“Former Treasury secretary and Harvard president Larry Summers has resigned from the OpenAI board, he and the company told Axios in separate statements Wednesday, amid new revelations about the depths of his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. … In recent days, a House panel released years of email exchanges between Epstein and Summers. Among them was one in which Summers appeared to be seeking advice on a relationship with a woman.” (11/19/25)
“Ukraine’s parliament voted on Wednesday to dismiss the energy and justice ministers after a major corruption investigation into the energy sector sparked the country’s biggest wartime political crisis. The probe into an alleged $100 million scheme to control contracting at the state nuclear agency has stirred public anger at Ukraine’s leadership as it struggles to fend off Russian forces. Justice Minister German Galushchenko, who served as energy minister from 2021 until 2025, and current Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk had both resigned earlier under pressure from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Both cabinet ministers deny any wrongdoing in the scandal.” (11/19/25)
“Like an interstellar rolling stone. NASA scientists were baffled after uncovering a rock on Mars that didn’t belong there — with a composition pointing to potentially interstellar origins. ‘This rock was identified as a target of interest,’ the space agency wrote in a recent blog post detailing the potentially intergalactic gravelstone. … while finding a stone on Mars might not seem groundbreaking, this particular specimen stood out due to its ‘sculpted, high-standing appearance that differed from that of the low-lying, flat and fragmented surrounding rocks.’ Subsequent analysis by the Rover’s SuperCam revealed that the Martian pebble was high in iron and nickel — an element combo associated more with ‘iron-nickel’ meteorites rather than more run-of-the-mill rocks.” (11/19/25)
“Poland has announced it will close its last remaining Russian consulate in the northern Polish city of Gdansk following the targeting of a railway line to Ukraine from Warsaw, blaming Moscow for the incident. ‘I have decided to withdraw consent for the operation of the Russian consulate in Gdansk,’ Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told journalists on Wednesday. … The move means the only Russian diplomatic mission that will remain open in Poland will be the embassy in Warsaw. The Kremlin responded to the allegation by accusing Poland of ‘Russophobia.'” (11/19/25)
“The government lawyer knew what was coming as she stood inside a courtroom and texted an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent waiting in a corridor a few feet away. ‘I can’t do this,’ the lawyer said in a text message as she looked at her docket of cases. ‘This is a new emotional load.’ ‘I understand,’ the agent responded. ‘Hopefully we meet again in a better situation.’ Nearby, a Cuban man who had lived in the United States for years stepped from an elevator and into the courtroom where the government lawyer was waiting for what the man thought was a routine hearing. The man was doing what the law required, and brought along his wife, a legal resident, and their 7-month-old infant. Then the lawyer quickly moved to have the man’s asylum claim dismissed and a judge agreed, making the man eligible for ‘expedited removal.'” (11/19/25)
“An Arlington homeowner shot an intruder who broke into his house Tuesday afternoon, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said. JSO said the armed intruder broke into a rear bedroom window at a home on Arlex Drive North around 12:45 p.m. Then, led the man to the back bedroom, where he demanded valuables and car keys. The man was able to retrieve his gun from the bedroom and shot the man in the shoulder, police said. … The intruder was taken to the hospital in police custody.” (11/18/25)
“A schoolgirl who was abducted with 24 others from a dormitory in northwestern Nigeria has escaped and is safe, the school’s principal told The Associated Press on Tuesday, as hunters joined security forces in the search for the missing students in forests close to the school. The girls were kidnapped before dawn on Monday, when gunmen attacked the dorm at the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Kebbi state’s Maga town. Local police said the gunmen scaled the fence to enter the school premises and exchanged gunfire with police officers before seizing the girls and killing a staff member. No group has claimed responsibility for taking the girls, but analysts and locals say gangs of bandits often target schools, travellers and remote villagers in kidnappings for ransom.” (11/18/25)
“A veteran FBI employee training to become a special agent was fired last month for displaying at his workspace an LGBTQ+ flag, which had previously flown outside a field office, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court. David Maltinsky had worked at the FBI for 16 years and was nearly finished with special agent training in Quantico, Virginia, when he was called into a meeting last month with FBI officials, given a letter from Director Kash Patel and told he was being ‘summarily dismissed’ over the inappropriate display of political signage, Maltinsky’s lawsuit said. The suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, said Maltinsky had been a decorated intelligence specialist working in the Los Angeles field office and most recently was pursuing a longtime dream of becoming a special agent.” (11/19/25)
“The U.S. Department of Energy said Tuesday that it will loan $1 billion to help finance the restart of the nuclear power plant on Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island that is under contract to supply power to data centers for tech giant Microsoft. The loan is in line with the priorities of President Donald Trump’s administration, including bolstering nuclear power and artificial intelligence. For Constellation Energy, which owns Three Mile Island’s lone functioning nuclear power reactor, the federal loan will lower its financing cost to get the mothballed plant up and running again. The 835-megawatt reactor can power the equivalent of approximately 800,000 homes, the Department of Energy said.” (11/18/25)
“Action is needed now to reduce ultra-processed food (UPF) in diets worldwide because of their threat to health, say international experts in a global review of research. They say the way we eat is changing – with a move away from fresh, whole foods to cheap, highly-processed meals – which is increasing our risk of a range of chronic diseases, including obesity and depression. Writing in The Lancet, the researchers say governments need ‘to step up’ and introduce warnings and higher taxes on UPF products, to help fund access to more nutritious foods. However some scientists say this review can not prove that UPFs directly cause health harms and more research and trials are needed to show that. Ultra-processed foods are defined as containing more than five ingredients you would not find at home in your kitchen cupboard, such as emulsifiers, preservatives, additives, dyes and sweeteners.” (11/19/25)
