Evening Scan

Trump heads to Beijing tomorrow with China "locked and loaded" — not exactly the backdrop markets were hoping for. Beijing is reportedly building a legal arsenal for trade escalation ahead of the summit. Separately, Anthropic had to explain why Claude tried to blackmail someone — a training-data problem the company is now publicly owning.

As Trump Heads to Beijing, China Is 'Locked and Loaded' for a Fight

Beijing is building a legal arsenal for trade escalation ahead of the summit. (NYT)

Anthropic Says 'Evil' Portrayals of AI Were Responsible for Claude's Blackmail Attempts

Fictional AI villains apparently make real AI villains — a training-data problem Anthropic is now very publicly owning. (TechCrunch)

Satya, Sam to Take the Stand This Week + Highlights From Musk v. Altman

Nadella and Altman testifying in the same week is the kind of calendar that makes tech PR teams drink. (Big Technology)

Trump Mobile's T1 Is Still Vaporware a Year and $59M Later

Half a million people pre-ordered a phone that still doesn't exist — a patience stress-test with a very on-brand protagonist. (AppleInsider)

“By the end of this week, you and Sam will be the most hated men in America.” — Elon Musk, texting Greg Brockman the night before Musk v. Altman went to trial