China Caught Rigging Scheme to Undermine Trump Trade Truce

China's rare-earths scheme

World’s first robo-kitchen

Florida probes JPMorgan’s “Arctic Frost” role

The proposed VEU framework, modeled on the U.S. program established in 2007, would grant general licenses to pre-vetted importers, bypassing individual approvals.

Aerospace and automotive suppliers with dual-use clients—serving both commercial jets and fighter programs—face heightened risk of delays or denials under strict criteria.

China has restricted powerful rare-earth magnets since April to extract concessions; U.S. imports fell 29% in September from the prior month, even amid partial easings.

Following the Trump-Xi meeting, Beijing pledged to restore flows via general licenses, yet the emerging scheme embeds controls to prevent military diversion, with eligibility and benefits undisclosed.

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Trump pledged to distribute $2,000 "tariff dividend" checks, funded by tariff revenues, with the surplus earmarked to substantially reduce the national debt. (FOX)

The House of Representatives will convene votes as early as 4 p.m. Wednesday to approve a Senate-passed funding bill and end the 41-day government shutdown. (POL)

Trump announced a $35 billion investment deal with Uzbekistan—potentially scaling to $100 billion—in U.S. sectors including critical minerals, aviation, and energy. (FBN)

Trump announced the U.S. is nearing a trade deal with India to slash tariffs on Indian goods. (BBG)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Morningstar picked Hershey, Halliburton, and Coca-Cola as post-earnings buys, citing discounts to fair value, strong guidance, and resilient moats. (MS)

Zacks Investment Research designated Digital Turbine its "Bull of the Day" with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), spotlighting the mobile app monetization firm's robust Q2 earnings beat. (ZCK)

The Motley Fool recommended deploying $1,000 into Taiwan Semiconductor at $295.27 for its dominant 92% share in advanced AI chips and attractive forward P/E of 25. (MF)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Warren Buffett will relinquish his role in authoring Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder letters, handing the reins to successor Greg Abel. (YF)

U.S. Steel unveiled a $14 billion multi-year investment plan in domestic growth capital, backed by parent company Nippon Steel, alongside $11 billion earmarked for facility upgrades. (CD)

Apple is delaying the release of its next-generation iPhone Air, originally slated for fall 2026, after the debut model's underwhelming sales prompted production cuts. (TH)

SoftBank sold its entire Nvidia stake of 32.1 million shares for $5.83 billion to fund major investments in OpenAI and other AI initiatives. (CNBC)

Proxy advisory firms ISS and Glass Lewis urged Cracker Barrel shareholders to reject the re-election of board member Gilbert Dávila, a DEI specialist implicated in the company's disastrous rebranding effort. (NYP)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Greece signed a landmark 20-year liquefied natural gas supply agreement with U.S. firm Venture Global to position the country as a pivotal European gateway for American energy, displacing Russian imports. (GR)

The Department of Energy unveiled a $625 million investment in coal infrastructure modernization to bolster grid reliability and aid coal-reliant communities in states such as Montana and Wyoming. (DA)

Wright said the DOE's Loan Programs Office, with hundreds of billions in funding, will focus primarily on building nuclear power plants to meet AI data center demand. (CNBC)

J.P. Morgan forecasts gold prices surpassing $5,000 per ounce by 2026, potentially reaching $5,200-$5,300, driven by robust central bank buying. (GF)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: The IRS unveiled new guidance establishing a safe harbor that permits crypto exchange-traded products to stake digital assets on proof-of-stake networks without jeopardizing their tax status as grantor trusts. (TB)

Coinbase unveiled a new public token sales platform granting U.S. retail investors their first access to initial coin offerings since 2018. (CD)

Block rolled out Bitcoin payment capabilities for its 4 million Square merchants worldwide, leveraging the Lightning Network for instant, fee-free settlements. (BM)

Gemini shares plunged to a record low of $12.50, down 28% in a single session, despite the crypto exchange reporting Q1 revenue of $150 million, more than double the prior year's figure. (CC)

The single articulated arm, jutting from a bespoke countertop, masters over 50 recipes including butter chicken, crab bisque and chorizo paella; new dishes are added regularly via software updates.

Human chefs provided motion-capture training, enabling the robot to mimic professional techniques—tapping spatulas, scraping pans, and mastering induction-hob nuances—down to 43-second stir intervals.

Installed as a complete luxury kitchen with high-end hobs and copper pans, it requires no human intervention mid-cook; a rigatoni amatriciana emerged al dente and perfectly sauced in 24 minutes.

Commercial sales are underway for residences, according to the company.

⭐ Editor’s Pick: A new study reveals AI systems detect deceptive statements with 85.8% accuracy. (FUT)

Anthropic anticipates breaking even in 2028, two years ahead of rival OpenAI's projected profitability in 2030, when the ChatGPT developer expects $74 billion in operating losses, according to investor documents. (WSJ)

Intel's chief technology and AI officer Sachin Katti has defected to OpenAI to construct compute infrastructure for artificial general intelligence. (CRN)

Meta unveiled Omnilingual Automatic Speech Recognition, an open-source suite of AI models delivering state-of-the-art transcription capabilities for over 1,600 languages. (VB)

Researchers developed an AI tool that detects dementia progression three times more accurately than conventional methods by analyzing brain patterns. (AZO)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa is rolling out an FDA-approved "tumor-liquefying robot" from Histosonics to noninvasively dissolve tumors without incisions, heat, or radiation. (NW6)

Nikodem Bartnik showcased a 3D-printed robot head of Aristotle that delivers lifelike responses to queries in the philosopher's animated voice. (TEB)

Direct Drive Technology unveiled the D1, the world's first fully modular embodied intelligence robot that autonomously switches between biped and quadruped forms for enhanced stability on uneven terrain. (IE)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: A U.S. Air Force base housing the nuclear-capable B-2 bomber fleet shares a fence line with a Missouri trailer park tied to a Chinese intel-linked fraudster, prompting national security concerns. (DC)

A think tank report likens the intensifying U.S.-China AI race to a new Cold War, projecting potential Beijing dominance by 2030 that could diminish American influence. (FOX)

Taiwan is ramping up domestic drone production to 180,000 units annually through Pentagon-inspired Replicator-like initiatives, aiming to counter China's unmanned aerial supremacy. (DS)

OpenAI is offering a free year of its $20-per-month ChatGPT Plus subscription to U.S. veterans. (MIL)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Nuclear startup Valar Atomics raised $130 million led by Snowpoint Ventures, with backing from Anduril founder Palmer Luckey and Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar. (BBG)

Neros Technologies, a U.S.-based maker of low-cost military FPV drones, secured a $75 million Series B round led by Sequoia Capital. (BW)

AI PowerPoint-killer Gamma raised $68 million in Series B funding at a $2.1 billion valuation led by Andreessen Horowitz. (X)

High-capacity AI servers startup Majestic Labs emerged from stealth with over $100 million in funding, including a $71 million Series A led by Bow Wave Capital. (CNBC)

Sam Altman and Masayoshi Son backed Episteme, a startup which aims to establish a modern equivalent of Bell Labs by offering elite scientists funding, labs, and support. (CM)

Uthmeier’s Monday letter to CEO Jamie Dimon cites a March 2023 DOJ subpoena demanding Trump Media records predating the company’s existence, part of a sweeping Arctic Frost dragnet targeting hundreds of Republican entities.

Immediately after the subpoena, JPMorgan pressed Trump Media on years-old transactions under the guise of “due diligence,” then shuttered its accounts post-March 2024 merger, timing Uthmeier called “obvious, troubling questions.”

Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes told Fox News the debanking occurred “right at the height of the campaign,” saying the company launched Truth Social in 2022, over a year after Jan. 6.

JPMorgan claims it complies with lawful subpoenas and supports Trump’s anti-debanking executive order.

⭐ Editor’s Pick: An Antifa-led riot erupted outside UC Berkeley ahead of a Turning Point USA event, with rioters banging barriers, deploying a smoke grenade, and clashing in a bloody melee that prompted police intervention. (CF)

The BBC erupted in “civil war” as “woke pro-trans” staff rebelled against the board's crackdown, triggered by a doctored Trump video scandal. (DM)

Trump is intensifying his offensive against the British "disinformation complex," targeting the Centre for Countering Digital Hate by seeking to revoke CEO Imran Ahmed's visa. (SPEC)