Daily Brief, November 3, 2026

Top Story

The US struck Iran's Qeshm Island late Monday, on the eve of the midterm elections, the Wall Street Journal reported

Unnamed US officials called the strikes on Qeshm, an Iranian island at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, defensive, aimed at surface-to-air missiles used against US assets. The Journal says they are part of a series of smaller strikes the Trump administration has kept secret so as not to signal renewed war.

Source: The Guardian (citing the Wall Street Journal)

United States

Regulatory Horizon

Four AI-industry super PACs ran online video ads for or against 40 US candidates; only two candidates' ads mentioned AI, Bellingcat found

Super PACs can take unlimited donations. Leading the Future, which opposes AI regulation, has taken $125 million, including from Greg Brockman, president of OpenAI, the AI developer, and Andreessen Horowitz, the venture capital firm. Rival Public First Action, which backs safeguards, has taken $40 million from Anthropic.

Source: Bellingcat

Around the World

Enforcement & Liability

Serbian prosecutors detained the owner of Alta Banka, saying he carried about 383 million euros in cash out of the bank's vault

[RU · The Bell]

According to the Russian business outlet The Bell, prosecutors suspect owner Davor Macura carried the cash out with help from two staff, the treasury director and one employee, who they say handed him vault access cards or escorted him in. All three are held for 48 hours.

Source: The Bell

Supply Chain Risk

Oman evacuated 25 crew from RITI, a Panama-flagged tanker, after a projectile hit it near Khasab, Oman, in the Strait of Hormuz

The October 29th strike started a small fire and knocked out the ship's propulsion. Two more tankers were hit that week: a small boat reportedly attached two explosives to the hull of one, and a projectile struck a supertanker.

Source: gCaptain

A cyberattack switched supermarket refrigeration to defrost mode at about 40 stores of the Belgian supermarket chain Delhaize in Belgium and Luxembourg and at shops in five other European countries

Sabcobel, which makes some of the affected units and runs Delhaize's systems, says the fix needs physical modifications, not just software updates. The method is believed to match an attack on French supermarkets last month.

Source: BBC (with CNBC/Reuters)

Geopolitical Shocks

Iran says it can reopen the Strait of Hormuz within two days if Washington meets its demands

[DE · Welt]

Foreign ministry spokesman Ismail Baghai gave the timeline Monday, down from the week Tehran estimated earlier. He gave no sign that Iran has dropped its seven conditions, which include lifting the US blockade of Iranian ports. Ships would follow a route agreed with Oman, under Iranian supervision.

Source: Welt

The UN ended its peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara, a territory in northwest Africa, after 35 years, when the Security Council could not agree on its future

[FR · RFI Afrique]

The mission had monitored the ceasefire since 1991, and fighting resumed in 2020. Russia vetoed a US draft resolution on Friday, and a rival Russian text fell short of the nine votes it needed. The mandate expired at midnight Saturday.

Source: UN News

Belgian prime minister Bart De Wever submitted his resignation after talks on the 2027 budget collapsed

[RU · Meduza]

King Philippe has not accepted it and sees De Wever again on November 6th. If he does accept, Belgium could hold new elections or form a new government without them. De Wever has been among the strongest opponents of seizing roughly 190 billion euros of frozen Russian assets held at Euroclear, a Belgian depository.

Source: Meduza

Regulatory Horizon

Germany's lower house of parliament passed a law making its information-security agency, the BSI, the enforcer of the European Union's Cyber Resilience Act

[DE · BSI]

The act sets mandatory security requirements for products with digital parts, from smart coffee machines to mobile apps, and the BSI says they apply from December 2027. The BSI can test products, order fixes, fine makers and pull noncompliant products from the market. Parliament passed the law on October 15th.

Source: BSI

Infrastructure & Capacity

Putin ordered owners of Russia's private data centers to set aside a tenth of their capacity for the state, Meduza reports

[RU · Meduza]

Meduza, an independent Russian-language news site, reports that the decree cites unfriendly actions by foreign states, gives owners 10 days, and lets a government commission decide when it is called up. It says Ukrainian drones attacked data centers run by Yandex, a search engine, Sber, a bank, and VK, a social network, in October.

Source: Meduza

The 500 Patriot air-defense missiles the US cleared for Ukraine would arrive between late 2030 and late 2033

A State Department official told European Pravda, a Ukrainian news site, the contract can be signed only after a 30-day congressional review. President Zelenskyy says Ukraine has received an average of only 12 Patriot missiles a month this year.

Source: Ukrainska Pravda

Also Today

South Korea is reissuing passports for all 168 people hit by a data leak, including President Lee Jae Myung and the first lady

Source: South China Morning Post (Korea Times)

Brazilian crypto platform Mercado Bitcoin suspended deposits and withdrawals after a cyberattack; security firms say more than $46 million left it

Source: The Record

The first convoy of Algerian troops and about sixty fuel tanker trucks has crossed into northern Niger, according to RFI, the French broadcaster, and reportedly reached the city of Agadez

Source: Africanews

At least 690 Bangladeshi garment factories halted production as wage-protest violence entered a third day

Source: The Business Standard

Thirty-five business groups asked Congress to renew the 2015 cyber information-sharing law for ten years in the defense bill

Source: CyberScoop

The Reserve Bank of Australia raised its benchmark rate a quarter point to 4.85%, the highest since November 2008

Source: CNBC

Costa Rican cargo-theft gangs enter truck plate numbers into the national online customs system to see what each trailer carries, then jam its GPS tracker

Source: InSight Crime

Kazakhstan says it temporarily suspended oil pumping through the Atyrau-Samara pipeline after a drone attack on the Samara hub in Russia

Source: Caspian Post

Get the full risk analysis every Sunday. Manage your subscription.