Today's Briefing: November 8, 2026

The big picture

Three days ago we wrote that talk and attack were running side by side. That has not changed. Peace talks for Ukraine are two days away, and Russia spent Saturday night cutting power to hundreds of thousands of homes as the cold sets in. Qatar is carrying proposals between Washington and Tehran, while ships in the Gulf keep catching fire. The common thread is energy: the oil that moves through Hormuz and the electricity that keeps Ukrainian homes warm are both being used as weapons.

Iran and the Gulf

Iran's military said on Sunday that two more tankers caught fire after hitting mines on what it called an "unauthorised route" through the strait. That follows Iranian claims of five tankers and a tug burning on Thursday. Maritime officials have not confirmed those reports, CBS News noted, and President Trump has accused Iran of inventing attacks to push up energy prices. Some damage is confirmed. A British maritime agency logged a tanker reporting a blast at its waterline on Thursday, and one crew member of the tanker Velos Sapphire was killed when the ship was hit by a suspected missile on its way to Bahrain, its Greek manager said.

The fighting has not stopped. On Friday, Trump said US forces had carried out what he called "minor strikes" on an Iranian air defense system. On Saturday, American aircraft disabled a St Kitts-flagged cargo ship that had refused orders to stop in the Gulf of Oman, CBS reported. That evening, Iranian state media reported blasts on Qeshm Island and in the port of Jask, with no cause given, according to AP and Reuters reporting carried by ABC News in Australia. Iran's Revolutionary Guard also said it has dropped its own 2,000-kilometre cap on missile range.

Talks continue in the background. Trump spoke with Qatar's emir on Friday, and Iran is studying Qatari proposals on the nuclear dispute, though Iranian officials say Washington must first meet a list of conditions. The war has spread south too: debris from an intercepted missile damaged an Aramco office building in Riyadh on Sunday, with no one hurt, CBS reported. A British naval agency counted at least 30 attacks on commercial ships in the region in October, a record.

At home, the US average for gasoline was about $4.06 a gallon late last week, and GasBuddy's Patrick De Haan expects it to dip below $4 soon, CBS reported.

Russia and Ukraine

Overnight strikes on Saturday left more than 600,000 people without power in the Dnipropetrovsk region, according to the energy company DTEK, and close to 250,000 customers in the Kharkiv region, a local mayor said. President Zelenskyy said 140 apartment buildings in the Zhytomyr region lost their heating, with temperatures hovering around freezing, CBS reported. He put the death toll from Monday's strike on an aid center in Komyshuvakha, in the Zaporizhzhia region, at 55.

Diplomacy is moving at the same time. On Thursday, Trump hosted Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev at the White House and said afterward that a settlement was getting "very close," but he gave no details, Al Jazeera reported. First Lady Melania Trump hosted Russian and Ukrainian human rights officials the same day to build on the short truce she helped arrange in Oleshky last month, which let about 800 civilians leave. American, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators are due in Abu Dhabi this week. Trump has said a deal was near many times before.

Israel and Gaza

Israel's next government may not be led by Benjamin Netanyahu. President Isaac Herzog said on Saturday night that he would ask Gadi Eisenkot, the leader of the Yashar party, to try to form one, The Times of Israel reported. Netanyahu answered by calling for a "national unity" government. Eisenkot's party replied that Likud was welcome to join a coalition "without extremists." In Tel Aviv, protesters rallied against the prime minister and a Shin Bet inquiry linked to the election.

In Gaza, heavy rain flooded the tents of displaced families, and video showed sewage mixed into the water, The Times of Israel reported.

Sudan

Human Rights Watch told European lawmakers this week that thousands of civilians, women among them, may still be held in Rapid Support Forces detention sites in El Fasher and Nyala. The group cited UN figures of more than 300 people killed by drone strikes in just three weeks of October. It also said a company based in the United Arab Emirates appears to have sent Colombian private military contractors to help the RSF take El Fasher, and it urged the EU to sanction that firm. Survivors of the camp attacks around El Fasher are now collecting the names of the dead, Al Jazeera reported.

Taiwan

China sent 11 military aircraft, 10 warships and three other government ships near Taiwan in the 24 hours to Saturday morning, Voice of Emirates reported, citing Taiwan's military. Nine of the aircraft crossed the middle line of the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan has counted 125 aircraft and 83 naval vessels near the island so far this month.

Also watching

In Paraguay, prosecutors charged ousted president Santiago Peña over the Ueno Bank collapse on Saturday and asked for him to be held before trial, MercoPress reported. He was moved overnight from his home to an army barracks after protesters threw stones near his residence.

Afterlight read: what it means for you

The two big stories of the weekend are both about energy. Each mine claim and each strike in the Gulf lands on fuel prices, and heating oil is already over $6 a gallon in parts of New England. Ukraine shows what happens when a power grid becomes a target in winter: whole regions go dark and cold in one night.

You cannot change either war. You can take a few steps before the cold arrives: top up heating fuel early, keep a backup way to stay warm that does not need the grid, and keep a week of food, water and medicine at home. Watch Abu Dhabi on Tuesday and Wednesday. If those talks stall, expect Russia to keep hitting power plants all winter.