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The Latino vote shift that helped elect Trump in 2024 now stands as a central part of the Republican defeat, driven by complaints over prices and the immigration crackdown. Latinos voted en masse for Democrats in Tuesday’s elections, from Texas to California , according to AFP. An NBC exit poll cited by the agency put the Democratic victory at about 30 percentage points among Latino voters. The agency attributes the shift to unfulfilled pledges of lower prices and an aggressive immigration crackdown affecting Latinos themselves. Read more
The Democratic majority in Congress will now control trade committees and be able to investigate tariff policy, but repealing tariffs runs into Trump’s veto power. With at least 235 seats, according to Reuters projections, Democrats will hold trade committee chairs and have an easier time passing trade legislation . Democrats want to rescind old laws Trump used to impose tariffs, such as Section 338 of the 1930 Tariff Act, applied to Canadian imports. For Blake Harden of Ernst & Young, the congressional swing is “very unlikely” to have a significant impact on the president’s trade agenda and the tariffs in place — Trump will continue to pursue his tariff-driven trade agenda protecting workers, farmers and businesses , White House spokesman Matthew Middleton said. Read more
The United States sanctioned on Wednesday two individuals and one entity accused of helping Iran obtain man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS) . The State Department identified the targets as Mohammed Ali Tolibov, CEO of Belarus-based Armory Alliance; Nigeria-based Vanguard Tactical Supply Limited; and Russia-based Alisher Domullodzhanov. According to the department, the network sought to facilitate the procurement of Chinese-origin MANPADS for Iran, including through false end-users — Israeli newspaper Ynet describes the case as an attempt to purchase hundreds of Chinese-made shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, with a Belarusian company acting as intermediary . The statement places the move under Operation Economic Outcast, following designations on May 8, June 10 and July 15, 2026 . Read more
Commonwealth leaders meeting in Antigua said the UK has signed up to “structured, time-bound, inclusive and good-faith” talks addressing the “historical harms” of the transatlantic slave trade . The paragraph appears in the summit’s 18-page final communiqué, in which leaders “welcome the agreement of the Government of the United Kingdom” to join the dialogue. Prime Minister Andy Burnham opened the door to a formal apology on behalf of the UK, while ruling out direct reparations . The timeframe for the talks will be agreed at a later date, though Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has suggested they are likely to conclude in around a year. Read more
Japanese companies suffered 239 ransomware attacks from January to October, more than double the 2021 total , according to a survey by security firm Macnica. The count by Yokohama-based Macnica includes attacks without data encryption and already exceeds the 228 cases recorded in all of 2025, a new annual record. Among 100 Japanese firms surveyed by Proofpoint, the ransomware infection rate jumped to 73% in 2025 from 38% in the 2023 survey, the largest increase among 11 comparable countries — and about 40% of organizations that paid ransoms failed to recover data or regain access after a single payment, many facing additional demands. Read more
Tuesday’s vote turned AI data centers into a local-ballot issue: 44 communities voted to restrict data centers and just one voted to allow construction, across 45 decided measures . Twenty-one of the measures were in towns and cities in Ohio alone; the next state with the most measures was Maine, with eight. The measures included outright prohibitions, temporary moratoriums, limitations on energy use, mandating voter approval before construction and advisory measures — by late Tuesday evening, 33 restriction measures had passed or were leading in ongoing counts, according to the Data Centers on the Ballot tracking site. Read more
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded US First Lady Melania Trump the Order of Princess Olga, First Class . The decree cited her “significant personal contribution to humanitarian support for Ukraine” and active human rights and charitable work. Melania last month announced a localized truce between Ukrainian and Russian forces to allow residents of Oleshky, on the southern front, to leave, and said nearly 800 people were evacuated. Ukraine this week accused Russia of taking advantage of the truce to strengthen its military position there, while the Kremlin called adjusting positions during a ceasefire “standard practice” — according to the White House, Melania independently initiated engagement between the two warring nations and secured the ceasefire . Read more
Several regional facilities of the French Blood Establishment (EFS) were affected on November 2 by a cybersecurity incident that hit cold storage room monitoring and control systems , according to the French Health Ministry. The situation is now under control and the safety of blood supplies was preserved thanks to monitoring and alarm systems — no health impact has been identified and no blood products have been lost , the EFS said, with collection and hospital deliveries continuing normally. Hackers accessed control units for fridges containing blood samples and programmed them to raise temperatures to 110°C , according to local media. The incident followed attacks that forced stores in eight European countries to throw away vast quantities of food after hackers tampered with their fridges on Monday. Read more
Israeli President Isaac Herzog accepted the certified results of last week’s parliamentary elections and began consultations with party leaders on whom to task with forming the next government . “Now is the time to face reality,” Herzog said. Eight parties, including the two Arab-led factions, are scheduled to meet Herzog on Thursday, with Eisenkot’s Yashar and Netanyahu’s Likud speaking last — after the consultations, Herzog will choose the candidate he believes is most likely to be able to form a coalition, most likely Netanyahu or Eisenkot, and has several days to announce his decision. Read more
Saudi-led coalition attacks over the past 24 hours reportedly killed around 20 people across Yemen, including in the provinces of al-Jawf, al-Bayda, Saada and Taiz , according to Houthi-affiliated media.
Republicans lost the midterm elections because of the war with Iran , United States Vice President JD Vance said. According to Vance, many of those who voted for Trump and Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026, demanding an end to the war, a focus on the cost of living, priority to the United States and a change in the relationship with Israel. Voter frustration over the war and the relationship with Israel sealed the defeat , in a distancing from Donald Trump — who acknowledged the weight of gasoline prices but defended the decision to start the conflict — ahead of a possible 2028 White House bid. Read more
The Transnational Legal Coalition (TLC) filed 14 suspected money-laundering complaints on Wednesday against JBS, its financiers and service providers, with notifications sent to regulators in the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom . The complaints rest on research commissioned from AidEnvironment, which linked the company’s direct and indirect supply chain to more than 6.5 million hectares cleared in the Amazon since 1988 , and JBS says it cannot comment without access to the study’s methodology. Read more
Disagreements inside the United States government over the next steps regarding Iran intensified following the midterm congressional elections , according to the Wall Street Journal, in a text republished by TASS. Some officials are urging Donald Trump to launch new strikes against Iran and then try to secure peace, while others believe he should stop and scale back the military operation; Trump said he would end the war whenever he wants, but that this must be done right. Read more
The People’s Bank of China is working to extend e-CNY operating capability to offshore banks, including branches of existing operators in Hong Kong , said Lu Yuan, deputy head of the bank’s digital currency research institute, on a panel at Hong Kong Fintech Week. ICBC has already accumulated hundreds of billions of yuan in transactions in the currency, and the central bank counts around 4.3 billion transactions worth around 31 trillion yuan as of September. Read more
Ukraine’s national police released on Wednesday bodycam footage that, it says, shows the moments between two Russian bomb strikes that killed at least 40 people at an aid center and a shelter , in the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine. According to Ukraine, nine gliding bombs, some weighing 3,000 kg, hit the village as people had gathered to get humanitarian aid, and more than 30 people may still be under the rubble on the third day of searches; the Russian military has not publicly commented on the attack. Read more
35 lawmakers submitted impeachment articles against President Santiago Peña in the 80-seat lower house on Wednesday and requested an extraordinary session on Thursday to debate the matter , according to Reuters. The opposition accuses Peña of conflicts of interest, misuse of pension funds and institutional cover-ups in the bank case. Paraguay's central bank intervened in Ueno after finding minimum solvency requirements breached, leaving about 3 million customers in a country of 6.5 million people unable to access their accounts. The opposition still lacks the two-thirds majority needed to advance impeachment but has won backing from dissidents of the ruling Colorado Party. Read more
High Court Judge William Tam has set 9:30 a.m. this Thursday for the sentencing of Joshua Wong for foreign collusion, in a hearing lasting about 30 minutes . Wong pleaded guilty in September and faces a prison term ranging from three years to life imprisonment on the charge of conspiring with external forces to endanger national security . The 30-year-old activist is already serving a four-year, eight-month prison term. Before the new charge, lawyer Derek Chan told the court Wong had been due for release in January 2027. Read more
The NABU has dismantled a criminal network running fraudulent call centers and drug sales with the support of senior SBU, police and Prosecutor General's Office officials , according to TASS, citing Ukrainska Pravda — dozens of raids were carried out on Wednesday in Operation Carthage. Vladimir Tsenov, first deputy chief of the national police's strategic investigations department, known by the codename “Price”, was detained. SBU chief Oleksandr Poklad dismissed two senior officials targeted by the investigation , according to Le Monde. Read more
The toll of the Russian attack on Komyshuvakha has risen to 40 dead, with the search in its third day , Zelensky announced, according to Le Monde. Zelensky arrived in Madrid on his fifth visit to Spain and meets Pedro Sánchez and other leaders on Thursday on the sidelines of an Ibero-American summit, with strengthening air defense as the top priority. He lamented “very few reactions around the world” and urged allies to bolster the country's air defense “right now”. The European Commission praised Ukraine's progress toward membership but urged faster rule-of-law reforms to conclude negotiations by the end of 2028. Read more
Sub-Saharan Africa's liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports are set to grow nearly 175% to 98 billion cubic meters in 2034 from 35.7 billion in 2024 , according to Fitch, as buyers flee the Strait of Hormuz. The African Energy Chamber projects about US$ 40 billion a year in exploration and production investment through 2030, lifting the continent's hydrocarbon output to 12.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. In Mozambique, TotalEnergies' US$ 20 billion LNG project, with capacity of 13.1 million tonnes per year, resumed construction in January after the end of a four-and-a-half-year force majeure and is about 45% complete. Read more
Trump raised with aides and in phone calls the possibility of replacing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, without making a decision , according to CBS News, in a report cited by the Times of India. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is seen as a possible replacement. Asked by reporters, Trump publicly denied the move — saying Hegseth is doing “a very good job” — and White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said Trump has “full confidence” in him. Read more
The Cheonghae unit, currently in the Gulf of Aden, will have its area of operation extended northeast to waters south of Oman, in the Arabian Sea , officials told The Korea Herald, roughly doubling its radius to about 1,930 kilometers. The expansion adds 75 troops to the unit, bringing its strength to 395. A Defense Ministry official said operations will stay limited to open waters south of Oman and that the P-8A maritime patrol aircraft will be barred from watching Iranian territory or waters or the interior of the Strait of Hormuz. The government plans to send the revised mandate motion to the National Assembly after Cabinet endorsement next week, and South Korean law requires parliamentary consent to expand overseas missions. Read more
A growing number of Iranian clerics and officials are pressing the country's leaders to reverse their pledge not to pursue nuclear weapons, according to The New York Times, in a report cited by The Jerusalem Post . Specialist Mohammad Ghaderi told the paper that advocating leaving the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), once a minority view, has become the majority position in Tehran, and analyst Mohammad Ali Shabani said the religious taboo on the weapon is gone — “the question is whether a strategic or political shift will follow”. President Masoud Pezeshkian and former President Hassan Rouhani still back a peaceful nuclear doctrine, according to the paper. Read more
Brent fell US$ 8.94, or 8.6%, to US$ 94.66 per barrel on Wednesday, after touching its lowest level since September 4, with traders pricing an end to the war against Iran , according to OilPrice. WTI dropped US$ 8.01, or 8.3%, to US$ 88.08, while Brent traded near US$ 118 on Friday. Gulf exports of crude and products averaged 17.1 million barrels per day in October, down from 18.9 million in September, roughly three-quarters of the pre-war level, according to Vortexa. The US Department of Energy announced the loan of 300,000 barrels from the Northeast home heating oil reserve to four companies, nearly a third of the stockpile, and heating oil futures fell about 7%. Read more
United States President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he reached an agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu several months ago to end approximately US$ 4 billion in annual US military aid to Israel by December 2026 — according to Trump, Netanyahu proposed ending the aid. The current agreement guarantees Israel US$ 3.8 billion per year through fiscal year 2028, with implementation of the cut still undefined, and beyond 2028 the country would need about US$ 10 billion to pay for outstanding orders, according to a State Department document sent to Congress and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal . El-Sayed said Trump is right on this policy and argued for ending sales of weaponry to Israel , in an interview with NPR. Read more
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung is pushing for a centralized cybersecurity agency after passport details and other personal information of 168 people, including the president, his wife and senior security officials, were reported to be accessible online for nearly five months , according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP). Technology experts warn that creating a new organization alone does little to address the deeper problem of complacency, with businesses and government agencies viewing tighter cybersecurity as an unnecessary expense until a serious breach occurs. Read more
In an interview with German television ZDF, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he hoped Democratic gains in the midterm elections would generate more help for Kyiv in its 4-1/2-year-long war with Russia, according to Reuters, in a text published by the Jerusalem Post. Zelensky said he was grateful to Republicans but that Democrats speak “very clearly” about supporting Ukraine and renewing the connection between the United States and Europe. “I am also grateful to the Republicans, but the Democrats speak very clearly about supporting Ukraine and providing assistance to Ukraine,” he said in comments provided in German by ZDF before the interview was broadcast. “They speak about renewing the connection between the United States and Europe... Therefore, there is hope that a balance of power will emerge and that we will receive more support.” He also said that a Congress approving strong financial support or military assistance would have an impact on Putin. Read more
A test by France 24 Observers using a Chinese IP address showed that Doubao replies that the content is suspected of violating its rules of use and DeepSeek suggests the story is fake news and that there is no trustworthy information available . “This content is suspected of violating the rules for using Doubao,” Doubao responded. DeepSeek responded by suggesting the story was fake news: “As for the question of whether Mbappé said the words ‘Mao Zedong is a dictator’, there is currently no publicly available, trustworthy information or any news report that would make it possible to confirm this statement.” The controversy began with a joke by Mbappé in mid-October on the French podcast The Bridge, when he cited a meme in which his face appears superimposed on the figure of someone he called “a Chinese dictator”. Chinese football sponsors, including Dongpeng Group, dairy giant Mengniu and cheesemaker Milkground, ended partnerships with the Real Madrid striker; a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry lashed out at Mbappé during a press conference, and the player published an apology that, according to France 24, Chinese diplomats say is being taken seriously. Researcher Jennifer Pan of Stanford University said the original Chinese models are more likely to refuse to respond and to give short and vague replies to questions about Chinese politics than models developed elsewhere. Read more
Israeli President Isaac Herzog sent a warning letter last month to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials about a “highly explosive and dangerous reality” in the West Bank and the “moral disgrace” of settler violence, according to the Times of Israel, which says it obtained the letter. The letter was also sent to Foreign Minister Israel Katz, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, and says that IDF commanders, police officers and Shin Bet personnel report “limited tools and a shortage of manpower”. Herzog warned that a flare-up on the ground is liable to carry “severe and far-reaching consequences” for Israel's security, its functioning as a sovereign state, its international standing, Diaspora Jewry and the Israeli economy. He called for the perpetrators to be treated as members of a criminal organization and for a plan with a mass deployment of security forces, widespread arrests, administrative detentions and the dismantling of the groups. Settler violence has surged in recent months, with near-daily attacks and harassment and few perpetrators charged or convicted . Read more
Ethiopia expelled six staff members of Sudan's consulate in Assosa, a western city near the Sudanese border, and ordered the mission closed , according to officials from both countries. Sudan's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that drones used by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) against the country's electricity infrastructure were supplied by the United Arab Emirates and launched from Ethiopia, and that it had filed formal complaints against Addis Ababa at the UN Security Council and the African Union's Peace and Security Council. Sudan accuses Ethiopia of backing the RSF, while Addis Ababa accuses Khartoum of supporting rebels in Tigray; Ethiopia denies backing the RSF and Sudan denies backing the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). Amjad Farid, political and foreign affairs adviser to Sudan's Transitional Sovereign Council, said the government remains committed to its right to defend its territory but is making every possible effort to avoid an open war with Ethiopia. Ethiopia withdrew three diplomats from its consulate in the eastern Sudanese city of El Gedaref, and reports suggested Sudanese authorities ordered the Ethiopian diplomats there to leave in retaliation; neither foreign ministry issued an official statement on the mutual expulsions , according to the Sudan Tribune. Sudan's civil war, which began in April 2023, has displaced more than 14 million people , according to UN figures, in a Reuters text republished by the Straits Times. Read more
A Yemeni government military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that 13 military recruits were killed and 65 others wounded in a ballistic missile attack on a military training center in Qatabah district, northern Al-Dhalea, in southern Yemen, during morning exercises, and blamed the attack on the Houthis. A ballistic missile hit Hayfan in Taiz governorate and killed four Yemenis from the same family, including three children , on Wednesday, according to Middle East Eye. Houthi-run al-Masirah TV blamed the killing of three children and a woman, with four other children wounded in the same district, on a Saudi airstrike. On November 3, Yemeni Interior Minister Ibrahim Ali Haidan accused Hezbollah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of sending military instructors to command Houthi combat operations, develop missile and drone programs and coordinate attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait , according to TASS. Hezbollah denied the allegations and said the Yemeni authorities' statements about support for the Houthi offensive, military training and rearmament are “completely baseless”, adding that “the Yemeni people have sufficient capabilities, resources, and experience to defend their country without external support.” Read more
The president of Cuba's National Institute of Hydraulic Resources, Antonio Rodríguez, said that interruptions in water networks affect 2,681,770 residents , 66% of them for electrical reasons and 25% because of broken pumping equipment, according to the EFE agency, in a text republished by the Paraguayan outlet ABC Color. President Miguel Díaz-Canel called the water supply problem “grave and complex” and said that large-scale investments to solve it require time, while immediate difficulties are being addressed. The worst-affected provinces are Havana, with about 536,000 residents facing supply problems, and Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Matanzas, Artemisa and Pinar, with about 200,000 each. Díaz-Canel attributed the problem to objective causes — the US blockade, the energy crisis, aging networks — and also to the “negligence, indolence and lack of coordination” of the authorities. Read more
The mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) expired at midnight on Saturday , after the Security Council failed on Friday to agree on its future: a US draft was vetoed by Russia and a rival Russian text failed to win the nine votes needed. Secretary-General António Guterres said the departure of the mission “does not abrogate” the Sahrawi people's “inalienable right to self-determination”, in a statement delivered by his spokesperson. Russia vetoed the US draft despite support from 11 of the 15 Council members, including France and the United Kingdom ; the US text would have extended the mission for a year, removed “referendum” from its name and made Morocco's autonomy proposal the only basis for further talks. When the mandate ended, the mission was headquartered in Laayoune, with nine team sites — four west of the sand wall and five east of it — and a liaison office in Tindouf, with about 200 civilian staff, military observers and staff officers from over 35 countries. Morocco's royal palace said that Rabat's “voluntary commitment” to the ceasefire would not change with the end of the mission , following a meeting chaired by King Mohammed VI with the prime minister, a royal adviser and the army chief — according to Reuters, in a text republished by Yahoo News Malaysia. The same statement called the fact that the mission was not renewed a “significant development” that withdraws the issue from the Security Council's consideration. Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita told state media that Rabat's next step would be to remove Western Sahara from the UN's decolonization committee, saying Rabat had the support of two-thirds of UN member states. Read more
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said the Islamic Republic has inflicted defeats on Donald Trump on the battlefield, in Hormuz and now a “political defeat” in Washington . “The Iranian nation handed Trump a strategic defeat on the battlefield and in Hormuz — and a political defeat in Washington. Meanwhile, Americans got stuck with the bill for his war,” he wrote in a post on X. “Anyone who takes on Iran will pay the price, from the battlefield to their own doorstep,” he added. After the Republican midterm defeat, a giant banner depicting Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was burned at a rally in Tehran . Read more
President Donald Trump said it is “largely true” that the war with Iran cost the Republicans the midterm elections, pointing to the short-term rise in gasoline prices, and said he would do it again because “you can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” in remarks cited by the ANI agency . The same day, Vice President JD Vance wrote on X that “the reason we lost is the war” and that voter anger over the conflict drove former Trump supporters to back Democrats . Trump also said the main reason was the price of fuel, with “tremendous oil” flowing out of the Strait of Hormuz at the moment. He said he was prepared to work with Democrats after their midterm gains, while warning that he would veto legislation he opposed, and dismissed the possibility of an impeachment effort, saying it would damage Democrats. He also said his personal popularity did not transfer to Republican candidates and that, if he had been on the ballot, Republicans would have won. “If I were on the ballot, we would have won... But you couldn't just transfer that love. There was such love at those rallies; it was incredible. We weren't able to transfer that love to the candidates,” he said. Read more
A record number of candidates for federal offices backed by or affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) won in Tuesday’s midterm elections, the most successful night the left-leaning movement has had in national politics so far . Chanpreet Singh, a member of the DSA’s national electoral commission, said these are numbers not seen in over a hundred years of socialist electoral activity. In Michigan, DSA member Rashida Tlaib was re-elected to the US House, member Donavan McKinney was elected to the body for the first time and William Lawrence defeated a Republican candidate in a highly competitive race. Angela Gonzales-Torres defeated a Democratic incumbent for a seat in the US House. The movement says it has more than 120,000 members, with chapters across all 50 states. Read more
About 1,800 industrial facilities have been damaged in Sudan’s war , including 650 factories completely destroyed, according to the country’s Ministry of Industry. A sweets factory in Khartoum has resumed production but is operating at 40% of its previous capacity, and its owner, Mansour Gaily, estimates losses at $1 million. Reopening is hampered by electricity shortages, a damaged transport network and rising import costs, as well as the destruction or looting of raw materials and equipment. Read more
Iranian lawmaker Manouchehr Mottaki, a former foreign minister and member of parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said that the chamber would vote unanimously to reconsider Iran’s continued membership in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if the supreme leader asked, according to the Mehr news agency. Mottaki said lawmakers receive around 200 text messages a day urging withdrawal and that he believes the time has come to discuss leaving the treaty, stressing that the decision rests with the supreme leader. The Paydari Front, led by former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, issued a statement calling for Iran’s withdrawal from the treaty , arguing that recent wars show the country needs nuclear weapons for deterrence. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, said on October 31 that Iran’s future as a party to the treaty was uncertain. On November 1, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated that Iran is a member of the NPT and upholds its commitments under the treaty. Read more
Elon Musk, the single biggest campaign donor in the election cycle, poured over $440 million into Republican candidates and causes , but his preferred candidates lost races in Texas, where he has put down roots. Shares of Tesla and SpaceX dropped after the Democratic Party swept to power in the US midterm elections.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy said that three oil tankers struck naval mines and caught fire while navigating “unauthorized” routes through the Strait of Hormuz, according to the Tasnim news agency, which cited a statement from the force’s public relations office. According to the statement, the explosions occurred in the early hours of Tuesday and the ships, abandoned near the southern shores of the strait, remained engulfed in flames that illuminated the eastern section through the night. The Guard warned that ships disregarding the rules and cooperating with the US military to cross unauthorized routes could face similar incidents. On Monday, Iran’s Navy had already announced that an oil tanker had struck a mine and caught fire in an area described as prohibited and unsafe east of the strait. Read more
South Africans voted on Wednesday in local elections that will decide who leads the country’s eight main city municipalities as well as its 44 district and 205 local councils , a contest expected to be a tough test for the African National Congress (ANC). A record 29.2 million people are registered to vote at 23,696 voting stations , according to the Electoral Commission of South Africa, and more than 1.4 million special votes were cast on Monday and Tuesday. Polls showed the ANC getting less than a third of the vote , down from 45.6% at the last municipal elections, in 2021, and 40.2% in 2024’s national elections. In total, 546 political parties were vying for votes, and final results are expected on Sunday. The outcome is expected to shape the race to succeed Cyril Ramaphosa as ANC leader at the party’s conference in December 2027. Read more
Japan’s Defense Ministry has estimated that its five-year defense plan beginning in fiscal 2027 will require about 80 trillion yen (about $507 billion) , nearly twice the amount allocated under the current plan. The figure is preliminary: given funding constraints, the government is expected to review equipment procurement and other expenditures and adjust the total toward the upper end of the 70 trillion yen (about $443.5 billion) range. The new spending is likely to fund purchases such as large numbers of drones , according to a source familiar with the matter. The review is taking shape as a year-end deadline for revisions to three key security documents looms . Read more
QatarEnergy signed a 20-year agreement to buy 3 million metric tons per year of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Woodside Energy’s facilities in Louisiana and, a week earlier, struck deals with Cheniere for up to 4 million tons per year through 2054, according to Reuters, in a text republished by gCaptain. Deliveries under the contracts begin in 2030 and 2031 and will make Qatar the largest buyer of US LNG. Unlike its neighbors, the small Gulf state has no viable route for exporting LNG other than the Strait of Hormuz. QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi told Reuters he expects to sign additional supply agreements with US and other producers this year. The company declared force majeure on LNG supplies in March , after the war with Iran led to the blockade of Hormuz and attacks on its Ras Laffan facilities; the measure runs through December. Read more
North Korea test-fired a newly designed air-defense missile system and staged a cruise missile strike drill on Wednesday , state media KCNA said. The test confirmed the technical specifications and reliability of the new materials and multiple guidance modes used by the missile, as well as the system’s ability to identify and track targets. A sub-unit of the country’s long-range strategic cruise missile unit in the east struck a virtual airport target in the drill. The KCNA report appeared to confirm a South Korean Defense Ministry statement that Pyongyang fired multiple missiles toward the sea from the Sondok area on the east coast, the fourth North Korean weapons launch in a month. Read more
The World Health Organization (WHO) approved clinical trials for two new Ebola vaccines on Wednesday , as an outbreak in Africa has killed more than 5,300 people. The candidates are ChAdOx1 BDBV, developed by the University of Oxford with the Serum Institute of India, and Moderna’s mRNA-1469, both designed specifically for the Bundibugyo virus. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the trial that began last month with the Ervebo vaccine does not cover the Bundibugyo virus and that the agency’s expert groups now recommend adding the two candidates to the study. The National Institute for Biomedical Research of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) leads the trial, backed by partners including WHO. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said on Monday that the epidemic had killed more than 5,300 people, the majority in the DRC, with 10,444 confirmed cases and a fatality rate above 50 percent. Read more
Hubert Aiwanger, Bavaria’s deputy premier, economy minister and chairman of the right-wing populist Free Voters party, was found dead in a Berlin hotel on Wednesday . He was 55. He had been scheduled to speak at the opening of his party’s Berlin office but canceled because of health reasons, according to the dpa news agency. The body was at the Neuer Fritz hotel on Friedrichstrasse in Berlin-Mitte. Berlin prosecutors confirmed that the body was found in the hotel room ; the cause of death was not immediately disclosed. Alexander Hoffmann, who heads the Christian Social Union (CSU) group in the Bundestag, mourned the death and called Aiwanger a “politician through and through” who shaped Bavaria. Read more
US House Speaker Mike Johnson will step down from the Republican leadership after his party’s defeat in the midterm elections, his spokesperson confirmed to AFP on Wednesday. Asked about the departure, the spokesperson replied only “Correct,” according to the agency, in a text republished by Times Brasil . Johnson was reelected as a representative from Louisiana and has not announced an immediate departure from the speakership or from Congress. The opening sets up a contest between current Republican majority leader Steve Scalise, a representative from Louisiana, and Jim Jordan, chair of the Judiciary Committee and a representative from Ohio. Read more
The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that 1,134 children in Gaza have undergone amputations as of October 9, 2026. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 2,300 amputees — both children and adults — were assessed between September 2024 and May 2026, and only 500 received permanent prosthetics. The nongovernmental organization (NGO) said Israeli restrictions on patient travel and medical evacuations prevent hundreds of children from seeking specialized treatment abroad. According to the organization, only eight certified prosthetics and orthotics professionals are currently available in Gaza , and there is a lack of equipment to make, fit and maintain artificial limbs. The group accused Israel of war crimes and framed the amputation of children and the obstruction of treatment as acts listed in Article 2 of the Genocide Convention. Read more
Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara arrived in Riyadh on Wednesday with a delegation including the foreign, defense, finance and industry ministers and the head of the General Intelligence Directorate, on his second visit to the kingdom in weeks, after a trip to Riyadh on October 6. He and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman witnessed the signing of agreements covering military cooperation, energy and infrastructure , and the Syrian Foreign Ministry said the defense agreement was the most notable but gave no details. The package included a cooperation agreement between the two countries’ defense ministries . Syria is in negotiations to join the Makkah defense pact, and Foreign Minister Asaad Al Shibani said at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain that Damascus considers “security in the Gulf as part of its own.” Read more
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine, the United States and Russia are preparing a trilateral format at the team level to take place in less than a week, after a detailed, hour-and-a-half-long conversation with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Witkoff said the United States would mediate the working-level talks , scheduled for November 10-11 in Abu Dhabi. Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said the talks may be held in Abu Dhabi around November 10. Zelensky said air defense remains a key priority and that Ukraine needs interceptors for Patriot systems. Read more
According to OilPrice, the Japan-Korea Marker, Asia’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) benchmark, topped $31 per million British thermal units this month and briefly rose above $33, compared with a little over $9 in January. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated that the war between the United States, Israel and Iran cost the world some 60 billion cubic meters of LNG supply in the eight months to October. QatarEnergy has signed two long-term deals to buy US gas, 4 million tons a year from Cheniere Energy and 3 million tons a year from Woodside Energy, which will make it the biggest foreign buyer of US liquefied gas, according to Reuters. Global gas consumption fell 1%, or 35 billion cubic meters, in the first nine months of the year. Read more
With Democrats having won majority control of the House in the midterm elections, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is on the cusp of becoming the nation’s first Black speaker of the House, after Democrats trounced Republicans to win the chamber. A vote of his colleagues is expected when the new Congress convenes on January 3. Jeffries has promised a robust 100-day agenda to lower the cost of living and launch oversight and investigations to hold the Trump administration accountable, with impeachment an option. Katherine Clark is expected to become the majority leader and Pete Aguilar the majority whip. Jeffries was elected House minority leader in 2022 and is the first Black politician to lead either party in the House or Senate. Read more
The World Health Organization (WHO) said cholera has killed around 1,800 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) so far this year, a country also battling its deadliest Ebola outbreak, according to AFP, in a text republished by Medical Xpress. Some 60,000 cases of the disease have been recorded in what the WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, described as the country’s “worst cholera outbreak in decades.” Most of the infections were detected in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu, prey to a litany of armed groups and partly under the control of the Rwanda-backed M23 militia, Tedros said. He said the concern now is that cases are following the Congo River basin, which means the outbreak could stretch up to Kinshasa. The mortality rate is around 3%, which is high for cholera. Read more
Serbian authorities detained nine active police officers and one former officer for allegedly using excessive force against detainees during last year’s anti-corruption protests in Belgrade, according to Reuters, in a text republished by The Straits Times. The Interior Ministry said the suspects, from an elite unit, tortured and intimidated people detained in the garage of a government compound in downtown Belgrade on August 14-15, 2025. According to the statement, by using force and threats they inflicted great pain and severe suffering on a larger number of people to obtain information from them and to intimidate and unlawfully punish them. These were the first major arrests in connection with violence against the protesters who took to the streets over the past two years, and the ministry released only the detainees’ initials. The protests swept the country, a candidate for European Union (EU) membership, in 2025 and 2026, after 16 people died when a concrete canopy collapsed at a renovated railway station in Novi Sad on November 1, 2024. Read more
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded US first lady Melania Trump the Order of Princess Olga, first class , an honor for women who have made exceptional contributions in science, education, culture and charitable work, according to Reuters, in a text republished by Investing.com. The presidential decree, dated November 2, cited her “significant personal contribution” to humanitarian support for Ukraine and her work to help Ukrainian children, including those deported or forcibly moved from Russian-occupied territory. Ukrainian officials have said she played a pivotal role in organizing the six-day ceasefire to evacuate civilians from Oleshky, which concluded on Sunday, the longest local pause in fighting since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Nearly 800 people were evacuated, Melania Trump said. Russian and Ukrainian delegations — made up of ombudsmen involved in the evacuation mission and senior officials — are due to meet at the White House on Thursday at her invitation. The White House said Melania Trump had “independently initiated engagement between the two warring nations and successfully secured a ceasefire.” Read more
The Degel HaTorah faction of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party announced that it will not recommend any candidate for prime minister in consultations with President Isaac Herzog, following instructions from its spiritual leaders. The decision by a longtime ally of Benjamin Netanyahu deepens the rift with the prime minister, prompted by the coalition’s failure to pass a law enshrining military service exemptions for Haredi men. Herzog is consulting parties on whom to task with forming the next government and told party leaders that “not every commitment and promise can be fulfilled” if they want to avoid a new election. Gadi Eisenkot is expected to get the mandate, and the Arab party Ra’am has confirmed it will endorse him. UTJ is scheduled to meet Herzog on Thursday, and it remains unclear whether the Agudat Yisrael faction will recommend Netanyahu or also abstain. Read more
Europe’s far-right leaders began to distance themselves from Donald Trump after the Democrats’ victory in the US midterm elections , but mostly avoided directly criticizing the president, according to Reuters, in a text republished by Al-Monitor. Jordan Bardella, leader of France’s National Rally, said Trump’s second term was less isolationist than his first, from 2017 to 2021, and that “American intervention regarding Iran carries very heavy consequences” for economies around the world, without mentioning Trump as being behind that intervention. Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain’s Vox, made little attempt to temper his move away from Trump, telling reporters he was “in Spain and not in Michigan,” and that he cares “very little about what happens in other places.” Rupert Lowe, leader of the British party Restore Britain, blamed the decision to attack Iran for the Republicans’ defeat, calling it a “catastrophic mistake,” and wrote in his X post: “What has this war achieved? Absolutely nothing of worth.” Lowe did not include in the text the name of the president who launched the war. Read more
Retired Indian judge Srinivasan Muralidhar, chair of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said the panel’s unequivocal conclusion was that Israeli security forces continued to commit “war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of genocide” a year after the October 2025 ceasefire brokered by the United States . The report says more than 75,000 Palestinians across the Occupied Palestinian Territory have been killed since October 7, 2023, including at least 21,500 children and 11,000 women . The document was presented by Muralidhar to the UN General Assembly on October 26; according to The Hindu, he could not present the report in person because the United States denied him a visa. The report calls on UN member states to “employ all means” to prevent the genocide, investigate and prosecute suspects, and establish clear rules for the use of artificial intelligence in conflicts. Read more
US President Donald Trump said he has no intention of firing Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and said he is doing “a very good job.” “No, I think he’s doing a very good job” , Trump said in response to a question from reporters alongside construction workers at the site of the White House’s new ballroom. White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told CBS News that the president has “full confidence” in Hegseth , after the network reported, citing sources, that Trump was discussing the dismissal with advisers. Asked about the possibility of Hegseth filling the Tennessee Senate seat that Marsha Blackburn will leave to take over the governor’s office, Trump said he would be “very popular” if he did that, but that he “hasn’t heard that at all” . Read more
Major General Esmaeil Ghaani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, said that resistance forces have formed a united front against the aggressors, namely the United States and the Zionist regime in the region . “Otherwise, you will end up fighting a war with weapons in the Strait of Hormuz while facing the opening of the Bab el-Mandeb by the Resistance,” he said. According to Ghaani, US President Donald Trump gambled on war with Iran after being misled by Netanyahu, and the outcome was the loss of America’s 250-year reputation and its defeat in the Strait of Hormuz. Read more
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