“Ripple has struck a deal with Robinhood to expand the reach of its digital dollar, RLUSD, strengthening trading and financing links between their institutional businesses and improving Robinhood’s internal money management. The partnership involves using RLUSD to settle institutional trades, automate Robinhood’s treasury operations and expand access to digital asset trading and financing through Ripple Prime and Bitstamp, the global crypto exchange acquired by Robinhood last year. It also helps meet Robinhood’s ambition of becoming a global financial superapp, centralizing its customers’ financial lives while expanding the underlying infrastructure that can serve both retail and institutional clients.” (10/27/26)
“The mounted skeleton of a newly-identified dinosaur once mistaken for a young Tyrannosaurus rex has sold at auction for a colossal $47.3m (£35.5m). Nicknamed Jodi, the roughly 10-foot-tall (3m) skeleton was auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York. The sale comes a year after researchers confirmed that the skeleton belongs to a distinct genus. The Late Cretaceous carnivore was expected to fetch at least $9m when it went under the hammer on Tuesday. The auction comes after Sotheby’s sold a Tyrannosaurus rex, dubbed Gus, for a record $50.1m in July. The sale has reignited debate in the scientific community over whether dinosaur remains should be sold privately or displayed publicly. Sotheby’s described Jodi as an ‘excellent exhibition-ready’ skeleton with about 191 fossil-bone elements and ‘a beautifully preserved, virtually complete skull’.” (10/27/26)
“New orders for key U.S.-manufactured capital goods increased in September and shipments of these products surged, suggesting business spending on equipment maintained a robust growth pace in the third quarter, though doubts are mounting over the huge cost of building out AI infrastructure. Non-defence capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending, rose 0.5 per cent last month after an unrevised 1.6-per-cent jump in August, the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau said on Tuesday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast these so-called core capital goods orders would advance by 0.7 per cent.” (10/27/26)
“Federal law enforcement agents searched a Beverly Hills home early Tuesday as part of an investigation into Eric Swalwell, who resigned from Congress amid a wave of sexual misconduct allegations, two people familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press. Agents searched the home of wealthy developer and Swalwell donor Stephen Cloobeck, where the ex-Congressman spent time before resigning from office in April, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation. Swalwell [D-CA] has denied criminal wrongdoing. Messages seeking comment were left for Swalwell’s lawyer and for a lawyer who represented Cloobeck in another matter. Cloobeck, who founded the Diamond Resorts International timeshare company and ran last year for California governor, contributed more than $23,000 to Swalwell’s congressional campaigns since 2017, federal campaign finance records show. He told the New York Post in April that he cut ties with Swalwell as accusations against him mounted.” (10/27/26)
“A court in India has ordered the takedown of an online documentary posted by Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and billionaire Gautam Adani of cronyism, after Adani Enterprises sued, calling it defamatory. Adani’s flagship firm, Adani Enterprises, told the High Court in the eastern city of Kolkata that the documentary, which garnered millions of views on social media in recent days, was riddled with false content and had prompted inquiries from some investors in the company, whom the court order did not name. The documentary ‘is not a news report or an account of proceedings. It is a dramatised narrative’, the court’s takedown order for YouTube, X and Meta Platforms issued late on Monday said.” (10/27/26)
“The leaders of Finland and Norway have held a joint call with Vladimir Putin – a rare contact between the Russian president and European leaders. The aim was looking at ‘future negotiations to help to end the war’ in Ukraine, the offices of President Alexander Stubb and Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said. Their initiative was not on behalf of ‘Europe as a whole’. After the call, Putin said ‘confrontational’ EU and Nato policies were prolonging the war which began when Russia launched a full-scale invasion in 2022.” [editor’s note” My favorite rumor/meme is that Putin would negotiate Ukraine to peace if US would extradite Anthony Fauci to Russia to stand trial – SAT](10/27/26)
“Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu, who was charged with treason last year, has started a hunger strike to protest his inability to access his lawyers, his party said. Lissu, who leads the CHADEMA opposition party and came second in the 2020 presidential election, began refusing food on Monday after his lawyers were denied entry to the prison where he is being held, party spokesperson Brenda Rupia wrote on X. … Lissu was charged with treason over what prosecutors said was a speech calling on the public to rebel and disrupt last year’s general election. He pleaded not guilty to the charges, which his lawyer has said are politically motivated.” (10/27/26)
“A federal judge on Tuesday scolded the Justice Department for its unorthodox handling of a criminal case against two former FBI officials accused of making false statements to Congress about their knowledge of a laptop the Justice Department says belonged to Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joe Biden. U.S. Magistrate Zia Faruqui struck from the record an amended criminal complaint filed in the middle of the night by the Justice Department that added a new obstruction charge against the two former officials, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides. Such charging documents require sign-off from a judge that probable cause exists that a crime was committed by a defendant, and this complaint lacked that. ‘It is not our court’s practice — and I think it is appropriately not our practice — that unsigned complaints are filed on the docket,’ Faruqui said.” (10/27/26)
“A prisoner on Monday lost his challenge to an Australian state’s ban on inmates eating Vegemite after he argued in court that withholding the polarizing yeast-based spread breached his human right to ‘enjoy his culture as an Australian.’ Andre McKechnie, 55, who is serving a life sentence for murder, took his battle for the salty, sticky, black-brown byproduct of brewing beer to the Supreme Court of the state of Victoria last year. … Justice Claire Harris accepted prison authorities’ refusal to allow McKechnie Vegemite ‘limited his cultural rights’ under the charter. But she found the ban was justified in meeting authorities’ goals of removing illicit drugs and alcohol from the prison system. … Prison officials testified at a trial in July that Vegemite had been banned throughout the state’s 12 prisons for the past 20 years because it could potentially impair sniffer dogs’ ability to detect narcotics and could be used to brew alcohol because of its yeast content.” (10/27/26)
“Police in Brazil say they have cancelled the passports of the defeated right-wing presidential candidate, Flávio Bolsonaro, after he failed to comply with an order to surrender the documents. On Monday, the Supreme Court ordered Bolsonaro to hand his passports over to police within 24 hours as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering, which he denies. At the time, Bolsonaro said he had no plans to leave the country, and insisted that he would stay in Brazil to lead the opposition to his left-wing rival, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. However, the deadline has passed without the senator surrendering the passports, prompting speculation he may have left the country. Federal officers are checking border crossings to establish if Bolsonaro may have travelled to neighbouring Argentina, according to a police source consulted by BBC News Brasil.” (10/27/26)
