Emma Tucker

1. FROM MY DESK

Walmart relies on over 140,000 warehouse workers to keep goods moving. It isn't an easy job. A worker might walk 20,000 steps a shift. It also isn't all that complicated-unless you try to program robots to do it.

The seemingly simple task of sorting merchandise is among the many challenges bedeviling the company's decadelong, multibillion-dollar quest to automate its warehouses. Some early robotic tests either failed or proved too expensive, creating a bottleneck as retailers scramble to speed up home delivery.

Now, with rival (Amazon) leading the automation push and surpassing (Walmart) in annual revenue, the pressure to get warehouse robotics right has reached a fever pitch. Sarah Nassauer reports from the front lines of the retailer's efforts.

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2. TODAY'S HEADLINES

-- American oil refiners are printing money as wars shrink global energy supplies.

-- Iran appeared to have its back against the wall in its war with the U.S., its ports blockaded and its leverage over Hormuz slipping. Now, Tehran is trying to regain the upper hand.

-- Navi Pillay was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to promote peace and international law.

-- A federal immigration officer shot and injured a man in New York City on Thursday while making an arrest, sparking protests and angering local politicians.

-- Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers agreed on virtually nothing in their first debate in the race for U.S. Senate in Michigan.

-- The Pentagon said it planned to livestream the firing-squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, a former officer who admitted to killing 13 people in a 2009 shooting at Fort Hood Army base in Texas.

3. LIVE FROM THE MARKETS

Follow our live financial coverage all day.

-- Stocks Spencer Jakab is watching: Chipotle shares jumped 6.2% Thursday after the Financial Times reported that Starbucks has explored a takeover of the fast casual stalwart. There are no obvious synergies between it and the coffee chain other than the fact that Starbucks boss Brian Niccol was poached from Chipotle's C-suite two years ago. In response to the chatter, the coffee chain said it was "laser-focused" on their Back to Starbucks strategy. Both stocks are down since the swap was announced, but Starbucks has held up better. (Get Spencer's Markets A.M. newsletter in your inbox.)

-- The battered U.S. bond market is finally getting a dose of good news.

-- Nvidia's subtle change to how it counts cash flow has big implications for buybacks, writes Jonathan Weil.

4. READ IT HERE FIRST

This Wall Street veteran is trying to solve the Pentagon's missile problem.

Soon after a July cabinet meeting ended at Camp David, President Trump turned to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth with an order: "Get Feinberg on the phone." The Feinberg in question is Hegseth's deputy, Steve Feinberg, a private-equity billionaire who grew up in the Bronx. Trump asked Feinberg why he was still seeing media reports that the U.S. had paused attacks on Iran amid concerns about dwindling weapons stocks, given Feinberg's job was to improve those stocks. In his first interview on the job, Feinberg-the Pentagon's No. 2 official-defended his unconventional approach. He's trying to speed up the Pentagon's ability to get new weapons. The jury is out on whether it will work, report Lara Seligman, Drew FitzGerald and Marcus Weisgerber.

5.

A soccer cheating scandal has ballooned into a geopolitical problem for Britain.

The acquisition of Manchester City by an Abu Dhabi royal was always much more than a billionaire buying himself a shiny foreign toy. From the very start, the project was the tip of a soft-power campaign to entrench the tiny Emirate deep in the British economy. Now, 18 years later, it has emerged that the club was at the heart of the largest cheating scheme in English soccer history. And as City, which denies any wrongdoing, awaits an unprecedented penalty for financial doping, the scandal has rippled all the way to new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, report Max Colchester, Joshua Robinson and Eliot Brown.

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6. SEE THE STORY

A glimpse inside Gaza shows how Israel's military footprint is expanding.

Israel doesn't allow journalists to enter Gaza on their own, saying the environment isn't safe. Tightly controlled military embeds are the only way for reporters to gain access. The Journal went on such an embed in early October. During that visit, we saw up close how Israel is fortifying bases along a dividing line with Hamas as its military entrenches in the enclave. Israeli officials say the military outposts and flattened areas are meant to reinforce Israel's defenses after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel.

7. HAPPENING TODAY

-- Economic data: The University of Michigan releases its preliminary October consumer-sentiment reading.

-- Earnings: Delta Air Lines

-- Today's paper

8. THE NUMBER

60%

That's the share of involuntarily bumped passengers who were flying American Airlines last year. After years as one of the industry's worst offenders, the carrier says it is ending the practice. Rivals moved to curb the bumping of fliers after a high-profile 2017 incident where a doctor was dragged off a United Express flight. Now, as American tries to improve its reputation with customers and better manage disruptions, the carrier is focusing on getting travelers to give up their seats voluntarily.

9. AND FINALLY...

Personal AI agents are great-until they share your bank statement in the work chat.

Startup CEO Shane Mac had been using an AI agent without issue when he got pinged by an employee: a "heads up" about a team Slack message. It showed a snapshot of his checking and savings account balances and other details, courtesy of his agent. Mac had been using Grok Bot, SpaceXAI's "always-on agent," giving it read-only access to his bank account. He has a separate Grok Bot agent linked to his work Slack. Mac demanded to know how the personal agent ended up sharing info to the company Slack. The bot then apologized, sort of. As Katherine Bindley reports, people are being wowed by the their personal AI agents-but the hyperactive helpers can go off script.

10. BEYOND THE NEWSROOM

-- Opinion: Michigan GOP Senate candidate Mike Rogers calls for a ceasefire in President Trump's senseless trade war with Canada. If Republicans lose control of Congress, President Trump and his ham-handed border taxes will deserve much of the blame.

-- WSJ | Buy Side: The Misenware food-storage containers can go from the freezer to the oven to the microwave (yes, seriously!).

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Today's newsletter was curated and edited by Morgan Smith and Gary Mitchell in collaboration with Editor in Chief Emma Tucker. Got a tip for us? Here's how to submit.

This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.