Monday☕️🌎

Snapshot:

• November 1, 2026 — Drones disabled power substations in Al-Dabbah and Abu Hamad, Sudan, disrupting water, hospitals, markets and irrigation; authorities and a rights group blamed the RSF paramilitary.
• October 31, 2026 — Bolivia’s President Rodrigo Paz declared a national emergency as drought affected more than 78,000 families in six departments and killed about 75,000 cattle.
• November 1, 2026 — Iranian negotiators and Qatari mediators continued Doha talks on a conditional plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but no agreement was reached and shipping limits remained.

Geopolitics & Military Activity:

• November 1, 2026 — The United Nations began closing MINURSO, its Western Sahara peacekeeping mission, after the Security Council failed to renew its mandate. A smaller team will remove equipment, ending the mission’s on-the-ground monitoring role in the disputed territory.

• October 31, 2026 — North Korea’s Missile Administration tested a missile warhead that scatters smaller bombs in Jeongju County, North Korea. It claimed, without outside proof, that the weapon could cover 12–13 hectares and said troops would receive four types this year.
• November 1, 2026 — Israeli strikes in Khan Younis and Gaza City in the Gaza Strip killed at least eight Palestinians. Israel said it targeted militants in Khan Younis; medics and the Hamas-run Interior Ministry reported the deaths.

Economics & Markets:

• November 1, 2026 — Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman kept their December oil-production targets unchanged through OPEC+. That leaves the group’s planned supply at September levels, while actual output can still differ from targets.

• November 1, 2026 — Central Depository Services Ltd., an Indian securities depository, said foreign portfolio investors withdrew ₹34,843 crore from Indian shares in October. They bought about ₹6,300 crore in the final four trading days, too little to offset the monthly outflow.
• November 1, 2026 — Pakistan’s Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority raised the official monthly price of liquefied petroleum gas, a cooking fuel, by 5.27% nationwide. An 11.8-kilogram cylinder now costs 3,470.09 rupees, 173.86 rupees more for households and small businesses.
• November 1, 2026 — Coal India, India’s state-owned coal miner, reported record October production of 67.2 million tonnes and a record 57.1 million tonnes supplied to power plants. The higher deliveries increase domestic fuel available for electricity generation.

Business:

• November 1, 2026 — Bangladesh formed a six-member wage board in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to set garment workers’ minimum pay, but protests still disrupted 529 factories across Dhaka, Gazipur, Mymensingh and Savar-Ashulia. The industry group said 987,190 workers left workplaces that day.

• November 1, 2026 — Bahrain awarded government investment licenses for four planned projects worth $3.89 billion, including aircraft maintenance, cargo, a hotel development and a digital-city project. The projects could add jobs and services in Bahrain if the companies carry them out.
• October 31, 2026 — Elon Musk said SpaceXAI, the artificial-intelligence company operating the Colossus 2 campus, is building two more data-center clusters across Southaven, Mississippi, United States, and Memphis, Tennessee. He said they are planned to start work by December, not operating yet.
• October 31, 2026 — Mivi, an Indian maker of earbuds and speakers, opened a ₹200 crore manufacturing facility in Tukkuguda, India. The site brings research, product development and manufacturing together and supports Mivi’s move into smartphone production.

Politics & Society:

• November 1, 2026 — Initial counts in Sofia, Bulgaria, gave acting President Iliana Yotova about 58% in the presidential runoff, and former interim Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov conceded. Official results were still pending; the president does not run government policy but can veto laws and sign treaties.

• November 1, 2026 — The New South Wales government started its permanent Armed Response Command in Sydney, Australia, with armed patrols and a 24-hour operations centre for serious threats. The unit will grow to 250 police officers and 28 civilian analysts; officers began patrols at crowded places and major events.
• November 1, 2026 — Bangladesh’s government formed a six-member wage board in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to set a new minimum wage for garment workers after demonstrations disrupted factories near the capital. It includes government, worker and factory-owner representatives, but it has not yet set pay.
• November 1, 2026 — U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason dismissed the Justice Department’s request in Alaska, United States, to delay certification of the state’s Senate election if Senator Dan Sullivan loses. The department appealed, but Alaska’s normal vote-counting and certification process remains in place for now.

Environment & Weather:

• November 1, 2026 — Arizona Department of Public Safety air-rescue crews evacuated six people from rooftops after Oak Creek flooded homes in Sedona, United States. Evacuation orders remained in place, while heavy rain closed roads in parts of Arizona and southwestern Colorado.

• November 1, 2026 — The India Meteorological Department said Cyclone Murasu strengthened over the Bay of Bengal and could reach Andhra Pradesh, India, early November 3 as a severe cyclone. It warned of 100–110 km/h winds, gusts up to 120 km/h, and extremely heavy rain.
• November 1, 2026 — East Coast Railway sent a rescue team to Gidipabali, Odisha, India, to help clear debris and search for 12 people still missing after a landslide. Two injured women were receiving treatment, and other residents had moved to temporary shelters.

Cyber:

• October 31, 2026 — Club Tourism, a Japanese tour operator, said an intrusion may have exposed personal data for about 4.32 million online members in Japan. It took its website offline while investigating; passwords, passport, payment-card and bank-account details were not included.

• November 1, 2026 — Rosstat, Russia's state statistics agency, said cyberattacks disrupted public access to its website from October 29 to November 1. It found no confirmed data leak; claims by Cyber Partisans and Silent Crow to have stolen data remain unverified.
• November 1, 2026 — Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, announced a phased restart of withdrawals for customers worldwide after its October theft and said it had replaced about 95% of affected assets. Transfers could be delayed as networks returned.

Science & Technology:

• November 1, 2026 — South Korea’s Trade Ministry released October data showing exports rose 93.7% to $115.3 billion, led by a 259% rise in chip shipments to $56.4 billion. Shipments grew strongly to China, the United States, Southeast Asia and the European Union as demand for AI hardware increased.

• November 1, 2026 — Carlos Collet’s P4 trial team reported in San Diego, United States, that planning coronary stent procedures from computed-tomography scans matched ultrasound guidance after one year in 1,105 patients at 23 sites. The results may shift some planning before the invasive procedure, but do not yet change treatment standards.
• November 1, 2026 — Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state oil company, completed its purchase of 49% of HUMAIN, an AI company, while the Public Investment Fund kept 51%. Aramco will contribute about $2.6 billion and AI assets; HUMAIN’s planned 3 gigawatts of data centers by 2030 are not yet built.
• November 1, 2026 — Energy North withdrew its June 28, 2028 first-power target for the proposed Project Ares data-center campus in the Barkly Region of the Northern Territory, Australia. The 1-gigawatt proposal still needs an environmental impact statement, and the developer gave no replacement start date.

Trends:

• OPEC+ kept December output targets, while Pakistan raised the official cooking-gas price. That shows energy decisions can leave households with higher bills even when supply plans do not change. The U.N. began closing its Western Sahara mission, removing its on-the-ground monitoring role. Saudi Aramco’s HUMAIN investment adds funding to planned AI computing, not built capacity.

• What to watch: Watch OPEC+ and Pakistan’s cooking-gas change for actual output and shop prices. Watch the Western Sahara closure for whether a smaller U.N. team can limit the loss of monitoring. Watch HUMAIN for built data centers, not its 2030 plan.

Statistic of the Day:

• Inflation-adjusted economic output in the United States grew at a 3.4 percent annual rate in the third quarter of 2026.
• Gross domestic product, or GDP, measures the inflation-adjusted value of goods and services produced. The annual rate shows what this quarter’s pace would be if it continued for a full year; this first estimate may be revised.

History of MINURSO and Western Sahara’s unfinished referendum:

• MINURSO, the United Nations mission in Western Sahara, grew from an unfinished end to Spanish colonial rule and a 1991 ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario Front. It was meant to organize a vote on the territory’s future, but disputes over who could vote left that central task unfinished.
• 1963: The United Nations put Spanish Sahara on its list of territories that did not govern themselves. This recognized that its people were entitled to a process of self-determination, later central to calls for a referendum.
• 1975–1976: On October 16, the International Court of Justice found that historical ties with Morocco and Mauritania did not amount to territorial sovereignty. Spain ended its presence on February 26, 1976, and fighting followed.
• 1988: Morocco and the Polisario Front accepted settlement proposals prepared by the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity. The plan offered Western Saharans a choice between independence and integration with Morocco.
• 1991: UN Security Council Resolution 690 created MINURSO on April 29. A ceasefire began on September 6; the mission was to monitor it, support refugee returns and organize a free, fair referendum.
• 1999–2000: The referendum process stalled over voter eligibility. The UN published a provisional list of 86,425 potential voters but received 131,038 appeals, leaving the vote without an agreed timetable and refugee returns delayed.

Image of the Day:

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