The Economy Markets

Occupational licensing has expanded far beyond high-risk professions Entry barriers can raise incumbent income while restricting competition Reform should preserve necessary licences but remove rules that no longer protect the public

Europe’s banking union remains divided by national rules Fragmentation raises financing costs for European firms Common safeguards could unite banking without weakening stability Cross-border loans make up

Euro-area banks cross borders, but their safety nets remain national Deregulation still increases credit growth and banking risk Europe needs shared regulation, resolution, and crisis support Eighty-one billion euros.

Food consumption tax cut to 1% weakens annual revenue base by $34.5 billion Additional bond issuance and refinancing costs likely to rise to fill funding gap Weak yen and rising import prices risk entrenching a fiscal-monetary vicious cycle Japanes

Wall Street hedges swell to record highs as surprise rate-hike bets gain traction Fed holds rates to await further data, prompting an unwinding of excessive tightening bets Warsh ushers in a new monetary-policy regime: “Watch the ball, not the referee”

Widening Attack-Defense Cost Gap Created by Low-Cost, Mass-Produced Drones Intensifying War of Attrition in Russia’s Rear Areas Through Saturation Strikes and Dispersed Operations Rapid Growth in Global Military Drone Market Shifts the Center of Gravity in Modern Warfare

Three countries, one pattern: delay and resource wealth turns violent Nigeria, Mozambique and Peru all had warning and ignored it Unmediated resource wealth is what destabilizes, not resource wealth itself

Oil price shocks redraw local power, not just budgets Conflict clusters around oilfields even when national numbers stay calm Governments are watching the wrong map Between February and April 2026, the pric

Nvidia Launches AI Security Alliance with Industry Partners Rising AI-Driven Security Threats Accelerate Responses from Leading AI Companies U.S.

China’s Semiconductor Industry Posts Explosive Profit Growth and Pushes for Technological Self-Reliance CXMT Makes a Splashy Market Debut, With Solid Growth Foundations Despite Technology Gap Korea and Taiwan, Semiconductor Powerhouses, Bolster Division of Labor to Stay on Guard

CDS premiums surge across U.S.

Tesla Profitability Erodes as Investment in Robot Development and Mass-Production Facilities Expands R&D Spending and Capital Expenditure Surge Despite Lack of Optimus Revenue Prolonged Upfront Investment Burden Expected Until Real-World Productivity Is Proven

Samsung Secures Tesla, Anthropic and Broadcom in Succession End-to-End Integration from Memory to Foundry New Global Customer Wins Signal Foundry Rebound Taiwan’s TSMC is raising foundry prices as capacity at leading-edge nodes tightens, creating

U.S. imposes 10–12.5% tariffs on 60 economies under forced-labor rationale China maintains existing countermeasures against U.S. while signaling further retaliation Escalating reprisals could blunt tariff impact by weighing on U.S.

France and Spain Evacuate Hundreds of Thousands as Heatwave-Fuelled Wildfires Spread Europe’s Inadequate Heatwave Response Strains Infrastructure and Drives Rising Death Toll Strict Regulations and Political Divisions Hold Back Air-Conditioner Adoption

Louis Vuitton Wins Trademark Infringement Case Against China’s Molly Tea Legal Disputes Mount Between Western and Chinese Brands Over Alleged Trademark Theft China Shifts Its Response as Investment Concerns Meet the Rise of Domestic Industry Lou

U.S.

Domestic sales plunge as subsidies are scaled back and curbs on loss-leading discounts tighten Surging Chinese auto exports intensify restructuring pressure on European carmakers Expansion into new businesses still faces obstacles to securing monopoly pricing power

AI Server Memory Concentration Deepens Amid Uncertainty Over Support for Samsung, SK Bottlenecks Worsened by Downcycle Investment Cuts and Apple’s Supplier Squeeze China-Made Memory Sourcing Push Draws Sharper Scrutiny of Apple

Property downturn weakens both land-finance revenues and household wealth foundations State capital and policy finance deployed to build equity-market-centred capital circulation Stock-market boom coexists with real-economy stagnation, exposing limits of the growth transition