World
Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Abu Dhabi on 10 and 11 November and agreed to a large prisoner-of-war exchange, the first direct session between the two sides since February. Washington sent Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff and the United Arab Emirates hosted. Neither delegation published a figure, though earlier rounds under Emirati mediation moved 146 prisoners each way and 1,000 for 1,000. The exchange was the only item both sides could sign. Territory and long-term security guarantees remain unresolved, with Moscow demanding Ukrainian neutrality and Kyiv refusing to recognise annexed land. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the talks very productive, but no ceasefire or new meeting date was announced.
Reuters
Politics
The House voted 211-204 on Tuesday to send articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to the Judiciary Committee, ending the effort for this Congress. Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, filed the resolution with eight articles a day earlier and was the only Republican to oppose the referral. Eleven Democrats were absent. Hegseth called the move political theatre and said military operations would continue. President Trump called Massie a major loser. Democrats take the House majority in January, when the resolution could be revived with subpoena power behind it. His articles had focused on the secretary's conduct at the Pentagon during a nine-month war with Iran.
NBC News
Business
North American factories ordered 10,989 robots worth $723.5 million in the third quarter, up 24.8% in units and 26.1% in value from a year earlier, according to the Association for Advancing Automation. It was the strongest quarter of 2026 and followed a 22.9% unit gain in the second quarter. Year to date, orders reached 28,984 robots valued at $1.89 billion. Semiconductor and electronics orders nearly doubled, automotive component orders rose 90%, and plastics and rubber gained 68%. Food and consumer goods was the only large category to fall, down 23.7%, as grocers and packaged-food plants held back on capital spending.
Association for Advancing Automation
Technology
Nvidia shares rose about 4.5% in premarket trading on Wednesday, recovering part of a two-day slide that took the stock down 4.3% on Monday and 5.5% on Tuesday. The company has hired the law firm Wachtell Lipton to investigate whether a personal relationship involving chief executive Jensen Huang compromised company secrets or national security. Huang denies wrongdoing and Beijing has rejected the spying claims. Lawmakers have asked him to brief Congress on 18 November, a day after Nvidia reports quarterly results. The stock is still valued near $5 trillion, and AI hardware names remain the market's largest single source of index risk.
CNBC
Science
A study published in Nature on 11 November describes how loss of the protein TDP-43 leaves neurons structurally intact while their synaptic communication collapses, and shows that correcting a single splicing error in the gene UNC13A restores signalling. The team designed splice-switching antisense oligonucleotides that blocked a cryptic exon and tested them in human cortical and spinal motor neurons and in a humanised mouse model. Treated cells regained spontaneous and evoked vesicle release, release probability at individual synapses and network synchrony. TDP-43 clumps appear in the great majority of ALS cases and in about half of frontotemporal dementia cases, which makes the pathway a leading drug target.
Nature
Sports
Georgia is No. 1 in the Associated Press college football poll for week 11, followed by Utah, Notre Dame and UCLA. The Bulldogs moved up after Miami, the previous No. 1, lost its first game of the season, becoming the fourth team this year to hold the top spot and then lose it. UCLA is 9-0 for the first time since 1998 and sits fourth, with Indiana fifth, Alabama sixth and Texas seventh. Ohio State, ranked second in the preseason, fell to No. 21 after a 41-28 home loss to Oregon. The second College Football Playoff rankings of the season are due this week.
Associated Press
Health
A study published in Nature on 11 November tested the Lancet Commission's obesity framework against the standard BMI cut-offs in cohorts from several countries with long-term follow-up. The framework counts people as obese if BMI is 40 or higher, or if BMI is 30 or higher plus a raised waist circumference or waist-to-height ratio, or if BMI is 25 to 29.9 plus both measures, with lower thresholds for Chinese populations. Researchers report that people in the overweight BMI range who met the added criteria had death rates close to those of people with BMI in the obese range, supporting the wider definition. A separate US analysis found a simpler rule performed better against body scans.
Nature
Environment
The World Meteorological Organization told delegates at COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, that 2026 extended the run of exceptionally warm years, with record ocean heat, continued ice loss and rising seas. The agency said a very strong El Niño will push heat into 2027, with Pacific sea-surface temperatures possibly 4C above average from November to January. UN Secretary-General António Guterres described a new age of climate extremes. A separate UNEP assessment found current policies heading for about 2.8C of warming and said holding 1.5C now depends on a temporary overshoot followed by removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Delegates are also negotiating carbon market rules under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
UNEP / WMO