122 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Richard Lawler

Richard Lawler

Senior News Editor

Senior News Editor

    More From Richard Lawler

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Three Texas counties asked to shelter in place after a massive chemical plant explosion.

    Pictures and videos of the smoke and chemical fire caused by an explosion at Sound Resource Solutions in Shepherd, Texas, look like something out of a movie but are, in fact, real. The explosion took place at about 8:13AM local time in the area northeast of Houston.

    KHOU11 reports that nearby Rockland, Chester, and Colmesneil counties are in the path of the smoke plume, and residents have been asked to stay inside and turn off all HVAC systems.

    According to local news station ABC 13, one employee at the plant was injured in a “freak forklift accident.”

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Barack Obama on AI, free speech, and the future of the internet.

    In a sitdown with Verge EIC Nilay Patel on Decoder, the 44th president discussed Joe Biden’s recently-signed executive order about AI, why Obama disagrees with the idea that social networks are a “common carrier,” and which iPhone apps he uses the most, now that he’s no longer president and he can use an iPhone.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    A bankruptcy deal could change local sports broadcasts for the NBA and NHL.

    A series of (still-ongoing) streaming outages continues to plague fans who just want to watch their teams but only have one way to do it: the local RSN.

    Now Sports Business Journal reports on bankruptcy filings indicating Diamond Sports, owner of the problem-riddled Bally Sports RSNs, has a deal with the NBA that will send broadcast rights back to the league after this season and is working on a similar arrangement with the NHL. The only issue? In its closing, the piece notes teams might work out new deals with Diamond next year.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Apple has new updates coming for Final Cut Pro on Mac and iPad soon.

    Our video producer, Vjeran Pavic, called out the new iPad version’s missing features in his review when it launched, and a new update coming out later this month will address at least one by adding stabilization.

    Final Cut Pro is also getting an Apple Silicon performance boost for exporting videos, automatic timeline scrolling, and a lot of other tweaks. Like the update Apple released for Logic earlier today, it’s free, but the software will still cost $299.99 on macOS, with a subscription on iPad that’s $49 annually or $5 per month.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Back to the future of handheld gaming.

    Listen along (use this link to get it in your podcast player of choice) as The Verge’s David Pierce discusses the current flood of portable gaming systems with Polygon editors Chris Plante and Russ Frushtick.

    Yes, there’s plenty of focus on the portable gaming PC movement led by the Steam Deck, Rog Ally, and company, but there’s also consideration for the Switch and even your iPhone or Android device.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Forza Motorsport’s 2.0 patch will fix this antigravity replay bug next week.

    The launch of Xbox’s new flagship gaming series has had a few bugs, and in the Forza Monthly live stream, they announced that patch 2.0 is coming on November 14th, adding Yas Marina as a new track, new cars, and fixing over 200 bugs.

    That includes the one shown here where replays of multiplayer races send cars floating skyward or through the ground into space. A slide with more of the incoming fixes is included in the gallery below, and the Forza website also has more details.

    Animated GIFs of race cars in Forza Motorsport descending through the track into oblivion due to a bug in the game.
    Animated GIFs of race cars in Forza Motorsport descending through the track into oblivion due to a bug in the game.
    Animated GIFs of race cars in Forza Motorsport descending through the track into oblivion due to a bug in the game.
    1/4Image: Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    For the 5th night in a row, a Bally Sports outage has cut off many NBA and NHL fans.

    Every night there have been games to watch this week there’s been a Bally Sports outage, and Friday night is no different.

    The NBA is kicking off its new in-season tournament tonight, so fans of teams playing their first games like the Cleveland Cavaliers, Indiana Pacers, and Milwaukee Bucks fans have been among those reporting problems with the app. One difference from the last four nights is that Bally’s support account now says the company is “actively” issuing credits.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Mark Zuckerberg is not fighting anyone any time soon.

    Meta’s CEO posted this picture to Instagram Friday night, saying, “Tore my ACL sparring and just got out of surgery.”

    He was apparently training for his next competitive MMA match. Recovery from this type of injury takes up to a year for professional athletes, so an executive closing in on 40 could be out of action for a while. On the plus side, maybe this will keep Elon Musk from randomly threatening to show up at Zuckerberg’s house for a brawl.