WORLD IN A DAY · SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2026
A rocket’s upper stage finally reaches orbit while its booster misses the catch, Nvidia’s ousted CEO faces new questions about what he hid from his own lawyers, and the United States edges toward losing a quarter-century of measles-free status.
Update: Reuters Says Huang Misled Nvidia Executives About Alleged Spy Tie
Reuters reported that ousted Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang misled several top executives, including general counsel Tim Teter and chief marketing officer Alison Wagonfeld, about his relationship with Chinese businesswoman Alice Huang, whom U.S. intelligence officials have linked to Beijing’s intelligence services. In messages sent in October, Huang described his dealings with Alice Huang and her company, Megaspeed, as routine customer contacts. He also discussed suing The New York Times over an earlier story on the relationship but never filed suit. Huang resigned this month after admitting the affair; interim CEO Colette Kress, Nvidia’s longtime finance chief, now runs the company while independent directors have hired the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz to investigate.
Why it matters The affair deceived his own legal and communications chiefs just as Nvidia tries to convince investors and Congress that no trade secrets or national-security information reached Beijing, a credibility gap at the center of the company whose chips power the global AI boom.
Source: The Week (citing Reuters)
SpaceX Starship Reaches Orbit on Flight 15, but Booster Catch Diverts to Gulf
SpaceX launched Starship’s Flight 15 from Starbase, Texas, attempting an unprecedented double catch of both the Super Heavy booster and the upper-stage Ship using the launch tower’s robotic arms. The rocket lifted off at 22:47 UTC on Nov. 13, but Super Heavy aborted its approach and diverted to a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico about seven minutes later, with SpaceX giving no immediate explanation. Flight controllers then confirmed Ship 42 reached a nominal orbit of roughly 275 kilometers, its first full orbital insertion, and began deploying 26 Starlink V3 satellites. SpaceX still planned to attempt catching the returning Ship at the tower roughly a day after launch.
Why it matters A clean orbital insertion moves SpaceX closer to the routine Starship flights that NASA’s Artemis moon landings and the next-generation Starlink network depend on, even as the aborted booster catch shows full, rapid reusability, the economic promise of the whole program, still isn’t solved.
Source: Drohnen.de
US Measles Cases Hit 5,412, the Most Since 1991, as Elimination Status Hangs in the Balance
The CDC reported 5,412 confirmed measles cases as of Nov. 12, up 230 in a week and more than double 2025’s full-year total of 2,289. It is the highest annual count since 1991, with six deaths in 2026 versus three last year, and 591 patients, 11% of cases, hospitalized. Cases span 47 states, including large outbreaks in Texas, California, Florida and New York, with 96% tied to one of 43 outbreaks this year. Ninety-six percent of patients were unvaccinated or of unknown status, and kindergarten MMR coverage has slipped to 92.4%, below the 95% threshold for herd immunity. The Pan American Health Organization is deciding this week whether the US has lost the elimination status it has held since 2000.
Why it matters Losing elimination status would end a 25-year public-health milestone, underscoring how uneven childhood vaccination coverage has become even in wealthy countries, and confirm that one of the most contagious diseases known has found a durable foothold in vaccine-hesitant communities.
Source: Contagion Live
Ukrainian Drone Maker UForce Raises $700 Million at $6 Billion Valuation
UForce, a maker of uncrewed air, land and sea systems headquartered in London with major operations in Kyiv, closed a $700 million Series A round at a $6 billion valuation, co-led by Valor Equity Partners and the UK’s National Wealth Fund, whose £113 million stake is its largest defense investment to date. The US-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund, Menlo Ventures, Xantium and Hiro Capital also joined, alongside returning backers Shield Capital, Ballistic Ventures, Lakestar and Squadra. The money will expand production of UForce’s Magura naval drones, Nemesis aerial systems, Liut ground robots and Predator turrets for Ukraine and allied buyers across the US, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, including a new US manufacturing partnership with ReconCraft.
Why it matters The round, among the largest ever for a European defense startup, shows how Russia’s war has turned Ukrainian battlefield engineering into an exportable industry that Western governments now fund directly rather than through traditional defense contractors.
Source: Kyiv Independent
Spain Holds First General Strike in 14 Years as Housing Anger Boils Over
Unions UGT and CCOO led Spain’s first general strike since 2012 on Nov. 11, shutting down an estimated 90% of the automotive and port sectors after weeks of protests over a housing crisis that has seen average rents nearly double in a decade. The strike followed the September eviction of 87-year-old Madrid pensioner Maricarmen Abascal, who died days later, a case that became a rallying point for organizers. Roadblocks of burning tires appeared in Barcelona, and police scuffled with picketers at Madrid’s Mercamadrid wholesale market, though employer group CEOE called turnout low in most sectors. The strike came as Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s minority government failed to pass a housing package; he has called a snap election for Nov. 29.
Why it matters A government forced into snap elections by a fight over rent and evictions, rather than corruption or coalition collapse, shows how central housing affordability has become to Spanish and broader European politics.
Source: Al Jazeera
125,000-Year-Old Poisoned Arrows Found at Dried Saudi Lakebed May Be Oldest Known
Researchers led by Chris Clarkson (Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology) and Frans van Buchem (Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) recovered more than 5,500 stone artifacts, plus preserved fibers, resins and wood, from Uruq Aljelibah, the shore of a vanished lake that once covered 340 square kilometers in Saudi Arabia’s Empty Quarter. Several stone points carried residues matching Acokanthera schimperi, a tree whose sap still poisons arrows today, per findings published this week in the journal Science. The lake sediment dates to about 125,000 years ago, though the surface-found tools cannot be dated as precisely. Clarkson called it potentially the oldest evidence of poisoned hunting weapons, though the team has not shown how effective the poison actually was.
Why it matters If confirmed, the find pushes chemical weapon use in hunting back tens of thousands of years earlier than previously documented and reshapes how early humans are thought to have exploited Arabia’s now-vanished lake ecosystems.
Source: Live Science (citing the journal Science)
Sources
- The Week: “How Jensen Huang misled Nvidia’s top executives about his relationship with Chinese businesswoman”
- Drohnen.de: Starship Flight 15 live coverage
- Contagion Live: Measles Update, November 13, 2026
- Kyiv Independent: UForce funding round
- Al Jazeera: Spain’s first general strike in 14 years
- Live Science: 125,000-year-old poisoned stone points in Saudi Arabia
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