World Brief

World Brief, Evening: November 4, 2026

JD Vance says out loud what a lot of Republicans were thinking: “The reason we lost is the war.” Trump mostly agrees, and says he would do it again. Joshua Wong gets ten more years in Hong Kong, South Korea moves its navy closer to Hormuz, and Israel’s president starts the hunt for a government. Plus bodycam footage from the Komyshuvakha strike, a German politician found dead in Berlin, Ethiopia expels Sudanese diplomats, Bukele goads Haiti’s gangs, Paraguay’s president faces impeachment, and David Jones collapses after 188 years. Ten stories as of Wednesday evening, November 4.

1. Washington / United States. A day after Democrats took both chambers of Congress, the vice president pinned the loss on the Iran war. In a 600-word statement on X, JD Vance wrote: “The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night.” He dared anyone who disagreed to make the case: “If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so,” BBC News reports. He closed with a four-point plan: “1) End the war 2) Focus on cost of living/inflation 3) Put America First 4) Change our relationship to Israel.”

Then the surprise. Trump agreed the midterms were “largely” decided by the war, said he would “do it again,” and shrugged off his deputy’s post: “I know how he feels about it. I think it was – I think it was fine.” Meanwhile Mississippi is still a coin toss. With about 96% counted, Democrat Scott Colom led Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by just over 1,100 votes, in a state Trump won by 20 points and that hasn’t elected a Democratic senator since 1982, CBS News reports. Alaska is also uncalled.

One of the things the data analysts on our side obsessed over was "composition"—whether the electorate looked close enough to 2024 for Republicans to win. And despite polls that showed a Democrat blowout, the data kept on telling us the same story: in some states turnout was…
— JD Vance (@JDVance) November 4, 2026

2. Hong Kong / China. Joshua Wong, once the face of Hong Kong’s democracy movement, was sentenced to 10 years in jail for colluding with foreign forces under the national security law, BBC News reports. Prosecutors said he conspired with self-exiled activist Nathan Law to lobby for foreign sanctions against Beijing. Wong, 30, pleaded guilty in September. He was already serving a subversion sentence and had been due out early next year. Amnesty International said the case shows “the lengths they will go to keep them behind bars for as long as possible.”

3. Seoul / South Korea and the Arabian Sea. South Korea plans to stretch its Cheonghae anti-piracy unit from the Gulf of Aden northeast to the open waters south of Oman, roughly doubling its patrol area, Yonhap reports. It would add a P-8A patrol plane, an explosive ordnance disposal team and unmanned mine-clearing gear, taking the unit to 395 people. Officials stress it is non-combat, stays under Korean command and stays out of the Strait of Hormuz itself, though the ministry admits the mine gear is also practice for clearing the strait after the war, The Korea Times reports. It still needs Cabinet sign-off and a vote in the National Assembly.

4. Jerusalem / Israel. President Isaac Herzog accepted the certified election results and began talks with party leaders on Wednesday night. “The elections are over. Now is the time to face reality,” he said, a blow to Netanyahu’s efforts to discredit the vote, Al Jazeera reports. The Arab-led Ra’am party will recommend Gadi Eisenkot, which Ynet says brings him to 56. The Joint List’s 11 seats are still undecided, and the ultra-Orthodox Degel HaTorah says it will back neither man. Eight more parties meet Herzog on Thursday, with Likud and Eisenkot’s Yashar going last.

5. Komyshuvakha, Ukraine / Madrid, Spain. Ukraine’s police released bodycam footage from one of four officers killed in Monday’s strike on the Zaporizhzhia-region village. It shows a radio warning of more glide bombs, an officer shouting “Quickly [go] to the shelter!”, residents filing underground, and then the blast, BBC News reports. Nine glide bombs, some weighing 3,000kg, hit the village. The death toll is 40, and Zelensky says more than 30 people may still be under the rubble, Al Jazeera reports. Zelensky himself turned up unannounced in Madrid for the Ibero-American Summit, with talks planned with Pedro Sánchez, King Felipe VI, António Guterres and António Costa. “Our top priority is strengthening Ukraine’s air defences,” he wrote, Euronews reports.

6. Berlin / Germany. Hubert Aiwanger, 55, Bavaria’s deputy premier and economy minister and leader of the populist Free Voters, was found dead in his hotel room in Berlin-Mitte, the Guardian reports. Police and prosecutors opened an inquiry to establish the cause and “rule out any possible third-party culpability.” Bild reported he had skipped a party office opening because he felt unwell. Bavarian premier Markus Söder called it an “absolute tragedy,” DW reports.

7. Asosa, Ethiopia / Sudan. Ethiopia ordered six staff at Sudan’s consulate in the border town of Asosa to leave within 48 hours and closed the consulate, Reuters and AP report, via Al Jazeera. It comes after Sudan complained to the UN Security Council and the African Union that Ethiopia is letting the RSF launch drone attacks from its soil, which Addis Ababa denies. Sudan says it is “making every possible effort to avoid an open war with Ethiopia,” in the words of adviser Amjad Farid.

8. Port-au-Prince / Haiti. El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele is posting videos of his soldiers patrolling Haiti, with a taunt on X: “Gather your gangs so we can go fight with them,” Al Jazeera reports. He sent more than 2,000 troops after four Salvadoran aviation technicians vanished on October 18. Police have now found the burned truck they used, in Croix-des-Bouquets, but not the men. The UN says only about 200 of the Salvadoran soldiers fall under the Gang Suppression Force, though Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime insists the foreign forces answer to Haitian authority.

9. Asunción / Paraguay. Thirty-five deputies filed impeachment charges against President Santiago Peña and Vice President Pedro Alliana over the collapse of ueno bank, and the lower house called an extraordinary session for Thursday morning, ABC Color reports. Approval needs two-thirds of the deputies present, and then the Senate would hold the trial. The fallout has also hit the central bank’s board, UPI reports.

10. Sydney / Australia. David Jones, Australia’s oldest department store, has gone into voluntary administration after 188 years, BBC News reports. It employs about 6,000 people across 38 stores. McGrathNicol are the administrators and FTI Consulting were installed as receivers, hours after Westfield owner Scentre said October’s rent hadn’t been paid. Store closures are expected, most likely in outer suburbs and regional malls, the Guardian reports.

Coming Up

Nov 5: The Ibero-American Summit wraps up in Madrid, Melania Trump hosts Russian and Ukrainian representatives at the White House, Herzog’s consultations continue, and Paraguay’s lower house takes up impeachment. Nov 6: Pope Leo XIV begins his Uruguay–Argentina–Peru trip (through Nov 17). Nov 7: New Zealand votes. Nov 8: South Africa’s local election results expected. Nov 9: COP31 opens in Antalya, and Exercise Koalicja starts in Poland (through Nov 22). Nov 10–11: Ukraine–US–Russia talks resume in Abu Dhabi, Israel’s new Knesset is sworn in, and Herzog’s deadline to choose someone to form a government. The Youth Olympic Games run in Dakar through Nov 13. The full board is on The Watch.

Sources: BBC (Vance and Trump; Hong Kong; Ukraine; David Jones), CBS News (Mississippi), Yonhap and The Korea Times (South Korea), Al Jazeera (Israel; Ukraine; Ethiopia–Sudan; Haiti), Euronews (Madrid), the Guardian (Aiwanger; David Jones), DW (Aiwanger), ABC Color and UPI (Paraguay), Reuters and AP (Ethiopia–Sudan).

World Brief: November 4, 2026

Democrats take both chambers of Congress, and Trump says they did “a good job” before reaching for the veto pen. Tehran says Americans voted “no to war” while its supreme leader says nothing changes. Herzog gets Israel’s certified results and starts looking for a government. Zelensky says 40 are dead in Komyshuvakha as Melania Trump prepares to host Russians and Ukrainians at the White House. Plus hackers turn up the heat on French blood stores, South Africa votes, troops pour into Jakarta, North Korea fires again, Washington talks troop terms with Caracas and a “wine bottle” in Port Moresby. Ten stories as of Wednesday morning, November 4.

1. Washington / United States. Democrats took control of both the Senate and the House in Tuesday’s midterms, BBC News reported. History got made in a few places: James Talarico won a Senate seat and Gina Hinojosa beat Greg Abbott for governor in Texas, Adam Hamilton gave Kansas its first Democratic senator in nearly a century, and Abdul El-Sayed became the first Muslim elected to the Senate, in Michigan. Susan Collins conceded in Maine after 30 years, calling it the “honour of my life.” Hakeem Jeffries, poised to become the first Black Speaker, told supporters: “Today begins the great American comeback.”

Trump struck a mixed tone. “The Democrats did a good job. They fought hard,” he said, but warned they would send “insane” legislation he would veto, and posted a red cap reading “VETO,” BBC News reported. Asked for the takeaway, he said: “I think a part of it was Iran.” He also blamed Abbott for becoming a “RINO.” Wall Street liked the result: the Dow opened up 1.8%, the S&P 500 up 1.1% and the Nasdaq up 1%, Al Jazeera reported.

2. Tehran / Iran; Strait of Hormuz. “Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message,” Iran’s parliament speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf posted, adding that if Washington ignores its voters “it will learn our NO comes with a Nightmare,” Al Jazeera reported. Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, marking the anniversary of the 1979 US embassy seizure, said anyone hoping US policy will shift through “partisan or factional shifts” is “seriously mistaken.” The Revolutionary Guards claimed four tankers caught fire after hitting mines in the Strait of Hormuz; BBC Verify found no evidence of that. Separately, UKMTO said a tanker was hit by two unknown projectiles about 14 nautical miles north-east of Limah, Oman, with no casualties. Trump told CBS the war ends “when I say it ends,” and told the FT the US is “locked and loaded if we need to go,” BBC News reported.

3. Jerusalem / Israel. President Isaac Herzog received the certified results of the October 27 election from Central Elections Committee chair Justice Noam Sohlberg on Wednesday morning and begins consultations with parties Wednesday evening, BBC News reported. Officials said there was no evidence of irregularities, rejecting claims from Netanyahu’s camp. The final count: Netanyahu’s bloc 53 seats, Gadi Eisenkot’s bloc 48, and Arab-led lists a record 19, so nobody has 61. Herzog warned that to avoid another election, “not every commitment and promise can be fulfilled.” Whoever he picks gets 28 days, plus a possible 14-day extension.

4. Komyshuvakha, Zaporizhzhia / Ukraine; Washington. Rescuers are into a third day at a school in Komyshuvakha that Russia hit with nine aerial bombs on Monday, striking people collecting humanitarian aid and then the first responders, Zelensky said. Forty people are confirmed dead and more than 30 may still be under the rubble. Overnight, Russian attacks hit power stations in Kyiv and Zhytomyr, while the European Commission hosted talks in Brussels with the US, France, Germany, Britain, NATO and the World Bank on getting Ukraine through the winter, The Guardian reported.

Search and rescue operations have now been underway for three days at the site of the Russian strike on a school in the settlement of Komyshuvakha in the Zaporizhzhia region. The Russians used nine aerial bombs. They first struck people who had come to receive humanitarian aid,… pic.twitter.com/KaFinOorVy
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) November 4, 2026

On the diplomatic side, Zelensky awarded Melania Trump the Order of Princess Olga, 1st Class, for her role in the Oleshky ceasefire, and on Thursday she hosts Russian and Ukrainian delegations at the White House: ombudsmen Dmytro Lubinets and Yana Lantratova, Ukrainian MP Davyd Arakhamia and Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev, BBC News reported. The White House says she speaks at 11am ET.

5. France / Europe. Hackers got into control systems at three cold stores holding French blood products overnight Monday and pushed temperature and defrost settings to “very high levels,” the national blood service EFS said. Alarms let technicians step in before anything spoiled, and plasma bags were moved elsewhere, The Guardian reported. It follows attacks that sent supermarket fridges and freezers in almost a dozen European countries as high as 50C. An EU spokesperson said “these are not isolated incidents” and that agencies are working on a collective response. Nobody has claimed responsibility.

6. Johannesburg / South Africa. South Africans voted in local elections on Wednesday, with more than 29 million registered, DW reported. Polls close at 9pm local time and results are expected Sunday. The ANC is still likely to be the biggest party, but polls had it under a third of the vote, down from 45.6% in 2021, amid anger over water outages and power cuts, The Guardian reported. Johannesburg is the one to watch: the DA’s Helen Zille could top the vote in a city that has had 10 mayors in 10 years.

7. Jakarta / Indonesia. Indonesia’s military deployed more than 20,000 troops and personnel to the capital after authorities opened an investigation into alleged wiretapping of President Prabowo Subianto, DW reported. Three senior police generals have been detained, accused of tapping the phones of the president, journalists, politicians and business people. Among them is Listyo Sigit Prabowo (no relation), the former national police chief who became the president’s chief of staff last month. The palace says the alleged operation is “tending towards treason.”

8. Sondok / North Korea. North Korea fired multiple missiles toward the sea off its east coast on Wednesday from the Sondok area of South Hamgyong Province, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, Yonhap reported. They flew less than 300 km, and it is Pyongyang’s fourth weapons launch in a month. The launch came hours after North Korea said it saw no need to resume diplomacy with Washington, in protest at US claims that its hackers were behind the Binance crypto heist, AP reported. Kim Yo Jong dismissed talks unless the US drops what she called its hostile policy, UPI reported. US Indo-Pacific Command said it posed no immediate threat to the US or its allies.

9. Caracas / Venezuela. The Trump administration is negotiating a status of forces agreement with Venezuela that could lay the groundwork for a long-term US military presence, US officials told The New York Times. Marco Rubio’s State Department is leading the talks. The State Department says such deals set a legal framework for things like ship visits, training, exercises and humanitarian aid, with troop numbers and locations left to later agreements. A senior official in Caracas said US bases are “way, way down the road,” Anadolu reported. It comes ten months after the US seized Nicolás Maduro on January 3.

10. Port Moresby / Papua New Guinea. China says the suspected artillery shell found in a shipping container in Papua New Guinea’s capital is in fact a “shell-shaped wine bottle,” BBC News reported. Police arrested four Chinese nationals last Friday after the 32kg object turned up at a construction site. Australia’s ABC, citing unnamed sources, identified it as an undetonated 130mm Chinese Type 59 projectile. Online, people weren’t buying it: “What sort of wine bottle weighs 32 kilograms?”

Coming up.

Nov 5: Melania Trump hosts Russian and Ukrainian representatives at the White House. Nov 6: Pope Leo XIV begins his Uruguay–Argentina–Peru trip (through Nov 17). Nov 7: New Zealand votes. Nov 8: South Africa’s local election results expected. Nov 9: COP31 opens in Antalya; Exercise Koalicja begins in Poland (through Nov 22). Nov 10–11: Ukraine–US–Russia talks resume in Abu Dhabi; Israel’s new Knesset sworn in and Herzog’s deadline to name a candidate. The Youth Olympics run in Dakar through Nov 13. The full board is on The Watch.

Sources: BBC (midterms; Trump; Iran; Israel; Melania Trump; Papua New Guinea), Al Jazeera (Iran; markets), The Guardian (Ukraine; blood service; South Africa), DW (Indonesia; South Africa), Yonhap, AP and UPI (North Korea), The New York Times and Anadolu (Venezuela), White House (Nov 5 meeting).

World Brief, Evening: November 3, 2026

Democrats take the House, and the Senate is suddenly in play after upsets in North Carolina and South Carolina. Trump says the US is “locked and loaded” on Iran but may not need to strike, and says US military aid to Israel will end. Ukraine’s death toll climbs after a glide-bomb attack on an aid centre. Plus Spain’s transport minister quits, Greenland ratifies its US security deal, Indonesian police generals are held over tapping the president’s phone, South Africa votes, Paraguay seizes a bank tied to its president, and Uber loses big in Australia’s High Court. Ten stories as of Tuesday evening, November 3.

1. Washington / United States. Democrats have won control of the House of Representatives, NBC News projects, which hands them committee gavels and subpoena power for the last two years of Trump’s term. They take over on January 3, and Hakeem Jeffries is in line to become the first Black speaker, NBC News reports.

The Senate is closer than anyone expected. Roy Cooper flipped North Carolina, beating Michael Whatley to become the state’s first Democratic senator since 2008. “Chaos and corruption in Washington were hurting our people. Today, you said, ‘This has to stop,’” he told supporters, BBC News reports. Then pediatrician Annie Andrews beat Republican Sen. Darline Graham in South Carolina, which hadn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1998, CBS News projects. Jon Ossoff held Georgia and Chris Pappas won New Hampshire. Democrats need a net four seats, and CBS has Texas and Kansas leaning their way, with nothing final yet. In the governor races, Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman elected governor in US history, in Georgia, beating Rick Jackson, who spent more than $200m of his own money, Al Jazeera reports. Republican Byron Donalds will be Florida’s first Black governor after beating David Jolly, the Guardian reports.

2. Tehran / Iran; Strait of Hormuz. Trump told the Financial Times on Tuesday that the US has no immediate plan to strike Iran. “We seem to be getting everything we want,” he said. Asked about hints from Netanyahu that an attack could be coming, he said: “I’m ready, we’re ready. We’re locked and loaded if we need to go, but there may be no reason for it.” Tehran answered that a “maximum deterrence” plan is ready for any new US attack and promised an immediate response. Its military is updating target lists to include US and Israeli assets across a wider area, Al Jazeera reports. At sea, UKMTO said a tanker was hit in the engine room by two unknown projectiles near the strait, with no casualties reported. The Revolutionary Guards said three tankers exploded after hitting mines while crossing “without permission.”

3. Jerusalem / Israel. Trump says the US will stop its roughly $4bn a year in military aid to Israel by the end of this year. “Bibi Netanyahu and I have made a deal that we give Israel $4 billion a year, and we made a deal months ago that we’re stopping,” he told Fox & Friends. He added that Israel can still buy US weapons “whenever they want,” DW reports. The current $3.8bn-a-year agreement was meant to run to September 2028. Trump said part of the point was to blunt Democrats like Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed: “Why should we suffer the slings from lunatics like an El-Sayed when they don’t need it?” Netanyahu’s rival Gadi Eisenkot said the fact that Israel’s defence establishment learned of the change from the media “shows just how dangerous Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct is.”

4. Zaporizhzhia region / Ukraine. Russian strikes have killed at least 38 civilians in 24 hours, BBC News reports. At least 33 died when nine 3,000kg glide bombs hit a school being used as an aid centre in the village of Komyshuvakha, and more than 50 people may still be under the rubble. Zelensky called it “one of the largest mass killings committed by Russia during this war.” Russia says it hit Ukrainian troops, but the UN monitoring mission said the aid handout had been widely publicised and the attack “seems to have violated the most fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.” In Dnipro, a missile wrecked a hospice and nearly 50 terminally ill patients had to be moved. In Kharkiv, 73 people were hurt when a hospital was hit. Talks are still set to resume in Abu Dhabi on November 10–11, and Melania Trump is due to host Russian and Ukrainian representatives at the White House on Thursday.

5. Madrid / Spain. Transport Minister Óscar Puente resigned on Tuesday, six days after the high-speed train crash near Urda that killed at least 69 people. “A transport minister in a country like Spain cannot remain in office after two accidents of this seriousness in less than a year,” he told Congress, pointing back to January’s crash on the same line, which killed 46, BBC News reports. He’s also taking his name off the lists for the November 29 snap election. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said he went “out of dignity. Of his own accord. Out of respect for the victims.”

6. Nuuk / Greenland. Greenland’s parliament ratified the security agreement with the US and Denmark. It allows two new US military bases and Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile-defence system, keeps Greenland under Danish control and reaffirms Greenlanders’ right to self-determination, DW reports. “We must accept that peace and stability are no longer something we can take for granted,” Foreign Minister Mute Egede said. Pele Broberg of the pro-independence Naleraq party said “no economic benefit has been gained.” Denmark’s parliament votes on November 19.

7. Jakarta / Indonesia. Police have detained three senior police generals on suspicion of illegally tapping the phones of President Prabowo Subianto and dozens of others between 2025 and 2026, ABC News reports. One of them is General Listyo Sigit Prabowo, a former national police chief whom the president appointed his chief of staff in last month’s reshuffle. Police say the targets included “state officials, political figures, media figures, community leaders, NGO activists and businesspeople.” No motive has been given, and the investigation is ongoing.

8. Johannesburg / South Africa. South Africans vote in local elections on Wednesday for control of nearly 300 municipalities, including the biggest cities. More than 500 parties are running, and the ANC is trying to show it can turn around a long slide. It got 70% of the national vote in 2004 and about 40% two decades later, BBC News reports. “On the 4th we will show those naysayers,” President Cyril Ramaphosa told his final rally. Water is a big issue: parts of Johannesburg have had cuts and rationing for weeks, and a water treatment failure in Tshwane recently made more than 400 residents sick, DW reports.

9. Asunción / Paraguay. Paraguay’s central bank seized the digital lender ueno after its solvency ratio fell below half the legal minimum, leaving millions of customers locked out of their accounts, AP reports. President Santiago Peña was a business partner of the group that owned the bank until March 2025. On Tuesday he asked central bank chief Carlos Carvallo, who ran ueno until 2023, to resign, and prosecutors ordered the arrest of eight people linked to the bank, Reuters reports. Peña posted on X, in Spanish, that “those responsible must answer to the courts, without exceptions and without privileges.” Deposits are insured up to about 228 million guaraníes per person.

Ante los hechos de público conocimiento registrados en el transcurso del día, he pedido la renuncia del presidente del Banco Central del Paraguay.

Además, acordamos con los presidentes de ambas cámaras del congreso el tratamiento de un proyecto de ley que autoriza el uso del…
— Santiago Peña (@SantiPenap) November 3, 2026

10. Canberra / Australia. In a six-to-one ruling, Australia’s High Court found that Uber owes A$81m in New South Wales payroll tax for 2015 to 2020, holding that its drivers are employees for payroll-tax purposes and their fares are wages, ABC News reports. That ends Uber’s legal options, and later years could push the bill well past A$100m, the Guardian reports. “Local businesses pay their fair share. Uber should pay their fair share too,” NSW Finance Minister Courtney Houssos said.

Coming Up

Nov 4: South Africa’s local elections, Israel’s certified results, and the Commonwealth summit closes in Antigua. Nov 6: Pope Leo XIV begins his Uruguay–Argentina–Peru trip. Nov 7: New Zealand votes. Nov 9: COP31 opens in Antalya, and Exercise Koalicja starts in Poland (through Nov 22). Nov 10–11: Ukraine–US–Russia talks resume in Abu Dhabi, Israel’s new Knesset is sworn in, and Herzog’s deadline to choose someone to form a government. The Youth Olympic Games run in Dakar through Nov 13. The full board is on The Watch.

Sources: NBC News (House), BBC (midterms; Ukraine; Spain; South Africa), CBS News (Senate), Al Jazeera (Iran; Georgia), the Guardian (midterms; Uber), DW (Israel aid; Greenland; South Africa), AP (Paraguay), ABC News (Indonesia; Uber), Reuters (Paraguay), Financial Times (Iran interview).

World Brief: November 3, 2026

America votes, with a Supreme Court order on California ballots already in the books. The US hits Iran’s Qeshm Island on the eve of the vote, and Tehran says the ball is in Washington’s court. Trump says US aid to Israel ends this year as Israel’s opposition lines up behind Eisenkot. Russia throws 365 drones and missiles at Ukraine’s power grid and hits a Kharkiv hospital, while Zelensky says three-way talks resume next week. Plus Europe’s week of freezer hacks, flight bomb threats and a Polish border scare, the King on slavery in Antigua, South Africa and Rwanda cut from AGOA, Rubio presses Venezuela on prisoners, North Korea denies the Binance heist and Australia’s teen social media ban goes to the High Court. Ten stories as of Tuesday morning, November 3.

1. Washington / United States. Polls are open in the US midterms, with all 435 House seats, 35 Senate seats and 36 governorships on the ballot and more than 57 million early ballots already cast, Al Jazeera reported. Republicans hold the Senate 53–47 and a narrow four-seat House majority. Early hiccups were local: scanners malfunctioned in Westchester County, New York, where Attorney General Letitia James said her office is monitoring. On the eve of the vote the Supreme Court, in a one-line order, refused a Justice Department request to set aside 20,000 California ballots. California has about 23 million registered voters and had received more than six million mail ballots, BBC News reported. The AP has the running Election Day picture.

2. Qeshm Island / Iran; Doha / Qatar. The US struck Iran’s Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, US officials told CBS, describing the strikes as limited and defensive after the Revolutionary Guards fired on a US aircraft, BBC News reported. Iranian state news agency Irna reported explosions on the island, and the IRGC said it shot down two US MQM-170 drones and an MQ-9. Trump said he is in “no rush” to ramp up strikes, though he floated going after the Pickaxe Mountain nuclear site. AP cited regional officials as saying Netanyahu pushed for a new wave of strikes after the midterms. On Tuesday parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator, said: “The ball is now in America’s court to prevent war.” In Doha, Qatar’s Majed al-Ansari said both sides are “reviewing the ideas and proposals we have presented.”

3. Washington / United States; Herzliya / Israel. Trump told Fox News the US will stop paying Israel at the end of the year under a deal struck with Netanyahu “months ago.” “We’ve already agreed that by the end of this year we won’t be paying Israel,” he said. “Now we’ll help Israel if they need it.” It is not clear which money he meant: the current memorandum of understanding, worth $3.8bn a year in military aid, runs to the end of 2028, and Congress appropriates the funds. The Israeli prime minister’s office had not commented, BBC News reported. In Israel, the five opposition party leaders met in Herzliya and agreed to recommend former army chief Gadi Eisenkot as prime minister, promising a “national emergency government,” a day before President Isaac Herzog starts consultations, Al Jazeera reported. They are still split over working with Arab-led parties, which hold 19 seats.

4. Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia / Ukraine; Berlin / Germany. Russia launched 289 drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles overnight at energy sites in nine regions. A strike on a Kharkiv hospital injured 73 people and damaged the cardiology ward, 17 were hurt in Dnipro and DTEK lost three of its five thermal plants, Al Jazeera reported. “It is very telling that all of this is happening on the day of the US congressional elections,” Zelensky said. The death toll from Russia’s attack on an aid distribution centre in Komyshuvakha, Zaporizhzhia region, has risen to at least 31, with three days of mourning declared, BBC News reported. In Berlin, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said of a Russian readiness for a ceasefire, “I have not seen any sign of this so far,” DW reported. Zelensky then said the Ukraine–US–Russia talks resume at team level on November 10–11.

We expect the trilateral meeting format – Ukraine, the United States, and Russia – to resume soon, on November 10–11. This will be a format at the team level, and we count on the work in this format and our other diplomatic steps to pave the way for a trilateral format at the… pic.twitter.com/70MareCF3b
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) November 3, 2026

5. Brussels / European Union; Warsaw / Poland. The cyber-attacks on supermarket freezers have now spread to at least 10 countries, among them Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Germany and Sweden, and the European Commission is treating them as a deliberate attempt to disrupt the food supply. “These are not isolated incidents,” spokesman Thomas Regnier said, BBC News reported. Separately, bomb threats hit seven flights to Rome, Murcia, Warsaw and Sofia. A Heathrow flight bound for Warsaw was diverted to Modlin, a Dublin–Rome Ryanair flight got an Italian air force escort, and no explosives were found, BBC News reported. Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said a provocation on the Kaliningrad border was prevented overnight after allied warnings, AP reported.

6. St John’s / Antigua and Barbuda. Opening the Commonwealth summit, King Charles told the leaders of 56 countries that the transatlantic slave trade is a “shameful chapter of history” that fills him “with the most profound personal sorrow,” but he stopped short of an apology. “We cannot change the actions of those who came before us,” he said. “We can, however, learn from the past.” UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham says he is open to an apology, and officials are discussing with leaders what form it could take. He also announced £40m for Caribbean infrastructure over three years, France 24 reported.

7. Pretoria / South Africa; Kigali / Rwanda. The US will drop South Africa and Rwanda from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade programme from January 1, 2027, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said. South Africa’s Trade Minister Parks Tau called it “unfortunate,” BBC News reported. South African exports under AGOA fell to $1.7bn in 2025 from $4bn, and total two-way trade is about $28.8bn, AP also reported. The news lands a day before South Africans vote in local elections.

8. Caracas / Venezuela. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Oliver Blanco and pressed for the release of the remaining political prisoners, BBC News reported. Rights group Foro Penal counts 322 still held, though more than 1,000 have been freed since Nicolás Maduro was seized on January 3. Delcy Rodríguez is interim president, and opposition leader María Corina Machado returned to the country on October 25.

9. Pyongyang / North Korea. Kim Yo Jong denied North Korea was behind the $6.3bn Binance hack, which the FBI blames on the North Korean group TraderTraitor, BBC News reported. Binance said on Tuesday the attack began with a bogus job interview: a software engineer downloaded a “malicious code repository” as a coding assignment, and the attackers then used an internal AI tool to reach the wallet team’s systems before draining the funds on October 29, Reuters (via NBC News) reported. “This should not have happened,” the exchange said. It says it is repaying all affected customers.

10. Canberra / Australia. Australia’s ban on social media for under-16s faced its big test in the High Court, where the Digital Freedom Project, led by New South Wales MP John Ruddick, and the online forum company Reddit argued it is unconstitutional, BBC News reported. Reddit’s lawyer Perry Herzfeld called the law “ill thought out” and said it breaches the implied freedom of political expression. Communications Minister Anika Wells said the government was there to defend a child’s right “to be free from harm.” Government lawyer Joanna Davidson SC continues on Wednesday. The ban covers ten platforms, with fines of up to A$99m.

Coming up.

Nov 4: South Africa’s local elections; Israel’s certified results due and Herzog begins consultations; the Commonwealth summit closes in Antigua. Nov 6: Pope Leo XIV begins his Uruguay–Argentina–Peru trip. Nov 7: New Zealand votes. Nov 9: COP31 opens in Antalya; Exercise Koalicja begins in Poland (through Nov 22). Nov 10–11: Ukraine–US–Russia talks resume in Abu Dhabi; Israel’s new Knesset sworn in and Herzog’s deadline to name a candidate. The Youth Olympics run in Dakar through Nov 13. The full board is on The Watch.

Sources: BBC (Iran; Israel aid; Ukraine; cyber-attacks; flights; AGOA; Venezuela; Binance; Australia; California ballots), Al Jazeera (midterms; Israel; Ukraine), AP (Poland; AGOA; midterms), DW (Berlin), France 24 (Commonwealth), Reuters via NBC News (Binance).

World Brief, Evening: November 2, 2026

Explosions on Iran’s Qeshm Island as US officials talk about “defensive” strikes in Hormuz, on the same day Trump says a deal “could happen.” Russian bombs kill 26 people at an aid centre in Zaporizhzhia, and peace talks are set to restart in Abu Dhabi. The Supreme Court turns Trump down on California ballots the night before the midterms. Plus investigators on the Florida jet, the Commonwealth summit opening in Antigua, South Africa and Rwanda losing US trade perks, Ebola in Congo, Rubio’s plan for Venezuela, North Korea on the Binance heist, and Australia’s social media ban in court. Ten stories as of Monday evening, November 2.

1. Strait of Hormuz; Qeshm Island / Iran. Several explosions went off in rapid succession on Qeshm Island late Monday, Iran’s state news agency IRNA said, with witnesses reporting two planes overhead. Fars said blasts were also heard in the port city of Bandar Lengeh. US officials told the Wall Street Journal and AP the US military carried out “defensive strikes” to limit Iran’s ability to attack shipping, targeting “Iranians using surface-to-air missiles against U.S. assets,” Al Jazeera reports. Earlier Monday the Revolutionary Guards said they had captured two US reconnaissance drones south of Qeshm and destroyed an MQ-9. There was no immediate comment from Tehran or Washington.

It all landed on a day of deal talk. “Iran wants a settlement, as soon as possible. It could happen!” Trump posted, and later at the Lincoln Memorial: “It looks like that’s coming together very nicely.” Asked if he was thinking about striking Iran after Tuesday’s midterms, he said “no.” JD Vance said “we’ve certainly made some progress” and that no deadline had been set, Al Jazeera reports. Iran says its seven-step plan to reopen the strait can now be done in two days rather than a week if the US lifts its naval blockade and meets its other conditions. “The ball is in the US court,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said.

2. Zaporizhzhia region / Ukraine. At least 26 people were killed when at least nine 3,000kg Russian aerial bombs hit the village of Komyshuvakha on Monday, the BBC reports. Zelensky says the first strike hit a school “used for humanitarian needs” and a second hit where people were sheltering. The dead include two rescuers and four police officers, and people are still under the rubble. Russian drones forced rescuers to stop several times. Zelensky: “This is yet another proof that Russia does not want any de-escalation.” Tuesday is a day of mourning across the region. The Russian military hasn’t commented.

Meanwhile, US envoy Steve Witkoff says Ukraine, Russia and the US will resume peace talks in Abu Dhabi next week, the first since February, with no big breakthrough expected. And Britain and France will lead about 2,800 troops from 12 European nations in Exercise Koalicja in Poland, November 9–22, a rehearsal for deploying a reassurance force to Ukraine if there’s a peace deal, the BBC reports. “This is not a hypothetical plan, it’s a real force,” UK Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said.

3. Washington / United States. On the eve of the midterms, the Supreme Court turned down the Trump administration’s emergency bid to make California set aside about 20,000 ballots from people the Justice Department says aren’t citizens, with no noted dissents, The Guardian reports. Lower courts had already sided with the state. The department never shared how it built its list. “The highest court in the land firmly slapped down the Trump DoJ’s baseless attack on California’s electoral process,” Governor Gavin Newsom said.

Polls open Tuesday on what’s set to be the most expensive midterms ever, with Open Secrets projecting nearly $12bn in total spending, about 30% more than 2022, the BBC reports. Elon Musk is the biggest individual donor, at almost half a billion dollars for Republicans, most of it in the Texas Senate race. Trump made his closing pitch Monday at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

4. Palm Beach County, Florida / United States. The NTSB says it will look at whether parts of the Learjet 60 broke off before it nose-dived onto Military Trail on Sunday, killing all nine aboard, the BBC reports. Debris was found across sports fields, businesses and homes. The crew had reported ice and moderate turbulence and asked to climb to 37,000 feet. Less than 30 seconds later the jet began to descend and the crew called mayday: “we are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000ft per minute.”

The NTSB says ice and turbulence were factors but the probable cause will take a “lengthy investigatory process.” Families named the passengers as tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife Helen Sharp, their children Emma and Charlie, Rachael Reed, Charmi Fehr and Anita Maria Cetina. One man on the ground hurt his leg. Investigators are still trying to find out if a cockpit voice recorder was aboard.

5. St John’s / Antigua and Barbuda. Leaders from 56 countries are in Antigua for the Commonwealth summit, and Prime Minister Andy Burnham is coming with a “debt reset” plan for member countries buried in interest costs, plus talks on a formal UK apology for the slave trade, likely next year when Britain holds the G20 presidency, the BBC reports. “By sticking our heads in the sand, we have damaged the ability of the Commonwealth to function,” Burnham wrote.

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband says a formal apology is something “the British government are open to,” but that Britain won’t pay financial reparations. Kemi Badenoch says an apology would be “a lever to wedge open the door to ask for cash.” King Charles addresses the leaders Tuesday.

6. Pretoria / South Africa; Kigali / Rwanda. Trump has told Congress he’ll pull South Africa and Rwanda out of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, the duty-free trade programme, from January 1, 2027, the BBC reports. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said both were “engaging in practices that are inconsistent” with the rules, citing trade barriers and security concerns, plus corruption for South Africa and human rights and the rule of law for Rwanda. Rwanda’s defence ministry was sanctioned barely a week ago over its alleged backing of M23 rebels in eastern DR Congo.

South Africa sent about $1.7bn of goods to the US under AGOA in 2025, mostly cars, parts, farm products and wine, Al Jazeera reports. Trade Minister Parks Tau called it “unfortunate” and said the country would speed up finding other markets.

7. Democratic Republic of Congo. The Ebola outbreak has now killed 5,376 people, 5,372 of them in DR Congo and two each in Kenya and Uganda, Africa CDC data show, according to Al Jazeera. About 10,444 people have been infected with the Bundibugyo strain, which kills more than half of those it infects. There’s no approved vaccine or treatment for it. Trials of Ervebo, which works against the more common Zaire strain, have started. This is Congo’s 17th and largest outbreak, declared in mid-May. Two suspected cases in northeast Nigeria tested negative.

8. Caracas / Venezuela. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Venezuelan Foreign Minister Oliver Blanco on Monday and reaffirmed Trump’s “three-phase plan for Venezuela: stabilization, economic recovery and political reconciliation, and democratic transition,” the State Department said, according to Al Jazeera. Opposition leader María Corina Machado, back home since last week, says Rubio’s sequence points to presidential elections in 2027. Interim President Delcy Rodríguez has promised elections “with the world as witness” but hasn’t named a date. Machado also said the US oil deal “does not reflect the levels of transparency that Venezuelan society wants.”

9. Pyongyang / North Korea. Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un’s sister, called the FBI’s claim that North Korea stole $6.3bn from the crypto exchange Binance “absurd rhetoric and nothing new,” and warned there were “issues to reconsider” over US hostility, ABC News reports. The FBI blames a state-backed unit called TraderTraitor for what’s thought to be the largest financial heist ever. Binance customers pulled out $4.64bn once it lifted a temporary freeze on withdrawals.

10. Canberra / Australia. The High Court starts two days of hearings Tuesday on challenges to Australia’s under-16 social media ban, one from the Digital Freedom Project and one from Reddit, the BBC reports. The rights group says the ban takes away children’s right to free communication. Reddit says it’s complying in the meantime but “there are better and more effective ways.” Ten platforms are covered, with fines up to A$99m, though nobody’s been fined yet. “We will not be intimidated by big tech,” Communications Minister Anika Wells said last year.

Coming Up

Nov 3: U.S. midterms, and King Charles addresses the Commonwealth summit in Antigua (through Nov 4). Nov 3–4: Australia’s High Court hears the social media ban challenge. Nov 4: Israel’s certified results due. Nov 6: Pope Leo XIV begins his Uruguay–Argentina–Peru trip. Nov 7: New Zealand votes. Nov 9: COP31 opens in Antalya, and Exercise Koalicja starts in Poland (through Nov 22). Nov 10–11: Israel’s new Knesset is sworn in, then Herzog’s deadline to pick someone to form a government. The Youth Olympic Games run in Dakar through Nov 13. The full board is on The Watch.

World Brief: November 2, 2026

Iran’s negotiators leave Doha with a draft US deal in circulation and no handshake, while Yemen’s Houthis push to within 80 km of Aden. Shop freezers in seven European countries go warm in a cyber-attack. The Oleshky truce is over and Russian drones are back over Kherson. Plus Israel’s Arab parties line up behind Eisenkot, the last day before the US midterms, Antigua’s prime minister says he is a republican, Belgium’s government offers to quit, Uganda starts bringing its troops home from Somalia, a truck bomb in Colombia’s Tolima and Australia’s fifth rate hike in waiting. Ten stories as of Monday morning, November 2.

1. Doha / Qatar; Tehran / Iran; Aden / Yemen. Iran’s delegation, led by Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, left Doha on Sunday after three days of Qatari-mediated talks, and an official told Reuters the exit was not over difficulties: a draft proposal for a US deal is being circulated and a follow-up meeting is possible. Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said “the issue is complex.” The basis is still Iran’s seven-step September plan, now squeezed into two days, and Tehran’s line is that no final deal can start and the Strait of Hormuz cannot reopen “unless the US naval blockade is brought to an end.” It also says no to shipping out its highly enriched uranium. President Pezeshkian says Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has handed the government “certain authorities” over the talks, oil fell nearly 4% on Monday, and President Trump says there will be no new attacks before Tuesday’s vote (AP). China’s Wang Yi met Iranian and Saudi officials to push dialogue (Reuters).

In Yemen, the Houthis have advanced to within 80 km of Aden, their closest since 2015, four military sources told Reuters. Fighting is at a camp at the entrance to Tur al-Bahah in Lahij, after the group took Al-Maqatirah district in three days, and the push threatens the Aden–Taiz road. Taiz has been encircled since early October and more than 100,000 people have been displaced; the Houthis hit Aden airport on Wednesday. Government forces say they repelled attacks on the Tur al-Baha front (Al Jazeera).

2. Brussels / Belgium; Stockholm / Sweden; Dublin / Ireland. Dozens of supermarkets in seven countries, Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland, had their freezers switched into defrost mode in what the refrigeration firm calls a cyber-attack, the BBC reports. About 40 Delhaize stores in Belgium and Luxembourg were hit, along with 15 Carrefours in Belgium, an Ikea in Mons, seven of Coop Sweden’s 800 shops and 13 SuperValu stores in Ireland. Some units reached 50C. Stephan Moelans, CEO of Sabcobel, which runs Delhaize’s systems, told Belga his team had been “working all night and morning to disconnect the affected units from the network.” It looks like the same method used on hundreds of French supermarkets last month. One Delhaize in Hoeilaart lost €100,000 of stock. Nobody has said who did it, and US officials are still looking into refrigeration failures at American military bases in August.

3. Kherson / Ukraine; Kyiv; Ankara / Türkiye. The Oleshky truce, the longest pause of the full-scale war, ended late Sunday after Moscow turned down an extension. By 8 a.m. Monday a Russian drone had hit a car in Kherson’s Korabelny district, wounding a 62-year-old woman and a 73-year-old man, and one person was killed in Izium (Euronews). Ukraine’s General Staff says Russia used the pause to reinforce, rotate troops and bring up ammunition; Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called regrouping “standard practice.” Zelensky told Fox News Ukraine would stop hitting Russian refineries for a month if the US supplies Patriot interceptors for a month: “We will find money; it’s not just aid.” Washington approved a $2.1 billion sale of 500 PAC-3s on Friday, but he says deliveries may be years off (RFE/RL). He also told CNN Türk he is ready to meet Putin in Türkiye. This comes a day after hackers pushed fake nuclear alerts through both countries’ air-raid apps (BBC). US-mediated talks are due to resume this month.

4. Jerusalem / Israel. Israel’s two Arab-led parties say they will back Gadi Eisenkot to unseat Benjamin Netanyahu, without joining a government. The Joint List (11 seats) under Yousef Jabareen would keep a minority government alive from outside, and Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am (8) has signalled it is ready to go further and wants the internal security portfolio, Al Jazeera reports. The count stands at 53 for Netanyahu’s bloc, 48 for Eisenkot’s and a record 19 for the Arab parties, with 61 needed. Jabareen told the Guardian it has been “an awful four years” and that Arab turnout more than doubled to about 80%. Eisenkot’s conditions for Arab partners include recognising Israel as a Jewish state and denouncing Hamas. Results are certified Wednesday, after which President Herzog consults the parties. Dozens protested outside Eisenkot’s home.

5. Washington / United States; Michigan. It is the last day before Tuesday’s midterms. President Trump wrapped up a 28-stop rally run in Salina, Kansas, on Sunday and gives his closing speech Monday at 2 p.m. EST at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the site of a troubled renovation (AP). In Michigan, Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens defended endorsing Republican Mike Rogers for the open Senate seat over her party’s nominee Abdul El-Sayed: “I changed my mind,” she told CNN, saying she is “rock solid” on it. Fellow Michigan Democrat Debbie Dingell called the interview “painful,” Chuck Schumer called the switch a “despicable betrayal,” and state party chair Curtis Hertel says Stevens is “not a current member of the Michigan Democratic Party, nor will she be in the future,” the BBC reports.

6. St John’s / Antigua and Barbuda. After a Sunday church service with King Charles and Queen Camilla, Prime Minister Gaston Browne told ITV News, “I am a republican,” and said he would like Antigua and Barbuda to become a republic, though that is the people’s call under the constitution, the Independent reports. He also pressed Prime Minister Andy Burnham to go beyond an apology and pay reparations for slavery, suggesting the money could come from Britain’s overseas development budget: “If there’s no compensation, there’s likely to be a repeat of those atrocities sometime in the future.” Reparations are not on the formal Commonwealth summit agenda, and former St Vincent leader Ralph Gonsalves told the Guardian Britain was “vehement” that they stay off it; the Foreign Office calls that “completely untrue.” The King addresses leaders Tuesday.

7. Brussels / Belgium. Prime Minister Bart De Wever offered his government’s resignation to King Philippe on Monday after overnight talks in his five-party “Arizona” coalition failed to agree a budget that closes a gap of about €10 billion, the AP reports. The king has not accepted it yet. He will consult party leaders from Tuesday and see De Wever again on Friday. Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot said there were “too many sticking points.” Belgium ran a deficit of 5.2% of GDP last year (Politico Europe).

8. Kampala / Uganda; Mogadishu / Somalia. Uganda has started pulling its troops out of Somalia after nearly 20 years fighting al-Shabab. Acting army spokesman Chris Magezi says the first soldiers deployed under a bilateral deal are home, with more within days, and all Ugandan forces, including those in the African Union mission, will be out by the end of 2027, the BBC reports. A first group of 109 left Mogadishu on Friday. “After 20 years of a lot of blood and sacrifice, we are handing over security to our Somali brothers,” army chief Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba wrote. Uganda has about 4,500 troops with the AU force and about 2,000 more under the bilateral deal, and the AU mission’s funding is uncertain. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud had asked Kampala for more time.

9. Planadas / Colombia. A truck packed with explosives blew up near a military base in Planadas, in Tolima, on Sunday, killing at least four people, a two-month-old girl among them, and damaging a hospital and a pharmacy, the BBC reports. Governor Adriana Magali Matiz called it “a vile and criminal act.” Nobody has claimed it. Armed groups have stepped up attacks on the security forces since President Abelardo de la Espriella took office in August, ended peace talks and started bombing their camps, sometimes using drones to carry explosives. “We will not retreat, not even a millimetre,” he said, promising more bombings and that those responsible would be “hunted down.”

10. Sydney / Australia. The Reserve Bank is widely expected to raise rates for a fifth time on Tuesday, Melbourne Cup day, taking the cash rate to its highest since 2008, the Guardian reports. Union leaders protested outside the RBA in Sydney on Monday morning. CBA now sees growth slowing to about 1% by the middle of next year, mostly because Brent crude has gone from about US$72 in July to above US$110. NAB says unemployment may have to climb from 4.7% to as high as 5.4% to get inflation down. AMP’s Shane Oliver says home prices could fall by as much as 15%, and Sydney values are already 10% off their peak.

Coming up.

Nov 3: U.S. midterms; King Charles addresses the Commonwealth summit in Antigua (through Nov 4); Reserve Bank of Australia decision. Nov 4: Israel’s certified results due. Nov 6: Belgium’s king sees De Wever again; Pope Leo XIV begins his Uruguay–Argentina–Peru trip. Nov 7: New Zealand votes. Nov 9: COP31 opens in Antalya. Nov 10–11: Israel’s new Knesset sworn in; Herzog’s deadline to name a candidate to form a government. The Youth Olympics run in Dakar through Nov 13. The full board is on The Watch.

Sources: Reuters (Iran talks; Yemen; China), AP (Iran; Trump; Belgium), BBC (freezer cyber-attack; Michigan; Uganda; Colombia; alert apps), Al Jazeera (Israel; Yemen), The Guardian (Australia; Israel; reparations), RFE/RL (Zelensky, Patriots), Euronews (Kherson), The Independent (Antigua), Politico Europe (Belgium).

World Brief, Evening: November 1, 2026

Israel’s election chief says the result stands, whatever Netanyahu says. Iran’s Guards say two tankers blew up on mines in Hormuz while the talks in Doha go into a third day. The Kherson truce runs out, Ukraine goes back after Russian refineries, and both countries’ air-raid apps get hacked on the same night. Bulgaria picks Iliana Iotova. Plus a Democrat crossing over in Michigan two days out, a business jet falling onto a Florida road, the King’s slavery speech set for Tuesday, the end of the UN mission in Western Sahara, and a U-turn in Fiji. Ten stories as of Sunday evening, November 1.

1. Jerusalem / Israel; Gaza. The head of Israel’s Central Elections Committee, Noam Sohlberg, says Tuesday’s result will stand even if claims of foreign interference turn out to be true. “Our position is that even if the suspicions are substantiated, this would not undermine the integrity of the electoral process or the election results as a whole,” he said in a video Sunday, standing with the Shin Bet chief and the attorney general, Al Jazeera reports. Netanyahu’s Likud has said, without evidence, that Arab-led parties “stole” the vote with money from Qatar. Qatar calls it disinformation. Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot accused Netanyahu of an “orchestrated and organised campaign to delegitimise the results.”

The math hasn’t changed: Netanyahu’s bloc 53, Eisenkot’s 48, Arab-led parties a record 19, and 61 needed. Results are due to be certified this week. In Gaza, Israeli strikes killed at least eight people Sunday, including a four-year-old boy in Gaza City and five police officers in Khan Younis, hospitals and the Hamas-run interior ministry said, according to the BBC. Israel’s military says it hit what it described as military operatives.

2. Strait of Hormuz; Doha / Qatar. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards navy says two oil tankers “exploded” after hitting mines while using an “unauthorized route” through the strait, Iranian state media reported Sunday, according to Reuters. Iran has been attacking ships it says break its rules for the waterway. That comes two days after missiles hit a Qatari LNG carrier near the strait.

In Doha, indirect US–Iran talks ran into a third day, with Qatar trying to free more than $6bn in Iranian assets as the first step to reopening Hormuz. Gulf officials are “braced for the worst,” the UAE’s Anwar Gargash said, as they wait for Washington’s answer before Tuesday’s midterms, The Guardian reports. Abbas Araghchi said he hoped the US would choose “diplomacy over other paths,” while a deputy speaker of Iran’s parliament said the nuclear programme is off the table “under any circumstances.”

3. Kherson / Ukraine. The six-day truce around Oleshky ended Sunday night with no violations reported and no extension, Al Jazeera reports. Ukraine’s military said it moved 167 more people out of threatened areas of the region on Sunday. Elsewhere, Zelenskyy says Russian strikes overnight Saturday on energy in four regions left hundreds of thousands of homes without power, and a strike in the Vinnytsia region killed two people, including a 13-year-old girl, the BBC reports. He says Russia is trying to “take maximum advantage of the shortage of ballistic missile interceptors.”

Ukraine hit back. Russian state media say drones set fire to the Kstovo refinery in Nizhny Novgorod, after a strike on a Rosneft refinery in Samara, The Guardian reports. The Kremlin says Kyiv is “simply ignoring” US wishes. Ukrainian officials say they never agreed to a 30-day pause on refinery strikes. Pope Leo said he hoped the Oleshky cooperation would “strengthen their willingness to engage in dialogue.”

4. Kyiv / Ukraine; Moscow / Russia. At about 10:47 p.m. Kyiv time, Ukraine’s air-raid app started telling people there was a “radiation threat” in the capital. Then came a message in Russian: “Hi! There will be a nuclear alert across Ukraine. Don’t worry, it’s Oreshnik flying.” Chemical attack and street-fighting warnings followed. The Air Force said the app had “probably been subjected to hostile interference. There is no radiation threat!” the BBC reports. In the Lviv region, the false radiation signal played over loudspeakers.

A few hours later it was Russia’s turn. Its emergency ministry said its own alert app had been hit by “a massive cyberattack” that sent “fake information to the public.” Atesh, a Ukrainian partisan group, said on Telegram that it had hacked the app, with laughing emojis.

5. Sofia / Bulgaria. Acting President Iliana Iotova won Sunday’s runoff with about 58% of the vote in initial counts, against roughly 38% for former caretaker prime minister Andrey Gyurov, Al Jazeera reports. Gyurov conceded: “This is how the Bulgarian citizens have voted.” If official results on Monday confirm it, Iotova becomes Bulgaria’s first elected female head of state. She favours dialogue with Russia and opposes military aid to Ukraine.

Turnout was only about 27% to 29%. The vote came with 21 people still missing after drone attacks on ships off Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast last month. Those attacks are suspected spillover from the war in Ukraine. In a debate, Gyurov criticised Iotova for not explicitly blaming Russia for that war. The presidency is mostly ceremonial.

6. Detroit / United States; Alaska. Two days before the midterms, Democratic congresswoman Haley Stevens, who lost the Senate primary to Abdul El-Sayed, turned up at church with Republican Mike Rogers and endorsed him. “I don’t belong in Abdul’s campaign,” she said, the BBC reports. Chuck Schumer called it “a despicable betrayal.” At a rally in Iowa, Trump called her “very brave” and said he’d “love her to join the Republican Party.” El-Sayed: “At the end of the day, I don’t think about Haley Stevens.” Michigan is one of the tightest Senate races in the country.

In Alaska, a judge dismissed the Trump-backed Justice Department lawsuit that sought to block certification of the Senate race if Republican Dan Sullivan loses. The department says it will appeal. Sullivan told CNN, “I’m going to accept the election results,” The Guardian reports.

7. Palm Beach County, Florida / United States. A Learjet 60 flying from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas nosedived onto Military Trail near Cresthaven just before 1 p.m. Sunday, killing all nine people aboard. “We’re gonna crash … We’re out of time,” the pilot told the tower, according to air traffic audio reported by CBS and the BBC. “It’s like a missile coming down,” Governor Ron DeSantis said. Officials said they had no reports of anyone killed or hurt on the ground, but 600 residents of a nearby trailer park were evacuated, and the road will be shut for at least 30 days.

The crash site is about nine miles from Mar-a-Lago. Trump had left on Air Force One about an hour earlier. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted the basics below. The NTSB is sending a go-team and will brief reporters in West Palm Beach on Monday.

Today's plane crash in Palm Beach County, Florida is a horrific tragedy

Here's what we know:
– At 12:50 PM ET, a Learjet 60 crashed in a neighborhood near Cresthaven, FL
– All 9 people on board were killed
– The aircraft departed from Austin, Texas, and was headed to the Bahamas…
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) November 1, 2026

8. St John’s / Antigua and Barbuda. King Charles will speak about the transatlantic slave trade with “unflinching honesty” and “sincere sorrow” when he addresses Commonwealth leaders on Tuesday, Buckingham Palace said, according to the BBC. It follows Prime Minister Andy Burnham saying he is “open” to a formal UK apology, a shift in the government’s position. The Palace was told ahead of time, and the King hasn’t changed his speech because of it, the BBC understands.

Antigua’s prime minister, Gaston Browne, used his Independence Day address to say slavery’s “consequences have not disappeared with the passage of time.” Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called “endless talk about apologies” a “distraction.” The King and Queen Camilla got caught in a downpour at Sunday’s parade.

9. Western Sahara. After 35 years, the UN peacekeeping mission known as MINURSO is over. Its mandate ran out after Russia vetoed a US draft on Friday and the Security Council rejected Russia’s own text. Sunday began the “liquidation phase,” with equipment going home to troop-contributing countries, Al Jazeera reports. Secretary-General António Guterres is worried about “the risk of hostilities escalating” and urged “maximum restraint.”

Morocco’s palace called the end of the mission a “significant development.” Algeria blamed Washington’s “excessive bias” toward Morocco. The Polisario Front said it was “concerned at the deadlock.”

10. Suva / Fiji. Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has done a complete U-turn on tabling his Constitution (Amendment) Bill this week. He told parliament Monday the committee report will come “at a later sitting date,” with more time for public submissions, RNZ reports. His coalition partner, Biman Prasad of the National Federation Party, had said it would vote no: “Constitutional legitimacy cannot be sacrificed for political expediency.” Rabuka took him off the committee. Without the NFP and Sodelpa, he likely didn’t have the 36 votes he needed, and the December 9 referendum date is now stuck. Fiji’s election has to happen by February 6, 2027.

Coming Up

Nov 2: Bulgaria’s official results. Nov 3: U.S. midterms, and King Charles addresses the Commonwealth summit in Antigua (through Nov 4). Nov 4: Israel’s certified results due. Nov 6: Pope Leo XIV begins his Uruguay–Argentina–Peru trip. Nov 7: New Zealand votes. Nov 9: COP31 opens in Antalya. Nov 10–11: Israel’s new Knesset is sworn in, then Herzog’s deadline to pick someone to form a government. The Youth Olympic Games run in Dakar through Nov 13. The full board is on The Watch.

World Brief: November 1, 2026

Qatar’s mediators are still working a two-day plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while Washington and Tehran keep talking tough. Russia knocks out power in four Ukrainian regions on the last day of the Oleshky truce. Two days before the US midterms, more than 53 million Americans have already voted. Europe’s youth protests turn violent in Frankfurt. Plus Israel’s coalition clock, King Charles and the slavery speech in Antigua, a huge opposition rally in New Delhi, the Youth Olympics under way in Dakar, Bolivia’s El Niño emergency and Australia’s fastest house-price slide in 40 years. Ten stories as of Sunday morning, November 1.

1. Doha / Qatar; Tehran / Iran. After Qatari-mediated talks in Tehran on Friday and in Doha on Saturday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Iran could reopen the Strait of Hormuz within two days, down from the seven it offered before, if Washington meets its conditions, Al Jazeera reports. The list: lifting the latest US sanctions, restoring June’s oil waivers, a smaller US military presence, recognition of the new Iran–Oman shipping routes, and an end to fighting on all fronts, Lebanon included.

Both sides are hedging. “We are prepared for all scenarios,” Araghchi said. President Trump called the talks “fine” but said the US still has “one or two sites” to “take care of,” and “we can do that in 10 minutes.” The US has reportedly told Gulf allies to be ready for a short, intense round of strikes after Tuesday’s midterms. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says talks “have actually never stopped” (Al Jazeera).

2. Kyiv / Ukraine; Oleshky; Istanbul / Türkiye. Russia hit power infrastructure in the Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr and Khmelnytskyi regions overnight. President Zelensky says hundreds of thousands of households lost electricity and Moscow is trying to “maximally exploit” Ukraine’s shortage of ballistic-missile interceptors, NBC News reports. Ukraine says it hit the Kamensky plant in Russia’s Rostov region, which it says makes missiles. Nizhny Novgorod’s governor reported “significant damage” to an industrial site after drones came over.

The local ceasefire around Oleshky, brokered with First Lady Melania Trump’s help, ends Sunday evening, and nobody has announced an extension (DW). On the diplomacy side, Zelensky met President Erdoğan in Istanbul on Saturday about preparations for a three-way summit with Russia and the US. Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov says the first rounds should be just those three, and Zelensky is “welcome” to come to Moscow (Anadolu).

Overnight alone, our energy infrastructure came under Russian attack in four regions: Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, and Khmelnytskyi. Substations, transformers, and power lines that supply electricity to our people’s homes were targeted. Repair crews are working everywhere. As of… pic.twitter.com/xcsNtOmow1
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) November 1, 2026

3. Washington / United States; Alaska. Early voting is at a record. As of Sunday morning, 53.14 million Americans had voted early, about 29 million in person and 23 million by mail, according to a University of Florida count, Al Jazeera reports. That beats the roughly 46 million early votes in the 2022 midterms, and Texas alone is past 7 million. All 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats are on the ballot Tuesday.

The fights over the count go on. Trump attacked Judge Trina Thompson’s order barring the Justice Department from threatening California election officials. “Why would they reject fixing Election Fraud?” he wrote (BBC). In Alaska, Republican Senator Dan Sullivan told CNN he will accept the result of his race, but accused Democrat Mary Peltola’s side of “disdain” for Alaskans over the alleged plot to put a second Dan Sullivan on the ballot. A ruling on a Justice Department suit that could hold up certification may come as soon as Sunday (CNN).

4. Frankfurt / Germany; Paris / France; Lisbon / Portugal. Youth-led cost-of-living protests turned violent in Germany late Saturday. Rioters looted shops in central Frankfurt, and police used water cannon in Berlin, Cologne and Hamburg against people throwing fireworks, stones and bottles, the BBC reports. Organisers Gen Z regelt (“Gen Z takes charge”) are protesting school underfunding, spending cuts and compulsory military service. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt wants “harsh punishments.”

In France, about 320,000 marched by the government’s count. Paris prosecutors opened an attempted-murder investigation after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at gendarmes at Porte de Charenton, and 779 people were arrested nationwide over the protests and Halloween night, down from 1,314 a week earlier (DW). Before dawn Sunday, Portuguese police cleared housing-protest tent camps in Lisbon and Porto and arrested 13 people (DW).

5. Jerusalem / Israel; Gaza. Now the coalition clock. Final results are due to President Isaac Herzog by Wednesday, the new Knesset is sworn in November 10, and Herzog has to pick someone to try to form a government by November 11, Al Jazeera reports. Netanyahu’s bloc has 53 seats and the anti-Netanyahu Jewish bloc has 48, both short of 61. Whoever gets the nod has 28 days, plus a possible 14-day extension. Herzog has pushed for “creative solutions” to avoid another election.

In Gaza, hospital sources say at least eight Palestinians were killed on Sunday. Five were police officers hit by a drone in al-Mawasi near Khan Younis, and a four-year-old boy died in a strike on Gaza City’s Rimal neighbourhood (Al Jazeera). Israel’s military says it was targeting “a terrorist” in the south.

6. St John’s / Antigua and Barbuda. Buckingham Palace says King Charles will speak with “unflinching honesty” and “sincere sorrow” about the transatlantic slave trade when he addresses Commonwealth leaders on Tuesday, the BBC reports. The Palace knew in advance about Prime Minister Andy Burnham saying he is “open” to a formal UK apology, and the speech hasn’t been changed. Britain has never formally apologised or paid reparations. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called the “endless talk about apologies” a “distraction.” “It is time for the Commonwealth to start looking forwards,” she said.

7. New Delhi / India. Thousands marched in the capital on Sunday behind Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to demand that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar resign, Al Jazeera reports. The opposition says a voter-roll revision that removed more than 130 million names hit Muslims and other minorities hardest. The Election Commission denies taking sides and says anyone wrongly removed can register again. Hundreds of police with batons and shields lined the route to Ramlila Maidan, and Health Minister J.P. Nadda called it “carefully orchestrated drama” (BBC).

8. Dakar / Senegal. The Youth Olympic Games are open. Saturday’s ceremony launched the first Olympic event ever held in Africa, with almost 3,000 athletes. Among them is the first Refugee Olympic Team to compete at a Youth Games, six athletes led by Yiech Pur Biel, who ran for the first refugee team in Rio in 2016, the BBC reports. One of them is 15-year-old judoka Arno Yafunga Botay, who fled DR Congo as a child. Judo runs November 1–3 (BBC Sport), and the Games close November 13.

9. La Paz / Bolivia. President Rodrigo Paz signed a nationwide state of emergency on Saturday to free up resources and send more rescue teams to deal with El Niño. He warned of “very severe impacts in terms of drought and floods,” Al Jazeera reports. Drought already affects 78,000 families in six of Bolivia’s nine departments and has killed more than 75,000 cattle. The neighbours are feeling it too. Santiago, Chile had its rainiest October on record, and wildfires in Peru killed at least 12 people last month.

10. Sydney / Australia. Australian home values fell for a seventh straight month. Cotality’s index dropped 1.2% in October and is now 6.7% below the March peak, about A$63,400 off the median dwelling. Head of research Gerard Burg says this is the fastest decline of any downturn in 40 years, ABC News reports. Capital-city values are down 8.1% in seven months. The causes are higher interest rates, which make loans hard to get, and budget changes to property tax breaks that have cooled investors. Values have dropped in nearly every suburb of Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.

Coming Up

Nov 1: Bulgaria’s presidential runoff (Iotova vs Gyurov); the Youth Olympics continue in Dakar through Nov 13. Nov 3: U.S. midterms, and King Charles addresses the Commonwealth summit in Antigua (through Nov 4). Nov 4: Israel’s certified results due. Nov 6: Pope Leo XIV begins his Uruguay–Argentina–Peru trip. Nov 7: New Zealand votes. Nov 9: COP31 opens in Antalya. Nov 10–11: Israel’s new Knesset sworn in; Herzog’s deadline to name a candidate to form a government. The full board is on The Watch.

World Brief, Evening: October 31, 2026

Washington tips off Moscow about a possible attack, and a Moscow park empties in the middle of a concert. Türkiye and Ukraine push for a Black Sea deal as the G20 talks in Atlanta end without one. France fills its streets for a third straight weekend, and Frankfurt has its worst night yet. Iran calls a US letter “a positive step” and says it still won’t meet. Plus the FBI names North Korea in the Binance theft, China’s coast guard off Taiwan, a judge throws out Trump’s suit against the Wall Street Journal, good news from Nigeria on Ebola, Trump’s welcome for Flávio Bolsonaro, and a woman stuck in the Cook Islands. Ten stories as of Saturday evening, October 31.

1. Moscow / Russia. The US Embassy issued a security alert Saturday about a “credible threat of a mass casualty event TODAY October 31” at the Tsaritsyno Museum Reserve, a big palace park in the south of the city. It said Washington was “coordinating with appropriate Russian authorities,” according to the US Embassy. Russia’s FSB said it had “received information from U.S. partners” and was “taking appropriate action.” The park was evacuated during a concert and closed “for technical reasons,” The Moscow Times reports.

It brings back March 2024, when a US warning came before the Crocus City Hall attack that killed more than 140 people. This time Moscow says thank you. The ABC notes that European media say Vladimir Putin will accept Trump’s invitation to the G20 summit in Miami in December. The reports we read describe an evacuation and a closure, not an attack.

2. Istanbul / Türkiye; Atlanta / United States. President Erdoğan hosted Volodymyr Zelenskyy and told both Russia and Ukraine to stop hitting civilian ships in the Black Sea. “We cannot accept these attacks under any circumstances, regardless of who carries them out,” he said. The two leaders agreed to work on a new grain corridor, Al Jazeera reports. In Atlanta, Marco Rubio said there is growing interest in a limited Black Sea ceasefire, and the US is reviewing Turkish and Indian proposals. “It doesn’t solve the war, but at least it solves a unique aspect of it,” he said.

The G20 foreign ministers finished two days of talks without consensus on the big security questions. There was no joint communiqué, only a chair’s statement listing priorities. “I wouldn’t pretend to you today that we are close to finding universally accepted solutions to these problems,” Rubio said, according to the AP. Meanwhile the Oleshky evacuees settled in Chernihiv. “We came back from hell,” one man told the BBC.

3. Paris / France; Frankfurt / Germany. It was the third weekend in a row of mass youth protests. The French government counted 320,000 marchers nationwide, and authorities reported more than 560 arrests by Saturday night, the ABC reports. Organisers claimed close to half a million. Police fired tear gas in Paris and Lyon, Al Jazeera reports. The numbers are slipping, from 550,000 on October 17 to 410,000 a week later, but the anger isn’t.

In Germany, the “Gen Z regelt” movement marched against conscription in more than 30 cities. In Frankfurt, rioters looted shops, stole weapons from a gun store (police got them back) and threw Molotov cocktails at officers, police said. Thousands also returned to a Lisbon square over a rental bill, Reuters reports.

4. Doha / Qatar; Tehran / Iran. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told Al Jazeera that a letter from US Vice President JD Vance was “a positive step.” An Iranian delegation is in Doha. Araghchi said a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz has been cut to two days from start to finish, down from the five Qatar proposed, if Washington meets Iran’s conditions. Those conditions include lifting sanctions and releasing frozen money, including $6bn held in Qatar. “We see no need to meet with the Americans at this stage,” he said, Al Jazeera reports.

Iran’s armed forces chief, Maj. Gen. Ali Abdollahi, said any attack would be met with “immense force” with no geographical limits. In Atlanta, Rubio said Trump hasn’t decided whether to resume strikes. Reuters says the threat of US strikes after Tuesday’s midterms hangs over the talks.

5. Washington / United States; Pyongyang / North Korea. The FBI blamed North Korea’s “TraderTraitor” hackers, part of the Lazarus Group, for Thursday’s $6.3bn theft from Binance, the largest crypto heist ever. It asked other exchanges to block the stolen addresses, the AP reports. Trump was more careful: “We don’t know if it’s North Korea.” Binance says it has covered 90% of the losses and expects to reopen withdrawals on Sunday, November 1, the BBC reports.

North Korea had a busy Saturday of its own. State media said it tested a “Standard Type 2” cluster warhead for tactical ballistic missiles, fired toward the Yellow Sea from around Chongju, and claimed it can turn 12 to 13 hectares “into ashes.” Pyongyang says it will field several types of cluster warheads by the end of the year, The Korea Times reports.

6. Taipei / Taiwan. Taiwan’s coast guard says two China Coast Guard ships on a new patrol off the island’s east coast are harassing shipping and “trying to exert a fictional jurisdiction.” Taiwan sent its own ships to keep watch. China also sent another coast guard vessel close to the Taiwan-held Pratas Islands, Reuters reports. Taipei thinks the east-coast patrols, regular since June, are practice for a blockade. Those waters carry its wartime supply routes.

7. Miami / United States. Federal Judge Darrin Gayles dismissed President Trump’s $10bn defamation suit against The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones and Rupert Murdoch, this time with prejudice, so it can’t be filed again. The suit was over the Journal’s story about a birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein bearing Trump’s name. The judge said it was “grasping at straws” and failed to show actual malice, the BBC reports. If a simple denial were enough to block a story, he wrote, journalists would be stopped from publishing anything negative.

8. Yola / Nigeria. Earlier Saturday, Nigeria’s Centre for Disease Control said two suspected Ebola cases had turned up in the northeast and were isolated while contacts were traced, Al Jazeera reports. By evening came the good news. Samples from the two patients in Yola, Adamawa State, came back negative after two rounds of testing. The imported case in the capital territory is still Nigeria’s only confirmed infection, the NCDC said in the statement below. Next door the picture is grim: the Bundibugyo strain has killed more than 5,000 people in Congo.

🚨 PRESS STATEMENT

NCDC is working with the Adamawa State Government to investigate two suspected Ebola cases reported in Yola, which were isolated and tested. Samples turned out NEGATIVE for Ebola virus after two rounds of testing.

The index case previously confirmed in the… pic.twitter.com/tzA2KzI5Jq
— NCDC (@NCDCgov) November 1, 2026

9. Palm Beach / United States; Brasília / Brazil. “He can stay here as long as he wants,” Trump said of Flávio Bolsonaro at a Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago. “In my opinion, the election was a disgrace.” Earlier, Rubio said the US government “was not involved directly in any of the moves” behind Bolsonaro’s departure from Brazil, Reuters reports. He spoke with Brazil’s foreign minister, Mauro Vieira, in Atlanta, and the two expect to meet again at G7 foreign ministers’ talks in France next month. Bolsonaro is in the US on humanitarian parole, which usually lasts a year.

10. Rarotonga / Cook Islands. Ruchira Ranasingha, a 50-year-old from Sri Lanka, has been stuck in the Cook Islands for three years. She flew there from New Zealand on an adviser’s recommendation while a work visa was processed. The visa was refused, and leaving had broken the terms of her asylum-linked visa. Now New Zealand and Australia won’t give her a transit visa to fly home, the BBC reports. She has offered to travel “handcuffed, bound and gagged.” Immigration New Zealand says it isn’t satisfied she would really just pass through. Sri Lanka says it is “taking all necessary steps.” Her son gets married in November.

Coming Up

Nov 1: Bulgaria’s presidential runoff (Iotova vs Gyurov), and the Commonwealth summit opens in Antigua (through Nov 4). Nov 3: U.S. midterms. Nov 4: Israel’s certified results due. Nov 6: Pope Leo XIV begins his Uruguay–Argentina–Peru trip. Nov 7: New Zealand votes. Nov 9: COP31 opens in Antalya. The Youth Olympic Games run in Dakar through Nov 13. The full board is on The Watch.

World Brief: October 31, 2026

Iran’s new supreme leader tells his commanders to hit back “without geographical restriction” if attacked again, even as Qatar works the phones. Oleshky evacuees cross home to Ukraine through Belarus. France braces for a Halloween round of youth protests, and a federal judge tells the Justice Department to keep its hands off California’s ballots three days before the midterms. Plus Yemen’s displacement crisis, the UN leaving Somalia after three decades, Andy Burnham and the slavery apology question, Taipei Pride, Flávio Bolsonaro’s livestream from Florida, and another year without new protection for Antarctic waters. Ten stories as of Saturday morning, October 31.

1. Tehran / Iran; Doha / Qatar. Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei met senior commanders and ordered “maximum deterrence”: an “immediate and effective response, without geographical restriction” if Iran is attacked again, Al Jazeera reports. At the same time the diplomacy is busy. Qatari mediators held talks in Tehran on Friday and an Iranian delegation went on to Doha.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called Vice President JD Vance’s letter “a positive step” but added: “We see no need to meet with the Americans at this stage.” Tehran wants sanctions lifted, fewer US forces in the region, oil waivers restored and frozen funds released, Al Jazeera reports. Hormuz traffic is still about 70% below pre-war levels. In Atlanta, the G20 foreign ministers wrap up Saturday with no joint communique. The AP has reported that US officials told Middle East partners to be ready for possible renewed strikes on Iran after Tuesday’s US elections.

2. Chernihiv region / Ukraine; Oleshky. The first evacuees from Russian-occupied Oleshky have crossed into Ukraine in the Chernihiv region. They took the long way round, through Russia and Belarus, the BBC reports. Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets says the oldest evacuee is 94 and the youngest is one. Buses with room for 750 people left the town on Friday. The local ceasefire that made it possible runs until the end of Sunday. Oleshky had about 24,000 residents before the war (Al Jazeera). President Zelensky thanked the US side and First Lady Melania Trump for mediating: “When the world pays attention, people are rescued.”

A humanitarian operation to rescue people in Oleshky, in the Kherson region, has taken place. A ceasefire was established in the Kherson sector, during which roads to Oleshky were cleared of mines and humanitarian aid was delivered. We hope humanitarian access to Oleshky will… pic.twitter.com/HTIqiMLqLs
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 31, 2026

3. Paris / France. “Act III,” the third weekend of youth-led cost-of-living protests, is under way. About 70,000 police and gendarmes are deployed, and the Paris march has been moved out to the city’s edge after the Conseil d’État upheld the change. By early afternoon the interior ministry counted about 15,000 marchers nationwide and called things “generally calm.” Police had made 27 arrests, against 217 a week ago, AFP reports. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez warned of a “very high risk” after dark, on Halloween night. Similar youth marches are spreading to Germany and Italy (AP).

4. San Francisco / United States. Late Friday, US District Judge Trina Thompson issued a temporary restraining order. It bars the Justice and Homeland Security departments from threatening or pressuring California election officials, from demanding that ballots be set aside or counting stopped, and from purging voter rolls. She found the government was likely violating the Voting Rights Act. “One of the hallmarks of a fair election is the freedom to exercise the right to vote free from threat, fear, or intimidation,” she wrote, CBS News reports. The Justice Department had pushed California to segregate about 20,000 ballots, and an appeals court also turned that down on Friday (The Guardian). A hearing is set for November 13, and the midterms are Tuesday.

5. Yemen. The UN humanitarian office says at least 290,000 people have been displaced since fighting resumed in August. That includes about 6,100 pregnant women, 600 of them due within two weeks. The UN has verified 270 civilian casualties, 68 of them killed and half of those children, Al Jazeera reports. The war is pushing outward too. The Saudi-led coalition shot down drones over Riyadh two days running, and the Houthis fired missiles at the Maashiq presidential palace and the airport in Aden.

6. Mogadishu / Somalia. The UN’s political mission in Somalia, UNTMIS, shut down on Saturday. That ends more than three decades of UN political engagement since the civil war, Al Jazeera reports. Mogadishu asked for the exit in 2024, and Deputy Prime Minister Saleh Ahmed Jama called it a “day of victory.” The timing is shaky. The opposition disputes the president’s term running to 2027, al-Shabab is still fighting, and no one has been named to take over the UN’s mediation role. African Union troops stay on, supplied by a separate UN support office. On the other side of the continent, the Youth Olympic Games open in Dakar tonight, the first Olympic event ever held in Africa (Olympics.com).

7. London / United Kingdom; Antigua. Prime Minister Andy Burnham says he is “open” to Britain formally apologising for its role in the transatlantic slave trade, but reparations are “not the right answer,” the BBC reports. He called the trade a “brutal and barbaric violation” and offered a “structured dialogue.” Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said British taxpayers shouldn’t be held financially responsible. Campaigners noted that a formal apology “costs nothing.” The timing matters. King Charles opens the Commonwealth summit in Antigua on Sunday, and Caribbean leaders have pressed the issue (AP).

8. Taipei / Taiwan. More than 170,000 people marched in Taipei Pride. Mayor Chiang Wan-an got an angry reception, with marchers shouting “don’t raid gay bars.” Earlier this month police raided the Commander D bar in Ximen, took 51 people in for questioning and arrested the owner. “I apologise for the impact on those affected,” Chiang said, promising a rigorous investigation and immediate discipline, Reuters reports. His DPP rival, Puma Shen, got a much warmer welcome.

9. Miami / United States; Brazil. Flávio Bolsonaro has explained his escape. On an Instagram livestream from Florida, he said he fled because “the persecution began even sooner than I imagined,” after police told him his passports were being cancelled in a money-laundering investigation, ABC News reports. He travelled through Argentina and Ecuador. “I didn’t leave Brazil, I left for Brazil,” he said, and he hinted at running again before 2030. A US official said Washington won’t back his challenge to Lula’s 51.75% win.

10. Hobart / Australia; Antarctica. The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources closed its annual meeting without agreeing on any new marine protected areas or tighter krill rules. That makes about a decade without a new MPA, EFE reports. The krill catch limit stays at 620,000 tonnes, and the fishery hit its limit early in each of the last two seasons. WWF says nine vessels have signalled they plan to fish East Antarctica (WWF-Australia). Talks on a Peninsula protected area will continue between meetings. Whales, penguins and seals all depend on krill.

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