Washington and the markets dominated a 21-story Friday at Virginia Times: President Trump named Stephen Miller chief of staff, the Nasdaq plunged 5.5% and Japan’s Nikkei 6% as the AI sell-off went global, payrolls rose 165,000 with joblessness steady at 4.1%, and Naresh Bhatt denied killing his wife on cross-examination — while Fox closed its Roku deal, Mississippi’s Senate race stayed uncalled and Pope Leo began his Latin America trip.
In This Recap
- Fox Completes Roku Acquisition in Major Streaming Deal
- Mississippi Senate Race Stays Uncalled as Colom Lead Grows
- Trump Names Stephen Miller Chief of Staff, Replacing Wiles
- Nikkei Plunges 6% as AI Sell-Off Spreads Across Asia
- Kenyan Cult Leader Sentenced to 200 Years for Murdering 190 Children
- Pope Leo Begins 12-Day Latin America Trip After Lung Surgery
- US Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones Resigns From Justice Dept.
- Moderna Swings to a Profit and Raises Its 2026 Outlook
- Schumer Vows to Block a Trump ‘Right-Winger’ on the Supreme Court
- Jobless Rate Holds at 4.1% as Payrolls Rise by 165,000
- Zelenskyy Says Kyiv Faces Worst Power and Water Outages
- Newsom Moves to Commute All 548 California Death Sentences
- ‘No, Not Even Imagination’: Bhatt Denies Killing Mamta on Cross
- Kushner Sets Out Five Goals for European Security Plan
- Macao Court Sentences Au Kam San to 12½ Years
- Nasdaq Plunges 5.5% as AI Selloff Erases Election Rally
- DOJ Opinion Restricts Race-Based Criteria in Magnet-School Grants
- Trump Makes the Oval Office a National Monument
- Postal Worker Charged With Attempted Murder in Des Moines Shooting
- Paraguay President Peña Resigns After Bank Collapse
- Airbnb Raises 2026 Outlook After Revenue Jumps 19%
1 Fox Completes Roku Acquisition in Major Streaming Deal
Fox Corporation has completed its acquisition of Roku, folding Roku’s connected TV platform — which reaches more than 100 million households — into the same business as Fox’s live sports, news and local programming, alongside Tubi and FOX One. Roku stockholders receive $95.30 in cash and 0.9799 Fox shares per share, and Roku stock stops trading on the Nasdaq.
2 Mississippi Senate Race Stays Uncalled as Colom Lead Grows
Mississippi’s Senate race remains too close to call, with Democrat Scott Colom’s lead over Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith growing to 1,936 votes after Bolivar County counted again on Friday morning. Thousands of affidavit and mail ballots are still to be counted, and both campaigns are lawyering up over how those ballots are handled.
3 Trump Names Stephen Miller Chief of Staff, Replacing Wiles
President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social on Friday that Stephen Miller, his deputy chief of staff and one of his most trusted advisers, will become chief of staff on Monday. Susie Wiles, whose last day was Friday, will move to Trump’s political operation.
4 Nikkei Plunges 6% as AI Sell-Off Spreads Across Asia
The Wall Street AI sell-off landed in Asia on Friday: Japan’s Nikkei 225 plunged 6% to 57,434.77 — a 3,643-point fall, its third-biggest ever — slipping below 60,000 for the first time in nearly half a year and capping its worst week since March 2020. South Korea’s Kospi tripped a circuit breaker and closed down 6%.
5 Kenyan Cult Leader Sentenced to 200 Years for Murdering 190 Children
A Kenyan court sentenced cult leader Paul Mackenzie to 200 years in prison for the murders of 190 children who were starved to death on his orders in Shakahola Forest — 100 years for murder by starvation and 100 years for direct homicide. In all, 448 bodies were found in the forest.
6 Pope Leo Begins 12-Day Latin America Trip After Lung Surgery
Pope Leo XIV left Rome on Friday morning at the start of a 12-day apostolic journey to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, the Holy See Press Office said. The trip, his sixth apostolic journey, comes a little over three weeks after the 71-year-old pope’s lung cancer surgery.
7 US Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones Resigns From Justice Dept.
Jason Reding Quiñones, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, resigned on Friday, announcing on X that he had submitted his resignation to the President effective that day and giving no reason. Quiñones oversaw the “grand conspiracy” investigation, and his departure follows Harmeet Dhillon’s exit on Thursday.
8 Moderna Swings to a Profit and Raises Its 2026 Outlook
Moderna swung back into profit in the third quarter, earning $162 million as revenue rose 29% to $1.31 billion on stronger COVID shot sales abroad and long-term government partnerships. The company raised its 2026 revenue growth outlook to 15%-25% and lifted its year-end cash forecast to $8.1-$8.3 billion.
9 Schumer Vows to Block a Trump ‘Right-Winger’ on the Supreme Court
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told The Associated Press that Democrats will not allow President Donald Trump to put a “right-winger” on the Supreme Court once they take power, and will not confirm what he called “crappy nominees” to the courts or the Cabinet. He would not say whether Democrats would hold a vacancy open until after the next presidential election.
10 Jobless Rate Holds at 4.1% as Payrolls Rise by 165,000
U.S. employers added 165,000 jobs in October and the unemployment rate held at 4.1 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday — a much stronger month after a year averaging 48,000 new jobs a month. Professional and business services led the gains, and August and September were revised higher.
11 Zelenskyy Says Kyiv Faces Worst Power and Water Outages
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv faces the worst power and water outages of the war after Russian strikes, blaming in part a failure to prepare at city level. Ukraine is speeding up energy restoration, adding monthly payments for repair crews and bringing in military help for the grid.
12 Newsom Moves to Commute All 548 California Death Sentences
Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to commute all 548 California death sentences to life without parole, a decision he announced on Nov. 5. The commutations take effect only after the required legal steps, including state Supreme Court review for clemency grants involving people twice convicted of a felony.
13 ‘No, Not Even Imagination’: Bhatt Denies Killing Mamta on Cross
On cross-examination in his murder trial, Naresh Bhatt admitted concealing and defiling his wife’s body and called it his biggest regret — but when prosecutors asked whether he killed Mamta, he answered, “No, not even imagination.” The exchange capped a day in which prosecutors took him through his own admissions one by one.
14 Kushner Sets Out Five Goals for European Security Plan
Jared Kushner set out five goals for a broader European security architecture — including permanent security consultations and reliable crisis communications — in work he and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff are doing with President Trump’s backing. The push comes ahead of trilateral peace talks in Abu Dhabi next week.
15 Macao Court Sentences Au Kam San to 12½ Years
A Macao court sentenced former lawmaker Au Kam San to 12½ years in prison in the territory’s first national security case, after convictions for subversion, establishing ties with outside groups to endanger national security and breach of secrecy. The court acquitted him on two other subversion counts.
16 Nasdaq Plunges 5.5% as AI Selloff Erases Election Rally
The Nasdaq Composite plunged 5.5% on Thursday as technology and data-center shares retreated, wiping out Wall Street’s post-election rally. The index closed at 24,315, more than 10% below its Oct. 6 record — enough to meet the widely used definition of a correction.
17 DOJ Opinion Restricts Race-Based Criteria in Magnet-School Grants
A Justice Department legal opinion says federal magnet-school grants generally cannot pursue diversity or racial-balance goals: under the Office of Legal Counsel’s reading, race may be used only to remedy specific illegal discrimination, not simply because a district’s plan seeks less racial isolation.
18 Trump Makes the Oval Office a National Monument
President Donald Trump signed a proclamation establishing the Oval Office, the Outer Oval Office and the Cabinet Room as the Oval Office National Monument under the Antiquities Act. The Interior Department is directed to write a preservation-first management plan for the rooms.
19 Postal Worker Charged With Attempted Murder in Des Moines Shooting
A Postal Service employee, Jennifer Pledger, 39, of West Des Moines, is charged with two counts of attempted murder after police said she shot two co-workers at the main Des Moines post office on Thursday morning. She was arrested minutes later on a bike trail nearby.
20 Paraguay President Peña Resigns After Bank Collapse
Santiago Peña resigned as Paraguay’s president on Thursday after the collapse of Ueno Bank froze millions of people’s savings and his own Colorado Party turned against him. But a joint session of Congress called to accept the resignation collapsed without a quorum, leaving the impeachment process to the Senate.
21 Airbnb Raises 2026 Outlook After Revenue Jumps 19%
Airbnb’s third-quarter revenue rose 19% to $4.87 billion as gross booking value climbed 21% to $27.7 billion and nights and seats booked grew 16% to 155.0 million. Profit outran revenue at $1.89 billion, and the company raised its full-year 2026 revenue growth outlook to the high teens.
Editor’s Note: This recap was prepared with the assistance of AI tools. Virginia Times gathered the source material from multiple sources and thoroughly reviewed the information before publication.
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