以色列10月7日后首场大选与Anthropic筹备IPO

headlines. I'm Tracy Munford. Today's

Tuesday, October 27th. Here's what we're

covering.

national election since the Hamasled

attacks on October 7th, which upended

life there and ignited Israel's

devastating war in Gaza. Many in the

country view today as the most

consequential vote in Israel's history

as people decide between two blocks

offering very different visions for the

future. On one side is Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu who is seeking

reelection as the leader of the most

far-right government Israel's ever had.

His coalition offers the promise of a

more religious Israel with an ever

tighter grip over the West Bank and

Gaza. On the other side is a coalition

of opposition parties loosely led by

Gaddy Eisenhot, a former Israeli

military chief of staff whose son was

killed in the Gaza war. That coalition

is painting the vote today as the last

chance to preserve democracy in Israel

and pull the country back from becoming

a pariah state, isolated

internationally. My colleague David

Halfinger, who is the Times bureau chief

in Jerusalem, is on the ground today

covering the voting. It's striking how

dark the mood has been around this

election. It's more of like a grim

apprehensiveness than it is excitement

about getting the chance to vote.

People, particularly in the opposition,

but really across the board, have a lot

of fears, in some cases bordering on

despair, that the Israel they thought

they knew, that they grew up in, that

they moved to, is really on the verge of

collapsing or changing into something

very different, perhaps into a kind of

place that they might not see themselves

being able to raise their children in.

more Israelis have left this country

than have immigrated to it in the last

couple of years and there is a lot of

talk and concern that those departures

could accelerate depending on how the

election turns out.

the weeks leading up to today's

elections, Netanyahu tried to push

through a new attack on Iran, but he ran

into resistance from Israel's military

chief of staff. According to multiple

Israeli defense officials and others

briefed on the matter, Netanyahu's

rationale for an attack right before the

election was not clear, but a return to

war could have potentially disrupted or

even delayed the vote. Spokesman for the

prime minister did not respond to

requests for comment. News of

Netanyahu's behindthe-scenes efforts

come as his messaging around the

election has turned increasingly

apocalyptic. In the last few days,

Netanyahu has posted an AI generated

image of a mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv

and warned on TV that the vote will

decide quote Israel's existence.

Voting will close tonight at 1000 p.m.

local time and the Times will have live

updates all day. The big thing to know

is that there's unlikely to be a clear

immediate verdict on who will be the

next prime minister. Because of the way

Israel's parliamentary system works, it

could take weeks or even months to

assemble a governing coalition.

US. There's just one week to go until

the midterms. And beyond the very tight

races that will determine control of

Congress, we're also looking at some of

the major policy issues that voters are

weighing across the country. Last week,

we covered how some states are

considering new taxes on the ultra

wealthy. Today, we're looking at

transgender rights issues, which will be

on a number of state ballots. In four

states in particular, Nebraska, Arizona,

Colorado, and Washington, voters will

weigh in on transports participation.

And in other states, voters will decide

whether to ban gender transition medical

treatment for young people. Since 2020,

more than two dozen Republican le states

have passed similar restrictions. Even

in states that don't have any of these

measures up for a vote, though, there's

been a flood of messaging.

skip voting this year. But he remembered

Democrats are crazier than his ex. They

care more about their pronouns than his

paycheck. Republicans have focused on

the topic to try and portray Democrats

as radical and out of touch.

devastating consequences.

transgender athletes in girls sports or

gender- related treatment for minors are

effective for mobilizing their base. And

an analysis out of Wesian University

found that last month transgender issues

were a bigger focus in ads for

Republican Senate candidates than crime

or immigration. Transgender advocates

say the barrage of ads fuels anti-trans

bigotry. They've also criticized how

some Democrats have responded to the GOP

attacks by seeming to pivot away from

their earlier support of trans rights.

toward becoming a publicly traded

company. It laid out its financial

perspectus for potential investors ahead

of what could be the largest IPO ever,

surpassing SpaceX from earlier this

year. The perspectus revealed a couple

of key things. One is how much

Anthropics revenue has skyrocketed

recently. It showed the company brought

in over $16 billion in the first half of

this year. That's up 14 times from the

year before, largely from businesses

using its AI software, including Claude.

The second thing the filing showed is

how much Anthropic is on the hook to

spend to keep funding its intense

infrastructure needs. That number, which

will go to data centers, chips,

computing power, etc. over the next

decade is about $800 billion according

to a tally by the times. So we are four

years into this AI boom and anthropic is

the first one that is actually going

public and it's happening just at a

moment when the markets are really

starting to get jittery and nervous

about all the money that's been dumped

into these AI companies and the

infrastructure around them. Aaron

Griffith covers Silicon Valley for the

times. She says that when Anthropic does

make its market debut, which could

happen as soon as next month, it will be

viewed as a kind of litmus test for the

whole industry. So, the stakes are very,

very high. If this IPO goes well, it

could open the door for a lot more

companies to start going public. It

could mean, you know, the markets are

open and investors are eager to take on

risk and really believe in the potential

of these AI companies. if it goes poorly

or if it's disappointing, you know, it

could take a lot of the air and the

excitement out of the market and we

could sort of see the beginning of a

correction.

unique about Anthropic's filing

yesterday is the risk factors it

disclosed to investors. Its chief

executive wrote that anything so

powerful can be used for ill as well as

good. And the company warned that its

products could bring about disasters,

including loss of control of the

technology and authoritarian abuses.

Going further, it said that advanced AI

systems could quote pose catastrophic or

existential risks to humanity.

Halloween this year might just be the

price of candy. In the last 5 years, the

average cost for a bag of 100 pieces has

jumped more than 70%. according to one

personal finance site. And while we all

know the price of everything at the

grocery store has risen in the past

year, Halloween candy has seen bigger

increases than things like vegetables or

beef, which you should probably not hand

out to trick-or-treaters. One reason for

the jump, the price of chocolate, thanks

to a climate-driven cacao shortage

that's rocked the industry. Luckily,

according to a market research

executive, the kids these days are more

into chewy, tangy, sour stuff like Nerds

gummy clusters. So, you can try and save

there. You can also try and get

creative. One woman in Illinois told the

Times she's going to be passing out

packs of ramen noodles. 10 for a buck.

Other people are filling out the bowl

with temporary tattoos or little lowcost

trinkets. But the pressures are real.

The Times talked with another woman

who's agonizing over how to make a good

impression in her new neighborhood in

North Carolina this Halloween. She would

like to be the king-sized candy bar

house, but thanks to prices, that's not

going to happen. For now, she's not sure

what she's going to do, saying, quote,

"No one wants to be the Raisin House."

daily, a look at how the federal

government ended up prosecuting ICE

protesters in Texas. This was really the

first time that the federal government

has ever tried American protesters on

either the right or the left for

terrorism related charges. You can

listen to that in the New York Times app

or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm

Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.