Dutch military intelligence disrupted a Russian cyber-attack on the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The attack, which was thwarted with the help of British officials, came after Russia had also attempted remote attacks on on the UK Foreign Office in March and the Porton Down chemical weapons facility in April. Both attacks were unsuccessful. The Dutch defence minister said that four Russian intelligence officials from the GRU’s cybercrime unit, known as Sandworm, had been expelled from the Netherlands after being caught spying on the chemical weapons body in April. Jeremy Hunt said that a number of hackers widely known to have been conducting attacks around the world were covers for Russia’s GRU intelligence service, and their attacks had been undertaken with the consent and knowledge of the Kremlin. A Russian spokeswoman dismissed the hacking accusations as ‘big fantasies’.

Air traffic controller Anthonius Agung died after waving out the last flight from Palu airport on 28 September (see). He was one of the first casualties of a disaster that has taken at least 1,407 lives, injured many thousands more, and left most of the 350,000 residents homeless when a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck the island of Sulawesi. It triggered a ten- metre, 400mph tsunami that dragged cars, trees, houses, boulders, logs and mud inland. Three days later, Mount Soputan erupted, spewing ash clouds that make air flights hazardous. Clinics have no power and low medical supplies. Many communities have received no aid at all; other areas are experiencing looting. The tension is palpable with fights breaking out for food. Unless the government and agencies can deliver aid, there is a risk that tensions could spill over. Bridges must be repaired and roads restored before essential aid can reach points of need. Boats from other islands are delivering food, water and medicine.

Four leading Christian humanitarian organisations are joining forces in a fundraising campaign to try and help survivors of the Indonesia earthquake and tsunami, as authorities fear the number of fatalities, casualties and people displaced will rise in the coming days. See Tearfund is also working with Indonesian churches still looking for whole families and congregations and burying their dead. Rev Krise Gosal said, ‘Survivors are hungry, babies are crying for milk. We asked church networks to share the burden by donating food, tents and funds and they are uniting with one heart to express their solidarity with Palu, Donggala, and Sigi.’ Christian agencies have deployed emergency doctors, nurses, an orthopaedic surgeon, and a team with a midwife to affected areas. A possible 1.5 million people could have been affected. The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has also opened an Indonesia appeal.

The foreign minister of Dominica, Francine Baron, addressing the UN General Assembly on climate change, stressed that it is a global responsibility. Ms Baron noted that the global community has neither implemented plans for the 2015 Paris commitments nor mobilised the agreed $100 billion annually to assist the most vulnerable against harmful climate change effects. ‘While we have failed to live up to these commitments, Arctic ice shelves continue to melt at an alarming rate, oceans continue to get warmer, hurricanes and storms continue to develop and threaten our countries, drought becomes more severe, and flooding more pronounced.’ Last year Hurricane Maria brought Dominica to its knees. Immediately afterwards, ‘our people raised their battered and wounded selves, and began the daunting task of search and rescue, clearing roadways and moved into rebuilding mode.’ The cost of rebuilding a nation is far more than a small country like Dominica can meet single-handedly.