Daily Brief: Iran Floats Hormuz Plan as US Midterms Near

Iran said it had a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within two days if Washington met its conditions, as its negotiators held talks with Qatari mediators in Doha. US campaigns entered the final weekend before Tuesday's midterm elections, youth-led protests spread across Europe and a power struggle over Poland's top court deepened.

Iran offers two-day Hormuz plan as talks continue

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran and Qatari mediators had reached a proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within two days if the United States met Iran's conditions, Al Jazeera reported. Iranian negotiators met Qatari mediators in Doha on Saturday in talks coordinated with Washington, a source told Reuters. Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei ordered the armed forces to prepare an "immediate, impactful, and geographically unrestricted response" to any attack. President Donald Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago that one or two targets remained, adding: "We can do that in 10 minutes."

Over 51 million votes cast before US midterms

More than 51 million Americans had voted by post or in person before Tuesday's midterm elections, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab, compared with nearly 46 million before polling day in 2022. All 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats are being contested. Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter told Fox News the Justice Department would probably ask the Supreme Court to intervene over disputed California mail ballots. Trump spent Saturday in Florida and was due to campaign in Kansas and Iowa on Sunday.

Youth-led protests spread across Europe

About 320,000 people protested across France on Saturday over living costs and the state of schools, the government said, fewer than on the previous two weekends. Organisers put national turnout at nearly half a million. Police fired tear gas in Paris and Lyon, and the Interior Ministry reported at least 290 arrests. In Germany, the youth initiative "Gen Z regelt" held rallies in more than 30 cities, and police used water cannon in Cologne. Authorities in Spain, Italy and the Netherlands were also on alert.

Polish president clashes with judges at top court

Polish President Karol Nawrocki said there had been "a violation of the constitutional order" after forcing his way into the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw early on Saturday. Judges backed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government had announced on Friday that the tribunal's president, Bogdan Swieczkowski, was suspended. Nawrocki, an ally of the opposition Law and Justice party, called emergency talks with parliamentary groups on Saturday afternoon. Tusk said on X that restoring the rule of law required decisive action.

G20 foreign ministers end without joint statement

G20 foreign ministers ended two days of talks in Atlanta on Saturday without a joint communique, divided over Ukraine, the war with Iran, US tariffs and the South China Sea. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a chairman's statement instead. "I don't know if negotiated peace is achievable in Ukraine," Rubio said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow's position was "unchanged from the very start of the special military operation". The traditional group photograph was cancelled after European objections to Lavrov's presence.

Ukraine hits Russian fuel plant as blackouts spread

Ukraine's General Staff said on Saturday that drones and Neptune missiles had struck the Kamensky rocket fuel plant in Russia's Rostov region, damaging four production facilities. Russian strikes killed five people and injured at least 46 over the previous day, Ukrainian regional authorities said. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said about 280,000 households in the Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions were without power, adding that the world "sees that Russia is deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure every day".

OPEC+ set to hold December output steady

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+) agreed in principle to keep oil output targets unchanged for December, three sources told Reuters, ahead of an online meeting of seven members on Sunday. The group includes Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Algeria, Kazakhstan and Oman. Gulf producers are raising exports disrupted by the Iran war, but most still pump below their targets. About 2 million barrels per day of cuts remain in place until the end of 2026.

Binance restarts withdrawals after record hack

Binance began restoring customer withdrawals on Sunday, starting with bitcoin, after hackers stole about $6.3 billion from the cryptocurrency exchange last week. The first window ran from 06:00 to 09:00 GMT, crypto.news reported. Binance said it had replenished about 95% of the stolen assets, up from 90% on Saturday, and that customers would not bear any losses. The FBI has attributed the attack to North Korea's TraderTraitor group. Bitcoin traded at about $77,700 on Sunday, according to Investing.com.

OpenAI's Altman meets Samsung amid chip shortage

OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman met about 50 Samsung Group executives in Yongin, south of Seoul, on Saturday, the company said in a statement. The talks covered how artificial intelligence (AI) could reshape industries and business over the next decade. The meeting builds on an existing deal for Samsung to supply memory chips to OpenAI's Stargate infrastructure project. Shortages of memory products have pushed chip prices higher as data centre operators compete for supply.

The week ahead

Americans vote on Tuesday, 3 November, in midterm elections that will decide control of Congress. The Reserve Bank of Australia announces its rate decision on Tuesday, and the Bank of England follows on Thursday, 5 November, when economists polled by Reuters expect a rise to 4%. In the United States, the ISM manufacturing survey is due on Monday and the October jobs report on Friday, 6 November, which will shape bets on a December Federal Reserve rate rise. Apple and Palantir report earnings on Monday, AMD on Tuesday and Qualcomm and Uber on Wednesday. Zelenskiy said technical talks with Russia and the US could take place in Abu Dhabi between 6 and 10 November.