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Firefighter douses a vehicle after a blast outside a court building in Islamabad, Pakistan November 11, 2025.
15: A pair of suicide attacks in Pakistan yesterday killed at least 15 people. One struck the capital Islamabad, killing at least 12 and injuring another 27 – the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for it, prompting Pakistan’s defense minister to say the country is in a “state of war.” The other bomber detonated outside a military school in the northwest, near the Afghan border.
$23 billion: The world’s biggest mining project is breaking ground in Guinea today, financed by China. The $23-billion iron-ore mine aims to reduce the energy needed to produce steel, quadruple Guinea’s GDP by 2040, and deepen China’s dominance over Africa’s resources.
39: Israel’s Parliament voted to advance a bill that would impose a death penalty for Palestinians who murder Jewish Israelis for nationalist reasons, but not for Jewish Israelis who kill Palestinians for the same reasons. The vote was 39 to 16. A member of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s far-right Jewish Power party proposed the bill. Israel abolished the death penalty in 1954.
$5.6 billion: A Chinese woman who was found guilty of stealing Chinese pensioners’ funds to buy billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency before fleeing to the United Kingdom is set to be sentenced today for money laundering. Qian Zhimin, otherwise known as “cryptoqueen,” received deposits of 40 billion yuan ($5.6 billion) from 120,000 people in China.
8: Eight Democratic senators joined 52 of the 53 Republicans in the upper chamber to formally pass the continuing resolution that would fund the US government through the end of January. House progressives were seething, furious that their Senate peers passed the bill without extending healthcare subsidies. Speaker Mike Johnson has told House members that the lower chamber could vote on the bill by Wednesday.
What We’re Watching: Modi tested in India elections, Iraq election promises little, Cambodia-Thailand truce on the rocks
An Indian security personnel stands guard as women voters queue to cast their ballots at a polling station during the Budgam Assembly constituency bypoll in Budgam district, Jammu and Kashmir, on November 11, 2025.
Local election test for India’s prime minister
The state of Bihar, population 174 million, is holding local legislative elections seen as a test for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling BJP party, which is currently in power there. Local parties aligned with the opposition Congress party are posing a stiff challenge in an election focused on poverty alleviation (Bihar is India’s poorest state) and competing welfare schemes for female voters, who are now an important bloc. But with Modi under broader economic pressure from US tariffs and Russian oil sanctions, a loss in Bihar would be a bad omen. Adding to his woes, authorities are still seeking those responsible for a terrorist attack that killed 13 outside the historic Red Fort in Delhi yesterday.
Iraq’s election pits Washington against Tehran
Iraqis head to the polls today to vote for the country’s 329-member parliament, largely disillusioned over what they see as an election that will just be used to figure out how to divide the Middle East country’s oil reserves. That’s not the top concern for Iraqis: endemic corruption, inadequate services, and high unemployment are also leaving voters frustrated. The next Parliament will also have to contend with a delicate foreign policy balance: they must placate dozens of armed groups that have Iranian ties, while the US pressures them to dismantle these groups. Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s party is forecast to win the most seats but fall short of a majority.
Cambodia and Thailand suspend Trump-brokered peace deal
On Monday, Thailand suspended peace talks with Cambodia after two soldiers were killed by a landmine in disputed border territory. The two countries had been planning to start negotiations to release prisoners of war tomorrow, but that has now been called off. Cambodia denies laying new landmines – saying they are the remnants of three decades of war in the region. The two-week old Donald Trump-brokered peace agreement now hangs in the balance. The US president initiated the ceasefire by threatening to stop tariff negotiations if the conflict continued – will he intervene again to get it back on track?
US President Donald Trump welcomes Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the White House for bilateral discussions about trade and security on February 13, 2025.
After months of tensions between the world’s richest country and the world’s most populous one, it appears that the United States and India are on the verge of making a trade deal.
“We’re going to be bringing the tariffs down,” US President Donald Trump said during a swearing-in ceremony for the newly-minted US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor, while noting that India’s purchases of Russian oil have decreased. He didn’t give a timeframe, but added that the two sides were “pretty close” to a deal.
The inevitable question will be how much Trump lowers the tariff. The US president slapped a 25% levy on India in late July, in part because of Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil. When India refused to tell their companies to stop buying Russian crude, the tariff doubled to 50%.
“India’s oil purchases from Russia are on the downward trend,” Ashok Malik, partner and chair of The Asia Group’s India practice, told GZERO. “This creates a pathway for the removal of the 25% ‘oil tariff’ on India and, coinciding with Ambassador Sergio Gor’s arrival, steps towards the trade agreement.”
How did we even get here? Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were two peas in a pod during the former’s first term in office. The two leaders believed in espousing strength and in a foreign policy that prioritized bilateral relationships over multilateral agreements. They both viewed radical Islam and China with skepticism. When they held a giant rally together in Houston in 2019 – labeled, “Howdy, Modi” – the pair held hands.
“India was central in terms of our Asian strategy… It was incredibly simpatico between the two leaders,” Matthew Bartlett, who served in the US State Department during Trump’s first term, told GZERO. “Now there’s a new, rather difficult dynamic – maybe dysfunction – to it, and you would hope that we would be able to put this back on track in short time.”
When Trump returned to office earlier this year, it appeared that the two would start where they left off. Modi visited the White House in February, and the two leaders exchanged effusive messages.
But the good times didn’t last. Six months ago, when India and Pakistan announced a ceasefire following a brief flare-up in Jammu and Kashmir, Islamabad credited the Trump administration for helping to foster the peace, whereas India said the White House wasn’t involved. The issue was exacerbated when Trump told Modi over the phone that he was proud of the role he played in fostering peace – the Indian leader rejected his counterpart’s account.
Then in July, the tariff war began. Months later, even as the US has struck deals with the European Union, Japan, South Korea, and its greatest rival China, it still hadn’t reached any sort of truce with India. Washington’s 50% levy on India is now larger than the 47% effective rate on China.
“The entire dialogue between India and the US reached a boiling point where it was just very tense in terms of relations,” said Bartlett. “I think even Modi dodged Trump on his last trip.”
Further, Trump announced last week that he would exempt Hungary from Russian oil sanctions. No such luxuries were afforded to India, the second-highest purchaser of Russian oil.
The duties have taken a toll: Indian goods exports to the US, its largest foreign market, are down 40% over the last few months. Smartphones and pharmaceuticals were hit especially hard – exports of the former plunged by 58% from May to June. In September, the country’s trade deficit reached its highest level in 13 months.
Then the season changed. Tensions started to ease during the fall, as Modi and Trump shared kind words on social media following a September phone call. Then India started to comply with the new sanctions on Russian crude – they won’t even come into place until Nov. 21. A deal now appears imminent.
While conversations are moving in the right direction again, Malik says the relationship isn’t yet back to the heady days of that famous Houston rally.
“Does this resolve all problems and clean up all the bad blood from the past few months? Likely not,” said Malik. “But that’s fodder for a considered assessment on another day.”
Members of the media gather outside Broadcasting House, the BBC headquarters in central London, as BBC Director General Tim Davie and BBC News CEO Deborah Turness resign following accusations of bias and the controversy surrounding the editing of the Trump speech before the Capitol riots on 6 January 2021 in a BBC Panorama documentary.
4: Not even a week after Typhoon Kalmaegi ripped through the Philippines and killed over 200 people, another typhoon – this one called Fung-wong – has hit the Southeast Asian nation. At least four have died from this latest storm. More than a million people evacuated the worst-affected areas before it hit, which may have helped keep the human toll relatively low.
10: The Supreme Court refused a request from a Kentucky county clerk to reconsider Obergefell v. Hodges, a ruling from 10 years ago that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. The clerk had refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses over her religious beliefs. A Gallup poll conducted in May found most Americans, 68%, support rights for same-sex marriage.
5: China formally announced that it would suspend export controls on five critical minerals used for the production of semiconductors and military equipment. The announcement is in line with the agreement that Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping reached during their October summit in South Korea.
What We’re Watching: Longest-ever US shutdown coming to an end, Georgia Dream making one-party rule reality, Syria’s president in Washington
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) heads back to his office following a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on November 5, 2025 in Washington, D.C. The shutdown of the Federal Government has become the longest in U.S. history after surpassing the 35 day shutdown that occurred during President Trumps first term that began in the end of 2018.
US shutdown heads toward end as eight Democrats give in
Eight Senate Democrats joined almost every Republican to advance a continuing resolution that would fund the government through January and end the longest-ever US shutdown. Other members of the Democratic caucus were fuming. They had been demanding that any funding bill included an extension of healthcare subsidies, as premiums are set to rise, but all they received was a guarantee of a vote on this by the second week of December. Republicans did make concessions, though: they proposed offering healthcare funds directly to households, agreed to reverse the firings of thousands of government workers, and ensured there’d be backpay for furloughed federal employees. The Senate must formally pass the bill before it moves to the House and then to the president’s desk.
BUT BUT BUT. The decision to end the shutdown might help Democrats politically. If healthcare premiums rise, voters may well blame the party in power (Americans also tend to trust Democrats more than Republicans when it comes to healthcare), giving Dems a potential midterm boost. Healthcare was central to Democrats’ successful 2018 midterm campaign during US President Donald Trump’s first term; could history repeat itself next year?
Georgia’s ruling party sentences opposition leaders, attempts to outlaw opposing parties
In Georgia, the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party has charged eight of the country’s leading opposition figures with plotting to overthrow the government. Their potential 15 year prison sentences come as the pro-Russia GD has asked the judiciary – which is beholden to the government – to outlaw the three largest opposition parties, cementing one-party rule in the country.
Syrian president at the White House
Is there a more improbable life arc in global politics right now? Fifteen years ago, Ahmed al-Sharaa was an al-Qaeda jihadist, jailed by Iraq’s US occupiers. Today, a year after overthrowing Bashar al-Assad, he will meet with Trump at the White House, as president of the new Syria. Recent months have been a whirlwind of Sharaa aura: he’s gotten Western sanctions dropped, flirted on-air with a prominent American news host, shared a panel with his former jailer, and shot hoops with US military commanders. But the new Syria is still a fragile project, beset by horrific sectarian violence, concerns about democratic legitimacy, and tensions with Israel. What will al-Sharaa want from Trump, and what will the US president demand in return?
Pope Leo XIV presides over a mass at Saint John Lateran archbasilica in Vatican City on November 9, 2025.
It’s been six months since the Catholic Church elected its first American pope, Leo XIV. Since then, the Chicago-born pontiff has had sharp words for another high-profile US leader: President Donald Trump, most recently urging “deep reflection” on Trump’s treatment of migrants. Leo’s interventions have irked the White House – but could they also shape political opinion in America?
What has Leo said – and how has the White House responded? Shortly after his election as Pope, a series of tweets by Robert Prevost (Leo’s lay moniker) attacking Trump’s migration policies and the views of Vice President JD Vance went viral, prompting former Trump advisor Steve Bannon to call Leo the “worst pick for MAGA Catholics.” Vance, who converted to Catholicism at age 35, responded, “I try not to play the politicization of the Pope game.”
In October, Leo described Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s remarks to US generals that, “The only mission of the newly restored Department of War is this: warfighting, preparing for war and preparing to win, unrelenting and uncompromising in that pursuit,” as “worrying.” He also questioned whether someone who is against abortion but “in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants who are in the United States” could be considered “pro-life.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, herself a Catholic, subsequently rejected the pope's claim that the Trump administration's treatment of migrants was inhumane.
On November 7, Leo criticized ICE for denying deportees their religious rights, including to take communion, and added that US military and enforcement actions could “fuel regional tension” in Latin America. In response, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin posted to X that, “Religious organizations have ALWAYS been welcome to provide services to detainees in ICE detention facilities.”
Continuity with Pope Francis. Leo’s predecessor was also a vocal critic of Trump. In February 2016, Francis criticized Trump’s plan for a border wall with Mexico, and in February 2025 penned a letter to Catholic bishops in the US stating that US deportations were damaging “the dignity of many men and women.”
How are Leo’s words being received by American Catholics? Reactions vary. Some American bishops and Catholic charities say Leo’s comments have emboldened their efforts to assist immigrants. But some conservative US Catholics are dismayed that the pope would challenge a president they see as a friend of their faith.
Leo is also seen as attempting to sway Catholic lawmakers. According to Catholic historian Austen Ivereigh, “When the Pope speaks very definitely like this, it does put pressure on the US administration – particularly those who identify as Catholics.”
Could Leo influence the Catholic and Hispanic vote in the US? In 2024, Trump got 55% of the Catholic vote; one in five Trump voters was a follower of the faith. He got 42% of the Hispanic vote, up from 28% in 2016 and 32% in 2020. However, in last week’s gubernatorial and mayoral elections, Latino districts went significantly Democrat, voting 68% for the Democratic candidate for governor in New Jersey and 67% in Virginia. Support is slipping due to anger at immigration crackdowns – the same issue taken up by Leo.
The extent to which the pope can influence voting patterns is unclear, but his views appear to align with many Hispanic Catholics, 65% of whom believed immigrants should have a pathway to citizenship, per a PRRI poll last year. If Trump continues to adopt a severe tone on immigration, he risks repelling a group of voters who had been shifting in his direction as the US heads into a midterm election year.
Hard Numbers: Tesla approves $1 trillion Musk package, Kazakhstan wants to join Abraham Accords, Typhoon rips through Vietnam, & More
Elon Musk attends the opening ceremony of the new Tesla Gigafactory for electric cars in Gruenheide, Germany, March 22, 2022.
$1 trillion: Tesla shareholders approved a $1-trillion pay package for owner Elon Musk, a move that is set to make him the world’s first trillionaire – if the company meets certain targets. The pay will come in the form of stocks. Musk had threatened to quit Tesla if shareholders didn’t approve the package.
30: During a visit to the White House on Thursday, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said he expects to sign the Abraham Accords, an agreement that normalizes relations between Arab nations and Israel. To eagle-eyed observers, this is a rather odd move: In addition to not being an Arab country, Kazakhstan has already had full diplomatic ties with Israel for 30 years. The idea, however, is reportedly to give some momentum to the accords, as the US encourages Saudi Arabia to join them.
5: Typhoon Kalmaegi, which tore through the Philippines earlier this week, is now smashing through Vietnam, killing at least five in the communist Southeast Asian country. The Central Highlands region, where lots of coffee is produced, was largely spared. Meanwhile the death toll in the Philippines keeps rising, reaching 188, with another 100 missing.
1.1 million: US employers have made 1.1 million job cuts so far this year, according to Challenger Gray and Christmas, a major outplacement firm. That’s the highest since the pandemic – these types of numbers in the past have indicated the US economy is in, or nearing, a recession.
Over 100: Protests in Tanzania against the election results have turned deadly. Estimates vary on the death toll in the East African nation of 67 million people: Amnesty International confirmed at least 100 deaths, a security source said the number was above 500, while the opposition party said over 700 people had been killed. The opposition has accused President Samia Suluhu Hassan of campaign repression – she won 97% of the Oct. 29 vote, per the official tally.