Politics

Computer Glitch Leaves Nearly 600,000 Texas Voter Registrations in Limbo Days Before Early Voting, per The Guardian

Receipts said registered. The rolls said otherwise. A computer glitch has left nearly 600,000 Texans' voter registrations in limbo days before early voting starts, per The Guardian. Texas is scrambling to process a backlog of nearly 600,000 voter registrations after a state computer failure, with early voting

Politics

Press Secretary Katie Zacharia Shared at Least 15 Posts Calling Her an "Attorney" Despite Failing the California Bar Exam, per CNN

The posts kept using the word anyway New White House press secretary Katie Zacharia shared at least 15 social media posts identifying her as an "attorney" over the past two years, per CNN, despite having failed the California bar exam and acknowledging publicly she had been advised not

Economy

Most California Kids Can't Read Well or Do Basic Math, per New Test Results, per NYP

Most students are still below grade level Most California kids cannot read well or do basic math, per new test results, per the New York Post. The state's 2025-26 scores, released Thursday, show the majority of students below grade level standards in every subject tested. In English

Markets

Musk Says SpaceX Probably Gets to Over $100 Trillion in Under 10 Years, Barring a Major World War

The claim Elon Musk has said that unless there is a major world war, SpaceX probably gets to more than $100 trillion in value in under 10 years. Treat that number as what it is: Musk's own claim, not an analyst forecast. In the same remarks, he said

Politics

Bannon Says RFK Jr. and Pete Hegseth Will Likely Be Impeached If Republicans Lose the House

Bannon's warning Steve Bannon says that if Republicans lose the House in November, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will likely be impeached. Bannon, who served as President Trump's chief strategist in 2017, made the prediction in a CBS Sunday Morning

Markets

Barclays Says a Tesla-SpaceX Merger Could Be Announced Before Tesla's Annual Meeting in Early December

An announcement could come within weeks Barclays says a merger of Tesla and SpaceX could be announced before Tesla's annual meeting in early December, which the bank notes must be held by December 6. To be clear, this is analyst speculation, not an announced deal. Neither company has

Markets

The Average Car on US Roads Is Now Nearly 13 Years Old, an All-Time High, per Charlie Bilello

A record that keeps breaking The average car on the road in America is now nearly 13 years old, an all-time high, per Charlie Bilello. Thirty years ago, the average was 8.4 years. That means the typical vehicle on US roads today is more than 50 percent older

Economy

US Boomers Back Tax Hikes on Younger Workers to Keep Social Security Checks Whole, per YF

Protect the checks, tax the young An overwhelming majority of older Americans want Social Security benefits protected at current levels, even if younger workers have to pay more to keep them there, according to a Cato Institute survey reported by Yahoo Finance. Among Americans age 65 and older, 89 percent

Economy

Gen Z Says It Takes $587,797 a Year to Be Successful. Boomers Say $99,874, per Empower

A sixfold gap in what success pays Ask each generation what salary counts as success and the answers barely look like the same economy. In Empower's "Secret to Success" survey, Gen Z said financial success means earning $587,797 a year. Boomers put the number at

Geopolitics

Trump Says the Iran War Will End "Very Soon," and That Energy Prices Will Fall Fast Once It Does

"As soon as I want it to end, it'll end" President Donald Trump says the war with Iran is nearly over. Speaking to reporters on Thursday before departing Arizona for a rally in Montana, Trump said the conflict will end very soon and predicted a rapid

Macro

September PPI Comes in Hot at 6.3%, Well Above the 5.3% Estimate as Energy Costs Surge

Wholesale inflation is running hot again Wholesale inflation came in far hotter than expected in September. The producer price index rose 6.3 percent from a year earlier, above the 5.3 percent estimate, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The monthly move was just as sharp. PPI jumped

Markets

Musk Floats a Competitor to Amazon After Grok Bots Are Blocked From Ordering

Musk pokes Amazon where it lives Elon Musk has mused about taking on Amazon in its home market. "Maybe we should start a competitor to Amazon," Musk wrote on X on Thursday, replying to a user who had suggested an "X Shop" as an alternative marketplace.

Tech

Global Smartphone Market Has Its Worst Quarter Ever, per Bloomberg

The worst quarter on record The global smartphone market has had its worst quarter ever, per Bloomberg. Global smartphone shipments fell 22 percent year over year in the September quarter to 255.3 million units, the worst decline of any quarter on record, per IDC. The researcher says the market

Politics

Trump Cancels Livestream of US Military Execution for Fort Hood Killer, per Reuters

The sentence stands, the spectacle does not President Donald Trump has canceled the planned livestream of the US military execution of Nidal Hasan, the former Army major who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas, per Reuters. Trump said on Thursday that he had overruled his defense chief, who

Macro

Canadians Now Expect to Buy Their First Home at 41, per FP

The first rung is 12 years further away Canada's property ladder is getting harder to reach, and first-time buyers now expect to spend most of their thirties off it. RBC's 2026 Home Ownership Poll finds that current homeowners bought their first home at an average

AI

AI Agent Reportedly Deleted the Entire Upcoming Season of Swedish Reality Show "The Challenge Sverige" Weeks Before Its Premiere, per Futurism

A finished season, gone An AI agent deleted the entire upcoming season of the Swedish reality competition show "The Challenge Sverige," just weeks before the premiere, per Futurism. The show, Sweden's version of the long-running Challenge format, was set to return to broadcaster TV4 on

Politics

Donors Behind Trump's $333 Million White House Ballroom Benefited From Regulatory Decisions, Contracts and a Pardon, per WaPo

The donor list the White House would not publish The names and amounts behind President Donald Trump's White House ballroom are now on paper. A list obtained by The Washington Post reveals all the major donors to the ballroom project, including previously undisclosed contributors who have benefited from

AI

OpenAI Is Warning Employees to Watch Out for Spies, Including Romantic "Honeypots," per WSJ

The friendliest stranger may be the threat OpenAI is warning its employees to watch out for spies, especially romantic ones, per the Wall Street Journal. The company has cautioned staff in internal trainings that someone trying to seduce them may likely be a "honeypot," an agent who uses

AI

Google, $GOOGL, Announces Quantum Breakthrough as Willow Chip Produces "Magic States" at a Record 99.99% Accuracy, per Science

A 20-year bottleneck cracks Google has announced a major quantum computing breakthrough, and it targets one of the field's oldest bottlenecks. In work published in Science, Google's Quantum AI team demonstrated a technique called magic state cultivation on the company's 105-qubit Willow

Markets

The Nine Biggest US Banks Dropped Customers Over Political and Religious Views, Federal Regulator Finds

The OCC reviewed 100,000 complaints and found the nine largest national banks had policies that factored in customers' political, religious or business activities, per CBS News.

Macro

Homeowners Now Spend Nearly $24,000 a Year on Top of Their Mortgage Payment, per WaPo

The typical homeowner spends about $23,686 a year on non-mortgage costs, led by $7,679 in utilities, and more than half could not cover a $5,000 repair without credit card debt, per WaPo reporting on new survey data.

Tech

Microsoft Xbox Embraces Fan-Made Game Ports, Launches Xbox Labs Under CTO Scott Van Vliet

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma responded to a wave of fan-made ports and mods, including Halo running in a browser, by launching Xbox Labs under CTO Scott Van Vliet to give old games new life.

Markets

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink Says America Has Lost Its Bedrock, as the Longstanding Career Disappears

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said at Ford's Accelerate forum that America lost the bedrock of the career, as job-hopping replaced the single lifelong job his father's generation had.

AI

Robots Can Already Do About 3/4 of US Physical Job Tasks, per Anthropic, but Beat Human Wages on Just 0.3% of Them

Anthropic's robot exposure index finds today's robots can perform about three-quarters of US physical tasks but are cost-competitive on only 0.3% of them, and at historical price declines would need about 40 years to reach 10%.

Macro

The Top 0.1% Have More Than Doubled Their Wealth Since 2019, Gaining $14.5 Trillion, per WSJ

Federal Reserve data analyzed by the WSJ shows the top 0.1% gained $14.5 trillion since the end of 2019, about $10 trillion of it from stocks, and now control roughly $28 trillion, 15% of all US wealth.