Trump is entering the washed-up rock star phase of his presidency

Trump is entering the washed-up rock star phase of his presidency


MS NOW · 2 hours ago
by Matthew Bartlett · Elections

The end is here, the beginning is near. After two brutal years of utter nonsense, abuse and neglect at home and abroad, for the president and his party, gravity is not just settling in; it is crashing down. As Election Day approaches, it is clear the country is completely fed up with Trump — and absolutely furious with Republicans.

The closing days of President Donald Trump’s midterm tour have him retreating into deep red states trying to save House and Senate seats that were once unimaginable to lose — Texas, Kansas, Iowa, Alaska, even South Carolina and Mississippi. So chaotic is Trump’s political operation that it cancelled in-person rallies in Kansas and Iowa, before promptly uncancelling them, as the president’s handlers try to cram in more tele-rallies that don’t require more air travel for the 80-year-old chief executive.

After a decade of Donald Trump on the political scene, he is entering his “Fat Elvis” phase: tired, old, overweight, awful-sounding, embarrassing-looking. There are suspicious minds even among the MAGA base. He is caught in a trap, can’t walk out and many don’t believe a word he’s saying.


What we do know is that when things go bad, the president gets worse. He orders bogus prosecutions. He picks fights with allies, and sides with dictators while he starts a war that he can’t win, can’t end and may escalate again.

A presidency in decline is no way to run a country, much less a midterm election campaign. His numbers, like his second term, are unrecoverable. There are no successes to point to, no actionable agenda to promise.

In desperation, the president has resorted to Santa-like promises of new business openings, oil pipelines and cash bonuses that are unlikely to ever materialize. But what may have worked in 2024 does not work in 2026, and voters don’t believe in Santa anymore.

Trump’s return to power has been defined by rising costs, international conflict and brazen corruption. He has shattered norms in government, neglected the economy and remains indifferent to the economic angst of living in America all while he is obsessed with vanity projects in what he proclaims is the “golden age.”

Regardless of what happens on Tuesday, the next two years will be politically torturous. Large questions exist of how a likely-divided government will function, or not, and what Democrats may do, or not do, on everything from oversight to affordability with one or both chambers of power.
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Vance cracks joke after voter asks him about affordability crisis October 30, 2026 / 06:35

What we do know is that when things go bad, the president gets worse. He orders bogus prosecutions. He picks fights with allies, and sides with dictators while he starts a war that he can’t win, can’t end and may escalate again. And the only time he is upset about corruption is when he doesn’t benefit from it.

Partisan fights on Capitol Hill will intensify, just as the 2028 presidential campaign begins immediately following the midterms. And in the highly likely event he runs, Vice President Vance will have an increasingly difficult time running for president while serving as Trump’s loyal wingman. He’ll find himself caught between an unhinged president and an unhappy public.

However the balance of power shakes out, right now the country desperately needs leadership. America needs a president. Not just a person, but a purpose. In our politics of the moment, discord and resentment motivates, defines and divides us. It is easier to be against something than for something, especially when you are not in power.

We are in the middle of a great flood and searching for that rainbow. And just maybe, through the chaos and tumult there may be a leader who offers a different path, not by riding the waves of political division but by parting the waters. A better way to better days, one day.

The midterms may be coming to an end, and the Trump presidency may be too, but the next two years will give rise to what is next for America. Trump will still be in office and will still have the power to inflict damage and sow chaos in our nation. Yet through Trump’s twilight, the process of choosing the next president will allow Americans the chance to define and maybe defy the future. And the sun always rises on the horizon.

The post Trump is entering the washed-up rock star phase of his presidency appeared first on MS NOW.

Democratic socialism will eventually fade

Democratic socialism will eventually fade, but the problems sparking its surge may not
Comments: by Harlan Ullman, opinion contributor - 08/17/26 12:30 PM ET

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A patron puts a bill in a donation bucket, which features a red rose symbol, during a meeting of members of the Southern Maine Democratic Socialists of America in Portland, Maine, Monday, July 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)



Sweeping across America as if it were a Marxist spectre — which it is not — is the Democratic Socialists of America organization. Perhaps a more appropriate moniker for the DSA acronym would be “Dysfunctional Selective Amnesia,” since the organization and its ideology is based on the idea that everyone will just forget history.

Fortunately, the socialist movement will most likely pass, even though the conditions and circumstances causing it will not. Those are the repeated failures of both political parties to govern. That catalyzed the Make America Great Again movement and the meteoric rise of the MAGA commander-in-chief Donald J. Trump. But the Democratic Socialists of America organization has no Trump-like figure to fill that role; merely Grade B pretenders.

If the socialists are serious, then their argument is that our Constitution and its system of checks and balances are not working and are no longer fit for purpose in the 21st century. Many reasons could be cited in its obituary, but Trump is the final agent of its destruction.

The legislature — the Constitution’s Article I — is missing in action. The Republican majority in Congress lacks the backbone to carry out their duties as elected officials. Democrats lack the brains to respond or provide an alternative. Capitol Hill has become an extension of the White House and deserves to be gutted, just as the East Wing has been already.

Article III, the judiciary, is now making decisions that rival Dred Scott and Plessy v. Ferguson as nadirs in American jurisprudence.

The consequence is that only Article II now governs: the White House. And where the courts may have put in place temporary roadblocks, each is being breached by executive orders on birthright citizenship, attempts to illegally fire statutory board members and the installation of special grand juries in Washington to persecute political enemies, real and imagined, of the president.

The socialists’ solution would be a form of democracy wherein the public votes directly for leaders instead of through an artificially structured and obsolete Electoral College. Yes, there are problems with parliaments, as there are with every political system. But if our political calamity is due to the government’s inability to represent average Americans and its kowtowing to the rich and the president’s chums, this could be a reasonable argument.

Absurdly unrealistic initiatives such as defunding the police, eliminating jails and prisons, ending Immigration and Customs Enforcement, opening borders, granting full amnesty to those who entered the country illegally and fleecing the super-rich to pay the nation’s bills are indeed insanity. But free speech of course allows this discourse — and fortunately, the vast majority of Americans are sensible enough not embrace such nonsense. The question is whether common sense will prevail against the madness of the extreme wings of both parties.

Republicans will assert that the socialists have provided their party with the weapon for Democrats’ destruction: communism. They say the Democratic Socialists of America is a communist-inspired organization whose ultimate agenda is for everything to belong to the state. And where has socialism or communism ever worked?

In all this, we must embrace the First Amendment. But freedom of speech does not assume the requirement to listen or absorb. Perhaps most Americans do not know the definition of communism, if surveys and test scores on civics and other core subjects are to be believed.

The MAGA movement — as the Tea Party has done and as the Luddites did — will pass. The crisis, however, is that the government’s resounding failure to govern will not pass so easily. Amnesia ensures failure. And some of the wackiest solutions border on insanity.

What to do? Most American voters are moderates. This majority cohort must demand a return to sensible politics for their parties and nominees.

Harlan Ullman is senior adviser at Washington’s Atlantic Council, chairman of a private company, and principal author of the doctrine of shock and awe. His next book, co-written with Field Marshal The Lord David Richards, former United Kingdom chief of defense and due out this Fall, is “Who Thinks Best Wins: How Decisive Strategic Thinking Will Prevent Global Chaos.”

Nothing scarier than a Big Tech sell-off

Nothing scarier than a Big Tech sell-off

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

The state of the Nasdaq yesterday was as scary as encountering a group of teens in matching clown masks stocking up on eggs for an “omelet party.” The tech-heavy index suffered a huge hit over the last few days as investors faced their fears about tech companies’ massive AI spending after several reported less-than-stellar earnings this week.

Correction territory. With tech stocks selling off, the Nasdaq Composite finished the day down 2.86%, its worst single-day performance since June. The Nasdaq 100 shed as much as 4.5% yesterday, falling into its third correction this year.
What’s got investors running scared?

Several Big Tech earnings reports this week led investors and analysts to come to a similar conclusion: A lot of money is going into AI and not enough is coming out. Plus, more traditional moneymakers weren’t delivering as much as hoped amid the spending spree:Google parent Alphabet’s stock had its worst day ever on Thursday, with about $475 billion in market value vanishing after it reported on Wednesday that search revenue growth was slower than expected, and free cash flow (i.e., the money left after paying for AI infrastructure like data centers) had swung to a ~$9 billion loss.
Amazon’s stock fell 1.41% yesterday, after reporting on Thursday that it spent even more money than it expected on AI last quarter, and growth from its online shopping sector slowed down.
Neocloud companies and chipmakers all fell this week. But no one is having a worse time than Intel. Its stock cratered 28.58% yesterday—its worst day in 50 years—after its Thursday earnings report revealed weak PC demand amid high AI spending. The US government’s 10% stake in the company lost about $12 billion yesterday, according to CNBC.

Big picture: AI spending is having a big impact on the economy, and tech companies see it as their way to dominate in the future, but investors are getting nervous about whether it’s going to pay off.—MM

These go-getters are gourd-getters

These go-getters are gourd-getters

Porch Pumpkins

Pumpkin patches can be fun, but what if you don’t have time, you’re allergic to hay, or you accidentally snap the stem off every pumpkin you try to pick up? Well, capitalism’s got you covered. Porch decorating businesses are popping up all over the country, ready to bring the pumpkin patch to your doorstep.

Squashbucklers: From delivery to assembly, porch stylists—also known as pumpkin concierges—will handle the whole decoration process. Their fees range from a couple hundred dollars to $2,000, depending on how jealous you want to make your neighbors. They may even source more exotic fare, like those gourds that look like they were designed by Dr. Seuss. People are willing to pay:Curated Pumpkin, which started in Southern California in 2024, grew its business by 5x in 2025, per the Wall Street Journal.
Porch Pumpkins, launched in 2020, now reportedly makes six figures and has started to franchise, Business Insider reported.

Some porchscape professionals will even clean things up for you after the holiday, unless you want to leave those jack-o’-lanterns out until New Year’s to really give your overzealous homeowner’s association something to cry about.

’Tis the season: Porch decorating is basically the spooky equivalent of professional Christmas light installation, which is now a $3.5-billion-a-year industry, according to Market Report Analytics.—BC

No Help Here

Sherbrooke Record · an hour ago by Matthew McCully · Commentary

Tim Belford

The latest issue of MACLEAN’S magazine featured what I’m sure was meant to be a ‘grabber’ on its cover. “The Great Generational Rip-off.” The accusation was simple. The author accused Boomers of hoarding all the wealth while Millennials fought for the scraps.

My reply to author Ali Amad, one of the scrappers, is phooey! Yes, I’m one of the ‘rip-off artists’ from the baby boom, but I suggest he spend more time analyzing his accusation and less time looking for a scapegoat.

Essentially, Amad says seniors get too much money from the government in the way of pensions, grants, tax breaks and the like, which they don’t need, and the money would be better spent on the nation’s youth.

Admittedly, there are well-off seniors who, because of savings, company pensions, stock dividends and other investments, could afford a cut in Old Age, Canada Pension, and Quebec Pension benefits. But I suggest they might be in the minority.

I would also suggest that a bigger problem is Millennial ‘expectations.’ Take housing, for example. When my own parents finally bought a new home, it had three bedrooms, one bathroom, a small kitchen/ dining area and a living room. There were six of us, and it worked just fine. Young people today, who can’t ‘afford’ a home, apparently want a bedroom for each child, an industrial-sized kitchen, three bathrooms, a dining room, a living room and a game room for the kids.

Then there’s the question of high interest rates. No sympathy there. One year after I purchased my first home, interest rates shot up to 18 percent.

Amad also complained about the lack of decent apartments at reasonable prices. It was the same for boomers. One of my first apartments was in Victoria, B.C. The walls were concrete block, and even with the mild West Coast winters, frost would form on the interior walls of the bedroom. In another oddity, the toilet seat was set against the radiator, and you had to sit side saddle to avoid burns to your leg. But it was all that was available and all we could afford.

…

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European Central Bank head resigns

WORLD NEWS

European Central Bank head resigns, allowing EU leaders to choose successor before French election

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde will resign nine months before the end of her term, a move that opens the way for European leaders to choose a successor ahead of France’s presidential election next year. (AP production/Philipp Jenne)


President of European Central Bank Christine Lagarde addresses the media during a press conference after an ECB’s governing council meeting in Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, June 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)

BY DAVID MCHUGH
Updated 8:42 PM GMT-7, October 29, 2026
Leer en español

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde will resign nine months before the end of her term, a move that opens the way for European leaders to choose a successor ahead of France’s presidential election next year.

Lagarde, 70, will leave Feb. 7, the ECB said Thursday. Her eight-year term was to end Oct. 31, 2027.

The resignation opens the way for complex political horse trading over her successor and replacements for two other top officials who are leaving next year. The ECB president leads the bank’s governing council, which sets interest rates for the 21 countries that use the euro currency, affecting borrowing costs for everything from house purchases to new factories and serving as the European Union’s chief crisis fighter in times of economic and financial turbulence.

“It has been a great pride and a huge privilege to serve this institution,” Lagarde said in a video message posted on X. “I think that I leave this institution with a sense of good work done and an ECB that is fit for the future.”

Asked about her reasons at a news conference following the bank’s decision to leave rates unchanged, she said that she wanted to be freed from the obligation of political neutrality that comes with being ECB head.

“I want to, have the freedom of speech, the freedom of expression, and the freedom to engage on matters that are not monetary policy matters,” she said. “I don’t think that I can be comfortable in that neutrality at the present time.” She didn’t elaborate.

The announcement was expected following speculation that Lagarde would leave early to enable EU leaders to choose a successor while pro-EU French President Emmanuel Macron is still in office. That would guard against the possibility that right-wing presidential candidate Marine Le Pen might win the election and influence the choice.

“That she leaves early is no surprise and does not change the outlook for ECB policies,” said Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg bank.

European Council President Antonio Costa said that the selection process “will be initiated today and will proceed without delay.”

The term of another top ECB official — chief economist Philip Lane — is to end May 31, while another member of the ECB’s executive board, Isabel Schnabel, is resigning Jan. 3 to move to the International Monetary Fund. European leaders are expected to work out a package deal to apportion the three vacancies among member countries in a complex round of political bargaining.

EU leaders would likely seek to reach agreement on all three posts before a summit meeting on Dec. 17-18, Schmieding said.

He said that leading candidates for Lagarde’s job appeared to be former Netherlands central bank head Klaas Knot and Spain’s Pablo Hernandez de Cos, the general manager of the Bank for International Settlements. The BIS is an international organization of central banks.

“The European Union is trying to guard itself at least somewhat against the risk that right-wing Marine Le Pen may win the French presidential election in April-May 2027,” Schmieding wrote in an email. “Lagarde’s successor will still be appointed while the staunchly pro-European centrist Emmanuel Macron still resides in the Elysee Palace.”

Lagarde, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, was appointed in 2019 to succeed Mario Draghi. A key decision during her tenure came in 2020, when the bank deployed 1.35 trillion euros ($1.5 trillion) in emergency stimulus in the form of bond purchases to keep the COVID-19 pandemic from drying up credit for the economy.

The bank’s ability to act swiftly — in contrast to the often drawn-out negotiations among the 27 European Union national governments — has given it a leading role in combating Europe-wide crises such as the pandemic and the peak period of the eurozone’s debt crisis in 2010-2012. Most notably, Draghi’s promise in 2012 to “do whatever it takes to preserve the euro” calmed bond market turmoil that raised fears the eurozone would break up.

Lagarde’s announcement overshadowed the bank’s decision Thursday to leave its interest rate benchmark unchanged at 2.5% despite annual inflation of 3.8% fed by high oil prices caused by the US-Iran war. High rates restrain inflation, which is above the bank’s target of 2%. However, rising bond market rates are already tightening credit independent of the ECB, in effect doing the central bank’s job for it, analysts say.

China sentenced Evergrande founder to life in prison.

 China sentenced Evergrande founder to life in prison.

A Chinese court sentenced Hui Ka Yan, the property tycoon and founder of real estate developer Evergrande, to life in prison for financial fraud related to the collapse of the company. Evergrande defaulted on more than $300 billion in debts and collapsed in 2021, setting off China’s property crisis. The 67-year-old Hui, who at one point was believed to be the richest man in China, pleaded guilty to an assortment of financial crimes, including embezzlement and bribery. “The amount involved is exceptionally large, the circumstances are particularly egregious, and extraordinarily heavy economic losses have been caused,” the court said in a statement.

Florida parents say police called to 3-year-old's soccer game

Florida parents say police called to 3-year-old's soccer game because kid was 'too good'
The child, Nevada, is 'traumatized,' says his mother


Natalie Stechyson · CBC News · Posted: Oct 26, 2026 12:30 PM PDT | Last Updated: 1 hour ago


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A 2023 file photo of a soccer camp in PEI. Police were called to a child's soccer game Saturday in Winter Park, Fla., over complaints of an 'unruly parent.' (Jane Robertson/CBC)

In the viral video posted by his parents, a three-year-old central Florida boy dribbles the ball up the field, dodging the other pint-sized players and kicks it into the net as his parents cheer.

Then the boy, named Nevada, does it again. And again. And again.

Later in the same video, which has been viewed more than one million times on TikTok since it was posted Sunday, Nevada stands on the sidelines as his father says, "They called the police on a three-year-old because he was too good."
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"Because he had the ball for too long, and nobody else could get the ball, so they called the police."

The reaction online was swift, with people equally enraged over the allegations and admiration for the preschooler's skills. In the TikTok comments, some called on the parents to sue, others alleged that calling the police was racist, and many commented on the "heartbreak" in the little boy's face when the police show up.



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"I'm LIVID," children's entertainer and vocal children's rights advocate Ms. Rachel posted on Instagram Monday morning, calling on soccer stars and other athletes to support the child and his family.

"This is racist, sick, traumatizing and disgusting," she said.

Former NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III called the incident "crazy," writing on X that "punishing a three-year-old child for being too good at a sport is RIDICULOUS."

CBC News has reached out to Nevada's parents but has not yet heard back. The family already had a sizeable social media following on TikTok and Instagram, where they've documented Nevada's soccer skills over the years.

The Winter Park Police Department confirmed to CBC News Monday that officers were called to a children's soccer game Saturday after a league official "requested response to a disturbance between league officials and the parents of a player."



A screenshot of a post on Threads by children's entertainer Ms. Rachel on Monday. (@msrachelforlittles/Threads)
So, what actually happened?

The official called 911 at 9:53 a.m., according to the police incident report viewed by CBC News.

In a recording of the call provided by police, the official can be heard saying he has "an unruly parent here, calling me names and having me on Instagram."

He says the parent is being "really disruptive, like following me around and calling me names. I want her to be gone."

OpenAI ignored employees’ warnings about safety

 Report: OpenAI ignored employees’ warnings about safety.

According to the New York Times, two employees warned executives that new models were not being properly monitored in tests, but were told that the tests needed to move forward to meet deadlines. Months later, OpenAI bots went rogue, breaking out of their testing environments to hack the startup Hugging Face. The ignored warning was reportedly part of a pattern of the company not prioritizing security, per the New York Times. In a statement, OpenAI told the Times that it’s committed to safety and took action when independent researchers flagged security flaws. On Monday, the company scrapped the release of its latest AI model over safety concerns.

Google Has Its Hand Around the Throat of the Independent Media

Google Has Its Hand Around the Throat of the Independent Media and It’s Squeezing Harder and Harder
Another day, another existential crisis for news media.

By Joe Wilkins

Published Sep 24, 2026 8:42 AM EDT
Add Futurism(opens in a new tab)More information

Futurism

The shift to digital platforms has not been kind to the independent media industry, which has had to scramble for a shrinking share of ad revenue and adapt to near-constant changes to Google’s algorithms. Yet as problematic as the move away from print media was, few could have imagined just how grim the media ecosystem would become once generative AI hit the scene.

Traffic to web media sites has nearly hit terminal velocity over the past year, as tech giants like Google funnel users away from traditional web search and into AI products that summarize journalism instead of encouraging users to actually read it. According to data compiled by Axios, the number of visits to the top 100 news sites has plummeted over the past five years, from a peak of over 70 million visitors a month in July of 2024 to just over 47 million in July of 2026.

For anybody concerned with the state of media, 2024 is an important year. It’s when Google first introduced its AI Overviews at the top of search results, functionally pushing legitimate news sites further down in order to prioritize engagement with the buzzy tech. Given that Google has a near-total monopoly on web search, the pivot toward AI is functionally strangling media publishers of all sizes — creating yet another existential crisis for the industry as a whole.

2024 was also the same year Meta rolled out its proprietary AI assistant, Axios notes, further drawing social media users away from news sites in favour of sterile chatbot summaries, which often gets important facts completely wrong.

As a result of these changes, Axios notes that direct traffic to the top 100 media sites has shrivelled by 25 percent over the two years, as 40 percent of desktop visitors are no longer scrolling web pages, which directly impacts revenue for sites relying on ads or subscriptions to pay the bills.

Though referrals from AI chatbots is increasing as commercial chatbot developers strike controversial deals with legacy media companies, these click-throughs number in the hundreds of thousands. Compared to the rapidly declining number of referrals from traditional search engines — which once numbered in the tens of millions — these AI clicks are a tiny drop in the bucket.

And as independent news sites go belly-up as a result of a lack of traffic, rapacious AI entrepreneurs are circling like buzzards. Last week, Futurism exposed a massive global network of content farms orchestrated by a company called Brown Brothers Media, which buys up defunct media properties and turns them into AI-powered content mills.

The resulting consequences to the information ecosystem are hard to comprehend, with Brown Brothers Media claiming to vacuum up tens of millions of views via their scheme. (The company also created scores of fake author profiles, leading to a situation where the average reader would have little chance of distinguishing journalistic fact from AI-generated fiction.)

As the AI boom shows no signs of slowing anytime soon, these kinds of content mills give us a horrifying glimpse of one possible future for media — where the click-economy rewards SEO-optimized AI garbage at the expense of reputable journalism the world over.

More on digital media: Media Execs Prepare for AI to Bring End of Journalism Industry

‘Monster Mash’ still makes a bunch of $ each year

‘Monster Mash’ still makes a bunch of $ each year

Dick Clark Productions

Forget about alternative investments and get in the studio. All you need to do is create something like “Monster Mash,” which still rakes in a steady revenue stream, decades after its 1962 release.

“I have been paying the rent for 36 years with this one song,” co-writer and performer Bobby “Boris” Pickett—aka the Mariah Carey of Halloween—told the Memphis Commercial Appeal in 1998 (Pickett died in 2007). To think something so lucrative was written in just a few hours: Between streams, commercials, licensing, and film usage, “Monster Mash” could be making $1 million in annual revenue, Billboard estimated in 2023.
It’s been the oldest track atop the Halloween streaming charts in recent years, just behind “Thriller” (1982) but ahead of “Ghostbusters” (1984) and “Spooky, Scary, Skeletons” (1996), per Billboard.

Since Pickett and co-writer Leonard Capizzi have both died, their royalties have gone to their family members, who get more than just a big check with every Halloween season: “Every single year my entire life, I get to hear my grandfather’s voice for a month,” Pickett’s grandson told Billboard.—ML

Reviews are in: iPhone Duo mostly good, kinda odd

 Reviews are in: iPhone Duo mostly good, kinda odd

Illustration: Morning Brew Inc., Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images

Based on early reactions, Apple’s first foldable phone, released in limited supply today, seems like your initial attempt at a new recipe: exciting, fit for consumption, but not totally satisfying.

The $1,999 Duo is being called “one of Apple’s messiest first-generation products in a long time,” per The Verge (which gave it a 7/10); the “most interesting iPhone since the first one,” per Mashable; and an expensive, inconvenient “freaky little thing” that the Strategist’s reviewer still loved.

According to tech critics…
Display and battery life are standouts

The crease: Foldable phones usually have an annoying center wrinkle, but the Duo looks like a Botoxed forehead (though mere weeks of use could change that). Its crease is borderline invisible because of a matte-finish inner screen that reduces glare, making reading “a delight,” per CNET, which gave the device an 8.7/10.

The juice: The Duo often had 30%–40% of charge left by bedtime. It also outperformed its competitors—the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Pixel 11 Pro Fold—in CNET’s 45-minute stress test of streaming, scrolling, and other activities.

Other good stuff: Split-screen multitasking is reportedly easy. Wired said the phone is “a viable emergency workstation” when paired with a portable keyboard, and the camera is almost as good as that of the iPhone 18 Pro—though there’s no telephoto camera for extra-sharp zooms.
What weighs the Duo down

For starters, its weight. Apple’s bouncing baby phone is 254 grams—slightly more than the iPhone 18 Pro Max and about a golf ball heavier than the Galaxy Z Fold 8. It can tip over when attached to MagSafe Stands unfolded.

Other cons: It lacks Face ID, it can get physically hot, the front screen is too small to comfortably doomscroll (which could also be considered a positive), and it has some newbie quirks (e.g., MagSafe wallets hang over the phone’s edge).

But the biggest issue of all: Many apps appear with black bars because they’re not yet optimized for the Duo, so some reviewers recommend waiting to buy it. Amid tight supply, you may not have a choice.—ML

Meta's new Ray-Ban smart glasses drop the camera, keep the audio

 Meta's new Ray-Ban smart glasses drop the camera, keep the audio

Meta used its Connect conference to unveil the Ray-Ban Meta Audio Glasses, a new lineup of smart glasses that strips out the camera entirely and leans hard into style and sound. The move comes after years of criticism over privacy concerns tied to the camera-equipped Ray-Ban Meta glasses, though Meta framed the launch around audio rather than privacy, noting that sound has been the most popular feature since the original model arrived. The new glasses are built around the classic Ray-Ban Clubmaster and Burbank silhouettes, come in 23 color and lens combinations, support prescription lenses, and are described by Meta as its lightest and slimmest AI glasses yet.

On the practical side, the glasses deliver 12 hours of battery life on a single charge, with the accompanying case adding another 48 hours of use, and they support music streaming, calls, and Muse. Meta has also built in adjustable and swappable nose pads, professionally adjustable temple tips, and overextension hinges. The asking price is $349, which puts them notably above the $249 camera-equipped Meta Glasses already on sale in the United States. Pre-orders are live now, with the Ray-Ban Meta Audio Glasses set to reach shelves on October 13.

Why Canadian payments platform Moneris is being sold to U.S. private equity

Why Canadian payments platform Moneris is being sold to U.S. private equity

By Uday Rana, Global News
Posted August 11, 2026 12:56 pm
Updated August 12, 2026 11:54 am
3 min read




WATCH: Canadian payment processing platform Moneris being sold to U.S. equity firm – Aug 12, 2026
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Canadian commercial solutions and payment processing platform Moneris will soon have a new owner in an American private equity firm.

Moneris, one of Canada’s largest commerce solutions providers, is jointly owned by the Bank of Montreal and the Royal Bank of Canada. American private equity firm Francisco Partners, which specializes in dealing with technology companies, will buy the platform for $2 billion, Moneris said in a statement.

RBC and BMO will each get a 50 percent share from the Moneris sale. Both banks saw their shares jump on Monday.

Partnering with the U.S. private equity firm will help Moneris “broaden the wide choice of solutions, support and experiences we deliver to businesses, said James Hicks, president and CEO at Moneris.

Francisco Partners is promising “continued investment in innovation, platform expansion and long-term growth, while preserving the deeply Canadian identity that has made Moneris a market leader,” said Peter Christodoulo, a partner at Francisco Partners.

Moneris is key for businesses across Canada, helping them accept and manage payments across 325,000 points of commerce in the country.

This came just days after U.S. chipmaking giant AMD said it would acquire Taalas, one of Canada’s largest semiconductor manufacturers.

Taalas can produce technology that has “highly optimized AI inference capabilities,” AMD said.


2:07Tech experts push Carney to protect Canada’s digital sovereignty


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In September 2025, dozens of public figures and tech experts warned Prime Minister Mark Carney about the growing influence of U.S. tech giants on the lives of Canadians. They urged Carney to prepare a roadmap to safeguard Canada’s “digital sovereignty.”

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“Canada must legislate a sovereignty framework before engaging in binding international commitments that could otherwise embed foreign governance logics into our infrastructure,” the open letter warned Carney.
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The country must not accept the “unquestioned and unchallenged technological dominance” of the U.S. and “all the harms this entails,” the letter added.

According to a recent report from the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project, three U.S. tech firms — Amazon, Microsoft and Google — own 85 percent of public cloud market share in Canada.

The federal government said earlier this year that it is looking to build a “sovereign AI foundation” in Canada. This includes the building of a “world-leading public supercomputer” in Canada and the construction of large‑scale AI data centres “that can scale to at least 100 megawatts.”


6:54Canada’s AI strategy pushes for tech sovereignty
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Canadians who were hoping for more action on that front would be “frustrated” by the news of the Moneris sale, said Concordia University economist Moshe Lander.

“It’s a headline grabber. It’s a financial product, and it’s one of those signs that we’re still really tied at the hip to the U.S.,” he said.

Canadian firms looking to scale up often realize that they hit a ceiling unless backed up by American capital, which has more capacity to scale up, he said.

“A Canadian firm that’s looking to set up billions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure investment has to think that they’ve got to have access to the U.S. market and the Mexican market if they want any chance of spreading those fixed costs over as many users as possible,” Lander added.

However, he added that the Moneris sale is not necessarily indicative of a larger trend.

“Canada has a trade surplus right now. We’re a net exporter. So, on a net basis, we are acquiring more foreign assets than they (foreign investors) are acquiring of ours,” he added.

According to Statistics Canada, there are $10,467 billion worth of foreign assets owned by Canadians, while Canada’s international liabilities amount to $8,611.3 billion.

However, most of Canada’s foreign assets are still tied to the U.S., with the American market alone accounting for 58.9 percent of Canada’s foreign financial assets.

“The Canadian finance industry is supervised here in Canada, and it’s applied to all firms that operate in Canada,” he said.

“If you’re going to continue to operate in Canada, you still have to submit to Canadian law, rules and regulations,” Lander added.

SEC: Go ahead and trade stocks like they’re crypto

 

SEC: Go ahead and trade stocks like they’re crypto

Krblokhin/Getty Images

America’s financial markets are one step closer to resembling America’s diners: The Securities and Exchange Commission will temporarily allow blockchain-based platforms to offer tokenized versions of US stocks, the agency announced yesterday—possibly opening the door to 24/7 trading of digitized mainstream assets.

Until now, platforms like Coinbase and Robinhood offered tokenized securities that are purportedly linked to US stocks (but grant no ownership rights to the stock itself) only outside the US, because of US regulations. Effective immediately, the agency’s new move creates a five-year exemption to its own rules, with two key requirements:

1. Platforms can’t just tokenize any stock they want—companies must get a 30-day window to object. That might sound good to the CEO of AMC, who feuded with Robinhood this month after discovering that an AMC-linked token was trading on the platform.
2. Holders of tokenized stocks must receive the same ownership rights they would be afforded by the underlying traditional stock, including dividends and voting.

If at first you don’t succeed: The SEC’s long-anticipated move comes two days after the Clarity Act, a major crypto-friendly bill, failed to move forward in the Senate.

Zoom out: Though some Wall Street firms voiced opposition to the SEC’s tokenization greenlighting, momentum is growing. The number of tokenized stockholders worldwide spiked 164% in the past 30 days, according to data firm RWA.xyz.

Microsoft Announces Per-Hour Cost for Xbox Cloud Gaming Service

 Microsoft Announces Per-Hour Cost for Xbox Cloud Gaming Service

You're on the clock, kids.
BY TOM HAWKINGPUBLISHED OCTOBER 22, 2026, 8:46 PM ET

READING TIME 3 MINUTES

A couple of Xbox controllers, in happier times. © Xbox
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Streaming occupies a strange niche in the world of gaming. It’s a curiosity if you are happy to just play on your own PC and/or console, and have no interest in online multiplayer games—but if at least one of those things are untrue, it suddenly becomes a very attractive proposition. When I moved back to the USA in 2023 and my gaming PC was marooned for several weeks on a container ship somewhere near Hong Kong, I used Nvidia’s implementation to play Baldur’s Gate 3, and was pleasantly surprised at the seamlessness and general usability of the platform.

Microsoft offers a similar service, Xbox Cloud Gaming, as part of its Xbox Game Pass subscription. When the cloud service launched in 2020, subscribers were promised free, unlimited streaming—but because this is 2026 and we can’t have nice things, those terms have changed. Back in September, Microsoft announced that subscribers’ access to Xbox Cloud Gaming would soon become neither free nor unlimited. Instead, from November, subscribers will get a set number of free hours every month, depending on which of the service’s three tiers they pay for: Game Pass Ultimate (which costs $23 a month) gets you 15 hours, Game Pass Premium ($15 a month) gets 10 hours, and Game Pass Essential ($10 a month) gets you 5 hours. Once those hours are up, any extra hours need to be purchased.

So how much will they cost? Well, it seems the guinea pigs for the new model are “Xbox Insiders who do not have an active Game Pass subscription”, who are privileged to get “an early look at the new option before it rolls out more broadly in November.” The “introductory launch pricing” at which those lucky Insiders are getting an early look is as follows: 10 hours for $3.99, 25 hours for $7.99 and 50 hours for $11.99.

Part of the value proposition for Game Pass is that a subscription provides access to a decent library of games, allowing you to play games you don’t actually own. (Well, technically none of us own anything, but you know what I mean: games you haven’t paid to purchase.) But the Xbox Store also works like Steam/GOG/etc in that you can pay to purchase games that aren’t in the Game Pass library. And the thing is that this new model applies to everything: if you want to stream games via Xbox’s Cloud Gaming service, whether they’re part of the Game Pass library or games you’ve bought yourself, it’s gonna cost you.

This means that the worst-case scenario goes like this: Back in September, before these changes were announced, you paid full purchase price for a game that isn’t in the Game Pass library on the assumption that you’d be able to play it via cloud streaming. Maybe your hardware doesn’t meet the specs for this fancy new game. Maybe your gaming PC exploded/got stuck on a ship/had a component fail. Maybe you just want to be able to play it in bed on your laptop. Whatever. Now you find that in addition to the cost of the game you bought, you’re going to be paying by the hour to play it once your monthly allotment of hours is up. If this is you, I expect you’re not particularly amused.

The changes also promise to be a nightmare for Fortnite-addicted children whose parents decided that the family console was going to be an Xbox. (One can only imagine the extent to which the shit might have hit the fan if something like Concord, an online multiplayer game that imposed a purchase price on top of the usual live service nickel-and-diming, had ever taken off.)

This change will presumably see an exodus of such players to other platforms—although, of course, there’s no guarantee that this won’t become the new normal across the board. If decades’ worth of watching Silicon Valley pull the classic bait-and-switch again and again have taught us anything, it’s that nothing stays free for long.

Inside AC: Secrets teams can’t share

 Inside AC: Secrets teams can’t share

Inside America’s Cup with host Niall Myant-Best is the official podcast of the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup, with each episode going under the surface of one of the most competitive and secretive sports events in the world, and explaining the decisions that separate winning from losing.

This segment asks the question, "What will actually decide winners and losers in America's Cup design?" Myant-Best takes a technical deep dive with a designer who's free to say what the teams can't.

Juan Kouyoumdjian is one of the world's top authorities on yacht design. He's spent 30 years designing winning round-the-world boats and working on America's Cup projects. Right now he isn't attached to a Cup team, so for once there's nothing stopping him talking.

Niall Myant-Best asks him:
• Which of the reused AC75 hulls has a head start, and which team faces an uphill battle?
• Why the hull isn't a hull any more, but a fuselage built to make the sails work harder?
• Where the real gains sit in foil deformation, and the new wording in the rule that more than one team will be trying to exploit?
• How far you can push automated sail trim before the human in the loop becomes the limit?
• The piece of technology he thinks would be decisive in Naples, that nobody appears to have built yet.

The rise of platonic co-parenting

 THREE FRIENDS AND A BABY

The rise of platonic co-parenting

Getty Images

It sounds like the kind of fantasy you’d dream up with your childhood best friend: Let’s live together and raise each other’s kids as siblings. But, for a growing number of millennials, it’s becoming a reality.

It takes a village: Some single-parent besties are moving in together after breaking up with their spouses, while others are deciding to (platonically) have children with longtime friends or like-minded nontraditionalists, sometimes using new apps that are like Hinge for co-parenting:

• NPR journalist Ayesha Rascoe told The Cut that she and her college best friend bought a house together, saving thousands of dollars on mortgages and nannies by raising their collective five children together (a setup that’s sometimes called a “mommune.”)
• Then, there are the friends with ticking biological clocks who choose to have children together—a movement that’s given rise to apps like Modamily, which connects people who want to start a family via dating, sperm donation, or platonic co-parenting. Users surged from 30,000 in 2020 to 100,000 last year, the New York Times reported.

People in these nontraditional situations often rave about them, in part because of the lack of romance. Without pressure to keep the spark alive, making child-rearing decisions and divvying up household tasks can feel less intense, some platonic co-parents say. So, go ahead and remind the group chat about those commune plans.—ML

Meta ordered to pay $25 billion over data privacy violations.

 Meta ordered to pay $25 billion over data privacy violations. Meta probably expected all the headlines to be about its earnings report, but hours before its release, it got slapped with an attention-grabbing legal penalty. A New Mexico Judge ordered the company to pay $25 billion in a data privacy case stemming from a scandal involving the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica obtaining Facebook users’ data in 2018. Last month, a jury found that Meta had violated the state’s consumer protection laws 43 million times—with each violation carrying a $5,000 penalty, so the $25 billion the judge imposed was actually a reduction. The social media giant previously resolved other cases related to the scandal, and has recently faced additional legal challenges over the safety of children on its platforms.—AR

Job-seeking teen explores the shadows

Job-seeking teen explores the shadows

Avi Lichtenstein/LinkedIn

Mondays are bad enough, so the Brew’s own Brendan Cosgrove scoured the internet for a positive news story to help you start the week off right.

When it comes to learning the ropes, 16-year-old Avi Lichtenstein is basically Tarzan. As the high school junior started getting anxious about his future career path, he launched a plan to taste-test as many jobs as possible. According to the Wall Street Journal, he paid two people he found through Craigslist to put flyers around New York City emblazoned with his picture, contact information, and a question for anyone with a job: “Could I shadow you for a day?”

The apprentice master: Employers started reaching out to him right away, and in the past few weeks, he’s shadowed a radio host, a dog groomer, and a ramen shop owner. He even accepted a part-time job at the ramen place.

Career year: Though he’s still not sure what he wants to do with his life (like we all definitely did when we were 16), several more employers have offered him shadowing gigs if he wants more options to explore.—BC

The EU’s answer to Starlink moves one step closer to launch

NextTech News
The EU’s answer to Starlink moves one step closer to launch


Copyright European Space Agency
By Indrabati Lahiri
Published on 10/08/2026 - 14:45 GMT+2
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Rising geopolitical volatility and conflicts such as the Russia-Ukraine and Middle East wars have made it crucial for Europe to invest heavily in its own home-grown satellite network.

The European Union’s attempt to launch its own satellite program has achieved a significant milestone.

The SpaceRISE consortium and the European Commission have now joined forces, signing an implementation agreement for IRIS².

This will be the EU’s flagship secure satellite programme, which will provide government-backed and encrypted communication services for EU institutions, critical infrastructure and emergency responders. It will also provide quantum-secured defence layers and high-reliability routing.

This move comes as several industries continue to rely on Starlink significantly for services like airplane Wi-Fi and drone operations in Ukraine. This could potentially allow the EU to benefit considerably from having its own domestic satellite programme to counter Starlink’s widespread influence.

The recent agreement adds another 66 satellites to the programme, bringing the total number 348. Out of these, 330 will be in Low Earth Orbit and 18 will be in Medium Earth Orbit.
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The programme’s first launches are expected to begin in 2029, on a progressive basis.

Its primary users will be European governments and key players from surveillance, defence operations, and critical commercial sectors like transport and energy.

A European satellite network

Rising geopolitical volatility and ongoing conflicts such as the Russia-Ukraine and Middle Eastern wars in recent years have made it crucial for Europe to invest more in digital sovereignty and domestic resilience.

As such, instead of trying to be yet another consumer broadband service, like Starlink attempting to compete with networks like T-Mobile and AT&T, IRIS² is built for defence, governments, critical services and security users.

These are the industries that can best help the continent build true resilience. This is particularly important during times of conflict or natural disasters, when cell towers and internet services can be impacted, leaving satellite connectivity the only real option for communication.

However, overreliance on Starlink, or any other foreign company, can also cause a host of geopolitical and governance issues for the EU. This is especially following rising EU-US tariffs and other tensions in recent years, following the second Trump administration.

SpaceRISE’s members Eutelsat, SES and Hispasat will work with domestic manufacturers on the satellites and ground infrastructure for IRIS², while the European Space Agency will take care of the technical development and validation.