AI and Tech News, 25 Oct 2026: Starshield, Bitcoin, Grok Study

Bitcoin dipped under $80,000, and that's only one of today's six biggest tech and AI stories. The others run from Ukraine's restored Starshield service to the first iPhone Duo teardowns.

1. After about 10 days of limits, Ukraine says Starshield is working normally again

Defense Minister Evgeniy Khmara told The Wall Street Journal that the military version of Starlink appears to be back to normal. Testing is still going on, though, and Kyiv hasn't been told why it was restricted.

2. Middle East tensions push bitcoin below $80,000

On Saturday, reports of US staff evacuations in the Middle East pushed traders away from risk assets, and bitcoin slipped below $80,000. Ether, XRP and solana dropped as well.

3. Forced to pick, Grok recommends Republicans and OpenAI's model recommends Democrats, a study finds

The study comes from Convovo, led by Cornell professor Tapan Parikh. It found Grok 4.7 picked Republicans in 92% of API answers, while GPT-6.1 Sol picked Democrats in 97%. OpenAI said the test doesn't reflect ChatGPT use.

4. Thariq Shihipar and Anthony Morris, two Claude Code engineers, leave Anthropic

They're the two engineers most associated with Claude Code, and they announced their departures within a day of each other, just weeks before Anthropic's reported IPO. Neither has said where they're headed next.

5. Apple shuts several French stores ahead of more protests

Three Paris stores closed on Friday, and stores in Bordeaux, Lille, Strasbourg and Aix-en-Provence followed on Saturday. It comes after looting at the Lille and Bordeaux stores during unrest on October 17.

6. First iPhone Duo teardowns reveal two batteries totalling 4,883mAh

What's inside? Teardown videos from REWA Technology and Phone Repair Guru reveal 2,962mAh and 1,921mAh cells, Apple's A20 Pro chip and C2 modem, plus a USB-C port that appears to be modular.