“The US carried out strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, an American official said late Monday on the eve of crucial midterm elections, which US President Donald Trump has signaled could mark the start of resumed war with Iran. The strikes, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, appeared to be limited and were not a resumption of major combat operations, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Another official said the strikes were defensive measures against Iranians ‘using surface-to-air missiles against US assets.'” (11/03/26)
“The Supreme Court on Monday quickly rejected the Trump administration’s effort to force California officials to set aside 20,000 ballots it claims belong to likely noncitizens and must be investigated. The court’s one-sentence order contained no explanation and had no noted dissents. California and immigration rights groups question the veracity of the administration’s list and say its lawsuit is an attempt to disenfranchise legal voters. The administration raced its claims to the Supreme Court earlier on Monday after California persuaded lower courts that the administration has no legal right to push the state to comply. The administration warned that the clock was running out. All sides agree that ballots can’t be separated once they’re processed, and election officials have already received hundreds of thousands of mail ballots ahead of polls opening on Tuesday.” (11/02/26)
“Russian forces have bombed an aid centre in Ukraine, killing at least 29 people, according to Ukrainian officials, as the United States announced plans for new peace talks on November 10 and 11. The aid centre, at a school in the village of Komyshuvakha in the Zaporizhzhia region, had been closed to students because the village sits too close to the front line, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday. Instead, it served as a shelter and as a weekly distribution point for aid packages, which residents who remain in the village collected every Monday. … Hours after the attack, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said that delegations from Ukraine and Russia would meet in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, on November 10 and 11.” (11/02/26)
“The New York Times sued Brave, the 11-year-old, privacy-focused browser company, on Monday, alleging it scraped the outlet’s copyrighted content and unlawfully distributed it to customers the suit names as Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere. Separately on Monday, the Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, and the Orlando Sentinel filed a similar lawsuit. Both were brought in federal court in Manhattan. The New York Times, which has also sued OpenAI and Perplexity over similar claims, likens Brave to a ‘supplier, dealer, and distributor of stolen [sic] copyrighted content’ for AI companies.” (11/02/26)
“Friday’s late-night confrontation at Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal, which drew riot police and protesters and prompted President Karol Nawrocki to turn his plane around and return to Warsaw, has reignited a bitter debate over whether Prime Minister Donald Tusk is restoring the rule of law or overstepping constitutional limits. The dispute erupted after the tribunal announced the suspension of its president, Bogdan Święczkowski, a move that supporters of Tusk’s government described as necessary to restore judicial independence, while critics denounced it as an unconstitutional power grab. Marcin Przydacz, the head of the International Policy Bureau in Nawrocki’s office, took to European TV Monday morning denouncing Tusk’s actions, saying, ‘Even lawyers who are close to the Tusk government say that there’s absolutely no legal basis for such behavior.’ The dispute is also triggering diplomatic fallout, with at least three Polish ambassadors resigning in protest.” (11/02/26)
“Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have advanced to within 80 km (50 miles) of Aden, the main stronghold and temporary capital of the country’s internationally recognised government, four military sources told Reuters on Monday. The advance brings the Houthis closer to Aden than at any point since the early months of the war in 2015, when they briefly entered the city before being driven out. The latest offensive has opened a volatile new front in the wider US-Israeli war on Iran, drawing both the Houthis and Saudi Arabia deeper into the regional conflict.” (11/02/26)
“Emails sent by the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the IRS that praised President Trump may violate the Hatch Act, experts say. ‘Under President Donald J. Trump, the Social Security Administration (SSA) is transforming into a model of excellence, one that meets and exceeds customer expectations for fast, accurate and secure service,’ Frank Bisignano, SSA commissioner and IRS chief executive, wrote in one of the emails, according to The New York Times. The praise of the president just days before Tuesday’s midterms could be a violation of the 1939 law that restricts certain political activities by federal employees.” (11/02/26)
“There has been shock and anger in India over video footage from the CCTV of a school that shows an eight-year-old boy brutally beating a six-year-old girl. The girl, who was seriously injured, is recovering in hospital and is now out of danger but remains traumatised by the assault in Haryana state, her family has said. Police say they have registered a case and the eight-year-old has been sent to a home for juvenile offenders where he is undergoing psychiatric evaluation. The school principal and two other teachers have been suspended for suspected negligence, police say. The incident that took place in a government school in Panchkula in the northern state of Haryana on 28 October came to light at the weekend after the CCTV footage went viral on social media.” (11/02/26)
“A federal magistrate judge threw out charges against two former F.B.I. intelligence officials accused of lying to Congress on Monday, saying that prosecutors had failed in one of their most basic responsibilities: They had not shown there was any probable cause that crimes had been committed in the first place. In an emotional, hourlong address from the bench in Federal District Court in Washington, the magistrate judge, Zia M. Faruqui, said that the case against the former officials — Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides — was a rushed, political prosecution ordered by the White House intended to affect the upcoming midterm elections. Two weeks ago, the administration charged the former officials with falsely minimizing their work on investigations involving Hunter Biden, the son of the former president.” (11/02/26)
“Labour is to stop cooperating with the Green party in 11 councils across England following an ultimatum for Greens in local government to disown a new policy stating that ‘Zionism is racism’. A statement from Labour said coalitions or other deals with Greens would stop in all local authorities where they had refused to condemn the policy motion passed at their party conference last month, which also called for a single Palestinian state in place of Israel.” (11/02/26)
