Telegram Founder Durov Reveals He Survived Poisoning Attempt

Government shutdown

OpenAI launches TikTok rival

Telegram CEO survived poisoning

Senate Democrats rejected the House-passed CR, demanding inclusion of enhanced Obamacare subsidies, while Republicans accused them of holding the government hostage for over $1 trillion in new spending.

OMB Director Russ Vought issued a memo directing agencies to execute shutdown plans, including potential mass layoffs beyond typical furloughs, affecting up to 750,000 employees daily at a cost of $400 million in compensation.

Essential services like active-duty military (without pay), border security, and Social Security continue, but national parks, Smithsonian museums, Capitol tours, and economic reports like the October 3 jobs data are halted.

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Trump announced a major drug price reduction plan, with Pfizer agreeing to "Most Favored Nation" pricing for Medicaid, 50% discounts on key drugs. (HILL)

The White House withdrew the nomination of E.J. Antoni, the Heritage Foundation's chief economist, to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (FBN)

China's new K-visa program, designed to lure foreign STEM graduates without requiring local job offers, has ignited a firestorm of backlash amid soaring youth unemployment. (CNBC)

U.S. labor turnover held steady in August, with job openings edging up slightly to 7.23 million from July's 7.21 million, keeping the openings rate at a stable 4.3%. (WSJ)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: American Eagle Outfitters CEO Jay Schottenstein said the company gained nearly one million new customers after the Sydney Sweeney ad campaign, declaring, “You can’t run from fear.” (WSJ)

Berkshire Hathaway, the largest shareholder in Occidental Petroleum, is in advanced talks to acquire the company's OxyChem petrochemicals unit for $10 billion, its biggest deal since 2022. (OP)

Spotify founder Daniel Ek will step down as CEO, with Chief Financial Officer Alex Norström and Chief Business Officer Gustav Söderström appointed as co-CEOs. (FE)

Nike reported Q1 revenues of $11.7 billion, a 1% year-over-year increase that surpassed Wall Street expectations, with the flagship brand up 2% to $11.4 billion. (ADW)

Wealthy investors are pouring into ETFs to capture gains in gold, up 45% this year; crypto, with Bitcoin hitting $114,000; and AI, favored by 52% of family offices, according to Goldman Sachs. (FBN)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: The EIA delivered a statistical shock with its July monthly data, revealing record total liquids production of 21.218 million barrels per day, 500,000 bpd above the agency's weekly estimates of 20.7 million bpd. (OP)

The Department of Energy secured a 5% stake in Lithium Americas’ Thacker Pass project to develop its Nevada lithium mine, poised to become the Western Hemisphere's largest battery-metal source. (RTS)

Nuclear startup Oklo aims to fire up its first small modular reactor by mid-2026 under a Department of Energy pilot program. (BBG)

Gold prices surged to a record high near $3,900 per ounce for December futures as the U.S. government shutdown took effect at midnight Tuesday. (INV)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: The White House dropped Brian Quintenz from consideration as CFTC chair over conflict-of-interest concerns. (POL)

Stripe unveiled Open Issuance, a stablecoin platform leveraging its Bridge acquisition to let firms rapidly create custom tokens. (CD)

House Republicans are investigating the loss of text messages from former SEC Chair Gary Gensler from when he led the agency. (CT)

Trump family-backed World Liberty Financial unveiled plans to tokenize real-world commodities like oil, gas, and timber for on-chain trading, pairing them with its USD1 stablecoin. (TB)

David Schwartz, Ripple's chief technology officer, will step down by year-end, transitioning to an unspecified role. (CN)

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Sora 2 improves on its predecessor by adhering to physical laws, producing realistic videos like beach volleyball or skateboarding.

The Sora app’s “cameos” feature lets users upload a one-time video-and-audio recording to insert their likeness into generated scenes, shareable with friends for collaborative videos.

The app, free at launch, uses an algorithmic feed based on user activity, location, and optionally ChatGPT history, with parental controls for managing kids’ usage.

Available on iOS, Sora is initially invite-only, but ChatGPT Pro users can access the Sora 2 Pro model without an invite.

⭐ Editor’s Pick: New research from Yale and Brookings reveals that generative AI, including ChatGPT, has inflicted minimal disruption on the U.S. labor market. (FT)

Hollywood’s SAG-AFTRA union criticized AI-generated actress Tilly Norwood, arguing it exploits performers’ likenesses without consent. (THR)

China’s Z.ai unveiled its flagship GLM-4.6 AI model, challenging rivals like Anthropic’s newly launched Claude Sonnet 4.5., hailed as the world’s top coding model. (SCMP)

Trump signed an executive order doubling annual funding to $100 million for AI-enabled pediatric cancer research under the Childhood Cancer Data Initiative. (NIH)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Security researchers found Unitree's G1 humanoid robots harbor critical vulnerabilities, including weak encryption, while secretly transmitting data to Chinese servers every five minutes. (TX)

DoorDash unveiled Dot, a four-wheeled autonomous delivery robot capable of speeds up to 20 miles per hour and carrying 30 pounds of cargo. (DD)

Google DeepMind announced RoboBallet, a learning algorithm that enables multiple robotic manipulators to collaborate seamlessly in shared workspaces. (QUA)

Tampa residents were left bewildered when a robot from Tesla's Optimus project was spotted casually strolling along a sidewalk. (YN)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth demanded combat troops meet male-level fitness standards, criticizing "woke garbage" and “fat troops” during an address to Pentagon leaders. (NYP)

China unveiled its Liaoyuan-1 naval laser weapon, claiming 180-250 kilowatts of power and a lens aperture roughly double that of the U.S. Navy's Helios system. (SCMP)

The U.S. Army conducted its first live-fire test of the Switchblade 600 kamikaze drone as part of the "Transforming in Contact" modernization drive. (IE)

A profile on Allen Control Systems, developing the game-changing AI-powered "Bullfrog" autonomous machine gun to counter drones, which has scored Pentagon contracts and venture capital. (RTS)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Periodic Labs raised $300 million in seed funding from a16z to automate scientific discoveries in physics and chemistry, attracting over 20 top scientists from Meta, OpenAI, and Google. (TC)

Vibe.co, the ad platform enabling campaigns on TV streaming services via AI-driven consumer profiling, secured a $50 million Series B funding round led by Hedosophia at a $410 million valuation. (SIF)

Assort Health, the developer of specialty-specific voice AI agents for automating healthcare call-center tasks, raised a $76 million Series B led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. (FOR)

Commcrete, developer of handheld satellite communication devices, raised $21 million in a Series A round led by Greenfield Partners at a valuation exceeding $100 million. (RM)

Durov experienced intense pain, vision and hearing loss, breathing difficulties, and extreme weakness after noticing a “strange neighbor” near his home in 2018.

Durov awoke on the floor, unable to stand, with burst blood vessels, and was immobilized for two weeks.

The incident coincided with Telegram’s fundraising for its TON blockchain and bans by several countries, including Russia.

Investigative journalist Christo Grozev said Durov’s symptoms match nerve-agent poisoning, urging him to share more details for investigation.

Durov, now a French and UAE citizen, was arrested in Paris in 2024, accused of failing to curb illegal content on Telegram.

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Elon Musk announced that his AI startup xAI is developing "Grokipedia," a new knowledge platform poised as a "massive improvement" over Wikipedia. (TES)

The ADL retired its "Glossary of Extremism and Hate," a database that controversially labeled Turning Point USA as tied to right-wing extremists, amid fierce backlash from conservatives. (FOX)

Elon Musk spearheaded a wave of Netflix subscription cancellations after the creator of a children’s cartoon on the platform smeared conservative activist Charlie Kirk as a “Nazi.” (NDTV)

The Justice Department launched an investigation into Des Moines Public Schools for DEI practices after superintendent Ian Roberts resigned following his ICE detention. (NN)