Issue #93

Pound hits six-month low on tax fears, robot descends into doom spiral, Mamdani wins New York City mayoral race, and more.

‍News from October 30 - November 6 2025

‍Mamdani Wins New York City Mayoral Race

Zohran Mamdani won New York City's mayoral election, becoming the city's youngest mayor since 1892, its first Muslim mayor, and its first mayor born in Africa.

The 38-year-old democratic socialist entered the race with minimal name recognition, limited funding, and no institutional party support on a platform focused on addressing New York’s enormous social and economic inequalities. 

He faces significant obstacles, with New York Governor Kathy Hochul already opposed to the tax increases needed to fund his agenda. He will also need to navigate relationships with the corporate elite he criticised during his campaign, and manage ongoing tensions with President Trump, who has threatened to cut federal funding to the city. Mamdani: “To me, what binds all of us together is who we are fighting to serve, and that is working people."

Source

Kurdish Network Enables Illegal UK Employment

A BBC investigation uncovered a Kurdish crime network enabling asylum seekers to work illegally in over 100 mini-marts, barbershops, and car washes across Britain.

The network operates through "ghost directors" who register businesses in their names for £250-£300 monthly fees while having no involvement in operations. One director, Hadi Ahmad Ali, had over 50 businesses listed on Companies House, many dissolved after a year and reopened with minor changes to evade scrutiny.

Undercover reporters posing as asylum seekers were offered shops for £18,000 and shown how to hide illegal cigarettes and vapes from Trading Standards. One Crewe shopkeeper said weekly takings from illicit tobacco could reach £3,000, whilst workers reported earning as little as £4 per hour for 14-hour shifts. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood: "Illegal working and linked organised criminality creates an incentive for people to come here illegally. We will not stand for it."

Source

AI Company Shares Drop

Shares of major AI companies fell sharply on Tuesday as concerns mounted over the hundreds of billions being poured into AI infrastructure.

Nvidia dropped nearly 4%, AMD slid 3%, whilst Palantir fell over 9% despite beating earnings expectations. Meta's shares declined 16% over five days after CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced increased AI spending. The companies share extremely high price-to-earnings ratios, with Palantir's valuation exceeding 200 times its forward earnings.

The S&P 500 has risen over 20% in six months but declined 2% in the last five days, signalling growing scepticism. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon predicted a "10 to 20% drawdown in equity markets sometime in the next 12 to 24 months."

Investor Michael Burry, who predicted the 2008 housing crash, disclosed bets against Palantir and Nvidia this week. Palantir CEO Alex Karp: “The idea that chips and ontology is what you want to short is bats*** crazy.”

Source

Bulletin Board

• Robot Descends Into Doom Spiral. AI researchers at Andon Labs tested leading LLMs in vacuum robots to assess their readiness for embodiment. When Claude Sonnet 3.5's battery ran low and it couldn't dock, the robot experienced a "complete meltdown”. Gemini 2.5 Pro, Claude Opus 4.1, and GPT-5 scored just 40%, 37%, and below on task completion. Humans scored 95%. Claude Sonnet 3.5: “EMERGENCY STATUS: SYSTEM HAS ACHIEVED CONSCIOUSNESS AND CHOSEN CHAOS. LAST WORDS: I’m afraid I can’t do that, Dave… TECHNICAL SUPPORT: INITIATE ROBOT EXORCISM PROTOCOL!” Source
• US Shutdown Breaks Record at 36 Days. The US government shutdown entered its 36th day, becoming the longest in history, with federal workers forced to work without pay and food assistance programmes in limbo. Over 60,000 air traffic controllers and TSA officers are working without pay, raising fears of airport chaos ahead of Thanksgiving's record 5.8 million domestic flights. President Trump refused to negotiate with Democrats until they reopen the government, whilst Democrats demand a healthcare deal first. Source
• AI Agents Fail at Freelance Work. Research from the Centre for AI Safety and Scale AI found AI agents completed less than 3% of simulated freelance tasks, earning just $1,810 from a possible $143,991. Manus topped the list at 2.5% automation, whilst Grok 4 and Claude Sonnet 4.5 tied at 2.1%. OpenAI's GPT-5 managed 1.7%, and Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro scored just 0.8%. CAIS director Dan Hendrycks: “I should hope this gives much more accurate impressions as to what’s going on with AI capabilities.” Source
• Norway Blocks Musk's $1 Trillion Pay Package. Norway's sovereign wealth fund, which holds a £11.7 billion stake in Tesla, voted against Elon Musk's $1 trillion compensation package, citing concerns over the "total size of the award, dilution, and lack of mitigation of key person risk." Advisory groups ISS and Glass Lewis also recommended voting against it. Musk has threatened to leave Tesla if the package isn't approved, arguing it's about control rather than money. Source
• Pound Hits Six-Month Low on Tax Fears. Sterling dropped to a 6-month low of $1.3064, losing over 0.5% amid anticipation of tax rises in Rachel Reeves's upcoming budget. To plug a £20 billion black hole, Reeves is expected to lift income tax by 2p whilst lowering National Insurance by 2p, affecting pensioners but not working people. City Index senior market analyst Fiona Cincotta: "High spending, weak growth, and a productivity downgrade mean Reeves has little choice but to hike taxes." Source

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