Good morning. It's Thursday, Nov. 12. Mississippi has elected its first Black senator since the Reconstruction era. First time reading? Join millions of insatiably curious readers. Sign up here.
Also in today's Digest: Russia-Ukraine talks end with a prisoner exchange (Need To Know), molecular signs of ovarian cancer (Sci. & Tech.), dollar strengthens against other currencies (Bus. & Mkts.), check out this year's Macy's balloons (Etc.), and much more. |
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The Associated Press called Mississippi's Senate race for Scott Colom (D) yesterday after counties updated their results amid ballot review and processing. The latest tally puts Colom ahead of incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) by over 4,600 votes, or roughly 0.5% of the total. Hyde-Smith has conceded.
Colom will become the state's first Black senator since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era. Mississippi was the first state to send a Black senator to Congress, with Sen. Hiram Revels (R-MS) serving from 1870 to 1871. Sen. Blanche Bruce (R-MS) served from 1875 to 1881. No Black senators have been elected from the state in the years since, though Mississippi boasts the largest proportion of Black residents of any state (37.9%). Colom's victory also marks the first Democratic senator elected from Mississippi in over 40 years.
Democrats were late to inject cash into the race, with Mississippi not widely considered a pickup opportunity. One viral ad campaign by Colom centered on Hyde-Smith's comments on the price of beef; watch it here (via YouTube).
Alaska is the last remaining Senate race to be called as of this writing, alongside a dozen House races. See live updates here. |
Russia-Ukraine Talks Wrap |
Russia and Ukraine agreed in principle to a large prisoner-of-war exchange yesterday after two days of US-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi ended without a major breakthrough toward ending the nearly five-year war.
The exchange could occur within two to three weeks, with the number of prisoners to be finalized today (how the countries exchange POWs). The talks marked the countries' first direct negotiations in nine months, with disagreements remaining over Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory and postwar security guarantees. European officials were excluded at Moscow’s insistence but consulted with Ukraine’s delegation on the sidelines. The Kremlin opposes Europe's military and financial support for Ukraine, while Ukraine wants its European allies involved. US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow today before meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Dublin.
The war has displaced nearly 10 million Ukrainians and become Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II. Track the conflict on an interactive map here. |
Pop star Dua Lipa, psychedelic pop act Tame Impala, and R&B artist SZA will headline the 2027 Coachella music festival, organizers revealed yesterday. See the full lineup here.
Since its 1999 debut, Coachella has evolved into a major pop culture tastemaker. (It wasn't an overnight success; read history.) The 2026 festival drew roughly 125,000 daily attendees, with weekend passes starting around $600. The rise of festival-going reflects the growing appeal of the experience economy, with two-thirds of 18- to 35-year-olds saying they'd rather attend a live event than buy a product of a similar value. Musicians are also increasingly relying on live music revenue as album sales fall and digital streaming payouts remain low. Headliners can command up to $5M per weekend, while smaller artists reportedly earn closer to $10K.
The new Coachella lineup signals a potential revival of late-2000s and early-2010s dance music, with performances from Madonna, Robyn, and more. Why is Gen Z embracing recession pop? (w/audio) |
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🫶 Humankind: Florida chimpanzee sanctuary delivers food to one of its 200 apes by drone after heavy rain overflows canals and submerges roads. (w/photo) |
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Sports, Entertainment, & Culture |
> Actress Irma P. Hall, who rose to fame as Aunt T. in "A Family Thing" and portrayed Josephine “Big Mama” Joseph in 1997 hit "Soul Food," dies at age 91 (More) | Listen to the Boyz II Men song inspired by Hall's character (More via YouTube) |
> Milwaukee Brewers’ Jacob Misiorowski and New York Yankees’ Cam Schlittler each unanimously win their league's Cy Young Award (More) | Houston Astros hire former New York Yankees bench coach Brad Ausmus as team's new manager; he spent 10 of his 18 MLB seasons playing in Houston (More) |
> Actor Stacy Keach, best known for playing private detective Mike Hammer in multiple television shows through the 1980s and late 1990s, dies at age 85 from heart failure (More) | See Keach's career in photos (More) |
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> Disruptions in the transport of essential proteins across the blood-brain barrier may contribute to Alzheimer's disease, according to mouse study (More) | How the healthy body determines what gets through the blood-brain barrier (More) |
> Scientists discover molecular signal in blood that helps identify precursors to ovarian cancer, which is now largely detected only after it has spread (More) | Ovarian cancer is the deadliest of gynecologic cancers (More, w/charts) |
> Group of stars appears to have collapsed directly into black holes without first exploding into supernovas, suggesting a previously unknown pathway for black hole formation (More) | What we do and don't know about black holes (More, w/video) |
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> US stock markets close higher (S&P 500 +1.3%, Dow +0.5%, Nasdaq +1.6%) as CoreWeave's (+24.9%) strong quarterly earnings report eased investor concerns over AI demand and spending, sparking a broader rally across tech stocks (More) |
> Nvidia shares fall over 8% in after-hours trading after reports indicate CEO Jensen Huang had an affair with a senior executive at the company, Nvidia's board is preparing to oust him (More) | See previous write-up (More) |
> DXY dollar index, which measures the US dollar's strength against a basket of six major currencies, including the euro and Japanese yen, climbs to 102.9, its highest level since April 2025 (More) | What gives a dollar bill its value? (More, w/video) |
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> The White House warns Democrats' threats to investigate the Trump administration may amount to “criminality” after Rep. Robert Garcia (D, CA-42) posts on social media that “the Trump crime family” should “lawyer up” (More) |
> Roughly 6,300 schools in Italy receive bomb threats, alongside more than 700 in Scotland and Northern Ireland; it is not clear who was responsible as of this writing (More) | See other recent threats and hacks in Europe (More) |
> Spain sees its first general strike in 14 years, with millions of workers taking part and clashes with police reported in Barcelona; comes amid housing crisis and three weeks before general elections (More) | See previous write-up (More) |
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Close to two-thirds of Americans report anxiety over their personal finances—and Americans owe roughly $1T to credit card companies. |
This is a preview of tomorrow's 1440 weekly Business & Finance newsletter, which unpacks complex topics in an accessible way. Aren't in the know yet? Sign up here for free. |
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Historybook: American suffragist and civil rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton born (1815); Josef Stalin consolidates power over the Soviet Union (1927); Actress and Princess of Monaco Grace Kelly born (1929); Actor Ryan Gosling born (1980); Comic book writer Stan Lee dies (2018).
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