Daily flyovers
Latest news for 5 November 2026
Quick hits of consequential news from all corners of the world.
- 01
UNITED KINGDOM
New judge in town.
UN member states have elected Oxford professor Dapo Akande to the International Court of Justice, restoring a British presence to the bench after nearly a decade. He joins newly-elected judges from France, Jordan, Singapore, and Kenya for an initial nine-year term. (MEE)
Comment: ICJ judges swear an oath to independence, not national allegiance, but decades of empirical studies point to a statistically significant national bias. Plus getting a judge on the UN’s highest court is a big prestige flex.
- 02
UNITED NATIONS
Old mystery, new clues?
A fresh UN-mandated assessment has concluded it “appears plausible” an external attack hit the plane carrying former UN chief Dag Hammarskjöld in 1961, leaving him and 15 others onboard dead. (UNifeed)
Comment: Intriguingly, the report notes “it is almost certain that material information exists that has not been disclosed by Member States”. That spicy line seems a reference to Western intelligence refusing to fully declassify information they have from the night, like (say) the possibility of European mercenaries operating warplanes amid the bloody struggle over (and Hammarskjöld’s backing for) Congolese unity and sovereignty. 👀
- 03
PARAGUAY
Banking on a political crisis.
The broad opposition has filed an impeachment motion against the conservative president (Peña) over his links to a rapidly-growing digital bank (Ueno) that just collapsed, freezing millions of customer deposits and even state funds. (UPI)
Comment: To give you a sense of scale, this bank was serving *half* Paraguay’s adults. Peña’s party holds firm majorities in both houses, but the scale of the collapse has clearly left blood in the water.
- 04
INDONESIA
Troops descend on Jakarta.
Following the arrest of his chief of staff and top security honchos over an alleged wiretapping ring, the embattled president (Prabowo) has now deployed more than 20,000 military personnel to the capital (though officials insist it’s a routine rotation). (Straits Times)
Comment: The emerging theory is that, given several of the detainees were close to the former president (Jokowi, whose son is now veep), it could all relate to some classic Prabowo vs Jokowi factionalism. Similar to what we’ve seen in the Philippines, sometimes a joint dynastic ticket doesn’t resolve tensions, so much as just import them directly into the palace. Either way, combined with market jitters and ecological disasters, blanketing the capital with troops hardly gives off thumbs-up energy.
- 05
SOUTH AFRICA
Local elections.
Preliminary results for South Africa’s municipal elections show the African National Congress party, which has dominated post-Apartheid politics, is leading the centre-right Democratic Alliance, but only just. (Reuters)
Comment: Another wake-up call for Mandela’s ANC and its current leader, President Cyril Ramaphosa, with the party bleeding votes over high crime, unemployment, infrastructure, and corruption.
- 06
NEW ZEALAND
Kiwi cliffhanger?
Final polling suggests this Saturday’s parliamentary elections could result in neither the conservative government nor the centre-left opposition securing an outright majority. (Guardian)
Comment: PM Luxon (former CEO of Air New Zealand) has weathered a brutal year of economic malaise and party intrigue, but voters seem equally unenthused by the alternatives. The result might be a small centrist party (run by a 38-year-old ex-KPMG consultant) deciding the winner: and that could shape whether Wellington keeps leaning more into Western security partnerships, or reasserts its more independent approach.