# Tuesday, October 6, 2026

© 2026 Morning Update · Global Politics · Wed, 07 Oct 2026 01:40:04 GMT · 7:26

https://morningupdate.org/global-politics/episodes/global-politics-tuesday-october-6-2026-evening-edition-2026-10-07/

Maya: Good evening, and welcome to Global Politics. I'm Maya.
Devon: And I'm Devon. This is the evening edition for Tuesday, October sixth, twenty twenty-six.
Maya: We have a packed show tonight, so let's start in Yemen, where the war took a sharp turn today.
Devon: Right. Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces say they recaptured the strategic Red Sea port city of Mokha from the Iran-backed Houthis on Monday, after fierce fighting. Mokha sits about seventy-five kilometers north of the Bab el-Mandeb strait, one of the world's most important shipping lanes. The Houthis had seized it in early September.
Maya: And according to the defense publication The War Zone, the same push also retook the Bab el-Mandeb coast and the Dhubab district, effectively isolating the port before the final assault. Yemen's official Saba news agency says the Giants Brigades and the National Shield Forces led the advance, with air support from the Saudi-led coalition.
Devon: The coalition's spokesman says one hundred fighter jets took part and that three hundred twenty-four high-value Houthi targets were destroyed at the start of what they're calling Operation Dawn of Yemen. The Houthis, for their part, deny that Mokha has fallen, and CNN notes the claims could not be independently verified.
Maya: The stakes go well beyond Yemen. On Monday, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan agreed to rapidly deploy forces under the newly activated Mecca Defense Pact, their first-ever collective defense invocation. And the Houthis answered by striking two Saudi airports on Monday evening, injuring three people, while claiming attacks on Aramco facilities in Riyadh.
Devon: Why it matters: if the government holds Mokha, the Houthis lose their best leverage over Red Sea shipping, which matters enormously with the Strait of Hormuz already in crisis. That brings us to story two, the United States and Iran.
Maya: CNN has a striking analysis today: the American blockade is working, and yet the regime in Tehran is not blinking. Iran's oil for sale is nearly exhausted, crude production has been cut in half, and hyperinflation has left the economy in ruins. At least fifty Iranian tankers sit stranded in the Gulf, according to the monitoring group United Against Nuclear Iran, and vessel trackers say September oil loadings were zero, for the first time since the war began.
Devon: Meanwhile, oil exports from the rest of the Gulf have climbed back to roughly ninety percent of pre-war levels, as neighbors rebuilt routes around the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump boasted this week that America has, quote, almost total control of the strait.
Maya: But CNN's point is that the pressure hasn't produced a deal. Tehran still refuses any concession on its nuclear program, and hardliners are even calling for an end to cooperation with the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Trump says talks could resume over the next two days, so that is the first thing to watch overnight.
Devon: Story three: Ethiopia. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was sworn in on Monday for another five-year term, after his Prosperity Party's landslide in June's parliamentary elections. And in his speech to parliament, he returned to the theme that alarms the whole region.
Maya: Sea access. Abiy told lawmakers that, quote, Ethiopia's modernization cannot be realized without sea access. Eritrea fears Addis Ababa wants to seize its Assab port by force, though Abiy insists he means peaceful means. Reuters notes the two countries severed diplomatic ties just last week.
Devon: On the ground in Tigray, the picture is mixed. The overnight airstrikes that killed at least seventeen people northwest of Mekelle have not been repeated, and residents say shops are reopening and phone service is returning after a week-long blackout. But artillery duels continue near the Tekeze River, and the front is moving north and west toward the Eritrean border.
Maya: Story four takes us to Pakistan, where Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif made a direct appeal today to the supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan.
Devon: Sharif asked the marchers to, quote, come to their senses, end their long marches and sit-ins, and return to the negotiating table. He warned the protest is hurting the economy and said the law will take its course. The march began Sunday in Lakki Marwat, about two hundred seventy-five kilometers from Islamabad, and an AFP journalist saw thousands on the streets of Kohat on Monday. Organizers expect to reach Peshawar by Wednesday.
Maya: Islamabad is essentially locked down, with shipping containers blocking the entrances and paramilitary forces deployed. Khan's party says the seventy-four-year-old is in solitary confinement with a serious eye condition and high blood pressure, and his three sisters were detained last week on national security grounds. Reuters notes all but one of his convictions have been suspended or overturned, with appeals pending.
Devon: And story five, the election watch. In Spain, Pedro Sánchez formally dissolved parliament on Monday and informed the King: the snap election is on for November twenty-ninth.
Maya: The polls are grim for Sánchez. A new 40dB survey for El País puts the conservative People's Party at thirty-one point six percent, the Socialists at twenty-seven point four, and the far-right Vox at a record eighteen point four percent. Only a PP-Vox alliance is projected to reach a majority in the three-hundred-fifty-seat Congress.
Devon: But Vox leader Santiago Abascal is warning his own side not to celebrate early. On Antena 3, he said don't trust the polls, recalling how a predicted right-wing majority in twenty twenty-three evaporated. PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo calls the vote a choice between corruption and decency, while Sánchez frames it as a stand against a far-right wave.
Maya: Meanwhile in Brazil, the runoff campaign is underway for October twenty-fifth. Markets have rallied on Flávio Bolsonaro's surprise first-round lead, and analyst Robert Muggah of the Igarapé Institute told Reuters the pollsters missed badly, warning that dead-heat runoff polls may understate Bolsonaro again.
Devon: Now, the evening outlook. Overnight and tomorrow, we're watching whether Iran responds to the Yemen counteroffensive and the airport strikes, and whether those talks Trump promised actually materialize.
Maya: In Pakistan, the march reaches Peshawar on Wednesday, then turns toward a locked-down Islamabad. In Spain, the campaign formally begins with eight weeks to go. And diplomats will be watching for any follow-through from the El Alamein summit and the next round of American-mediated Israel-Lebanon talks.
Devon: That's our evening edition. I'm Devon.
Maya: And I'm Maya. The morning edition of Global Politics returns tomorrow. Good night.