Putin, Trump and Xi to hold rare three-way meeting in China

Putin, Trump and Xi to hold rare three-way meeting in China

RT

The leaders of Russia, China and the US plan to meet on Thursday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, China, AP reported on Saturday, citing officials.

The White House confirmed plans for the unprecedented three-way meeting on Friday, the outlet said. The talks are expected to focus on nuclear arms control and international security, including the conflicts in Ukraine and Iran.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to host his Russian and American counterparts, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, at the summit on November 18–19.

Putin’s aide Yury Ushakov said earlier that the Russian president had discussed the upcoming meeting with Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. “We hope that this first meeting in such a format will have a positive impact on the overall international situation,”Ushakov said last month.

The summit will follow US-mediated talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Abu Dhabi on November 10–11, which marked the resumption of trilateral negotiations after a nine-month hiatus. Although the talks ended without a major breakthrough, Kushner said the sides would carry out “the largest prisoner exchange of the war.”

Ukraine’s European backers are currently discussing appointing representatives to participate in talks with Russia after being sidelined in Abu Dhabi, where European delegates met separately with Ukrainian and American teams. Moscow, however, has insisted that the Europeans must first demonstrate goodwill, accusing them of seeking to sabotage peace efforts since 2022.

Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global oil and LNG shipments, remains disrupted by the US-Israeli war with Iran, driving up energy prices. There are continued concerns in the region that Trump could resume major military operations following his Republican Party’s defeat in the midterm elections.

Washington and Beijing are still at odds over tariffs, rare-earth minerals and restrictions on advanced technology, despite a fragile trade truce set to expire in January.

National Weather Service Reports Radar Outage Less Than an Hour After FAA Grounds ALL Departing Flights Across America

National Weather Service Reports Radar Outage Less Than an Hour After FAA Grounds ALL Departing Flights Across America

Jim Hᴏft

America’s critical infrastructure is facing a troubling double disruption.

The National Weather Service (NWS) has acknowledged a national radar outage affecting its radar website, following an extraordinary decision by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ground departing flights across the United Statesbecause of widespread air traffic control communications problems.

The two developments, occurring in close succession Friday afternoon, have raised serious questions about the reliability of the nation’s essential transportation and weather-monitoring systems.

The NWS posted the following message on an official webpage:

“We are aware of a National Radar Outage on radar.weather.gov. We appreciate your patience as we investigate this matter. Thank you.”

According to Newsforce: “Local offices have posted notices confirming the problems and saying technicians are investigating. Forecast offices continue issuing watches, warnings, and forecasts, which remain available through some external sites and official social media accounts.”

The development comes as America’s aviation system faces its own extraordinary emergency.

On Friday, the FAA issued a rare nationwide ground stop, ordering departing flights to remain on the ground amid serious communications problems involving air traffic control facilities across the country.

The agency cited “extraordinary circumstances” and safety concerns in ordering the unprecedented disruption to normal flight operations.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed that the communications problem was affecting Air Route Traffic Control Centers, the facilities responsible for managing aircraft traveling through large sections of American airspace.

FAA technicians were investigating the failure, but the precise cause had not been publicly established at the time of the initial reports.

Aircraft already airborne were permitted to land, while international arrivals and departures were subject to separate handling.

This is only the second time since the September 11, 2001 attacks that the FAA has ordered a full nationwide ground stop of this magnitude (a 2023 NOTAM system failure was the previous instance).

Magnitude 5.9 Quake Shakes Peru’s Coast

Magnitude 5.9 Quake Shakes Peru’s Coast

Florencia Belén Ruiz

A magnitude 5.9 earthquake shook Peru’s southern coast at 11:43 local time (16:43 UTC) on Friday 13 November 2026, according to the Geophysical Institute of Peru (IGP), the national seismology agency. The epicentre lay at sea, 102 km west of San Juan de Marcona, a coastal town in Nasca province, Ica region, at a depth of 32 km.

The shaking came during Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Peru, which runs from 11 to 16 November. The Vatican programme mainly covers Lima, Chiclayo, Cusco and Pucallpa, so the earthquake zone is not on his route.

It is not known whether aftershocks will follow. Civil defence said its monitoring of vulnerable areas was continuing when it issued its note.

'Speechless At The Dysfunction': Ebola 'Out Of Control' In Congo As Deaths Top 5,400

'Speechless At The Dysfunction': Ebola 'Out Of Control' In Congo As Deaths Top 5,400

Victoria Friedman

Congo's Ebola outbreak remains out of control six months into the response, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has said, with there being a disconnect between the resources available and what is actually reaching patients, communities, and medics.

MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said on Thursday that urgent action is needed to ensure resources are directed to where they are needed most, and that critical shortcomings were undermining efforts to contain the outbreak and save lives.

"Despite the vast amounts of money provided for the response, many frontline responders are left trying to contain the outbreak with empty hands and empty pockets," said Dr. Javid Abdelmoneim, the president of MSF International."Our teams are often left speechless by the dysfunctions they witness in many areas. Six months into the response, this situation is simply unacceptable."

According to a Nov. 11 statement from Congo's National Institute of Public Health, there have been 11,114 confirmed cases and 5,433 deaths as a result of Ebola, representing a case fatality rate of 48.9 percent.

Some of the problems highlighted by MSF include that response staff are untrained and unpaid, ambulances do not have any fuel, and healthcare staff are left without the supplies or technical support they need to handle suspected cases.

"One of our greatest concerns is the persistent failure of the epidemiological surveillance system, a cornerstone of any Ebola response," the statement said. "Despite the resources officially allocated to this critical activity, surveillance remains deeply problematic, with entire areas poorly covered or even completely neglected."

The current outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo ebolavirus and was detected in mid-May in Congo, which has dealt with more than a dozen Ebola outbreaks in the past.

It has become the deadliest outbreak in Congo's history, surpassing the 2018-2020 epidemic, in which 2,299 people died.

Across Africa, this epidemic is now second only to the 2014-2016 West African outbreak, which infected at least 28,600 people and killed more than 11,000 across Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

MSF acknowledged that in the six months since the start of the outbreak, authorities in Congo and international partners have achieved some tangible results, including in the expansion of isolation and treatment units and diagnostic capability. However, the shortcomings "remain profound and largely unaddressed, despite being widely acknowledged," the statement said.

The Epoch Times contacted the government of Congo and the World Health Organization (WHO) for comment, but did not receive responses by the time of publication.

More...

FAA Issues Nationwide Ground Stop Due To 'Extraordinary Circumstances'; DHS Secretary Provides Update

FAA Issues Nationwide Ground Stop Due To 'Extraordinary Circumstances'; DHS Secretary Provides Update

 TYLER DURDEN

The latest: 

• FAA halts all departures nationwide; flights in the air allowed to continue
• Duffy cites a communications failure hitting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers
• DHS's Mullin calls it a telecom outage and says there's no sign of an attack
• Mullin says the fix will take "some time" and he can't rule out an AI link
• First nationwide ground stop since the January 2023 NOTAM failure

Update (1707ET): DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin says that the ground stop is a telecommunications outage and not terrorism. 

MULLIN: "This was a telecommunication outage throughout the FAA. Out of abundant caution, we have grounded all the flights, and all the flights are accounted for...""There was no indication as of yet that this was a nefarious attack against us. It’s just a telecommunication outage as of right now.

More: 

*MULLIN SAYS IT WILL TAKE 'SOME TIME' TO RESOLVE FAA ISSUE

*MULLIN ON POTENTIAL LINK TO AI: CAN'T RULE ANYTHING OUT

*MULLIN REJECTS COMPARING FAA ISSUE TO 9/11

The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered a nationwide ground stop on all departing flights due to technical issues. The agency has listed an equipment outage (with comms issues noted in advisories). 

The order, issued by the FAA’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center at approximately 20:54 UTC (12:54 p.m. PST), applies to every U.S. airport. All aircraft still on the ground are to remain stopped until further notice. Flights already airborne are being allowed to continue to their destinations, while inbound international flights are being handled on a case-by-case basis.

The official advisory states:

DUE TO EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES AND FOR REASONS OF SAFETY.
ATTENTION ALL AIRCRAFT OPERATORS, BY ORDER OF THE FEDERAL AVIATION COMMAND CENTER ALL AIRPORTS ARE GROUND STOPPED.
ALL DEPARTING TRAFFIC SHOULD REMAIN GROUND STOPPED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. INBOUND INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS WILL BE MANAGED ON A CASE BY CASE BASIS.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the order on X, stating that the FAA issued the nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports “following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.” He added that FAA technicians are investigating and that updates will be provided as they become available.

Nationwide ground stops are rare. The last full national stop of this type occurred in January 2023 after a failure of the FAA’s Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system. That outage lasted roughly 90 minutes and caused thousands of delays and cancellations.

As of early afternoon Pacific time, the situation remained fluid. Passengers with flights scheduled for the remainder of the day are advised to check their airline’s app or website for the latest status, as recovery times will depend on how quickly the underlying equipment issues are resolved.