Iran

• Iran destroys U.S. early warning radar in Bahrain, IRGC says: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that it destroyed a U.S. early warning radar system in Bahrain in response to an attack on a telecommunications tower in the southern Iranian port of Sirik on Thursday. Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. It is the first Iranian attack on Bahrain since September.

  • “This serves as a serious warning to the aggressor enemy to cease its aerial provocations and oil smuggling in the Strait of Hormuz. Should these violations and acts of aggression recur, the IRGC Aerospace Force stands in full readiness to engage without limits,” the IRGC said.

  • Iran’s navy also said that it shot down an U.S. MQ-1 Predator drone over the Strait of Hormuz, the state-aligned Islamic Republic News Agency reported. The drone was downed on the southern Sirik coast.

• Another tanker hits mine in Hormuz, IRGC says: A liquefied petroleum gas tanker struck a mine in the Strait of Hormuz, causing an explosion, the IRGC said, adding that the Iranian navy sent repeated warnings against using an “unauthorized” south passage through the strait.

• Iran tells UN nuclear agency inspections cannot proceed while under threat from U.S.: Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) this month that discussions on nuclear monitoring cannot proceed while it is under threat from military attacks, the Associated Press reported, citing a confidential report by the IAEA circulated to member states on Friday.

  • Iran said that discussions on nuclear inspections cannot resume amid “a series of persistent, explicit, and public threats by the President of the United States of America . . . to commit further acts of armed aggression” against Iran, “particularly targeting its nuclear facilities.”

  • In a letter to the IAEA, Iran expressed concern about the U.S. State Department’s recent announcement that it would pay up to $20 million for information on Iran’s nuclear program.

  • Iran has not granted IAEA inspectors access to nuclear sites targeted by Israel and the U.S. during the 12-day war in June 2025. The IAEA expressed “increasing concern” about a fuel enrichment plant in Isfahan. Inspectors were due to visit the facility on the day the U.S.-Israeli strikes began in June, but cancelled the inspection. The IAEA said in its report that it “does not know” the site’s “exact location or whether it contains nuclear material.”

• IEA: Global oil market returning to surplus: The global oil market will return to a surplus in the fourth quarter of 2026, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its monthly oil. Exports from the Middle East are recovering despite continued attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

  • “The oil market is showing tentative signs of rebalancing, with global oil supplies surpassing demand for the first time since the outbreak of the war in Iran,” the IEA said.

Palestine

• Israeli military shoots and kills Palestinian in Gaza City: A Palestinian was killed by Israeli gunfire in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City on Friday morning, according to Al Jazeera.

• 49 countries call on Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza: On Thursday, 49 countries issued a joint statement urging Israel to ease its restrictions on aid, warning that its near-total blockade was worsening public-health conditions in Gaza.

  • The signatories called on Israel to allow aid to enter Gaza unhindered, demanding that it reopen humanitarian corridors and approve essential supplies, including so-called “dual-use items” that Israel bans from entering Gaza.

  • “As winter sets in, far too many people in Gaza are still without adequate shelter, and risk exposure to hypothermia, respiratory infections, waterborne diseases and other preventable illnesses,” Britain’s ambassador to the United Nations, Sarah MacIntosh, said at the UN headquarters in New York on Thursday.

  • The appeal specifically emphasized supplies needed for shelter, fuel, water, sanitation, and medical care. It also called on Israel to allow medical patients in Gaza to receive care in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

  • The countries also noted that medical and humanitarian workers and facilities must be protected, urged expedited criminal investigations into Israeli attacks on medical personnel, and demanded that Israel grant senior international delegations and journalists access to Gaza.

  • The initiative was led by Britain, Qatar, and Jordan and backed by countries including Australia, Canada, Egypt, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Spain, and Turkey. The United States did not sign the statement.

• Israeli forces conduct raids, arrest Palestinians across occupied West Bank: Israeli forces conducted raids and arrested Palestinians across the occupied West Bank on Friday, WAFA reported.

  • Israeli soldiers arrested four Palestinians in towns around the city of Jenin.

  • Troops stormed the town of Al-Ubeidiya, east of Bethlehem, firing sound bombs and taking up positions in the town. They raided several neighborhoods in Nablus, and searched homes in the nearby towns of Beit Furik and Beit Dajan.

  • The Israeli army invaded the village of Marda, north of Salfit, with soldiers searching a large number of homes, detaining a number of young men, and subjecting them to field interrogations before releasing them.

Yemen

• Saudi-led coalition kills five civilians in Saada: Shelling by the Saudi-led coalition in the northern governorate of Saada killed five civilians on Friday, Al Jazeera reported.

  • Ansarallah carried out raids on sites in Taiz and attacked government military camps with six ballistic missiles, Al Jazeera reported, citing Ansarallah sources.

• Airlines extend suspension of flights to Saudi Arabia amid continued Ansarallah attacks: International airlines extended flight suspensions to several cities in Saudi Arabia as Ansarallah targets airports, energy facilities, and infrastructure in missile and drone attacks.

  • Several Indian airlines announced that flights to Saudi cities including Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, and Medina would remain suspended until late November. Emirati and Omani carriers announced similar extensions.

  • KLM has cancelled service to late November while British Airways postponed the resumption of its London-Riyadh route until January 2027.

Lebanon

• Israel attacks southern Lebanon, again violating so-called ceasefire: The Israeli military shelled several towns in southern Lebanon on Friday, the Lebanese government–aligned National News Agency reported. Among the towns Israel attacked were Mayfadoun, Talloussah, and Bani Haiyyan. No casualties were reported.

U.S. News

• Sen. Chris Van Hollen announces he will run for Senate majority leader: Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen announced that he will challenge Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for Senate majority leader. In an announcement on Thursday, Van Hollen said that “the American people called for change” in the midterms, adding that the Democratic Party “needs new leadership.” He said that if he was elected, he would use every tool available to the majority to end the Iran War, including leveraging a December funding deadline. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed (D-Mich.) endorsed him after his announcement, while Sens. Angus King (I-Maine) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) criticized Van Hollen’s challenge and defended Schumer as an architect of sweeping Democratic wins in the midterms. Congressional Democrats will choose their leaders in a closed-door caucus in December. To become the party’s majority leader, Schumer or Van Hollen will need the support of 28 of the party’s 55 Senators.

  • Keep track of where senators stand on the leadership vote with Drop Site’s Whip Count.

• CBS: ICE deported a record 483,200 people in 2026: Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported a record 483,200 people in fiscal year 2026, according to Homeland Security data obtained by CBS. The total tops the prior record of 442,640 ICE deportees in the 2025 fiscal year. The nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute found that only about 20% of roughly 980,000 ICE and CBP deportees since January 2025 had ever been convicted of a crime. Exit polls from the midterm elections showed that voters rejected the Trump administration’s far-right immigration policies.

• Peltola maintains lead over Sullivan in Alaska’s Senate race: As of Friday morning, Democratic Senate nominee Mary Peltola leads Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan by 3,975 votes in Alaska’s Senate race, which has not been called. According to data from Decision Desk HQ, Peltola has received over 48.5% of votes, and Sullivan has received over 46.9%. Tens of thousands of ballots from Anchorage and other rural areas have yet to be counted.

• Politico: Mamdani plans to disband the NYPD’s protest unit: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani plans to disband the New York Police Department’s Strategic Response Group, a controversial crowd-control unit that has repeatedly cracked down on nonviolent protesters, Politico reported. A formal announcement is expected as early as next week. Civil-rights advocates and activists have accused the police unit of excessive force and misconduct. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch has supported keeping the SRG unit.

• Trump urges Senate Republicans to pass $350 billion in defense spending: On Thursday, President Donald Trump said that Republican legislators must pass a new $350 billion in defense spending before losing their Congressional majority. “Republicans must deliver for our Warriors. The Democrats never will. The time is NOW,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. A budget outlined passed by the House includes Iran war funding, but it has stalled in the Senate for almost four months. The budget outline provides $60 billion for the Pentagon.

• Donald Trump Jr. leaves advisory role at prediction market Kalshi: Donald Trump Jr. is leaving his advisory role at the prediction market Kalshi, Bloomberg reported. A Kalshi spokesperson said that Trump Jr. and Kalshia “mutually agreed to end Don’s advisory role after his firm’s significant investment in a competitor this past summer,” a reference to his firm 1789 Capital’s stake in the rival prediction company Polymarket, where he is also an adviser.

• Families of U.S. Navy sailors told to prepare for 12-month deployment: At a November 9 town hall, Navy leaders said that the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier will not be home for the holidays. Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao told families at the town hall that the soldiers would return home when there is a “non-nuclear Iran.” The carrier left Naval Station Norfolk, in Virginia, for the Middle East on March 31. At the time, its deployment was expected to last six or seven months. The Navy said that War Secretary Pete Hegseth would decide when to bring the carrier home from the Middle East.

• Trump says possibility of U.S. military operation against Cuba “before I leave”: Asked on Thursday about a military operation against Cuba, President Trump said, “I would like to be able to do it,” adding that he wants to “get Cuba done before I leave.” Trump said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was the administration’s leader on the issue. Earlier this week, Trump told reporters at the White House that the Cuban government would fall “very soon,” and last week at Mar-a-Lago he said that Rubio was “going to work on Cuba.”

Other International News

• Exclusive: Al-Shabaab ambushes U.S.-trained Somali special forces: Al-Shabaab fighters ambushed U.S.-trained Somali forces near the town of Yaqbirweyne, in the volatile Lower Shabelle region, on Thursday, Drop Site News contributor Mohamed Gabobe reports. A five-vehicle convoy of Danab (“Lightning”) Brigade forces was ambushed during a routine patrol, two Somali security officials told Drop Site. The Danab is an elite indigenous counter-terrorism force that the U.S. helped create during the second administration of Barack Obama. It is explicitly tasked with fighting Al-Shabaab. Eight Danab soldiers were killed in the fighting, the officials said, and Al-Shabaab seized two of the convoy’s vehicles. The militant group claimed to have killed 17 Danab troops. Somali forces killed seven Al-Shabaab fighters, according to the Ministry of Defense, including two high-ranking field commanders.

  • The ambush occurred near a recently abandoned U.S. military base, the Baledogle Airfield, that is about 60 miles from Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. Earlier this month, the U.S. confirmed its withdrawal from the base. “The relocation from Baledogle was 100% an economic decision,” Army Lt. Gen. John Brennan, deputy commander of the U.S. military’s Africa command, told reporters this month. “The surface of the airfield was declining to the point where it was becoming dangerous to land aircraft there.” Baledogle was the largest U.S. military base in Somalia.

  • In September, Mohamed Gabobe reported in Drop Site News that the U.S. military is constructing a new base in Bosaso, Somalia, a port city on the shores of the Gulf of Aden. Read the full story here.

• Imran Khan’s sisters released from prison: Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi Khan, two sisters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, were released from prison after 53 days, their lawyer said on Thursday. Their third sister, Aleema Khan, remains in prison. The three sisters were arrested a week before a planned September 27 march demanding the release of their brother Imran Khan, who has been imprisoned since August 2023. The march, organized by his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Party (PTI), was canceled after the federal government suspended the PTI-led government in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Last month, Drop Site contributor Mehr Sher reported on the Pakistani government’s violent crackdown in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Read the full story here.

• Pakistani police and Taliban exchange fire; 10 officers, up to 18 Taliban fighters dead: Pakistani Taliban fighters attacked police officers in the Kohat area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, on Thursday. Ten police officers and 18 Taliban gunmen were killed, according to provincial police, and 12 police officers were wounded. The attack occurred as police officers were returning from a mine in the Gumbat area on Wednesday.

• U.S. State Department releases report on whereabouts of $12 billion taken from Venezuela: On Thursday, the State Department released a 53-page report outlining the U.S. government’s disbursement of over $12 billion in oil and mineral revenue that it has seized from Venezuela since U.S. forces abducted President Nicolás Maduro in January. Of the total sum seized, $169 million remains unaccounted for. The State Department report is heavily redacted, and the identities of many relevant parties to the transactions are unknown. According to the report, as of September almost all of the seized funds were sent to Venezuelan banks, which used foreign-currency exchanges to prop up the Venezuelan bolivar, the country’s currency.

• Russian court sentences rights lawyer for treason: On Thursday, a court in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad sentenced Maria Bontsler, a 66-year-old rights lawyer, to 12 years in prison, plus a year of “restrictions” on her freedom, for treason. Prosecutors accused her of relaying information about criminal cases in Kaliningrad to Ukraine. The rights group Slovo Zashchite said that Bontsler had defended several defendants in political cases, and that her trial was held behind closed doors. Bontsler and her lawyers were barred from attending the trial, the group added, and their participation was limited to presenting a closing statement. Russian courts have previously imprisoned lawyers who take politically sensitive cases, as in the 2025 cases of three lawyers who represented the opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who was killed by poisoning in 2024.

• Russian soldier killed in St. Petersburg car-bombing: A Russian soldier was killed after the SUV he was driving exploded in St. Petersburg, Russia, Reuters reported. Russian police are investigating the killing as a murder. The Russian newspaper Fontanka reported that a 31-year-old suspect planted the bomb under the car of the soldier, said to be a colonel, after conducting at least a month of surveillance. The suspect has fled the country, according to the paper. In August, a Russian serviceman died in a car explosion in St. Petersburg.

• Italian schools mostly stay open despite second day of hoax bomb threats: More than 3,700 Italian schools received bomb threats on Thursday, but only 77 schools were evacuated, after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that only the threats with “concrete elements beyond the mere receipt of a mass email” should be taken seriously. About 6,300 schools received bomb threats on Wednesday. The emails were signed by “Mikhail Andropov,” and threatened Meloni herself. Schools in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Ireland received similar emails but remained in session.

• Indonesian vice president resigns; wiretapping investigation ongoing: Indonesia’s Vice President, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, stepped down on Thursday. He said that he resigned to avoid a prolonged political controversy, though a cabinet minister present at a meeting where his resignation was discussed said that President Prabowo Subianto urged Gibran to defend himself.

  • Separately on Thursday, Indonesian police announced that they gathered enough initial evidence to pursue treason charges against four suspects accused of wiretapping Prabowo. Former police chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo (of no relation to the president) and three senior police officials were arrested last week over suspicion that they monitored phones belonging to President Prabowo, other government officials, activists, and journalists. Listyo Prabowo was a close advisor to President Prabowo.

• Former senior Bolivian judge arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking: On Wednesday, Bolivian authorities arrested Aldo Quezada, the former chief justice of the Santa Cruz departmental court, on suspicion of drug trafficking. He resigned last month after the U.S. restricted his visa over alleged links to drug traffickers. The U.S. government’s visa-restrictions list has also targeted officials in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Quezada is one of several senior Bolivian judicial officials arrested since September. Former Attorney General Roger Mariaca was arrested on September 30 on suspicion of money laundering and drug trafficking. Right-wing President Rodrigo Paz, who took office in November 2025, has sought closer ties with the U.S. Last month, Drop Site’s José Luis Granada Ceja reported on the arrest of Mariaca and the selective use of drug-trafficking accusations to advance U.S. interests in Latin America. Read the full story here.

• Sudanese military leader meets with heads of state from Turkey, Pakistan, and Libya at climate summit: Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan met with Turkish President Recep Erdogan, Pakistani President Shehbaz Sharif, and Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah on the sidelines of the COP31 climate summit in Turkey on Thursday. Al-Burhan’s office said that the meetings focused on political and security issues in Sudan and diplomatic and economic relations among the countries.

• UN peacekeepers, South Sudanese authorities failed to prevent massacre in South Sudanese village, Amnesty says: The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) was warned about a March 2026 attack in Abiemnom, South Sudan, but did not reinforce its peacekeeping ranks until after the attack, Amnesty International said in a report on Thursday. As many as 1,500 armed men attacked the village of Abiemnom, shooting residents, burning more than 230 structures, and looting a hospital. More than 200 people died. After Amnesty released the report, a UNMISS spokesperson said that cuts to the UN peacekeeping force’s budget required the force to concentrate on protecting about 2,500 people sheltering at its base. The spokesperson said that UNMISS repeatedly asked the South Sudanese army for more forces. The UN Security Council renewed the UNMISS mandate in April, but cut its troop count from 17,000 to 12,000.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Al-Shabaab killed two high-ranking field commanders in the Somali Danab Brigade. In fact, the Danab Brigade killed two Al-Shabaab commanders.

📖 READ Democrats Missed Hegseth Impeachment Vote While at a Fundraiser with Defense Lobbyists

📖 READ Palm Beach County’s Israel Bonds Holdings Hit 24% of Portfolio Last Month

🛒 SHOP for your Drop News/Not Bombs Hoodie

💬 JOIN our Whatsapp Broadcast Channel for the latest reporting, podcasts, and breaking news, delivered directly

⚠️ TOO MANY EMAILS? You can go to your account settings to unsubscribe from the Drop Site Daily newsletter—while still getting the rest of our reporting