Morning Brief: Abu Dhabi talks end with prisoner-swap deal; 13 U.S. aircraft moved off RAF Mildenhall; House shelves Hegseth impeachment; Trump at Arlington for Veterans Day
Plus Nvidia's CEO spy probe, an IRGC operative on the FBI's Most Wanted list, a twice-deported United bomb-threat suspect, a new Eighth Circuit pick, and the Supreme Court's next dates.
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I'm Nora Vale with your 6 AM World Brief for Wednesday, November 11. Abu Dhabi talks end with prisoner-swap deal. 13 U.S. aircraft moved off RAF Mildenhall. House shelves Hegseth impeachment, 211-204. DHS: United bomb-threat suspect was deported twice. Trump at Arlington for Veterans Day. In national weather, from the National Weather Service: Tropical Storm Pena, with top winds near 45 mph, may bring impacts to parts of Hawaii. An anomalous polar plunge will bring the coldest air of the season so far to much of the central and eastern U.S. beginning Wednesday night. Our opinion. Thank a veteran today. Prisoner swaps are a win, but peace needs guarantees, and removal orders must be enforced. Full stories and sources at WorldBriefNow.com. I'm Nora Vale.
The second day of U.S.-mediated talks between Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi ended Wednesday, and Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said the two sides agreed on a large-scale prisoner exchange and that more talks would be held, the Guardian reported, citing Reuters. U.S. envoy Jared Kushner called the talks "very substantive" but "pretty tough" and said he and Steve Witkoff will meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday, where he hopes to finalize "the biggest humanitarian release of prisoners." Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov also confirmed the planned exchange, AP reported; Kushner said the Russians want more progress before any Putin-Zelensky meeting, and Medinsky was cool on bringing European countries into the talks.
The U.S. Air Force relocated more than a dozen aircraft from RAF Mildenhall in England amid a threat that sources told the Wall Street Journal originated in Iran, and commanders raised the base to Force Protection Condition Charlie, the military's second-highest alert level, Fox News reported. Flight-tracking data showed 13 aircraft leaving late Monday: nine KC-135 tankers went to airfields in Scotland, Germany and Spain and three CV-22B Ospreys moved to nearby RAF Lakenheath, the Associated Press said, according to Fox. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, "We are constantly repositioning forces around the world," and a Downing Street spokesperson said British air bases remain secure.
Nvidia's independent directors retained former acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Joon H. Kim and the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to investigate CEO Jensen Huang's relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed whom U.S. intelligence agencies reportedly believe may have passed information to China, the Washington Examiner reported. The board says it has "no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised," and President Trump has said he believes Huang "had absolutely no idea that the person in question was a spy." House Republicans are prepared to subpoena Huang if he does not respond by Wednesday to a request from Foreign Affairs Chairman Brian Mast for a closed-door briefing on Nov. 18.
The FBI on Tuesday placed Shahram Poursafi, a member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, on its Most Wanted Terrorists list for allegedly soliciting the murders of two former U.S. government officials between October 2021 and April 2022, Fox News reported. Court documents detail an alleged plot targeting former National Security Advisor John Bolton, and Poursafi allegedly sought to pay people in the U.S. $300,000 to carry it out, in what was believed to be retaliation for the January 2020 killing of IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani.
President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are scheduled to take part in the 2026 National Veterans Day Wreath Laying Ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery at 11 a.m. ET Wednesday, with the President delivering Veterans Day remarks at 11:30 a.m. ET, according to the White House press schedule. In his Veterans Day proclamation, Trump said the VA processed a record 3.1 million disability claims this year, cut its claims backlog by more than 70 percent, opened 47 new health care facilities, and housed nearly 52,000 homeless veterans last year.
The House voted 211-204 on Tuesday evening to send Rep. Thomas Massie's articles of impeachment against War Secretary Pete Hegseth to committee, effectively ending the effort for now, the Washington Examiner reported; Massie was the only member to cross party lines, and 11 Democrats and seven Republicans missed the vote. Earlier Tuesday Hegseth called the push "a political spectacle, a personal manifesto driven by ego and resentment," and Trump wrote on Truth Social that the vote led to "the EXONERATION of a Great American Patriot." Massie's eight articles centered on the Iran war, Caribbean boat strikes and the Maduro rendition, and he has discussed refiling them one at a time.
Rony Alexander Gomez-Alberto, 34, accused of claiming to have a bomb and trying to reach the cockpit of United Flight 2174 from Newark to New Orleans on Monday night, is a Honduran national who was deported in 2011 and 2014 and caught again at the border in 2019, the Department of Homeland Security said, according to Fox News and the New York Post. He was released from ICE custody in January 2020 after a judge ordered him freed pending removal proceedings, DHS told the Post, and ICE lodged a detainer with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office on Tuesday. The flight carried 46 passengers and six crew and landed safely; he is charged with communicating false information of planned arson and terrorizing and is held without bail, the Post reported.
The White House on Tuesday withdrew President Trump's nomination of U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky to the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after Arkansas Sens. John Boozman and Tom Cotton opposed it, and Trump will instead nominate their preferred candidate, Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Cody Hiland, the Washington Examiner reported. "Without the support of my home-state Senators, confirmation is simply not a practical possibility in today's Senate," Rudofsky said. The report said a confirmed Hiland would give Trump appointees a majority of active judges on a federal appeals court for the first time, though it is unclear if there is time before the new Congress in January.
The Supreme Court Building is closed Wednesday for Veterans Day after a week in which the Court let the administration resume border wall construction in Texas's Big Bend region and heard the Sun Valley Orchards farmworker-penalty case, SCOTUSblog reported. The justices hold a private conference Friday, Nov. 13, with an order list due Monday, Nov. 16, at 9:30 a.m. ET, and the next arguments are Nov. 30, according to the SCOTUSblog calendar. December arguments include Republican National Committee v. Mi Familia Vota on Dec. 8 and Department of Homeland Security v. D.V.D. on Dec. 9.
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