Priya: Elon Musk personally ordered Starlink throttled over Ukraine.
Theo: I'm Theo.
Priya: And I'm Priya.
Theo: And this is Money Daily for Sunday, October 25th, 2026.
Priya: We're tracking three big stories that touch your money and your world.
Theo: We start in Ukraine, where a critical communication network is suddenly back online—after its billionaire owner allegedly throttled it.
Priya: Then, your grocery delivery app might be on the auction block. We'll get into why Instacart is reportedly talking to its biggest rivals, DoorDash and Uber.
Theo: Plus: we asked two major AIs who to vote for. Their answers? Wildly different, and split right down party lines.
Theo: So Priya, let's start in Ukraine. There's some good news, for a change?
Priya: Some. Starlink, the satellite internet from SpaceX, seems to be working normally again after months of reported throttling and outages.
Theo: That's a huge deal. That service is vital for civilian and military communications over there.
Priya: Right. And the reason for the outages is even more alarming. New reporting says the order to slow it down came directly from Elon Musk.
Theo: Wait—from him? Personally? Not just a blanket corporate policy?
Priya: That's what sources are alleging. He was apparently worried about its use in offensive drone strikes, and just… stepped in.
Theo: Okay, that is… a massive decision for one private citizen to make in the middle of a war. I mean, I see the ethical tangle, but wow.
Priya: It's 'move fast and break things,' but the 'thing' is a country's entire defense system. The Pentagon had to step in and secure a formal contract just to guarantee the service would stay on.
Theo: So the contract is holding, service is restored... for now. That's a positive, I guess.
Priya: For now. But the bigger story here is that a piece of critical global infrastructure is controlled by the whims of one person. Who decides if the internet stays on during the next crisis?
Theo: It's like a public utility being run like a private kingdom.
Priya: Exactly. Do you want that call being made by an elected government or by a guy who's also busy feuding with celebrities on social media?
Theo: Alright, let's talk about your front door—specifically, who's delivering things to it.
Priya: Instacart, a huge name in grocery delivery, has reportedly been in talks to sell itself—either to DoorDash or to Uber.
Theo: That's a bombshell. That would massively consolidate the delivery market. I thought Instacart's IPO was supposed to be a big success?
Priya: It went public, but the stock's been dead in the water ever since. So now it seems they're looking for an exit, and a merger is on the table.
Theo: Okay, but think of the convenience! Ordering your Thai food and your weekly groceries all inside one Uber app. That could be pretty slick.
Priya: Oh, the glorious convenience. I'm sure that's the only thing motivating this potential multi-billion dollar deal.
Theo: Alright, lay it on me, Priya. What's the fine print here?
Priya: The fine print is simple: less competition is almost never good for you. Or for workers. When three giants become two, prices go up. That's just how it works.
Theo: You don't think a bigger, more efficient company could pass savings on?
Priya: I think a bigger, more powerful company has more leverage to squeeze grocery stores on margins and gig workers on pay. Those 'savings' rarely trickle down to you.
Theo: So what does this mean for my ice cream habit?
Priya: It means watch your fees. Service fees, delivery fees, 'heavy item' fees... A merger gives the winner more power to slowly inch those up, because where else are you gonna go?
Theo: Okay, for our last story, let's get weird. AI politics weird.
Priya: Deeply weird. A new study from the University of Washington had different AIs act as voting advisors for nearly 500 real US elections.
Theo: Okay, I'm intrigued. What did they find?
Priya: Well, they found that Grok—Elon Musk's AI that's trained on data from X—overwhelmingly recommended Republicans.
Theo: And the other big one, OpenAI's GPT?
Priya: Consistently favored Democrats. But here's the crazy part: the two models disagreed with each other in more than 90% of the races.
Theo: Ninety percent? So depending on which chatbot you ask, you get a completely different political reality.
Priya: It's not funny, Theo! This is the technology people are using to get information about the world. And it's giving them totally opposed advice dressed up as objective analysis.
Theo: No, you're right. It's a stark reminder these things aren't neutral. They just reflect the data they're fed.
Priya: Exactly. It's 'garbage in, garbage out' on a global scale. The takeaway here is simple: do not ask an AI who to vote for.
Theo: It's not an oracle. It's a product, with a point of view baked in, whether it’s intentional or not.
Priya: And that point of view could be shaping opinions in ways we don't even understand yet. This is a mess.
Theo: Alright, to recap: Starlink is back on in Ukraine, but the whole mess raises huge questions about the power of tech billionaires in geopolitics.
Priya: Instacart might merge with a rival, and that could mean higher delivery fees for you.
Theo: And major AIs have serious political biases. So, probably don't ask them for voting advice.
Priya: Before we go, Theo. It's Sunday. You know what that means.
Theo: The 'Sunday Scaries'? That creeping dread about the work week ahead?
Priya: And the financial version of it. A recent survey found Sunday evening is peak money anxiety time, as people start planning for the week's expenses. Call it 'balance sheet anxiety.'
Theo: That's our show! We'll be back tomorrow with more news for your wallet and your world.
Priya: Money Daily is a production of our collective will. I'm Priya.
Theo: I'm Theo. And remember, get your voting advice from a human. A smart one, preferably.
This show is made with AI: the hosts’ voices are synthetic and the scripts are AI-assisted. Every story links to its original source.