Sunday, 8 November 2026
174 stories · 12 beats · 3 signals
Signals
Novartis's pelacarsen cut Lp(a), a fat in the blood passed down in families, but heart events stayed at 12.3% against 12.1% on a dummy. Novo Nordisk's ziltivekimab lowered inflammation and cut no heart attacks either.
A phone app that calls nearby volunteers did not raise CPR in public places: passers-by helped in 69% of cardiac arrests with alerts and 72% without. Starting 2 cholesterol drugs at once did no better than 1 over 3 years in South Korea.
What is going on
Each new treatment moved the number it aimed at, a fat in the blood or alerts sent to phones, but heart attacks and help from passers-by stayed the same. The health and ambulance services that would pay for these drugs and apps get no extra lives saved for their money.
Where it is heading
The next test is the other Lp(a) trials, which heart doctors are now waiting for.
The US cleared New Matrix, a Chinese firm, to handle Nvidia's H200 AI chips. The New York Times found its office empty and its owners tied to a blacklisted fund.
Scientists used satellite pictures to rebuild how Ethiopia filled its giant dam, because no data were shared, and found that farming fell on Sudan's floodplain. In Western Australia, a former chief fisheries scientist called the fish model behind a fishing ban radically wrong.
Blizzard says WoW: Forever, rebuilt from its 2004 game, drew the most returning players in the game's history, but it no longer publishes subscriber numbers. Bit Reactor, a games studio, has not said how many staff it laid off.
What is going on
When a company or a government keeps its numbers to itself, someone outside has to go and look: a reporter at an office address, or scientists with satellite pictures. Until they do, the people living with the result, such as farmers downstream in Sudan, cannot tell whether the claim was true.
Where it is heading
The next test is 18 November, when US lawmakers want to question Nvidia's boss.
Australia, which expects A$141bn from coal and gas exports this year and has approved 38 coal, oil and gas projects since 2022, runs the COP31 climate talks. A US senator holding tens of millions of dollars in shares of Williams, a gas pipeline company, pushed pipeline rules that would help it.
Alabama Power can bill customers for half of its adverts that are not about safety until a law bans it in 2029, and its regulator asked it to stop now. In Georgia, a new Democratic majority on the power regulator plans hearings into why bills are high.
What is going on
Energy companies and fuel-selling countries sit close to the people who write rules for them, from a US Senate pipeline bill to the UN climate talks. Alabama Power's customers pay half the cost of its image adverts, which speak to the voters and officials who decide what it can charge.
Where it is heading
The next test is COP31, which opens in Antalya, Turkey, on Monday with no plan to move off fossil fuels on its formal agenda.
12 editions
World
The truth: In Krakow, a 25-year-old gunman killed 6 people in the old square and 3 at his home, and Poland's prime minister called it terrorism while police were still studying the motive.
Finance
The truth: Berkshire Hathaway earned less from its insurers this summer, because Geico cut prices to win back drivers and lower short-term interest rates cut what the insurers' cash earned.
Tech
The truth: The US Commerce Department cleared Chinese firms to handle Nvidia's H200 chips, and the New York Times found that one, New Matrix, has an empty office and owners tied to a blacklisted fund.
Mind & body
The truth: A phone app that alerts CPR volunteers did not raise bystander CPR in public places in British Columbia and Columbus, Ohio, and the lead researcher says 73% of people there already got CPR from a passer-by.
Climate
The truth: COP31 opens on Monday without any plan to move off fossil fuels on its formal agenda, and with Australia, which expects A$141bn from coal and gas exports this year, running the negotiations.
Space
The truth: NASA used its first air show, Max Power, to name PROMISE, a rover that will land near the Moon's south pole in late 2028, and to open an astronaut search.
Biotech
The truth: Novartis and Novo Nordisk each lowered the thing their drug aimed at in the blood, Lp(a) and IL-6, and neither drug cut heart attacks, strokes or deaths.
Money
The truth: Alabama's regulator asked Alabama Power to take its advert costs off customers' bills three years before a law forces it, but only the company's agreement can make that happen before 2029.
Sports
The truth: Manchester City changed their manager this summer, won their first 7 league games, and have now lost 3 in a row to fall 6 points behind Arsenal.
Gaming
The truth: Toho made Godzilla Minus Zero for a reported budget in the mid-teens of millions of dollars, and it is estimated at $31 million to $32 million in its first North American weekend.
Food
The truth: Western Australia shut commercial fishing for pink snapper, red emperor and dhufish on its west coast because its fisheries department says the fish have not recovered to healthy levels in 20 years.
Cyber
The truth: Italy's prime minister blamed pro-Russian hackers for leaking her foreign minister's personal data, and a newspaper's early checks tie a hack of the Brenner rail tunnel company to a pro-Russian group.