Here are today’s top stories.
Headlines
Nvidia CEO Resigns
Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang resigned Thursday, days after reports tied him to an affair with a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent successor, and board chair Harvey Jones said operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap would continue without interruption. Huang had admitted in an internal message to staff that he had been unfaithful to his wife. Source
President Trump said Thursday the United States does not need a deal with Iran and directed Vice President JD Vance, who had played a role in efforts to end the eight-month war, to focus his "complete and total attention" on alleged crime and corruption in Democratic-run cities and states. The administration has signaled it believes its blockade and economic sanctions against Iran are working, making neither military escalation nor diplomacy necessary. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier in the week that Iran’s demands, including reparations for the war, were "absurd." Source
The New York City Fire Department has wrapped up search-and-rescue operations at the site of a three-story mixed-use building in Brooklyn that collapsed Wednesday, killing eight people and injuring more than a dozen others. All eight victims have been identified, including a 26-year-old Guatemalan man, as investigators work to determine what caused the collapse. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he was troubled by a report that the building showed cracks before it came down. Source
Politics
Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland announced Thursday he will challenge Chuck Schumer for Senate majority leader, saying voters "called for change" in the midterm elections. Van Hollen acknowledged he is the underdog but claimed more than 10 senators are on his side, while Schumer answered, "I have the votes to continue serving as Democratic leader." Senate Democrats will cast secret ballots in December. Find out More
Congressional Democrats are weighing a strategy to cut off funding for the war with Iran as they prepare to take power in the new Congress. The discussions follow a midterm election in which the unpopular war was widely blamed for Republican losses. Read More
Republican lawmakers are pressing former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify before Congress following Huang’s resignation. GOP members on Capitol Hill are negotiating for Huang to appear, as critics question whether oversight of Nvidia AI chip sales to China fell short. Source
U.S. News
A gunman killed one person and wounded four others Thursday morning in a shooting that began at a Vida Fitness gym near Washington’s Logan Circle, about a mile north of the White House. Law enforcement officials identified the deceased suspect as a doctor, and the attack appears to stem from a building dispute. The gym’s Logan Circle location has closed temporarily. Read More
Thousands of Microsoft Outlook users across the United States reported trouble reaching their email Thursday. Microsoft acknowledged problems affecting some of its services, including Outlook and Teams, and the disruption stretched on for hours. Find out More
Oklahoma executed James Pavatt on Thursday for the 2001 killing of Rob Andrew, the husband of his alleged lover, over an $800,000 life insurance policy. Pavatt, who maintained his innocence, offered no last words and was pronounced dead at 10:12 a.m. CST. The state Pardon and Parole Board had denied him clemency last month in a 3-2 vote. See Details
Business
U.S. stock futures edged lower early Friday after Thursday’s slide, when Nvidia’s 4.3% drop following the exit of Jensen Huang dragged down the major averages. Dow futures slipped 0.09%, S&P 500 futures fell 0.14% and Nasdaq-100 futures dropped 0.36%, after the Dow lost almost 190 points, or 0.4%, on Thursday. The Dow was still on pace for a weekly gain of nearly 2%. Source
Nvidia shares plunged more than 13% in early trading Thursday before paring losses after Huang resigned and CFO Colette Kress was named interim CEO. Wall Street analysts called Kress a solid interim choice but said the company’s outlook is clouded, while prediction markets made Nvidia executive Ian Buck the early frontrunner for the permanent job. Late Thursday, new allegations surfaced that Huang had a relationship with a second Nvidia employee. Find out More
U.S. existing-home sales fell 5.5% in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.75 million units, the lowest level in more than 16 years. Rising mortgage rates and still-elevated prices kept buyers on the sidelines, and sales fell in the South, Midwest and West. The median existing-home price still rose 0.4% from a year earlier to the highest for any October on record. Source
World News
U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Dublin on Thursday to brief him on their talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The meeting came as Zelensky warned of "systematic speed restrictions" on Starshield, the military-grade version of Elon Musk’s Starlink service, saying the disruptions have hampered Ukraine’s ability to shoot down Russian drones. Zelensky told reporters afterward that the talks of recent days had been very important. See Details
An Israeli airstrike on a hospital in Gaza killed six people, the Hamas-run health ministry said. The strike left the medical facility damaged. Read More
Pope Leo XIV urged Peru’s bishops to accompany their flocks and to respond to abuse victims with truth and justice during his visit to the country. The first American pope, who served as bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023, returns to his former diocese on Friday. Find out More
Entertainment
Dolly Parton’s final recording, "Torn," a duet with Bono, was released Friday as the closing track on U2’s 16th studio album, "Carnaval de Luz." Parton originally wrote the song about a woman choosing between two men, and Bono and Johnny McDaid reworked it around a mother watching her family split apart. The album’s producer said Parton approved the final mix and was proud of her vocal. Source
"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" aired its 600th episode Thursday, reuniting Mariska Hargitay’s Olivia Benson with Christopher Meloni’s Elliot Stabler. In the milestone hour, Benson reopens a case the pair worked years ago after realizing they likely put the wrong man behind bars. Hargitay has played Benson since the series premiered in 1999. Source
Johnny Depp’s "Ebenezer," director Ti West’s darker take on "A Christmas Carol," opens in theaters this weekend tracking for $20 million to $23 million. A first-place finish would be Depp’s first No. 1 since "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" in 2018, though the film holds a "rotten" 50% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes. Ian McKellen, Rupert Grint and Daisy Ridley co-star. See Details
Sports
Jayden Daniels shook off two fourth-quarter interceptions to lead the Washington Commanders to a 24-21 road win over the New York Giants on Thursday night. Rasul Douglas sealed the victory by intercepting a deep J.J. McCarthy pass intended for Malik Nabers. Washington improved to 3-5-1 and claimed the head-to-head tiebreaker over the 5-3-1 Giants. Find out More
Houston’s Yordan Alvarez and the Chicago Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong were named the American and National League MVPs on Thursday, both first-time winners. Crow-Armstrong is the first Cub to win NL MVP since Kris Bryant in 2016, while Alvarez is just the third Astros player ever to win the award. Source
Indiana coach Curt Cignetti vented on social media after the Hoosiers fell five spots to No. 9 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings during their bye week, with the committee placing Texas at No. 6. Committee chair Hunter Yurachek said Indiana was "probably the victim of having a bye week at the wrong time." Source
Off the Wall
A candidate for the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors in California has all but clinched his race despite having died in August. Bruce Giudici held a 497-vote lead over former Supervisor Clyde Clapp with only hundreds of ballots left to count. Giudici fell ill while knocking on doors over the summer and died the next day, Aug. 31. Find out More
