NEWS

The short-range weapon is believed to have flown 700km (435 miles) and landed in the East Sea, otherwise known as the Sea of Japan.

North Korea has fired at least one ballistic missile towards its eastern waters, the South Korean military has said, just days after United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited South Korea for annual security talks.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed the development on Friday, saying the short-range missile flew 700km (435 miles) towards the East Sea, otherwise known as the Sea of Japan.

The Japanese government also said North Korea had launched a missile, adding that it is likely to have fallen in waters outside of Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

Pyongyang’s latest launch comes four days after South Korea said its neighbour had fired 10 rounds of artillery into its western waters, and about a week after US President Donald Trump gave Seoul permission to build a nuclear-powered submarine.

Experts say the move, which will see South Korea join a small club of countries using such vessels, will greatly enhance its naval and defence capabilities.

South Korea wants to receive enriched uranium from the US to use as fuel for the nuclear-powered submarine, which it plans to build at home, a South Korean presidential official said on Friday.

Since they both took office earlier this year, Trump and his South Korean counterpart Lee Jae Myung have sought to restart dialogue with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

However, Kim has shunned any talks with Washington and Seoul since previous discussions with the US collapsed in 2019.

North Korea’s leader said in September that he was open to talks provided that the US drop its demand for Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons. He has repeatedly said his country is an “irreversible” nuclear state.

Last month, Kim attended a major military parade in Pyongyang, along with high-level officials from allied countries, including Russia and China. It showcased some of his nation’s most powerful weapons, including a new intercontinental ballistic missile.

North Korean and Russian military officials met in Pyongyang this week to discuss strengthening cooperation, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Friday.

Pak Yong Il, vice director of the Korean People’s Army’s General Political Bureau, met a Russian delegation led by Vice Defence Minister Viktor Goremykin on Wednesday.

KCNA said the allies discussed expanding ties as part of the “deepened bilateral relations” agreed between Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Earlier this week, South Korea’s spy agency said it had detected possible recruitment and training activities in North Korea, noting this could signal a potential further deployment of troops to Russia.

So far, Seoul estimates that Pyongyang has sent 15,000 soldiers to Russia to aid it in its war against Ukraine, and large numbers have died on the battlefield there.

On Tuesday, the South Korean National Intelligence Service also said it believes that Kim has dispatched about 5,000 military construction troops to its ally since September to help with infrastructure restoration projects.

US president says Gaza ceasefire ‘working out very well’ despite deadly Israeli attacks and severe aid restrictions.

Discrimination against black people is “baked” into the leadership, culture and governance of the Metropolitan Police, an internal review has found.

The independently commissioned review, authored by Dr Shereen Daniels, surveyed 40 years of evidence of how racism had affected black communities, as well as black officers and staff.

Baroness Doreen Lawrence, mother of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence, said that while the report was welcome, it “contains nothing I did not already know”.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley described the report as “powerful”, adding that it “calls out that further systemic, structural, cultural change is needed”.

The review, commissioned from the consultancy HR Rewired, concluded that darker-skinned Met staff were “labelled confrontational” while lighter-skinned employees might receive quicker empathy and leniency.

Dr Shereen Daniels said that systemic racism was “not a matter of perception”, adding that “true accountability begins with specificity”.

“The same systems that sustain racial harm against black people also enable other forms of harm. Confronting this is not an act of exclusion but a necessary foundation for safety, fairness and justice for everyone,” Dr Daniels said.

Baroness Lawrence said that discrimination “must be acknowledged, accepted and confronted in the Met”, adding that racism was the reason why her son had been killed and why the police had “failed to find all of his killers”.

She added: “The police must stop telling us that change is coming whilst we continue to suffer. That change must take place now.”

Imran Khan KC said that the report’s conclusions were “little surprise”, adding that Sir Mark Rowley should resign if he did not “recognise, acknowledge and accept” its findings.

He added: “This Report lays out in shocking clarity that the time for talking is over, that promises to change can no longer be believed or relied on.”

The report is the latest to highlight racism within Britain’s biggest police force, after Louise Casey’s 2023 review – commissioned after the murder of Sarah Everard – concluded that the Met was institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic.

Reviews conducted decades ago have criticised discrimination within the Met – including the 1999 Macpherson report that called the force “institutionally racist” after the mishandling of Stephen Lawrence’s case.

Earlier this year, secret BBC filming found serving Met Police officers calling for immigrants to be shot and revelling in the use of force.

Several officers have since been sacked, after Sir Mark Rowley pledged to be “ruthless” in getting rid of officers who are unfit to serve.

Following the publication of the latest report, Sir Mark Rowley said: “London is a unique global city, and the Met will only truly deliver policing by consent when it is inclusive and anti-racist.”

A key aspect of the Trump administration’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative is ensuring America’s ability to launch retaliatory nuclear strikes, the nominee to become the next head of U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) has stressed. This comes amid particular concerns within the halls of the U.S. government about the new deterrence challenges posed by China’s ongoing push to expand the scope and scale of its nuclear capabilities dramatically.

Navy Vice Adm. Richard Correll, who is currently deputy head of STRATCOM, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee last week about his nomination to lead the command. Ahead of that hearing, he also submitted unclassified written answers to questions from members of the committee.

One of the questions posed to Correll asked how, if confirmed, he would expect to work with the central manager for the Golden Dome initiative, a post currently held by Space Force Gen. Mike Guetlein.

“Per Executive Order 14186, the Golden Dome for America (GDA) Direct Reporting Program Manager (DRPM) is responsible to ‘deliver a next-generation missile defense shield to defend its citizens and critical infrastructure against any foreign aerial attack on the U.S. homeland and guarantees a second-strike capability.’ If confirmed, I look forward to working with the GDA DRPM to ensure missile defense is effective against the developing and increasingly complex missile threats, to guarantee second-strike capability, and to strengthen strategic deterrence,” Correll wrote in response.

In deterrence parlance, a second-strike capability refers to a country’s credible ability to respond in kind to hostile nuclear attacks. This is considered essential to dissuading opponents from thinking they might be able to secure victory through even a massive opening salvo.

Helping to ensure America’s second-strike nuclear deterrent capability, as well as aiding in the defense specifically against enemy “countervalue” attacks, has been central to the plan for Golden Dome, which was originally called Iron Dome, since it was first announced in January. Countervalue nuclear strikes are ones expressly aimed at population centers, as opposed to counterforce strikes directed at military targets.

“Since the United States withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002 and initiated development of limited homeland missile defense, official United States homeland missile defense policy has remained only to stay ahead of rogue-nation threats and accidental or unauthorized missile launches,” President Donald Trump wrote in his executive order on the new missile defense initiative in January. “Over the past 40 years, rather than lessening, the threat from next-generation strategic weapons has become more intense and complex with the development by peer and near-peer adversaries of next-generation delivery systems and their own homeland integrated air and missile defense capabilities.”

How exactly Golden Dome factors into the second strike equation is not entirely clear. The U.S. nuclear triad currently consists of nuclear-capable B-2 and B-52 bombers, silo-based Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), and Ohio class nuclear submarines loaded with Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missiles. At present, the Ohio class submarines provide the core of America’s second-strike capability, but are not directly threatened by the kinds of weapons that Golden Dome is meant to shield against while they are out on their regular deterrent patrols.

At the same time, there might be scenarios in which U.S. officials are concerned that the Ohios may no longer be entirely sufficient. A massive first strike that renders the air and ground legs of the triad moot, and also targets ballistic missile submarines still in port, would certainly put immense pressure on deployed submarines to carry out adequate retaliatory strikes with the warheads available to them. If multiple countries are involved, those demands would only be magnified. Threats to the submarines at sea, including ones we may not know about, as well as enemy missile defenses, something China has also been particularly active in developing, would also have to be factored in. Concerns about the potential destruction or compromise of nuclear command and control nodes, including through physical attacks or non-kinetic ones like cyber intrusions, would affect the overall calculus, too. Altogether, ensuring greater survivability of the other legs of the triad, where Golden Dome would be more relevant, might now be viewed as necessary.

Regardless, as noted, concerns about China’s ongoing nuclear build-up and the policy shifts that come along with it have been particularly significant factors in U.S. discussions about missile defense and deterrence in recent years. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) just offered the first public look at elements of all three legs of its still very new strategic nuclear triad at a massive military parade in Beijing in September. In recent years, U.S. officials have been outspoken about massive assessed increases in Chinese nuclear warheads and delivery systems. This includes the construction of vast arrays of nuclear silos for intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), as well as the development and fielding of more and more advanced road-mobile ICBMs. China is now fielding air-launched nuclear-capable ballistic missiles and is growing the size and capabilities of its fleet of nuclear ballistic missile submarines, as well. Experts have also highlighted how China’s growing nuclear capabilities could point to plans for countervalue targeting.

“China’s ambitious expansion, modernization, and diversification of its nuclear forces has heightened the need for a fully modernized, flexible, full-spectrum strategic deterrence force. China remains focused on developing capabilities to dissuade, deter, or defeat third-party intervention in the Indo-Pacific region,” Correll wrote in response to a separate question ahead of his confirmation hearing last week. “We should continue to revise our plans and operations including integrating nuclear and non-nuclear capabilities in all domains across the spectrum of conflict. This will convey to China that the United States will not be deterred from defending our interests or those of our allies and partners, and should deterrence fail, having a combat ready force to achieve the President’s objectives.”

Correll’s written responses also highlighted concerns about Russia’s nuclear modernization efforts and growing nuclear threats presented by North Korea. He also touched on the current U.S. government position that there has been a worrisome increase in coordination between China, Russia, and North Korea, which presents additional challenges that extend beyond nuclear weapons.

“The Russian Federation continues to modernize and diversify its arsenal, further complicating deterrence. Regional actors, such as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) present additional threats,” he wrote. “More than nuclear, China and Russia maintain strategic non-nuclear capabilities that can cause catastrophic destruction. The major challenge facing USSTRATCOM is not just addressing each of these threat actors individually but addressing them comprehensively should their alignment result in coordinated aggression.”

It is important to stress that significant questions have been raised about the Golden Dome plans, including the feasibility of key elements, such as space-based anti-missile interceptors, and the immense costs expected to be involved. When any new operational Golden Dome capabilities might begin to enter service very much remains to be seen. Guetlein, the officer now in charge of the initiative, has described it as being “on the magnitude of the Manhattan Project,” which produced the very first nuclear weapons. 

There is also the question of whether work on Golden Dome might exacerbate the exact nuclear deterrence imbalances it is supposed to help address. In his written responses to the questions ahead of his confirmation hearing, Correll acknowledged the impact that U.S. missile defense developments over the past two decades have already had on China’s nuclear arsenal and deterrence policies.

“China believes these new capabilities offset existing U.S. and allies missile defense systems,” he wrote. This, in turn, “may affect their nuclear strike calculus, especially if state survival is at risk.”

Russian officials also regularly highlight countering U.S. missile defenses as a key driver behind their country’s efforts to expand and evolve its nuclear arsenal. Just last week, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin claimed that new tests of the Burevestnik cruise missile and the Poseidon torpedo, both of which are nuclear-powered and intended to be nuclear-armed, had been successfully carried out. The development of both of those weapons has been influenced by a desire to obviate missile defenses.

In terms of global nuclear deterrence policies, there is now the additional wrinkle of the possibility of the United States resuming critical-level weapons testing. Trump announced a still largely unclear shift in U.S. policy in this regard last week. The U.S. Department of Energy has pushed back on the potential for new tests involving the detonation of actual nuclear devices, but Trump has also talked about a need to match work being done by Russia and China. You can read more about the prospect of new full-up U.S. nuclear weapon testing here.

The United States has more Nuclear Weapons than any other country. This was accomplished, including a complete update and renovation of existing weapons, during my First Term in office. Because of the tremendous destructive power, I HATED to do it, but had no choice! Russia is…

— Commentary: Trump Truth Social Posts On X (@TrumpTruthOnX) October 30, 2025

American authorities have accused Russia in the past of violating its obligations under the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) with very low-yield tests and criticized China for a lack of transparency around its testing activities. Russian authorities say they are now looking into what it would take to resume open critical-level nuclear testing in response to Trump’s comments.

North Korea is the only country to have openly conducted critical-level nuclear tests in the 21st century, and there are fears now it could be gearing up for another one. It should be noted that the United States and other nuclear powers regularly conduct nuclear weapon testing that does not involve critical-level detonations.

For now, as underscored by Correll’s responses to the questions posed ahead of his recent confirmation hearing, concerns about the assuredness of America’s nuclear second-strike capability remain a key factor in the push ahead with Golden Dome.

Contact the author: [email protected]

United States lawmakers have written to Andrew, Britain’s disgraced former prince, requesting that he sit for a formal interview about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a day after King Charles III formally stripped his younger brother of his royal titles.

Separately, a secluded desert ranch where Epstein once entertained guests is coming under renewed scrutiny in the US state of New Mexico, with two state legislators proposing a “truth commission” to uncover the full extent of the financier’s crimes there.

On Thursday, 16 Democratic Party members of Congress signed a letter addressed to “Mr Mountbatten Windsor”, as Andrew is now known, to participate in a “transcribed interview” with the US House of Representatives oversight committee’s investigation into Epstein.

“The committee is seeking to uncover the identities of Mr Epstein’s co-conspirators and enablers and to understand the full extent of his criminal operations,” the letter read.

“Well-documented allegations against you, along with your longstanding friendship with Mr Epstein, indicate that you may possess knowledge of his activities relevant to our investigation,” it added.

The letter asked Andrew to respond by November 20.

The US Congress has no power to compel testimony from foreigners, making it unlikely Andrew will give evidence.

The letter will be another unwelcome development for the disgraced former prince after a turbulent few weeks.

On October 30, Buckingham Palace said King Charles had “initiated a formal process” to revoke Andrew’s royal status after weeks of pressure to act over his relationship with Epstein – who took his own life in prison in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges.

The rare move to strip a British prince or princess of their title – last taken in 1919 after Prince Ernest Augustus sided with Germany during World War I – also meant that Andrew was evicted from his lavish Royal Lodge mansion in Windsor and moved into “private accommodation”.

King Charles formally made the changes with an announcement published on Wednesday in The Gazette – the United Kingdom’s official public record – saying Andrew “shall no longer be entitled to hold and enjoy the style, title or attribute of ‘Royal Highness’ and the titular dignity of ‘Prince’”.

Andrew surrendered his use of the title Duke of York earlier in October following new abuse allegations from his accuser, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, in her posthumous memoir, which hit shelves last month.

The Democrat lawmakers referenced Giuffre’s memoir in their letter, specifically claims that she feared “retaliation if she made allegations against” Andrew, and that he had asked his personal protection officer to “dig up dirt” on his accuser for a smear campaign in 2011.

“This fear of retaliation has been a persistent obstacle to many of those who were victimised in their fight for justice,” the letter said. “In addition to Mr. Epstein’s crimes, we are investigating any such efforts to silence, intimidate, or threaten victims.”

Giuffre, who alleges that Epstein trafficked her to have sex with Andrew on three occasions, twice when she was just 17, took her own life in Australia in April.

In 2022, Andrew paid Giuffre a multimillion-pound settlement to resolve a civil lawsuit she had levelled against him. Andrew denied the allegations, and he has not been charged with any crime.

On Thursday, Democratic lawmakers also turned the spotlight on Zorro Ranch, proposing to the House of Representatives’ Courts, Corrections and Justice Interim Committee that a commission be created to investigate alleged crimes against young girls at the New Mexico property, which Epstein purchased in 1993.

State Representative Andrea Romero said several survivors of Epstein’s abuse have signalled that sex trafficking activity extended to the secluded desert ranch with a hilltop mansion and private runway in Stanley, about 56 kilometres (35 miles) south of the state capital, Santa Fe.

“This commission will specifically seek the truth about what officials knew, how crimes were unreported or reported, and how the state can ensure that this essentially never happens again,” Romero told a panel of legislators.

“There’s no complete record of what occurred,” she said.

Representative Marianna Anaya, presenting to the committee alongside Romero, said state authorities missed several opportunities over decades to stop Epstein.

“Even after all these years, you know, there are still questions of New Mexico’s role as a state, our roles in terms of oversight and accountability for the survivors who are harmed,” she said.

New Mexico laws allowed Epstein to avoid registering locally as a sex offender long after he was required to register in Florida, where he was convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2008.

Republican Representative Andrea Reeb said she believed New Mexicans “have a right to know what happened at this ranch” and she didn’t feel the commission was going to be a “big political thing”.

To move forward, approval will be needed from the state House when the legislature convenes in January.

Abby Zwerner, 28, was shot in 2023 as she sat in a first-grade classroom and sustained life-threatening injuries.

A jury in the state of Virginia in the United States has awarded $10m to a former teacher who was shot by a six-year-old student.

The jury on Thursday sided with former teacher Abby Zwerner’s claim, made in a civil lawsuit, that an ex-administrator at the school had ignored repeated warnings that the six-year-old child had a gun in class.

Zwerner, 28, was shot in January 2023 as she sat at a reading table in her first-grade classroom and spent nearly two weeks in the hospital, required six surgeries and still does not have the full use of her left hand.

The bullet fired by the six-year-old narrowly missed her heart and remains in her chest.

Zwerner, who did not address reporters outside the court after the decision was announced, had sought $40m in damages against Ebony Parker, a former assistant principal at Richneck Elementary School in the city of Newport News, Virginia.

One of her lawyers, Diane Toscano, said the verdict sent a message that what happened at the school “was wrong and is not going to be tolerated, that safety has to be the first concern at school”.

Zwerner’s lawyers had claimed that Parker, the assistant principal at the time, had failed to act in the hours before the shooting after several school staff members told her that the student had a gun in his backpack.

“Who would think a six-year-old would bring a gun to school and shoot their teacher?” Toscano had asked the jury earlier.

“It’s Dr Parker’s job to believe that is possible. It’s her job to investigate it and get to the very bottom of it.”

Parker did not testify in the lawsuit.

The mother of the student who shot Zwerner was sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted of child neglect and firearms charges.

No charges were brought against the child, who told authorities he got his mother’s handgun by climbing onto a drawer to reach the top of a dresser, where the firearm was in his mother’s purse.

Newtown Action Alliance, an advocacy organisation that supports reforms aimed at addressing gun violence, said that the case points to the need for greater regulations over the storage of firearms in homes with children.

“Abby Zwerner was shot by her 6-year-old student using a gun from home,” the group said in a social media post, adding that “76 percent of school shooters get their guns from their homes or relatives”.

Abby Zwerner was shot by her 6-year-old student using a gun from home.

76% of school shooters get their guns from their homes or relatives.

Urge your Members of Congress to cosponsor Ethan’s Law.

Congressional Switchboard: (202) 224-3121#SafeStorageSavesLives #EndGunViolence pic.twitter.com/YZyuo0KxXj

— Newtown Action Alliance (@NewtownAction) November 6, 2025

Zwerner no longer works for the school district and has said she has no plans to teach again. She has since become a licensed cosmetologist.

While accidents involving young children accessing unsecured firearms in their homes are common in the US, school shootings perpetrated by those under 10 years old are rare.

A database compiled by US researcher David Riedman has registered about 15 such incidents since the 1970s.

New York’s new Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani won amid Islamophobic attacks, and is set to become the city’s first Muslim mayor. He pledged to serve all communities and to challenge United States President Trump’s policies. His win is being compared to that of London’s Muslim Mayor Sadiq Khan, a counterweight to then-United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Are city mayors the new resistance to right-wing governments?

Trudy Polkinghorn

‘Our light and joy’

Trudy Polkinghorn

Karen Staniland

Two days after passing through the Strait of Gibraltar en route to the Caribbean, the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford has not moved significantly from a position just west of Morocco in North Africa, the Navy confirmed to us Thursday. The flattop and elements of its strike group were ordered by President Donald Trump to join the ongoing enhanced counter-narcotics mission in the region, but it is unclear if plans have changed.

The relatively static position of the Ford and at least two of its escorts comes as reports are emerging that the Trump administration has decided, for now, not to carry out land strikes against Venezuela. It is unknown at the moment if there is a correlation, and the possibility remains that the carrier could still soon sail westward. We have reached out to the White House for clarification.

The Trump administration on Wednesday told Congress it is holding off for now on strikes inside Venezuela out of concern over the legal authority to do so, CNN reported on Thursday. The briefing was conducted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and an official from the White House’s Office of Legal Counsel, the network reported, citing sources familiar with the events.

Lawmakers were told that the authority given to suspected drug boats did not apply to land strikes, the network noted. So far, nearly 70 people have been killed in at least 16 publicly known attacks on vessels allegedly smuggling drugs in the Caribbean and Pacific. The most recent acknowledged strike took place on Tuesday. The strikes have garnered heavy criticism for being extrajudicial and carried out without Congressional authorization.

Today, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO).

Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting along a known… pic.twitter.com/OsQuHrYLMp

— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) November 5, 2025

Asked if the administration is indeed opting against land attacks on Venezuela, at least for now, the White House gave us the following response:

“President Trump was elected with a resounding mandate to take on the cartels and stop the scourge of narcoterrorism from killing Americans,” a White House official told us. “The President continues to take actions consistent with his responsibility to protect Americans and pursuant to his constitutional authority. All actions comply fully with the law of armed conflict.” 

CNN’s reporting came after a Wall Street Journal story on Wednesday stating that President Donald Trump “recently expressed reservations to top aides about launching military action to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.”

Trump feared that strikes might not force Maduro to step down, the newspaper noted. Though ostensibly begun as an effort to stem the flow of drugs, it has grown into a massive show of military force aimed partially at Maduro.

The administration is considering three main options for dealing with Maduro, The New York Times reported earlier this week. They include stepping up economic pressure on Venezuela, supporting that nation’s opposition while boosting the U.S. military presence to add pressure on the Venezuelan leader, and initiating airstrikes or covert operations aimed at government and military facilities and personnel.

However, the goal is in flux, administration officials acknowledge, according to the Journal. Meanwhile, Trump has also delivered mixed messages, saying he doubts there will be an attack but that Maduro must go.

What is clear is that there is a massive U.S. military presence in the Caribbean, which includes at least eight surface warships, a special operations mothership, a nuclear-powered fast attack submarine, F-35B stealth fighters, AC-130 gunships, airlifters, MQ-9 Reaper drones and more than 10,000 troops.

The Ford was supposed to join that force, but if the administration is content for now to hit boats suspected of carrying drugs, it might not make sense to move the carrier and escort ships more than 3,600 miles west, especially as there is high demand elsewhere for American naval presence, including in Europe, where the supercarrier just came from.

The issue of wear and tear on the force is something that the Pentagon will have to evaluate as it decides which assets to keep and which to pull from the Caribbean. Navy vessels began arriving in the region in late August and at some point, they will need relief. That could mean bringing in ships, possibly from other regions. The same can be said for aircraft units and personnel deployed around the region for the operation. Those forces can only remain spun-up for so long, or the operation needs to be adapted for a long-term enhanced presence. This could very well be underway already, although we have not confirmed this as being the case. However, being so close to the U.S. mainland reduces some of those concerns, especially for rotating units in and out.

Regardless of Trump’s intentions, the U.S. military presence continues to endure in the region. Thursday afternoon, two more B-52H strategic bombers flew near the coast of Venezuela, according to online flight trackers. These bomber flights have become something of a routine at this point. In addition, the San Antonio class amphibious transport dock ship USS Fort Lauderdale is once again back in the Caribbean after a pitstop in Florida for routine maintenance.

At 5 p.m., the U.S. Senate is scheduled to hold a floor vote on a bipartisan war powers resolution that would block the use of the U.S. Armed Forces to engage in hostilities within or against Venezuela, unless that action has been authorized by Congress. A similar measure failed several weeks ago and it remains to be seen if news that the administration is holding off on striking Venezuela will move the needle on that resolution.

Meanwhile, we will continue to monitor the progress of the Ford and the U.S. military presence arrayed against Maduro and provide updates when warranted.

Update: 6:07 PM Eastern –

The Senate bipartisan war powers resolution was voted down by a vote of 51 to 49.

Contact the author: [email protected] 

Meta anticipated earning about 10% of its total annual revenue, or $16 billion, from advertising for scams and banned items, according to internal documents reviewed by Reuters. The documents reveal that for at least three years, the company failed to stop a significant number of ads exposing its billions of users on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp to fraudulent schemes, illegal casinos, and banned medical products. On average, around 15 billion “higher risk” scam ads, showing clear signs of fraud, were displayed daily on these platforms. Meta reportedly generates about $7 billion annually from these scam ads.

Many of these ads were linked to marketers flagged by Meta’s internal systems. However, the company only bans advertisers if fraud is at least 95% certain according to its systems. If less certain but still suspect, Meta imposes higher ad rates as a penalty instead of outright banning them. This approach aims to deter dubious advertisers without fully eliminating them. The company’s ad-personalization system also ensures that users who click on scam ads see more of them based on their interests.

The documents create an image of Meta grappling with the extent of abuse on its platforms while hesitating to take stronger actions that could impact its revenue. The acceptance of revenue from suspicious sources highlights a lack of oversight in the advertising industry, as noted by fraud expert Sandeep Abraham. Meta’s spokesperson, Andy Stone, counters that the documents provide a biased view and argues that the actual share of revenue from scam ads would be lower than estimated. He claimed the plan aimed to validate investments in combating fraud.

Stone mentioned that Meta has significantly reduced user reports of scam ads globally and removed millions of scam ad content in recent efforts. The company aims for major reductions in scam ads in the upcoming year. Despite this, internal research indicates that Meta’s platforms are central to the global fraud economy, with one presentation estimating they contribute to a third of all successful fraud in the U. S. Competitors were noted to have better systems to combat fraud.

As regulators step up pressure for stronger consumer protections, the documents reveal the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Meta for financial scam ads. In Britain, regulators identified Meta as the source of over half of the payment-related scam losses in 2023. The company has acknowledged that addressing illicit advertising may hurt its revenue.

Meta is investing heavily in technology and has plans for extensive capital expenditures in AI. CEO Mark Zuckerberg reassured investors that their advertising revenue can support these projects. The internal documents suggest a careful consideration of the financial impact of increasing measures against scam ads, indicating that while the company intends to reduce illicit revenue, it is wary of the potential business implications.

Despite planning to diminish scam ads’ revenue share, Meta is bracing for regulatory fines, estimating penalties that could reach up to $1 billion. However, these fines are viewed as comparatively minor against the income from scam ads, which already generates significant revenue. The leadership’s strategy shows a tendency to react to regulatory pressure rather than implementing proactive measures to vet advertisers effectively. Stone disputed claims that Meta’s policy is to act only under regulatory threat.

Meta has set limits on how much revenue it can afford to lose from actions against suspect advertisers. In early 2025, a document revealed that the team reviewing questionable ads was restricted to a loss of no more than 0.15% of company revenue, which equated to around $135 million from Meta’s total of $90 billion in the same period. A manager noted that this revenue cap included both scam ads and harmless ads that might be mistakenly blocked, indicating strict financial boundaries in their approach.

Under increasing pressure to manage scams more effectively, Meta’s executives proposed a moderate strategy to CEO Mark Zuckerberg in October 2024. Instead of a drastic approach, they suggested targeting countries where they anticipated regulatory action. Their goal was to reduce the revenue lost to scams, illegal gambling, and prohibited goods from approximately 10.1% in 2024 to 7.3% by the end of 2025, with further reductions planned for subsequent years.

A surge in online fraud was noted in 2022, when Meta uncovered a network of accounts pretending to be U. S. military members trying to scam Facebook users. Other scams, such as sextortion, were also rising. Yet, at that time, Meta invested little in automated systems to detect such scams and categorized them as a low-priority issue. Internal documents showed efforts were mainly focused on fraudsters impersonating celebrities, which threatened to alienate advertisers and users alike. However, layoffs at Meta affected the enforcement team, as many working on advertiser rights were let go, and resources shifted heavily toward virtual reality and AI projects.

Despite layoffs, Meta claimed to have increased its staff handling scam advertising. However, data from 2023 revealed that Meta was ignoring about 96% of valid scam reports filed by users, suggesting a significant gap in their response to customer concerns. The safety staff aimed to improve this by reducing the number of dismissed reports to no more than 75% in the future.

Instances of user frustration were evident, such as a recruiter for the Royal Canadian Air Force who lost access to her account after being hacked. Despite multiple reports to Meta, her account remained active, even sharing false cryptocurrency investment opportunities that defrauded her connections. Reports indicated that she had many people flag her account, but it took about a month before Meta finally removed it.

Meta refers to scams that do not involve paid ads as “organic,” which include free classified ads, fake dating profiles, and fraudulent medical claims. A report from December 2024 stated that users face approximately 22 billion organic scam attempts each day, alongside 15 billion scam ads, highlighting the company’s ongoing struggle to manage fraud effectively. Internal documents suggest that Meta’s efforts to police fraud are not capturing much of the scam activity occurring across its platforms.

In Singapore, police shared a list of 146 scams targeting local users, but Meta staff found that only 23% of these scams broke the platform’s policies. The remaining 77% went against the spirit of the rules but not the exact wording. Examples of unchecked scams included fake offers on designer clothes, false concert tickets, and job ads pretending to be from major tech firms. In one case, Meta discovered scam ads claiming to belong to the Canadian prime minister, yet the existing rules wouldn’t flag the account.

Even when advertisers are found to be scamming, the rules can be lenient. Small advertisers need to be flagged for scams eight times before being blocked, while larger ones can have over 500 complaints without being shut down. Some scams generated significant revenue; for example, four removed ads were linked to $67 million monthly.

An employee initiated reports highlighting the “Scammiest Scammer” each week to raise awareness, but some flagged accounts remained active for months. Meta tried to deter scammers by charging them more in ad auctions, labeling this practice “penalty bids. ” Advertisers suspected of fraud would have to bid higher amounts, thus reducing competition for legitimate advertisers. Meta aimed to decrease scam ads from this approach, which showed some success, resulting in fewer scam reports and a slight dip in overall ad revenue.

With information from Reuters

Italy is welcoming 19 children who were evacuated from Gaza by the World Health Organization. They’ll receive advanced medical treatment in several hospitals across the country.

Paramilitary says it will accept a ceasefire proposed by the Quad mediators – the US, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) says it has agreed to a proposal by the United States for a ceasefire in Sudan after more than two years of fighting with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).

The paramilitary group said in a statement on Thursday that it would accept a “humanitarian ceasefire” proposed by the US-led “quad” mediator group, which includes Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, “to address the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of the war and to enhance the protection of civilians”.

There was no immediate comment from Sudan’s military.

Earlier this week, the US senior adviser for Arab and African affairs, Massad Boulos, said efforts were under way to reach a truce and that the warring sides had “agreed in principle”.

“We have not recorded any initial objection from either side. We are now focusing on the fine details,” Boulos said on Monday in a statement carried by the Sudan Tribune news outlet.

Reporting from Khartoum, Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan said the plan would begin with a three-month humanitarian truce that could pave the way for a lasting political solution, which would include a new civilian government.

The RSF “said that they’re eager to find some kind of end to this two-year conflict”, Morgan said of the group’s agreement to the truce.

SAF has repeatedly said it wants to continue fighting, Morgan reported, adding that army officials do not believe members of the RSF can be reintegrated into Sudanese society.

SAF has previously said it does not want the UAE’s involvement in truce discussions and that it will demand the RSF withdraw from any city it occupies, among other stipulations, she said.

“This humanitarian access the ceasefire would bring about is desperately needed, but the Sudanese army is yet to agree to it. They have conditions,” Morgan reported. “It doesn’t look like the RSF will meet them.”

Earlier on Thursday, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had said his forces were “striving for the defeat of the enemy”.

“Soon, we will avenge those who have been killed and abused … in all the regions attacked by the rebels,” he said in a televised address.

The announcement comes as the RSF faces accusations of committing mass killings since it seized the city of el-Fasher in North Darfur state on October 26, following an 18-month siege.

The RSF now dominates the vast western Darfur region and parts of the country’s south, while the army holds the north, east and central regions along the Nile and the Red Sea.

More than 70,000 people have fled el-Fasher and surrounding areas since the RSF’s takeover, according to the United Nations, with witnesses and human rights groups reporting cases of “summary executions”, sexual violence and mass killings of civilians.

The World Health Organization had reported the “tragic killing of more than 460 patients and medical staff” at a former children’s hospital during the city’s takeover.

‘Mass graves’

Researchers at Yale University said in a report on Thursday that new satellite imagery has detected activity “consistent with mass graves” in the city.

The US university’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) report said it found evidence consistent with “body disposal activities”.

The report identified “at least two earth disturbances consistent with mass graves at a mosque and the former Children’s Hospital”.

It also noted the appearance of metres-long trenches, as well as the disappearance of clusters of objects consistent with bodies near the hospital, the mosque and other parts of the city – indicating that bodies deposited around those areas were later moved.

“Body disposal or removal was also observed at Al-Saudi Hospital in satellite imagery,” the report said.

The war in Sudan, which erupted in April 2023, has pitted the army against the group led by al-Burhan’s former deputy, RSF commander Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, also known as Hemedti.

Both the warring sides have been accused of war crimes. In a September report, the UN Human Rights Council accused both sides of extrajudicial killing, large-scale attacks against civilians and torture. It also reported an “overwhelming volume” of evidence on sexual violence primarily perpetrated by RSF and SAF members.

SOAS University, of which Hamdi is an alumnus, urge ‘US authorities to ensure full transparency and due process’ in his case.

The London university where British political commentator and journalist Sami Hamdi completed his studies has called for “full transparency and due process” regarding his detention in the United States.

In a statement published on Wednesday, SOAS University of London said it was “deeply concerned” by reports of Hamdi’s detention, adding that “there is no indication that Mr Hamdi has violated any laws”.

“We urge the US authorities to ensure full transparency and due process in Mr Hamdi’s case, and to uphold his fundamental right to freedom of expression and movement.”

Hamdi, 35, was stopped at San Francisco international airport in California on October 26 and detained by agents from the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned Hamdi’s detention as “a blatant affront to free speech”, attributing his arrest to his criticism of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which has killed at least 68,875 Palestinians and wounded 170,679 since October 2023.

Hamdi, who was completing a speaking tour in the US discussing Israel’s war on Gaza, had addressed a CAIR gala in Sacramento, California, the previous evening and was due to speak at another CAIR event in Florida.

He was unaware at the time that his visa had been revoked by US authorities two days before his detention.

Hamdi’s detention has led to a legal battle, with his lawyers filing emergency petitions against his detention, and his wife Soumaya and civil society groups demanding that the United Kingdom government take action.

Soumaya told Al Jazeera that the US government has still not provided any evidence “as to why they feel the need to revoke his visa. And therefore they are treating him as an overstayer”.

She said the incident raises an important question: “Has the United States become a country now where a British citizen travelling on a valid visa can be detained at will? Because that is really scary.”

Soumaya said she believed her husband had been targeted by the US authorities because “he’s become extremely effective at galvanising support for Palestinian rights. Sami has been able to bring people together across the political spectrum, not just within Muslim communities.”

She also said her husband’s arrest should be of concern to “everybody who values the right to freedom of speech, everybody who values the right to receive facts from journalists and for journalists to be able to report on news without being persecuted”.

“If they [US authorities] are able then to treat Sami in this way, it’s only a matter of time before they start to treat US citizens like that too.”

“The US government must release Sami immediately. They’ve made a big mistake, and they need to release him immediately. And Congress must investigate these ICE detentions because they are setting a dangerous precedent for the future ability of US citizens being able to exercise their right to the First Amendment properly. And that’s bad news for everybody,” she said.

Getty Images

‘Witty presence’

Broadway role

Saudi Arabia could become the next customer for the Lockheed Martin F-35, with the Trump administration reportedly weighing up the sale of up to 48 jets to the kingdom. Selling the stealth jet to Saudi Arabia would be a significant policy shift, with Washington previously being unwilling to export F-35s to Arab states in the region, for fear of upsetting the strategic balance in relation to Israel.

According to a Reuters report, which cites two unnamed sources said to be familiar with the matter, the U.S. administration is considering whether to approve the deal, ahead of a visit to the United States by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler. The crown prince is due to meet U.S. President Donald Trump on November 18. The potential deal has apparently already been given the green light by the Pentagon, where it was discussed at the highest levels for “months.”

Citing one of those sources and an unnamed U.S. official, the same report claims that Saudi Arabia made a new request for F-35s earlier this year, with a direct appeal to Trump. The U.S. official and a second U.S. official confirmed to Reuters that the weapons deal “was moving through the system,” but, before it was formally approved, it would need “further approvals at the Cabinet level, sign-off from Trump, and notification of Congress.”

Approval of the sale of F-35s to Saudi Arabia would be a big deal.

So far, despite previous interest both from the Saudis and from the United Arab Emirates, the United States has refused to export the stealth jets to operators in the Middle East, other than Israel.

This has been driven primarily by the U.S. requirement to maintain Israel’s so-called qualitative military edge, a guarantee that Israel will be prioritized for advanced U.S. weapons ahead of Arab states in the region.

The Israeli Air Force’s F-35I fleet is very much at the cutting edge of the country’s air warfare capabilities. Israel is currently buying 75 F-35s, and these will incorporate an increasing proportion of Israeli-made technology and weapons. The Israeli jets, known locally as Adir, have already seen extensive combat use, including against Iran.

A Saudi F-35 deal was also discussed under the Biden administration, as part of a broader deal that sought to normalize the kingdom’s relations with Israel.

While the proposal fell through, Trump has put a much greater emphasis on arms sales to Saudi Arabia since he took office earlier this year.

The centerpiece of these efforts was the roughly $142-billion arms package agreed between Washington and Riyadh in May of this year. The White House described it as “the largest defense cooperation agreement” in U.S. history. Saudi Arabia is already the biggest customer of U.S. weapons.

Whatever Trump’s view of the potential F-35 sale, there will likely be some pushback from U.S. lawmakers.

At the Congressional level, there has been previous scrutiny around arms sales to Saudi Arabia, especially after the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Other nations, too, have held back from selling weapons to Saudi Arabia amid concerns over the country’s human rights abuses, as well as its role in the Yemen war.

Even without the F-35, the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) operates an extremely modern and advanced fleet of fighters. It received 84 of the new-build F-15SA, which was the most advanced variant of the Strike Eagle family available until the appearance of the Qatari F-15QA and the U.S. Air Force’s F-15EX Eagle II. Meanwhile, the 68-strong fleet of earlier F-15S aircraft has been upgraded locally to a similar standard, known as F-15SR (for Saudi Retrofit).

The RSAF also received 72 Eurofighter Typhoons. Older, but still capable, are around 80 British-supplied Panavia Tornado IDS swing-wing strike aircraft, which continue in service in the strike role.

The F-35s would be the likely replacement for the aging Tornados.

Saudi Arabia was long expected to buy more Typhoons, in a deal that would be brokered by BAE Systems of the United Kingdom. At one time, Saudi Arabia had even looked at the possibility of local assembly of these aircraft.

However, since Eurofighter is a multinational company, exports have to be approved by the other partners: Germany, Italy, and Spain. Germany — which has a stake in Eurofighter via the German arm of Airbus — has consistently blocked further Typhoon sales to Saudi Arabia, citing human rights concerns.

Meanwhile, BAE Systems and the U.K. government have tried to finalize a Saudi deal for 48 more Typhoons since 2018.

TWZ spoke to Justin Bronk, Senior Research Fellow for Airpower and Technology at the U.K.-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank, for his prognosis of a potential new Saudi Typhoon deal.

“I think it’s still relatively likely,” he said, “given that the RSAF, by all accounts, is very happy with its Typhoon fleet, and particularly with the support the United Kingdom provides through BAE Systems, including training Saudi pilots in Saudi Arabia.”

Bronk also raised the possibility that a follow-on Typhoon deal could be linked to Saudi participation in the Global Combat Air Program, or GCAP, the effort under which the United Kingdom’s Tempest next-generation fighter is being developed, in partnership with Italy and Japan. However, that would be far from easy, since workshare arrangements have already been agreed between the three partners.

With a potential Typhoon deal still hanging in the air, Saudi Arabia entered talks to buy 54 Dassault Rafale multirole fighters, as we reported back in 2023. Buying a French fighter would be something of a new development for Saudi Arabia, but it would also reflect Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s aim to diversify its defense partnerships, part of the Vision 2030 modernization plan. This also calls for a continuation of the long-established security relationship with the United States.

More recently, Boeing confirmed that it was offering the F-15EX Eagle II to Saudi Arabia.

“The F-15EX is the right fit, adding critical capability for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) as the country seeks to accelerate its armed forces modernization,” a Boeing spokesperson told TWZ in May 2024. “The F-15EX complements Saudi Arabia’s existing F-15 fleet with 95 percent commonality that includes infrastructure, training, and trainer devices, and pilot skill overlap. We are ready to support our longtime and valued customers in Saudi Arabia with the most capable air superiority aircraft in production today.”

It could be that a four-horse race is now on the cards, with Saudi Arabia weighing up the options of buying more Typhoons, Rafales, F-15EX, or, providing U.S. approval is forthcoming, F-35s.

The F-35 is the most capable of these options and would be the most significant in terms of the modernization of the RSAF fighter fleet. This effort is primarily driven by the threat posed by Iran, Saudi Arabia’s major regional adversary, although tensions between the two powers have subsided in recent years. Increasingly, Iran has projected its power across the region, including backing militant groups but also undertaking its own extensive maritime activities in the Persian Gulf and further afield.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has also been waging a long-running campaign against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. This has seen the extensive use of RSAF fighter jets.

The only other Arab country in the region to have come close to buying F-35s was the United Arab Emirates. An arms package, approved at the end of the previous Trump administration, and valued at up to $23.37 billion, included 50 F-35As, up to 18 MQ-9B drones, and $10-billion-worth of advanced munitions. In 2021, the Emirati government reportedly said it wanted to scrap the plan, due to concerns over stringent safeguards to protect these systems against Chinese espionage.

For the RSAF, the path to receiving the F-35 is made simpler by the thawing relations between Saudi Arabia — and other Arab nations in the Middle East — and Israel. Such a deal could also be linked to the kingdom signing up to the Abraham Accords, a set of agreements that establishes normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab states. The Trump administration has pushed for Saudi Arabia to sign up to the accords, which would be a huge breakthrough, following the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco.

Another possibility might be to offer Saudi Arabia less-advanced versions of the F-35, perhaps in the latest Technology Refresh 3, or TR-3, configuration, but without the massive Block 4 upgrade, which supports a brand-new radar and a host of other capabilities. Secondhand jets could be another option, provided a source for these can be found.

Ultimately, Saudi Arabia may well add a fifth-generation fighter to its already impressive fourth-generation fighters, the Boeing F-15SA and Eurofighter Typhoon. With the Trump administration currently looking very much in favor of defense cooperation with Riyadh, this could be an opportune moment for the F-35 to secure its first Arab customer in the Middle East.

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