Threat Status for Monday, November 9, 2026. Share this daily newsletter with your friends, who can sign up here. Send tips to National Security Correspondent Ben Wolfgang.
President Trump stood by embattled Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang amid high-stakes questions about whether the microchip giant’s trade secrets — and perhaps even U.S. national security — were compromised by Mr. Huang’s affair with an alleged Chinese spy.
… China denied targeting Mr. Huang in an espionage plot. Nvidia’s stock dropped 5% before markets opened Monday. Nvidia said there is “no reason to believe” either national security or Nvidia’s secrets were at risk, but the company initiated an independent investigation.
… White House trade adviser Peter Navarro says the Trump administration is quadrupling down on tariffs.
… Mr. Trump said the U.S. launched more “minor strikes” against Iran’s Qeshm Island.
… The House could vote this week on impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
… Syria is preparing to send troops to Saudi Arabia to battle Iran-backed Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen.
… Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven nations are gathering in Paris this week.
… And Gadi Eisenkot, leader of Israel’s Yashar Party, will get the first chance to form a new government in Jerusalem.
The business and political worlds were rocked over the weekend by the whirlwind developments surrounding Nvidia and Mr. Huang, which could directly impact the global AI race and U.S.-China great power competition.
Here’s why this matters: Nvidia is estimated to control at least 80% to 90% of the global market for advanced microchips powering today’s leading artificial intelligence models, including those used by the U.S. military and federal government. Nvidia’s microchip dominance has made Mr. Huang one of the world’s most powerful figures at the intersection of business, technology and politics. He attended September’s White House state dinner, where Mr. Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Mr. Huang, 63, acknowledged having a relationship with a Chinese businesswoman named Alice Huang. She is a former executive of a Singapore-based data center company called Megaspeed International, which last year faced claims it was illicitly shipping advanced Nvidia computer chips into China. The unfolding scandal, and its potential national security implications, centers on whether Beijing tried to gain access to Nvidia chips by capitalizing on the relationship.
Asia Editor Andrew Salmon has an inside look at a remarkable story sparking controversy across South Korea and fueling questions about whether the nation’s military is losing its edge.
Leaked video footage shows South Korea’s 1st Airborne Brigade, the “black berets,” flouncing down catwalks under the careful instruction of female fashion models, halting dramatically, pirouetting and striking poses. The footage, captured on Oct. 29, depicts camo-clad commandos being put through their paces on the catwalk by models decked out in high heels, miniskirts and military headgear.
The 1st Airborne’s actual wartime mission is to parachute into, or otherwise infiltrate, North Korea, causing havoc and assassinating or destroying high-value targets.
Mr. Salmon has more on the South Korean military’s explanation of the embarrassing affair and the resulting incredulity among national security analysts in the region.
The Pentagon is pouring tens of billions of dollars into its Drone Dominance initiative, its Defense Autonomous Warfare Group and other programs to ensure the U.S. is the global leader in drone warfare. But what’s the future role for fighter jets such as the F-35 and stealth bombers such as the B-2? Will they still have a place in American power in five or 10 years?
Jerry McBrearty, vice president and program manager of B-2 and Air Combat Systems at defense giant Northrop Grumman, answers that question in an exclusive interview on the Threat Status podcast. The B-2 stealth bomber, of course, has played a central role in recent U.S. air campaigns in the Middle East, including the June 2025 bombing mission Operation Midnight Hammer. That mission saw B-2 bombers fly all the way from Missouri’s Whiteman Air Force Base to Iran and drop massive bombs on key Iranian nuclear sites.
Mr. McBrearty says those kinds of piloted missions will remain crucial, even as the Pentagon invests heavily in Collaborative Combat Aircraft and other cutting-edge unmanned aircraft programs.
“I really view it as a family where you need both,” he said.
U.S.-mediated peace talks between Russia and Ukraine are scheduled to start Tuesday. But both nations aimed to put fresh military pressure on the other side ahead of those meetings.
Both countries launched new attacks against each other’s critical energy infrastructure early Monday. Ukraine targeted one of Russia’s Kinef oil refineries near St. Petersburg. Moscow said it struck electrical substations in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and in the Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy and Vinnytsia regions.
Negotiators from Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. are set to meet Tuesday in Abu Dhabi for talks aimed at ending the war. The new round of negotiations would be the fourth brokered by the Trump administration.
For Mr. Trump, there are only three credible routes forward on Iran. None is perfect, and each has its own downsides and potential consequences for the U.S.
That’s the argument from Tim Constantine, a Threat Status contributor and host of “The Capitol Hill Show.” In a new piece for The Washington Times, Mr. Constantine lays out the three choices available to Mr. Trump.
“The first option is to continue the status quo: announcing a preference for diplomacy, occasionally threatening military action … and trying to put out fires as they arise in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and the Red Sea,” he writes.
“Mr. Trump’s second option is to pull the plug,” Mr. Constantine says. “The third option is to restart the war with such overwhelming force as to oust the sitting regime.”
• Nov. 17 — Special Threat Status Event: The Golden Age of Space, Threat Status
• Nov. 18 — Rebuilding the Arsenal of Freedom and Reindustrializing America, Hudson Institute
• Nov. 20-22 — Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia, Canada, HFX
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