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The mood in the Strait of Hormuz remains combustible despite Trump’s ceasefire extension. ...

This week Sam unpacks how social media algorithms manipulate our emotions around everything from engagement rings to wedding dresses to babies, and what it feels like getting lost in the #Weddingtok sauce. Then, Emanuel breaks down a satirical but functional AI tool that rips off open source software. There’s a ...

Startup CEOs who are “tokenmaxxing” are bragging that they are spending more money on AI compute than it would cost to hire human workers. Astronomical AI bills are now, in a certain corner of the tech world, a supposed marker of growth and success.  “Our AI bill just hit $113k ...

Trump’s proposed 2027 budget would almost double the budget for plutonium pits, the chemical filled metal sphere inside a nuclear warhead that kicks off the explosion in a nuclear weapon. The same budget would slash almost $400 million from nuclear environmental cleanup. The budget request follows a leaked National Nuclear ...

Ukraine says it has reopened the Druzhba pipeline, after months of stalemate over stalled oil supplies to neighbouring Hungary. ...

European carmakers are losing their premium brand status in China, as younger consumers opt for cars from domestic brands, further eroding Western firms’ prospects in a cutthroat global market. Chinese carmakers are increasingly dominant around the world, but European automakers had long controlled the premium sector of the world’s biggest ...

China’s robotaxi fleet may almost triple this year compared to 2025, though customer resistance could hinder its rollout, analysts said. Goldman Sachs predicted that China will have almost 15,000 robotaxis by the end of the year, putting the country ahead of the US in the race “to automate roads and ...

Alaa’s view Riyadh doesn’t feel like a city bracing for crisis. Stuck in rush-hour traffic this week, it was easy to forget that the Gulf is in the middle of a conflict that has upended the world economy and the region’s own prospects. Malls are relatively busy. At one restaurant, ...

The downstream impacts of the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz expanded across the global economy. European jet fuel prices have roughly doubled, and airfares are up 24% year-on-year; Lufthansa canceled 20,000 short-haul flights, other European carriers have announced similar measures, and Air France-KLM introduced a €100 surcharge on long-haul ...

Matthew’s view If I had one takeaway for the Middle East from last week’s meetings at Semafor World Economy, it is that it is impossible to overstate how much Gulf trade will be reshaped by the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz. The narrow waterway has served as the region’s ...