DoorDash to acquire Instacart for $17 billion, creating delivery giant

Source: NBC News

“Delivery giant DoorDash is buying to-your-door grocery service Instacart for $17 billion, the company announced Thursday. The deal means users will be able to order groceries and items from other retailers via DoorDash and its delivery network. The companies said Instacart customers can now shop at more than 50,000 additional stores on top of the nearly 100,000 stores on the Instacart platform today. DashPass and Instacart+ members will now also pay one membership fee instead of two. DoorDash is expected to keep the Instacart brand and its technology. Until the transaction closes, DoorDash and Instacart will continue to operate as separate and independent companies.” (10/29/26)

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/corporations/doordash-acquire-instacart-17-billion-rcna605907

Thomas L. Knapp

Mike Rogers’s Wife Runs a Consultancy That Sells Government Access

Source: The American Prospect
by Zachary Groz

“Earlier this month, former Republican congressman and Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers appeared on the campaign trail with his wife Kristi, handing out $10 gift cards at a Detroit gas station. ‘We’re all struggling with incredibly high gas prices’, Ms. Rogers said in a video taken from the scene. ‘And Mike knows this[‘. What voters would not have known from that video is that Ms. Rogers runs a Beltway trade group representing energy traders, mining companies, and manufacturers in their efforts to influence federal officials and federal policy. According to ethics watchdogs, Ms. Rogers’s position, which has not been previously reported, raises the potential for serious conflicts of interest should her husband win his hotly contested Senate race against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed.” (10/29/26)

https://prospect.org/2026/10/29/mike-rogerss-wife-runs-a-consultancy-that-sells-government-access/

Steve Trinward

North Korea: Regime fires “around a dozen” ballistic missiles amid rising tensions with South Korea

Source: France 24 [French state media]

“North Korea fired ‘around a dozen’ short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Thursday, Seoul’s defence ministry said, less than a week after South Korea proposed talks over a growing border row. The launches follow a slew of recent weapons tests by Pyongyang, including a new precision-guided torpedo system and an intermediate-range hypersonic missile, both of which were said to employ AI technology. … Thursday’s missile flurry comes against the backdrop of growing tensions over a landmine explosion along the heavily fortified border between the two Koreas that saw three South Korean soldiers wounded.” (10/29/26)

https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20261029-north-korea-launches-around-a-dozen-ballistic-missiles-amid-rising-tensions-with-south-korea

Thomas L. Knapp

Fifty Years Ago, Milton Friedman Upended Economic “Expertise”

Source: The Daily Economy
by John Phelan

“Friedman challenged the idea that governments could spend their way to prosperity. Fifty years after receiving the Nobel Prize, his most enduring lessons remain crucial — and largely ignored.” (10/29/26)

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/fifty-years-ago-milton-friedman-upended-economic-expertise/

Thomas L. Knapp

The marginalized and the rioters

Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Madsen Pirie

“The recent rioting in France, and in the past in the UK, set me wondering ifrioting and looting are more likely to be done by groups that feel themselves to be marginalized. There is an important qualification. Feeling marginalized raises the odds of joining a riot. It does not explain who loots, or when. The current European wave makes the point. On October 17th some 550,000 people marched in France against the cost of living by the Interior Ministry’s count, and the processions were mostly calm. The violence and looting broke out on the margins, in cities from Limoges and Lyon to Marseille and Paris.” (10/29/26)

https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/the-marginalized-and-the-rioters

Thomas L. Knapp