Investigators say North Korea’s hackers just pulled off the biggest crypto heist in history. Amazon and Intel showed what the AI build-out really costs. Russia and Ukraine agreed a rare truce in one devastated city. And on Sunday, fifty thousand people run the New York City Marathon. Four stories today, and what our guests have told me about each one.
The biggest crypto heist in history
Hackers drained around $6.3 billion from Binance on Thursday night, most of it in about 20 minutes across ten blockchains. That’s roughly four times the $1.5 billion Bybit hack of 2025. Blockchain investigators at TRM Labs and Chainalysis both attribute it to North Korea’s TraderTraitor group. About $2.7 billion has been frozen. Binance paused deposits and withdrawals, says it will cover every loss, and expects withdrawals to resume by Sunday. Bitcoin fell about 5%.
John Lilic told me exactly who these hackers are: “I could see them assigning this task to the Lazarus group, for example, in North Korea… Very sophisticated actors. This is all they do. It’s a military operation.”
▶ Watch John Lilic on North Korea’s hackers from 21:50
This isn’t a lone hacker in a basement. It’s a state, and it will be back.
Big Tech’s AI bill comes due
Amazon spent $77.3 billion on capital expenditure in a single quarter, more than double a year ago. Over the last twelve months its free cash flow was an outflow of $42.4 billion. AWS grew 39%, its fastest in nearly five years, but earnings missed and the shares fell. Intel had its worst day since 1974, down almost 30% on a weak forecast, and the Nasdaq dropped about 2.7%.
Mo Gawdat told me this is a familiar story: “It is the gold rush all over again. It is the internet bubble all over again. And yes, there will be fallout in the process, but in my personal view we’re just going to see more and more. There’s no stopping it.”
▶ Watch Mo Gawdat on the AI gold rush from 19:58
Gold rushes leave some people very rich and a lot of people broke. Watch who is spending cash they don’t have.
A rare truce in Oleshky
Russia and Ukraine agreed a local ceasefire around the occupied city of Oleshky, in force since Tuesday, so its last 2,000 or so residents can get food and medicine, or leave. Melania Trump brokered it. It has held all week and runs to around 1 November, ahead of US-brokered peace talks next month.
Colonel Douglas Macgregor told me what the humane answer is: “The losses inside the country are horrific… It’s on life support, and the humane thing would be to put an end to it and negotiate.”
▶ Watch Colonel Douglas Macgregor from 14:43
A truce for one city is small. But it’s the first thing both sides have agreed on in a long time.
Most marathoners quit at 40%
More than fifty thousand runners line up for the TCS New York City Marathon on Sunday. Somewhere around mile twenty, most of them will want to stop.
David Goggins told me why they shouldn’t: “When you look in that accountability mirror, you need to look right in your eyes and say, who am I fucking bullshitting? Because most likely you’re at 40 percent or less.”
▶ Watch David Goggins on the 40% rule from 13:15
The wall isn’t the end. It’s 40%.
Which of these stories are you watching? Tell me on X at @brianbrose.
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