Susie Wiles replaced, tech stocks rebound, Cybertruck wind down

Hi, I'm Kim Van Nel in Whanganui, New Zealand. And I'm Christopher Waljasper in Chicago. It's Friday, November 6th. Today, tech stocks rebound after a massive dip as investors weigh what a Democrat-controlled Congress could mean for AI. A wave of hoax bomb threats, forced flight diversions, and emergency landings across Europe. Donald Trump appoints Stephen Miller as his new chief of staff. And Paraguay's president offers his resignation as a bank collapse triggers a financial and political crisis. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in ten minutes, seven days a week. Susie Wiles is out as White House chief of staff. It's the first major shakeup following the GOP's brutal midterm losses. U.S. President Donald Trump says his longtime advisor, Stephen Miller, will step into the into the role next week. Writing on social media that Wiles would move into his political operation. Miller was the deputy chief of staff and is known for helping craft Trump's immigration policy. U.S. markets rebounded on Friday after a massive sell-off, sparked by concerns over the tech sector's future. The Nasdaq saw its steepest dive in more than a year and a half on Thursday after Democrats swept the midterm elections and won key gubernatorial races in data center-heavy states like Texas, Ohio, and Georgia. The dip wiped out around $3 trillion from the value of S&P 500 companies. NVIDIA alone lost around $374 billion in market value. But chip stocks bounced back Friday, though they failed to recoup Thursday's losses. So what have incoming lawmakers actually pledged when it comes to AI? Here's Reuters' Courtney Rosen. So far, there are two themes that are coming out. One is that they're going to focus on data center regulation and AI safety. That's one bucket. And then the other theme is they're going to get CEOs from the world's largest tech companies to answer questions. For the last couple of years, when Democrats haven't been in power, they haven't had the authority to compel testimony from executives from companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, SpaceX. That's about to change, and they want to exercise that power. But, Courtney says, it's not clear yet whether Democrat control of Congress poses an existential threat to the AI build-out. President Trump, who ultimately signs off on legislation, has brushed off calls for AI regulation, and lawmakers or tech companies could themselves pivot. Data center build out takes years and years, right? You have companies that make deals, they spend millions upon millions, sometimes billions of dollars to build these centers, especially in places like Texas or Ohio, where we're seeing now governors that just got elected who want to slow down or altogether stop construction of new data centers. When I talked to To investors, to analysts before the election, they said to me that if data centers can't be built in one place, they'll just move elsewhere. There's lots of spots in the United States where you can put a data center. And so they saw that the election with politicians coming in that might have been opposed to data center construction, they saw that as a short-term risk, not a long-term issue for the AI trade. The U.S. labor market strengthened in October, with the Friday jobs report showing 165,000 new jobs added. Well above analyst expectations. The Labor Department also revised the August and September figures up, with the unemployment rate falling to just over 4 percent. Traders now see a 78 percent chance the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates in December. A federal judge has temporarily blocked construction on President Trump's proposed 250-foot Triumphal Arch in Washington, just hours after a planning commission approved the project. The U.S. District Judge issued a 14-day restraining order on construction of the arch that would sit near Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial. Trump says it will honor veterans and serve as a military asset. But opponents, including veterans groups, argue the administration is moving forward without congressional authorization. Dear compatriots, today I am going to you in one of the most difficult moments of my life. Paraguay's president, Santiago Peña, offering his resignation after the collapse of major digital bank, Ueno, plunged the country into financial and political crisis. Senhores congresistas. Just minutes after Peña's announcement, however, the lower house of Congress voted to impeach him over his past ties to the bank. Peña denies any wrongdoing and says he'll defend himself when it gets to the Senate. Protesters quickly took to the streets saying Peña must be held to account. As Reuters correspondent Lucinda Elliott explains, the crisis began earlier this week when the central bank stepped in over concerns Ueno didn't have enough money to cover its obligations. Earlier this week the government signed legislation aimed at Basically accelerating payments through this deposit guarantee fund to help make sure that money is returned to customers, but they haven't provided a very firm timeline for when all customers will regain full access to their money. What the central bank has said is that it's transferring customer accounts to other financial institutions, to other banks. But that process seems to have created a few strains across the banking system in recent days. There were several reports of outages of banking apps on Wednesday of other banks. And we've been unable to confirm if those payments from the deposit guarantee fund are being made. But what we hear is that Ueno customers still can't access the app or the ATMs and the banks are shuttered. President Peña has faced scrutiny in the past because of his business ties to Grupo Vázquez, the controlling group for Ueno. And now he's being investigated. Opposition lawmakers have really accused Peña of the misuse of pension funds and an institutional cover-up. Peña, who has repeatedly rejected any suggestion of improper ties to Ueno, has described the controversy really as a political escalation of what began really as a regulatory issue and has argued that it should be addressed through the courts. But prosecutors said on Thursday that Kenyan was among those being investigated over the bank's failure. He has not been taken in for questioning, but they have issued arrest warrants for eight executives of that bank. 100 years imprisonment for each of the 193 counts of murder. Kenyan cult leader Paul McKenzie has been sentenced to 200 years in prison for the murders of 190 children who were starved to death on his orders. Prosecutors say that he told followers to starve themselves and their children to death to reach heaven before the end of the world. Police began uncovering bodies in shallow graves in April of 2023. Some had been buried alive. In all, more than 400 bodies were found. McKenzie denies forcing anyone to starve. Wizz Air passenger Elena Pala, who was on board a flight to Bucharest, where, she says, they were met on the runway by firetrucks, ambulances and anti-terrorist units. It's the latest in a string of flights across Europe hit by hoax bomb threats in recent weeks While no country has been blamed, they do come at a time when European officials have been blaming Russia and Iran for what they describe as hybrid attacks and acts of sabotage. Moscow and Tehran both deny any such campaign. Here's Europe news editor Peter Wilkinson. I think we've got to expect more disruption ahead. Even a false alarm can disrupt airlines operations with diversions and security inspections causing delays for passengers and the carriers have got to bear the additional costs including fuel and rebooking and disruption and this is in the long term going to lead to higher costs for passengers. And finally, Tesla is winding down production of its Cybertruck at its Texas Gigafactory. That's according to CEO Elon Musk in a post on X. Production will wrap up around the middle of next year, freeing capacity for the newly launched CyberCab robotaxi. Last year, Tesla sold just over 20,000 Cybertrucks in the US. That's down nearly 50% from the year before, and well below the 250,000 annual sales that Musk had predicted. The Cybertruck has faced repeated recalls, quality problems, and multiple price revisions. Now, it's not immediately clear whether the Cybertruck will be moved to another facility or phased out entirely. 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