France loses the plot
Today is Tuesday, October 20, 2026
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- Good morning, and welcome to Hark News. Here's what the world got up to while you slept. First, the weather in New York. A high of 68 and a low of 43, with clear skies.
- France has imposed curfews after a weekend of protests over schools, living costs and inequality turned violent, with roughly 2,000 to 2,400 arrests and hundreds of injured police officers.
- Democrats are leading in national polling, Republicans are defending more vulnerable House seats, and the race is shaping up to be the most expensive midterm ever, with more than $15 billion raised.
- The Trump administration says it is still sharing intelligence with Ukraine, while President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says disruptions to intelligence and satellite services have weakened Ukraine’s defenses.
- President Trump has waived sanctions on Russian diesel and on some of Russia’s trading partners, saying the concessions could bring Moscow to the bargaining table. Critics in both parties argue they instead give Russia more revenue, while Ukraine keeps taking fire.
- Saudi Arabia has postponed its flagship Future Investment Initiative conference until 2027 after Wall Street executives raised security concerns over Houthi attacks, including strikes near Riyadh’s airport.
- China’s economy grew 4.5% in the third quarter, helped by industrial production and exports, while retail sales rose only 1.1% and property investment fell 20% in the first 9 months. Europe is answering with trade defenses, including a proposed cap on Chinese hybrid vehicles.
- DeepSeek’s downloadable V4.1 Flash model reportedly edged out pricier rivals on one coding benchmark, while its web Search and Fetch tools cost $0.75 per 1,000 successful requests.
- Anthropic plans to place 5% of its shares into a public benefit fund, with more possible as its valuation grows, potentially directing money toward workers displaced by AI. At the same time, its latest Blackstone borrowing may cost more than 10% interest.
- Investors are becoming less forgiving of the AI buildout, with executives warning that capital, chips and power could all become scarce as lenders demand real returns. Anthropic is borrowing at junk-like rates, data-center builders are under pressure, and several technology IPOs have slipped.
- AI-generated political ads have already attracted $137 million in spending across 220 spots, according to the Wesleyan Media Project, with many aimed at making opponents appear to say or do things that never happened. Only 4 states ban some uses, while 27 require disclosures.
- Meta says Instagram temporarily suspended the No Kings protest account after automated systems detected unusually intense requests that resembled bot activity, possibly involving Anthropic’s Claude.
- Elon Musk says he’ll give one SpaceX share to every child in America next year, a pledge worth roughly $10.5 billion to $11 billion if it covers everyone under 18.
- After Character.AI filed for bankruptcy, Disney agreed to offer jobs to at least 60 employees and bought some assets for $20 million, with the former chief executive becoming Disney’s first chief technology officer.
- Apple has explicitly banned AI apps that create nonconsensual intimate images or hide harmful features until after App Store review. Developers must moderate user-generated content and keep functionality visible during approval.
- Foreign central banks now hold just 11.8% of U.S. Treasurys, down from 40% around the financial-crisis era, while hedge funds and other leveraged investors have filled more of the gap.
- Morgan Stanley’s wealth-management arm attracted $232 billion in net new assets in the third quarter, lifting revenue to $9.1 billion, while its trading business also grew.
- Bumble is leaving the public markets in a $1.3 billion cash acquisition, just around 5 years after its IPO briefly valued the dating app at $14 billion. The deal reflects an industry struggling with user fatigue, falling revenue and AI competition.
- The Supreme Court will hear a challenge to an 1868 federal law that can make distilling spirits at home a crime, even though home brewing and winemaking are legal.
- Christiane Amanpour will leave CNN next June after 43 years at the network. Her nightly interview program will shift to weekly in January before ending in May, closing one of the longest-running chapters in international television news.
- You Can See Everything, Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s film about Elizabeth Holmes, opened to more than $15 million across over 2,000 sold-out shows. That makes it the biggest nonmusic documentary opening in more than 20 years, while a Theranos whistleblower argues the film’s ambiguity risks softening the truth it claims to examine.
- Five of the AP’s top 7 college football teams lost on the same day: Georgia, Notre Dame, Indiana, Alabama and Texas. The chaos arrived just as a 24-team playoff appears closer, giving expansion supporters a perfect advertisement and traditionalists a perfect warning.
- Tampa Bay leads Cleveland 3 games to 2 in the American League Championship Series after Drew Rasmussen delivered 7 strong innings in Game 5. The Rays are now one victory from the World Series, while Cleveland is considering a bullpen game for the next one.
- And that's your world for today. The full stories and the links are waiting in the app. Tap through, bookmark what matters, and share what's worth sharing. And if you want to see what stuck, take today's quiz in the app: five quick questions. And if Hark is making your mornings a little better, share it with a friend. It's the best way to help us grow. I'll see you again tomorrow morning. Until then, have a great day.