Iran

• Vance requests renewed talks in letter to Iran’s security chief: Vice President JD Vance sent a letter to Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, proposing renewed direct negotiations as the Trump administration considers launching a short, intense military campaign against Iran after next week’s U.S. midterm elections, the Wall Street Journal reported.

  • The letter was delivered through Qatari mediators on Sunday. In it, Vance proposed a meeting as early as next week, to be potentially held in Qatar or Turkey. Vance would lead the U.S. delegation, the New York Times reported. Discussions have so far focused on a negotiating framework rather than specific terms, as Washington demands upfront nuclear concessions while Tehran seeks immediate economic relief.

  • President Donald Trump confirmed on Wednesday that he had approved Vance’s outreach, but he characterized it as an effort to facilitate medical supplies. “They need help with medical supplies and various things,” Trump told reporters. “He asked me what I thought. I said, ‘If you want to do that, that’s OK.’”

  • Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X: “While our Brave Armed Forces are fully prepared to defend the Homeland, Iran continues to give diplomacy a chance to succeed.” He added that Tehran remained “in close and ongoing contact with intermediaries” to explore implementing Iran’s seven-day plan “in even less than a week.”

• AP: U.S. warns regional allies to prepare for possible renewed war in Iran: U.S. officials told several Middle East allies to prepare for renewed military action against Iran after the U.S. midterm elections next week, two diplomats briefed on the matter told the Associated Press.

  • The diplomatic sources told the AP that the U.S. informed regional allies that the new round of military action could last for several days, but regional officials are preparing for Iranian retaliation that could lead to a longer fight.

  • U.S. officials urged regional allies to take precautionary measures against Iranian retaliatory strikes targeting energy facilities and other crucial infrastructure, according to AP.

  • President Trump has not made a final decision on whether to carry out new strikes against Iran, the diplomats said.

• Iran claims three oil tankers struck mines near Strait of Hormuz: Three oil tankers caught fire after striking naval mines south of the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday and Thursday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy said on Thursday.

  • The IRGC said the vessels had switched off their radar and navigation systems, ignored warnings, and attempted to pass through an “unauthorized” southern route.

  • Separately, the UK Maritime Trade Operations said on Thursday that a ship had been spotted on fire nine nautical miles north of Khasab, Oman. The crew’s condition, the extent of the damage, and the environmental impact remain unknown.

  • IRGC spokesperson Hossein Mohebi reiterated that the Strait of Hormuz remains “under the strategic control of the Iranian armed forces and will never be opened until the Islamic Republic’s conditions are fully met,” in comments quoted by the Fars news agency on Thursday.

• Iran claims capture of one U.S. spy drone, downing of another over Hormuz: The IRGC claimed on Thursday that it captured an intact U.S. MQM-170 reconnaissance and decoy drone west of the Strait of Hormuz. The IRGC electronic warfare unit allegedly took control of the aircraft’s guidance systems and took it down.

  • The IRGC said, without providing evidence, that the U.S. deployed the drone to identify Iranian air defense positions along the Persian Gulf coast and had taken off from an unnamed Gulf country.

  • Separately, the IRGC said that it intercepted and destroyed a U.S. MQ-1 drone over the eastern Strait of Hormuz, the 14th MQ-1 drone it says it has shot down.

  • The U.S. military has not commented on the IRGC’s claims.

• Hegseth fires Pentagon’s top military planner: U.S. War Secretary Pete Hegseth fired Brett Sylvia, the Pentagon’s top military planner. Sylvia served as director of strategy, plans, and policy on the Joint Staff, a key position responsible for coordinating military planning and advising the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the president.

  • A Pentagon official accused Sylvia of leaking classified information related to the wars in Iran and Ukraine, according to CBS News, though the allegations have not been independently substantiated. Sylvia’s dismissal is the latest in a series of departures involving nearly two dozen senior military leaders under Hegseth.

Palestine

• Israeli drone strike in central Gaza kills two Palestinians: Two Palestinians were killed and several others wounded on Thursday in an Israeli drone strike targeting a vehicle near the entrance to the Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, according to WAFA.

• Israeli forces demolish homes in the occupied West Bank as Hebron siege enters seventh day:

  • Hebron: Israel’s military assault entered its seventh consecutive day on Thursday, with more than 780 families affected and approximately 5,000 Palestinians forcibly displaced or confined to their homes, particularly in the sealed-off neighborhoods of Al-Jalda and Deir Bahha, WAFA reported. More than 115 Palestinians have been arrested since the operation began.

    • Israeli restrictions have disrupted in-person education for an estimated 80,000 students across the governorate, with 66 schools directly affected.

    • On Thursday, Israeli forces arrested seven Palestinians and injured two others during raids.

    • In Tarqumiya, northwest of Hebron, Israeli bulldozers demolished an inhabited home, leaving seven family members homeless.

  • Salfit: Israeli forces demolished three homes in Deir Ballut and Bruqin. In the Wadi Al-Ahmar area, Israeli settlers stole olives from Palestinian farmland that owners had been prevented from accessing. Settlers fired live ammunition toward a Palestinian farmer who encountered them.

  • Jericho: Israeli forces demolished agricultural structures and bulldozed farmland east of Jericho.

  • Ramallah and Al-Bireh: Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian olive harvesters in Kafr Malik, northeast of Ramallah.

• Israeli settlers beat U.S. journalist and Russian activists in West Bank: Israeli settlers attacked U.S. journalist Jasper Nathaniel and two Russian activists in the Palestinian village of Umm Al-Khair in Masafer Yatta, in the occupied West Bank, before Israeli authorities arrested two of the victims, according to Russian activist Adele Shoko.

  • Videos shared by Shoko show several men, some armed, beating Nathaniel and Russian activist Andrey X. “Andrey was severely beaten and lost consciousness several times in front of police,” Shoko wrote, adding that he was denied hospital treatment and taken to a police station instead.

  • “Jasper and I were also beaten. Jasper was then pepper-sprayed and arrested.” Another video showed Nathaniel shouting, “I just got beat up,” as Israeli forces led him away.

• Health Ministry stresses urgency of increased medical evacuations through Rafah: On Thursday, the Gaza Health Ministry reiterated its call for the opening of the Rafah crossing to allow for patients requiring medical treatment to leave and to increase the number of people allowed to travel on medical evacuations.

  • “The successive and sudden closures of the crossings, and the deliberate slowness in the procedures, have turned the file of medical transfers from a humanitarian rescue path to a fatal obstacle; which caused a serious deterioration in the health conditions of thousands of wounded and sick, and the loss of dozens of them to their lives while waiting to be allowed to travel,” the ministry said in a statement.

  • Last week, Drop Site News reported that the entire functioning of the Rafah crossing was in jeopardy after the UN informed Palestinian officials that, beginning in mid-November, it would stop receiving Palestinians returning from Egypt and coordinating their entry into Gaza, citing the dangers facing returnees and repeated Israeli arrests.

  • In response to inquiries from Drop Site, UN Public Information Officer Daria Carmon responded: “At this time we are reassessing the UN facilitated return operations into Gaza through Rafah crossing. We will make a public pronouncement about our position once the review is completed later this month. The UN remains fully committed to continue supporting medical evacuation missions through Rafah Crossing.”

Yemen

• Nearly 1,700 killed and 281,000 displaced in Yemen since August: At least 1,677 people have been killed and 7,395 injured in Yemen since August amid escalating fighting, according to the World Health Organization. Between October 20 and 25 alone, the WHO recorded 559 casualties, averaging approximately 93 killed or injured per day.

  • More than 281,000 people have been displaced by fighting in Yemen since the beginning of August, with over half sheltering in Taiz governorate, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

  • Humanitarian access has deteriorated over the past three weeks after damage to a key road connecting Taiz to southern governorates forced aid deliveries onto narrow mountain routes.

  • Three-quarters of displaced Yemenis are sheltering in sites with inadequate water, sanitation, and shelter, while more than 35,000 families lack shelter assistance and over 230,000 people need emergency water and sanitation support.

  • In Marib, only six of 31 mobile medical teams remain operational, and 15 health facilities have shut down entirely.

• Ansarallah reports 101 airstrikes by Saudi-backed forces across Yemen: Ansarallah reported 101 airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition across the country over the past 24 hours, including strikes targeting the Dhubab and Mocha districts near the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait.

  • Separately, Saudi-backed Yemeni forces said that they carried out two airstrikes on an Ansarallah military camp in the al-Ash’oub area west of Taiz.

  • Meanwhile, air traffic at Aden International Airport resumed following a sixth Ansarallah attack on the facility, which caused casualties and damage.

  • The National Human Rights Authority in Sana’a said on Thursday that a Saudi strike on a paint factory near the city of Taiz caused a large fire and could release toxic gases and contaminate nearby soil and groundwater. It said that the attack was a war crime.

• HRW: Ansarallah depriving civilians of food, medicine in Taiz: Human Rights Watch on Thursday accused Ansarallah, also known as the Houthis, of endangering civilians in Taiz city by enforcing a siege on hundreds of thousands of residents in the city.

  • “Renewed efforts by the Houthis to cut off food, water, and medicine to Taizz show their utter disregard for civilian lives,” Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “Throughout the 12-year-long siege of [Taiz], the Houthis have bombed, starved, and denied humanitarian aid to a million residents of the city with scant adherence to international law.”

  • An Ansarallah spokesperson told Human Rights Watch that Saudi-backed government forces were blocking roads into the city. But residents, civil society workers, and United Nations officials blamed Ansarallah for the shortages, Human Rights Watch said.

Lebanon

• Hezbollah leader calls Israeli election results “an expression of defeat,” rejects disarmament: Israel’s election results were “one of the expressions of defeat,” Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem said on Wednesday, pointing to what he described as Israel’s internal political, economic, and social crises.

  • “We do not concern ourselves with who governs Israel, but let it be perfectly clear that it cannot continue its occupation and must leave our land,” he said, vowing to continue resistance regardless of the election outcome.

  • Qassem insisted there was “no room for discussion” about disarming Hezbollah as long as Israel continues its occupation and attacks on Lebanon, and called for an Israeli withdrawal under the November 2024 ceasefire agreement and UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

  • He also declared the June 26 Lebanon-Israel framework agreement “null and void.” Amid concerns that Hezbollah could enter another war in support of Iran, Qassem did not clarify whether the group would intervene if the U.S. or Israel launched new attacks, but said the U.S.-Iran agreement had helped reduce Israeli attacks on Lebanon.

U.S. News

• DoorDash buys Instacart for $17 billion: The food delivery giant Doordash announced on Thursday that it purchased the grocery delivery app Instacart for $17 billion, the New York Times reported. It is DoorDash’s largest acquisition to date. The deal could face antitrust scrutiny and pushback from grocers and gig workers. The deal is expected to close in 2027 or 2028. DoorDash completed 993 million orders in the third quarter, up 28%, while Instacart, once valued at $39 billion by private investors, has a market capitalization of about $14 billion and relationships with more than 2,200 retailers.

• Dolores Huerta, labor leader and civil rights figure who co-founded United Farm Workers, dies at 96: Labor and civil rights leader Dolores Huerta died on Wednesday at her home in Bakersfield, Calif., of cancer, a family spokesman said. Alongside Cesar Chavez she founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962, and led the 1960s and ‘70s strikes and boycotts that helped many California grape-growers consolidate worker power. She served as the union’s vice president for nearly four decades. Over her working life, police arrested her 22 times. In 1988, she was severely beaten by a San Francisco police officer—a case settled by the city for $825,000. Huerta is widely believed to have coined the phrase “Sí se puede.” President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. In early 2026, she told the New York Times that Chavez raped her in 1966, and that two of her children resulted from sexual encounters with him. She is survived by 13 of her 14 children, 24 grandchildren, 23 great-grandchildren, and seven great-great-grandchildren.

• Fed holds rates steady: The Federal Reserve kept its benchmark rate at 3.75% to 4% on Wednesday, with governor Lisa Cook and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack dissenting in favor of a quarter-point increase. The Fed rated economic activity as “strong,” up from “solid.” Traders see an 85% chance of a rate hike in December, according to CME’s FedWatch Tool. Inflation has come in above target and Thursday’s PCE report is expected to show a rate of 3.6% for the year through September. Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh said that starting next year, one of the eight annual Federal Open Market Committee meetings will focus solely on monetary policy strategy.

  • It was Cook’s first dissent, coming ahead of a White House hearing next week on Trump’s bid to remove her over alleged mortgage fraud, which her lawyers call a pretext.

• Leak exposes records of more than 41,000 DHS employees and contractors, including undercover ICE agents: The transparency nonprofit Distributed Denial of Secrets published an archive it calls “Icepick” on Wednesday, which contains the records of more than 41,000 DHS employees and contractors. In a press release, DDoSecrets said the information comes from DHS’s Okta login system and was obtained by a group that calls itself the Department of Peace. That group attached a note that said, “They have our information, so it’s only fair that we have theirs.” The records, last updated on August 19, cover the DHS and seven component agencies, including emails, phone numbers, office addresses, supervisor names, and permission groups referencing undercover agents, and surveillance programs. DHS said it was working to address a potential security breach.

• Judge rejects Trump administration bid to set aside 20,000 California ballots: Judge David O. Carter, a Bill Clinton appointee, ruled on Wednesday that the Trump administration’s demand that California sequester 20,000 ballots “would wreak havoc and disrupt the election that is already underway” and “discount the votes of United States citizens.” Carter wrote that “never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own constitutional elections procedures.” He noted that the Department of Justice has filed at least 31 suits seeking state voter rolls and has won “precisely zero” of the 26 suits decided so far. He called the DOJ’s effort part of “a broad, ongoing pattern of attempted election interference.” The DOJ immediately appealed the ruling.

• DOJ turned a rights-group informant into the government’s own: The rights group Southern Poverty Law Center said one of its informants was flipped by the Trump administration, and became a government informant, according to court papers the SPLC filed on Wednesday. SPLC lawyers said that the informant “F-9,” who worked with the group from 1996 and was paid at least $1.2 million over 16 years, has met DOJ prosecutors more than 20 times since November 2025 under immunity, exchanged about 1,800 texts with FBI and IRS agents, and given at least four “intelligence briefings” to federal authorities as part of the DOJ’s ongoing fraud case against the group. One of the informant’s PowerPoint presentations bore FBI and IRS seals, as though “he were an actual member of the prosecution team,” the SPLC filings said. The group requested that the court order the informant to preserve all documents, and to grant a subpoena for his materials. In April, the DOJ charged the SPLC with defrauding donors, alleging that the group funneled money to informants inside white-supremacist groups. Defense lawyers said that the case began after a coalition of right-leaning groups complained to senior White House advisor Stephen Miller about the SPLC’s work.

• Trump administration issues more than 100 subpoenas for voter records in at least 13 states ahead of midterms: Reuters identified more than 100 subpoenas issued by the Trump administration, mostly in the past three months, to state and local election officials. The Trump administration sought records on tens of thousands of voters. The federal government targeted Democratic strongholds like Minneapolis, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles, and Republican-leaning Texas, Kansas, and Georgia. Legal experts told Reuters that the federal government could use the records to contest close election results. One expert said that the probes are “setting up” post-election challenges.

• California elites spend $612 million to defeat billionaire tax: Seventy past and current California billionaires have spent a record-setting $612 million to block a one-time, 5% tax on their wealth, a Politico analysis found. That spending has pushed support for the tax below 50%, according to two new polls.

• Company linked to Darline Graham’s husband was sanctioned for arming Russia against Ukraine: Lindsey Graham’s central political ambition was to confront and contain Russia. The former South Carolina senator died within hours of returning from Ukraine, where he toured a drone factory as one of his last acts on his earth. His sister Darline Graham now holds his seat and is on the ballot next week. It turns out that her husband works for a company linked to a Chinese firm sanctioned in 2024 for providing sophisticated military tech to Russia. Read more here.

• CNN Senate poll finds Democrats up in Michigan, Kansas, Maine, and Texas: President Trump is heading to South Carolina to stave off Republican catastrophe there, while polls show potentially competitive races in Iowa, Nebraska, Florida, Mississippi, and Arkansas. Four new surveys from CNN put Democrats on top in critical races:

  • Michigan

    • Abdul El-Sayed (D): 49%

    • Mike Rogers (R): 42%

  • Kansas

    • Adam Hamilton (D): 49%

    • Roger Marshall (R): 45%

  • Maine

    • Troy Jackson (D): 49%

    • Susan Collins (R): 45%

  • Texas

    • James Talarico (D): 49%

    • Ken Paxton (R): 43%

Other International News

• Russian drone strike on Ukraine train station kills at least 14: A Russian jet-powered drone hit a busy train platform in Dnipro, Ukraine, on Thursday, killing at least 13 people. At least 14 others were injured in the attack, six of whom are in critical condition.

  • Russian strikes also hit Kharkiv, damaging an educational institution, and a strike on the Rivne region killed one man.

• Flávio Bolsonaro declares himself Brazil’s rightful “leader” after arriving in Miami: Brazil’s failed right-wing presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, who left Brazil in secret after losing the election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said in a Wednesday letter that he was the rightfully “elected president” of the country. He claimed that the Supreme court and Lula had carried out an “electoral coup” against him. He later amended the letter to say he was Brazil’s “leader” and added that he “did not flee Brazil.” He thanked Argentina’s Javier Milei for helping him travel to the U.S., and thanked Trump for securing visas for him and his family.

• Pakistani court sentences human rights lawyers to 10 years in prison: A Pakistani anti-terrorism court sentenced prominent human rights lawyers Imaan Mazari and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha, to 10 years in prison on Thursday. Their sentences will run concurrently with additional one-year and two-year sentences for obstructing and assaulting government servants. Mazari and her husband were accused of holding a protest in 2024 that blocked a road, and thereby endangered an international cricket team’s security plans. They denied the charges, calling themselves “prisoners of conscience” targeted for their human rights work. Mazari’s mother, Shireen Mazari, a former member of Imran Khan’s cabinet, said that they were not allowed access to their lawyer or given key legal documents in the case. The couple had earlier been sentenced to 17 years in prison for social media posts. That sentence was suspended by Pakistan’s Supreme Court—they were re-arrested for the 2024 protest on the same day.

• Clashes on Pakistan-Afghan border kill one: Clashes on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan killed one person and injured five others, a Pakistani official said on Wednesday, accusing the Afghan Taliban of firing at civilian houses and a market in Pakistan’s Waziristan region on Tuesday. He added that Pakistani forces would respond “effectively and heavily” to the attack.

  • Afghan’s Taliban government said Pakistan carried out four drone attacks on the district commissioner’s office and nearby security facilities in Paktika province, and Afghan defense ministry spokesperson Sedeequllah Nasrat said Afghan forces retaliated against a nearby Pakistani military base, causing several casualties.

  • Pakistan accuses Kabul of harboring militants who stage cross-border attacks, a charge the Afghan government denies. The conflict has killed hundreds of people this year. Drop Site’s latest reporting on the clashes is available here.

• South Korean prosecutors again seek death penalty for ex-President Yoon: South Korean prosecutors renewed their effort to impose the death penalty on former President Yoon Suk-yeol at a Seoul High Court hearing on Thursday. Earlier this year, Yoon was convicted of leading an 2024 insurrection against the state. South Korea halted state executions in 1997, but prosecutors said that was “no reason to hesitate” in sending Yoon to his death. In January, prosecutors failed to secure a death penalty at Yoon’s trial. He was sentenced to life in prison instead.

• Iraq PM visits Damascus: Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi met Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Wednesday. The two reportedly discussed exporting Iraqi oil through Syrian territory, boosting bilateral trade and joint agricultural development, Iraqi News Agency reported. Since the U.S.-led war on Iran began, Iraq has exported oil through Syria. In July, Iraq and Syria signed deals to revive the Haditha-Baniyas pipeline, entrusting a Chevron-led consortium to implement the deal.

• North Korea fires short-range ballistic missiles into Sea of Japan: North Korea fired about 10 missiles into the Sea of Japan on Thursday, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said. The test firings come just days after South Korea proposed military talks with North Korea over a border dispute. In September, a landmine blast in the Demilitarized Zone separating North Korea and South Korea injured three South Korean soldiers, which joint South Korea-UN blamed on mines North Korea planted over a year ago. North Korea rejected the finding, and told the UN Security Council that South Korea fabricated the incident.

• El Salvador to send over 2,000 soldiers to Haiti, increasing military presence: Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele told Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime in a phone call on Wednesday that he will deploy more than 2,000 troops to Haiti. He claimed the military surge is intended to rescue four missing Salvadoran soldiers and support anti-gang operations in the country, according to El Salvador’s foreign ministry. Bukele has already sent hundreds of soldiers to the area. The Haitian prime minister’s office confirmed the call.

  • Separately, Haiti’s government announced it would postpone planned presidential elections until next year. The country has not held national elections since 2016, and its last president was assassinated in 2021. Presidential elections have been repeatedly postponed under transitional administrations.

• U.S. sanctions Rwanda defense ministry and Rwandan financial institution over the eastern Congo conflict: The U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions on Rwanda’s defense ministry and on the Zigama Credit and Savings Society on Wednesday. The U.S. accused the defense ministry of directing the previously sanctioned Rwanda Defense Force to deploy thousands of troops to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And the U.S. accused Zigama, which it said is linked to Rwanda’s security services, of facilitating payments to Chinese and other entities for weapons, and of moving gold from rebel-held Congo to Rwanda. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, “Rwanda must halt its support for M23 and withdraw its troops from eastern DRC.” Rwanda denies backing the rebels, formerly AFC-M23. The Congolese government welcomed the sanctions.

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