This weekend’s episodes of The Real Executives of Silicon Valley were particularly engrossing: A shocking firing of a tech superstar, breathless gossip about why he was dumped, and a final twist that left everyone even more stunned. Good thing it’s only the future of artificial intelligence that’s at stake.

The latest: Early this morning, Microsoft announced it had hired ex-OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman to lead an advanced research lab after they were pushed out of their previous company by the board. The hires are seen as a business masterstroke by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who was given lemons and turned them into the most delicious lemonade you’ve ever tried.

The backstory: On Friday, OpenAI’s board abruptly fired Altman without telling anyone beforehand—not even Microsoft, which invested $13 billion in the ChatGPT maker. Brockman resigned in protest, and the company—one of the most influential in tech—was thrown into turmoil.

• After Altman’s dismissal, the tech community rallied behind him and Brockman and bashed the board’s decision, which some said was as “irresponsible” as Steve Jobs getting fired by Apple in 1985.
• Top OpenAI investors (like Microsoft) were irate about what happened, and over the weekend tried to get Altman and Brockman to return. But that didn’t work out. To replace Altman in the interim, OpenAI hired the former CEO of Twitch, Emmett Shear.

Why did OpenAI boot Altman in the first place? While we don’t know the exact beef the board had with Altman (they cited “a breakdown in communications,” not malfeasance), reports suggest that there was a schism over Altman’s aggressive growth plans. Members of the board who believe AI could destroy humanity and want to proceed more cautiously were alarmed by Altman’s fast-paced push to commercialize the company’s powerful ChatGPT chatbot.

Where do we go from here? Microsoft’s relationship with OpenAI must be rocky right now, but by bringing leading AI thinkers Altman and Brockman in-house, Nadella preserved—and even strengthened—the company’s lead in what may be the most disruptive technology in a generation. At the end of all this, a $2.7 trillion company got even richer.

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This guy will be Argentina’s next president. In a sign Argentines were ready for drastic change, libertarian outsider Javier Milei was elected president yesterday. A far-right economist with no experience in politics (but a lot of experience as a TV commentator), Milei has embraced comparisons to former US President Trump and pledged to take the struggling country in a radically different direction, including by replacing the peso with the US dollar and shutting down the central bank. It’s a “leap into the unknown,” the WaPo writes, but a jump Argentina was willing to take with inflation soaring above 140% and two in five residents living in poverty.

Starship destroyed but mission still a “success.” Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched its uncrewed Starship rocket on Saturday for a second test flight, but the Super Heavy booster and the spacecraft were intentionally destroyed minutes after liftoff—or if you want to be polite, they underwent a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.” Despite the premature end to the most powerful rocket ever built, SpaceX called it “an incredibly successful day” as Starship traveled farther than it did in its first test run in April. NASA plans to use Starship to land astronauts on the moon in 2025, so continued rapid unscheduled disassemblies could delay its timeline.

Rosalynn Carter died at the age of 96. The former first lady died on Sunday after entering hospice care last week. The wife of former president Jimmy Carter was a strong advocate for mental health issues while she was in the White House, and she continued that work in the decades that followed. No first lady had attended Cabinet meetings before Carter, who provided support and advice as her husband brokered a historic peace agreement at Camp David between Israel and Egypt in 1978. She was considered a “full partner” with her husband in all activities of The Carter Center, which they founded in 1982 with the mission to “prevent and resolve conflicts, enhance freedom and democracy, and improve health.”

Yemen’s Houthi rebels used a helicopter to hijack a Japanese-operated cargo ship in the southern Red Sea yesterday and took 25 crew members hostage, raising concerns that the Israel-Hamas war could spill over to the waters and disrupt crucial maritime trade routes. The Israeli military called the hijacking a “very grave incident of global consequence.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the ship was neither owned nor crewed by Israelis. But the ship’s owners are linked to a company founded by Israeli billionaire Rami Ungar.

Who are the Houthis? They’re a well-armed group that controls northern Yemen and forms part of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” around Israel, which also includes Hamas and Lebanon-based Hezbollah. (The Houthis’ official slogan is: “God is the greatest, death to America, death to Israel. Curse the Jews, victory to Islam.”)

Last Tuesday, the Houthis warned that they would target Israeli ships in the Red Sea, raising alarms in the shipping industry. The International Maritime Security Construct recommended that vessels sailing through the busy Bab el-Mandeb Strait transit at night and stay as far away from Yemeni waters as possible.

The strait is a chokepoint for energy shipments: Most petroleum and natural gas coming from the Persian Gulf through the Suez Canal passes through the Bab el-Mandeb.

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Citigroup layoffs coming today: A massive restructuring dubbed “Project Bora Bora” is expected to begin today at Citigroup and will ultimately result in thousands of jobs being cut, according to the Financial Times. CEO Jane Fraser hopes Citi’s first overhaul in almost two decades will revive its stock price, which has been the worst performer in the banking sector.

Capitol riot footage to be released: On Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson will publicly release around 90 hours of security footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Critics have called the decision dangerous, since the video shows how insurrectionists breached the building and the routes elected officials took to get to safety. The remaining 44,000 hours of footage are expected to be released over the next several months.

Plenty to watch on Thanksgiving that’s not football: Squid Game: The Challenge, a reality show based on the scripted series of the same name, will debut on Netflix on Wednesday. Contestants will compete for $4.56 million in prizes in contests that should have much lower stakes compared to the original series. On the same day, Napoleon hits theaters. Joaquin Phoenix stars as the French emperor and tyrant in the historical epic directed by Ridley Scott.

Everything else…

• It’s a shortened holiday week, but there are some major earnings reports on the way. Expectations are sky-high for Nvidia, the tech giant at the forefront of the AI gold rush. Retailers Kohl’s, Nordstrom, Lowe’s, and Best Buy will also report this week.
• The Chiefs and Eagles will meet on Monday Night Football. Depending on your perspective, it’s either a rematch of last season’s Super Bowl or a battle between Taylor Swift’s boyfriend and Taylor Swift’s boyfriend’s brother.
• Just in case we are your only source of information, Thanksgiving is on Thursday.

Stat: Casey McIntyre, a 38-year-old book publisher and mother of one, helped wipe out more than $30 million in unpaid medical bills for other people…without being alive to see it. McIntyre’s husband posted a message on her behalf after she died of ovarian cancer last week, asking people to participate in a “debt jubilee” that pays off the medical bills of others. The response has been overwhelming: As of Sunday, the nonprofit RIP Medical Debt has received more than $300,000 in donations through McIntyre’s campaign. The organization relieves $10,000 of medical debt for every $100 donated, which translates to more than $30 million in unpaid medical bills being abolished.

Quote: “The safety and well being of my fans, fellow performers, and crew has to and always will come first.”

Taylor Swift postponed her Eras Tour concert in Rio De Janeiro on Saturday due to extreme heat, one day after a 23-year-old woman who attended her show died. A public prosecutor opened a criminal investigation as fans and politicians speculated the woman’s death was linked to extreme heat and concertgoers not being allowed to bring water into the stadium. Brazil has been enduring a scorching heat wave that weather pros say will “rewrite climate history.”

Read: Gas-powered leaf blowers as a metaphor for industrial society? We’ll click. (Richard Heinberg)

Game on: A 25th anniversary update on Half-Life, the classic first-person shooter game.

Listen: Here’s where that iconic Nokia ringtone actually came from.

Public speaking tips: Seth Godin has advice for the amateur presenter.

Read: The six best nonfiction books of the year.

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