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Intrigue

Daily flyovers

Latest news for 9 November 2026

Quick hits of consequential news from all corners of the world.

  1. 01

    TURKEY

    COP kicks off.

    The UN’s COP31 climate summit kicks off today (Monday), hosted by Turkey while Australia chairs the negotiations, right as research warns that a breach of our 1.5°C global warming limit is now both imminent and unavoidable. (Guardian)

    Comment: The two priorities are theoretically around finance (helping poorer countries mitigate and adapt) and fossil fuels (building on COP28’s pledge to “transition away”), but petrostate resistance, US absence, and major emitter insouciance (China, India) makes any major breakthrough highly unlikely. You can see that in the guest-list, which suggests key world leaders are mostly steering clear.

  2. 02

    POLAND

    The politics of terror.

    Prime Minister Tusk has declared two days of mourning after Saturday’s mass shooting in Kraków left seven dead (including the attacker) and 15 injured. Authorities say the 24-year-old shooter, who also killed three relatives at his home, might’ve been motivated by far-right ideology. (NBC)

    Comment: The centrist Tusk has pleaded for “politicians of all stripes, do not exploit this tragedy”, but Poland’s rarity of mass shootings plus its pre-existing constitutional showdown mean a plea might not be enough. His rival and Poland’s nationalist president (Nawrocki) controls one of the security agencies now investigating the attack, and will presumably block any attempt to expand domestic surveillance let alone toughen gun control.

  3. 03

    ISRAEL

    Eisenkot takes first crack.

    President Herzog has offered opposition leader and former military chief Gadi Eisenkot the first chance to form a new coalition government. Eisenkot now has ~six weeks to make the legislative math work before Herzog passes the baton to someone else (presumably Netanyahu). (F24)

    Comment: Getting Herzog’s nod was the easy part. Eisenkot’s path to power now runs through a razor-thin and deeply contradictory mix: he could ally with the Arab-led parties but that’d risk losing the support of Lieberman’s secular nationalists. Alternatively, Eisenkot could try the ultra-Orthodox parties, but they’d force him to renege on his pledge to ditch an unpopular military exemption for ultra-Orthodox Jewish citizens.

  4. 04

    NEW ZEALAND

    Beached as bro.

    Disillusioned voters have delivered an incredibly close election outcome in New Zealand, with Saturday’s results still too close to call. (RNZ)

    Comment: New Zealand’s electoral system is designed to spread more power, but this result still reflects a splintering trend we’ve seen elsewhere, with voters punishing the main parties in favour of smaller, newer players who could emerge as kingmakers.

  5. 05

    UNITED STATES

    Post-loss shakeup.

    Following last week’s big midterms loss, President Trump has swapped his disciplinarian chief of staff Susie Wiles for hardline immigration architect Stephen Miller. The president also insists he was “just kidding” when he announced UFC boss Dana White as his next pick for press secretary — ie, not confusing the cage-fight promoter for a former Pentagon spokesperson with the same name. (The Hill)

    Comment: It’s easy to over-think these appointments, particularly for a free-wheeling POTUS like Trump, but this Wiles-Miller swap suggests the president has little appetite for post-midterm soul-searching or bipartisan compromise, instead circling the wagons with his most hawkish loyalists ahead of two years of aggressive House oversight. We also wonder if Miller’s promotion hints at less of a quest for big diplomatic prizes farther afield, and something more in line with Miller’s view that “national security begins at home” (eg organised crime and trafficking in the Americas).

  6. 06

    HAITI

    Gang leader dead.

    Prime Minister Fils-Aime has announced the drone-strike death of gang leader Mathias Saintil in a law enforcement operation on Friday. (Al Jazeera)

    Comment: There’s no indication El Salvador’s troops were involved (President Bukele would’ve tweeted if so). Nor is there any indication this might turn the tide of Haiti’s crippling gang violence. It is, however, a major narrative win, suggesting that with international assistance, Haiti *can* land blows against the gangs. And it’s really this narrative that shapes whether more international assistance arrives, not to mention whether more gangs express openness to some kind of political resolution.

  7. 07

    GABON

    Friends with benefits.

    President Xi has hosted his Gabonese counterpart (junta leader-turned-president Nguema) for a state visit, formally elevating ties to a “community with a shared future” while signing pacts across security, trade, and mining. (Reuters)

    Comment: This is a textbook example of China’s pragmatic post-coup playbook in the region, letting the West freeze aid and threaten isolation while Beijing fills the void with security backing and locks down priority access to Gabon’s manganese deposits (a classic EV battery input).