Situation Reports

Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed Russia’s foreign ministry, defense ministry and intelligence services to prepare proposals on whether to begin preparing for potential nuclear weapons testing, following the United States' plans to resume its own tests, the Kremlin announced on Nov. 5.

U.S. Republican Rep. for West Virginia Riley Moore pushed back against China's stated opposition to recent threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to use force in Nigeria, stressing on X that China "would not dictate [U.S.] foreign policy," Sahara Reporters reported on Nov. 4.

The United States advanced the Saudi request to buy up to 48 F-35 fighter jets through the Pentagon, though more steps, like Cabinet approval and U.S. President Donald Trump's own sign-off, await, Reuters reported on Nov. 4.

Voting for assembly elections in India's populous but poor Bihar state will take place in two phases on Nov. 6 and 11, with counting scheduled for Nov. 14, The Economic Times reported on Nov. 5.

EU climate ministers reached a last-minute consensus on the bloc's 2040 climate target, agreeing to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 90% from 1990 levels but introducing new flexibilities that dilute the goal, Reuters reported on Nov. 5.

Google announced on Nov. 4 a new research project, Project Suncatcher, which aims to carry out foundational work on scaling machine learning in space.

Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne revealed the minority Liberal government's budget for the next fiscal year, which pledges large investments in infrastructure, defense and a variety of targeted measures for both households and industries to offset the negative impacts of U.S. tariffs, CTV News reported on Nov. 4.

Leaders of political parties part of South Africa's coalition government adopted the country's Medium-Term Development Plan, vowed to accelerate reforms and ratified the terms of reference of the government's clearinghouse mechanism to resolve intra-coalition disagreements, News24 reported on Nov. 3.

Cameroonian opposition leader Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who has contested incumbent candidate Paul Biya's victory in the October presidential election, has reportedly moved to Nigeria's Adamawa state, where Nigerian intelligence services are monitoring his presence and anticipating a potential request for his extradition, Africa Intelligence reported on Nov. 4.

Brazilian senators installed a parliamentary inquiry commission into organized crime on Nov. 4, g1 reported the same day.