California Governor Gavin Newsom wrote a letter to the Chief District Judges for the four federal district courts in California, highlighting the possibility of the Trump administration interfering in the upcoming midterm elections.
"I write to alert you to the risk to election integrity of judges issuing a search warrant to seize ballots, election records, or certified voting technology while an election is underway and before the results are certified. I am not writing in connection with any warrant application currently pending in your courts, as I am unaware that there are any such matters at this time," he said.
Previously, Newsom already warned United States President Donald Trump that he deployed election lawyers to "key battleground districts" in the state, so as to "protect every vote."
United States President Donald Trump told reporters that he will be briefed tomorrow about the intelligence Washington sent to Russia, warning of a potential terrorist attack.
The US Embassy in Russia said a potential attack on the Tsaritsyno Museum Reserve in Moscow may lead to a mass-casualty event. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) confirmed it received the warning, adding it was taking necessary measures.
Most people with an S&P 500 index fund have never put a dollar into Anthropic, yet many own a piece of it anyway. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) holds Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL), and both own big stakes in the Claude maker.
That link got louder this week. Anthropic filed its registration statement with the SEC on Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, to list on Nasdaq under the ticker ANT.
Michael Burry, "The Big Short" investor, read the filing and followed the money. His Substack post on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, kept landing on Amazon, Alphabet's Google, and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT).
Burry argued that this web leaves the system "catastrophically vulnerable" if growth stalls. He tallied about $537 billion in computing and equipment commitments tied to the filing, according to Seeking Alpha.
"There is a lot here but nothing that changes my view," Burry said.
The dollar figure is striking, but the names explain his worry. Each plays several roles in Anthropic's business at once.
The same names show up at every stop
Start with where Anthropic's money goes. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft supply much of the computing power that trains and runs Claude. Those deals require Anthropic to pay "regardless of usage," Reuters reported from a draft of the filing.
The list reaches beyond cloud companies. Anthropic expects to pay Elon Musk's SpaceX (SPCX) about $3.1 billion a month at full capacity, CNBC reported. Bills that size leave little room for a slow quarter.
Now follow it the other way. Amazon and Google are also major Anthropic investors. Amazon even holds convertible notes, a type of loan, and some will convert into Anthropic shares at the listing, according to the S-1.
The same companies help Anthropic sell. About 47% of its 2025 revenue came through Amazon's and Google's cloud marketplaces, Reuters reported from a draft filing. The cloud provider keeps a fee on each of those sales.
Anthropic does not hide the tension. Its S-1 warns that these overlapping roles create "complex dynamics that could give rise to conflicts of interest." It also says some partners build rival models and have not supplied all the computing power it sought.
The loop already runs through Big Tech profits
This is where Burry's warning stops being only about Anthropic. Amazon's second-quarter net income included $53.4 billion in non-operating gains, mostly from its Anthropic investments, according to a press release.
Amazon's operating income, the profit from its stores, ads, and cloud, was $27.5 billion, as the same release shows. A paper markup outweighed the whole operating business nearly two to one.
Alphabet has felt the same lift. Anthropic stakes were the biggest first-quarter profit driver at both giants, Fortune reported. When they invest more or pledge more cloud capacity, Fortune noted, Anthropic's valuation tends to climb, and so do their stakes.
That works well while the numbers rise. A stumble at Anthropic, however, would hit their cloud revenue and their investment gains at once.
Growth is what keeps the circle turning
So far, the growth has been real. Anthropic's second-quarter revenue rose 1,368% from a year earlier, according to the S-1. Compute and infrastructure costs rose 300%, the filing shows, supporting the company's case that it is getting more efficient.
Then the pace cooled. Anthropic told prospective investors that third-quarter revenue grew about 45% from the second quarter, Reuters reported. Revenue had more than doubled the quarter before.
Most companies would celebrate that, and Anthropic said it was profitable on an adjusted basis, Bloomberg reported. Its commitments, however, were signed for a steeper curve.
The gap matters because Anthropic typically buys computing capacity 12 to 18 months ahead, according to the S-1, so those costs stay largely fixed. Revenue can slow in any quarter, but the bills arrive on schedule.
Burry is not a neutral reader. Last month, he posted that markets should "tank hard" to keep OpenAI and Anthropic from going public, TechSpot reported. Still, the filing's own risk section backs his point.
Amazon has felt a paper gain flip before
Amazon shareholders have seen a stake like this reverse. Its holding in Rivian Automotive Inc. (RIVN) produced an $11.8 billion pretax gain in 2021, according to its earnings release.
A year later, Rivian's sliding shares turned that stake into a $12.7 billion loss, the same release shows. The markdown pushed Amazon to a net loss for 2022.
The lesson is about timing. Rivian traded publicly, so Amazon's stake reset with its stock price every quarter. The Anthropic stakes mostly reprice when Anthropic raises money, and the listing will change that.
Amazon reports third-quarter results on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, its first report since the filing. Next comes the price range in Anthropic's amended S-1, which will ripple into earnings most index-fund owners already hold.
The biggest players in the AI buildout are increasingly tied together through one another's stock. Anthropic's listing is the moment that paper starts trading in public, where it can fall as easily as it rose.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appointed Muhsin Atci, head of the country’s tax inspection board, to lead Turkey’s market regulator in response to an investment fund crisis that rocked financial markets, Bloomberg reported.
Update (1530ET): Pro-EU Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk defended his decision to suspend top court judges and accused the opposition of resorting to violence in an attempt to destroy the rule-of-law.
As Bloomberg reports, Tusk said in a TV address on Saturday that the Constitutional Tribunal in its current form isn't independent and his government’s attempts to fix it have been sabotaged by the Law & Justice party and President Karol Nawrocki.
“We have waited too long to be intimidated and to back down now,” Tusk said.
“I’m confident that the Constitutional Tribunal will begin to function as it ought to - independently, autonomously, and in accordance with the Constitution.”
Tusk went on to accuse conservative nationalist opposition leaders of wanting to "destroy democracy and rule of law" in a speech addressing the ongoing constitutional crisis.
"Let's call things by their name," he said.
"For years in Poland there exist organisations and politicians who wish to destroy democracy and rule of law."
As a reminder, the pro-European government said the suspension is necessary to restore judicial independence, while critics from the opposition have likened it to a "coup d'etat."
~~~~~
It is approaching 24 hours since Poland was dramatically plunged into a Constitutional crisis. Starting Friday night, Prime Minister Donald Tusk staged a forced takeover of one of the country's top courts, prompting Polish President Karol Nawrocki to abrubtly turn back his plane which was en route to Africa for a scheduled state visit.
"At a moment like this, the President must be in Poland. I am cutting short my flight to Senegal. I am returning," he wrote on X. The globe's attention then turned to Warsaw and site of the Constitutional Tribunal, where police had surrounded it, and prevented the independent body's leaders from entering its grounds.
Protesters also soon descended, after it was revealed that the court's longest-serving judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska had suspended Bogdan Swieczkowski, the tribunal's president. The country's main anti-Tusk opposition decried the blatant judicial power-grab.
President Nawrocki, an ally of the previous nationalist and Right-wing government is now in a desperate battle against Tusk's pro-EU government for ultimate control of the judiciary.
Tusk's ruling coalition has been trying for weeks to remove judges appointed under the previous PiS government, and now the trigger has been pulled in the most obvious of ways - with the clash literally spilling into the streets amid a stand off with police.
After disembarking his plane upon his abrupt return to Warsaw Friday night, PresidentNawrocki physically attempted to gain entry amid unpredented displays of scuffles breaking out at the top court:
Outside the court the Associated Press observed clashes with police as the crowds grew and security blocked all entrances, even to top court officials:
Hundreds of anti-government protesters rallied overnight around a top court in Poland to denounce the suspension of the tribunal’s president, for which they blame the country’s pro-European government. Police said they detained three protesters after some threw objects at the officers and tried to break through the security fence around the court.
The primary responsibility of the tribunal is conducting judicial review to verify that Polish statutes adhere to constitutional standards.
The Friday night chaos started when it was the Polish official agency PAP which was the first to report that court chief Bogdan Święczkowski and his number two, Bartlomiej Sochanski, were suspended for a month by order of Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska.
Overnight scenes of a group cutting "the chains of Tusk’s captivity"...
🚨SCHOCKING: POLAND’S PROTESTERS GRIND THROUGH THE CHAINS ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT GATE — TUSK’S POLICE LOCKED THE BUILDING, NOW SPARKS FLY AS PEOPLE CUT THEIR WAY BACK IN
Poland is a Slavic EU and NATO country. After riot police under Prime Minister Donald Tusk entered and… pic.twitter.com/PCnm3qrGib
"Today, I issued an order immediately suspending the duties of Mr. Bogdan Święczkowski, acting president of the Constitutional Tribunal. I issued the same order with respect to Judge Bartłomiej Sochański, acting vice president of the Constitutional Tribunal," she announced, with changes quickly reflected in the tribunal's website.
By early Saturday morning hours, President Nawrocki announced outside the court (via an aide), "Tonight, there was a breach of public order in the Republic of Poland and a forcible takeover of a constitutional body."
Will there be convenent silence from EU leadership over such a blatant 'rule of law' breach in Warsaw?
The riot police ordered by Globalist Tusk to surround the constitutional court in Poland after the globalists tried to suspend the top judge on the court in a judicial coup pic.twitter.com/fZ4mB0K8oJ
Tusk has essentially admitted that this was precisely what he did: "Restoring the rule of law is our obligation," Tusk wrote on X Friday evening. "After years of lawlessness under PiS this is a difficult process, sometimes painful and it requires decisive action. There is no other way."
Politico confirms that the president had to literally try and force his way in...
Polish President Karol Nawrocki forced his way into the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw shortly after midnight on Saturday, in the latest escalation of the rule-of-law tussle between the PiS-allied president and Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
A video published overnight showed Nawrocki pushing through people gathered at the court’s entrance, including Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, the judge whose disputed nomination as the court’s acting president triggered the crisis on Friday.
Another judge of the top court, Maciej Berek, accused the president of physically confronting Korwin-Piotrowska. Presidential aide RafaÅ‚ LeÅ›kiewicz claimed it was the judges, whom he called “usurpers,” who had obstructed and manhandled Nawrocki.
PRO-EU POLISH PM DONALD TUSK MOVES to TAKE OVER Poland’s CONSTITUTIONAL TRIBUNAL after its president & deputy are SUSPENDED — SPARKING MASS PROTESTS
EU-SKEPTIC Polish President Nawrocki RETURNS from SENEGAL & FORCES WAY INTO court as his party ALLEGES 'ILLEGAL COUP' pic.twitter.com/4CY0GsS3gL
Each side continues accusing the other of coup-like activities and democratic backsliding, and eroding important checks and balances; however, it is Tusk who has openly admitted to a forced takeover of what's supposed to be an independent legal body with power of Constutional and judicial review.
Politicians from PiS, the country's single largest opposition force, have called out ÅšwiÄ™czkowski’s 'unlawful' suspension. "This is a blatant, criminal attack on the constitutional order," former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro stated on X Friday evening. "That is why I call for resistance that will be loud, firm, solidary and fearless."
Europe appears to have been thrown into an accelerated timeline of crises colliding at once, whether far-left social unrest in France, which has spread to several other countries, the unfolding debt crisis in France, or the political crisis in Poland that erupted in the last 24 hours. The momentum is troubling and concerning.
Beyond the political crisis in Poland and the US warning earlier today of a potential "mass casualty" incident in Moscow, another crisis appears to be unfolding in Germany on Halloween night: looting and chaos.
“Violent riots” continue in Frankfurt according to the police, with petrol bombs thrown at emergency services and reports of shops looted including a gun store. https://t.co/GLYwq5i1wl
"The looting of stores has started in Frankfurt, Germany. Young first and second-generation migrants are attacking stores in the city," Poland-based digital news outlet Visegrád 24 wrote on X.
BREAKING:
The looting of stores has started in Frankfurt, Germany.
A lot more footage of the looting has surfaced on X in the last few hours:
Germany, 31 October. Mobs smashing a shoe store, looting the shelves while everyone films. This is not a protest, this is the collapse of Europe. pic.twitter.com/aTiwajpgLc
This is multicultural Germany, Frankfurt right now. Mob smashes several store, loots sneakers and runs through the streets with stolen boxes. This is not a protest. This is pure criminality. pic.twitter.com/sTk8WsNWbB
"German police were attacked with a Molotov cocktail in the city of Frankfurt on Halloween night. Youths participated in looting and clashes with police, with much of the footage livestreamed on TikTok," Budapest-based news outlet Remix News & Views wrote on X.
