CCOO, agreed to call a
[4:13] Speaker 1: strike for the 11th of November. This will be the
[4:17] Speaker 1: first strike agreed between the two trade unions in 14
[4:22] Speaker 1: years and is a protest against Spain's housing crisis. Spain
[4:28] Speaker 1: is currently short by 750,000 homes, according to the Bank
[4:34] Speaker 1: of Spain. The date of the strike is a few
[4:38] Speaker 1: weeks before a snap election called by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez,
[4:43] Speaker 1: which takes place on the 29th of November. In Ukraine,
[4:50] Speaker 1: 24 people have died in Russian missile and drone strikes.
[4:55] Speaker 1: which also damaged industrial and energy facilities. President Vladimir Zelensky
[5:02] Speaker 1: said the strikes were vile. In Belgium, hundreds of students
[5:08] Speaker 1: have protested against their education system, inspired by ongoing student
[5:14] Speaker 1: protests in neighbouring France. 107 arrests were made in the
[5:21] Speaker 1: Belgian city of Liege, where the protests took place, Tuition
[5:26] Speaker 1: prices for most students in French-speaking areas of Belgium have
[5:31] Speaker 1: recently risen. The Americas A Canadian family has agreed to
[5:39] Speaker 1: buy the British retailer Boots for $ 8. 9 billion. The Western
[5:46] Speaker 1: family will buy the company from its existing owners, a
[5:51] Speaker 1: United States-based investment group. Boots owns 1,600 shops across the
[5:57] Speaker 1: United Kingdom and Ireland, and mainly sells health and beauty products.
[6:03] Speaker 1: And the Argentine footballer Lionel Messi has played his final
[6:09] Speaker 1: game for Argentina. Messi has represented Argentina on the football
[6:14] Speaker 1: pitch for 21 years, having played 208 games and led
[6:20] Speaker 1: the team to victory in the 2022 World Cup. Messi
[6:25] Speaker 1: scored a goal in Argentina's 3-0 win against Benin, his
[6:30] Speaker 1: last game before retiring from international football. 85,000 fans attended
[6:37] Speaker 1: the game, with many considering Messi to be the greatest
[6:41] Speaker 1: footballer of all time. That's your World News in 7 minutes.
[6:47] Speaker 1: If you enjoy this podcast, please leave a rating and
[6:51] Speaker 1: review in your podcast app. I'm Ben Mallett. Tomorrow, you
[6:56] Speaker 1: will be with Stephen Devincenzi. Have a great day.

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