Ukraine says it received no American warning before Russian missiles hit power plants in Kyiv, while Israel’s prime minister admits doubts about winning the coming election. A priest has died in Ecuador after a falling crucifix struck him, Iran has set out its terms for reopening the Strait of Hormuz and an Australian MP is in a critical condition.
Zelenskyy says Ukraine got no US warning before Russian missiles hit Kyiv power plants
Ukraine received no advance notice from the United States before a Russian missile barrage struck power plants in Kyiv at about 11pm on Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday. Air Force spokesperson Yuri Ihnat told television viewers that no alert had arrived before that first wave, although one did come before a second strike at about 3am. Zelenskyy wrote that Russia had again attacked with ballistic missiles in several waves overnight and that partners had once more failed to warn Kyiv.
Zelenskyy linked the episode to blocked supplies of air defence missiles and to sanctions relief for Moscow, calling it a denial of reality by partners. On Friday, Donald Trump paused a broad package of Russia sanctions passed by both chambers of Congress, saying the waiver served the national interest. Speaking in Uzbekistan, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he did not know what had happened on Sunday night but mentioned a software fault in the early warning system a few nights earlier.
For years Washington alerted Ukraine before Russian ballistic launches, giving authorities a few minutes to sound sirens and send people to shelters, but Kyiv says it went without warning on at least three days in the past week. Russia has struck Ukraine’s energy system in repeated waves since September 2022, and in the first four years of the war it fired roughly 12,700 drones and 2,900 missiles at energy targets, according to the public record of the campaign.
Netanyahu says he is worried about the election result but will not quit politics
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a radio interview on Sunday that he was not sure of winning the coming general election and was very worried about the outcome. He said his camp had to make certain of victory. Asked whether he would leave political life if he lost and could not form the next government, he answered that he would not retire. The remarks came as he campaigned against several rivals hoping to replace him.
Netanyahu argued that a government led by Gadi Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett or Avigdor Liberman would rely on Arab parties, saying Eisenkot could not reach a 61-seat majority without Mansour Abbas and Ahmad Tibi. He accused Eisenkot of being ready to accept a nuclear Iran and of lacking influence in Washington. He also rejected a defamation lawsuit filed by former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, accusing him of lying and saying he had given nearly 1,000 documents to the State Comptroller.
Eisenkot, born in Tiberias in 1960, served as chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces from 2015 to 2019 and later sat as a minister without portfolio in the unity government formed in 2023, when he also observed the war cabinet. He entered the Knesset with the National Unity alliance in 2022 and in September 2025 announced a new party, Yashar, which he now leads. He has said he could stand for prime minister if that helped the bloc opposed to Netanyahu.
Priest dies after crucifix falls on him during livestreamed Mass in Ecuador
A Catholic priest died after a heavy wooden cross fell on him while he was celebrating an evening Mass in the Ecuadorian port city of Guayaquil on Saturday, according to the local archdiocese. The Archdiocese of Guayaquil named him as Patricio Alfredo Sánchez Molinari, parish priest of the Perpetuo Socorro Church. Footage from the service, which was being broadcast on social media, shows the crucifix coming away from the wall behind the altar and hitting him on the head.
The priest kept speaking and did not seem to notice the cross toppling before it struck him, and he fell behind the altar as worshippers cried out and asked for an ambulance. First aid was given at the scene, but he could not be revived. The archdiocese announced his death on Sunday in a message asking for prayers for him. Police and local authorities have made no public statement about how the cross came loose from the wall.
Sánchez Molinari belonged to the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, known as the Redemptorists, a Catholic order of priests and brothers founded by Alphonsus Liguori at Scala, in Italy, on November 9, 1732. The order was created to work among neglected rural communities around Naples and today carries out missionary work in more than 100 countries from its headquarters in Rome. It had 4,445 members, including 3,356 priests, in September 2026. Guayaquil lies about 265 kilometres south-west of the capital, Quito.
Iran says Strait of Hormuz could reopen within days if US accepts its conditions
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz would reopen within days if the United States met the conditions of a seven-day ceasefire plan Tehran put forward in September. He said Iran was still studying American comments on the proposal. Under that timetable the waterway would reopen on the sixth day and talks would start on the seventh, and Araghchi described the conditions as fair and achievable quickly.
The plan calls for an end to the American naval blockade of Iran, the lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil and a ceasefire on every front. Attacks on shipping have meanwhile risen sharply. The British monitor UK Maritime Trade Operations said at least 10 vessels had been attacked in or near the strait since the previous Sunday, the highest weekly count since the war began in February, and that 23 attacks had been logged this month, nearly twice the average.
Fighting between Iran and its allies on one side and the United States and Israel on the other began on February 28, 2026, and Tehran soon closed the strait to shipping. A ceasefire in April broke down, Washington imposed its own naval blockade after failed talks in Islamabad, and a memorandum signed on June 17 briefly lifted both blockades before the truce collapsed on July 8 amid fresh attacks on merchant ships. The US defence department put the cost of the war at $43.6 billion by September.
Australian independent MP Helen Haines critically injured after being struck by a car
Helen Haines, the independent member of Australia’s federal parliament for the Victorian seat of Indi, was critically injured on Monday afternoon when a vehicle struck her outside her electorate office in Wangaratta. Victoria Police said a white Toyota LandCruiser hit a 65-year-old woman on Murphy Street at about 3.35pm. A 43-year-old man from nearby Tarrawingee was held by a passer-by as he left the car and then arrested, and police said a knife was found in the vehicle.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said a man was in custody and that the federal police, the intelligence agency ASIO and the joint counter-terrorism taskforce were investigating. He said the motive was unknown and that officials knew of no recent direct threats against her. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said yearly reports of threatening behaviour towards senior office holders had risen from 951 to 1,067. Haines was flown to hospital in Melbourne, and her family thanked bystanders and health workers for their help.
Haines, born in 1961 and raised on a dairy farm near Colac, worked as a midwife at Wangaratta Base Hospital and later as a nurse and health researcher before entering politics. The community group Voices 4 Indi chose her to succeed the independent Cathy McGowan, and at the 2019 election she won the seat, becoming the first independent in Australian history to follow another independent in a federal electorate. In 2021 she introduced a bill to create a federal anti-corruption commission. She lives on a beef farm near Wangaratta.