International News Bulletin — November 5, 2026

Politics

• Herzog opens coalition talks as Israel’s election results are certified – President Isaac Herzog began consultations with party leaders after the Central Elections Committee presented him the official results of the October 27 vote, which the committee said showed no irregularities affecting the outcome. Al Jazeera, citing AP, put Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition at 53 seats and Gadi Eisenkot’s bloc at 48, with Arab-led parties winning a record 19, short of the 61 needed by either camp. Ra’am said it would recommend Eisenkot and the Haredi faction Degel HaTorah said it would not back Netanyahu, as meetings resumed on Thursday.
• Hong Kong court jails Joshua Wong for 10 years over foreign collusion – High Court judge William Tam sentenced the democracy activist on Thursday for conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the national security law, to which Wong had pleaded guilty, Hong Kong Free Press and Nikkei Asia reported. Tam set a starting point of 13 years and deducted three for the plea, saying “the punishment must fit the gravity of the crime committed.” Wong, in custody since November 2020, is already serving a sentence in the separate “Hong Kong 47” subversion case.
• Ethiopia expels six Sudanese diplomats and shuts a border consulate – Ethiopia ordered six Sudanese diplomats to leave within 48 hours and closed Sudan’s consulate in Asosa, according to Ethiopian and Sudanese officials quoted by Reuters and AP. No reason was given. Khartoum accuses Addis Ababa of letting the Rapid Support Forces launch drone attacks on Sudanese infrastructure from its territory, which Ethiopia denies, and filed complaints with the UN Security Council and the African Union on Sunday.
• Syria and Saudi Arabia sign a defence pact and $403m in loans – The two countries’ defence ministries signed a cooperation agreement in Riyadh on Wednesday in the presence of President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Reuters reported; Syria’s foreign ministry did not disclose its terms. The Saudi Fund for Development signed six concessional loans worth more than $403m, including $100m for health facilities and $90m for the Aleppo thermal power plant, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
• Ibero-American summit opens in Madrid with ten leaders attending – King Felipe VI opened the 30th summit of the 22-member community on Wednesday evening, with the plenary session scheduled for Thursday, Africanews reported. Only 10 countries sent heads of state or government, among them Argentina’s Javier Milei and Chile’s José Antonio Kast, while Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum stayed away ahead of Spain’s November 29 general election.

Economy

• Dow jumps 3% as Wall Street rallies after the midterms – The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1,569.40 points to 53,356.12 on Wednesday, the S&P 500 gained 1.6% to 7,688.62 and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.4% to 25,736.51, according to AP’s closing table. Al Jazeera tied the gains to the Democrats’ capture of both chambers of Congress, and Nikkei Asia to Donald Trump signalling cooperation with the new majority.
• Seoul shares slide, triggering a curb on program selling – The Kospi fell 4.67% to 5,418.15 by 10:16 on Thursday morning in Seoul, prompting the exchange to suspend program trading for five minutes, Yonhap reported. By 11:20 the index was down 3.27% at 5,498.03, with Samsung Electronics off 5.05% and SK hynix off 6.52%, on fears that the new US Congress will tighten rules on AI data centres. Nikkei Asia reported Japanese shares also fell on expectations of closer US scrutiny of the AI sector.
• South Korea posts a record $61.46bn current account surplus – The surplus for September beat the previous monthly record of $49.73bn set in June, Bank of Korea data reported by Yonhap showed. The goods balance reached a record $62.75bn as exports rose 92.4% year on year to $130.72bn. A central bank official said October’s surplus was expected to be the second-highest on record.
• Crédit Mutuel Arkéa says hackers used its own account for fraudulent transfers – The Brest-based French banking group said on Wednesday that attackers used its proprietary account to send transfers to other banks, from which the money may have been converted into cryptocurrency, and that customer assets were not affected. AFP put the loss at about 100 million euros; the bank said some funds had been blocked and it was too early to give a final amount. The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation, according to AFP.

World News

• WHO approves trials of two vaccines against the Bundibugyo Ebola strain – WHO expert groups recommended adding trials of ChAdOx1 BDBV, developed by the University of Oxford with the Serum Institute of India, and Moderna’s mRNA-1469 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africanews and Al Jazeera reported, citing AFP. The existing Ervebo vaccine is not designed for this strain, and WHO expects results in early 2027. Africa CDC has counted 10,444 confirmed cases and more than 5,300 deaths, mostly in Congo.
• Bukele publicises a Salvadoran military push against Haitian gangs – El Salvador’s president posted videos of Salvadoran soldiers patrolling in Haiti and, on Tuesday, footage he said showed Salvadoran helicopters firing on gangs attacking Chadian troops of the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force, Al Jazeera and AP reported. El Salvador’s foreign ministry said more than 2,000 soldiers would join the search for four Salvadoran service members missing since an attack on October 18, according to AFP. UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said only about 200 Salvadoran soldiers fall under the force’s command.
• Kyiv suffers its worst wartime water outage after grid strikes – Russia’s November 3 strikes on Ukraine’s energy system cut power to the capital’s pumps, leaving most districts without water and some residents dry for more than 24 hours before the utility stabilised supply on Wednesday afternoon, the Kyiv Independent reported. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said power facilities and substations were damaged in nine regions, Al Jazeera reported. “This is the most serious water outage in Kyiv since the war began,” said Mykhailo Yatsuk, director of the Institute of Water Problems and Land Reclamation.
• Ukrainian drone strikes kill three in Russia’s Belgorod region – Local Russian authorities announced the deaths on Wednesday, according to Al Jazeera, citing AFP, AP and Reuters. Russia’s defence ministry said it downed 709 Ukrainian drones across 14 regions, Crimea and the Black and Azov seas, while a drone attack set fire to an Ozon warehouse in Adygea without casualties, according to the regional head.

Bulletin automatically generated on November 5, 2026.