Evening Brief: Putin hosts U.S. envoys, offers Konstantinovka plan; Nvidia's Huang resigns amid China spy probe; Trump says "We don't need a deal with Iran"; Mexico warned on caravan
Plus record ICE deportations, a $350 billion military push in the Senate, Iran's UN seat, the U.S.-backed hunt for Colombia's ELN, and Friday's Supreme Court conference.
5 PM CT video brief · 1:40Presenter voice and image generated with AI tools.Read transcript
I'm Nora Vale with your 5 PM World Brief for Thursday, November 12. Putin hosts U.S. envoys, proposes Konstantinovka mission. Nvidia's Jensen Huang resigns amid China spy probe. Trump: "We don't need a deal with Iran." Trump warns Mexico over migrant caravan. DHS: record 483,200 ICE deportations in FY2026. Justices confer Friday on asylum ban. In national weather, from the National Weather Service: Potential Tropical Cyclone Pena, with top winds near 35 mph, may bring impacts to parts of Hawaii. Heavy Snow is expected along the Sierra Nevada. Our opinion. Strength works: pressure on Tehran, Mexico must help stop the caravans, enforce the laws we have, and shut Beijing out of America's key technology. Full stories and sources at WorldBriefNow.com. I'm Nora Vale.
Vladimir Putin received U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner at the Kremlin on Thursday, the day after the Abu Dhabi talks ended, and proposed a humanitarian mission in Konstantinovka modeled on one in Alyoshki, saying about 400-500 civilians remain there and Russia would need five days to clear mines, TASS reported. Putin said any foreign troops in Ukraine would be a legitimate target and that if European troops deployed "the war would resume," while Witkoff said he would brief Zelenskyy on the talks, according to TASS. The AP reported the envoys headed from Moscow to Dublin to see Zelenskyy.
Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia's president, CEO and board member "effective immediately" on Thursday, with executive vice president Colette Kress named interim CEO, days after he apologized for an affair with Alice Huang, whom U.S. officials reportedly believe used the relationship to gather intelligence for Beijing, the Washington Examiner reported. The FBI is investigating the relationship, and Nvidia's stock fell more than 11% after the announcement, the Examiner reported. President Trump wrote on Truth Social that former Apple CEO Tim Cook should take his place: "A Legend replaces a Legend!" the New York Post reported.
Venezuela struck an ELN camp on Oct. 30 using U.S. drones and intelligence, killing 19 people, which the rights group FundaRedes called Venezuela's first bombing of an ELN camp since Hugo Chavez took power in 1999, the Washington Examiner reported. The ELN long used Venezuela as a haven under Nicolas Maduro, and Colombian Defense Ministry figures show nearly 300 ELN members killed, captured or surrendered in President Abelardo de la Espriella's first 90 days, the Examiner reported. The United States has been silent on the strike, though Secretary of State Marco Rubio has publicly targeted the group.
The UN General Assembly reconfirmed Iran to its 34-member Committee for Programme and Coordination with 144 votes, Fox News reported; the panel reviews UN plans and priorities, including on disarmament, counterterrorism and women's rights. Canada's foreign minister Anita Anand and Australia's foreign minister Penny Wong said their countries voted against, and the House Foreign Affairs Committee called the UN "morally bankrupt." UN Watch's Hillel Neuer said the seat gives Tehran a propaganda tool.
President Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday that he asked Vice President Vance to give his "complete and total attention" to corruption and crime in Democrat-run cities and states, adding, "We don't need a deal with Iran... We've got their money, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we've got their Strait!" the New York Post reported. Sources told the Post that Vance isn't entirely off the Iran portfolio and would likely return if stalled talks progress, leaving envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner as primary negotiators. The post followed disputed claims by Turkey's intelligence chief that Vance sought a meeting with Iran's security chief Mohsen Rezaei.
President Trump wrote Thursday that "MEXICO MUST STOP THEM, NOW, and if they do not do so, the Tariffs on Mexico will be IMMEDIATELY DOUBLED," as a group of about 2,000 mostly Central American migrants that left Tapachula, roughly 1,150 miles from the U.S. border, heads north, the Washington Examiner reported. DHS and State Department officials have warned migrants they will be "apprehended, prosecuted, and removed," and the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador said the midterm results "do not represent changes to current immigration policies," the Examiner reported.
DHS said Thursday that ICE deported 483,200 illegal immigrants in fiscal 2026, up from 442,640 the year before, and arrested more than 491,000 people, including 474,850 administrative arrests, the most in its history, the Washington Examiner and New York Post reported. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said ICE's fiscal 2026 arrests outnumbered all three full fiscal years under Biden combined. Syracuse University's TRAC data hub said removals declined after January 2025 and that DHS totals include returns such as self-deportations, the Post reported; DHS did not clarify when asked.
President Trump called on Senate Republican leaders Thursday to "IMMEDIATELY" refocus on a $350 billion party-line military funding bill, and Majority Leader John Thune said he was "interested" but did not commit to passing it before Democrats take control in January, the Washington Examiner reported. The money would fund munitions production, Golden Dome missile defense, autonomous systems and AI, the Examiner reported; Sen. Rand Paul opposes another party-line bill, while Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski were noncommittal.
The justices meet Friday to weigh 11 new relists, including the government's appeal over Trump's asylum-ban Proclamation 10888, which stays in effect for now, SCOTUSblog reported. SCOTUSblog also said several Trump fights may return to the Court: a White House committee hearing on firing Fed Governor Lisa Cook was moved to Dec. 14, and Trump's Aug. 6 birthright citizenship order has been blocked for a certified class by U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman, with a new ACLU challenge before Judge Christopher Cooper.
The Equal Protection Project filed a complaint Thursday with the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division accusing the 30 member schools of the IRT Consortium, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford and Columbia, of violating Title VI by recruiting from a "racially discriminatory pre-screened pool," the New York Post reported. The group cited IRT data that over 90% of its 2026 cohort identify as people of color and pointed to the Supreme Court's 2023 Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard ruling against race-based admissions; the Post said it contacted the schools for comment.
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