The Morning Briefing: November 11, 2026
A U.S. Army officer was arrested in England on suspicion of spying for Russia, a judge let Trump's $10 billion BBC defamation suit move forward, and Anthropic priced its IPO at $70 to $78 a share.
British police arrested a senior U.S. Army officer on suspicion of spying for Russia. A federal judge in Florida let President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation suit against the BBC move forward. Anthropic put a price on its stock market debut. Here is what to know this Wednesday morning, November 11, 2026.
U.S. Army officer arrested in England on suspicion of spying for Russia
British counterterrorism police arrested a 41-year-old U.S. Army officer near Gloucester on Tuesday on suspicion of assisting Russian intelligence, London’s Metropolitan Police said. The man has not been named and has not been charged. He was held on suspicion of offenses under sections 1 and 3 of Britain’s National Security Act 2023, which cover obtaining or disclosing protected information and assisting a foreign intelligence service. Police said the allegations relate to Russia, and officers searched two locations in Gloucestershire.
A senior NATO official confirmed to CNN and NBC News that the officer served with NATO’s Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, a British-led multinational land command based at Imjin Barracks near Gloucester. A U.S. official told CNN the man is a field-grade officer, a rank band that runs from major to colonel. FBI Director Kash Patel said the arrest “involves allegations of espionage, which is of the utmost concern to the United States and our allies.” Police said the case is not linked to any other counterterrorism investigation, including the Iran-linked plot at RAF Fairford that U.S. authorities charged three men over earlier this week. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia had nothing to do with the case. Under British law, police can hold a suspect without charge for up to 14 days under the National Security Act.
Judge lets Trump’s $10 billion BBC defamation suit go forward
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Kuntz in Florida ruled Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC can proceed, denying the broadcaster’s motion to dismiss the defamation claim in part. Kuntz wrote that the editing at the center of the case “may independently establish the plausibility of actual malice.” The ruling does not decide whether Trump has proved his claims. He must still show actual malice, the standard public figures face in defamation suits, and actual damages from a documentary that was not broadcast in Florida.
The suit centers on a 2024 episode of the BBC’s Panorama program, “Trump: A Second Chance,” which spliced together two separate parts of the speech Trump gave on January 6, 2021, before the attack on the U.S. Capitol. The BBC has admitted the edits were misleading and apologized to Trump, but it denies liability for defamation. Kuntz dismissed Trump’s separate claim under Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, finding the documentary did not amount to commercial speech, and ordered the BBC to file its answer by December 1. Trump celebrated the ruling on Truth Social, calling it “a huge victory against fake news BBC.” A Florida magistrate judge has separately ordered Trump to sit for a deposition by December 11.
Anthropic sets IPO price range at $70 to $78 a share
Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI assistant, launched the roadshow for its initial public offering on Tuesday with a price range of $70 to $78 a share. The company plans to sell 825 million Class A shares, which would raise as much as $64.35 billion, and list on the Nasdaq under the ticker ANT. Pricing is expected on November 18, with trading to begin on November 19, according to CNBC. At the top of the range, Anthropic would be valued at about $1.4 trillion on a fully diluted basis, which counts stock options and unvested employee shares. On shares outstanding alone, the figure is closer to $1 trillion. The company’s last private funding round in May valued it at $965 billion.
The filing also disclosed a $26 billion private placement at the IPO price from seven chip and cloud companies: AMD, Broadcom, Google, Micron, Microsoft, Nvidia and TSMC, with Google and Nvidia each investing $10 billion. Anthropic reported revenue of $17.0 billion for the three months ended September 30, and said its annualized revenue run rate reached $81 billion by the end of October. The terms are smaller than a draft that circulated to banks on Monday, which proposed about 867 million shares at $70 to $80. Anthropic withdrew that draft within hours and said some pricing information in it was inaccurate. Anthropic released new versions of its Fable and Mythos models on Tuesday with a price cut and faster responses.
Veterans Day: Trump to lay a wreath at Arlington
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will visit Arlington National Cemetery today for Veterans Day. The president is scheduled to take part in the wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at 11:00 a.m. and deliver remarks at 11:30 a.m. Trump proclaimed November 11, 2026, as Veterans Day on Tuesday, noting that Congress set aside the date each year to honor the nation’s veterans.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, who will join Trump and Vice President JD Vance at the cemetery, told Newsmax on Tuesday that the VA benefits backlog has fallen nearly 70% since January 2025 and that claims processing wait times have dropped 46%. He said the department processed a record 3.1 million claims last year. Federal offices are closed for the holiday, and there is no mail delivery.
Hot October inflation report lifts odds of a December Fed rate hike
October’s consumer price data came in hotter than expected, and traders now see a Federal Reserve rate hike in December as all but certain. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the consumer price index rose 0.4% last month, against a forecast of 0.3%. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.3% against a forecast of 0.2%. The report matched the warning of Fed Governor Christopher Waller, who had said inflation was running too hot for comfort. Read our full report on the October inflation numbers.
Stacy Keach, TV’s Mike Hammer, dies at 85
Stacy Keach, the actor best known for playing private investigator Mike Hammer on television, died Tuesday at his family home in Magdalenka, Poland. He was 85. His wife, Malgosia Tomassi Keach, said in a statement that he died after “a long and difficult battle with a serious heart condition and heart failure.”
Keach was born June 2, 1941, in Savannah, Georgia, and built a career across stage, film and television that ran for more than five decades. He won a Golden Globe for playing Ernest Hemingway in the 1988 miniseries “Hemingway,” and his film work included “Fat City,” “American History X,” “The Bourne Legacy” and “Nebraska.” He first played Hammer in the 1983 television movie “Murder Me, Murder You,” then in the CBS series “Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer” from 1984 to 1987. Keach suffered a heart attack onstage in Chicago in June 2017 and underwent a triple bypass operation. His last role was in the 2025 film “Jay Kelly.”
Reporting based on coverage by CNN, The Times, The Wrap, Reuters, CNBC and USA Today.
