The UN climate summit COP31, held in Antalya, Türkiye, from 9 to 20 November, will focus less on finding climate solutions and more on making them affordable for everyone.

• COP31
• climate finance
• clean energy investment
• +2

Marine Le Pen is keeping Nigel Farage waiting, with a planned Paris visit still unscheduled as both far-right parties' circumstances have shifted since the pair's September migration plan.

• far-right politics
• Reform UK
• National Rally
• +2

X says its rebuilt web app loads much faster, and it is rolling out to signed-in users one country at a time.

• X web app
• web performance
• server infrastructure

A historian argues that King Verica, the Iron Age ruler of the Atrebates, was a woman, which changes how the Roman invasion of Britain is understood.

• Roman conquest of Britain
• Iron Age Britain
• Atrebates tribe
• +2

A new study argues that British archaeologist James Leslie Starkey, killed in 1938, was the victim of a calculated assassination driven by a land-related grievance rather than random banditry.

• colonial archaeology
• Arab Revolt (1936-1939)
• land disputes in Mandatory Palestine
• +1

Qualcomm is shifting its focus to AI data centers as its smartphone business weakens.

• AI data centers
• smartphone market slump
• Qualcomm earnings
• +1

Japan's Digital Agency has started offering a trial generative AI tool to help officials draft replies to parliamentary questions, aiming to ease the workload of about 180,000 civil servants.

• Japanese government AI adoption
• civil servant working hours
• Japan parliamentary procedure
• +2

UNESCO's evaluation body has recommended adding Japanese calligraphy to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list, which would make it Japan's 24th entry.

• Japanese calligraphy
• UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage
• Japanese consumption tax reform
• +2

Japan's government faces mounting opposition pressure to define who qualifies for a new support program and how much they will receive before a planned committee vote on November 6.

• consumption tax on food
• household support payments
• Japanese fiscal policy
• +1

A filmmaker turns her private, reluctant grandfather's story into a puzzle-driven documentary, The Grandfather Puzzle, part of the JoyDrops series.

• documentary filmmaking
• Holocaust memory and family history
• JoyDrops documentary series

Two high-speed train disasters in Spain in 2026 have killed at least 115 people, and the transport minister has resigned, a blow to the government before snap elections.

• Spanish high-speed rail safety
• Urda train collision
• railway signalling systems (ERTMS and LZB)
• +2

Rick Steves offers a set of ten photos of Europe from his 2026 travels as a break from the US midterm election.

• European travel photography
• travel planning for 2027
• post-election fatigue