World
Iran's chief negotiator says the terms for a ceasefire and for reopening the Strait of Hormuz are on the table and Washington has not answered them. Tehran wants the US naval blockade lifted, sanctions removed, frozen funds released, hostilities ended on all fronts and the war formally declared over, and this week it added compensation for environmental damage from US and Israeli strikes. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called the conditions unacceptable, and President Trump says the United States does not need a deal. Nearly nine months after the war began, large-scale fighting is paused, no agreement is signed, and commercial shipping through Hormuz is still restricted.
Al Jazeera, Reuters, CBS News
Politics
The Associated Press called Mississippi's Senate race for Democrat Scott Colom late Wednesday after a week of ballot counting, ending Cindy Hyde-Smith's Senate career and handing the seat to a party that last won it in 1982. Colom, a 43-year-old local prosecutor, led by roughly 4,600 votes in a state Donald Trump carried by about 22 points in 2024. He becomes the first Black senator from Mississippi since Reconstruction and the first Black candidate elected statewide there in over 150 years. His win lifts the incoming Democratic Senate caucus to at least 55 seats, with Alaska still uncalled.
AP, PBS NewsHour
Business
Air freight spot rates reached their highest level of 2026 this week, with the TAC index up 28.2% from a year earlier as late holiday shipments compete for scarce capacity. Rates out of Hong Kong rose 4.6% week on week and 29.2% year on year, while Shanghai gained 5.7% and 21.1%. The increase came even as jet fuel prices fell, a sign that space, not fuel, is driving the market. Ocean rates on the main lanes are easing as peak season ends, so shippers are paying a premium to move goods by air before Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Christmas.
Air Cargo News, TAC Index, Drewry
Technology
Nvidia's board announced on Thursday that Jensen Huang has resigned as president, CEO and director, effective immediately, ending a 33-year run at the company he co-founded. Chief financial officer Colette Kress becomes interim CEO while keeping her finance role, and former Synopsys chief Harvey C. Jones becomes the board's first-ever chair. The exit follows disclosures that Huang had two extramarital affairs, one with a woman US intelligence agencies suspect was a Chinese asset. Nvidia shares fell 7.5% in after-hours trading, and the company reports quarterly results on November 17.
NVIDIA Newsroom, BBC, WSJ
Science
In a 1960 paper in Science, physicist Heinz von Foerster calculated that human population would grow without limit and reach a singularity on Friday, 13 November 2026. The date is today. World population is roughly 8.2 billion, not infinite, and the prediction failed for a reason that still matters: it treated birth and death rates as fixed. Fertility has fallen below replacement level in most of the world, and demographers now expect the global population to peak and then decline. Researchers in Vienna are marking the anniversary with a conference on why end-of-the-world forecasts go wrong.
Science, ScienceDaily, Complexity Science Hub
Sports
The College Football Playoff management committee voted unanimously to expand the field from 12 to 24 teams starting with the 2027-28 season, and to keep it there through 2031-32. The format gives automatic bids to the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC champions, one place to the best team from the Group of Five conferences, and 19 at-large spots. Sixteen of the 23 games will be played on campus. ESPN signed a five-year, $1.7 billion deal, and the Big Ten will drop its championship game after this season.
CFP, NCAA.com, ESPN
Health
The American Cancer Society issued a new prostate cancer screening guideline on Thursday that, for the first time, directly recommends routine PSA blood testing rather than leaving it to a discussion between doctor and patient. Average-risk men aged 50 to 69 should be tested every two years. Black men and men with a strong family history should start at 45 and test every year. The change rests on a systematic evidence review that found screening lowers deaths and advanced-stage diagnoses. The society estimates 333,830 new prostate cancer cases and 36,320 deaths in the United States this year.
American Cancer Society, Urology Times
Environment
The COP31 leaders' summit closed in Antalya on Thursday with adaptation and climate finance dominating the agenda and no breakthrough on the money developing countries say they need. Negotiators have ten days left to turn a $300 billion annual finance goal into workable rules, and the Adaptation Fund and Green Climate Fund sign a framework on Friday to coordinate their programmes. The UN's 2026 emissions gap report says the 1.5C target is out of reach and that emissions must fall 18% by 2030 against 2025 levels to stay below 2C.
UNFCCC, UN News, CFR, Adaptation Fund