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.
Macro 40% of Workers Earning Over $500,000 Are Living Paycheck to Paycheck, per Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs survey data shows about 40% of households earning over $500,000 say they primarily live paycheck to paycheck, a higher share than most income groups, as housing, healthcare and childcare swallow pay.
Macro Home Sellers Outnumber Buyers by 62.6% in September, the Widest Gap in Redfin Records Since 2013 Redfin estimates 1.51 million US home sellers chased just 928,892 buyers in September, a 62.6% surplus and a fourth straight monthly record, with 41 of 50 big metros now buyer's markets.
Macro Trump's Tariffs Made American-Made Goods More Expensive Too, New York Fed Research Finds New York Fed research finds Trump's tariffs added about 2.9 percentage points to goods prices, with roughly a third of the increase coming from American-made products, per Fox News.
AI Eight US States Sue OpenAI, Claiming ChatGPT Has Harmed Children Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho and Montana sued OpenAI in state courts, alleging ChatGPT harmed children and misled parents about safety.
AI Arrested OpenAI Engineer Had a One-Way Ticket to Saudi Arabia Booked for October 12, per Bloomberg The OpenAI engineer charged over a hidden recording device in an executive conference room had one-way tickets to Saudi Arabia booked for October 12 for himself and family, per Bloomberg and court filings.
AI A Developer Used Claude to Build Free Open-Source Clones of Word, Excel and PowerPoint Brandon Thomas of ArtCraft used Anthropic's Claude to build WordCraft, GridCraft and DeckCraft, free open-source takes on Word, Excel and PowerPoint, per Tom's Hardware.
Geopolitics Zelensky Says He Was Betrayed as Starlink Service Is Restricted in Ukraine; Musk Points to Washington Ukraine says Starshield terminals were restricted overnight with no warning, disrupting drone missions. Zelensky claims betrayal; Musk says the US military and the president control the service.
Politics DOJ Issues About a Dozen Subpoenas in Ilhan Omar Investigation, Including to Family Members, per NBC The Justice Department issued about a dozen grand jury subpoenas in its investigation into Rep. Ilhan Omar, including to family members, examining immigration matters including her birthdate, per NBC News.
Markets Netflix Is Laying Off 6% of Its Workforce, About 1,000 Jobs, in Its Biggest Cuts Since 2022 Netflix is cutting about 6% of its workforce, roughly 1,000 roles across product, tech, legal and HR, its biggest layoff since 2022, days ahead of third-quarter earnings on October 20.
Geopolitics Trump Says Canada Will Be the 51st State, Greenland the 52nd Trump again said Canada will become the 51st state and Greenland the 52nd, keeping annexation talk, tariffs and Arctic resources in focus for markets.
Politics Ilhan Omar's Staff Got Her Birthdate Changed After She Was Elected to Congress, Records Show A one-year change, made months into her first term Rep. Ilhan Omar's congressional staff had her birth year changed from 1981 to 1982 in the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library in May 2019, months after she took her seat in Congress, according to emails reviewed by the New
Banks Bank of America Fined $1.2 Billion Over Money-Laundering Violations The third-largest penalty in Treasury history Bank of America will pay more than $1.2 billion in federal penalties after admitting it willfully violated the Bank Secrecy Act and failed to timely report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions, the Treasury Department said Tuesday. The Financial Crimes Enforcement
