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

Here are the six biggest technology and AI stories of the day, from Ukraine's restored Starshield service and bitcoin's slide below $80,000 to the first iPhone Duo teardowns.

1. Ukraine Says Starshield Is Working Normally Again After About 10 Days of Limits

Defense Minister Evgeniy Khmara told The Wall Street Journal that the military version of Starlink appears to be working normally, though testing continues and Kyiv has not been told why it was restricted.

2. Bitcoin Falls Below $80,000 as Middle East Tensions Weigh on Crypto

Bitcoin slipped below $80,000 on Saturday as reports of US staff evacuations in the Middle East pushed traders away from risk assets, and ether, XRP and solana also fell.

3. A Study Finds Grok Recommends Republicans and OpenAI's Model Recommends Democrats When Forced to Pick

Convovo, led by Cornell professor Tapan Parikh, found Grok 4.7 picked Republicans in 92% of API answers and GPT-6.1 Sol picked Democrats in 97%, while OpenAI said the test does not reflect ChatGPT use.

4. Claude Code Engineers Thariq Shihipar and Anthony Morris Leave Anthropic

The two engineers most associated with Claude Code announced their departures within a day of each other, weeks before Anthropic's reported IPO, and neither said where they are going next.

5. Apple Closes Several French Stores Ahead of Further Protests

Stores in Bordeaux, Lille, Strasbourg and Aix-en-Provence closed on Saturday after three Paris stores shut on Friday, following looting at the Lille and Bordeaux stores during unrest on October 17.

6. The First iPhone Duo Teardowns Show Two Batteries Totalling 4,883mAh

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