The judge overseeing Apple’s trade-secret case against OpenAI said Wednesday he is “highly likely” to grant an injunction barring use of the iPhone maker’s proprietary information, a potential setback for the ChatGPT maker’s push into consumer hardware, Bloomberg reports.

Ahead of the hearing, however, OpenAI delivered its own accusation: a former employee allegedly took confidential files about an unreleased OpenAI device before returning to Apple, then presented OpenAI’s product plans to senior Apple executives. Apple says it found no evidence to substantiate the claims.

The companies that partnered two years ago to bring ChatGPT into Apple’s software are now accusing each other of benefiting from the transfer of confidential hardware information. Apparently, the partnership did not include sharing the blueprints.

A Few Bad Apples

Speaking at Wednesday’s hearing in San Jose, US District Judge Edward Davila signaled that Apple would likely receive an order preventing use of its proprietary information. But he was less enthusiastic about the company’s request for a forensic inspection of all devices and repositories containing Apple trade secrets, describing it as a “huge ask,” according to Bloomberg.

Apple attorney John M. Desmarais responded that the company would narrow its inspections to a limited group of former employees now at OpenAI.

“They don’t have 400 bad apples, your honor, they have a few bad apples and know who they are,” Desmarais said.

The distinction matters: Davila signaled likely preliminary relief, not a final judgment that OpenAI stole Apple’s technology. His reported comments also did not amount to an order shutting down OpenAI’s hardware program. The practical impact would depend on the terms of an actual injunction.

Apple sued OpenAI, hardware chief Tang Yew Tan and former iPhone engineer Chang Liu in July, alleging a scheme to obtain confidential information covering product design, manufacturing, component technologies, testing methods and its supply chain. Apple says that information is being used to help OpenAI enter the consumer hardware market.

OpenAI denies the allegations and argues that Apple is trying to restrain employees from joining a competitor, portraying “ordinary job interviews” as acts of trade secret misappropriation.

“OpenAI is developing a new family of devices designed for the AI era,” the company said in an October court filing quoted by Bloomberg. “OpenAI has no need or desire for Apple’s trade secrets.”

Its defense also challenges Apple’s account of how former employees accessed information. In an earlier public response, OpenAI said current Apple employees had asked Liu to help locate material for their own work. It blamed Apple’s account-management practices for leaving former employees with residual access and said Tan had explicitly instructed his team not to use other companies’ confidential information.

Those competing explanations are now headed for closer scrutiny. According to Reuters, Davila on Tuesday allowed Apple early access to certain OpenAI digital files and approved expedited depositions of three former Apple employees, including Liu and Tan.

OpenAI Says The Files Were Moving In Both Directions

In its new court filing, OpenAI alleged that an unnamed employee joined from Apple, worked at OpenAI for six months, then returned to Apple after sending more than 100 highly confidential files to personal accounts.

The materials allegedly included images of unreleased hardware, engineering and manufacturing data, supplier information and specifications for cosmetic finishes. Some transfers occurred just after midnight in Singapore on June 2, the employee’s final day at OpenAI, the filing said.

OpenAI further alleges that the employee presented its product plans to Apple’s senior leadership, including its vice president of operations in Asia. The company says it is concerned that its confidential work could influence Apple’s upcoming products.

The filing asks for a case schedule that would allow OpenAI to investigate and, if necessary, pursue counterclaims. It does not itself establish that Apple used the information, nor does it constitute a completed countersuit.

Apple rejected the accusations. The company said it has policies preventing employees from using confidential information belonging to former employers and found no evidence supporting OpenAI’s claims, Reuters reported. Apple also accused OpenAI of trying to distract from the evidence underpinning its own lawsuit.

A Hardware Fight With Trillion-Dollar Ambitions

The dispute lands at an awkward time for OpenAI, which is targeting a $1.4 trillion valuation and preparing to go public, according to Bloomberg. Hundreds of Apple employees have moved to OpenAI, turning a software partnership into an increasingly direct contest for hardware talent and expertise.

Bloomberg has reported that OpenAI’s first consumer hardware product will be a doughnut-shaped smart speaker priced above $300. People inside the company view it as a distinct, AI-centered device rather than a copy of something Apple plans to release.

But a different-looking product would not, by itself, resolve allegations about the engineering, manufacturing or supplier information used to develop it. Conversely, hiring engineers who know how to build hardware is not the same thing as stealing their former employer’s files.

That is the line this case will have to establish. For OpenAI, the immediate risk is an injunction whose scope could complicate its hardware development. For Apple, the new allegations threaten to turn a case about protecting its own secrets into a dispute over how both companies handle everyone else’s.

The next generation of AI devices may be revolutionary. The fight over who took what on the way out the door is decidedly old-fashioned.

Relations between Russian and Japan have been on a downward spiral of late, as Tokyo continues cozying up to the US military as well as NATO, and amid a long-simmering dispute over the Kuril Islands, which Japan identifies as its own Northern Territories.

Russia on Tuesday arrested a Japanese journalist, which the Kremlin says is actually a spy operating on behalf of the Japanese government.

The detained Japanese national has been identified as Yuki Imai, who works for Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper – a regional outlet for Japan’s northern island. Hokkaido is one of the country’s four main islands and the daily paper he writes for has large dissemination.

The FSB security agency has accused the man of utilizing media sources to gather intelligence, specifically on Russia’s defense and intelligence capabilities.

Russian officials say they caught him retaining and storing sensitive data, in a saga that sounds parallel to the saga of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in 2023-2024.

Imai was reportedly preparing to exit the country upon his detention in the far eastern Sakhalin region.

Tokyo did not immediately issue a full-throated condemnation, only saying that the government is gathering more information on the identity of the detained and the circumstances of the case.

Toward this end, the Russian ambassador to Japan has been summoned, with a protest lodged over the detention, centered on the Kremlin issuing strong accusations yet without providing any explanation to Tokyo.

Japanese and European officials are now seeking access to the detained suspect, even as Russian state media has been airing footage of him in handcuffs.

The footage shows security raiding where he was staying and proceeding to search his electronic devices and belongings while he was held on the floor.

A Japanese journalist has been detained in Russia on suspicion of spying for Japanese intelligence. The arrest comes amid growing tensions between the two countries over the disputed Kuril Islands. https://t.co/0CVKW4aiRb

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 14, 2026

President Putin had back in August railed against Japan’s stance on the Ukraine conflict, which aligns with NATO’s perspective.

Putin had said: “Japan, our neighboring country, has used the events in Ukraine as a pretext, without examining the causes of the conflict, to pursue an unprovoked policy against Russia.” He had during that time made a highly provocative trip to the disputed Kuril islands. Tokyo strongly protested the visit at the time.

Authored by Jonathan Turley via JonathanTurley.org,

Harper’s Magazine appears to be competing with The Onion in satire this week. It is awarding its First Amendment prize to NPR CEO Katherine Maher. It is akin to awarding a Second Amendment prize to Gavin Newsom. Maher has long been the very symbol of advocacy journalism and bias. Ironically, she is being given an award after steering NPR into the rocks to keep her job and its ideological bias.

Many of us have written for years about NPR’s biased reporting. Not all of this criticism was made out of hostility toward the outlet – many honestly wanted NPR to reverse course and adopt more balanced coverage. That is why, when NPR was searching for a new CEO, I encouraged the board to hire a moderate figure without a history of political advocacy or controversy.

Instead, the board selected Katherine Maher, a former Wikipedia CEO widely criticized for her highly partisan and controversial public statements. She was the personification of advocacy journalism, even declaring that the First Amendment is the “number one challenge” that makes it “tricky” to censor or “modify” content as she would like.

Maher has supported “deplatforming” anyone she deems to be “fascists” and even suggested that she might support “punching Nazis.” She also declared that “our reverence for the truth might be a distraction [in] getting things done.”

As expected, NPR’s bias only got worse. The leadership even changed a longstanding rule barring journalists from joining political protests.

One editor had had enough. Uri Berliner had watched NPR become an echo chamber for the far left with a virtual purging of all conservatives and Republicans from the newsroom. Berliner noted that NPR’s Washington headquarters has 87 registered Democrats among its editors and zero Republicans.

Maher and NPR remained dismissive of such complaints. Maher attacked the award-winning Berliner for causing an “affront to the individual journalists who work incredibly hard.” She called his criticism “profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning.”

Berliner resigned, after noting how Maher’s “divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR” that he had been pointing out.

Rather than trying to reverse the long slide in its audience, Maher doubled down. She ultimately made the best possible case for defunding NPR. She refused to resign, effectively killing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Yet, Harper considers her model of media.

In a press release on the awarding of the James C. Goodale First Amendment Award, Harper’s declared, “As president and CEO of NPR, Katherine Maher has guided one of America’s most important public media institutions through a period of extraordinary political, legal, and financial scrutiny, reaffirming journalism’s essential role in a democratic society.“

Maher has overseen the continued slide in ratings and revenue. In fairness, NPR’s audience has been declining for years. Indeed, that trend has been most pronounced since 2017 – the period when Berliner said the company began to openly pursue a political narrative and agenda to counter Donald Trump. The falling advertising revenue has led to deep staff cuts to deal with budget shortfalls. The shrinking NPR audience remains overwhelmingly white, older, and of course liberal.

Where others see the demise of a once popular and respected outlet, Harper’s sees a success story in an audience that has shed itself of conservative, libertarian, and moderate listeners – much like the audience of Harper’s.

The award is the latest example of how establishment media has become a ship of fools. Journalists now report for each other as the vast majority of Americans seek alternatives. They then give each other awards and continue to replicate their own views and mistakes. The one thing that they will not do is abandon their bias.

Maher is the greatest example of why these outlets refuse to change. Despite being blamed for killing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by refusing to resign, Maher and her staff still benefit personally from advocacy journalism. They are lionized by the left even as their influence and audience plummet.

According to Harper’s, that record is “reaffirming journalism’s essential role in a democratic society.” If Maher embodies the essence of American journalism, let alone a democratic society, why do so few people actually want to listen to her brand of journalism?

It is Uri Berliner who deserves this award, not the CEO who hounded him out for seeking greater balance at NPR.

France’s welfare-state promises are colliding with a bill that keeps getting bigger. Far-left radicals rioting, fiscal crisis, and political uncertainty are exposing the upper limits of a system built on handouts, heavy taxation, uncontrolled borrowing, and mass migration. 

For American voters heading into the midterms in the next several weeks, the warning from France is worth considering as far-left Democratic Socialist of America gains power within the Democratic Party: Promises of more and more and more government handouts come with consequences, just as France is finding out the hard way today. 

As President Emmanuel Macron ends his term in crisis, right-wing Marine Le Pen is positioning herself as the savior candidate as France’s finances rapidly deteriorate.

Her shadow budget proposes shrinking the deficit to 3.7% of economic output next year, well below the government’s 5% target, before bringing it to 2.2% by 2032. Savings would come largely from spending cuts, lower transfers to the EU and reduced migrant spending.

The proposals come as high uncertainty clouds the political landscape and deteriorating public finances drive up France’s borrowing costs. Le Pen has warned that maintaining the current spending trajectory risks a default crisis.

it’s been a while since we had a European sovereign debt crisis *FRANCE-GERMANY 10-YEAR YIELD SPREAD WIDENS 8BPS TO 135BPS France CDS widest in 13 years https://t.co/9opJUmD2uS

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 1, 2026

The size of the welfare state helps put things into proportion. Public spending has topped 57.3% of France’s economic output in 2025, the second-highest share in the European Union. Public debt is projected to reach 120% of GDP in 2027, behind only Greece and Italy among EU members. 

Higher borrowing costs make funding the welfare increasingly impossible. Spending more on debt service leaves the government less flexibility to fund services, absorb economic shocks, or deliver the next round of handout promises as services continue to degrade. 

Related:

• France Is Imploding, Energy Is Surging… And Markets Aren’t Panicking. Yet.

The choices of what the government has proposed become increasingly uncomfortable: higher taxes, spending cuts, or still more borrowing 

That is the backdrop to a warning described by French technology entrepreneur Brivael Le Pogam, co-founder of AI video startup Argil, aimed at Americans considering voting Democrat.

“I come from your future,” he wrote on X.

In the warning letter to America, he said France already embraced many of the policies American progressives promote, only to discover that more and more government handouts don’t translate into the socialist utopia politicians pitched; in fact, quite the opposite.  

“The promise was protection. The result is stagnation,” Le Pogam wrote.

Le Pogam wrote: 

I’m French. I want to talk to Americans who are about to vote Democrat. Not to insult you. To warn you.

I come from your future.

In France we did everything your progressive politicians promise. Free healthcare, free college, generous welfare, strong unions, heavy regulation, high taxes on the rich, a state that takes care of everything. Public spending close to 57% of GDP, one of the highest on the planet. On paper, it’s the dream.

Here’s what it looks like from the inside. France hasn’t passed a balanced budget since 1974. Our debt is above 3,300 billion euros. Interest on that debt is becoming one of the biggest items in the national budget. Our hospitals are collapsing despite record funding. Our schools rank lower every year. Young people with degrees can’t afford an apartment in the city they were born in. Our best engineers leave for London, Zurich and San Francisco. And the rich you wanted to tax? They left too, and took the jobs with them.

The promise was protection. The result is stagnation.

The worst part is that nobody in France voted for decline. Every single step sounded generous, compassionate, reasonable. One more program. One more regulation. One more tax to fund it. Each step alone makes sense. Fifty years of them, and you wake up in a country that can no longer build a nuclear plant on time or keep its streets safe.

I love America because it’s the one place on earth where people still believe they can build something from nothing. I came to Silicon Valley as a self-taught kid and it changed my life. That spirit is the most precious thing your country has.

Before you vote, ask yourself one question: is the program you’re voting for making America more like America, or more like France?

Trust me. You don’t want to be France.

I’m French. I want to talk to Americans who are about to vote Democrat. Not to insult you. To warn you. I come from your future. In France we did everything your progressive politicians promise. Free healthcare, free college, generous welfare, strong unions, heavy regulation, high taxes on the rich, a state that takes care of everything. Public spending close to 57% of GDP, one of the highest on the planet. On paper, it’s the dream. Here’s what it looks like from the inside. France hasn’t passed a balanced budget since 1974. Our debt is above 3,300 billion euros. Interest on that debt is becoming one of the biggest items in the national budget. Our hospitals are collapsing despite record funding. Our schools rank lower every year. Young people with degrees can’t afford an apartment in the city they were born in. Our best engineers leave for London, Zurich and San Francisco. And the rich you wanted to tax? They left too, and took the jobs with them. The promise was protection. The result is stagnation. The worst part is that nobody in France voted for decline. Every single step sounded generous, compassionate, reasonable. One more program. One more regulation. One more tax to fund it. Each step alone makes sense. Fifty years of them, and you wake up in a country that can no longer build a nuclear plant on time or keep its streets safe. I love America because it’s the one place on earth where people still believe they can build something from nothing. I came to Silicon Valley as a self-taught kid and it changed my life. That spirit is the most precious thing your country has. Before you vote, ask yourself one question: is the program you’re voting for making America more like America, or more like France? Trust me. You don’t want to be France.

— Brivael Le Pogam (@brivael) October 13, 2026

Le Pogam wrote in a second warning: 

My post about France went viral. Thousands of likes. Many Americans told me: “Democrats aren’t socialists. America will never be France.” I want to answer that seriously, step by step.

Start with a simple observation. Look at what has gotten cheaper in America over the last 25 years: TVs, phones, software, clothes, toys. Now look at what has exploded: college tuition, healthcare, childcare, housing.

What separates the two lists? The first lives in competitive markets. The second is exactly where government is most involved: subsidies, mandates, licensing, zoning, regulation.

College. Washington lends students almost unlimited money. Universities know the money will always come, so they raise tuition and hire more administrators. The student pays the bill for twenty years. More government money, higher prices.

Housing. Why can’t a nurse buy a home in the city where she works? Not because of capitalism. Because of zoning laws, permits, environmental reviews, years of procedure to build a single building. The most expensive places to live in America are the places where it’s hardest to build. When building is nearly illegal, prices explode.

Healthcare. The patient almost never sees the price. A third party pays, regulations limit who can compete, and costs climb year after year with no one able to say no.

So here is the trap. The problems you suffer from are not the failure of free markets. They are the places where the market has already been replaced by the state. And the solution you’re being offered is more of the same.

That’s the Trojan horse. It always works the same way. A real problem. A generous-sounding promise. A program that makes things worse. Then the failure of that program becomes the argument for the next one. People who lived under communism in Poland learned to recognize the lie and the mask the lie wears. The lie never presents itself as a lie. It presents itself as compassion.

In France we are at the end of that road. Debt we can never repay. Young people who can’t afford a home. Our best people leaving. And every few years our cities burn. Nobody voted for this. They voted for one more generous promise, fifty years in a row.

If you’re a Republican, share this with the Democrat in your life. Not to win an argument. To start a conversation.

If you’re a Democrat, I’m not asking you to switch teams. I’m asking you to look at the pattern. Wherever the state took over, life became unaffordable. Don’t fix the failures of government with more government.

Stay American. Ask for less state, not more.

My post about France went viral. Thousands of likes. Many Americans told me: “Democrats aren’t socialists. America will never be France.” I want to answer that seriously, step by step. Start with a simple observation. Look at what has gotten cheaper in America over the last 25 years: TVs, phones, software, clothes, toys. Now look at what has exploded: college tuition, healthcare, childcare, housing. What separates the two lists? The first lives in competitive markets. The second is exactly where government is most involved: subsidies, mandates, licensing, zoning, regulation. College. Washington lends students almost unlimited money. Universities know the money will always come, so they raise tuition and hire more administrators. The student pays the bill for twenty years. More government money, higher prices. Housing. Why can’t a nurse buy a home in the city where she works? Not because of capitalism. Because of zoning laws, permits, environmental reviews, years of procedure to build a single building. The most expensive places to live in America are the places where it’s hardest to build. When building is nearly illegal, prices explode. Healthcare. The patient almost never sees the price. A third party pays, regulations limit who can compete, and costs climb year after year with no one able to say no. So here is the trap. The problems you suffer from are not the failure of free markets. They are the places where the market has already been replaced by the state. And the solution you’re being offered is more of the same. That’s the Trojan horse. It always works the same way. A real problem. A generous-sounding promise. A program that makes things worse. Then the failure of that program becomes the argument for the next one. People who lived under communism in Poland learned to recognize the lie and the mask the lie wears. The lie never presents itself as a lie. It presents itself as compassion. In France we are at the end of that road. Debt we can never repay. Young people who can’t afford a home. Our best people leaving. And every few years our cities burn. Nobody voted for this. They voted for one more generous promise, fifty years in a row. If you’re a Republican, share this with the Democrat in your life. Not to win an argument. To start a conversation. If you’re a Democrat, I’m not asking you to switch teams. I’m asking you to look at the pattern. Wherever the state took over, life became unaffordable. Don’t fix the failures of government with more government. Stay American. Ask for less state, not more.

— Brivael Le Pogam (@brivael) October 13, 2026

The worst part is that no sound person voted for this Western decline. 

Authored by David Stockman via InternationalMan.com,

It is now abundantly obvious that the FOMC and its clumsy rate-pegging and credit printing tools are not remotely fit for purpose.

The real impact is dramatically displayed in the graph below. It shows that after 1987 the growth rate of household assets relative to earned income (i.e. excluding transfer payments) took off like a bat out of hell.

Indeed, as shown in the graph during the heyday of the 1950s through 1987, the nominal value of household assets tracked the growth of earned income almost in lockstep, with the ratio relatively flat through the 37-year period, posting at 5.8X in Q2 1987, up slightly from an average 5.4X ratio during 1950 to 1954, when the US economy moved into its strong post-WWII growth era.

The virtually nonexistent slope of the trend line (solid green below) during that era of unprecedented middle-class prosperity means that had it continued for another 39 years through Q2 2026, the end point ratio today would be just 5.9X, not the actual ratio of 10.0X.

So, yes, the Fed’s red-hot printing press did make a whopping difference. To wit, the household and nonprofit sectors today hold the staggering total of $90 trillion more in assets of all types – from owner-occupied residences to cash accounts, bonds and stock portfolios – than would have been the case based on pre-1987 asset-to-income trends.

What this means is that the American household sector did not earn and save its way to the huge gains in assets and net worth reported by the Fed’s Flow of Funds data. That is to say, net worth is up from almost $11 trillion to $196 trillion since 1989, but that is not mainly due to savings from the growth of earned income.

As shown, below borrowings helped modestly, rising 5.3% per annum or modestly ahead of the 4.6% per annum growth of personal income ex-transfer payments. But the real catalyst, obviously, was the far faster growth of asset values, which rose at a compound annual rate of 6.1% during the period.

At the end of the day, however, the comparison which says it all is the gap between asset growth at 6.1% per annum and income growth of just 4.6%. In a word, assets grew 35% faster than income over that three and one-half decade period because, well, the Fed inflated them with its red-hot printing presses.

For want of doubt, we show the opposite trend in the household savings data, meaning that the American public has not saved its way to riches since Alan Greenspan discovered the printing presses in the basement of the Eccles Building soon after he took office in the midst of Black Monday’s 23% collapse of the Stock Market on October 19, 1987.

The juxtaposition of the savings graph below and asset graph above, in fact, tells you all you need to know. Since 1975, the true household savings rate – measured as personal savings divided by household income less transfer payments (used as the denominator here because the government’s 160 million Welfare State beneficiaries save virtually nothing on a net basis) has been plodding steadily lower (dotted red line), from an average of 13.3% of income in 1975 to 6.7% of income at present.

At the same time, the constant dollar level of savings pencils out anemically, indeed. The growth rate (blue lines) in real terms has been just 0.6% per annum since 1975.

So, no, America did not save its way to $196 trillion of net worth after the era of Keynesian monetary central planning commenced in October 1987. The Fed inflated asset prices to a fare-the-well.

Of course, all this inflated net worth is just the half of it. The more onerous dimension lies in who got it or in the distribution. In that regard, the graph below speaks for itself. Since Q1 1989, household net worth has risen by an aggregate of $154 trillion.

As it happened, however, the bottom 50% got 3% of the gain, while the top 1% harvested 32% of the loot. Some earnest commentators are now mystified as to why the hoary doctrine of socialism seems to be making a comeback in certain quarters of American politics.

The geniuses at the Fed, however, should not be confused at all. It’s all their handiwork.

In the land of the central bank printing presses, the rich do get richer, indeed, and not because they earned it on an honest free market operating based on sound money.

In fact, the chart above reflects the true failure of Greenspanian central banking. And when the massive inflationary bubbles embodied in this graph above finally do blow sky-high, don’t blame it on the free market.

In short, what amounts to free money has been the real culprit all along.

Domino’s Pizza shares fell 3% in the early US cash session after the quick-service restaurant chain reported weaker-than-expected same-store sales growth in the US and internationally, despite earnings and revenue that beat Bloomberg Consensus estimates.

US same-store sales rose .3%, below the .72% Bloomberg Consensus estimate. International comparable sales rose only 0.2%, missing expectations of 1.19% growth.

The dismal earnings results lead us to Bloomberg reporter Ann Gehan’s note on how budget-conscious consumers and the “proteinmaxxing” trend have shifted consumer tastes from pizza to chicken.

Gehan adds more color:

Pizza chains including Domino’s, Papa John’s International Inc. and Pizza Hut, now owned by private equity firm LongRange Capital, face an uphill battle as budget-conscious consumers eat out less and, when they do, increasingly favor chicken amid the “proteinmaxxing” trend.

Gehan provided a chart showing pizza QSR chains struggling while chicken-focused QSR chains and Cava report stronger same-store sales growth so far this year.

The divergence suggests chicken- and protein-focused meals are capturing a larger share of spending at select US QSR chains. For budget-conscious consumers, the combination of affordability and the “proteinmaxxing” trend may be shifting meal preferences toward chicken. Then again, take a GLP-1 to curb cravings.

On the same day we asked how much of the grid’s bill is really AI’s, the Department of Energy offered a partial answer.

@TVAnews and @ENERGY are supporting readily-available, affordable energy that powers Tennessee and the nation. @POTUS is lowering costs for over 2 million families and businesses while bringing new innovation and employment to the Volunteer State to the tune of 800 jobs.

— Senator Bill Hagerty (@SenatorHagerty) October 13, 2026

On Tuesday, DOE said it plans to help the Tennessee Valley Authority fund 84 transmission and distribution projects across eight states to add about 2.5 gigawatts of grid capacity. The award totals roughly $581 million, with $250 million in federal money and $331 million from TVA.

“America’s electric grid cannot become a roadblock to economic growth,” said Katie Jereza, who heads DOE’s Office of Electricity.

Deputy Energy Secretary James Danly went further, blaming “years of misguided energy policies under the previous administration” for leaving the bulk power system “less robust than it should be.”

From $250 Million To $10.5 Billion

The announcement for TVA support from the DOE is alongside the ongoing SPARK program under the GRIP program… If the acronyms are starting to blur together, here is the simple version:

• Tuesday’s award is for $250 million, written to TVA and its local power companies.
• SPARK, DOE’s acronym for “Speed to Power through Accelerated Reconductoring and other Key Advanced Transmission Technology Upgrades,” is the bigger, nationwide program. It puts $1.9 billion of federal money, plus $3.35 billion in cost share, into 31 projects in 26 states that will reconductor or rebuild more than 1,500 miles of existing lines and free up over 23 GW of capacity. TVA’s slice is about $80 million to upgrade roughly 125 miles of lines in Tennessee, Alabama and North Carolina with advanced conductors, adding about 1,900 MW.
• GRIP, the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships program, is the even bigger $10.5 billion pot created by the 2021 infrastructure law, and it pays for both SPARK and the new award announced Tuesday afternoon.

Add TVA’s two awards together and it has nearly $741 million in planned grid investment for more than 4,300 MW of added grid capacity.

The Real Bottleneck

As we just covered, the hyperscalers are fighting over how much of the grid’s bill is theirs, with one telling Senate staff that shared upgrades provide a “system benefit which should be shared among all ratepayers.”

Tuesday’s award is that argument in practice, with taxpayers and utility customers splitting the cost of wires everyone uses, on a national grid where, by the senators’ own count, about a third of transmission and half of distribution infrastructure is “near or beyond its useful life.”

You can build all the combined-cycle gas plants, reactors and geothermal wells you want, and line up every data center and electrified factory in the country to buy their output. If the grid can’t carry the power from one to the other, none of it matters.

“there is currently a 3.7-year wait in the US just to get permission to connect to the power grid. Before a single cable is laid or transformer is purchased, AI data centers are stuck in a massive traffic jam.” – Goldman it’s ok, hyperscalers can just recycle electricity, same way they do revenue

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 28, 2026

PJM has already blatantly exposed where the real problem is, as they cried desperately about a need for emergency power. When Constellation showed up with the Three Mile Island reactor restart, PJM told the once-connected nuclear plant to wait patiently for a few years while they set up the connection.

TVA is about to learn that lesson, at scale. Its new long-term plan suggests the region will need 11 to 32 GW of additional generation by 2040. TVA already has 4,120 MW of new capacity under construction, floated as much as 26 GW of new gas in its June draft, and was picked last December for a $400 million DOE award to deploy a newly-licensed GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300 small modular reactor at Clinch River.

Every one of those megawatts still needs a way to actually get transported from supply to demand. No amount of new generation fixes a lack of transmission.

Goldman: Power Is “The Primary Risk”

Goldman has been making the same point all year, and it has singled out Tennessee. In May, the commodities team flagged Tennessee as one of the markets “likely to see constrained data center additions since the market is already critically tight.”

In February, the same team told clients that local opposition to data centers was not the real threat: “Ultimately, we believe power tightness remains the primary risk that could slow the US in the AI race with China.” And Goldman now sees behind-the-meter generation powering a quarter of all data centers by 2030. 

In other words, a quarter of the industry may simply stop waiting for the grid.

Update(1240ET): While dozens of ships have come under attack by Iran in the Hormuz Strait and nearby areas since the war began, resulting in damage and fires aboard vessels, it remains much more rare for a tanker to sink at a total loss.

However, the WSJ has confirmed Wednesday that two have completely sunk in the last 24 hours, the first of which we reported on below. Here are the further details via WSJ:

Two Emirati cargo ships have sunk in the past 24 hours after being struck in the Strait of Hormuz, an escalation with little precedent as Iran ramps up attacks to levels not seen since the war started.

The GFS Pride and the Cape Dao have both gone down, said Pakistan’s National Hydrographic Office, which monitors maritime activities in Middle Eastern waters. Maritime security companies confirmed the two losses Wednesday and said this was the first such incident in months.

The sinkings came as the U.S. military has been successfully shepherding more Gulf oil through the strait while bottling up Iranian oil exports with a naval blockade and sanctions.

One of the ships that sunk had been in distress and apparently abandoned since being first attacked on September 23, according to UN shipping agency data.

Despite many attacks, the WSJ notes that the last ship sinking in the waters occurred back in March. It details, “The vessel was hit by a projectile that sparked a fire in its engine room, forcing the crew to abandon the vessel. A tugboat sent to rescue the ship was also struck. Four seafarers died and three were severely injured, according to the International Maritime Organization.”

On Wednesday Iranian state media has been widely circulating fresh footage of one of the sinkings:

🇮🇷 Iranian media has released footage of what it says is a container ship sinking in the Strait of Hormuz, after hitting a mine. Read more: https://t.co/4LfekmsNG4 https://t.co/SRAiUVkpP7

— Roya News English (@RoyaNewsEnglish) October 14, 2026

*  *  *

Iran has quite obviously been surging its attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz in an attempt to wreak uncertainty and economic havoc for the Trump administration ahead of the November midterm elections, undermining a recent recovery in Persian Gulf oil shipments.

The attacks are now coming so frequently it is difficult to deep track. One source tallies of recent days, “Twelve vessels were attacked between October 5 and 11, including six on Sunday alone, and on Tuesday a tanker and a container ship were struck by unknown projectiles, according to UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), marking one of the most intense periods of attacks since the war began.”

Other outlets also confirmed the single day record of six attacks this past Sunday. It some time for confirmation of all these vessels’ status to emerge amid the fog of war in the contested strait.

The prominent and outspoken secretary of Iran’s supreme national security council, Mohsen Rezaei, has meanwhile affirmed that the IRGC was striking vessels nightly, and is likely to keep doing so.

“We target five or six of these every night,” he told state TV. “Hormuz is under the control of the Islamic Republic.“

While the US has been touting a successful naval escort mission to get unprecedented numbers (for wartime) of tankers through the strait, Rezaei described that the US is merely using small craft to smuggle Iranian oil on to larger tankers out at sea, and then doing ship-to-ship transfer.

Tehran has claimed further that American naval ships don’t dare come close to Iran’s shores, on fears of being hit.

On Wednesday, Iran’s military has announced yet another attack, this time on a container ship. Al Jazeera reports of the notification:

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says that a container ship “carrying contraband” and attempting to pass through “an unauthorized and dangerous route” in the Strait of Hormuz exploded and caught fire after striking a naval mine.

Footage published by the IRGC shows a container ship it calls “illegal” sinking south of the Strait of Hormuz with 2,500 containers aboard. https://t.co/lCgeztmHSp

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) October 14, 2026

Overall for the month of October we’ve seen at least 24 foreign vessels targeted and hit by Iranian forces. If this keeps up, oil prices are likely to be soaring by month’s end.

“At least 18 ships were hit between Oct. 1 and Oct. 11, according to the UKMTO, with another six attacks recorded by other European security sources, the Financial Times reported,” the NY Post comments.

Authored by Stacy Robinson via The Epoch Times,

A federal judge has extended his order forbidding President Donald Trump from excluding certain media outlets from accessing the White House.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly issued a memorandum opinion on Oct. 13 granting a preliminary injunction sought by CNN, MS NOW, and Politico to maintain the block on the president’s press ban, finding that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their First Amendment discrimination claim.

Trump announced on social media last month that he was banning CNN, MS NOW, and Politico “as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!”

After the outlets sued, Kelly ordered the White House to temporarily restore access on Sept. 24, ruling that the government likely violated their Fifth Amendment due process rights by abruptly taking away their press passes without notice or a hearing.

Attorney Theodore J. Boutrous Jr. told the court at an Oct. 8 hearing that Trump wanted to ban the outlets because of their viewpoints.

“He doesn’t like scrutiny of his policies, he doesn’t like the reporting, he wants more good press,” he said.

Department of Justice Senior Counsel Michael Velchik pushed back, telling the court that Trump was more concerned with media outlets allegedly fabricating quotes, splicing together interviews, and using anonymous sources.

“He doesn’t mind negative press stories if he deserves them. He has problems with trafficking verifiable falsehoods,” he said.

The government argued it was necessary to exclude those outlets in the name of national security and to prevent leaks of classified information.

But Kelly said, when originally ordering the White House to restore access, that there was no evidence on the record to back up that claim.

In his ruling on Tuesday, Kelly said Trump likely revoked their access to the White House press area “because he believes their coverage of him and his administration is generally inaccurate and biased,” rather than for legitimate government interests such as maintaining professional standards for journalists or protecting national security.

“Simply put, that is unlawful viewpoint discrimination,” the judge wrote.

Kelly also said the plaintiffs were likely to succeed in their claim that the administration denied them due process rights under the Fifth Amendment by revoking their access without prior notice.

The judge determined that the administration’s letters outlining the reasons for the hard passes revocation were inadequate because the outlets received the letters only after the ban was implemented.

The letters cited reports that the administration said “threatened national security and spread falsehoods,” including coverage of “‘top-secret’ construction details” about the East Wing bunker and funding for the White House ballroom.

The White House said the reports included detailed descriptions of how the Secret Service would invest in security improvements, according to the government’s Sept. 22 court filing.

The judge said there was no evidence that Trump had relied on the reported incidents cited in the letters when deciding to revoke the outlets’ hard passes.

The Epoch Times reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

Trump signaled on Sept. 21 that he expected the judge to rule in favor of the outlets and said his administration would appeal if that happened.

“In any event, I have an obligation to fight for the Success and Safety of our Country. FAKE NEWS IS A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY, and I will do whatever is necessary to make sure that the U.S.A. thrives,” he wrote in a Truth Social post.

Yesterday morning we first pointed out that amid the ongoing data center bond rout (which we have been discussing virtually every day for the past month), the G-spread of former bitcoin miner turned data center, CoreWeave, had breached the “distressed” level of 1,000bps on its bonds due 2032, as the yield on the same paper topped 15% for the first time ever (a yield that one would normally find in CCC-rated junk bonds or worse) with its bonds trading below 80 cents on the dollar, a level known as deep distress.

Data Center debt getting smoked today. Coreweave unsecureds tag 1000 g-sprd bps for the first time ever. Oracle unsecureds trading like deep junk. Even Meta’s Project Beignet about to hit record wide https://t.co/bcwfOwViRn

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 13, 2026

The observation caught the attention of Elon Musk who responded to us, stating that “It’s not that supercomputer data centers are not in high demand, as they definitely are. However, getting money to build complex hardware systems with massive power, cooling & networking is not the same as doing it.“

One day later, the stock market finally noticed, what credit has been screaming for months – and we have been warning about for weeks and weeks and weeks – with CRWV stock which Jim Cramer said is the only neoclouod he trusts…

Cramer is saying that $CRWV is the only neocloud he trusts.

Meanwhile their bonds just spiked to 15%+ and they’re sitting on $35 Billion of debt with interest eating ~25% of revenue in Q2. Yet $IREN and $NBIS have way cleaner balance sheets. Hmmmm 🤨 pic.twitter.com/HR63FuJF43

— Zeek | Insights 📊 (@ZeekTyt) October 14, 2026

… cratering more than 15%, its third biggest drop on record, and just shy of all time lows at $60.

Sure enough, the same equity guys who were pumping the name every day for months even as its credit spread were blowing out, are now turning against it, and on Wednesday, D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria, who has correctly referred to CoreWeave as “the subprime tranche” of AI (although we would say Oracle is just the same, and far more important) warned on a podcast that the “equity value is going to zero” if the company becomes unable to pay its expensive debt obligations.

Luria’s radar went off when he realized that CoreWeave is borrowing money at around 9%, but it is earning returns of just 1% on its investments. Even the 4% to 5% he said the company is targeting would fall short of its borrowing costs. He compared it to taking out a loan at 9% to buy Treasury bonds yielding 5%, a strategy he argued would destroy value.

CoreWeave – – considered the original “neocloud”, a batch of cloud-computing providers many of whom were formerly bitcoin miners, now focused on the artificial-intelligence market – reported $640 million in second-quarter net interest expense, more than double the $267 million recorded a year earlier, alongside a $626 million net loss. 

CreditSights analyst Jordan Chalfin told the Financial Times that CoreWeave had been “very creative” with its financing, but investors were worried about its long data-center leases and shorter customer contracts.

“If there’s an overbuild, why would [customers] renew their contract with CoreWeave?” he asked. 

The yield on a Coreweave bond maturing in 2032 hit nearly 15 per cent on Tuesday, up by around 1.5 percentage points over the past week.

Helpfully, Bloomberg chimes in that in a severe restructuring, creditors would have priority over shareholders. Yes, it’s called a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 

That said, clearly Gil doesn’t think that happens soon: he still has a Neutral rating with a $100 price targe on the stock: about 50% higher than where it is trading today. In fact, of the 49 analysts covering CRWV, just 4 have a Sell/Reduce.

CRWV Co-founder Brannin McBee offered a sharply different view to the FT: “I don’t look at that as scary debt at all,” he said, arguing that borrowing allows CoreWeave to expand faster. (Narrator: the company’s debt is, in fact, debt).

The company is seeking cheaper financing from insurers to continue building AI infrastructure. Its combined debt and lease obligations stood at approximately $52 billion at the end of June. Visible Alpha consensus forecasts cited by the FT project $71 billion in cumulative negative free cash flow between 2026 and 2028.

The problem is that with the unsecured now trading above 15%, he won’t be able to find anything cheaper than its current capital structure. Unless, of course, the company files and there is a debt for equity exchange. Then yes – the new debt of the reorganized company would be far cheaper 🙂

McBee said CoreWeave as a whole could also reach investment grade within “a few years” even though analysts forecast negative free cash flow of about $25bn this year, $28bn next year and $18bn in 202.  But McBee argued the spending reflects expansion rather than weakness in the existing business. “If we stop building today, [we’d be] immensely cash-flow positive,” he said, unintentionally exposing the biggest weakness of the entire AI bubble: the moment one stops “building”, it’s all over… and so instead of doing that, every company would rather to just layer itself with as much debt as it possibly can to delay the inevitable day when it does, in fact, stop building. 

Judging by the stock price, that day is coming fast, and as an aside, on Polymarket, traders are now assigning a 17% probability to CoreWeave announcing bankruptcy by December 2027, with approximately $50,600 traded. The odds rise to 27% by 2029.

Not everyone is waiting to find out if the skeptics are right: three of CoreWeave’s co-founders have sold about $2bn of shares this year, according to S&P Capital IQ. McBee said the founders were diversifying their personal wealth, but that most of it was still in CoreWeave shares.

“We could go off to a ranch and retire,” he said. “But you’re watching us show up every single day and put our time into this business.”

For now… yes, because the bond market is willing to let you show up every single day. Once it stops, we sure hope for McBee’s ranch has a moat to protect it from all of its not so happy shareholders.