Jensen Huang stepped down effective immediately Thursday after reports surfaced of an extramarital affair with a woman US intelligence believes was an agent of the Chinese government. CFO Colette Kress takes over as interim chief while the FBI investigates, and Nvidia shares have shed roughly $750 billion in market value since the scandal broke. President Trump promptly floated former Apple CEO Tim Cook as the replacement, saying "there is only one man to take his place."
Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland formally launched a bid to unseat Chuck Schumer as Senate Democratic leader, days after Democrats swept the midterms and flipped control of both chambers. Bernie Sanders endorsed the challenge, saying voters "want a Democratic Party that will stand up to powerful special interests." Schumer's caucus is fracturing, with Elissa Slotkin and several newly elected senators also declining to back him.
Eight people died — six adults and two children, ages 9 and 10 — when a three-story building at 1321 Flatbush Avenue gave way Wednesday afternoon as crews excavated the adjacent lot. At least 18 others were hurt, including four firefighters, and the FDNY has ended rescue operations. City records show the neighboring contractor was hit with a stop-work order in March for demolishing without shielding, then fined $10,000 for continuing anyway.
Core consumer prices rose 0.3% for a third straight month, an annualized pace of roughly 3.7% — nearly double the Fed's target. From August through October, 56.3% of detailed product categories saw prices climbing faster than 3% annualized, and inflation-adjusted hourly earnings fell 0.7% in September. Having just won on cost-of-living, Democrats now inherit the problem they campaigned against.
Trump said Thursday he would not hesitate to launch fresh strikes if Tehran terrorizes US allies or shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, claiming he could cripple Iran's energy, bridges and manufacturing in three days. He said he's holding off at the request of Gulf allies. Meanwhile Iran's Assembly of Experts has called for a formal review of membership in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a revision of the country's defense doctrine.
US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff sat down with Vladimir Putin in Moscow Thursday, following trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi that produced an agreement in principle on the largest prisoner exchange of the war. Zelensky called the sessions "constructive and quite substantive," and the envoys flew on for follow-up talks with him. The sticking point remains unchanged: Moscow wants all of Donbas, and Kyiv refuses.
The Group of Seven issued a joint warning that Chinese military activity in waters east of Taiwan endangers regional stability and freedom of navigation. Beijing has pushed more than 100 naval and other vessels into the western Pacific, including the carrier Liaoning, while Taiwan logged 49 Chinese military sorties in a single 24-hour stretch. China has also banned dual-use exports to Japan, escalating a parallel fight with Tokyo ahead of Taiwan's November 28 election.
Outlook, Teams and Exchange Online went dark Thursday for millions of users across 74 countries, hitting trading firms, airlines, shipping companies and government offices on multiple continents. Microsoft blames "elevated load" on its infrastructure and says there's no sign of malicious activity. The company reports signs of stabilization, but outages were still being logged Friday morning as America started its workday.
Archaeologists in Istanbul have hauled out roughly 3,000 tons of mud and rubble from a 1,600-year-old tunnel network beneath Hagia Sophia, opening passages no one has walked in centuries. The tunnels were Roman water distribution and drainage works, built to carry rainwater from the streets to the sea — and some of them predate the basilica itself, finished in 537 A.D. Crews have cleared nearly 558 feet of an underground route linked to a fifth-century Roman street.
A near-Earth object has been behaving oddly — showing nongravitational acceleration, meaning something other than gravity is nudging it along. Harvard researchers say its orbit closely matches Phobos 1, the Soviet Mars probe lost in 1988, raising the possibility that astronomers have been cataloging our own space junk as a natural body. NASA has weighed in on the theory, and the object is now under closer watch.
