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MIDDLE EAST WAR | Day 231.

• An analysis of U.K. maritime agency data by BBC Verify indicates that a record 12 ships reported being attacked in and around the Strait of Hormuz from October 5 to 11, the most in any week since the Middle East war began. [more]
• Bloomberg cites unnamed sources as saying top Pentagon officials intend to withhold, at least until after next month's mid-term elections, an internal report on the U.S. strike that hit a school in Minab, Iran, on the first day of the Middle East war. More than 120 children are believed to have been killed in the strike. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 1,693 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• In an interview released this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he feels betrayed by U.S. President Donald Trump, citing Trump's energy ceasefire announcement, a U.S. deal to import Russian diesel, and limits on Ukraine's use of Starlink satellite service. Trump, in an interview that aired yesterday, called Ukraine's renewed strikes on Russian refineries a "disgrace" and said he finds Zelenskyy "more difficult to deal with" than Russian President Vladimir Putin. [more]
• Reuters cites unnamed sources as saying a recent order to slow the SpaceX Starshield satellite service in Ukraine, which Ukraine's military relies on for drone operations and battlefield communications, came from inside the White House. A senior U.S. official told Reuters that "no such request was ever made by the president." [more]
• Ukrainian officials say overnight Russian attacks on nine regions of the country killed at least three people, wounded at least 15 others, damaged numerous homes, and caused emergency power outages for hundreds of thousands of households. [more]

U.S. GUN VIOLENCE | Authorities in Bend, Oregon, say a 16-year-old gunman killed three children and a teacher yesterday at the city's Silver Rail Elementary School before being shot dead by a bystander who followed him into the building. Two others, a child and a teacher, were critically wounded in the incident, which remains under investigation. [more]

U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT | Nine FBI employees fired in February for their roles in the investigation of President Donald Trump's alleged retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate following his first term in office sued yesterday to get their jobs back, calling the firings unlawful acts of "political retribution." [more]

U.S. MILITARY | Following bipartisan criticism of the plan, President Donald Trump said in a social media post yesterday that the Pentagon will no longer livestream the December 3 firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people in a 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. [more]

U.S. INFLATION | Labor Department data released yesterday indicate that the Producer Price Index – a key measure of wholesale inflation – rose a higher-than-expected 1.3% from August to September – the largest monthly increase since March 2022. Compared to the year-ago period, the index rose 6.3% in September – the largest annual increase since December 2022. [full report] [more]

U.S. ELECTIONS | In separate election-related developments yesterday:

• The Justice Department sued California, asking a federal judge to block the state from counting mail-in ballots in next month's mid-term elections from more than 20,000 voters the Trump administration alleges are likely noncitizens until their immigration status is verified. Reports cite California Secretary of State Shirley Weber as saying the administration has provided no evidence to support the claims of non-citizenship. [more]
• The Associated Press cites a notice sent to U.S. Senate offices as saying letters containing "suspicious substances" have been mailed to congressional as well as election offices in multiple states, and that the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the U.S. Capitol Police are investigating. [more]
• A lawsuit filed by voting rights and privacy groups, including the League of Women Voters, alleges that the Department of Homeland Security has obtained voter files from at least 47 states and handled the data in ways that violate federal law. [more]

U.S. PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS | A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is scheduled to hear arguments today in a case over the Trump administration's claim that the Presidential Records Act – the 1978 law that requires presidential records to be turned over to the National Archives – is unconstitutional, and that papers created in the White House belong to the president himself. A federal judge ruled against the administration's claim earlier this year. [more]

U.S., TAIWAN, AND CHINA | Taiwan's economic affairs minister said in an interview published today that the island territory will, in line with commitments under its trade deal with the U.S., make it a criminal offense to ship restricted artificial intelligence chips and servers to China. [more]

FINANCIAL CYBERSECURITY | Following an International Monetary Fund warning this week that an artificial intelligence-enabled cyberattack on a financial institution could undermine confidence in the global financial system, finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of Seven advanced economies have reportedly agreed to hold exercises simulating such attacks to test responses and countermeasures. [more]

CANADA | Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney urged Albertans yesterday to vote against beginning the process of separating from Canada in this coming Monday's provincial referendum, warning that "some outside our borders are working to break us so they can own us." Reports note that polls indicate most Albertans support remaining part of Canada. [more]

BRAZIL | A justice of Brazil's top electoral court yesterday ordered Facebook parent company Meta to ensure equal treatment of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and opposition candidate Flávio Bolsonaro on its platforms ahead of their October 25 presidential runoff. The order came after Lula's campaign accused Meta of using biased algorithms to favor Bolsonaro. [more]

TURKEY | At least four people died in Istanbul, Turkey, this week in what officials say was the city's worst flooding in more than 80 years. Reports say the Istanbul region received more rain in the 48 hours up to Thursday morning than the combined historical average for September and October. [more]

MEXICO | Hurricane Trudy, currently off Mexico's southwestern Pacific coast, intensified overnight into a Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph and is expected to strengthen further before approaching the coast tomorrow. Forecasters warn of up to a foot of rain and life-threatening flooding and mudslides from the storm in the Mexican states of Michoacán, Colima, and Jalisco. [official update] [more]

INDIA | Supporters of India's youth-led Cockroach Janta Party movement are expected to demonstrate in New Delhi today, days after police blocked the movement's last mass demonstration and arrested two of its leaders. The protesters are demanding the resignation of India's chief election commissioner over a sweeping voter-roll revision that critics say favors Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. [more]

BASEBALL | The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-4, last night to complete a four-game sweep of the two-time defending champions in MLB's National League Championship Series and advance to their first World Series since 1982. The Brewers will face the winner of the American League Championship Series, in which the Cleveland Guardians lead the Tampa Bay Rays, 2-1. [more]

FILM AWARDS | Actor Al Pacino, whose decades of films include the "Godfather" trilogy, "Dog Day Afternoon," and "Scent of a Woman," has been named the 62nd recipient of the SAG-AFTRA Life Achievement Award, which he will receive at the Screen Actors Guild's Actor Awards ceremony on February 28. [full announcement] [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1846, Boston dentist William T.G. Morton gave the first public demonstration of ether as a general anesthetic, before a gathering of physicians at Massachusetts General Hospital. The surgery, in which a tumor was removed from a patient's neck without apparent pain, led to the rapid adoption of anesthesia in operating rooms around the world. [more history]