The Midnight File — The Desk’s Report
Europe Is Said to Have a Chair at the Next Table With No Name to Fill It and No Number on the Prisoners, Mr. Huang Agrees to Testify as Congress Sets Its December Dates, and Tehran Answers the Strike Warning With a Warning of Its Own
The last entry of the day, filed before the log turns: an hour at an airfield outside Dublin that gave the talks a European chair with no name on it and a prisoner exchange with no number on it; a resignation in California that became a congressional calendar running into December; a strike briefing in Washington and air defences in Tehran; a campaign opening at midnight in Madrid; and a count in Alaska that produced a judge’s ruling and no new figures.
The Midnight in Brief: What Thursday Settled, What It Left Open
Thursday settled the shape of its three files and left the substance of each one open: the talks have a European chair that no European has been named to fill and a prisoner exchange that three governments call the largest of the war and none will number; Nvidia has a former chief executive who has agreed to testify and a calendar of congressional dates that now runs into December; and the Iran file has a briefing on new strikes in Washington, a legal deadline on Friday, and air defences heard over Tehran in the night. At Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel, west of Dublin, President Zelenskyy stood with Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner on Thursday night and said the envoys had told him the exchange will be the biggest yet and that Europe will be in the negotiating team at the next meeting, in the Baldonnel account filed below; Mr. Kushner said the deal cannot be concluded without the Europeans at the table, and Mr. Ushakov, in Moscow’s evening statement, said the parameters of the exchange are still being agreed and named no agreement on Europe. In Washington, Mr. Huang agreed to testify before Thanksgiving, three House chairmen set transcribed interviews for December 1 and 2 and a hearing for December 3, and the Senate Banking chairman asked Mr. Huang and Secretary Lutnick to testify, in the wire account filed below. Attorney General Blanche said the Justice Department has not reached a conclusion on whether Ms. Alice Huang is a spy, and China denied that she is. Nvidia rose after hours. On Iran, President Trump was briefed on Thursday on plans for further strikes, in the Tehran account filed below, and Tehran answered with its spokesman’s defence of the closed strait and a Guard official’s promise of long and painful strikes. Spain’s campaign opened at midnight. Alaska counts again on Friday.
Dublin at Midnight: An Hour at Baldonnel, a Chair Asserted in Two Capitals, and No Name and No Number
The briefing the evening edition waited for took place, and it produced sentences from all three men and figures from none of them. The envoys spent about two hours with President Putin in Moscow on Thursday afternoon and about an hour with President Zelenskyy and his chief negotiator, Mr. Umerov, at the Irish military airfield, in the Baldonnel account above. President Zelenskyy said: “Our soldiers will come home,” and called the exchange “a real result,” in the same account and in the Dublin account filed below. Later in the night he wrote that the week had produced three things: prisoners will be released in the largest exchange of the war; European representatives are being involved in diplomacy more actively, at the negotiating table on equal terms; and the next multilateral meetings are being prepared, in the Baldonnel account above. Mr. Kushner said the envoys were able to finalize on the prisoner exchange, spoke of returning thousands of people to their families, and later posted that both sides had agreed to expand the next round to include the European partners, in the Dublin account above. Mr. Witkoff said another meeting is on the schedule. No date, no place and no prisoner figure was given by any of the three.
On Europe, the night holds two accounts of the same Kremlin conversation, and the desk prints them at full size, as it found them. Mr. Kushner, standing beside President Zelenskyy, said of President Putin that he is willing to give it a try with Europeans at the table, in the Baldonnel account above. Mr. Ushakov’s statement, published the same evening, called the conversation substantive, constructive, frank and useful, said President Putin backed the initiative for another, apparently the largest, exchange, with its parameters currently being agreed, and said of the Europeans that they must decide whether they want peace or the continuation of the war, their practical actions so far pointing to the latter, in the same account. Mr. Peskov added that Europe must first name a representative, in the same account. In Dublin, more than 40 European leaders ended their summit without naming one: Ms. Kallas said the treaties give the seat to Mr. Costa, who chairs the European Council, and to herself; Chancellor Merz named the E3 of Germany, France and the United Kingdom, and a group of five adding Italy and Poland; President Macron said the format will be determined later; and Mr. Costa said work would continue in several formats, in the Baldonnel account above. The Coalition of the Willing meets in Berlin next week, the next occasion named in the file for Europe to fill the chair it is said to hold. Mr. Ushakov’s statement carried a second road and a reminder: President Putin reminded the Americans of the draft treaties Russia handed to the United States and NATO in 2021—no expansion of the alliance, no weapons systems near Russia’s borders that threaten it, and a return of the alliance’s forces to their 1997 positions—and the two presidents will continue discussions at the APEC summit in China, in the Baldonnel account above and the Dublin account above. Settled: the briefing happened, the next meeting exists on a schedule, and the exchange is agreed in the word of every delegation. Open: its number, its date, Europe’s name, the land and the ceasefire.
Nvidia at Midnight: Testimony Agreed Before Thanksgiving, Interviews Set for December, and a Third Allegation Printed as an Allegation
The company file stopped being a company file on Thursday afternoon and became a congressional calendar. Mr. Huang confirmed that he would testify in Congress at some point before Thanksgiving, which falls on November 26; the testimony is expected behind closed doors, and Chairman Mast believes it will be recorded and transcribed, in the timeline account filed below. The three House chairmen—Mr. Mast, Mr. Moolenaar and Mr. Crawford—wrote to Mr. Huang and to the company’s general counsel, Mr. Teter, requiring closed-door transcribed interviews on December 1 and December 2 respectively, or subpoenas to compel them, and asked Under Secretary Kessler to testify at a December 3 hearing, in the wire account at the top of this report. Senator Scott, the Senate Banking chairman, sent letters on Thursday to Mr. Huang and to Secretary Lutnick asking both to testify, said he would consider subpoenaing Mr. Huang, and wrote that recent reports raise serious concerns about national security and the protection of sensitive American technology, in the same account; the account adds that senior White House officials were separately discussing whether Secretary Lutnick should be pushed out, over the administration’s refusal to add dozens of Chinese companies to a trade blacklist and over oversight of the company’s exports to China. On the central allegation the file gained its first official non-finding: Attorney General Blanche said on Thursday that the Justice Department has not yet reached a conclusion on whether Ms. Alice Huang is a spy, China denied that she is, and Ms. Huang could not be reached for comment, in the wire account above. No finding has been made by the board, by any committee or by any court on any allegation in this file.
The afternoon added one allegation and one continuation, and both are printed with their sources attached. Reuters reported on Thursday afternoon, citing two people familiar with the matter, that Mr. Huang had an intimate relationship with another company employee, separate from the two previously reported; the employee is not named, and the company declined to comment, in the running account filed below and in the timeline account above. The same running account carries a report that the company will continue its internal investigation into its former chief executive even after his exit, and a Semafor report that multiple Justice Department probes could reach the company, with no indication the department would seek criminal charges against the company or Mr. Huang at this time. Ms. Kress’s memo to staff, seen by Reuters and carried in the same account, sets a company meeting for November 18 at 0900 Pacific, the day after the November 17 report, which stands as the company’s first under her hand in both jobs. The stock’s evening was quiet against its day: the after-hours price at 2000 ET stood at $167.87, up 1.01 percent from the $166.19 close, in the market data page filed below, and futures tied to the three main indexes gained between 0.2 and 0.6 percent in after-hours trade, in the daily analysis filed below. Settled: the resignation, the interim, the chair, and now the calendar—testimony before November 26, interviews on December 1 and 2, a hearing on December 3. Open: every finding.
Iran at Midnight: A Briefing on Further Strikes, a Friday Deadline in Congress, and Air Defences Over Tehran
The president’s Thursday sentences acquired a briefing behind them in the evening file. President Trump received a briefing from officials on Thursday on plans for a series of further military strikes to pressure Iran to negotiate, in the Tehran account at the top of this report, which cites Axios and its sources. Senator Blumenthal told a television interviewer on Thursday that his impression from briefings and other sources is that an imminent military strike is very much on the table, in the same account. Friday carries a date in the American file that no other day this week has carried: it is the deadline for Congress to approve the war, failing which—or a 30-day extension the administration must also justify—the United States will have to scale back its offensive significantly under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, in the same account. A senior administration official said late on Thursday that, for the resolution, hostilities had ceased with the start of the April ceasefire, effectively resetting the clock, in the same account. The two sentences—a deadline on Friday, and a clock already reset—stand in the file unreconciled.
Tehran’s night was spent answering in advance. Foreign Ministry spokesman Baghaei defended the closure of the strait on Thursday night as the defence of Iran’s right—legitimate, legal and accepted under international law, in the words the official agency carried—and justified attacks on American assets in Gulf countries, in the Tehran account above. Air defence activity was heard in some areas of the capital late on Thursday, one agency reported, and another said air defences were engaging small drones and unmanned surveillance aircraft, in the same account; no strike on Tehran is confirmed in any account in the file. A senior Guard official said any new American attack, even if limited, would usher in long and painful strikes on its regional positions, and the aerospace force commander is quoted that the Americans have seen what happened to their regional bases and will see the same happen to their warships, in the same account. The Supreme Leader’s written message said the enemies’ abuses of the waterway would be eliminated under the strait’s new management, in the same account. The United Arab Emirates said on Thursday it had banned its citizens from travelling to Iran, Lebanon and Iraq and urged those there to leave, in the same account. Both blockades stand. Settled: the positions, again, from every authorized voice on both sides, now including a date in Congress. Open: whether Friday brings an approval, an extension, a strike, or none of the three.
The War at Midnight: One Killed in Kyiv, the Injured Counted Three Ways, and a Service Described in Two Sentences
Kyiv’s Thursday toll closed with a mayoral total that gathers the night and the day into one figure. Mayor Klitschko reported on November 12 that one person was killed and eight others injured as a result of the overnight and daytime strikes on the capital, in the day’s account filed below—against five injured in the mayor’s morning account and the district account the evening edition carried, and two injured in two other accounts, all standing in the Cocked Hat. The dead woman stands in every account at 44, killed in the Solomianski district, where a drone struck a nine-storey building. The daytime incident stands as the evening edition printed it: a downed jet-powered drone on Olena Teliha Street at about 1240, a car burned, a bus damaged, a man burned on the arms. The day’s account adds that a Russian colonel was reportedly killed in a car explosion near St. Petersburg, in the same account above, which the evening edition carried from the wire without a name.
On the satellite service, the file did not move, and the desk records the standstill as a fact of the day. President Zelenskyy’s Thursday statement stands in full in the service account filed below: significant disruptions along the entire front line and in the occupied territories for several days, systematic restrictions limiting the system to 161 kilometres per hour, strikes that got through because interception systems cannot reach sufficient speeds, and Kyiv trying to establish all the circumstances with the American side. The company’s answer stands in the same account: this is false; there has been no change. The account itself says it cannot independently verify the claims. No American official has confirmed or denied the restriction in any account in the file through midnight, and the Dublin briefing produced no sentence on it in any account the desk read. The two sentences stand side by side into Friday.
The Markets at Midnight: The Closes Stand, Brent Prints Two Prices, and Friday Holds the Producer Figure
Nothing in the evening file moved Thursday’s closes, and the desk files them once, as the evening edition printed them, with the night’s additions beside them. The S&P 500 closed down 0.35 percent at 7,592.40, the Nasdaq Composite down 0.39 percent at 25,366.09, the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.36 percent at 52,297.09, and the small-company index down 1.66 percent. The 10-year Treasury yield stood at 5.10 percent, its highest since October 21, and the 30-year auction stopped at 5.441 percent. Europe closed at a record. Asia’s Thursday closes, which the overnight hours supplied, run lower across the chip markets: the Nikkei 225 down 0.70 percent to 60,819.36 in its first decline in four sessions, the Hang Seng down 1.26 percent to 24,008.55, the Shanghai Composite down 0.67 percent, the Taiex down 2.63 percent and the Kospi down 0.61 percent, in the global close account filed below. Gold hit a one-year low in the same account. Oil’s late prints stand in the Cocked Hat: Brent at $95.82, up 3.3 percent, in the global close account above, against $93.59 in the evening’s late print and $93.85 at midday—three prices for one barrel on one day, the official inventory build of 4.7 million barrels beneath all of them. Friday holds the week’s second inflation fact: the October producer price index, due at 0830 ET in the release schedule filed below, after Tuesday’s consumer print of 0.4 percent against a 0.3 percent forecast, in the preview account filed below; the International Energy Agency’s monthly report is also scheduled for Friday.
Spain at Midnight: The Campaign Opens on the Stroke, and Its Polls Open Divided
Spain’s file turned its page at the hour this edition collects. The official two-week campaign opened at midnight on Thursday, in the campaign account filed below, launching rallies, televised debates and canvassing before the vote on November 29. The decree the standing body validated by 35 votes to 34—the figure the campaign accounts give for the vote the evening edition printed as carried by one vote—returns to the centre of the campaign in the same account: eviction protections, two-year rental extensions and a 2 percent cap on rent rises. The renewal decree’s rejection stands. The polls open the campaign divided in kind, not in degree: most private pollsters project a PP–Vox bloc capable of an absolute majority, while the public CIS poll released at the campaign’s start forecasts a PSOE plurality and denies that bloc a majority, in the campaign account above. The first rally of the new campaign in the file is the Vallecas rally held hours before the official start, where Ms. Colau carried Thursday’s split vote into her opening sentences, in the rally account filed below. There are 1.6 million new registered voters, in the campaign account above. Settled: the campaign is open, the decree stands, the other decree fell. Open: sixteen days, and which set of pollsters is reading the country.
The Count at Midnight: No New Alaska Figures on Thursday, a Judge’s Refusal, and Two Tallies for One Race
Alaska produced no new count on Thursday, and its file’s only new paper is a judge’s. Superior Court Judge Matthews denied the Peltola campaign’s request for the names of voters whose absentee ballots were rejected, ruling the records cannot reasonably be produced at this juncture while officials are still counting, in the ruling account filed below. The race itself stands on two tallies, and midnight prints both with their sources. On the wire’s first-choice figures, Ms. Peltola leads Senator Sullivan by 4,250—118,926, or 49 percent, to 114,676, or 47.2 percent—with 245,470 ballots counted and about 84 percent in, in the ruling account above. On the Division of Elections’ summary report, stamped November 11 at 1747 and carrying all 401 precincts, Ms. Peltola stands at 121,487, or 48.73 percent, and Senator Dan S. Sullivan at 117,512, or 47.13 percent—a margin of 3,975—with Mr. Heikes at 5,426 and Mr. Dan J. Sullivan Jr. at 4,100, in the Division’s report filed below. The two tallies count the race at different stages of its own paperwork and are printed as they stand, not averaged. The next results release is expected Friday; ballots mailed from inside the United States must arrive by Friday, overseas ballots may arrive through November 18, the ranked-choice tabulation runs November 18 if no candidate passes 50 percent of the first choices, and certification is targeted for November 25. The Democratic caucus stands at 55, and Alaska decides 55 or 56. In Mississippi, the counties certify by Friday and the state on December 3. Settled: nothing new, which on a count day is itself the entry. Open: Friday’s figures.
The Rest of the File: Jerusalem Waits for Tuesday, the Articles Rest, and Kraków Publishes Nothing
No new published fact entered the Jerusalem file between the evening and midnight: the committees stand approved, the speaker vote stands for Tuesday, November 17 at 1600, Mr. Eisenkot’s mandate runs to December 6, and the government is unformed. In Washington the eight articles against Secretary Hegseth rest in the Judiciary Committee, and the House’s Thursday was given to the Nvidia letters. In Kraków no forensic opinion has been published. President Zelenskyy wrote in the night that Russia has struck Ukrainian energy sites more than 310 times since the start of November and that nearly 700,000 families are without power, in the Baldonnel account at the top of this report; the figure stands as his, attributed, with no second count in the file. The desk fills none of the space where the findings it waits for will go.
The Cocked Hat
Three bearings never give a point; they give a small triangle, and this paper prints the triangle. On Europe’s chair, willing to give it a try in Mr. Kushner’s account of President Putin, against must decide whether they want peace or the continuation of the war in Mr. Ushakov’s statement of the same conversation, with Mr. Peskov’s sentence that Europe must first name a representative standing behind the second. On who speaks for Europe, Costa and Kallas in Ms. Kallas’s reading of the treaties, the E3 and then five capitals in Chancellor Merz’s, and a format to be determined in President Macron’s—three answers and no name. On the prisoners, the biggest and the largest in every delegation’s word, finalized in Mr. Kushner’s, its parameters still being agreed in Mr. Ushakov’s, and numbered by no one: 1,000 to 1,200 a side stands only as President Zelenskyy’s figure of the day before. On Kyiv’s injured, eight in the mayor’s gathered total for the night and the day, against five in his morning account and two in two others. On the satellite service, systematic restrictions at 161 kilometres per hour in the user’s account against this is false, there has been no change, in the owner’s. On Brent, $93.85 at midday, $93.59 in the evening’s late print and $95.82 in the global close. On Alaska, a margin of 4,250 on the wire’s first-choice tally against 3,975 on the Division’s summary, in one race counted at two stages. On Spain’s decree, carried by one vote in the evening’s accounts and 35 to 34 in the campaign accounts—the same vote at two precisions. On the war’s clock in Washington, a Friday deadline under the War Powers Resolution against a clock the administration says the April ceasefire already reset. Against the triangle, the midnight’s single-valued facts are these: the envoys briefed President Zelenskyy for about an hour at Baldonnel on Thursday night, and no prisoner number, date or place was published by anyone; Mr. Huang agreed to testify before November 26, the House interviews stand for December 1 and 2 and the hearing for December 3, and the Attorney General’s department has reached no conclusion on the central allegation; Nvidia closed at $166.19 and rose 1.01 percent after hours; the president was briefed on further strikes and Tehran’s spokesman defended the closed strait on Thursday night; a 44-year-old woman was killed in Kyiv; Spain’s campaign opened at midnight with its polls divided; Alaska counted nothing new and its judge refused a list; and no Dublin name, no Tehran reply to the briefing, and no finding in any file stands in the record. Friday holds Alaska’s count, Mississippi’s county certifications, the producer prices, the energy agency’s report and Congress’s war deadline. The log turns.