Morning Brief: Duffy asks $50 billion after flights resume; Trump may hold off on Iran strikes; Zelenskyy says U.S. floated Donbas-for-NATO; Iran claims three tankers hit mines
Also: Trump's Asia trip and the Xi-Putin summit, a 90-day Jones Act waiver, Rubio's warning to the ICC, the U.S. losing measles elimination status, Starship's ship-catch attempt today, and Supreme Court orders due Monday.
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I'm Nora Vale with your 6 AM World Brief for Saturday, November 14. Flights resume; Duffy asks Congress for $50 billion to fix air traffic control. Reuters: Trump may hold off on Iran strikes absent new provocations. Iran claims three tankers hit mines; U.S. says main routes cleared. Zelenskyy: U.S. floated Donbas-for-NATO question; no offer yet. Trump heads to Manila and Shenzhen; Iran on the summit agenda. Supreme Court orders due Monday; asylum case accepted. In national weather, from the National Weather Service: Several rounds of rainfall and possible mountain snow continues across the Pacific Northwest/West Coast through the weekend. Flash flooding risk across the southern Plains into Lower Mississippi Valley through the weekend. Our opinion. A real plan before $50 billion, steady pressure on Iran, and firm guarantees for any peace in Ukraine. Full stories and sources at WorldBriefNow.com. I'm Nora Vale.
Iran's navy and Revolutionary Guard said Saturday that fires broke out on a total of three oil tankers that struck mines in the Strait of Hormuz, including a supertanker, claiming the ships had switched off their tracking systems and used unauthorized routes, Reuters reported via CNA. The statements did not name the vessels or their origins, and the U.S. military says it has cleared the main routes through the waterway of mines. The United States keeps a naval blockade on Iranian ports and provides military support to tankers using the strait.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said U.S. negotiators raised the question of whether Ukraine would withdraw its remaining forces from the eastern Donbas region if it joined NATO, calling it the first time the idea had come up and saying "NATO is back on the agenda," the BBC reported; Al Jazeera and Reuters said no concrete offer exists. Zelenskyy said Ukraine would not withdraw its troops but could put a deal to a referendum if it included firm security guarantees, funding for its armed forces and money for reconstruction. Overnight, Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 96 drones, 81 of which were shot down or suppressed, while Russian officials said a Ukrainian drone killed three people in Belgorod.
After Friday's Flight 15 launch from Starbase, Texas, the Super Heavy booster was diverted into the Gulf of Mexico instead of being caught at the tower and exploded on impact, but the Starship upper stage reached orbit and deployed all 26 Starlink V3 satellites, Ars Technica and the New York Post reported. If the ship passes a series of health checks, it would return to Starbase for the first attempt ever to catch a Starship upper stage at about 3:15 p.m. local time Saturday; otherwise SpaceX can bring it down in the ocean, Ars Technica said. SpaceX gave no explanation for the booster problem.
The Pan American Health Organization determined that measles has circulated continuously in the United States for more than 12 months, revoking the elimination status the country first achieved in 2000, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, according to the Washington Examiner. More than 5,400 cases have been reported nationwide in 2026, up from 2,289 in 2025, with at least 10 measles-related deaths this year, the Examiner said, citing the CDC. Canada lost its status in November 2025, and Spain and the United Kingdom have also had theirs withdrawn.
The FAA reopened U.S. airspace at 8:15 p.m. ET Friday after a nationwide outage grounded flights for nearly five hours, with more than 2,700 flights canceled and 11,000 delayed as of 7 p.m., the Washington Examiner reported. At the White House, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed overloaded switches and routers on outdated analog telecommunications equipment and asked Congress for $50 billion in emergency funding, up from the $30 billion Trump requested earlier: "Give us the money to fix it." Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin called the old system "a national security risk," and Duffy warned delays could continue and "You will have more of them" until the overhaul is done.
President Trump has told senior advisers in recent days he may hold off on attacking Iran if the U.S. faces no new provocations from Tehran or the Houthis in Yemen, Reuters reported, citing three people familiar with the matter, while a third aircraft carrier moves into the Middle East and the military stays ready to escalate. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan both urged him not to resume attacks, sources said; a White House official said "Only President Trump knows what he will do, and when." On Thursday Trump wrote on Truth Social, "We don't need a deal with Iran. Those days have long since passed," Fox News reported.
President Trump travels Monday to Manila for a four-day Asia trip including the ASEAN summit, a Quad meeting and a trade deal signing with Thailand, then flies to Shenzhen, China, for APEC, a meeting with Xi Jinping and the first three-way meeting with Xi and Vladimir Putin, the Washington Examiner reported. A senior official said Trump "does intend to talk about Iran" at the trilateral but not Ukraine, does not expect to raise the Alice Huang allegations with Xi, and that officials "do not expect to... get to any kind of agreement" on nuclear arms next week. Officials said Elon Musk will accompany the President to Shenzhen and that no meeting with Kim Jong Un is planned.
President Trump issued a 90-day extension of the Jones Act waiver on Friday, two days before it was set to expire, continuing to let foreign ships carry goods between U.S. ports, the Washington Examiner reported. A White House official said about 90 million more barrels of products, including 27 million barrels of gasoline, have moved between U.S. ports since the waiver began in March, and AAA put the national average at $3.87 a gallon for gas and $6.06 for diesel. The American Maritime Partnership called for "a prompt end to the waiver."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Federalist Society's National Lawyers Convention on Friday that "Americans have never agreed to submit to the ICC's authority," suggesting the U.S. would respond with force if the court tried to enforce rulings against Americans by quoting the Roman general Pompey: "Stop quoting laws to men with swords," Reuters reported. U.S. sanctions on the ICC take effect in April unless its supporters reach an agreement with Washington, and Rubio said the goal of the war with Iran is to keep Tehran from ever getting a nuclear weapon. Rubio also told the crowd "Great things that last are built in decades, not election cycles," the Washington Examiner reported.
Orders from the justices' Friday private conference are expected Monday at 9:30 a.m. ET, SCOTUSblog reported. On Friday the Court agreed to hear Mullin v. Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, over President Trump's Jan. 20, 2025, proclamation that "an invasion is ongoing at the southern border" and DHS guidance barring asylum applications; the D.C. Circuit's ruling against the policy is on hold during the appeal, so the restrictions remain in place. SCOTUSblog said the case joins an immigration docket that already includes third-country removals and detention without a hearing.
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