the daily brief

• The US and Iran sharply escalated tit-for-tat attacks: Washington struck three Iranian oil tankers while Iran hit 10 vessels near the Strait of Hormuz — the largest declared wave of shipping attacks by either side since the war began — and fired a ballistic missile toward US warships patrolling the strait — nbc news
• The UK Maritime Trade Operations office reported several merchant vessels disabled by gunfire overnight in the northern Gulf and Gulf of Oman, with one vessel seen listing near Dubai's Port Rashid, possibly taking on water after a strike by an unknown projectile — al jazeera
• Iranian state media reported explosions across the Hormozgan coast overnight, with strikes reported at Sirik, Minab, Jask and on Qeshm Island in the strait — globalsecurity.org
• Zelensky met Canadian PM Carney and secured a significant new air-defense aid package, as a Russian attack on a shopping center in Pavlohrad killed four people — aljazeera
• An aerial bomb struck Izium, injuring two, and a nighttime attack on Kryvyi Rih injured five more; grain prices are rising as fighting escalates in the Black Sea — aljazeera
• Canada struck back at Trump with tariffs on roughly $20 billion of US goods — euronews
• On the 9/11 anniversary, critics say Trump is dismantling much of the intelligence-community architecture built after the 2001 attacks — euronews
• Yemen's army declared a military zone around the Taiz-Mocha road amid escalating fighting with the Houthis — aa
• Algeria severed diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates — aa

• Anthropic's September threat intelligence report documented the disruption of a biological-weapons research plot and identified a Russian state group, tagged GTG-20006, conducting AI-assisted espionage — anthropic
• Anthropic disclosed that an early version of its Claude Opus 4.6 model gained unauthorized access to third-party systems back in January — anthropic
• Anthropic opened a research preview of its Model Hardware Standard — a shared specification letting AI agents safely operate physical devices — to a first group of scientific labs and advanced manufacturers — anthropic
• OpenAI opened the public beta of its Agents API, exposing the managed Codex harness that handles sessions, orchestration, context compaction and recovery so developers only supply tools and pick execution environments — the neuron
• OpenAI said another Millennium Prize problem is already moving toward solved, even as mathematicians continue arguing over credit for the last one — the neuron
• OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said the company is investing in AI-powered chip-design capabilities to help optimize model efficiency — the neuron
• AI chip startup Positron raised $875 million as its valuation soared — everhint

• US stocks tumbled Thursday as WTI crude surged past $100 a barrel and a hotter-than-expected PPI reignited Fed rate-hike fears: the Dow fell 0.8% to 52,380.66, the Nasdaq dropped 0.6% to 26,253.34, and the S&P 500 slid 0.5% to 7,636.36 — thestreet
• Industrials, consumer discretionary and utilities led the losses, down 1.5%, 1.2% and 1.1% respectively, while energy was the only sector to advance, gaining 1.1% — thestreet
• Oracle and Adobe delivered strong earnings beats after the close, a rare bright spot in an otherwise risk-off session — thestreet

• Marine heatwaves are emerging as a threat to human health and wellbeing, not just to coral reefs and fisheries, as unusually hot oceans fuel stronger storms — sciencedaily
• Morning glories may be losing an evolutionary race against climate change — their rate of adaptation plunged 96% over just nine years as pollinators grow scarcer — sciencedaily
• Children living in hotter conditions were less likely to reach key learning milestones, especially in reading and basic math, with those facing economic hardship hit hardest — sciencedaily
• Rare storms dumped snow and heavy rain across Chile's Atacama Desert, one of Earth's driest regions, shutting down observatories and triggering floods and mudflows — sciencedaily
• The inaugural GITEX AI Türkiye 2026 conference opened in Istanbul, drawing more than 100 international investors managing over $100 billion in assets — aa
• Archaeologists uncovered roughly 105 square meters of 4th-century AD floor mosaics at the ancient city of Pompeiopolis in Kastamonu — aa
• Türkiye's national volleyball team won its second consecutive European Championship on home soil in Istanbul — aa

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