Breakfast News Recap: Ethiopian forces enter Mekelle as global tensions, protests and court rulings mount

Ethiopian federal forces have entered Mekelle, the capital of Tigray, after nearly two weeks of intense fighting, marking a major escalation in the conflict as the advance widens.  🔗

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In the Middle East and wider security picture, Syria has called for an independent and transparent investigation into the sinking of the Togolese flagged cargo ship Alfa Watan in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone, while Russia and China blocked a broader UN sanctions push on Sudan even as the Security Council extended the Darfur arms embargo for two months.  🔗  🔗

Russia and Ukraine remain at the centre of several separate developments, with Ukrainian negotiators due to continue peace talks with US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff in Florida for a second day, and Vladimir Putin telling Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian that Moscow will do everything it can to help end the war on Iran.  🔗  🔗 In a separate cyber and information operation story, OpenAI said it had shut down Russian and Iranian influence campaigns that used ChatGPT to create fake journalist personas and support a false front.  🔗

In Europe, counterterrorism police in the UK are still investigating a security breach at RAF Molesworth after two Latvian men were arrested, while Northern Ireland police have contacted Sinn Fein representatives over protests linked to an Orange Order march.  🔗  🔗 In another security related case, a former Ukrainian security services officer linked to a bomb attack in Monaco has broken his silence from prison in Kyiv.  🔗

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Across the Americas, a Brazilian Supreme Court justice has issued an arrest warrant for Eduardo Bolsonaro, adding to the tension around the country's election campaign weeks before the runoff.  🔗 In the United States, Hurricane Isaias is moving toward the northern Gulf Coast, with forecasters warning of flooding and storm surge for the Florida Panhandle, Alabama and Mississippi, while President Trump is pushing fuel cost relief as gasoline and diesel prices remain elevated.  🔗  🔗 Separately, the Pentagon says the execution of former US Army major Nidal Hasan at Fort Hood on 3 December will be livestreamed publicly.  🔗

In Asia Pacific, Taiwan has approved a preliminary plan to restart the Maanshan nuclear power plant as it responds to rising AI power demand, and Indonesia has launched 11 industrial projects worth 10.2 billion US dollars, including its first electric vehicle battery exports.  🔗  🔗 South Korea has recalled its ambassador to Ukraine after a row over Kyiv's disclosure of the transfer of two North Korean prisoners of war, while the ICC has ruled that former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is fit to stand trial on crimes against humanity charges.  🔗  🔗

Elsewhere, South Africa's anti migrant protests turned violent in Soweto and Durban, with cars torched and foreign run businesses attacked, and India's CJP protest movement says many supporters have been detained ahead of a Saturday rally over disputed voter roll revisions.  🔗  🔗 In Australia, Gippsland has recorded nine earthquakes in nine days, with the latest tremor felt near Leongatha.  🔗

On defence and policy, Israel has opened its first national pavilion at the Marrakesh Air Show in Morocco, its first official participation in a defence exhibition in the country, while the UN has also extended the Darfur arms embargo as WHO warned that more than 700,000 displaced people in Tawila face severe shortages of health supplies.  🔗  🔗 Russia's draft 2027 budget, meanwhile, proposes a sharp cut to cancer care funding even as defence spending rises.  🔗

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In the United States, the USS Abraham Lincoln has returned to San Diego after a 322 day deployment, and the Nobel Peace Prize winner is due to be announced in Oslo later today.  🔗  🔗

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