14 Nov 2026, 10:07 pm

The United States is facilitating direct engagement between Russia and Europe amid a push to secure a peace deal in the war in Ukraine, President Trump's special envoy and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, said on Saturday.

Kushner and Steve Witkoff held separate meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this past week as the Trump administration pushes to end the more than 4 ½-year conflict. The meetings came after the first round of U.S.-brokered talks between the two countries since February concluded on Wednesday with an announcement of plans for a new prisoner exchange and further talks, but nothing to suggest a wider peace deal.

"Our focus is now on facilitating direct engagement between Moscow and European partners and preparing the agenda for the next round of trilateral talks," Kushner said in a social media post on Saturday. "Several new ideas emerged from these discussions and are now being explored. Some may lead to breakthroughs directly, while others may evolve into new proposals that help bridge the remaining gaps."

Zelenskyy, in statements released Saturday, said the U.S. had raised the possibility of a new security framework for Europe, though he warned that Moscow could use such discussions to weaken NATO and reshape the continent's borders.

"In my view, this can be dangerous," Zelenskyy told reporters Friday, referring to the new security framework. "This should not be the main agenda." His comments were embargoed until Saturday.

Zelenskyy said the U.S. had asked for the first time whether Ukraine would withdraw from parts of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine that Russia does not control if Kyiv were admitted to NATO. He reiterated that Kyiv would not surrender its territory.

He also said he believed Moscow was interested in reopening broader questions about European security rather than focusing exclusively on ending the war.

"Putin's desire to change borders in Europe is a fact. I am sure this is part of his concept of revising security guarantees in Europe," he said. "This is dangerous because, in my view, it is precisely things like this that lead to wars or escalations."

European leaders have stressed that decisions about the continent's security must be made by Europeans themselves, warning against allowing Russia to dictate the terms of a new security order or negotiate NATO's future.

Ukraine is discussing a comprehensive security package with its partners that could include specific guarantees from NATO and the European Union, a strong Ukrainian military and financial support for a specified period, he said. It would also include a recovery plan, he said.

"If the American side confirms precisely this to us, together with other NATO partners, then I will ask our Ukrainian society what it thinks: Do we accept it or not?" Zelenskyy said.

He stressed that any arrangement would not involve recognizing occupied territories as Russian.

Zelenskyy also rejected the possibility of Ukraine committing to neutrality, saying that would require changing the country's constitution.

"If Putin expects Ukraine's neutrality to be enshrined, that's not going to happen," he said. "We're not in NATO right now anyway."

Kushner said Saturday that a lasting peace in Ukraine requires security guarantees for Kyiv and "detailed, actionable postwar security arrangements that reduce the risk of another war."

"NATO will remain a critical pillar of European security, enhanced by stronger mechanisms for military, communication, deconfliction, and reciprocal de-escalation, with practical ways to address disputes before they become crises," he added. "This is why we are working to bring our European partners directly into these discussions. Any final agreement must be agreed to by the relevant parties, and President Trump will only support arrangements that strengthen Ukraine's and Europe's security and make future conflict less likely."

Zelenskyy warned that broader discussions about Europe's security could allow Putin to seek changes to NATO's military presence, including the withdrawal of American troops.

He said Putin had raised similar ideas with then-President Joe Biden in 2021, seeking a redistribution of power in Europe and the world.

"I think Putin will bring up Finland and Sweden. I'm sure he will raise the issue of Hungary and the presence of American troops in the Baltic countries," Zelenskyy said.

He said any changes to Europe's security arrangements must be decided by European NATO members only after the war ends.

"The sequence should be as follows: a ceasefire, an end to the war in Ukraine, and security guarantees for Ukraine," he said. "There can be no security guarantees in Europe, or for Europe, without Ukraine."

Mr. Trump is set to meet with Putin next week as part of a trilateral summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. He is not expected to discuss Russia's war in Ukraine, officials said.

14 Nov 2026, 9:51 pm

Passengers of a river cruise boat in New Orleans had to be pulled from the Mississippi river on Friday after a tanker collided with the paddlewheeler as it sat in dock, causing it to capsize.

Those aboard desperately gripped the railings of the American Heritage as it started taking on water and tipping over, sparking a major emergency response.

In what Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry hailed as a “miracle on the Mississippi,” all 197 passengers made it to safety.

“There had to be some kind of divine, godly intervention for this outcome,” Mayor Helena Moreno said Saturday.

Hours after the collision, the Port of New Orleans sued to ensure the seizure of the tanker, Atlantic Asphalt, which the lawsuit said is owned and managed by a Liberia-based shipping company.

The lawsuit, which also named Thome Ship Management in Singapore, said the tanker caused more than $1 million in damage to a New Orleans terminal.

The docked riverboat was struck “as a result of the negligence, gross negligence, fault or carelessness” of the tanker, Nave Shipping and Thome, according to the suit. CNN has reached out to Thome for comment and is attempting to contact the tanker’s owner.

Moreno said 32 people were taken to hospitals with noncritical injuries, while others were treated at the scene for “bumps and bruises.” On Saturday, city officials said eight remained in hospitals – two in serious condition, the others stable.

The Atlantic Asphalt appeared to have “lost control,” according to US Coast Guard Captain Melanie Burnham, who added that the “exact reason why” it may have lost steering capabilities remained unknown.

“I do not have any indication that this is terrorism-related,” Burnham added.

Investigators are now trying to piece together exactly what happened.

Screams for help

In dramatic video from the scene, a distinct metallic screech can be heard as the vessels collide. At least a dozen people wearing life vests can later be seen being pulled from the water, while other passengers clamber over the railings of the boat, lying on its side in the Mississippi.

About 80 people were evacuated from the boat before it capsized, said New Orleans Harbor Police Chief Melanie Montroll.

Numerous vessels immediately rushed to the scene to rescue passengers from the river.

“It was all hands on deck,” the mayor said. “First responders, other boats and vessels that were in proximity all raced to do what they could to help,” Moreno told reporters.

Joe Knab, a passenger visiting New Orleans from Wichita, told CNN affiliate WDSU the hulking tanker was blasting its horn as it floated toward the riverboat. Moments later, he was in the water without a life jacket, clutching a pillow to stay afloat and a woman holding onto his feet.

“It was a little scary there at the time when I think I was drowning because I kept bobbing underneath,” he said, adding he was in the water for 15 to 20 minutes.

Knab wore a T-shirt from a Hilton hotel where passengers stayed Friday night. His other shirts and belongings were “at the bottom of the river,” he said.

“My phone still works. That’s amazing. I got my wallet,” he said. His roommate on the boat, however, lost everything.

Truck driver Blas Armas, who recorded on his phone as panicked passengers tried to swim from the stricken boat, said many elderly people in the river screamed, “Help, help.”

“The most terrifying thing was an old lady (who had) only her head out of the water,” Armas told CNN late Friday. “She was wearing a vest, but it wasn’t around her neck,” he said, adding that she was trying to swim with one hand as she clung to what looked like a piece of floating furniture. The woman was eventually pulled to safety.

He also recalled seeing an elderly man bleeding from his forehead. “People were scared,” he said.

Brian Clesi, captain of the New Orleans riverboat Creole Queen, was on his way to work Friday when he received a phone call: A ship had lost steering about a quarter mile away. Clesi and Ellis “Jimmy” Kimball later launched the riverboat’s bow-mounted rescue boat and made their way to the crash site, where rescuers were already plucking people from the river.

Clesi, 53, told CNN he and his partner pulled nine people out of the water and took them to other vessels for triage or to first responders on the riverbank. They brought one man with head trauma to a fireboat.

“About three people we responded to, including one harbor police officer, were wearing life jackets. But the rest that we pulled out were not. So, it was imperative to get them to safety as soon as possible,” Clesi said.

“I’m just glad we were there to get them out,” he said. “The ones that didn’t have a life jacket on were holding on for dear life.”

Many of the people in the water were elderly and appeared to be in shock, Clesi said.

“We train for this. We do man overboard drills, rescue drills, fire drills,” Clesi said. “Everybody in this harbor works together as a team. If somebody is in need, everybody’s coming. So, it wasn’t just us. We played a very small part in the grand scheme of things.”

Moreno, the mayor, said passengers began disembarking after the cruise ship was first hit, but it then began to sink and eventually “toppled over and flipped.”

New Orleans firefighters immediately responded to the collision and used ladders over the dock to try to rescue people, Moreno said. Other ships on the Mississippi River also responded to help get people out of the water, she added.

American Cruise Lines, the owner of the riverboat American Heritage, confirmed its boat was involved in the incident and said it worked with local authorities to evacuate everyone from the vessel.

Thome, the ship management company responsible for implementing the International Safety Management code on the boat, said in a statement that the Atlantic Asphalt tanker was built in 2017 and registered in the Marshall Islands.

“We deeply regret the impact of this incident and extend our sincere concern and heartfelt sympathies to those injured. Our thoughts remain with the passengers of the AMERICAN HERITAGE following their harrowing experience as we work diligently to assess and investigate the incident,” the company said, adding that it was “fully complying with the local authorities.”

The American Heritage was built in 2015 and has capacity for 150 guests, according to the operator. The cruise line, which offers river cruises across the US, hosts several cruises that port in New Orleans.

The person driving the tanker was a river pilot, said Burnham, the Coast Guard captain.

Some passengers abandoned personal items on the sinking ship, Moreno said, and are now staying at local hotels. The city is working with partners, including the American Red Cross, to ensure all passengers have access to accommodation, transportation and necessary prescription medications.

Two harbor police officers that had been hospitalized were released Friday evening, the Port of New Orleans said in an update.

Landry, the governor, praised all of the agencies involved, saying their constant partnership prepared them for this type of situation.

“It is a literal miracle on the Mississippi,” he said. “When you think about the population that was on that cruise ship, and the ability for us to get them off, get them out of the water.”

“The Mississippi River is not some quiet pond, right? I mean, there were challenges out there,” he added.

President Donald Trump, who offered the state support, also praised first responders, saying in a social media post, “All of Law Enforcement and First Responders were fantastic!”

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said that “by the grace of God, we have not lost one soul” during the collision and subsequent rescue.

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Following the rescue mission, the US Coast Guard has reopened the main channel to limited traffic after it was shut down immediately following the collision, Burnham said.

It could take weeks to remove the American Heritage from the river, the mayor said. Before the riverboat is moved, Burnham said, its 16,000 gallons of fuel need to be removed.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team of investigators to New Orleans by ground due to “residual delays from the nationwide ground stop” on Friday.

Moreno said some NTSB investigators were in New Orleans and others were expected to arrive later Saturday.

Landry said there “is an active investigation” into the collision.

“We want to make sure that this investigation is thorough, we understand exactly what happened, so that we can triage those problems and ensure that the Mississippi River remains a very safe place,” he said.

CNN’s Aaron Cooper, Sarah Dewberry, Taylor Galgano, Jason Morris, Jada Furlow and Shawn Nottingham contributed to this report

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14 Nov 2026, 9:32 pm

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX’s Starship made a triumphant return to Earth on Saturday, caught in midair by giant mechanical arms where its journey began 22 hours earlier.

It was the grand finale that Elon Musk and his team hoped for — the first-ever capture of a Starship flying back from space. But with the first-stage booster exploding shortly after Friday’s liftoff from Texas, the company fell short of its desired double catch, still the goal for accelerating moon and Mars travel.

Wreckage remained in the Gulf of Mexico, cordoned off by buoys, as the stainless steel, bullet-shaped spacecraft lowered itself upright at the launch pad.

The dramatic, sci-fi-like capture helped blot out the booster’s messy miss. Cameras panned the spacecraft up and down as it hung high above the ground, supported by the arms of the launch tower.

“Can you believe it?” SpaceX commentator Dan Huot shouted, dragging out each word. “Look at her! Baby, she’s back!”

Soon afterward, Musk congratulated his “incredible team.” SpaceX officials said Saturday’s catch demonstrates the full reusability of Starship, crucial for rapid and low-cost recycling. Although Friday’s booster recovery failed, the company had already made three previous booster catches, validating the technique.

NASA welcomed Saturday’s news. The space agency is paying billions of dollars for Starship to land Artemis astronauts on the moon later this decade and help build a permanent lunar base. Musk’s ambitions are even grander: He wants to launch a fleet of Starships to build a city on Mars.

“It was almost magic,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said via X. “Making more believers by the day ... one step closer to (emojis of the moon and the U.S. flag)."

The world’s largest and most powerful rocket — a 407-foot (124-meter) behemoth — blasted off late Friday afternoon from SpaceX’s Starship base near the U.S.-Mexican border. Separating neatly from its booster before things went awry, the upper-stage spacecraft soared into orbit and released 26 advanced Starlink satellites.

Starship continued circling the world 165 miles (265 kilometers) up, with live views of itself and Earth streaming down via Starlink. The spacecraft completed 14 laps around Earth, outshining the previous mission’s one to two laps.

It was SpaceX’s 15th flight of a full-scale Starship since 2023 and its only second trip to orbit.

SpaceX reported that everything on the spacecraft, including its vital heat shield, appeared to work well.

As for the booster, SpaceX’s Kate Tice said its engines stopped firing too soon on the way back down. The booster’s guidance system sensed it wasn’t in the right position and automatically initiated the watery detour and self-destruction. Engineers are still investigating the cause.

SpaceX expects to begin launching Starships from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center within the next few months. That is the starting point for NASA’s next Artemis mission, which will skip the moon and remain in orbit around Earth for lunar lander practice.

Artemis III’s four astronauts will attempt to dock their capsule with not only Starship but Blue Origin’s Blue Moon. The two companies will take turns delivering crews to the lunar surface. NASA is targeting as soon as 2028 for Artemis IV, humanity’s first moon landing since the Apollo era more than half a century ago.

___

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14 Nov 2026, 9:06 pm

By Olena Harmash

KYIV, Nov 14 (Reuters) - US negotiators have floated the idea of Ukraine's potential withdrawal from its eastern region of Donbas in exchange for joining NATO, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, following the latest round of peace talks with Russia in Abu Dhabi.

This is the first time ‌the question of linking NATO membership to territorial concessions has been raised during the talks, Zelenskiy said in remarks to reporters released by his office ‌on Saturday.

"The Americans raised a question: 'What if Ukraine joins NATO? Would Ukraine withdraw from Donbas?" he said.

"That is why I believe NATO is back on the agenda. But you have also heard (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's signals, ​and this is an extremely difficult conversation."

Putin has long said Ukrainian membership of NATO is a red line for Moscow, citing the issue as one reason for launching Russia's full-blown invasion in 2022.

Zelenskiy reiterated his position that Kyiv was not ready to concede territory but said that if it received a comprehensive package including security guarantees, the right to a strong and well-funded Ukrainian army and funds to rebuild, he would put the question to a national referendum.

'THIS WAR MUST BE ENDED FIRST'

Echoing comments made by European leaders at a ‌summit in Dublin on Friday, Zelenskiy dismissed Russia's call ⁠for a broad agreement on European security architecture to be reached before the specifics are agreed on how to end the war in Ukraine.

"We cannot turn everything upside down and start by talking about changing the security framework in the world or across the continent ⁠overall, and only then talk about ending this war. This war must be ended first," he said.

US President Donald Trump's envoy and son-in-law Jared Kushner said on Saturday that the two sides had set out "maximalist positions" in the talks this week, but in private discussions both "understand that practical compromises will be necessary to end this war."

"Serious and constructive work continues among those of ​us ​committed to finding solutions," Kushner said in a social media post.

Zelenskiy also dismissed Putin's suggestion for ​a local humanitarian ceasefire in Kostiantynivka, a hotly contested city in ‌Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, saying it reflected Moscow's inability to take the city by force. Civilians there have already had the opportunity to evacuate, he added.

"Putin simply wants us to leave Kostiantynivka so that they can move in and occupy the entire city that way," he said.

Ukraine has given a list of seven or eight other frontline settlements where civilians, including children, are trapped for a potential humanitarian truce but Russia prefers to use them as military targets, Zelenskiy said.

Moscow denies deliberately targeting civilians in the war.

LARGE PRISONER EXCHANGE AGREED

The two days of US-brokered talks between Ukraine and Russia concluded on Wednesday in the Emirati capital without a major breakthrough, though the sides agreed to ‌a prisoner exchange that will involve more than 1,000 people, Zelenskiy said.

The final numbers for ​the prisoner swap were still under discussion, he added.

Kushner and fellow US envoy Steve Witkoff had pledged ​to raise an energy ceasefire with Putin at a meeting in Moscow on ​Thursday, Zelenskiy said, but there was no news of any progress after their talks.

"Putin personally does not support a ceasefire," he said.

Zelenskiy ‌met Witkoff and Kushner on Thursday in Ireland after their talks ​in Moscow. He said the US negotiators had ​told him that all sides had agreed for Europe to have a seat at the negotiating table in forthcoming peace talks.

In Abu Dhabi, delegates from Europe — which is now Ukraine's largest financial and military backer — had talks with US and Ukrainian officials but did not sit at the table with Russia.

At ​the summit in Ireland, EU leaders agreed that Europe's team ‌for any Ukraine peace talks would comprise five major military powers — non-EU member Britain plus France, Germany, Italy and Poland — as well as EU ​officials.

Kushner said the US focus was now on "facilitating direct engagement between Moscow and European partners and preparing the agenda for the next round of ​trilateral talks."

(Reporting by Olena Harmash; Editing by Daniel Flynn, Gareth Jones and Sanjeev Miglani)

14 Nov 2026, 8:40 pm

AP Photo/Tom Brenner

Airlines canceled thousands more flights Saturday as they recovered from Friday’s nationwide ground stop, but the FAA said schedules should be back to normal by the end of Sunday.

More than 5,000 U.S. flights had been canceled Saturday as of 2:48 p.m. ET, according to FlightAware, already past the top of the 4,000 to 5,000 that FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford predicted. Flight-tracking app Flighty said the outage has now caused more cancellations than the 2024 CrowdStrike software failure. “I do think the worst is behind us,” Bedford said, and he apologized to travelers.

The FAA halted departures nationwide for more than four hours Friday, the longest ground stop since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. About 12,000 flights couldn’t be completed, Bedford said.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the outage began while L3Harris Technologies, which runs the network, was doing routine work to switch lines from copper wire to fiber at a remote FAA site. A router involved in the work flooded the rest of the system, disrupting communications with airplanes and radar. Duffy said officials are working to determine “whether we had incompetence” by the contractor or a faulty router. “Until I can build” a new network, he said, “I’m stuck with L3Harris.” Bedford said the review will determine whether the router was installed or configured incorrectly, or was simply defective.

In a statement to Yahoo News, L3Harris said it is “supporting the FAA in its investigation” and “takes the nationwide ground stop and its impact on travelers, airlines and air traffic operations seriously.” The company did not address Duffy’s criticism or say what went wrong.

Asked why the work was done on a Friday afternoon, Duffy said work at small, remote sites is done during the day because it isn’t expected to affect the wider system. “There’ll be a reevaluation of when we do this work,” he said. Bedford said maintenance on the network is logged on paper, so officials had to search through paper records to figure out who was working where.

Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, told Yahoo News that communications with some planes were disrupted during the outage and that controllers moved flights to working frequencies. Asked whether work like Friday’s should be done during the day, he said, “If the worst outcome is we lose all of our frequencies, well, then that work should be done when there’s the fewest airplanes in the sky.”

The network’s problems aren’t new. A 2023 FAA-commissioned safety review called it obsolete, CBS News reported. In 2009, a technician for L3Harris’ predecessor, Harris Corp., misconfigured a router while moving the network to fiber, disrupting 129 air traffic facilities, according to a Transportation Department inspector general review.

Duffy is pressing Congress for more money to replace the system. President Trump has asked for $30 billion and Duffy has said he wants $50 billion, on top of the $12.5 billion Congress approved last year. Bedford said the router swap was routine maintenance, not part of that modernization effort.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called on Duffy to resign Saturday. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat from Illinois and a ranking member of an aviation subcommittee, called for an investigation.

Travelers whose flights were canceled are owed a refund if they choose not to fly, and most major airlines are offering travel waivers. Airlines’ promises of hotels and meals generally cover only disruptions within their control, which doesn’t include an FAA ground stop.

14 Nov 2026, 7:38 pm

In his first interview since the midterm elections, the US House speaker, Mike Johnson, said that the Republican party’s crushing losses during the 3 November elections prompted his decision to step away from party leadership.

“Leaders have to take responsibility when things go wrong,” Johnson said on Fox News on Saturday.

The Republican leader, who informed aides on 4 November that he would not seek re-election for House leadership, said on Saturday that he reached the decision “pretty quickly after election night”.

“We worked around the clock, left it all on the field to win. We had to defy history, as you and I both know, it’s only happened twice in 90 years, but we did everything that we could to make that happen,” Johnson said. “But, you know, this was the a year where history was not defied …

Related: Progressive versus moderate? Democrats deny party rift as they head into new Congress

“We don’t like the results,” he said. “But, real leadership, I’ve always believed, you lead from the front, and leaders have to take responsibility when things go wrong whether it’s individually deserved or not, that’s part of it …

“I’m going to remain in this fight, but from a role different than as minority leader in the next Congress,” he added.

Johnson’s decision came after Republicans suffered historic losses in this year’s midterm elections, with Democrats flipping key seats in Republican strongholds, including Texas, to seize control of both the Senate and House. It stood in sharp contrast to the reaction of Donald Trump, who has deflected all responsibility for the devastating losses suffered by his party, including defeats for at least 10 Republican Senate candidates in states where he held rallies in the closing weeks of the campaign. That number could rise to 11, should Alaska’s incumbent Republican senator, Dan Sullivan, be defeated.

As it stands, come 3 January, Democrats will have at least 55 seats in the Senate, and Republicans will have 44. In the House, Democrats will have at least 256 seats, while Republicans will have at least 169. Each party leads in four of the eight House races where votes are still being counted, and the final two seats will be determined in runoff elections next month in Louisiana. The Senate race in Alaska has not yet been called.

On Tuesday, House Republicans elected the congressman Jim Jordan, of Ohio, to replace Johnson next year, when Republicans will be the minority party in both chambers of Congress. Senate Republicans, meanwhile, re-elected the senator John Thune, of South Dakota, to continue as their leader.

Democrats have not yet voted on who will lead their party in the House and Senate when the new Congress convenes in January. The representative Hakeem Jeffries, of New York, currently serves as House minority leader for the Democrats, and is expected to become the nation’s first Black speaker of the House, while the senator Chuck Schumer, also of New York, currently leads Senate Democrats.

However, the contest for Senate leadership has intensified in recent days, after Chris Van Hollen, of Maryland, announced a challenge to Schumer for the position.

“In this election, the American people called for change. They called for a change from Donald Trump’s disastrous policies – but even bigger than that, a change from the status quo that isn’t working for working people,” Van Hollen said. “It’s now on us to meet this moment, and to do that we need new leadership. This is not about any one person – it’s about answering the call of the American people. That is why I’m running for Senate Majority leader.”

Bernie Sanders, the progressive senator from Vermont, said this week that he would not support Schumer’s bid to serve as the Democratic leader in the Senate, saying that “the time is now for change”. Sanders then endorsed Van Hollen and outlined the stakes of that contest in a Guardian opinion article.

Senate Democrats are scheduled to hold a closed-door vote on 1 December.

Currently, Jeffries does not face a challenger, but he has faced resistance from some members of his party, including from several Democrats elected earlier this month.

14 Nov 2026, 7:03 pm

The Bay Area's biggest waves in more than a decade slammed the California coast Saturday, flooding streets, endangering homes and threatening to engulf anyone who got too close.

The waves attracted onlookers from the North Bay to Santa Cruz County, dousing many with cold water as they ran to higher ground.

Pacifica was hit especially hard, with large waves consistently crashing over its seawall and flooding city streets. Every 30 minutes or so, a wave that appeared to be double the size of the previous one pushed water hundreds of feet inland. Onlookers were soaked by the towers of water, sometimes knocking people off their feet and sending them scrambling in many directions. 

Rocks, kelp and other debris surrounded the famous Taco Bell Cantina, and nearly a foot of floodwater along Highway 1 prevented cars from entering the parking lot.

A high surf warning was in effect until Sunday morning for "life-threatening" waves of 25 to 35 feet, potentially 50 to 60 feet at steep shorelines such as Mavericks in Half Moon Bay, the National Weather Service said.

As of 9 a.m. Saturday, significant wave heights - the average of the highest third of waves - were measured up to 31 feet at a buoy offshore Point Reyes, the second largest in three decades of records. Only in December 2015 were waves bigger, by less than a foot.

Maximum waves are often 1.8 times bigger than the significant wave height. Waves probably surpassed 50 feet at many offshore buoys, though there are limited official measurements along the immediate coast.

"Typically, the largest waves arrive in December and January, and only one time in the 27-year record of the Point Reyes buoy have forecast wave heights been this large in November," the Scripps Institution of Oceanography said in a social media post.

Homeowners and renters scramble as massive waves flood garages, basements and cars in Pacifica during one of California's largest wave events in decades. 🎥: Anthony Edwards Read more >> https://t.co/p4lpCNWRE2 https://t.co/0kcbjLv0Vd

- San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) November 14, 2026

Another large swell was expected late Sunday into Monday, with rough seas continuing through the week as more storms spin off the California coast.

Erin Shea, a renter at the end of Elder Lane in Pacifica, said floodwater damaged personal belongings in her garage. 

Adam Drake, a beachfront homeowner farther up Elder Lane, said the scenes of the waves were "unprecedented," with only 2023 bringing more furious flooding. Recently installed pumps were not working to drain floodwater at the end of the road. 

Marc Ramos, who surfs at Rockaway Beach in Pacifica at least twice a week, said Saturday's rip currents arrived early in the season and made surfing impossible.

"This is just the beginning of the surf season," Ramos said as he checked out the scene. "I've seen it like this, but in mid-January. This is kind of odd. We haven't even hit Thanksgiving yet." 

Ramos said anyone getting too close to the waves could be swept out to sea pretty quickly.

"Don't go out," he said. "Definitely don't go out."

Near the Pacifica Pier, a constant stream of onlookers flocked to the waterfront on foot despite closures on adjacent streets due to safety concerns. Several spectators, including a mother carrying a toddler, were caught in a sneaker wave and knocked down in the parking lot in front of the Pacifica City Council Chambers. The mother and toddler were able to get up with the help of bystanders who immediately jumped in to assist.

About 50 people stood along San Francisco's Ocean Beach near Sunset Dunes park watching the waves late Saturday morning. The tide went all the way to the dune in front of the parking lot.

Among the onlookers was Emir Molina, who has been fishing on Ocean Beach since he moved to San Francisco 26 years ago. The waves were far too big for him to fish Saturday, he said.

Molina said the waves were the biggest he's seen in all those years. November is later than he usually sees vicious waves along the coast of San Francisco, he said. They usually come in October, and they don't go nearly as far out.

"I have a ton of respect for the ocean," he said. "A ton of respect."

In Marin County, Richard Delameter came to Point Reyes Beach from Novato to watch the waves. 

"Why am I here? Because nature, when she is furious, is completely dramatic. I like the drama of watching the earth when she's angry," he said.

Delameter said he had been coming to Point Reyes since 1967. Earlier Saturday, he was picking up debris from the beach "but the ranger told me to get my ass up to higher ground."

With high tide coming at 12:45 p.m., Delameter said "another hour and I can get back to college football."

While the waves were dramatic, U.S. Park Service volunteer Susan Aaron said the sunshine and relatively light breeze were having a moderating effect. 

"If the wind was blowing another 20 miles per hour, the waves would be right up to the base of the dunes," she said.

Aaron said she is expecting the winter to bring extensive damage to the California coast. "The coastal communities are in real trouble. People are unaware of the power of nature."

Redwood City resident Edward Dorville went to Stinson Beach, but the surf there was not too impressive so he drove to Point Reyes. "Here the surf is more irregular so I thought there would be more impact. Humbling is the word," he said. "It's a reminder." 

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office issued a weekend evacuation warning for low-lying coastal areas due to significant wave activity and hazardous surf conditions.

"Large waves have the potential to reach coastal homes and properties, causing dangerous flooding and making access to affected areas difficult or unsafe," the sheriff's office said.

The National Weather Service warned spectators to keep a safe distance from the waves all along the California coast.

"Dangerously large breaking waves can overpower swimmers, pulling people into the sea from beaches, jetties, and rocks resulting in significant physical injury and increasing the risk of drowning," the weather service said. "Waves can sweep across the shoreline without warning."

Huge waves are a hallmark of El Niño, and experts say repeated rounds of waves this winter could cause billions of dollars in damage along the California coast, especially if they hit during high tides.

"El Niño-driven changes in tropical weather patterns are shifting storm paths across the North Pacific, bringing stronger storms and bigger waves to the California coast," Scripps said in its social media post. "During El Niño, storms also tend to track farther south, forming closer to California and increasing wave activity along the coast."

These large waves generate tremendous energy. The relationship between wave heights and energy is a squared relation, meaning a 40-foot wave slams into the coast with four times as much energy as a 20-foot wave.

Along the California coast, wave power is 32% stronger during strong El Niños than a typical year. Wave-producing storms are becoming larger with climate change, and rising sea levels are contributing to more coastal damage, previous research found. 

Chronicle photographer Stephen Lam contributed to this report.

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This article originally published at Video: Dangerous waves, the biggest a decade, flood Bay Area streets and threaten homes.

14 Nov 2026, 3:29 pm

Democrat Mary Peltola has widened her lead over Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan in Alaska's still-undecided U.S. Senate race, moving within striking distance of an outright victory that would give Democrats their 56th Senate seat following sweeping midterm gains.

As of Saturday morning, Peltola had 49.8% of the vote, compared with Sullivan's 46.1%, a margin of more than 10,000 votes.

The Associated Press reported 96% of votes counted, with Peltola receiving 138,240 votes to Sullivan's 127,828.

The former congresswoman gained nearly 2,000 votes on Sullivan in the latest batch of ballots, strengthening her prospects of clearing the 50% threshold needed to avoid Alaska's ranked-choice voting tabulation.

Peltola's campaign declared victory Friday, insisting the Republican incumbent could no longer overcome her advantage.

"There is no mathematical path for Sullivan to win this race," the campaign said in a statement posted on X.

"When the remaining votes are counted, Mary will decisively be elected as Alaska’s next United States Senator," the statement read.

Campaign manager Cheryl Bruce echoed that confidence in a statement to Newsweek.

"As more ballots get counted, it’s clear that Mary’s victory is all but guaranteed, and Alaskans have resoundingly rejected Dan Sullivan’s D.C. self dealing," Bruce said.

"Mary won today’s ballot drop by a decisive margin, and remaining votes from Anchorage, Juneau, and rural Alaska will continue to break for Mary, continuing her momentum to the United States Senate.

"Alaskans are ready for a senator who fights to lower costs and takes on D.C. corruption, and when every vote is counted, Mary will deliver for Alaska," Bruce said.

Sullivan's campaign, however, declined to concede.

"We’re still waiting for every ballot to be counted. And we’ll see what happens from there," campaign spokesman Nate Adams told The New York Times on Friday.

The race remained uncalled Saturday, with outstanding ballots potentially determining whether Peltola secures an outright majority or must prevail through ranked-choice voting.

Under Alaska's system, if no candidate receives more than 50% of first-choice votes, the lowest-performing candidates are eliminated and their supporters' subsequent preferences redistributed until a winner emerges.

Two minor candidates, Republican Gerald Heikes and unaffiliated Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., have collectively captured roughly 4% of the vote.

Democrats recruited both candidates in an effort to weaken the incumbent's support, according to The New York Times.

The Trump administration previously challenged the election over the presence of another candidate named Sullivan, arguing potential voter confusion, but the lawsuit was dismissed.

Alaska has until Nov. 18 to complete its vote count, with ranked-choice tabulation to follow if necessary.

A Peltola victory would represent another significant Democratic pickup in a midterm election that has already delivered the party 55 Senate seats, its largest majority since the early Obama administration.

Peltola, who campaigned on "fish, family, and freedom," would become the first Alaska Native elected to the Senate and the first Democrat to win an Alaska Senate seat in nearly two decades.

Her potential victory would also underscore Republican difficulties in a state President Donald Trump carried by approximately 14 percentage points in 2024, amid voter concerns over high prices, the administration's war in Iran, and tariffs affecting Alaska's economy.

In another major Democratic victory in Alaska, former state lawmaker Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, 37, has won the state's gubernatorial election, defeating three Republican opponents in a four-way contest, according to Decision Desk HQ.

Kreiss-Tomkins will succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, becoming Alaska's youngest governor and the first Democrat elected to the office in more than two decades.

His victory came after national political organizations poured millions into the contest, with Democrats benefiting from a divided Republican field despite Trump's endorsement of Bernadette Wilson.

Meanwhile, Alaska's U.S. House race remains uncalled, with Republican Rep. Nick Begich III leading in a contest expected to proceed to ranked-choice tabulation.

14 Nov 2026, 2:10 pm

AUSTIN - GOP Gov. Greg Abbott and conservative state lawmakers tried to label incoming Democratic governor Gina Hinojosa a closet progressive, warning that she’ll turn the deeply red state socialist.

But after Hinojosa’s historic upset win amid a blue wave that swept every state office, Texas’s first Latina governor-elect vowed during an interview with The Washington Post to avoid culture wars in favor of something Texas hasn’t seen in a generation: moderation. On a number of key issues facing her state - affordability, border security, data centers and school vouchers - Hinojosa is staking out what she calls populist positions that seem calibrated to appeal to voters at both ends of the political spectrum. That includes her pledge to work with President Donald Trump on immigration.

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“I agree with President Trump that our border needs to be secure and people should not be coming here to cross into the country,” Hinojosa said at the state Capitol on Friday. “It’s a dangerous journey and I don’t think it will be fruitful for them.”

In a Truth Social post Thursday about migrant caravans forming in Mexico, Trump referred to her as “the very liberal new governor of Texas.” Hinojosa, seated near a photo of the state’s last Democratic Gov. Ann Richards, said the Trump administration had not contacted her and she had not spoken to the president, “but I welcome that conversation.”

“Trump and I won the same border communities: I won them this time, he won them last time” in 2024, said Hinojosa, who will preside over the country’s second-largest Latino population. Latino voters in places like her native Rio Grande Valley were instrumental in Democratic wins, including one county that swung away from Republicans by more than any other in the nation.

Asked if she would end Operation Lone Star, the more than $11 billion-dollar state border security operation Abbott used emergency powers to launch in 2021, Hinojosa said she would review its legality.

“It’s essential that we have strong partnership with Washington … to make sure our local border communities are safe,” she said.

But she drew a distinction between border security and federal immigration enforcement in Texas’s interior. “The election was a referendum on how people are treated within our state, not outside of it, certainly not outside the country,” she said.

After a migrant was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Houston in July, and another ICE agent was indicted on federal assault charges there last month, Hinojosa stressed that federal agents securing the border was “very different from interior enforcement, which as we have all seen has been chaotic and dangerous and people died, people have been hurt. People are scared and angry and people’s rights are violated and that has to stop.”

Last week, Houston Mayor John Whitmire, a Democrat, said he was directing police officers to limit their cooperation with ICE during traffic stops. That means he is challenging a policy imposed on the state’s largest city by Abbott, who had threatened to withhold state grant funding.

Hinojosa said it was “wrong” for Abbott to require city police ”to hold people for ICE who were, for instance, reporting domestic violence assault. That is not good for public safety. That makes us less secure when people don’t feel that they can report crimes freely or face being handed over to ICE.”

Hinojosa said she will not challenge Texas’s mostly Democratic municipal leaders if they block police from cooperating with ICE. But she also said she will not overturn a state law requiring sheriffs and counties that operate jails to comply with ICE.

“I will always follow the law. The law is what it is. It’s up to the legislature if that’s going to get changed,” she said.

The Texas governor has virtually unlimited emergency powers, which some GOP state lawmakers have said they fear Hinojosa will use to overturn conservative laws passed in recent years, including laws requiring people to use bathrooms that match their sex at birth, bans on abortion and gender transition medical care for minors.

Hinojosa said those fears are unfounded.

“I don’t see us trying to tackle culture wars. That was not the mandate we were given,” she said. “The mandate we were given was to deliver for Texans.”

On day one, she said, she plans to declare a “high-cost emergency,” freeze electricity rates and suspend the 20-cent-per-gallon state gas and diesel tax. She also plans to immediately issue an emergency proclamation to the legislature to approve a measure that would send every Texas household $1,500.

“That is the emergency that families are experiencing in their homes right now: They just can’t afford basics. They can’t pay their electric bills. They can’t afford to put food on the table. They can’t afford to see the doctor,” she said.

Abbott had embraced Islamophobia, vowing to “ban sharia law,” blocking Muslim housing developments and designating the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the country’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, a terrorist group. Hinojosa said she would remove that designation.

“We have to use public safety measures for public safety,” she said, dismissing what she called “nonsense happening with power that should be used for public safety, money that should use for public safety, that is not being used for safety.”

She promised once she’s inaugurated Jan. 19 to declare a moratorium on data centers, but only those that have yet to receive state permits because “if they’ve already received state permits, I don’t have the power just to shut them down.”

But Hinojosa acknowledged that “there are communities who are under the impression that their water will be shut off if there’s only enough water for either them or the data centers.”

“I would intervene with all my power to stop that from happening,” she said, citing recent water shortages in Corpus Christi. “It can just never be the case that industry is prioritized over people for water that they drink and need to live.”

Hinojosa, who like Abbott is Catholic, has said she personally opposes capital punishment. Texas has executed more than 600 death row inmates since the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976, with an execution scheduled later this month.

But unlike outgoing California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who this month began the process of commuting the sentences of all 548 inmates on the state’s death row, Hinojosa said she would consider those on Texas’s death row “on a case-by-case basis and review and make a decision in accordance with the law.”

Hinojosa voted against the state’s abortion ban but during her campaign she also released an ad in which she spoke about her decision to carry her first pregnancy to term even after genetic testing revealed a fetal anomaly. Since the abortion ban went into effect, Texas lawmakers increased funding to $200 million for more than 100 antiabortion pregnancy centers under a state program Hinojosa said she would review and potentially veto.

“My understanding is a lot of that funding was not going to actually provide health care services for women. It should be,” she said. “I’m going to take a fine-tooth comb to that entire budget … If it is not serving Texans, not serving their health care needs, not serving families, then, yeah, I would veto that funding.”

While Hinojosa voted against a state school voucher program and vowed on the campaign trail to fight it, she said that instead of executive action, she plans to work with the legislature to reshape the program, potentially using it to expand access to prekindergarten.

“It’s going to all be one big negotiation,” she said.

Hinojosa spoke out during her campaign against mid-decade redistricting her GOP colleagues forced through the legislature last summer despite a Democratic quorum break. But she said she doesn’t have to power to reverse it.

”That’s something that the legislature would have to pass a law to do,” she said.

Republicans retained their majority in the state Senate, and some have suggested they may use Senate rules to strip the incoming Democratic lieutenant governor of her power to lead the senate, effectively blocking Democrats’ legislation and the governor’s priorities.

But Hinojosa said Lt. Gov.-elect Vikki Goodwin has been “working with her team to ensure that the voice of the voters is heard, and the voters voted for change.”

Hinojosa was elected to the state legislature almost a decade ago, and said she has worked with Republicans on education and other issues, including a former GOP colleague she included on her transition team. She noted she’ll have help from two Democratic state senators - Nathan Johnson, who was elected attorney general, and Sarah Eckhardt, the comptroller-elect.

Walking the halls of the Capitol on Friday, Hinojosa shook hands with voters and children in tour groups, all of whom congratulated her. She visited the empty floors of the state House and Senate, pointing out the clear line of sight between them.

“I am hearing very positive feedback from senators who are looking forward to working with me,” Hinojosa said. “I know how the legislative process works. I know these people. I know what’s important to them. And I know how to get things done here.”

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14 Nov 2026, 1:38 pm

Millions of office workers got an unplanned break from email Thursday. Their bosses' favorite new AI tool got one too.

A Microsoft (MSFT) outage that began midday Thursday knocked out Outlook and other workplace apps worldwide, with Downdetector logging reports from 74 countries within about an hour. By Friday, Microsoft said it was seeing "encouraging recovery progress."

The damage reached Microsoft's AI. Copilot couldn't access users' email, files, or calendars, and the Microsoft connectors for OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's (ANTH.PVT) Claude broke too.

Microsoft says more than 430 million people use its Microsoft 365 apps.

Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic, Yahoo Finance

What it means for you

Your email isn't lost. Microsoft stretched its email timeout to 48 hours, so messages sent to you keep trying to deliver instead of bouncing back.

There isn't much to fix on your end. Resetting your password or reinstalling Outlook won't help, though desktop Outlook may still show mail it already downloaded.

If your company pays for Microsoft 365, it may be owed money. Microsoft promises 99.9% uptime, about 43 minutes of downtime a month, with credits of 25% to 100% of the monthly fee when it falls short. Your IT department has to file the claim.

Not the first time

Microsoft is hard to replace, which is usually good news for its shareholders. Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman, whose fund owns Microsoft stock, said at Yahoo Finance Invest on Thursday that Microsoft is "the gateway to how people interact with the basic workflows of a desk worker," which makes it "a much more difficult position to dislodge."

This week showed the other side of that.

Microsoft has blamed its own changes or maintenance for Microsoft 365 disruptions in at least six months this year, from a nearly 10-hour outage in January to a spam-filter update that bounced real email earlier this month.

Australia's home affairs minister, Tony Burke, said Microsoft believes it's dealing with "an update that has gone awry," much like the 2024 CrowdStrike meltdown.

Microsoft, The Register, BleepingComputer, Petri, Yahoo Finance

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

Microsoft reached for the oldest fix in the help desk manual, saying Thursday it was "restarting affected servers to return them to service."

It didn’t stick. Servers that came back went down again once traffic returned. On Friday, Microsoft traced the outage to a problem from “an earlier network capacity upgrade” that surfaced after a recent network change, and said it was “deeply sorry for the disruption.”

Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic, Yahoo Finance

What we know about the layoffs

The outage comes as Microsoft trims its workforce while spending heavily on AI. It offered buyouts to about 60,000 employees in October, and those who accept leave Dec. 31. CEO Satya Nadella said last year that AI writes "maybe 20%, 30%" of Microsoft's code.

Microsoft says AI wasn’t the culprit. It called the outage “a technical issue not related to cyber or AI / agents” in a post on X. In a statement to Yahoo Finance, Charles Lamanna, Microsoft’s executive vice president for Copilot, Agents and Platform, said the company regrets “the impact these outages had on those who depend on us” and that “our teams are reviewing what happened and how we can prevent similar issues going forward.” He didn’t address questions about staffing.

Chris Versace, chief investment officer at Tematica Research, put the lesson simply: "The outage and how it hobbled many businesses and other enterprises is a reminder about the need for redundancies."

Internal AI tools helped analyze interview transcripts, research, and draft this post. Humans reviewed, edited, and fact-checked this post before publication.

Jared Blikre is the global markets and data editor for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X at @SPYJared or email him at jaredblikre@yahooinc.com.

14 Nov 2026, 1:21 am

SAN FRANCISCO — A day after Jensen Huang resigned from Nvidia, Silicon Valley is already anticipating his comeback.

As a close ally of Donald Trump, regularly taking calls — even publicly — from the president, Huang became one of the most prominent and influential voices in Washington for the largely California-based tech industry, leaving a vacuum with his departure from one of the world’s most profitable companies that has become the backbone of the AI boom.

But while national security hawks and tech skeptics in Washington prepare to haul him before Congress to bring further scrutiny of his affair with an alleged Chinese intelligence asset, Silicon Valley leaders are mourning his swift exit and positing ways that he could return.

The founder of defense tech giant Anduril, Palmer Luckey, and Perplexity AI CEO Aravind Srinivas have rushed to Huang’s defense, while SpaceXSI CEO Elon Musk has even floated the idea of hiring him.

Five other tech industry insiders also told POLITICO they expect Huang to eventually return in a major way to leadership within Silicon Valley. Another three were not quite as confident, but indicated they wouldn’t be surprised if it happened.

“It is inevitable, with all of the value that he’s created and his role commonly accepted as the godfather of AI, that he will have a second act,” said an executive at a prominent California startup who was granted anonymity to frankly discuss industry dynamics. “And that any number of hyperscalers and startups are tripping over themselves to reach out to him and bring him on, regardless of any transgressions.”

Despite losing his lofty perch at Nvidia, Huang still has a net worth of roughly $145 billion, an ecosystem of connections in high places and a sterling entrepreneurial reputation within the industry, some noted.

“That kind of influence doesn’t just disappear overnight,” said Joseph Hoefer, chief AI officer at the lobbying firm Monument Advocacy. “I wouldn’t confuse losing his position with losing his ability to shape what comes down the road.”

A spokesperson for Huang did not respond to a request for comment on his future plans.

Three of the people who spoke with POLITICO said it would be easier for Huang to start a new venture using his wealth of capital, rather than joining an already established company.

The connection to allegations of espionage “would make it much harder for any public company to bring him on board in a leadership role,” said Scott Gerber, partner at the tech strategy consultancy Vrge.

Others have started to seize on questions about the initial reports of Huang’s affair with an alleged Chinese spy, potentially undercutting any support for his ouster. Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), who will likely be the incoming chair of the House Intelligence Committee, told POLITICO this week that he’s unsure whether Huang’s paramour was knowingly providing information to China based on briefings from U.S. intelligence officials.

David Sacks, Trump’s former AI czar and a venture capitalist prominent on the tech right, highlighted reports that some in the U.S. intel community have similar doubts. “The spy narrative is collapsing already,” he wrote in an X post.

Recouping influence in Washington, however, may still be trickier than in Silicon Valley. Huang has been a commanding voice in advocating for looser restrictions on exports to China of advanced semiconductors — necessary for the development of artificial intelligence. That position is being called into question by lawmakers in Congress, given an initial Financial Times report that U.S. intelligence believed Huang was having an affair with a spy.

“His standing in industry might be recoverable over time,” said Philip Reiner, CEO of the Institute for Security and Technology think tank in California and a former senior director at the National Security Council. “Rebuilding credibility in Washington on China policy is extremely challenging.”

Even still, much of the cachet he built was specifically connected to Trump’s White House, meaning it would have an expiration date regardless, ahead of the 2028 election, others noted.

“[M]uch of his political influence was tied to his relationship with the current administration, and that kind of access will be hard to rebuild once the political landscape shifts,” said Nu Wexler, a principal at Four Corners Public Affairs who advises tech companies on policy communications.

This delicate position raises the stakes for an upcoming House hearing on the scandal, for which Huang has agreed to testify.

“If he can come before Congress and own mistakes, but also explain them and still be a credible voice, that will go a long way towards opening the door for anything else that he would want to do in Washington and the private sector,” said Daniel Castro, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation — a think tank funded by Big Tech companies like Amazon and Microsoft.