November 10, 2026

MIDDLE EAST WAR | Day 256.

• Following talks with Qatar's prime minister at the White House yesterday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he believes the war with Iran "militarily is effectively over," but that the U.S. naval blockade of Iran will continue. Mohsen Rezaei, the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said yesterday that the U.S. should stop spreading "fake news" about "imaginary talks" and "surrender" to the seven conditions Iran has set for ending the war. [more]
• Citing people familiar with the decision, The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. Air Force moved refueling tankers from the RAF Mildenhall airbase in eastern England to other bases in Europe yesterday after being alerted to a new threat from Iran. It is the second such move from a British base in less than two months, after bombers were withdrawn from RAF Fairford earlier amidst a police investigation into a suspected Iran-linked plot. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 1,718 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here is your update:

• U.S.-mediated talks between Russia and Ukraine, the first since February, began today in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, with U.S. envoy Jared Kushner telling the delegations that recent contacts had "narrowed the gaps" between the two sides. Ukraine's delegation met separately beforehand with U.S. envoys and representatives of NATO, the European Union, the U.K., France, Germany, and Italy. [more]

U.S. INFLATION | According to Labor Department data released today, consumer prices in the U.S. rose 0.4% in October – down from 0.6% in September – with shelter costs accounting for more than 30% of the monthly increase. The department did not publish a year-over-year inflation rate for October because the 2025 government shutdown prevented the collection of price data in October 2025. [full report] [more]

U.S. MILITARY AND CONGRESS | Republican Representative Thomas Massie yesterday filed a resolution to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for "high crimes and misdemeanors," largely over the war with Iran, with a House vote possible by mid-week. In a press conference early this morning – his first in about six months – Hegseth rejected the charges, calling them politically motivated. [more]

U.S. BORDER WALL | The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday cleared the way for the Trump administration to resume border wall construction in the Big Bend region of Texas, pausing a lower court order that had halted the work while the case proceeds. [more]

WHITE HOUSE | In an interview this week, President Donald Trump said he plans to issue "tremendous numbers" of pardons before leaving office, and that while pardoning himself would be "not unreasonable," he does not expect to do so. [more]

CALIFORNIA | According to unofficial results, voters in California have rejected, by a margin of about 53% to 47%, a ballot measure that would have imposed a one-time 5% tax on the wealth of the state's billionaires. Reports note that opponents of the measure outspent supporters by about 10 to 1, and that supporters say they plan to put a similar tax measure on the ballot in 2028. [more]

U.S. WATER | Following weeks of storms and flooding across the drought-stricken U.S. Southwest, water levels at Lake Powell – the second-largest reservoir in the United States – are reported to have risen more than 20 feet since mid-September, though the lake remains just over a quarter full. [more]

U.S. AND UNITED NATIONS | The U.S. is set today to become the first country to decline to take part in a regular review of its human rights record by the U.N. Human Rights Council, which says such a review cannot go forward without the participation of the country concerned. The Trump administration withdrew the U.S. from the council last year over what it claimed to be the body's anti-U.S. and anti-Israel bias. [more]

GLOBAL CLIMATE | According to a new report from the Global Carbon Project, global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels are projected to fall 0.4% this year, a decline the scientists attribute to the expansion of solar and wind power and to the energy shock caused by the war with Iran. [full report] [more]

PERSIAN GULF | Meeting in Bahrain today, defense ministers of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council approved the establishment of an advanced headquarters for the bloc's unified military command in Kuwait, along with the deployment of forces to the facility. [more]

CHINESE ECONOMY | According to data released today by China's customs administration, the country's trade surplus has surpassed $1 trillion for the second straight year, as exports in October rose 35.2% over the year-ago period. [more]

SAUDI ARABIA AND YEMEN | Yemen's Houthi rebels say at least 44 people were killed in airstrikes Saturday on a village east of the capital, Sanaa, which they blame on Saudi Arabia. The Saudi-led coalition says it intercepted two ballistic missiles and a cruise missile fired by the Houthis at Riyadh and southern Saudi Arabia early today. [more on the airstrikes] [more on the missiles]

AUSTRALIA | Citing the breach of a government health department website by a rogue OpenAI artificial intelligence agent in June, Australia's government said today that it plans to create an AI safety regulator to enforce new standards for frontier AI developers operating in the country. [more]

GERMANY | Following newly announced support from the country's governing parties, Ilse Aigner, the speaker of Bavaria's state legislature, is expected to become Germany's first female president when a special parliamentary assembly votes on January 30. Reports note that the German presidency is a largely ceremonial and representative role. [more]

SPAIN | A police officer was killed, and another was seriously injured, today when a backpack containing an explosive device detonated at the scene of a shooting in the northern Spanish city of Oviedo. Authorities say the suspect in the shooting, which wounded a woman, remains at large. [more]

TURKEY | At least 16 people were killed, and 13 others were injured, yesterday in an explosion and fire at a steel plant in Aliaga, in Turkey's western Izmir province. Officials say a crane fell into a furnace during maintenance work, causing the blast, and that the incident remains under investigation. [more]

MYANMAR | State media reported today that Myanmar's military has seized a key command headquarters of the opposition National Unity Government and 10 other resistance bases along the border between Mon state and the Bago region during a six-day operation that began last week. [more]

CONGO | A military court in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has reportedly sentenced at least 66 soldiers to death for cowardice, mutiny, and refusing to obey orders after they allegedly abandoned their positions during clashes with a coalition of rebel groups. Reports note that no executions have been carried out since the country lifted a moratorium on the death penalty in 2024. [more]

AI INDUSTRY | Artificial intelligence giant Anthropic today set a price range of $70 to $78 per share for its planned initial public offering, which could value the company at as much as $1.4 trillion. The company is reported to be planning to list its shares as soon as next week. [more]

AVIATION INDUSTRY | After saying last month that it would miss its 737 jetliner production and delivery targets this year, Boeing told employees in an internal memo yesterday that it plans to cut 5% of the workforce in its commercial airplanes division. [more]

COLLEGE FOOTBALL | The College Football Playoff and broadcaster ESPN announced yesterday that the playoff will expand from 12 to 24 teams beginning next season, replacing the major conferences' championship games. [more]

COLLEGE BASKETBALL | Florida is No. 1 atop the first regular-season AP Top 25 men's college basketball poll, released yesterday, followed by Duke, Illinois, UConn, and Michigan State. In the women's poll, South Carolina is No. 1, followed by Michigan, Southern California, UConn, and Duke. [full men's poll] [full women's poll] [more on the men's poll] [more on the women's poll]

LITERATURE | British writer M. John Harrison was named the winner of the 2026 Booker Prize for fiction yesterday for his novel "The End of Everything," the first work of science fiction to win the award. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1775, the United States Marine Corps was founded when the Continental Congress ordered that two battalions of marines be raised for service during the American Revolutionary War. [more history]