1. A deadly "birthday" barrage on Ukraine

Russia fired some 70 missiles, many of them ballistic, along with Shahed drones, at Ukraine overnight into Wednesday, hitting infrastructure in Kyiv and 12 regions, with energy a key target, according to Volodymyr Zelensky. In Pryluky, in the Chernihiv region, a missile destroyed part of a five-storey apartment building, killing at least nine people, including three children, and injuring 38, according to Ukraine's National Police. People were also killed in Kyiv, Kremenchuk and Oleksandriia. Ukraine's air defences intercepted five ballistic missiles, 39 cruise missiles and 117 drones. Zelensky called the attack a "gift" for Vladimir Putin, who turned 74 on Wednesday. Russia's defence ministry said it had struck facilities producing and storing missiles and drones, and port facilities in the Odesa region.

2. France "on the brink of a financial crisis"

"We are on the brink of a financial crisis," Gérard Larcher, the conservative president of the Senate, said on BFMTV and RMC on Tuesday, warning about public spending as French borrowing costs sit near their highest in nearly two decades. He voiced serious reservations about the tax increases in the government's 2027 budget, arguing that France must cut spending first. Re-elected on 1 October for a sixth term as head of the Senate, he had already warned that France had perhaps "never been in such a situation since the beginning of the Fifth Republic", citing an "abyssal" debt and rising interest rates.

3. Hollywood's new giant

Paramount Skydance on Tuesday closed its $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, one of the biggest media mergers ever, after Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan denied a last-minute bid to halt it. The new company, Skydance, controlled by David Ellison, brings together the studios behind Mission: Impossible, Harry Potter and DC, as well as CBS, CNN, Paramount+ and HBO Max. It carries some $80 billion of debt, according to Variety. US regulators cleared billions of dollars of equity investment from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds to support the deal, Axios reported. Its shares closed at $9.53 on their first day of trading.

4. France's high-school revolt hits a new peak

The high-school protest movement that began on 17 September in the Paris region reached a new peak on Tuesday. Classes were fully or partly suspended in 891 of France's 3,700 high schools, according to the education ministry, and about 40% of public higher-education institutions were disrupted. The interior ministry counted 256,000 demonstrators nationwide; youth organisations claimed at least 450,000. Police made 488 arrests during the day, after more than 5,000 since the start of the movement. Students are demanding more staff and funding for state education, notably in disadvantaged areas. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has ordered every education authority to prioritise replacing long absences and filling vacant posts, with a first review due on 16 October.

5. A bank insider admits laundering money to Colombia

A former TD Bank employee, Gerardo Aquino, 40, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to accepting bribes and laundering more than $4.8 million to Colombia, the US Justice Department said. Accounts he handled were used to launder more than $3 million in illicit funds; in exchange, he received more than $8,000 in bribes, paid in cash and through a peer-to-peer payment app. "Corrupt financial insiders are just as critical to criminal networks as those who move drugs or incite violence," said Greg Millard of the Drug Enforcement Administration. The case follows TD Bank's 2024 guilty plea and $3 billion in penalties for failing to monitor money laundering.