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US Helped Venezuela Strike ELN Camp Near Colombian Border, Officials Tell New York Times: November 4, 2026

The United States provided intelligence and drones for Venezuela’s attack last Friday on a camp of Colombia’s ELN guerrilla group in Apure state, four US officials told The New York Times.

It was unclear who piloted the drones, though one official said that type of drone is typically operated by US forces, the Times reported.

The rights group Fundaredes said at least 23 people were killed in the strike near Buena Vista del Meta in Pedro Camejo municipality, a known cocaine hub near the Colombian border.

The State Department referred questions to the Pentagon, which pointed to Venezuela. A senior Venezuelan military official confirmed the country’s armed forces carried out the attack, and Colombia’s military denied any involvement.

Sources: The New York Times, Semana, El Nacional

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Former US Government Contractor Pleads Guilty to Passing Secrets to Ethiopia to Target Tigray Fighters: November 4, 2026

A former US government contractor has pleaded guilty to giving classified intelligence to Ethiopian officials to help them target Tigrayan fighters.

Abraham Teklu Lemma, 54, worked for the State Department, the Justice Department and the National Reconnaissance Office. He faces up to 22 years in prison under his plea deal and is due to be sentenced on April 14, 2027, the BBC reported.

Prosecutors cited messages in which Lemma wrote, “We have to finish these people once and for all,” and “Please send Dro[nes].” He was arrested in August 2023.

Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, said “he betrayed his oath, his colleagues, and his country.”

A 2022 peace agreement ended the Tigray war, but fighting resumed in September. “Lemma betrayed the United States to an extraordinary degree,” said John Eisenberg, the assistant attorney general for national security.

Sources: BBC News

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Democrats Win Control of House and Senate in Midterm Rebuke to Trump: November 4, 2026

Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress in Tuesday’s midterm elections, a sweeping rebuke of President Donald Trump that will hand the opposition the power to check his agenda for the final two years of his term.

Democrats flipped at least seven Republican-held Senate seats, in Kansas, Iowa, Texas, Ohio, Maine, North Carolina and South Carolina, while holding on in Georgia and Michigan, according to the Associated Press. They also flipped more than two dozen House districts.

By Wednesday, Democrats had won 228 House seats and were leading in 34 more, while in the Senate they had won 54 seats to 44 for Republicans, Al Jazeera reported citing the AP tally. It is the first time in 20 years that a Republican president has lost both houses of Congress, after George W. Bush in 2006.

The results include several firsts. Abdul El-Sayed’s win in Michigan makes him the first Muslim senator, Juliana Stratton’s victory in Illinois means three Black women will serve in the Senate at the same time, and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman elected governor in the US, in Georgia.

Trump acknowledged the war with Iran had weighed on his party. “I think a part of it was Iran,” he told Fox News, adding that voters “really probably weren’t willing to do the short term consequences of paying more for gasoline.”

Sources: Associated Press, Al Jazeera, NPR

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US Carries Out Limited Strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island on Eve of Midterms: November 3, 2026

The United States carried out strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz late on Monday, in what US officials described as limited, defensive action after Iranian forces fired on US aircraft.

Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported several explosions on the island. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had shot down two US MQM-170 drones south of the island and an MQ-9 drone east of the strait. It was the first US attack on Qeshm since June.

“We are still in a state of war,” Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, said, according to the Guardian, adding that Iran does not “tie our foreign policies to the elections of other countries.”

Talks continue through Qatari and Pakistani mediators. Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said both sides “remain committed to the negotiation process.” Iran’s chief negotiator, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said “the ball is now in America’s court to prevent war.”

President Donald Trump told reporters he was in “no rush” to ramp up strikes on Iran, and said “no” when asked whether major strikes would resume after the midterms. The war began when the US and Israel attacked Iran in February.

Sources: BBC News, The Guardian, Al Jazeera

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Americans Vote in Midterm Elections That Will Decide Control of Congress: November 3, 2026

Polls opened across the United States on Tuesday for midterm elections that will decide which party controls Congress for the final two years of President Donald Trump’s term.

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the Senate’s 100 seats are on the ballot, and voters in 36 states are also choosing governors. More than 57 million Americans had already cast early ballots, with some of the heaviest turnout in Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, according to Al Jazeera.

Republicans hold 53 Senate seats to 47 for Democrats and the independents who caucus with them, and have a narrow majority in the House. A party needs 218 seats to control the House and 51 for an outright Senate majority, with the vice-president breaking any 50-50 tie.

Democrats have campaigned on the cost of living and on ending the war with Iran, while Republicans are counting on loyal voters despite Trump’s low approval ratings and the historical tendency of the president’s party to lose seats in midterms.

The Cook Political Report rates seven Senate races as toss-ups: Alaska, Kansas, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Ohio and Texas. Six of those seats are held by Republicans. In Michigan, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed faces Republican Mike Rogers, and in Texas, Democrat James Talarico is challenging state Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The first polls close at 6 p.m. Eastern time (3 p.m. Pacific) in parts of Kentucky and Indiana. Close races could take days or even weeks to call; in 2022, CBS News did not project a Republican House majority until November 17, the BBC noted.

Sources: Al Jazeera, BBC News

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Michigan Democrat Haley Stevens Endorses Republican Mike Rogers Over Party’s Senate Nominee: November 2, 2026

Two days before the US midterm elections, Michigan Democratic Representative Haley Stevens has endorsed Republican Mike Rogers for the state’s open Senate seat, breaking with her party’s nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, who narrowly beat her in the August primary.

Stevens announced the endorsement on Sunday after attending a Detroit church service with Rogers. “Our Democratic nominee for Senate said I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away,” she said in a video, according to the Associated Press via CBC. “And he’s right. And that’s why I am endorsing Mike Rogers.”

“I’m not turning my back on Democrats. It is this one vote,” Stevens told reporters. Her top aide quit over the decision.

Tensions between the two Democrats had festered since the primary over Israel: Stevens is a staunch supporter, while El-Sayed is a fierce critic. Plans for Stevens to campaign with El-Sayed on Sunday unravelled after a public dispute.

Michigan Democratic Party chair Curtis Hertel said the endorsement “shows that she has abandoned everything she claims to care about.” El-Sayed brushed it off: “At the end of the day I actually don’t think about Haley Stevens.”

The race for the seat held by retiring Democrat Gary Peters is tight and could help decide control of the Senate on Tuesday.

Sources: CBC News / AP, BBC News, The Guardian

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Nine Killed as Business Jet Plunges Onto Florida Road Near Palm Beach: November 2, 2026

All nine people aboard a Learjet 60 business jet were killed on Sunday when the aircraft dived almost vertically onto a busy road in Palm Beach County, Florida, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.

The jet came down around 12:50 p.m. local time on Military Trail, a six-lane road near Cresthaven, about nine miles from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. The Federal Aviation Administration said the flight had departed Austin, Texas, and was bound for the Bahamas. Nobody on the ground was hurt.

Air traffic control audio, as reported by the BBC, captured a crew member reporting moderate turbulence, icing and precipitation and asking to climb, then declaring an emergency as the jet descended at 20,000 feet per minute. The final words from the cockpit were “we’re out of time.”

“It’s like a missile coming down, and a massive explosion, debris going everywhere,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said of dashcam footage of the crash. Duffy called it a “horrific tragedy.”

Officials said about 600 residents of a nearby trailer park were evacuated, and damage to water lines and other infrastructure means the road will stay closed for at least 30 days. Thunderstorms had been reported in the area at the time.

The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation with FAA support. The identities of those aboard had not been released.

Sources: BBC News, DW, CBC News

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Judge Orders Trump Administration to Stop Threatening California Election Workers: November 1, 2026

A federal judge in San Francisco has ordered the Trump administration to stop threatening state and local election workers with criminal prosecution over ballots it says were cast by noncitizens, days before Tuesday’s midterm elections.

US District Judge Trina Thompson issued a temporary restraining order late Friday barring the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security from demanding that officials remove voters from the rolls, refuse them ballots, or set aside their votes solely because the government alleges they are ineligible.

“Although Defendants claim that their actions are designed to halt unlawful voting by noncitizens, their actions are likely to have the effect of interfering with election administration and disenfranchising lawful voters,” Thompson wrote, according to the BBC.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department demanded that California’s secretary of state and the Los Angeles County registrar set aside the ballots of about 20,000 registered voters the administration believes are likely noncitizens. Court documents say armed DHS officials later delivered letters to county election workers across California threatening criminal charges if they did not sequester those ballots. A similar demand was sent to Washington state.

The order, sought by labor unions and other groups, runs until November 16, with a hearing set for November 13. Separately on Friday, a divided federal appeals court rejected the Justice Department’s request that California set aside the disputed ballots.

Trump criticised the ruling on Saturday, writing: “Why would they reject fixing Election Fraud?” California officials say the federal list is unreliable and likely includes many US citizens. A Heritage Foundation database cited by BBC Verify lists 24 convictions of noncitizens for voting between 2005 and 2025.

Sources: BBC News, The Guardian, CBS News

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US Approves $2.1 Billion Sale of 500 Patriot Missiles to Ukraine; Zelensky Warns Delivery Could Take Years: October 31, 2026

KYIV — The US State Department has approved the sale of 500 Patriot PAC-3 interceptor missiles to Ukraine for an estimated $2.1bn, a deal funded entirely by allies, with no US money involved.

The purchase is being paid for through a programme backed by Canada, Germany and Norway and through the EU’s Ukraine support loan, with Lockheed Martin as principal contractor, the BBC reported.

President Volodymyr Zelensky called it “a strong decision by the U.S. State Department” but warned that deliveries may begin “only in a few years,” urging Washington to find a solution for now. “Right now, the Russians are attacking our energy infrastructure every single day,” he said.

Overnight Russian strikes left about 200,000 households in the Dnipro region and 80,000 in the Kyiv region without power. The sale comes amid a global shortage of interceptors driven by the US–Iran war.

Sources: BBC News, The Guardian

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US Cancels G20 ‘Family Photo’ in Atlanta as Allies Refuse to Stand With Lavrov: October 31, 2026

ATLANTA — The United States scrapped the traditional “family photo” at the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta after European nations, the United Kingdom and Australia made clear they would not appear alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

About a third of the countries at the talks hosted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio had signalled they would boycott or walk out of the photo, the Guardian reported. “In no case will there be a family photo with European partners and Mr Lavrov together,” Germany’s foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, said beforehand.

A US official said that “rather than allow a ceremonial photo opportunity to become a diplomatic distraction,” Washington decided to forgo it.

Inside the meeting, Britain’s foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, addressed Lavrov directly: “We all know who the aggressor in this war is.” Australia’s Penny Wong condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as brutal and unjustified. Ukraine was not invited.

Rubio opened the talks with an appeal for unity, saying the world faced “a series of interconnected economic and geopolitical crises.”

Sources: BBC News, The Guardian

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