Inside The Race To Mine "Quadrillions of Dollars" From Asteroids

Mass gov’t layoff warning

Space gold rush

HBCU boots free speech group

The guidance requires agencies to issue RIF notices to all employees linked to lapsed programs, emphasizing that such activities "are no longer statutorily required," with plans to be revised post-Congressional appropriations to retain only essential staff.

This year's funding impasse differs from past bipartisan short-term resolutions, with the memo attributing Democrat resistance, including demands for $1 trillion in new spending, to blocking a clean continuing resolution passed by the House last week.

The administration supports H.R. 5371 to extend funding through November 21, expressing hope that Democrats will avoid a shutdown.

OMB Director Russell Vought's office anticipates no immediate need for these measures but is proactively outlining steps to minimize disruptions while aligning resources with core functions.

⭐ Editor’s Pick: U.S. new single-family home sales leaped 20.5% in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 800,000 units, the highest pace in more than three years. (RTS)

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced negotiations for a $20 billion currency swap line with Argentina. (RTS)

San Francisco Federal Reserve President Mary Daly characterized the U.S. labor market as sustainable rather than weak. (INV)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Jimmy Kimmel Live! drew 6.26 million viewers upon its Tuesday return, its highest 18-49 rating in over a decade, amid backlash over Kimmel's crude comments on Charlie Kirk's assassination. (THR)

Oracle sold $18 billion U.S. investment-grade bonds on Wednesday, the market's second-largest deal this year. (BBG)

Delta Air Lines is replacing auxiliary power units to address a surge in toxic-fume leaks that have sickened crews and passengers. (WSJ)

H&M shares leaped 10% after the retailer delivered Q3 operating profit of 4.9 billion krona ($522 million), up 40% year-over-year and surpassing the 3.7 billion forecast. (CNBC)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Oklo broke ground on its flagship Aurora nuclear powerhouse at Idaho National Laboratory under the Department of Energy's Reactor Pilot Program. (PE)

The Department of Energy will cancel more than $13 billion in Biden-era subsidies for renewable energy projects. (RTS)

TC Energy, owner of the Coastal GasLink pipeline, plans to invest $8.5 billion over the next five years in new U.S. power projects. (EC)

India pledged to expand purchases of U.S. oil and gas in the years ahead to advance energy security and mitigate trade frictions. (RZ)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Tether is negotiating to raise up to $20 billion at a $500 billion valuation that would position it among the world's most valuable private companies. (BBG)

Morgan Stanley will roll out crypto trading on E*Trade in 2026, starting with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana via a partnership with Zerohash. (DEC)

Hyperliquid, the decentralized derivatives exchange boasting $330 billion in July trading volume, launched its native USDH stablecoin. (CT)

World Liberty Financial, the Trump family-backed crypto platform, plans to introduce a debit card, enabling users to spend its USD1 stablecoin through Apple Pay. (TB)

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Led by Arizona State University's Lindy Elkins-Tanton, the two-year mapping will assess iron, nickel, and other metals; NASA estimates mining just 10 similar asteroids could yield $100 million per Earth resident, or $1.5 trillion total.

Scientists estimate Asteroid 16 Psyche's iron, nickel, and other metals could be valued in the quadrillions.

TransAstra is advancing optical mining, using solar concentration in polyamide enclosures to vaporize and refine volatiles from water-rich asteroids, a method CEO Joel Sercel describes as harnessing the sun like a precision tool.

The asteroid belt's deposits could reshape supply chains for catalysts, batteries, and electronics, though experts caution against oversupply risks that mirror past commodity busts, potentially stranding terrestrial operations.

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Researchers using artificial intelligence have successfully engineered a functional virus from basic genetic instructions. (WAPO)

SAP SE partnered with OpenAI and AWS to deploy ChatGPT in Germany's public sector, advancing Europe's sovereign AI. (BBG)

AI tools like ChatGPT have delivered a 55% gain on a bot-selected UK stock basket that outpaced top funds by 19% points. (RTS)

Microsoft is incorporating Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4.1 AI models into its Microsoft 365 Copilot suite. (VER)

Meta poached Yang Song, a former OpenAI researcher, to serve as research principal at its Meta Superintelligence Labs. (WIR)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: The Yangwang U9X electric hypercar from BYD's luxury division claimed the production car top-speed record at 308.4 mph, eclipsing Bugatti's 2019 mark by 3.6 mph. (SUN)

Major League Baseball's competition committee approved robot umpires for the 2026 season. (AP)

Skild AI unveiled its Skild Brain algorithm that empowers robots to adapt seamlessly to severe physical damage, such as severed limbs or motor failures. (WIR)

The Aceii One, a foldable AI tennis robot that simulates match-play with real-time reactions, debuted on Kickstarter. (GAW)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Denmark's Aalborg airport shuttered its airspace after spotting drones, with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen branding it the "most severe attack on Danish infrastructure so far." (BBC)

Boeing forged a partnership with Palantir to embed the latter's AI platform across production lines for fighter jets and weapons. (OT)

EdgeRunner CEO Tyler Saltsman, a U.S. Space Force contractor developing offline military AI, said that China has outpaced America, warning, "we don't know how they're doing it." (TB)

U.S. soldiers are training to counter proliferating enemy drones with handheld jammers like the Dronebuster and precision optics such as the Smart Shooter. (CBS4)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: AI infrastructure startup Nscale clinched Europe's largest Series B funding round at $1.1 billion, led by Aker ASA with backing from Nvidia. (BBG)

Modular, the platform empowering developers to build AI applications, raised $250 million in a funding round led by U.S. Innovative Technology, lifting its valuation to $1.6 billion. (WIR)

Light, the AI software developer that automates financial tasks like accounting, raised $30 million in a Series A funding round led by Balderton Capital. (CNBC)

Emergent, the AI startup empowering non-technical users to construct apps via autonomous agents, raised $23 million in a Series A funding round led by Lightspeed. (TC)

Donning Make America Great Again hats and signs advocating "DEI should be illegal" and "Deport all illegals now! Let’s talk," the group sought to initiate campus debates, resulting in animated student responses including shouting, filming, sign-grabbing, and tailing as they departed.

Group leader Cam Higby emphasized the value of engaging diverse viewpoints, telling WKRN Nashville, "If you want to talk to people who disagree with you, you go to the place where people disagree with you."

TSU President Glenda Baskin Glover launched an investigation into the activists' campus entry and scheduled student forums.

⭐ Editor’s Pick: California's legislature approved Senate Bill 771, slapping social media giants with fines for so-called algorithmic discrimination, now awaits Gov. Gavin Newsom's (D) signature despite free speech concerns. (RTN)

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita (R) escalated his investigation into the University of Notre Dame's DEI programs after the university rebuffed requests for documentation. (CF)

Top hedge fund D.E. Shaw & Co. dismissed its chief diversity officer Maja Hazell and shuttered its DEI unit. (NYP)