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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the last 24 hours. Here’s today’s news:
IRAN WAR
U.S. Vice President JD Vance is considering face-to-face talks with Iranian Security Chief Mohsen Rezaei, sources told the Wall Street Journal. U.S. and Middle Eastern officials said President Trump has told top aides and counterparts he’s open to Vance reopening talks with Iran and has empowered Vance to negotiate. U.S. officials stressed that discussions of a potential in-person talk remain preliminary. Robbie Gramer, Benoit Faucon, and Natalie Andrews report.
IRAN WAR – YEMEN
Saudi Arabia yesterday said debris from two ballistic missiles intercepted by its defense forces fell in the Mecca region. Saudi state TV identified the locations as Sabuhah village, which is located around 22 miles northeast of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, and Wadi al-Maghmas, 13 miles east of the mosque. The Civil Defense early today said “this hostile targeting of civilian objects constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and reflects the dangerous hostile approach pursued by the Houthi militia.” Hatem Maher reports for Reuters.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
An Israeli airstrike today hit a building at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, an official from the Hamas-run Civil Defense Agency told BBC News. A surgeon is reported to be among those killed during the strike. The Israeli military said it struck a senior Hamas member and other militants who were using the hospital “as a command center for military and terrorist activities.” Rushdi Abualouf and Claire Keenan report.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at U.N. COP31 in Turkey yesterday said “what has taken place in Gaza is not only a genocide, but it is also an ecocide.” Erdogan said “centuries old olive trees have been cut down. The soil and water have been polluted in Gaza, and cities in Gaza have been turned into enormous piles of rubble.” Erdogan called on the Israeli government to grant more aid access to the Palestinian territory. Victoria Milko reports for AP News.
CLIMATE DEVELOPMENTS
U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham at COP31 today warned that the global consensus on both science and climate change has “gone.” Burnham said that despite this, the United Kingdom was ready to begin a “new era of British leadership” on climate change. Esme Stallard, Justin Rowlatt, and Mark Poynting report for BBC News.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
Ukraine’s capital Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko today said one woman was killed and five others injured after a Russian drone struck an apartment block. A local Ukrainian official said Russian attacks had damaged energy and civilian infrastructure in the north-western Rivne region. The Russian Defense Ministry said it had hit a rocket factory in Kyiv and a drone assembly workshop and missile fuel factory in the wider Kyiv region, as well as electricity substations in the western Zhytomyr region. Russia’s capital Moscow’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Russian air defenses had downed five Ukrainian drones heading for the capital. JekaterĪna Golubkova, Gleb Garanich, and Sergiy Karazy report for Reuters.
Russia’s Investigative Committee today said a Russian military serviceman was killed after a car he was driving was blown up in the Pushkinsky District of St. Petersburg. The committee said “investigative authorities have opened a criminal case into the murder.” Reuters reports.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy today said Ukrainian military units had recorded significant disruptions to the Starshield communications service for several days. Zelenskyy said the systemic restrictions were limiting the speed at which Starshield could be used which meant that Ukrainian interceptors could not reach sufficient speeds to down Russian drones. Lina Golovnya reports for Reuters.
U.S. Special Envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner today arrived in Russia for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the results of the trilateral meetings between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States that occurred in Abu Dhabi. The talks concluded yesterday with an agreement on a large exchange of prisoners, but no visible breakthrough on ending the war in Ukraine. After meeting Putin, Witkoff and Kushner will head to Ireland to meet Zelenskyy, who yesterday said peace talks depended on how the United States approached Russia. Harriet Morris reports for AP News; Padraic Halpin reports for Reuters.
The United States has asked Russia to submit a new proposal for a future security agreement with Europe that includes Russian steps to ease tensions with the continent, sources told Axios. The sources said the U.S. proposal to secure a deal on a new Europe-Russia security architecture as part of an agreement to end the war in Ukraine was a key focus of the Abu Dhabi talks. Sources with knowledge of the trilateral meetings said Russian negotiators stated that Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine because former U.S. president Biden didn’t reply to Putin’s 2021 letter laying out his security concerns, and that Witkoff and Kushner replied that the world has changed a lot since 2021. Barak Ravid reports.
French Minister for European Affairs Benjamin Haddad today said the EU on Monday “will take new sanctions against Russia, on 150 additional entities, [and] 50 banks.” Haddad added that “it’s France which proposed the bulk of the entities to add,” and that the EU “will continue to put economic pressure on Russia and of course support Ukraine.” Dominique Vidalon and Inti Landauro report for Reuters.
OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
Around 6,300 schools across Italy, and more than 700 schools in Scotland and Northern Ireland yesterday received bomb threats, according to local authorities. Several Italian schools today were evacuated after receiving similar email bomb threats. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni yesterday said checks so far had not indicated any evidence of “concrete danger,” and instead “reports appear rather linked to a strategy intended to cause alarm and concern.” Scottish Education Secretary Màiri McAllan said there was no risk to the public and specialist cyber-crime officers were working to identify the source of the messages, while Northern Ireland education officials told schools to remain open unless otherwise advised by police. Paul Kirby reports for BBC News; Alvise Armellini reports for Reuters.
CEO of Hungarian budget airline Wizz Air Jozsef Varadi today said Europe needs a more harmonized approach to security and a body to lead the continent against “hybrid warfare.” Varadi added that he “personally had a meeting with the European Commission very recently, trying to address this issue and urging these people to act together and find ways of getting coordinated.” Gianluca Lo Nostro and Yamini Kalia report for Reuters.
Spanish unions yesterday said more than three million Spaniards protested the country’s growing crisis in mostly peaceful strikes. 115 people were arrested, mainly in evening clashes in Barcelona and Spain’s capital Madrid. Amnesty International said it had documented excessive use of police force including blows with batons on peaceful protesters and indiscriminate use of pepper spray on crowds. David Latona reports for Reuters.
Amnesty International today published a report that said U.N. peacekeepers and South Sudanese authorities failed to take adequate action despite warnings weeks before insurgents raided Abiemnom village and killed more than 200 people earlier this year. The rights group said the peacekeeping mission knew an attack was likely but failed to reinforce the roughly three dozen peacekeepers based there until after the attack occurred. Joseph Falzetta reports for AP News.
G7 foreign ministers last night released a joint declaration that China’s increasingly assertive actions in the waters east of Taiwan threaten regional stability and freedom of navigation. The statement said “we reaffirmed our opposition to any unilateral attempts to change the status quo, particularly by force or coercion, or the threat thereof.” China’s Foreign Ministry today said the statement “disregards objective facts… crudely interferes in China’s internal affairs, and maliciously slanders and smears China.” Ben Blanchard reports for Reuters.
Lawyer Mudassar Umar today said Pakistan released two of former prime minister Imran Khan’s sisters, Uzma Khan and Naureen Niazi, from prison, after weeks in jail ahead of a planned anti-government march by their brother’s party Tehreek-e-Insaf. The party said another of Imran’s sisters, Aleema Khan, remained in prison. Uzma’s son Wali Khan said “their jailing was arbitrary, and so is their release.” Asif Shahzad and Mubasher Bukhari report for Reuters.
Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka today submitted his resignation to the Indonesian Parliament, two days after Raka submitted his resignation during a meeting with President Prabowo Subianto. A total of 120 Indonesian lawmakers yesterday launched a parliamentary process that could lead to Raka’s impeachment after recent court rulings raised doubts about his educational credentials. Raka, the son of former President Joko Widodo, is facing scrutiny over his academic credentials after Indonesia’s Constitutional Court and Supreme Court last month ruled that the documents Raka submitted regarding his overseas education didn’t meet election requirements. Muktita Suhartono reports for the New York Times; Niniek Karmini reports for AP News.
Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court late on Tuesday fined Meta’s Facebook $1.3 million for failing to fully comply with judicial orders during last month’s presidential election runoff campaign. The Justice ruled that Facebook had failed to adequately meet court demands related to allegations that its platform treated content from Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his challenger Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro differently, but said there was no evidence so far that the company attempted to influence the election’s outcome. Eléonore Hughes reports for AP News.
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Russia’s Foreign Ministry yesterday announced the death of the country’s ambassador to the United States Alexander Darchiev. The statement said Darchiev died “suddenly,” and did not include a cause of death. Darchiev has served as the Russian ambassador to the United States since Mar. 2025. Sarah Davis reports for The Hill.
U.S. MIDTERM DEVELOPMENTS
Democrat Scott Colom defeated Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith yesterday in Mississippi’s Senate race, as reported by AP News. Colom will be the first Black Senator in Mississippi since post-Civil War Reconstruction. Hyde-Smith late last night conceded the election and congratulated Colom, while adding that her campaign “worked tirelessly to ensure every legally cast vote was counted, and that the people of Mississippi received a fair and transparent election.” Bill Barrow and Sophie Bates report; Emily Cochrane reports for the New York Times.
Top Senate Republicans said that confirming judges is a top priority for them and Trump before the Democrats take control of Congress in Jan. 2027. The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday began the process by approving four nominees and sending them to the floor for consideration. Aides told the New York Times that up to 25 nominees are in the pipeline, including four appeals court candidates and 21 for district courts. Carl Hulse reports.
An Alaska Superior Court judge yesterday denied Democrat Senate nominee Mary Peltola’s campaign team’s request for a list of rejected absentee ballots. The judge ruled that Alaska’s Division of Election is “currently busy processing ballots” from the midterm elections and “simply lacks the capacity to generate the report.” The judge concluded that the request “is simply not reasonable nor required right now.” Mira Bhakta reports for The Hill.
U.S. AI DEVELOPMENTS
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is alleged to have had another affair with Nvidia’s Vice President of health care Kimberly Powell, sources told the New York Times. Under Nvidia’s code of conduct, employees are told to “avoid situations where our actions create conflict,” including “personal relationships.” Two people who worked at the company said Jensen and Powell were captured on video being affectionate at a San Jose, California hotel during a Nvidia conference in Mar. 2026. Nvidia’s board is preparing to oust Jensen, sources told the Wall Street Journal. Ryan Mac, Tripp Mickle, and Georgia Gee report; Robbie Whelan, Josh Dawsey, and Amrith Ramkumar report.
House Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) yesterday told POLITICO that he was unsure whether Alice Huang, a Chinese business executive who Jensen had an affair with, is actually a Chinese spy based on information he received from U.S. intelligence officials in a classified briefing earlier this week. Himes said he left the meeting with U.S. intelligence agencies unsure of whether Alice knowingly cultivated information for the Chinese government on Nvidia, or if she was just a “useful idiot” unaware of China’s wider espionage activities. Maggie Miller and Owen Dahlkamp report.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick last Thursday stood in the way of Trump authorizing a crackdown on companies suspected of diverting Nvidia’s advanced AI chips to China for the third time this year, sources told Axios. When the spy scandal first rocked the Trump administration last Thursday, Lutnick, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio met in the Situation Room. The sources said Bessent confronted Lutnick about why his department resisted implementing the export controls, and the group in the meeting sided with Bessent. Sources told Axios that Lutnick has spent the last year “undoing” efforts by other administration officials to hold Megaspeed, a company accused of diverting U.S. chips to China, accountable because of concerns it would escalate the trade war with China. Marc Caputo and Maria Curi report; Maria Curi and Marc Caputo report.
U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
Outgoing House Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) yesterday secured 218 signatures to force another House vote over the Jeffrey Epstein files. The new Epstein Files Transparency Act II would give survivors and lawmakers the power to sue the Justice Department over withheld records and help state prosecutors pursue investigations. Andrew Pantazi reports for Axios.
The Army sentinel at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery yesterday admonished Hegseth and his group for talking and laughing loudly while visiting the site. The sentinel yelled “all visitors will maintain an atmosphere of silence and respect at all times.” Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said “the Secretary and the entire Department have always honored – and will always honor – the sacrifices our military men and women have made to keep America safe,” and acknowledged that “a soldier correctly and respectfully reminded everyone to maintain decorum.” Ellen Mitchell reports for The Hill.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTION
Trump yesterday observed Veterans Day by suggesting the “triumphal arch” would also be dedicated to the U.S. military and those who served in its ranks. Trump said “we’re going to dedicate a magnificent triumphal arc to our veterans,” and that “they’ve been waiting for it for 200 years.” Will Weissert reports for AP News.
White House Counsel Will Scharf on Monday sent a letter to incoming chairman of the Oversight Committee Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) warning Garcia that aggressive oversight of the Trump administration “may cross the line into blatant criminality.” The threat of launching criminal investigations goes further than Trump’s vow to fight “all” subpoenas in his first term after the Democrats took the House in 2019. Garcia dismissed the letter and his office said it had not received it as of yesterday morning. Charlie Savage, Jonathan Swan, and Michael Gold report for the New York Times.
The Food and Drug Administration has shelved the fast-track drug review initiative launched in Jun. 2025 by former commissioner Marty Makary, sources told Reuters. Makary’s National Priority Voucher program aimed to slash drug review timelines to just one-to-two months for therapies addressing national priorities. Critics pointed to possible preferential treatment for companies meeting demands of Trump, like offering drugs at lower prices. Patrick Wingrove and Yasmeen Abutaleb report.
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