(Update 1540ET): Verizon confirmed the “unknown equipment issue” behind the massive ground stop in the tri-state area was a cut fiber cable in New Jersey. The company says construction contractors working near an Amtrak rail line dug it up, that Verizon’s facilities were fully functional until that happened, and that the carrier bears no responsibility for the incident. Technicians are on site, and the company says it is working to repair the damaged cable and restore connectivity.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford told reporters an older circuit serving Philadelphia TRACON failed this morning. Controllers tried to flip to the backup fiber the agency had installed as part of its modernization push, and the backup was already dead. The agency did not know the fiber was cut until the primary circuit went down, Bedford said. The damaged stretch is roughly 600 feet between New Brunswick and Newark. Repairing that line, he said, could take about 13 hours. “It’s massive, I’m told.”

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy put it more bluntly: an Amtrak construction crew cut into the fiber and forced the FAA to pause Northeast traffic.

By mid-afternoon LaGuardia had resumed in some form, and Philadelphia and JFK were being walked back from full ground stops toward delay programs. Newark and Teterboro were still the problem children. That is the airspace Philadelphia TRACON was handed in 2024, the same facility that had radio-frequency trouble last August and a string of radar and comms failures through 2025.

The FAA is trying to stand up a replacement circuit rather than wait out a 13-hour splice. Until the data is flowing again, inbound traffic into the remaining restricted fields stays on the ground at origin, which is still a ground stop, still the most restrictive tool the agency has. World leaders are landing in New York this week for the UN General Assembly.

* * *

The FAA has issued ground-stop orders to arrivals into every major New York-area airport: JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark. Teterboro, Westchester, and Philadelphia are in the same pile. Official reason: equipment outage.

What happened

The first restrictions hit Newark, Teterboro, and Philadelphia after problems with radio frequencies at Philadelphia TRACON, the terminal radar facility that handles arrivals and departures in that airspace. The FAA later added JFK, LaGuardia, and Westchester.

The agency has not publicly detailed which systems failed, how long repairs will take, or whether New York TRACON (N90) is separately affected. That lack of specifics is why the disruption is being described as an “unknown equipment issue.”

92 cancellations and nearly 70 diversions at Newark so far today as an FAA equipment outage continues to hold flights bound for Newark, Philadelphia, and Teterboro at their origin airports. Traffic comparison between last week and today. pic.twitter.com/6mMwzi4mrG

— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) September 21, 2026

A ground stop holds aircraft destined for the listed airports on the ground at their origin. It is one of the FAA’s most restrictive tools and is used when controllers cannot safely accept more inbound traffic.

What actually broke? Frequencies, per the first FAA statement. Then just “equipment / outage” on the national status board. No system named, no timeline, no “we kicked the rack and it came back.”

Philadelphia TRACON is not a random facility: it is the same one that took over Newark approach control in 2024 and then suffered repeated radar and radio failures through 2025, severe enough that controllers went out on trauma leave. On Aug. 28 of last year, the FAA ground-stopped Newark for roughly two hours over what it called equipment issues affecting “some radio frequencies in the Philadelphia TRACON area,” with arrival delays averaging about 90 minutes – the same facility and the same stated cause as today. 

Impact

Newark saw the earliest and heaviest effects. As of 11:07 a.m. ET, FAA data showed average departure delays out of Newark running about 90 minutes and increasing, with the ground stop set to expire at 11:15 a.m. and a 30-60% chance of extension. Flight-tracking data showed dozens of jets queued on the pavement, along with dozens of cancellations and diversions. Teterboro departure delays were steeper.

Boston Logan also has restrictions, though those are listed as volume and weather rather than the same equipment problem.

Because JFK, LGA, and EWR sit on one of the busiest corridors in the country, the stops ripple nationally: crews and aircraft get out of position, later banks get late, and connecting passengers miss onward flights.

Maybe another rogue AI escaped a sandbox? 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared on Monday that by Wednesday Sept. 23, “all the Iranian airlines will be shut down around the world.“

“If they land, you cannot provide them with fuel, you cannot provide them with landing services, you cannot sell them tickets, or you will be knocked out of the dollar system,” he described.

Bessent on Iran:

On September 23, all Iranian airlines will be shut down around the world.

How do we do that? If they land, you cannot provide them with fuel, you cannot provide them with landing services, you cannot sell them tickets, or you will be knocked out of the dollar… pic.twitter.com/pX5wfEobV3

— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 21, 2026

The new warning and ‘promise’ was issued after the US earlier this month imposed sanctions on “all remaining Iranian airlines” which had yet to face such penalties – thus Bessent’s new declaration is that these entities are about to collapse under the weight of Washington actions, which now is to include secondary targeting.

The Treasury Department has also lately targeted Iranian companies and industries supporting Iran’s aviation sector.

Some 27 airlines have already been sanctioned – also most recently the major Mahan Air has faced expanded sanctions (after first being targeted by Washington all the way back in 2011).

The Treasury has famed all of this as part of efforts to deny the Iranian government the ability to move “weapons, personnel, and illicit cargo”.

Bessent stated to CNBC that all Iranian airlines will be shut down globally on Sept. 23 – given that any fuel, landing, and ticket providers involved with the companies risk dollar-system exclusion.

Ironically, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and his delegation is expected to fly into New York City just the day prior, on Tuesday – to attend the UN General Assembly. He is set to give a formal address to the UN body on Wednesday.

This will provide rare opportunity for potential White House diplomacy to take place on the sidelines, which could happen as early as Tuesday.

As for the heavily sanctioned aviation industry, in recent years the Islamic Republic has suffered some significant aerial disasters, which included the May 19, 2024 death of President Ebrahim Raisi. His military helicopter went down in a rugged, mountainous area of northwestern Iran.

Some speculate that lack of airline parts and aging aircraft, due to the long-standing US targeting of the industry, has only served to increase the chances of aviation disasters.

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

The State Department and the Department of Education are investigating Duke University and the University of North Dakota over allegedly violating foreign funding disclosure rules.

Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 requires postsecondary institutions that receive federal financial assistance to disclose the source of foreign gifts and contracts with an annual value of $250,000 or more, according to a Sept. 16 statement.

The law aims to counter undue foreign influence in America’s higher education sector. Both universities receive taxpayer support to develop crucial technologies.

However, a review of records submitted by the universities “indicated the submission of incomplete, inaccurate, and untimely disclosures,” the Department of Education said in the statement.

In a Sept. 15 letter to Duke University president Vincent E. Price, the department raised concerns about the institution’s research collaboration with China’s Wuhan University. This agreement between the universities has led to the establishment of Duke Kunshan University in Jiangsu, China, in 2013.

Wuhan University is overseen by China’s Ministry of Education and another state entity that oversees China’s nuclear weapons and military research programs. The institution plays an important role in the country’s national defense science and tech innovation.

China’s Ministry of Education requires joint-venture universities, such as Duke Kunshan University, to have a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) unit to monitor their operations. These units can also influence administrative tasks. Moreover, Duke Kunshan University’s Board of Trustees appears to include key Chinese regime officials, according to the letter.

The Education Department’s review of Sec. 117 disclosure reports from Duke shows that the university has reported 1,266 qualifying foreign funding transactions since July 2020, totaling roughly $1.01 billion. The institution allegedly engages in “systemic reporting errors related to timely disclosure of contracts with foreign sources,” the department said in the letter.

As for the University of North Dakota (UND), the department’s Sept. 15 letter to the institution’s president Andrew Armacost highlighted the university’s critical role in America’s national security efforts.

Specifically, UND’s School of Aerospace partners with the North Dakota Army and Air National Guard, the U.S. Air Force, and private sector defense contractors. UND also provides a training environment to support U.S. drone dominance in uncrewed air systems.

Since July 2020, the university has reported 71 transactions that would qualify under Section 117, valued at around $98 million. Many of these transactions “appear to have involved Chinese aviation companies,” the letter said.

The Department of Education instructed both universities to submit records of tax compliance; Section 117 compliance structure; international research collaborations; foreign government talent program compliance; foreign gifts, grants, and contracts; and international faculty, research personnel, and student agreements.

“Unfortunately, it appears that both Duke and UND have provided untimely and incomplete foreign funding disclosures, which include erroneously identifying certain governmental partners as ‘non-governmental,’” Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in the statement.

“We expect these universities will cooperate fully. The Department of Education and the Department of State will continue to work together to vigorously ensure the integrity and accountability of our nation’s colleges and universities in reporting their foreign gifts and contracts,” Kent said.

The Epoch Times reached out to Duke University and the University of North Dakota for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

In an email to The Chronicle, Duke’s student-run news organization, a spokesperson from the institution said they were “reviewing the letter carefully.” The university is “committed to complying with the law and will continue to do so in a manner that is consistent with our academic mission,” the spokesperson said.

The recent investigations come after the Education Department announced its partnership with the State Department in February, aimed at improving transparency of foreign contracts and gift reporting in higher education institutions.

According to a fact sheet published at the time, the partnership aligns with President Donald Trump’s April 2025 executive order, Transparency Regarding Foreign Influence at American Universities.

In the order, Trump wrote that it is the administration’s policy to “end the secrecy” regarding foreign funds flowing into the country’s educational institutions.

Last month, the Pentagon announced it had asked 30 academic institutions to audit their research, academic, and financial collaborations with foreign entities that are deemed to threaten national security.

The Pentagon’s notices were sent to universities linked to certain research facilities or foreign schools in China, Iran, or Russia.

Smartglasses are set to be the “next major computing platform,” according to Loop Capital analysts, as Meta currently leads the space, with Google, Samsung, Apple, and SNAP preparing their own AI-powered eyewear.

Loop Capital analyst Rob Sanderson wrote in a note on Sunday that an “inflection point” has arrived for smart glasses, which are “transitioning from wearable camera accessories to what is becoming a primary hardware interface for conversational AI.”

Sanderson and analyst Anthony Chukumba spoke with wearable-tech executive Jon Li about the smart glasses industry and where it’s headed into the new year.

Li shared our view that Meta dominates the smart glasses industry with its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, while Google is building an ecosystem around Android XR and Snap holds an advantage in more advanced augmented reality. He said Apple could remain on the sidelines until 2028 or 2029 before introducing its own smart glasses.

Here are the key points from the conversation between Loop Capital analysts and Li:

Jon Li is a seasoned technology executive with extensive product management, user experience design, and business development experience. Mr. Li is currently Managing Partner of strategic consultancy Asentio where he advises companies on product strategy, commercialization, and human-AI collaboration. He previously served as US General Manager for XREAL, where he was instrumental in driving the company’s expansion into the US market through the development of strategic and retail distribution partnerships. Earlier in his career he held senior product and program management positions with Indigo Technologies, SERES EV, and YouSpace and senior design positions with Motorola, Philips, and FLIR Systems.

Bullish on Android XR broadly… Mr. Li is bullish on the Android XR smartglasses operating system (OS), which Google has developed in partnership with Samsung and Qualcomm. He noted Android XR leverages Google’s existing Android OS, large developer base, and mature developer framework and tools. In addition, Mr. Li views Android XR as a “true digital assistant” with the ability to utilize users’ calendars, tasks, documents, location, etc. to provide contextual assistance in real time. He noted one significant difference between Android OS and Android XR is Google plans to more tightly control distribution of the latter by working with a limited number of partners (e.g., Samsung, XREAL). Mr. Li expects Android XR and Gemini AI features to be updated every few months, while hardware changes would occur at most once a year.

…and Warby Parker’s Intelligent Eyewear more specifically. Mr. Li is also fairly upbeat about Warby Parker’s forthcoming Intelligent Eyewear launch, which he views as a key component of mass market smartglasses adoption. Mr. Li believes Warby Parker is a compelling Android XR partner given the optical retailers’ history of transforming the eyeglass purchase process (i.e., online and in store) as well as ability to educate first-time buyers and provide initial fittings and post-purchase support. All that said, Mr. Li questioned the strength of Warby Parker’s post-purchase customer relationships given the fact Google, not Warby Parker, controls the digital assistant consumers will be interfacing with.

Views Snap as having a multi-year lead on full AR. While previous versions were not released for commercial distribution, Snap’s recently introduced SPECS are the company’s 5th generation hardware design. Mr. Li believes Snap’s long-term focus and extensive experience with augmented reality on smartphones gives it a multi-year lead over competitors and expects the cadence of multiple iterations will shrink and cost-reduce its offering. Mr. Li sees enterprise suitability and highlights the base of customers in industrial production, manufacturing, healthcare and other verticals left stranded by Microsoft’s discontinued HoloLens platform as an area of obvious interest. Mr. Li believes it will ultimately be the developer community and partner ecosystem that drives category adoption and sees Snap’s ~450K developers using Lens Studio as a meaningful advantage.

Apple launch probably later than sooner, will lift overall market. Mr. Li believes Apple is unlikely to enter the smartglasses market until 2028/2029 given the company’s long history of learning from competitors’ earlier products to introduce a superior version later (e.g., iPod, iPhone, AirPods). Mr. Li believes Apple will initially introduce a premium, higher priced product (i.e., ~$800 as compared to $499 for the top-of-the-line Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer Optics) and focus on user experience as opposed to hardware specifications; ultimately, he thinks Apple’s success will hinge on the strength of the AI assistant and level of integration with the broader iOS ecosystem, stating Siri AI is not yet where it needs to be. Mr. Li thinks an Apple entry will be a net positive for existing industry players by drawing more attention to and legitimizing smartglasses, pointing to the impact the company’s recent introduction of the iPhone Duo is having on foldable smartphones. 

Beyond Loop Capital and their insights into the smart glasses industry via an insider, Luca Solca, Bernstein’s senior equity analyst and global luxury-goods sector head, covering companies including EssilorLuxottica, LVMH, Hermès and Richemont, and recently pointed out emerging backlash in the public domain of these glasses, with some trends on social media going viral, such as “pervert glasses,” and such. 

We suspect Meta, Snap, Google, and other players will eventually need to confront the “pervert glasses” narrative with a counter narrative of their own. Good luck solving that with a marketing campaign.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

A K-pop star holding a pair of Chuck Taylors was enough. Crop the frame, squint at a star-shaped spotlight, and a Nike subsidiary is suddenly in the business of hoods and hangings, according to disturbed leftists who see racism everywhere.

Instead of ignoring the demented behaviour, Converse pulled the image, apologised on cue, and promised to “do better.” The people filming themselves crying and torching sneakers got the ritual they wanted.

The still came from Converse’s Chuck 70 X campaign with Aespa singer Karina, rolled out internationally from late August. She stands inside the brand’s five-pointed star, in a long white skirt, holding black high-tops.

A few black activists online (like actress Yvette Nicole Brown and U.S. Rep. Troy Carter) said that this ad was “White Supremacy”, so Converse apologized & took it down.
It’s a Korean K-Pop girl.
Never apologize to the woke mob.
They’re crazy. pic.twitter.com/gkmCwUPYfp

— Mr Reagan (@MrReaganUSA) September 21, 2026

Online, the crop did the work. Lighting on the fabric became a pointed hood. The shoes became dangling feet. The full picture – an Asian pop star in a logo spotlight – was conveniently left out.

Louisiana Democrat (experts on the KKK) Rep. Troy Carter fumed “Nike and Converse, what the hell were you thinking?Your campaign shows what looks like a hooded Klansman, framed by what appears to be the dangling feet of a lynching victim. There is nothing creative or artistic about it. It is racist, reckless and deeply offensive.”

He went further: “Black pain is not a marketing prop. Lynching is not a creative concept. The Ku Klux Klan is not an aesthetic.” He also said repairing the alleged harm would take “more than an apology written by your public relations department.”

Converse delivered that apology anyway. “We’re sorry,” the company said. “We understand why this image is deeply upsetting and recognize that we got this wrong. We removed it from our channels and are working to remove it everywhere it appeared. This should not have happened, and we will do better.”

Converse apologizes for shoe ads that critics blasted as evoking the KKK https://t.co/fpi8ITThA7 pic.twitter.com/rhYhu4niYg

— New York Post (@nypost) September 19, 2026

A second campaign – Converse x Palmes, with figures on a ladder reaching shoes near a tree – was dragged into the same pile-on. Two different shoots, one moral script.

How any American who is remotely educated can look at this horrifying ad & not see a klan hood and the feet of a hanging body…makes me speechless.

I cannot fathom why @Converse would green light something so abhorrent. Lynchings of Black people in the US is NOT ancient history pic.twitter.com/t0fou2Ct4Q

— NanaSue ? ?????? (@NanaSueSpeaks) September 19, 2026

Chicago photographer Stephanie Schwartz claimed on Threads: “Shadow, light, and composition. Every photographer can tell you, whoever did this ad knew EXACTLY what they were doing.”

Replies called it a Rorschach test. One user wrote that an Asian woman holding sneakers “tells nothing about the picture” and “everything about you.”

One X respondent put the optical-illusion case in the open. “People are demanding mass firings at Converse and Nike over ‘blatant racism’ in an ad of K-pop star Karina holding a pair of sneakers.” The account added: “Look at the photo….It’s an Asian woman in a white skirt, standing in a star-shaped spotlight, holding shoes. Some people squint and see a Klan hood and a lynching. That’s pareidolia the same thing that makes you see faces in outlets and Jesus in toast.”

Treating an accidental shadow as a “coordinated hate ritual,” the post argued, is not justice. It is assuming the worst and then demanding the company prove a negative.

People are demanding mass firings at Converse and Nike over “blatant racism” in an ad of K-pop star Karina holding a pair of sneakers.

The problem is…most of the people who approved this ad ARE LIKELY BLACK!

Look at the photo….It’s an Asian woman in a white skirt, standing… https://t.co/tAnKQOcbWv pic.twitter.com/sdjJATulQx

— Clerpatriot (@clerpatriot) September 19, 2026

Once the crop went viral, the content shifted from captions to performance. People cut logos, painted over stars, dumped new pairs in bins and set them alight.

NEW: Boycott of Converse has spread among the left-wing woke mob, with some people burning, cutting up, painting over the logo and throwing away the brand’s shoes after the company released a new ad for its iconic sneakers.

The campaign featured a female model holding a pair of… pic.twitter.com/N2tDlHQXq9

— I Meme Therefore I Am ?? (@ImMeme0) September 19, 2026

I found even more desperate people manufacturing outrage over Converse, virtue-signaling for clout, and proudly burning and throwing away their shoes. https://t.co/edkiudEorv pic.twitter.com/KdoBZX99qB

— I Meme Therefore I Am ?? (@ImMeme0) September 21, 2026

Lindsay Clancy fan burns her Converse over an ad TikTok decided is a “coded message” from white supremacists

We have a serious mental health crisis pic.twitter.com/dbYVrM9nml

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) September 20, 2026

Another user circulated clips of lunatics weeping over the still, then a follow-up of a woman binning brand-new Chucks. “When normal people look at the ad all they see is a girl holding a pair of shoes,” the account wrote.

“When woke black people who have a constant need to play victim about something look at the ad they see a Klan member lynching a black a man.” A later update noted “woke whites have joined the party.”

WOW ?

Black Liberals are filming themselves crying over the new converse ad that they have now deemed as racist??

In their never ending quest to be victims of nonexistent racism they’ve now resorted to flipping through ads looking for something to be offended by.

When normal… pic.twitter.com/G7K7tPvbgp

— Cinema Shogun (@CinemaShogun) September 19, 2026

Not every Black voice played along. One woman said the fatigue was real and the boycott was theatre. “When will this nonsense stop? It’s out of control. We are tired. So burn your Converse, cancel Converse, cancel Nike. Nobody cares.” She praised the ad and said the company should not have apologised.

Black woman slams the woke mob over the backlash against Converse, saying the fatigue is real and nobody cares about their boycott.

She praises the ad and says the company shouldn’t have apologized. She adds that people can boycott the brand all they want, but companies will… https://t.co/edkiudEorv pic.twitter.com/OlQIufGZWF

— I Meme Therefore I Am ?? (@ImMeme0) September 20, 2026

Has anyone checked on this K-pop star Karina after she has been dragged all over the internet for the Converse ad???

She probably thought she booked an adorable Converse campaign that would open doors and bring her more money…

Instead, the American left has cropped her ad,… pic.twitter.com/woGUOot8xG

— Clerpatriot (@clerpatriot) September 20, 2026

If you looked at that Converse ad and saw a KKK hood, you need to log off and touch grass https://t.co/yAuaCYjMSE

— Clown World ™ ? (@ClownWorld) September 20, 2026

Karina did nothing wrong with this Converse ad.

If you looked at this and saw a KKK ad, you’re psychotic and need to be checked into a mental asylum. pic.twitter.com/1moVP3flzI

— Kangmin Lee | ??? (@kangminlee) September 20, 2026

Karina and SM Entertainment did not immediately respond to press queries. The singer is now attached to a controversy designed in social media feeds, not Seoul studios.

Bloomberg later obtained an internal memo from Converse CEO Aaron Cain. “The images should not have been used, and we began removing them from all channels as soon as the concern was raised,” he told staff. “The leadership team and I are taking a hard look at our internal review process and the critical lens we apply to our work.” Cain did not spell out the changes.

The timing is ugly for a reason that has nothing to do with hoods. Converse has been one of Nike’s stubborn weak spots through a long run of falling sales. A brand that cannot ship growth now cannot ship a star-shaped light without a struggle session. Calls for firings and boycotts filled the replies.

There is a difference between historical memory and a bizarre hunt for racist shapes in fabric. One is serious. The other is manufactured content. Converse chose the audience that treats every shadow as a manifesto. The rest of the country still sees a girl holding sneakers.

It’s only appropriate that just hours after we published an extensive report looking at the trillions in debt funding the AI supercycle – which just this year stands at $568bn, of which $259bn issued in IG, followed by $256bn across Private Credit, Direct Lending, and other bilateral/non-syndicated lending (for SPVs and infrastructure finance), another $40bn for HY and $11bn for institutional loans…

… that SotBank launched what Bloomberg dubbed “one of the biggest junk bond deals ever”, as the Japanese conglomerate seeks the equivalent of more than $11 billion in high  yield debt as Masayoshi Son’s conglomerate ramps up its investments in ChatGPT creator OpenAI. 

If SoftBank sells about $11 billion in debt it would be one of the largest junk bond sales ever by a single firm, excluding distressed debt exchanges. The near-record offering would come in 5 tranches: the company is looking to issue $10 billion of dollar securities across three tenors, and €1 billion ($1.1 billion) of euro debt across two maturities, according to BBG sources.

The proceeds from the debt sale will be used to fund a follow-on investment in OpenAI expected to close next month as well as general corporate purposes; the deal is expected to price as soon as Thursday, depending on demand. 

One of the world’s largest investors in AI, SoftBank’s fortunes have become increasingly intertwined with its ability to monetize its holding in OpenAI after committing close to $65 billion to the tech pioneer. That’s put Son’s firm at the epicenter of debt-fueled bets on artificial intelligence, at a time when safety concerns about the industry have flared.

SoftBank and its lead banks are sounding out investors on potential pricing for the proposed junk bond sale, offering an early glimpse of roughly how much the conglomerate may pay for the deal. All discussions are early stage and figures could change.

The table below shows the indicative prices that SoftBank is feeling out with investors, though such initial price guidance has yet to be discussed and could wind up differing from these earlier discussions based on investor feedback:

Those yields would all be records for SoftBank in those specific currencies and tenors if priced at those levels, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, though details in corporate note offerings often change before they are actually priced.

As Bloomberg notes, the latest deal adds to a flurry of recent activity by SoftBank, as it builds out its artificial intelligence financing capacity. The conglomerate entered into a $40 billion bridge loan in March to fund an additional investment in OpenAI, and recently repaid the outstanding balance of $25.9 billion on that facility.

SoftBank closed out last week with nearly $21 billion in potential fresh borrowings. The group increased a margin loan backed by shares of its chip unit Arm Holdings by $5 billion to $25 billion, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. And it recently secured an additional $450 million to an existing credit line, bringing the total to $6.5 billion.

In short, if OpenAi goes down it is absolutely dragging SoftBank with it. 

Apollo Global is also in talks to boost the size of a loan to SoftBank by $3.6 billion to $9 billion to help it finance its investment in AI giant OpenAI. On top of that, the firm founded and led by billionaire Masayoshi Son secured an $11.87 billion loan, also to support its OpenAI investment. 

As part of its funding campaign this year, SoftBank has sold almost $15 billion of notes across currencies, making it the biggest junk-rated borrower in bond markets so far in 2026, Bloomberg-compiled data show. There was also a $10 billion loan earlier this year backed by its OpenAI stake.

The deals come amid a broader increase across markets in borrowing costs, as most major economies grapple with inflation. The yield on SoftBank’s dollar bond maturing in 2031 climbed to 8.2% earlier this month, up from as low as 6.7% in January, as spreads have blown out and underlying Treasury yields have risen.

Recent calls by heads of some of the world’s biggest artificial intelligence platforms, including OpenAI, to slow AI advances on safety concerns, have introduced another layer of uncertainty. That contributed recently to an increase in the cost to insure SoftBank’s debt against default to the highest in three years. 

In another hit to SoftBank, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s remarked that the company won’t go public this year – a move that would increase the liquidity of SoftBank’s investments – have been closely watched by investors.   

Citigroup Inc. is acting as the lead bookrunner and a joint global coordinator, alongside Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley for dollar tranches. JPMorgan is the lead bookrunner for the euro-denominated notes and among the joint global coordinators, together with Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank.

“The United States is working on a massive Deal with respect to the purchase of Potash from Belarus,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social just before 11 a.m. ET.

Trump continued, “The pricing would be for substantially less than we are currently paying to Canada, very good news for our Farmers and Ranchers.”

The immediate market impact: Intrepid Potash, CF Industries, and Mosaic shares fell to session lows.

Intrepid Potash: -4.6%

CF Industries: -3.5%

Mosaic: -4.5%

The move follows Trump slapping 50% tariffs on some Canadian goods last month after the US and Canada failed to reach a last-minute trade deal. However, the levies included significant exemptions for major Canadian imports such as oil, gas, and potash. 

However, earlier, Russian news agency Interfax quoted Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko as saying his country lacks the capacity to supply potash fertlizer to the West. 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent emerged from roughly eight hours of talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in New York on Sunday calling the meeting “very successful,” with Washington and Beijing agreeing to new mechanisms covering trade and artificial intelligence just days before President Donald Trump hosts Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington.

The talks, held at JPMorgan Chase headquarters, were intended to lay the groundwork for the Trump-Xi summit later this week. Working-level discussions are continuing as the two sides try to lock down whatever can be agreed before the leaders meet.

On paper, the immediate deliverables were relatively modest. In practice, the timing is anything but.

The two sides agreed to establish a U.S.-China AI dialogue, with Washington proposing a notification mechanism for AI incidents serious enough to reach the national-security level. Bessent framed the concept as an effort to move the world’s two leading AI powers from opacity toward greater transparency and establish some common understanding of threats.

As we noted Friday, artificial intelligence was already emerging as one of the summit’s most consequential issues, sitting alongside trade, semiconductors, Taiwan and rare earths. The two governments also moved to operationalize the previously proposed Board of Trade. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said negotiators are looking for baskets of “non-sensitive” goods that could potentially be treated separately from future trade restrictions. Washington is considering lower-tech Chinese consumer goods, while Beijing is looking at U.S. energy, agricultural products and potentially medical devices.

There was no announced breakthrough, however, on some of the much larger outstanding disputes, including Chinese rare-earth flows, additional purchases of U.S. agricultural goods or Boeing aircraft. Advanced AI-chip export restrictions were also not part of Sunday’s AI discussion.

Perhaps more revealing was how little Beijing itself said about AI. Xinhua described the talks as “candid, in-depth and constructive” before relegating the subject to the final sentence of its brief readout: “They also held dialogues on AI-related issues.”

Chinese state media Xinhua has a very brief report on the Bessent and He Lifeng meeting in New York.

AI only mentioned in last line: “They also held dialogues on AI-related issues.” pic.twitter.com/HsUQmdujJ3

— Kyle Chan (@kyleichan) September 21, 2026

But Xi is also heading to Washington against a considerably different geopolitical backdrop than the one surrounding Trump’s May visit to Beijing.

For starters, two of China’s most attractive sources of discounted crude have been sharply constrained. Venezuela had become an important supplier of cheap heavy crude to Chinese refiners, but those flows fell dramatically after Washington’s intervention in the country’s oil trade earlier this year. As we noted at the time, Chinese refiners initially compensated by increasing purchases of heavily discounted Iranian barrels.

Meanwhile, the renewed U.S. campaign against Iran’s oil exports disrupted shipments to Asia and left tens of millions of barrels in transit or floating storage. As we reported in July, roughly 63 million barrels of Iranian crude were at one point either moving or idling aboard tankers as sanctions pressure intensified. That does not mean China is running out of oil. Beijing accumulated large inventories and can source replacement barrels elsewhere, but the combination of reduced Venezuelan flows and disrupted Iranian supply has diminished some of the cheap-energy advantage Chinese refiners previously enjoyed.

Russia can fill part of that gap, but its own energy infrastructure remains under pressure from Ukrainian long-range attacks on refineries, export terminals and storage facilities. Earlier this month, Goldman estimated that the attacks had taken roughly 300,000 barrels per day of Russian refining capacity offline during August and early September. China has also encountered setbacks around another strategic chokepoint. Panama’s Supreme Court voided Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison’s concessions to operate the Balboa and Cristobal ports at opposite ends of the Panama Canal. As we noted in January, the ruling stripped the legal basis from a China-linked operator at two port facilities adjoining one of the world’s most important shipping routes.

Then there is Greenland. Washington announced Friday that it had reached a security agreement intended to guarantee a long-term U.S. role on the island while preventing Russia, China and other non-NATO countries from establishing military bases there. The arrangement would strengthen the U.S. position in an Arctic region that both Washington and Beijing increasingly view as strategically important. On Monday, Denmark confirmed that the Trump-Greenland deal would boost arctic security. 

The political landscape across parts of Latin America has shifted as well. Reuters described Colombia’s June election of Abelardo De La Espriella as part of a broader regional movement to the right that has also included Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, Panama and Peru.

Brazil is now the major unresolved contest. As we noted last week, Polymarket pricing recently moved in favor of Senator Flavio Bolsonaro over President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Prediction-market prices are not opinion polls, however, and Monday’s BTG Pactual/Nexus survey showed Lula at 46% and Bolsonaro at 45% in a hypothetical runoff, within the survey’s margin of error.

Markets, meanwhile, entered the weekend already showing signs of pressure. According to Newsquawk, the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield closed Friday 6.5bps higher at 5.004%, while the two-year rose 7.5bps to 4.745%, producing a modest bear flattening of the curve.

Yet Xi is hardly arriving in Washington without leverage of his own.

China still controls roughly 70% of global rare-earth mining and more than 85% of refining capacity, leaving Beijing with substantial influence over supply chains critical to U.S. autos, semiconductors, aerospace and defense. As we noted this weekend, disrupted Chinese yttrium shipments alone have already forced Western aerospace, energy and semiconductor companies to scramble for alternatives. Beijing also retains enormous manufacturing capacity, large accumulated energy inventories and considerable purchasing power over everything from American agricultural commodities to aircraft.

In other words, Thursday’s summit is taking shape less as a grand reconciliation than an attempt by two heavily intertwined rivals to fence off portions of the relationship before the next confrontation.

Washington arrives with greater influence over Venezuelan oil flows, intensified pressure on Iran’s exports, a strengthened strategic position around Greenland and reduced China-linked influence around the Panama Canal, while the political map across portions of Latin America has changed considerably.

Beijing arrives with its own formidable counters: dominant critical-mineral supply chains, a resilient manufacturing and export base, substantial energy reserves and enormous leverage as a buyer of U.S. goods. Oh, and let’s not forget – open-weight AI models that have completely upended the frontier AI model. 

CNN, MS NOW and Politico notified the federal government on Monday that they intend to sue the Trump administration to get their White House credentials back, three days after the president announced from Truth Social that he was barring all three from the building.

The outlets have retained First Amendment lawyer Ted Boutrous, who beat the administration on this exact question in 2018, and are seeking emergency relief in federal district court in Washington.

The Ban

Trump announced the ban on Friday, writing that outlets “shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President.” He later added that “there’s something wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposely negative stuff.”

The order was enforced at the White House gates the next morning. On Saturday, journalists arriving to cover the administration were stopped by the Secret Service at the West Wing security checkpoints. CNN’s Betsy Klein, MS NOW’s Akayla Gardner and Politico’s Cheyenne Haslett were turned away; an agent told Gardner her press pass had been deactivated.

By Monday, CNN was removed from pooled coverage duties – the rotating assignment under which one network’s crew feeds video to every other outlet – and CNN and MS NOW were blocked from using their television equipment and camera positions on the grounds. 

On the pool itself: Fox News Washington bureau chief Bryan Boughton, who chairs the TV pool (ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, Fox rotate), emailed pool subscribers that there would be “no replacement pool put in place” after the White House blocked CNN from its assigned duties. The other major networks declined to fill in. Essentially collective action by the networks, including Fox.

https://t.co/h78fUx200J pic.twitter.com/20CHMpdTw3

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) September 18, 2026

Jacqui Heinrich, Fox News senior White House correspondent and current White House Correspondents’ Association president, issued the WHCA statement standing “in defense of our colleagues at CNN, MS NOW, and Politico who are being singled out for doing their jobs.” She said the action violates the First Amendment, that protections “do not depend on whether the president likes a news organization’s coverage,” and called for immediate restoration of access. She also discussed it on Fox News Sunday.

The Filing

In a joint statement, the three outlets said: “Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting.” They called the ban “a more direct assault on the First Amendment” than anything that preceded it, and “a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles.”

All three said they would keep covering the administration either way. Politico global editor-in-chief Jonathan Greenberger told staff in a memo that the outlet would “vigorously defend our First Amendment rights.”

What The Courts Have Already Said

The administration has lost this argument twice before.

In 2018 the White House pulled the hard pass of CNN’s Jim Acosta after a hostile press conference. Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, ordered it restored within days, finding the network likely to win on Fifth Amendment due process – the White House had given Acosta no notice and no chance to respond.

In 2025 the administration barred the Associated Press from the Oval Office and Air Force One after the wire service declined to adopt “Gulf of America.” A district judge ordered full access restored. An appeals court then let the administration keep the AP out of small, restricted spaces, ruling only that it could not bar reporters from areas “generally open to the press,” such as the briefing room.

Neither case went as far as this one. Acosta was one reporter and the AP kept its briefing-room seat. Three outlets barred from the entire complex is a larger question than any court has answered.

Update: (10:05am ET).

Well, that was fast: following a Friday leak that a settlement was imminent, moments ago, Bloomberg reported that Paramount Skydance has reached a settlement with California and other states suing to block its proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Settlement talks came to fruition over the weekend after four states that had opposed terms of a deal outlined with California conceded. The settlement, which is expected to be announced later today, paves the way for one of the largest mergers in Hollywood history.

Lawyers for the states worked all night on the agreement, the person said. Four states — Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut and Minnesota — had been holdouts on a possible settlement, but ultimately concluded the expense of the legal battle was not justifiable without California at the helm, the person said.

The states that held out longer did succeed over the past week in securing independent editorial boards for CBS and CNN as part of the deal, the person said.

The terms, summarized below, are said to include a financial penalty if the company fails to make good on a promise to distribute 30 films per year in theaters.

If the final terms are approved, the agreement would spare Paramount from having to pay late fees to Warner Bros. of $7 million a day, which were to begin on Oct. 1.

* * *

Earlier

Shares of Warner Bros. (WBD) are up 7% and Paramount Skydance (PSKY) gains 6% after the WSJ reported Friday that Paramount was in advanced settlement talks with the California AG Rob Bonta aimed at settling the California-led antitrust lawsuit that would block the company’s proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.

According to the report the two sides met over the weekend and discussed several potential concessions including

• $1.5bn investment by Paramount for production in California
• Maintain both studio lots & stay in California
• Potential sale of cable channels and creation of a board to maintain CNN’s editorial independence
• Financial penalties for producing less than 30 films per year. 

Bonta, a consortium of 12 states, and the Writers Guild of America, sued to block Paramount’s $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. in July. Since then, the two sides have been locked in discussions to resolve the matter. The suing states fear further consolidation in the entertainment industry would reduce jobs and competition. Meanwhile, Paramount, led by CEO David Ellison, argues the combination will create a company large enough to successfully compete with the tech giants that have encroached on the entertainment industry.

The merger would bring the two eponymous Hollywood studios and under one roof, alongside the Paramount Plus and HBO Max streaming services and a slew of cable channels such as CNN, MTV, and TBS, among others.

One of the proposals in the negotiations includes establishing an oversight board to ensure CNN retains editorial independence. Other possibilities include the sale of certain cable channels, according to IBD

Another proposal would impose, according to Bloomberg, a $30 million fine on Paramount for each film that falls short of its previously pledged goal of releasing 30 movies per year in theaters. Ellison and Paramount originally made the pledge to get theater operators to support the merger. However, Bonta had been wary of Paramount’s promise because he considered it difficult to enforce. The fine would seem to address that.

Under the terms of the discussions, Paramount would also be forced to sell its stake in the studio Miramax, according to The Wall Street Journal.