Besides accumulating, the company is also aggressively staking Ethereum to earn passive income. As per its latest update, Bitmine has staked approximately 5.07 million $ETH, worth $12.9 billion, through its own validator network, MAVAN, and staking partners.
At a reported annualized yield of 2.61%, Bitmine estimates that fully staking its holdings could generate around $400 million annually. However, concerns remain as staking returns can fluctuate, and staked $ETH may face liquidity constraints.
Beyond this, Bitmine has also issued preferred stock, BMNP, offering a stated 9.5% annual dividend rate. This is another funding mechanism.
Is Bitmine’s roadmap rocky or smooth?
As Bitmine touched multiple milestones, Chairman Tom Lee noted,
We believe Bitmine is positioned to outperform the crypto bull market that we expect to be coming, as the company has strengthened its competitive position over the past year in the midst of a crypto winter (bear market).
This statement came within days of Lee predicting that $ETH could hit $5,000 by year-end.
However, with BMNR trading at $23.83 following a drop of 0.83% at press time, there may still be cause for caution.
Ethereum’s on-chain metrics raise red flags
At the time of writing, $ETH was trading at $2,500.71 after falling by 1.5% in 24 hours.
On the contrary, CryptoQuant’s data suggested that its network activity and development have remained resilient lately. Despite significant price volatility.
For example, $ETH fell from above $4,500 to nearly $1,500, before recovering to around $2,500. And yet, daily active addresses have generally maintained a baseline of roughly 330,000–500,000.
Source: CryptoQuant
Meanwhile, the number of smart contracts has increased from approximately 60 million in January 2026 to over 72 million by October 2026.
Source: CryptoQuant
Still, if the price action continues to give in to the sellers, it would be difficult for on-chain metrics to pull up the bullish narrative for Ethereum.
Final Summary
The largest Ethereum DAT has accumulated about 4.9% of Ethereum’s total circulating supply.
Bitmine has so far staked approximately 5.07 million $ETH, worth $12.9 billion.
Russell Brand was “ruthless and calculated” with an “indiscriminate and voracious” desire for sexual contact, the prosecution alleged in its opening statement at the actor and comedian’s rape trial in London.
Brand has been charged with three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault. He has pleaded not guilty and denied all charges.
The jury was selected on Tuesday, consisting of eight men and four women. The case involves six female plaintiffs, all of whom are given automatic lifelong anonymity according to U.K. law, and relates to alleged offenses that occurred between 1999 and 2009.
Arriving to Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday morning, Brand sported a black suit, pinstriped shirt, loose white tie and sunglasses. He was accompanied by his wife, Laura Gallacher, whose hand he clasped. According to BBC News, Brand told reporters on his way inside: “I feel blessed. I feel of course concerned, but hopeful that this process will lead to good outcomes for everybody — that is my prayer,” he said. Inside the courtroom, Brand appeared to be rubbing what looked like a rock or pebble in his hand.
Riel Karmy-Jones KC is leading the prosecution and set out the case against Brand. As the BBC reports, the six alleged victims “did not know each other, have never met each other” and “came forward independently of each other,” Karmy-Jones noted.
Brand was “ruthless and calculated” and “sometimes might tell women what they wanted to hear” to satisfy his sexual appetite, Karmy-Jones alleged. “The circumstances of the offending were as wide and as varied as the defendant’s career,” she said. “His strong desire for some form of sexual contact was indiscriminate and voracious.”
Karmy-Jones called Brand “a flirt with a huge sexual appetite — childlike in his expectation that his every desire should be met.” He would “appear indifferent” after an alleged assault, she claimed. “Sometimes he would leave promptly after the incident, sometimes making an excuse to get away or sometimes simply continuing as though nothing wrong had happened,” she said, according to BBC News.
The prosecution brought in testimony from a former friend of Brand’s, who claimed that the comedian bragged to him that he wanted to sleep with “5,000 women” in his lifetime and had laid out “rules” to achieve this, including telling them “what they want to hear.”
Turning to the first alleged victim, who was in her 20s at the time of the incident in 1999, the prosecution said when she first met Brand she assumed he was gay. Later at her home, she invited him to make himself a cup of tea while she used the bathroom. When she emerged, she was shocked to find him “partially undressed.”
“Perhaps some of her confusion can be explained by how the defendant was behaving, because as she came out of the bathroom he was prancing around the room — a bit like an ostrich, doing silly walks like Basil Fawlty,” Karmy-Jones said, as reported by BBC News. “She was taken aback, she was shocked and didn’t really know what to do — and in her words she froze a bit.”
The prosecution then alleged that Brand raped her. She “described drifting out of her head, knowing there was nothing she could do, as he pulled her trousers and underwear down, penetrated her vagina with his penis — raping her,” Karmy-Jones said.
The complainant claims she didn’t report the alleged incident at the time because of Brand’s “celebrity status,” which she “now greatly regrets.” When she did eventually file a police report and Brand was questioned about the incident, the prosecution claimed he did not remember her name or the incident, but insisted that he “had never engaged in non-consensual activity.”
The second incident occurred in 2001, the prosecution claimed, and involved a woman in her 30s at the time who was working at MTV. The prosecution alleged that Brand “lurched forward and grabbed her breasts,” and then “squeezed them with both his hands,” as BBC News reports.
In the mid-2000s, Brand was best known as a comedian and actor, presenting shows such as “Big Brother’s Big Mouth” and starring in films such as “Get Him to the Greek” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” He has since pivoted to podcasting and influencing online.
The Crypto Fear and Greed Index, a 0-to-100 sentiment gauge built from momentum, volatility, options positioning and social data, fell to 53 from an “extreme greed” reading of 82 on Aug. 26. It reads 56 today, a neutral score. What it boils down to is this: The August euphoria is gone, but traders aren’t panicking either.
Bitcoin ETFs are down a net $386.3 million in October, and outflows force funds to sell actual Bitcoin. Wednesday’s Consumer Price Index report, expected to show annual inflation rising to 3.6% from 3.4%, is the next test: a hotter print would boost rate-hike bets and likely pressure Bitcoin. The Federal Reserve meets Oct. 27-28.
Traders on Myriad, a prediction market developed by Decrypt‘s parent company Dastan, give 54% odds that Bitcoin falls to $80,000 this month, down from 56% on Monday. The BTC highs in October market holds at 45% for $87,500. So, overall, sentiment has improved today, even if slightly.
Bitcoin price: Bulls defend the golden zone
Today’s low stopped about $588 above $80,365.12, the swing low where the bounce began. That higher low is what traders want in an uptrend. Bitcoin also reclaimed the Fibonacci “golden zone” between $81,847.57 and $82,305.50, an area where pullbacks within uptrends often draw buyers.
Bitcoin price data. Image: Tradingview
The Average Directional Index, or ADX, measures trend strength, and readings above 25 confirm a trend. It reads 29.9 with buyers in control, but it was 42.8 on Oct. 7, so the uptrend is coasting rather than accelerating. The 50-day exponential moving average stayed above the 200-day, a golden cross traders read as an intact long-term uptrend.
The Relative Strength Index, a 0-to-100 momentum gauge, sits at 53.4, just above the 50 line that separates bullish from bearish momentum. The Squeeze Momentum Indicator has been on for seven sessions, meaning volatility is compressed like a coiled spring, and its -0.52 reading leans slightly bearish.
BitcoinBTC · USD
$83,131−0.74%
Oct 7Oct 9Oct 10Oct 12Oct 14
$84.2k$83.1k$81.9k$80.7k
24h HighHigh$84,025
24h LowLow$82,919
VolVol$1.1B
Market projectionsOdds by Myriad
→
A daily close above $84,245.88 would open $86,644.19, then the $87,422.70 high, about $77 shy of Myriad’s $87,500 line. Losing $81,603.02 would bring the daily trend band’s upper edge into play just above $80,000. A close below it would expose $77,500.
Until Wednesday’s CPI print, the active squeeze points to a market that is winding up rather than picking a direction. Oil and Iran headlines, Treasury yields, and daily ETF flows remain the short-term catalysts to track.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.
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British director Joanna Hogg (“The Souvenir,” “The Eternal Daughter”) will preside over the jury of Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival, which runs Oct. 15-23.
Hogg, who is one of the U.K.’s leading auteurs, will also be giving a masterclass titled “Life Into Film” during the festival. Joining Hogg on the El Gouna jury panel will be Egyptian actress Nahed El Sebaie (“19 B”); Egyptian composer Khaled Hammad, whose career spans three decades and comprises “The Yacoubian Building” and “The Inevitable Journey to Find a Wedding Dress”; Iraqi-Kurdish filmmaker Shawkat Amin Korki (“Memories on Stone,” “The Exam”); and Turkish auteur Yeşim Ustaoğlu, whose drama film “What Remains” recently premiered positively at San Sebastian.
The fest, held in the Red Sea resort roughly 250 miles south of Cairo, also announced the composition of the other jury rosters for its ninth edition.
The Swiss-Iraqi filmmaker, producer, and multidisciplinary artist known as Samir will preside over El Gouna’s feature documentary competition and “Green Star” jury, which will judge films competing for the documentary prizes and also the fest’s award recognizing the best film addressing environmental issues. Joining him on this jury panel are Afghanistan-born, Netherlands-based filmmaker Aboozar Amini (“Kabul, Between Prayers”); Belgian producer Julie Frères (“From Abdul to Leila,” “The Other Side of the Sun”); Zurich Film Festival director and co-owner Reta Guetg; and Lebanese film editor Gladys Joujou (“Talking About Trees,” “Bye Bye Tiberias”).
Finally, El Gouna’s short films competition jury is made up of groundbreaking Saudi director Meshal AlJaser (“Naga”); Tunisian director Amel Guellaty (“Where the Wind Comes From”); and Greek actor and director Christos Passalis, who starred in “Dogtooth” and Sundance Audience Award winner “Hold Onto Me.”
A conversion price of 339 yen per share was set for the bonds. Under the specified conditions, investors will be able to convert their bonds into company shares between November 12, 2026, and October 15, 2031. The bonds will not pay periodic interest, but the right to convert them into shares will give investors the opportunity to participate in the company’s future price performance.
Metaplanet plans to conduct its initial share buyback through the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s ToSTNeT-3 over-the-counter trading platform. The company estimates that the amount of shares it can repurchase could reach approximately 7.1% of its total holdings. The actual amount will depend on the number of shares offered for sale.
The buyback could increase the Bitcoin per share ratio by reducing the amount of shares in circulation. Conversely, the future conversion of bonds into shares will create new shares, potentially diluting the ownership stake of existing investors.
The company announced that it held 44,000 BTC as of the end of September. However, the new bond proceeds are not planned to be used to buy Bitcoin. Since the funds are allocated to debt repayment and share buybacks, this development should not be interpreted as Metaplanet making a new Bitcoin purchase worth 52 billion yen.
Miniature organs being sent into space for the very first time may soon help scientists understand how spaceflight impacts certain organs and may accelerate aging.
In a joint effort by researchers from Mount Sinai, NASA and aerospace company Space Tango, these mini organs will be exposed to the increased radiation and microgravity astronauts face in space, especially on long-duration missions.
“If people are going to be living and working in space, then we need to understand what’s going to happen to them,” David Sachs, assistant professor of surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, told ABC News. “But also, because it’s interesting as a model of accelerated aging for studying people on Earth.”
The mini organs launched aboard commercial resupply mission CRS-35 on Tuesday morning from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. They are expected to arrive at the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday.
Astronauts age faster in space because microgravity and radiation exposure negatively affect multiple body systems.
The miniature organs offer researchers a unique opportunity to simulate aging in a much shorter period of time to understand disease and develop treatments.
Miniature organs being sent to space for the first time in a joint effort by researchers from Mount Sinai, NASA and aerospace company Space Tango.
Blanchard Laboratory at the Mount Sinai Health System
“Six months in space … is equivalent to about 10 to 20 years of aging on Earth,” Kevin Costa, associate professor of surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, told ABC News.
Sachs and Costa are sending up to 16 miniature hearts to the ISS to test how they respond to electrical signals and monitor how they may react to near-zero gravity.
Mount Sinai’s Cardiovascular Research Institute sent individual heart cells to the ISS in 2023, confirming they could survive in the weightless environment.
The technology, which is integrated into a miniature laboratory called CubeLab, was developed by Space Tango and simulates the natural environment in the human body.
“[It is] slightly bigger than a shoebox, and it is a fully automated, miniaturized system,” Gentry Barnett, chief technology officer at Space Tango, told ABC News.
As part of the new effort, the team is sending miniature brains, called miBrain, to the ISS. Around the size of a peppercorn, the miBrains reflect models of healthy and diseased brains.
By exposing them to the space environment, scientists can see how mini-brains respond and better understand why living in space accelerates aging.
Though the mini organs are not full-sized human organs, the researchers say they are good substitutes, cost-effective and don’t take up much of the limited space aboard the space station.
They also believe discoveries made in space can translate to uses in everyday medical care.
The microgravity environment uniquely allows researchers to study what happens to humans with a sedentary lifestyle or prolonged bed rest, which isn’t easily simulated on Earth, Sachs explained.
“[The research is] translating to stuff in space, but it’s also translating back to the research we do in the laboratory to help people with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease,” Joel Blanchard, associate professor of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine and neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, told ABC News.
Miniature organs being sent to space for the first time in a joint effort by researchers from Mount Sinai, NASA and aerospace company Space Tango.
Blanchard Laboratory at the Mount Sinai Health System
Lisa Carnell, the director of the biological and physical sciences division at NASA, told ABC News that these experiments serve as a starting point for future research beyond low Earth orbit, including to the moon and beyond.
“We sent Apollo astronauts out there over 50 years ago, but the techniques and the way that we can actually do assessments to understand what’s happening has come a long way since then,” Carnell said.
NASA plans to return astronauts to the moon’s surface in 2028 and build a permanent base in the next decade. The agency and private space company SpaceX have also discussed sending humans to Mars in the not-so-distant future.
“We’re making leaps, not incremental research, by taking biology to space, because you’re seeing changes that you cannot see on the ground in ways you’ve never seen it before,” Carnell added.
Dr. Allen Chang is a geriatric medicine subspecialist at Dalhousie University and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit
Noelle Menu, 37, says the pain began to darken her reality at a pivotal moment in her life — once she and her husband decided to try for kids, when she was 26.
She stopped taking her birth control, which she had been on for a long period, and said she began experiencing pain she’d never had before.
The pain came to define and limit her life, she said, and it seemed nothing could relieve it. She suffered through delays in diagnosis, as well as emergency room visits, a hysterectomy and being placed on waitlists stretching years to see specialists and receive treatment.
At that point, it was “literally destroying my life,” she said, “and to hear it’s about three to four years to see somebody here, I was just so emotional, so devastated.”
Soon, she realized: “We can’t deal with it in Canada.”
So Menu and her husband pulled from their savings and went into debt to seek private treatment at EndoGlobal in Tijuana, Mexico, which cost about $35,000 including airfare, a multi-day hotel stay and other costs.
It’s a journey some Canadian women suffering from endometriosis are taking because they feel their health-care system has failed them.
The condition affects one in 10 women, and Canada is doing a “poor” job at providing them care, according to a November 2025 report by the House of Commons health committee — and in addition to causing undue pain, the lost productivity due to the disorder costs the Canadian economy some $2.5 billion a year.
WATCH | Why Menu spent $35K on endometriosis surgery in Mexico:
Calgary woman spends savings on endometriosis surgery in Mexico
Noelle Menu, a Calgary woman living with Stage 4 endometriosis, says doctors dismissed and misdiagnosed her for years, even after multiple surgeries and thousands of dollars spent on private health care. After being told she’d have to wait 30-40 months to see a specialist, Menu says she and her husband drained their funds to travel to Tijuana, Mexico, for surgery, at a cost of about $35,000.
Gender bias plays a role
Endometriosis is a chronic condition where tissue similar to the lining of the uterus begins to grow and spread to other parts of the body. This tissue thickens and breaks down according to a woman’s menstrual cycle, and can cause severe inflammation, scarring and pain during periods.
It can take an average of five years to be diagnosed with endometriosis in Canada, the parliamentary committee found, while some people have waited for up to 20 years before doctors linked their pain to the disease.
Even after that, it can take, on average, between six to 18 months to see a specialist and up to 24 months for surgery, it said.
It can be difficult to diagnose because its symptoms can resemble other conditions, and the level of reported pain sometimes doesn’t match detectable tissue growth.
WATCH | Similar issues in P.E.I.:
Islanders with endometriosis say it’s taking too long to get medical care
Some people on P.E.I. living with endometriosis say they’ve been waiting a long time to get the specialized treatment they need. For some, it’s been years. CBC’s Gwyneth Egan has more.
The report found that gender bias plays a significant role in those issues — along with a taboo around discussing menstrual issues, it is often assumed that this kind of pain is “just part of being a woman.”
Menu, a supply-chain systems adviser, said she was forced to reduce her workday in half because of the pain. Sometimes, she could barely make it through to the evening.
“This disease is just debilitating for some women, and I really wish there was more awareness around it and that doctors would take us women seriously.”
Days before her flight, she told CBC News, “It’s hard to be so hopeful just because of the previous surgeries I’ve had, but I’m feeling a lot more hopeful this time.”
Dr. Jorge Zavala is one of the founders of EndoGlobal, and he says endometriosis mimics cancer in the way that it spreads, without being as destructive.
Dr. Jorge Zavala, one of the founders of EndoGlobal, which operates out of Hospital Cyntar, says there is a general lack of awareness around endometriosis among doctors who don’t necessarily know what to look for in a patient to get to an accurate diagnosis. (Alessandro Molatore/CBC)
Zavala said doctors generally lack awareness about the condition, which is why diagnoses can take so long.
“As a doctor, if you’re not trained in something, you’re not going to be able to diagnose it. It could be poking your eye, but if you are not trained to see it, you’re not going to see it,” said Zavala.
2-year wait time for surgery
Vanessa Papiernik, 42, says it took about 30 years for her to arrive at her diagnosis — and it came with a cancer scare.
Papiernik, a veterinarian in Victoria, said she suffered through nine months of “significant” and “debilitating” pain until she landed an appointment for a colonoscopy.
“I was purely in survival mode,” said Papiernik.
Vanessa Papiernik, 42, undergoes pre-surgery exams at the EndoGlobal treatment centre at Hospital Cyntar. She says it took about 30 years for her to arrive at her endometriosis diagnosis and it came with a cancer scare. (Alessandro Molatore/CBC)
She would take Advil, put on maternity clothes because of the bloating and strap a heating pad around her waist to go to work.
“I would push the pain aside, but as soon as I got home, I would realize, ‘Wow, this is very dangerous, what I’m going through right now.’”
Her colonoscopy found a mass. For two weeks as she waited for the biopsy results, she feared it was cancer; her sister had died from colon cancer 10 years earlier. However, the results showed it was endometriosis that had infiltrated through the layers of her colon.
She was referred to a centre in Vancouver, but faced a one-year wait to see a specialist, plus another year for surgery, said Papiernik.
“Living like this for two years was just not an option for me,” she said.
The post-surgery recovery floor at the EndoGlobal centre, at Hospital Cyntar in Tijuana. (Alessandro Molatore/CBC)
She eventually booked a trip to the same centre as Menu, landing the same week the Calgary woman was scheduled for her own procedure.
There were more than 30 Canadian women receiving treatment there within the same timeframe, said Papiernik.
“We need to really come face to face with the fact that this is, to some extent, it’s discrimination against women,” said Dr. Nicholas Leyland, president of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada.
“If this were happening with the same degree of pain in a male, it would have been fixed a long time ago.”
‘Complex surgical issues’
Leyland said that there are not enough specially trained gynecologists in Canada to deal with “the complex surgical issues,” and that the condition requires a multidisciplinary approach to care, including psychologists and physiotherapists.
The House of Commons report’s top recommendation called on Ottawa to “develop a national action plan on endometriosis” to deal with the “gaps and barriers that hinder awareness, diagnosis and treatment.”
The federal government responded saying that Statistics Canada would gather data on conditions like endometriosis; the agency has been collecting responses since Sept. 28 and will do so till Jan. 15, 2027.
The Canadian Institute of Health Research has also invested $4.9 million in endometriosis research between 2020 and 2025, Ottawa said.
Shortly before her procedure, Menu said doctors in Mexico found a large mass that threatened to block her bowels and send her into septic shock. She said she was two weeks away from emergency surgery.
“For me to hear that I could have been in emergency surgery and my specialist appointment [in Canada] was a 30- to 40-month wait…. It makes me so mad,” said Menu, in a late-September interview with CBC News after her surgery.
With the help of her husband, Menu took a walk around the post-surgical floor, which has about 14 beds.
Most of her neighbours were Canadian women. They greeted each other as they passed.
“I was just so grateful that they were able to find everything,” said Menu.
“I’m on the other side of it now. I’m really happy for that.”
PlayStation’s disc-less future isn’t affecting Nintendo’s plans to release physical games, according to a new interview.
Bill van Zyll, VP and general manager for Nintendo Latin America, spoke in an interview with YouTuber Coelho no Japão, confirming the brand has no imminent plans to drop physical titles.
“We go off what the consumer prefers, and take that into account very heavily,” Zyll says. “We also have a platform that just launched. We’re barely just over a year into NS2 [Nintendo Switch 2], and it’s got both digital and physical capabilities. There are no plans to ditch physical. We know how much the fans like it as well, so our position has been to be agnostic.”
He notes Nintendo has been “very agnostic,” meaning it allows customers to openly choose between physical or digital titles. While true, these comments overlook that some Nintendo games now come as key cards in physical packaging rather than cartridges.
In January 2028, Sony plans to stop sales of physical games for its PlayStation 5 and any future consoles. The choice has sparked uproar among gamers and physical media fans who prefer to play from a disc, leading to a boycott of Sony services back in August.
Sony’s announcement may have been seen as an opportunity for Microsoft and Nintendo to switch to digital-only with a reduced backlash, but each brand may also be reassessing internally given the negative results of Sony’s decision.
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It’s clear Nintendo knows its fans like the option to play physical titles, but the big question will be whether a Switch 3, or whatever the brand does next, comes with a physical game slot. Zyll’s comments are specific to the Switch 2, leaving the door open for a future digital-only console.
Microsoft has yet to announce its disc drive plans for future Xbox consoles, with its CEO avoiding the question in recent interviews. Asha Sharma spoke to the BBC where she said, “we’re not sharing more on Helix” when asked about the possibility of dropping the disc drive.
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I’ve been a journalist for over a decade after getting my start in tech reporting back in 2013. I joined PCMag in 2025, where I cover the latest developments across the tech sphere, writing about the gadgets and services you use every day. Be sure to send me any tips you think PCMag would be interested in.
The barrage of spending comes as Republicans fight to overcome Trump’s declining popularity and cost of living concerns.
By Reuters and The Associated Press
Published On 12 Oct 202612 Oct 2026
Elon Musk, the trillionaire tech mogul and backer of far-right causes, has reportedly spent $366m since last year to buoy the Republican Party in the United States midterm elections.
The New York Times first reported on Monday that Musk has spent $276m since July alone, including $158m for a super PAC focused on Republican Senate candidates, making him the largest single donor this year.
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Musk is considered a close ally of President Donald Trump, the leader of the Republican Party, and was a special government adviser to the White House last year.
Musk’s political action committee, America PAC, has confirmed the spending totals. In a statement to The New York Times, a spokesperson framed the record amount as necessary to defend Congress from a Democratic takeover during the midterm races.
“These robust investments have allowed the GOP apparatus to get its message out so Republicans can have a fighting chance to defy history,” America PAC spokesman Andrew Romeo told the Times.
The barrage of spending by Musk comes as Republican candidates are fighting to overcome Trump’s low popularity and rising concerns about the cost of living among US voters.
Democrats are hoping to capitalise on voter dissatisfaction with Trump’s tenure to seize control of Congress, where Republicans currently hold majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The influence of wealthy donors and PACs has long been the subject of criticism. Opponents argue that such spending distorts US politics in favour of powerful interests.
Musk became the world’s first trillionaire in June, when his aerospace company SpaceX made its initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
The tech entrepreneur had previously said that he planned to step back from his involvement in US politics, stating in May that he had “done enough” and did not have plans for large spending efforts.
Still, Musk has leveraged his tech holdings and wealth to support right-wing groups around the world.
Last year, for instance, politicians in Germany accused Musk of trying to meddle in the national election. Musk has been a vocal backer of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has been accused of adopting a discriminatory stance on immigration and other issues.
Voters in the US will head to the polls on November 3 to cast their ballots in the midterms, which will decide key state and local races, as well as congressional majorities.
The Republican Party is considered to have a sizeable financial advantage over the Democrats ahead of the race, with heavy spending from groups such as MAGA Inc, a pro-Trump super PAC named for the president’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
As of August, MAGA Inc reportedly had $416m in its coffers. The tracking site AdImpact found that it had spent $22m over the past month alone on the tight race unfolding for the open Senate seat in Texas.
Trump has also increased his campaign activities, hosting a string of rallies in the final weeks before the election to help Republicans push their message.
But Democrats appear confident that the Republicans’ spending advantage will not be enough to counter the effects of growing dissatisfaction with Trump.
“Republicans are hoping to buy these elections, injecting tens of millions into races to try and outrun their unpopular candidates, unpopular president and unpopular economy,” said Lauren French, a spokesperson for Democrats’ Senate Majority PAC.
OnePlus isn’t making a comeback in the US, which may be disappointing if you like its latest smartphone. The OnePlus 16 is official in China, and it looks like one of the most exciting Android phones right now.
The OnePlus 16 comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 processor, a chipset first announced last month but yet to appear on many devices. The base OnePlus 16 comes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, but you can upgrade to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.
Alongside the new processor, OnePlus revamped its cooling system with a vapor chamber 40% better than previous generations. The phone’s 6.78-inch screen is now an LTPO OLED panel capable of up to 185Hz refresh rate.
The battery sounds remarkable, though we don’t yet know exactly how long the phone can last. The OnePlus 16 features a 9,000mAh cell, far larger than the batteries in Google and Samsung’s phones, alongside 100W wired fast charging and 50W wireless charging.
Interestingly, the OnePlus 15 took home PCMag’s Lab Award for the longest battery life among Android phones. The OnePlus 15 featured a 7,300mAh cell, meaning this new handset has a 23% larger capacity, which may make for a drastically longer-lasting phone.
The camera is also a major upgrade with a 200MP main shooter with a 1/1.4-inch sensor and a faster f/1.4 aperture. There are also 50MP ultrawide and telephoto cameras on the rear, and a 50MP selfie shooter on the front.
The phone comes in three colors called Tomorrow’s Starlight, Dark Forest, and Mars Masterpiece. Tomorrow’s Starlight is a silver shade and sports LED lighting on the rear, showing the number 16 in the bottom-left corner. This then flashes different patterns depending on various factors, such as when you receive notifications or when your phone is low on battery.
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Earlier this year, OnePlus decided to stop selling its devices in Europe and the US. Some US-based fans may choose to import this handset, but that comes with various risks, given you won’t have access to a warranty or easy repairs.
The handset is being sold for a promotional period at 5,699 yuan in China, which is equivalent to around $850.
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I’ve been a journalist for over a decade after getting my start in tech reporting back in 2013. I joined PCMag in 2025, where I cover the latest developments across the tech sphere, writing about the gadgets and services you use every day. Be sure to send me any tips you think PCMag would be interested in.
