Business
Dow Posts Best Day in 18 Months
The Dow Jones Industrial Average had its largest one-day gain in 18 months Wednesday as stocks rallied, bond yields fell and oil dropped below $100 a barrel after the midterm elections.
Thursday, November 5, 2026 · 4-minute read
Dow’s Best Day, 3M PFAS Deal, and Dylan’s Papal Hoodie
The Dow posts its best day in 18 months, hackers target French blood banks, and Bob Dylan meets the Pope in a hoodie.
Need to know
Politics & World
3M Agrees to $7.35 Billion PFAS Settlement
3M agreed to pay up to $7.35 billion to resolve groundwater-contamination and personal-injury…
Sources: AP News, The Hill
Politics & World
Hackers Hit French Blood Banks in Refrigeration Attacks
Hackers remotely altered temperature settings on blood-storage refrigerators at French blood banks…
Sources: DW, CNBC Top News, Stars and Stripes
109feet
The height of ‘La Catrina,’ a Day of the Dead skeleton built in Mexico City from steel, fiberglass, papier-mache and 70,000 marigolds. Roughly as tall as an 11-story building, it just broke the world record for the tallest Day of the Dead skeleton.
Source: Smithsonian
In the know
Worth a longer read
America’s renters are in serious trouble
Why America’s renters are falling into serious financial trouble — and what their strain signals for the broader economy.
The EconomistSubscription
The Pentagon needs more ammo for the Iran war. Small communities are paying the price.
How the Pentagon’s push for more ammunition for the Iran war is straining the small communities that produce it.
Defense News (The War Horse) · Sonner Kehrt
The Four-Color Theorem has haunted mathematicians for decades. It just got a rare new proof
How a rare new proof of the Four-Color Theorem revived a decades-old mathematical obsession — and why some still long for a simpler answer.
Smithsonian
- Tomorrow
Giant pandas Fu Shuang and Ping Ping make their public debut at Zoo Atlanta, giving the U.S. one of its few remaining panda residencies.
- Wednesday, Nov. 11
The U.S. observes Veterans Day, a federal holiday honoring the nation’s military veterans.
Etcetera
- Bob Dylan met the Pope — wearing a hoodie
- Ancient coins suggest a famed Iron Age ‘king’ was actually a queen
- Why Brits burn effigies on November 5 — and it wasn’t always Guy Fawkes
- College basketball’s tallest player just had a monster debut for UC Irvine
- The toothbrush’s first radical redesign in 1,000 years: bristles that generate electricity
- Meet the prehistoric 66-pound rat that was roughly the size of a dog
Today’s clickbait, so you don’t have toAn Italian Chef Refused to Put Pineapple on Pizza. He Got Fired for It.
On this day · November 5
The Historybook- 1605Guy Fawkes is arrested beneath Parliament, foiling the Gunpowder Plot
- 1872Susan B. Anthony illegally casts a ballot in the presidential election
- 1930Sinclair Lewis becomes the first American awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature
- 1968Shirley Chisholm becomes the first Black woman elected to the US Congress
- 1994George Foreman, 45, becomes boxing’s oldest heavyweight champion by knocking out Michael Moorer
Compiled by the Desk, not linked to a source · Report an error
Quote of the day
“Remember, remember, the fifth of November, gunpowder treason and plot.”
— English folk rhyme marking Bonfire Night
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