🇺🇸🇮🇷🇾🇪⚡️ — Security alerts were issued by the following:

🇯🇴 U.S. Embassy Amman
🇱🇧 U.S. Embassy Beirut
🇶🇦 U.S. Embassy Doha
🇮🇷 U.S. Virtual Embassy Iran
🇮🇶 U.S. Mission Iraq
🇮🇱 U.S. Embassy Jerusalem
🇧🇭 U.S. Embassy Manama
🇴🇲 U.S. Embassy Muscat
🇸🇦 U.S. Mission Saudi Arabia
🇦🇪 U.S. Mission United Arab Emirates
🇾🇪 U.S. Mission Yemen

🇺🇳🇵🇸 The World Food Programme cuts monthly food aid for about 500,000 people in the Gaza Strip because of funding shortages, reducing the number of recipients from 1.6 million to 1.1 million.

The World Food Programme said its efforts had mitigated the effects during a famine last year in Gaza -- a description of the situation disputed by Israel -- and warned that conditions had not improved to the point that it can take away aid.

"People are not safe. Airstrikes continue on a daily basis. People continue to be displaced," Shaun Hughes, the WFP country director, told AFP at the agency's office in east Jerusalem.

"Almost everybody remains without a permanent home to live in. And the humanitarian conditions are brutal," he said.

According to the latest assessments, 1.4 million people -- or two-thirds of Gaza's population -- are still "acutely food insecure" and need humanitarian assistance to survive, he said.

In August last year, the UN's Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said that Gaza was suffering famine conditions. Israel, which has blockaded the territory and attacked it relentlessly since the unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on it by Hamas, described the finding as a lie.

The famine classification was lifted in December, two months after a US-brokered ceasefire was announced in Gaza. Israel has kept striking Gaza since then, vowing to kill anyone involved in the October 7 attack.

🔗 https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20261019-un-agency-slashes-gaza-food-aid-over-funding-warns-needs-persist

🇮🇩 Indonesian stocks plunge to six-year low as MSCI downgrade fears mount

The MSCI Indonesia Index has fallen 47% this year as of Friday, data provided by the bank showed, with foreign investors withdrawing a net $5.1 billion from Indonesian equities over the period.

Foreign ownership of Indonesian stocks has declined to 25% in October from 27% in January, while the value of foreign holdings has nearly halved to approximately $130 billion from $250 billion, the bank said.

Despite the steep declines, Goldman cautioned that Indonesian equities may not have bottomed. The MSCI Indonesia Index’s 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio has fallen to 7.3 times, its lowest level since the global financial crisis, but remains above historical troughs.

The strategists also expect Indonesia’s central bank to raise interest rates twice more, by 25 basis points each in the fourth quarter of 2026 and first quarter of 2027, potentially adding further pressure to economic growth and equity valuations.

🔗 https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/19/indonesian-stocks-msci-downgrade-fears-mount.html

🇩🇪🚙 VW plans to freeze salaries until 2030, works council says

Volkswagen plans to freeze salaries for its 660,000 staff worldwide until 2030, the group's works ​council said on Monday, confirming an earlier report ‌by Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

The Global Works Council said it had received internal information about the executive board's plans

Volkswagen declined ​to comment on "speculation". A spokesperson added that a ​new round of talks later this week ⁠would be the forum for any proposals on ​labour costs

The works council called the management's approach "absurd" and ​said it expected strong resistance to what is described as the plan's "rather unrealistic" implementation

"At Volkswagen, pay development is decided ​at the negotiating table, not by decree from ​the executive boardroom," a spokesperson for Germany's trade union IG Metall ‌said

Relations ⁠between Volkswagen and its labour representatives have deteriorated in recent months, as CEO Oliver Blume pushes ahead with the most radical restructuring in the German auto ​group's history
The ​Sueddeutsche Zeitung ⁠reported the news earlier on Monday, citing internal documents

The absence of pay rises ​could mean a loss of income ​of around ⁠10% for those affected, due to inflation, the paper said

The paper report said the new global management ⁠guidelines, ​effective from the fourth quarter, ​also include cuts to variable pay, special payments, benefits, and jobs.

🔗 https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/vw-plans-freeze-salaries-until-2030-works-council-says-2026-10-19/