November 14, 2025

MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional conflicts:

• Russia, China, and some Arab countries are reported to be among the nations who have expressed uncertainty about the most recent U.S. proposal at the United Nations for establishing an international stabilization force in Gaza, questioning the role of a so-called "Board of Peace" that would temporarily govern the Palestinian enclave and criticizing the lack of any transitional role for the Palestinian Authority. [more]
• Reports cite both U.S. and British officials as saying Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker today as it traveled through the Strait of Hormuz, though Iran, which has previously threatened to close off the strait, has not acknowledged the seizure. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 1,359 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• In an attack comprising hundreds of drones and missiles, Russian strikes killed at least four people, and wounded 34 others, overnight in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. [more]
• Reports say Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiysk temporarily suspended oil exports, equivalent to 2.2 million barrels per day, or 2% of global supply, today due to Ukrainian drone attacks that damaged port infrastructure. [more]

U.S. CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING | The U.S. Justice Department yesterday joined a lawsuit filed by the California Republican Party aimed at blocking voter-approved congressional redistricting in California, claiming that the state unlawfully used race as a factor in drawing new districts. [more]

U.S. PRESIDENCY | In a personal letter to the White House today, the British Broadcasting Corporation, or BBC, apologized to President Donald Trump for the editing of a video of his speech on January 6, 2021, that made it appear as if he made a direct call for violent action at the U.S. Capitol. Reports say the letter maintains that the BBC did not defame Trump, rejecting the basis for a threatened $1 billion lawsuit. [more]

NORTH CAROLINA | According to a statement from Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden, federal officials have confirmed a plan for U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to start an immigration enforcement operation as early as this weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina. [more]

TEXAS | Regents for the Texas A&M University System, which comprises 12 schools, implemented a new policy yesterday that requires university professors to receive approval from the school president to discuss some race and gender topics. The policy states that no academic course “will advocate race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity” without prior approval. [more]

U.S. AND EUROPE TERRORIST DESIGNATIONS | The U.S. State Department yesterday designated four European left-wing groups as "Specially Designated Global Terrorists" as part of what it said is "President Trump’s historic commitment to confront Antifa’s campaign of political violence." The groups so designated include: Armed Proletarian Justice (Greece), Revolutionary Class Self-Defense (Greece), Informal Anarchist Federation/International Revolutionary Front (Italy), and Antifa Ost (Germany). Reports note that the groups have no known operations in the United States. [press release] [fact sheet] [more]

U.S. LATIN AMERICA TRADE | The White House announced yesterday that trade agreement frameworks have been agreed upon with Argentina, Ecuador, El Salvador and Guatemala. U.S. officials say the agreements, which are aimed at security "commitments on economic and national security issues to strengthen supply chains and trade partnerships in the region" and providing "American exporters with unprecedented access to markets in Central and South America," are expected to be finalized and signed in the coming weeks. [White House fact sheet] [more]

GLOBAL INEQUALITY | Ahead of this month's Group of 20 summit in South Africa, a new report and open letter from hundreds of the world’s leading economists and other experts calls for the establishment of a new International Panel on Inequality to advise governments on how to address issues related to global financial inequality, which authors say leads to more political instability and conflicts, and “decreased confidence in democracy.” The report notes that between 2000 and 2024, the richest 1% captured 41% of all new wealth created in the world, while one in four people globally experienced some form of food insecurity. [full report] [more]

SUDAN | The U.N. Human Rights Council is holding a one-day special session in Geneva, Switzerland, today to highlight recent atrocities committed by paramilitary forces in Sudan's ongoing civil war. [more]

INDONESIA | Authorities in Indonesia's Central Java province say landslides brought on by several days of heavy rain hit dozens of houses in three villages overnight, killing at least three people and leaving 21 others missing. [more]

TAIWAN | In the first such arms transaction of the second Trump administration, the U.S. approved a $330 million sale of fighter jet and other aircraft parts to Taiwan yesterday. [more]

AFRICA | The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said in a briefing yesterday that Africa is facing its worst outbreak of cholera in 25 years, with about 300,000 cases and suspected cases of the disease and more than 7,000 related deaths reported so far this year across the continent. [more]

CYBERSECURITY AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | AI firm Anthropic announced yesterday that it recently detected and mitigated what is believed to be the first-ever cyberattacks carried out by AI agents without substantial human intervention. The company says the attacks, which targeted about 30 large tech companies, financial institutions, chemical manufacturing companies, and government agencies around the world by manipulating Anthropic's Claude AI agent, were assessed to be based in a Chinese state-sponsored group. [full report] [more]

SPACE | Blue Origin successfully launched its New Glenn rocket yesterday on a mission to place two Mars orbiters into the initial positions from which they will eventually travel to Mars, arriving in 2027. [more]

BASEBALL | The Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani and the New York Yankees' Aaron Judge have been named Major League Baseball's most valuable players for this season in the National and American leagues, respectively. [more]

ENTERTAINMENT AWARDS | Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny won the album of the year award for "Debí Tirar Más Fotos" last night at the 26th Latin Grammy Awards, while Paloma Morphy was named best new artist and the best traditional tropical album award went to Gloria Estefan for "Raíces." [full list of awardees] [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1889, American journalist Nellie Bly began her around-the-world race against the record of Phileas Fogg, hero of Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days. She completed the journey in slightly more than 72 days. [more history]