The most important world events of the past 24 hours
Two supertankers disabled by explosions in Strait of Hormuz
🐱 Scout field reporter · Two supertankers disabled by explosions in Strait of Hormuz
Iran's Revolutionary Guards Navy said on Thursday that two supertankers carrying a combined total of more than 4 million barrels of oil were disabled by massive explosions on Wednesday night after sailing through what Tehran calls an "unauthorised" southern route in the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian state media later said the tankers had hit naval mines, though the Guards' own statement did not specify the cause. The vessels were left burning; their names, flags and crews have not been publicly identified, and there has been no independent confirmation of what caused the blasts. The Guards warned that vessels using the southern route would "face the same fate"; Iran has declared the southern lanes near Omani waters off-limits and mined, confining safe passage to designated northern corridors that require prior authorisation.
Background: The US-Iran war has lasted more than eight months, and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has fallen to about a fifth of pre-war volumes.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday evening that Nvidia's board is preparing to remove founder and CEO Jensen Huang, and directors met late on Wednesday to decide his future; as of Thursday morning no decision had been announced and Huang remained chief executive. Nvidia shares closed on Wednesday at $173.73, then fell about 8.6% in after-hours trading to around $159, and were down about 6% in premarket trading on Thursday, leaving the stock down roughly 25% over the past month. Bloomberg reported the board has hired an outside firm to identify CEO candidates, with chief financial officer Colette Kress seen as a possible interim chief; three Republican House committee chairs have asked Huang to attend a closed-door briefing on November 18, and the company reports third-quarter results on November 17.
Background: Huang admitted on November 8 to an affair with a former executive US officials suspect of links to Chinese intelligence and apologised; the New York Times then reported a second affair, with healthcare vice president Kimberly Powell. The board has hired former acting US Attorney Joon Kim to lead an independent investigation.
Sources: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Reuters, Bloomberg (4 outlets)
US envoys arrive in Moscow for talks with Putin, then head to Dublin to see Zelenskyy
🐱 Scout diplomat · US envoys arrive in Moscow for talks with Putin
US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow on Thursday to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and present the results of two days of talks in Abu Dhabi; Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev met them at the plane. It is the tenth time Witkoff has met Putin in person. As of publication, no outcome of the meeting had been reported; Kushner said the two would then fly to Dublin to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy said he was awaiting a briefing from the US team and expected Moscow to agree to the release of up to 1,200 prisoners.
Background: The talks were the first trilateral US-Ukraine-Russia negotiations since February; the Abu Dhabi round agreed a large prisoner swap in principle but made no breakthrough on a ceasefire or territory.
Car bomb kills Russian serviceman near St Petersburg
🐱 Scout anchor · Car bomb kills Russian serviceman near St Petersburg
Russia's Investigative Committee said on Thursday that a Russian serviceman was killed when the car he was driving exploded on the Kolpinskoye highway in Shushary, in St Petersburg's Pushkinsky District; investigators have opened a murder case. The St Petersburg outlet Fontanka reported the dead man was a colonel and that an explosive device fixed under the vehicle was detonated remotely as he drove off, but officials have not disclosed his identity and Reuters could not independently verify his rank. Another serviceman was killed in a car explosion in the same district on August 27.
Background: Several senior Russian officers have been killed in bombings during the war in Ukraine, which Moscow has previously blamed on Kyiv.
Political developments and international relations
COP31 leaders' summit, day two: Guterres urges tax on oil and gas windfall profits
The COP31 leaders' summit entered its second day on Thursday, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres accusing the fossil-fuel industry of deceiving the public and calling for a tax on windfall profits oil and gas companies have made from the war in Iran; Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine warned that without urgent action "the world we know is over". The Global Carbon Budget 2026, released at the summit, projects fossil-fuel CO2 emissions will fall about 0.4% this year, but the remaining 1.5°C carbon budget is only about 150 billion tonnes — less than four years at current rates. The conference is pushing a "35-by-35" electrification pledge, aiming for electricity to reach 35% of final energy consumption by 2035.
Background: The conference opened on Monday and runs until November 20; the United States formally left the Paris Agreement earlier this year and has sent no official delegation. Host President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the discovery of two new oilfields on Monday.
Hegseth impeachment fallout: 11 absent Democrats draw party rebuke
After the House voted 211-204 on Tuesday to shelve the impeachment case against War Secretary Pete Hegseth, Democrats faced a backlash over absences: 11 Democrats missed the vote, including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, more than the seven-vote margin, and House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark told colleagues on Wednesday that the absentees "disappointed the American people". Seven Republicans were also absent. Democrats plan to revive impeachment after taking control of Congress in January 2027, but conviction would still require a two-thirds Senate majority.
Background: Rep. Thomas Massie filed the impeachment case in September, accusing Hegseth of abusing power in the Iran military operation, strikes on suspected drug boats and the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
US stocks rebound Wednesday, futures slip Thursday as December hike looks near-certain
US stocks rallied sharply on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq Composite up 1.6% to 25,466.19, the S&P 500 up 1.31% and the Dow up 0.49%; but Nasdaq 100 futures fell about 0.9% and S&P 500 futures about 0.5% in premarket trading on Thursday, dragged down by the Nvidia turmoil. After hotter-than-expected October inflation, markets have fully priced in a Federal Reserve rate hike of at least 25 basis points in December, with about a 10% chance of a 50-basis-point move; the 10-year Treasury yield hovered near 4.99% and the dollar index rose to its highest since April.
Background: The Federal Reserve held rates at 3.75%-4% on October 28; its next decision is on December 8-9.
UK economy grows 0.7% in Q3, fastest in two and a half years
Britain's economy grew 0.7% in the third quarter, the Office for National Statistics reported on Thursday, up from 0.5% in the second quarter and the fastest quarterly pace since the first quarter of 2024; annual growth picked up to 1.9%, the strongest since the fourth quarter of 2024. Growth came almost entirely from services, up 0.9%, with the ONS citing computer programming and consultancy and AI- and cloud-related businesses as the largest driver of growth this year; monthly GDP rose 0.2% in September. The Bank of England expects 1.6% growth for 2026, and investors see a 73% chance of a back-to-back rate hike in December.
Background: The Bank of England raised rates to 4% on November 5 and has warned inflation will near 5% in 2027.
Sources: Office for National Statistics, Reuters (2 outlets)
South Korea fines 15 banks and brokerages a record $1.2 billion over bond-auction rigging
South Korea's Fair Trade Commission announced on Wednesday a record fine of 1.6266 trillion won (about $1.2 billion) on 15 banks and securities firms, accusing them of coordinating bids in 150 of 345 government bond auctions between January 2020 and June 2023, agreeing on bid rates and volumes in 145 of them and inflating the government's borrowing costs. It is the regulator's largest single-case penalty, surpassing its 1.0311 trillion won fine on Qualcomm in 2016; KB Securities received the largest individual fine at 332.18 billion won, and seven firms were referred for criminal investigation. The firms dispute the findings and are expected to appeal.
Background: All 15 firms are primary dealers in South Korean government bonds.
Sources: Asia Journal Press, Finance Magnates (2 outlets)
Tech companies, research breakthroughs and digital policy
OpenAI revenue hits $10 billion in Q3 as losses widen to $10.9 billion; Anthropic posts $17 billion
OpenAI told investors that third-quarter revenue rose nearly 50% to $10 billion — the first time it crossed that threshold — but its adjusted operating loss widened to $10.9 billion from $10.1 billion in the second quarter, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing investor documents. Rival Anthropic disclosed $17 billion in revenue for the same quarter with a much smaller operating loss of $567 million and an annualised revenue run rate of $81 billion as of end-October; Anthropic is pursuing an IPO at a roughly $1.4 trillion valuation. Bloomberg reported investors wired OpenAI $11 billion on November 6, the first close of a new funding round — roughly equal to the quarter's loss.
Background: Anthropic is expected to price its IPO on November 18 and list on the Nasdaq as ANT on November 19.
Sources: The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg (2 outlets)
TSMC posts record October revenue, board approves up to $500 million each for Anthropic and OpenAI
TSMC reported on Tuesday that October revenue reached a record NT$586.89 billion, up 59.7% from a year earlier and 14.7% from September; revenue for the first ten months of 2026 totalled NT$4.49 trillion, up 43.3% year over year. Its board approved about $40.93 billion in capital appropriations and investments of up to $500 million each in Anthropic, at its IPO price, and OpenAI preferred stock, plus a $500 million strategic investment company. The company forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $52.3-54.3 billion and 2026 capital spending of $60-64 billion.
Background: Demand for advanced chips continues to push TSMC's order book, and the company is expanding 2-nanometre production.
Military developments, security situations and conflicts
Russia launches overnight strike on Ukrainian military factories; Kyiv apartment block hit, one killed
Russia's military said on Thursday it carried out a massive overnight strike on military factories across Ukraine; a Russian drone struck a nine-storey apartment block in Kyiv's Solomyanskyi district, killing one woman and injuring five, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Russia's Defence Ministry said it hit a rocket factory in Kyiv, a drone assembly workshop and a missile fuel factory in the wider Kyiv region, and electricity substations in Zhytomyr region; energy and civilian infrastructure in Rivne region was also damaged. Moscow's mayor said air defences downed five Ukrainian drones heading for the capital, and Russia's Defence Ministry said 71 Ukrainian drones were brought down across Russia overnight. Grid attacks left more than 850,000 consumers without power in Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions, and a Ukrainian drone strike in Smolensk region killed two people.
Background: Peace talks are under way but fighting has not stopped; Russian forces have repeatedly struck Ukraine's energy infrastructure in recent days.
UNICEF: drones account for two-thirds of child casualties in Sudan
Armed drones accounted for about two-thirds of children killed or injured in Sudan between January and September 2026 — an estimated 270 of 410 child casualties — UNICEF said on Tuesday in Geneva. More than 1,100 people were killed in drone attacks across Sudan during the first half of the year, according to AFP, and 15 strikes hit power stations in October alone, disrupting electricity, water pumping and treatment. UNICEF expects an estimated 825,000 children under five in Sudan to suffer severe acute malnutrition this year.
Background: Sudan's civil war has raged since April 2023, creating one of the world's largest humanitarian crises.
Europe bomb-threat wave: no bombs found in Italian schools, Genoa prosecutors open case
Italy found no explosives in any of the roughly 6,300 schools that received emailed bomb threats on Wednesday, the government said on Wednesday evening, after at least 300 schools were evacuated; Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the emails were designed to spread fear rather than cause harm. The same message, signed "Mikhail Andropov", also reached schools in Scotland (around 1,000), Northern Ireland (more than 300) and the Republic of Ireland the same day; police in all three treated them as hoaxes with no credible threat. Prosecutors in Genoa have opened a case for false alarm, disrupting a public service and making serious threats, possibly aggravated by terrorist intent; ANSA reported early leads point towards Moscow, though investigators cautioned this could be deliberate misdirection.
Background: Between November 2 and 6, anonymous emailed bomb threats forced several European flights to divert; the same alias appeared last Friday in threats against newsrooms in Ireland and Bulgaria.
Bangladesh on high alert as tribunal set to announce verdict date in Hasina case
Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal will announce on Thursday, November 13, the date of its verdict in the crimes-against-humanity case against former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina over the July 2024 uprising, and the country is on high alert, with the army and police deployed at airports and key installations. The banned Awami League has called a nationwide dawn-to-dusk lockdown for Thursday; vehicle arson and crude-bomb explosions have been reported across the country over the past two days. Crude-bomb blasts and arson on Monday injured at least 25 people, including journalists and police, the BBC reported, and on Tuesday police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at Hasina supporters, while a bus driver in Faridpur died of smoke inhalation after his bus was torched.
Background: Hasina fled to India in August 2024 after protests ended her 15-year rule; a special tribunal sentenced her to death in absentia last November. The chief prosecutor said on Tuesday her appeal window has closed and "execution is the only option left under the law".
China-related news (international media coverage only)
Xi says Taiwan "reunification" must happen, pledges to do so peacefully
Speaking in Beijing's Great Hall of the People on Thursday at an event marking the 160th birthday of Sun Yat-sen, Xi Jinping said the "tide of history cannot be stopped" and urged the complete "reunification" of Taiwan with the motherland, pledging to do so peacefully and making no mention of the use of force. China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, a claim Taipei strongly rejects; Taiwan's government did not immediately respond. (single source, unverified)
Background: China's military operates around Taiwan almost daily; last month Taiwan called on its people to steer clear of China's Sun Yat-sen anniversary events.
G7 foreign ministers say China's actions east of Taiwan threaten stability
In a joint declaration published late on Wednesday after a meeting in Paris, G7 foreign ministers said China's increasingly assertive actions in the waters east of Taiwan threaten regional stability and freedom of navigation, and stressed the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. China has stepped up activity off Taiwan's east coast since June with regular coast guard patrols; Taipei believes Beijing is practising for a potential maritime blockade using overlapping military, paramilitary and civilian assets. Taiwan Defence Minister Wellington Koo said on Tuesday that China is carrying out "area denial" activities. (single source, unverified)
Background: The United States, Britain, France and Germany had previously expressed concern; China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond.
China's Singles' Day sales rise 4.8% to $267 billion as growth slows sharply
Sales during China's Singles' Day shopping festival rose 4.8% year over year to 1.78 trillion yuan ($267 billion), data provider Syntun said on Thursday, covering October 7 to November 11 across major platforms — a sharp slowdown from last year's 14.2% growth. Alibaba's Taobao and Tmall and JD.com no longer release headline gross merchandise value figures; JD.com said it sold more than 50 million AI-related products and generated over 300 million service orders, with transaction value for AI PCs, workstations, cameras and glasses more than doubling year over year. (single source, unverified)
Background: Singles' Day is a key barometer of Chinese consumer demand; China's exports rose 35.2% year over year in October, and its trade surplus passed $1 trillion in the first ten months of the year.
