November 19, 2025

MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional conflicts:

• Five days after seizing the ship as it traveled through the Strait of Hormuz, Iran today released the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Talara and its crew. Iran has issued no comments on either the seizure or the release. [more]
• Lebanese health ministry officials say at least 14 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon over the past day. Israel says the strikes targeted Hezbollah militant assets. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 1,362 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here is your update:

• Ukrainian officials say at least 19 people were killed, and 66 others were wounded, in overnight Russian drone and missile attacks across Ukraine, including one that struck an apartment building in the city of Ternopil. [more]

U.S. EPSTEIN INVESTIGATION | Both the House and Senate voted yesterday to approve a measure that would force the Justice Department to publicly release its files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. President Trump has indicated he will sign the bill into law. [more]

U.S. POLITICS | In separate court rulings on legislative districting this week:

• A federal judge ordered Alabama on Monday to use a new court-selected state Senate map in upcoming elections after ruling that districts drawn by lawmakers illegally diluted the voting power of Black residents in the state’s capital city of Montgomery. [more]
• A panel of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas ruled yesterday that there was "substantial evidence" of racial gerrymandering in a new congressional districting map drawn up by Texas legislators and blocked use of the map in upcoming elections. Texas has filed an appeal of the ruling. [more]

U.S. NUCLEAR ENERGY | The Department of Energy announced yesterday that it will loan $1 billion to Constellation Energy to finance the restart of the one remaining nuclear power plant on Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island. Reports note that Constellation's plan to restart the reactor is part of an agreement with tech giant Microsoft, which has agreed to purchase power generated at the site for use in its data centers. [more]

U.S. BROADCASTING | Under the terms of a settlement announced yesterday, National Public Radio will receive about $36 million in previously withheld funding from the federal government's Corporation for Public Broadcasting to operate the public radio satellite interconnection system that underlies nationwide public radio broadcasts. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, following criticism of NPR by President Donald Trump, had previously said it would re-direct the funds to a new entity called Public Media Infrastructure. [more]

TEXAS | Gov. Greg Abbott signed a proclamation yesterday designating two large Muslim civil rights and advocacy groups, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Brotherhood, as "transnational criminal organizations" and "foreign terrorist organizations." Reports note that neither group is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government and cite Abbot as saying the proclamation allows Texas to try to shut down the organizations' operations in the state. [more]

U.S. IMMIGRATION | The Associated Press cites planning documents and unnamed sources as saying the Department of Homeland Security plans to deploy about 250 federal immigration agents to New Orleans, Louisiana, in the coming weeks for a two-month immigration enforcement surge aimed at arresting some 5,000 people across southeast Louisiana and into Mississippi. [more]

U.S. AND MEXICO | Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said yesterday that her government has rejected multiple offers from U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio for U.S. military intervention in Mexico to fight drug cartels and other criminal groups. [more]

U.S. AND SAUDI ARABIA | Following meetings between U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman at the White House yesterday, Trump said the U.S. would designate Saudi Arabia a major non-NATO ally and Prince Mohammad said his country would increase its pledged financial investments in the U.S. from $600 billion to $1 trillion. [White House fact sheet] [more]

POLAND | Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said today that Poland will order Russia's last remaining consulate in the country closed after investigators said two Ukrainian citizens working for Russian intelligence were suspected of sabotaging a railway line earlier this week. [more]

U.K. AND RUSSIA | British Defense Minister John Healey said today that "military options" are available if needed after a Russian spy ship operating in international waters near Scotland directed lasers at Royal Air Force planes monitoring the vessel. [more]

BRAZIL | A panel of the Brazilian Supreme Court sentenced nine former high-ranking military officials and a federal police officer to up to 24 years in prison yesterday after finding them guilty of attempting a coup and plotting to kill President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and other authorities as part of plans to overturn Brazil's 2022 election in which Lula defeated former President Jair Bolsonaro. [more]

E.U. TECH REGULATIONS | Reports say the European Union plans to announce efforts to streamline its AI and privacy laws and to clarify overlapping regulations in measures including the bloc's GDPR, AI Act, e-Privacy Directive, and Data Act laws. [more]

JAPAN | Authorities say more than 170 homes have been destroyed, and one person has died, in a fire that started yesterday and spread overnight in the Saganoseki district of the Japanese city of Oita. Reports note that the fire is Japan's largest urban blaze in nearly 50 years. [more]

TECH INDUSTRY | In a major antitrust ruling yesterday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said that Facebook parent company Meta does not hold a monopoly in social networking, rejecting Federal Trade Commission efforts to force the company to spin off its Instagram and WhatsApp products. [more]

SOCCER | With a 0-0 draw in a qualifying match against Jamaica yesterday, the Caribbean island nation of Curaçao became the smallest nation by population ever to qualify for a World Cup. According to the country's census data, Curaçao had a population of 156,115 as of January 2025. [more]

TENNIS | The International Tennis Hall of Fame announced today that Roger Federer has been elected to membership in the Hall in his first year of eligibility. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1863, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered the brief but renowned Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the National Cemetery in Pennsylvania during the American Civil War. [full text of the Gettysburg Address] [more history]