Iran says another LNG carrier hits mine in Strait of Hormuz
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said today that a vessel carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) exploded after hitting a mine in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said today that a vessel carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) exploded after hitting a mine in the Strait of Hormuz.
Israeli military forces carried out an airstrike on a hospital in southern Gaza early on the 12th, killing at least six people and injuring nearly 30. Among the dead was a surgeon. The strike occurred although Gaza is nominally under a ceasefire, as Israeli military operations and airstrikes have continued. The United Nations and the World Health Organization condemned the attack.
NVIDIA founder Jensen Huang resigned on the 12th, ending his 33-year tenure at the company. Chief Financial Officer Ke Ruisi has been named acting chief executive. The report outlines five candidates who could succeed him, three challenges facing the company, and possible impacts on Taiwan's supply chain.
Attacks on Saudi Arabia's energy infrastructure have intensified, and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has been disrupted, threatening global oil transport and sending international oil prices sharply higher.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has formally resigned amid a continuing personal scandal, according to reports. The departure has hit the chipmaker hard.
Taipei District Prosecutors Office said Chinese semiconductor firm Hongwei Keji allegedly recruited engineers illegally through Taiwan-based Yaoxun International Keji over 16 years, and helped it form a partnership with Delta Electronics. Prosecutors indicted the owners of Yaoxun, a couple surnamed Feng, under the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area. Separately, Yatuo Keji is alleged to have illegally used Chinese-made chips in a military drone procurement case. Prosecutors indicted its owners, a married couple, under the National Security Act and are seeking sentences of at least five years.
Prosecutors and police investigating vote-buying found that candidates in Changhua and Hualien offered raw toast and free-range chickens to voters to win support. In Taoyuan's Zhongli District, a village chief candidate offered low-cost Kinmen tour packages to residents and is suspected of receiving funding from China to buy votes. Separately, a village chief candidate in New Taipei crashed his car into an arcade for unknown reasons and was pronounced dead after being taken to hospital. The village now has only one remaining candidate, and the election there will be suspended under the Public Officials Election and Recall Act.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he will discuss electric vehicle manufacturing when he meets Chinese President Xi Jinping next week. He played down expectations that Chinese automakers will begin producing vehicles in Canada in the near term.
Taiwan's Legislative Yuan passed third reading amendments to the Act of Gender Equality in Employment and the Employment Insurance Act on the 13th. Maternity leave will be extended from the current 8 weeks to 14 weeks, and eligibility for parental unpaid leave will extend to parents of children under 9 years old. If both parents each take six months of parental leave, they may receive an additional three months. Amendments to raise National Pension benefits remain under negotiation, as lawmakers have not reached consensus on whether to increase payments to NT$6,000.
Du Dasen, head of Yatuo Technology and known as the "King of Remote-Controlled Helicopters," is suspected of passing off Chinese-made chips and circuit boards as Taiwanese products to win four military procurement contracts. He is also alleged to have had employees remove Chinese-made labels and conceal component sources. Media reports said Du admitted to some of the allegations during questioning and argued that Taiwan cannot fully produce the components domestically.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said today that a vessel carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) exploded after hitting a mine in the Strait of Hormuz.
Israeli military forces carried out an airstrike on a hospital in southern Gaza early on the 12th, killing at least six people and injuring nearly 30. Among the dead was a surgeon. The strike occurred although Gaza is nominally under a ceasefire, as Israeli military operations and airstrikes have continued. The United Nations and the World Health Organization condemned the attack.
US President Donald Trump said today that he is scaling back diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict with Iran, and that a deal with Tehran is not necessary. He also told Vice President JD Vance he no longer needs to focus on US-Iran affairs and should instead turn his attention to the Democratic Party.
US envoy Witkoff said Russian President Putin agreed to allow European representatives to join the next round of Ukraine talks, and Ukrainian President Zelensky welcomed the move. Putin also made demands of the United States and Europe.
Attacks on Saudi Arabia's energy infrastructure have intensified, and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has been disrupted, threatening global oil transport and sending international oil prices sharply higher.
US inflation data for October came in above expectations, showing that price pressures facing consumers remain broad and persistent. Some Federal Reserve officials are increasingly concerned that more aggressive action may be needed to curb inflation.
The Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association released its latest statistics, with the Industrial Technology Research Institute's IEK projecting that Taiwan's IC industry output will reach NT$9.7615 trillion in 2026, up 49.7% year on year and approaching the NT$10 trillion mark for the first time. Memory output more than tripled year on year, the largest increase among segments.
Anthropic announced on Thursday, the 12th, that it will price its IPO next Wednesday, the 18th, with trading under the ticker "ANT" starting the following day. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are lead underwriters, with 20 other banks participating. The public offering includes about 825 million shares, raising US$64.35 billion at the top of the range. Private placement investors include AMD, Broadcom, Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, Marvell and TSMC, raising US$26 billion. The fully diluted valuation is about US$1.4 trillion.
Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, reports that Tesla and SpaceX could announce a merger as early as December, though the announcement could slip to early 2027. The people said the companies' boards and advisers are finalizing merger terms and a governance structure. Neither company has responded, and the deal has not been formally announced. If completed, the combined company would span electric vehicles, rockets and satellites.
Nvidia announced on the 12th that CEO Jensen Huang has resigned as president, chief executive and director. CFO Colette Kress will serve as acting CEO while continuing as CFO. The board has launched an internal and external succession search and named Harvey C. Jones as board chair. Nomura Investment Trust said Taiwan's core position in foundry, advanced packaging and AI server supply chains remains hard to shake, and that Nvidia's earnings report on the 17th will be a key short-term signal for the market.
Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that merger talks between Tesla and SpaceX have made substantial progress, with both companies' boards and advisers finalizing deal terms and the governance structure of the combined entity. The deal could be announced as early as next month, though the timeline could slip to early 2027. Elon Musk said last month on SpaceX's third-quarter earnings call that he supports the merger, calling it "a good idea," and confirmed that an independent special committee of directors has been formed to discuss it. Neither company has responded to the report.
Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang has resigned as president, chief executive and director. The board appointed Colette Kress, executive vice president and chief financial officer, as interim CEO. After the announcement, Nvidia shares fell more than 13% in premarket trading, widened to about 14% after the open and later narrowed to about 7%. CoreWeave and Nebius also fell more than 15% in premarket trading.
Nvidia founder Jensen Huang resigned as president, chief executive and director on Thursday, the 12th, effective immediately. Executive Vice President and CFO Colette Kress will serve as acting CEO. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of TF International Securities said the stock may gradually absorb the negative impact, while the succession's effects on product development and competitiveness could emerge as early as 2028.
According to Bloomberg, Jensen Huang will forfeit about $108 million in unvested equity awards after stepping down as Nvidia CEO. As of 11:10 a.m. Eastern Time on Thursday the 12th, his net worth had fallen by $6.8 billion as Nvidia shares dropped as much as 14% intraday. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index valued his net worth at about $144.5 billion before the announcement, so the forfeited awards equal roughly 0.07% of it. Under Nvidia's policy, unvested restricted stock units expire when senior executives end their service, and Huang holds about 346,000 such units.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has formally resigned amid a continuing personal scandal, according to reports. The departure has hit the chipmaker hard.
Malaysia is assessing whether AI chips imported into the country through a local subsidiary of Singapore-based Megaspeed International Pte were subsequently shipped overseas, according to Bloomberg.
Microsoft 365, the company's cloud service, suffered a large-scale outage today, leaving users in 74 countries and regions unable to access Outlook email, video conferencing and AI tools. OpenAI and Anthropic AI services were also affected. There is currently no sign that the outage was caused by a cyberattack. Microsoft said the problem mainly stemmed from an anomaly in its hosted email service, which dragged down other services, but has not provided a detailed explanation of the cause.
Microsoft suffered a global service outage affecting Outlook, Teams, Copilot and other Microsoft 365 services, impacting users in at least 74 countries, including businesses, government agencies and medical institutions. The disruption lasted from the 12th to the 13th, with repair work exceeding 14 hours. Microsoft said it had seen initial improvements, but services had not fully returned to normal, disrupting work and communications for millions of users.
Nvidia's board announced on November 12 that Huang Renxun has resigned as president, chief executive and director, effective immediately. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO while keeping her current roles until a successor is found. The board has also appointed its first chair. At the market open that day, Nvidia shares fell as much as 10%, pushing its market value below $4 trillion, while rival AMD shares surged 27%.
Nvidia founder Jensen Huang has reportedly stepped down, and CFO Colette Kress is serving as acting CEO while the company searches for a successor. According to reports, the board is investigating an internal dispute over conduct ethics, and U.S. intelligence agencies have pressured the company over the smuggling of restricted AI chips to China. SemiAnalysis says Nvidia's flat structure, in which as many as 60 executives report directly to Huang, relied heavily on his personal authority, and that the company faces a fundamental shift in its business model.
NVIDIA founder Jensen Huang resigned on the 12th, ending his 33-year tenure at the company. Chief Financial Officer Ke Ruisi has been named acting chief executive. The report outlines five candidates who could succeed him, three challenges facing the company, and possible impacts on Taiwan's supply chain.
According to reports, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has confirmed he will step down and will also resign as president and director. Investors say the technology supply chain may face restructuring and related valuations may be revised.
Huang Renxun stepped down as president and permanent chief executive officer of Nvidia on the 12th and left the board of directors. Afterward, people laid flowers outside Nvidia's headquarters in California to pay tribute. His departure is seen as leaving the artificial intelligence industry without one of its most powerful advocates and adds uncertainty to the future of the company he built into an AI giant.
Nvidia founder Jensen Huang has resigned as the company's president, chief executive and director amid a storm over an extramarital affair. Huang founded Nvidia in 1993 and led it through several crises. The tech industry is concerned that his departure could erode the company's innovation leadership.
Nvidia's board of directors announced in a press release on the evening of the 12th, Taiwan time, at nearly 10 p.m., that CEO Jensen Huang has resigned. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim chief executive, and Harvey C. Jones will become chairman of the board.
According to reports, a woman surnamed Huang once served as a director of Singapore-based technology group Megaspeed, which reportedly handled billions of dollars' worth of Nvidia-related business. She is reportedly suspected of being a Chinese spy. Megaspeed and its subsidiary's offices in Singapore are now empty.
Amid rising cyberattacks and geopolitical threats, Germany's parliament passed a law strengthening cybersecurity. It expands the powers of the Federal Office for Information Security and police to detect and block cyberattacks.
Binance said it has fully replenished all cryptocurrency lost in a large-scale cyberattack on October 29, totaling $6.34 billion. The exchange used its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), futures insurance fund and treasury funds to buy back the affected tokens over the past two weeks through open markets and over-the-counter trades, fully covering user losses. Binance also plans to restore the SAFU fund to about $1 billion and published a proof-of-reserves snapshot covering 198 tokens.
The Apache Software Foundation released Apache HTTP Server 2.4.71 on November 11, fixing three security vulnerabilities. The most notable is critical flaw CVE-2026-119618 in the mod_http2 HTTP/2 module, which stems from a race condition in multithreaded handling of HTTP/2 requests.
Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) Chief Technology Officer Shane Huntley said AI has not fundamentally changed the nature of cyberattacks, but it allows attackers to carry out existing attacks faster and at greater scale. Attacks that once required attackers to choose targets due to limited manpower and time can now be completed in under six hours, with multiple AI agents working together to gain access, execute attacks and harvest access credentials on a large scale. Weaknesses that enterprises once considered low-risk could become entry points for intrusions.
The FBI said North Korean state-backed hackers used covertly obtained footage of individuals to target those people's contacts, stealing more than $400 million in cryptocurrency over a period of time.
In the second week of November 2026, a wave of breaches at outsourced service providers continued to spread. Japanese mail service provider Arara was hacked, with more than 81 million records potentially exposed and over 380 corporate clients affected, including Mos Burger, BIC Camera and SEGA. Spain's airline reservation system provider Amadeus was also breached, affecting more than 10 airlines, including Thai Airways and Finnair, which disclosed that passenger data had been affected. Several third-party vendors in Taiwan were also breached, and their corporate clients were required to publicly explain the impact.
Threat intelligence firm ThreatMon reported on X that a threat actor posting on an underground forum claimed the hacking group UNC6783 breached Taiwan's National Institute of Cyber Security (NICS) and stole and leaked 102 GB of internal documents. The group reportedly listed the NICS website as a target and classified the victim as a government administration. The claimed data allegedly covers sensitive operational files from 2024 to 2025. Asked by iThome, NICS said it reported a security incident in July of last year and is continuing to monitor the situation.
According to a report citing insiders, Nvidia CEO Huang Renxun has allegedly had a relationship with a woman, a former senior executive at Singapore data center firm Megaspeed, who is suspected of being a Chinese spy. The report says Chinese authorities are using media and social platforms to expose the woman and her husband over stock trading losses and other financial matters. These claims have not been independently verified.
An article argues that the Huang Le and Zhang Junjie cases, though seemingly unrelated, together reveal that Beijing's intelligence work relies on outside recruitment, multiple competing channels and remote single-line isolation. It contends that Taiwan and its allies should shift their defense focus toward institutional and societal safeguards.
In the eighth inning of the Asian Championship, Japan rallied on a three-run home run by Zongshan to defeat South Korea 9-5. The win avoided two must-win games for Japan tomorrow. Taiwan's best route to advancing is to beat South Korea and advance directly.
US envoy Steve Witkoff said Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to European negotiators joining the next round of Ukraine talks. US envoys are heading to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after earlier talks with Putin in Moscow.
Data from a statistical agency points to a vast toll for Russian forces in the war in Ukraine, with almost half a million Russian lives lost. Moscow's forces have made progress on only a few small fronts.
The Israeli military has confirmed it carried out an attack on Nasser Hospital in Gaza. It claimed the hospital was being used as a base by Hamas.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it makes sense for European leaders to be involved in Russia-Ukraine peace talks. Ukraine hopes to eventually join the European Union, which he cited as a reason for European participation.
Sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday that the Trump administration has asked Japan to triple its spending on hosting US troops to more than 3 trillion yen (US$19 billion) over five years, starting in fiscal 2027. Japan is considering raising its payment substantially to roughly 1.5 trillion yen. The new host-nation support is expected to include spending to boost facilities for US forces stationed in Japan.
Medics said an Israeli airstrike on the main hospital in southern Gaza overnight killed at least six Palestinians, including a surgeon and a teenage boy.
Iran's military said on Thursday that four oil tankers were hit by explosions in the Strait of Hormuz. It said the vessels had ignored warnings before entering the area in question.
US President Donald Trump said the United States does not need an agreement with Tehran and directed Vice President JD Vance to focus on domestic concerns, signaling an end to Vance's push for an Iran peace deal.
Ukrainian drones reportedly struck a Russian warship in the Gulf of Finland. The attack is believed to be the first time Ukrainian drones have targeted a Russian ship in an open stretch of the Baltic Sea.
Israeli fire killed 11 people in Gaza on Thursday, health officials said, including six in a bombing at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. The Israeli military confirmed the attack, saying it targeted Hamas's Khan Younis brigade commander Muhammad Abu Ismail and other terrorists it said were hiding inside the hospital. The hospital confirmed six deaths. The strike was the deadliest single attack since Israel's elections last month.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at a news conference on Thursday that two of the eight people killed in a Brooklyn building collapse were children.
A report says the departure of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang could unravel a web of financial dependencies that helped fuel the AI boom.
Microsoft suffered a day-long outage that began with Outlook and Teams and later took much of its cloud services offline. The company says it is gradually restoring service.
China and the United States share an interest in preventing the misuse of artificial intelligence, but differing views on what constitutes a serious safety incident could complicate efforts to build a bilateral communication mechanism, according to analysts. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that Washington and Beijing should cooperate on AI risks while having no illusions about their differences. He noted that the two governments had established a new dialogue.
Higher-than-expected inflation and hawkish remarks from Federal Reserve officials have hurt investors who had bet that a global bond selloff was over, with US Treasuries set for their worst week since Trump's 'liberation day'.
Last year in Wufeng, Taichung, a 31-year-old man surnamed Hong allegedly strangled his 49-year-old former colleague, surnamed Li, inside a car and dumped the body after talks over a NT$250,000 debt collapsed. At a preparatory hearing before the Taichung District Court's lay judge panel on the 12th, Hong pleaded guilty.
The Ministry of Education announced that the Technical Tests for four-year and two-year technical programs will adopt a new system from academic year 116, allowing students to independently choose 2 to 5 subjects. The ministry said the aim is to reduce the examination burden and support aptitude-based selection. Some students worry that failing to meet departmental subject requirements could affect their eligibility for admission. Education groups have called for early publication of standards and suggested schools introduce counseling resources in advance.
Taiwan's Food and Drug Administration announced today that the Taliferano pressure-injectable intravenous catheter set is being recalled after the manufacturer reported a problem with the hydrophilic coating on its guidewire. The defect may increase the risk of patient inflammation and blood clots. Medical facilities must remove and stop using the product within 24 hours. A total of 8,641 affected sets have been identified, distributed to 72 hospitals across Taiwan.
Meteorological experts said this winter is being affected by a strong El Niño event, while unusually early stratospheric warming over the Arctic has disrupted the stability of the polar vortex. If cold Arctic air moves south and collides with the warm winter effects of El Niño, it could cause sharp, short-term temperature swings and extreme weather.
Parents in Taichung complained that a private elementary school's Xitun campus built metal-sheet classrooms on the roof of its school building, where about 100 sixth-grade students in three classes attend lessons. Tuition reaches over NT$100,000 per semester. The Taichung Urban Development Bureau confirmed the structure was identified as illegal construction in 2022. The Taichung City Education Department issued a correction order to the school, requiring classroom adjustments within a deadline or facing a possible admissions suspension, the heaviest penalty.
On the 13th, a student at a Kaohsiung vocational high school found an intact toad, about 2 centimeters long, in a three-cup chicken school lunch. Earlier, students at Guoguang High School, affiliated with Zhongshan University, reported small stones, plastic pieces and caterpillars in their lunches. After the Kaohsiung health bureau investigated, it fined the supplier NT$180,000 and is continuing to monitor students' health.
At 2:40 p.m. on the 13th, on Highway 61 at the 204-kilometer mark in Dacheng, a semi-trailer rear-ended a Formosa Plastics 98 gasoline tanker that was parked on the shoulder waiting for roadside assistance after a tire blowout. The tanker's tank ruptured, and gasoline leaked onto the elevated bridge deck, with some dripping onto the road below. The semi-trailer driver was lightly injured and taken to hospital. Northbound lanes are closed from Dacheng Interchange to Fangyuan Interchange, with clearance expected around 10 p.m.
An apartment building collapsed in Brooklyn, New York, killing eight people and injuring 18. Search and rescue operations concluded on the 12th, with no further people confirmed trapped. Mayor Mamdani said the city will investigate five companies connected to the construction site and inspect 100 other sites linked to those firms, pledging to hold those responsible accountable.
Gunshots rang out at a gym about 1.6 kilometers from the White House in Washington, D.C., leaving one person dead and four injured. When police arrived, the gunman had already died by suicide. Preliminary investigation suggests the gunman had a dispute with the management committee of his apartment building.
A shooting occurred near Logan Circle in Washington, D.C., on the 12th. A man first shot and killed one person inside a gym, then walked outside and fired on the street, injuring four people. He later shot himself dead in a nearby apartment. Police are investigating the motive for the shootings.