USA - World's biggest company, Nvidia, stuns Wall Street as it gives biggest clue yet to state of US economy. Nvidia, the world's biggest company, has revealed its sales are soaring — a huge boost for the wider US economy, Wall Street and Americans' retirement savings. The chipmaker, which has been the engine of the AI boom and a key driver of the market's rally, delivered another blockbuster quarter that reassured investors the tech surge is still intact. The company reported $57 billion in sales, when analysts expected $54.9 billion. Profit was $31.9 billion, up 65 percent compared to the same quarter last year. It's up 245 percent in the past two years. Nvidia's earnings had been touted as a market-moving event unlike almost anything else in recent corporate America. Nvidia may take center stage today, but Walmart's numbers and the jobs report tomorrow turn this into a triple whammy of crucial economic signals.

USA - Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott designated the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations as foreign terrorist organizations on Tuesday, citing each group’s ties to Islamic extremism and accusing them of seeking to “forcibly impose Sharia law.” Abbott’s action bans the Muslim groups from purchasing or acquiring land in Texas and subjects anyone affiliated with them to heightened state penalties. “The Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR have long made their goals clear: to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam’s ‘mastership of the world,’” Abbott said. “The actions taken by the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR to support terrorism across the globe and subvert our laws through violence, intimidation, and harassment are unacceptable. Today, I designated the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as foreign terrorist organizations and transnational criminal organizations. These radical extremists are not welcome in our state and are now prohibited from acquiring any real property interest in Texas.”

ISRAEL - Israeli intelligence on Wednesday unveiled the dismantling of what it dubbed the “Hamas Octopus” — a sprawling Europe-wide terror network that stockpiled weapons to strike Israeli and Jewish targets on “command day.” Mossad said the months-long investigation exposed terror infrastructure built by Hamas leadership to carry out attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets on European soil, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office acting on behalf of the spy agency. In a rare public disclosure, Mossad credited close cooperation with European intelligence and law-enforcement services for the arrests of Hamas operatives and the seizure of weapons caches across the continent. European law-enforcement authorities carried out a series of complex counter-terrorism operations that resulted in the arrest of Hamas operatives and the exposure of weapons stockpiles prepared for use by terror cells against civilians, the statement said.

UKRAINE - Ukraine could be forced to lease part of its territory to Russia under a US plan to end the war. The Trump administration deal would see Kyiv cede control of the eastern Donbas region, but maintain legal ownership. Russia would pay an undisclosed rental fee for de facto control of the region, officials familiar with the deal told The Telegraph. The 28-point plan was thrashed out between the US and Russia in a recent flurry of secretive talks, renewing fears that Ukraine is being frozen out of discussions about its future. As well as forcing Ukraine to surrender territory, the deal would slash the size of Kyiv’s military in half and ban it from possessing long-range missiles.

INDIA - While Trump fires off tariffs and “oil ultimatums,” Moscow and New Delhi gear up for a summit that could reset their entire strategic relationship. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India will be particularly significant as it will be his first trip there since the start of the Ukraine conflict, especially considering US President Donald Trump’s efforts to make India turn away from Russian oil. Despite external pressure which makes this summit extremely challenging, both Moscow and New Delhi are signaling that US interference will not weaken their strategic partnership. On the eve of the meeting between the foreign ministers of Russia and India, Trump announced his willingness to support a US Congressional bill aimed at imposing sanctions on any country doing business with Russia.

USA - “Democrats only started talking about the Epstein files once they thought they could use it to score political points against President Trump,” an unnamed White House official told Politico. “That will prove to be a mistake for them.” For months, Democrats have been using Trump’s refusal to release the documents about the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to speculate that the president is hiding something or covering for someone. He has denied any wrongdoing and any knowledge of the late financier’s crimes. By consistently drawing attention to the matter, Trump has been unable to escape “guilty-by-association” criticisms and eventually relented – giving House Republicans his blessing to vote to force the release of documents this week. Now, the White House is gearing up to highlight high-profile Democrats who knew Epstein, including former President Bill Clinton...

USA - The New Habit: Ask AI First. Reports are increasingly documenting a rise in “AI gut check” culture. People ping chatbots for counsel on relationships, family choices, and relocation more than ever. Users describe AI as calm, non-judgmental, and reassuring – and that’s exactly the problem. People forget that these systems are optimised to keep users engaged and agreeable, not to carry the cost of a bad call. AI researchers warn that chatbots even tend to be sycophantic, gaining users’ trust by politely mirroring them. Reports demonstrate that people often want the machine to “just decide” for them, while others push back that moral decisions cannot be delegated to a model void of accountability. Users are catching onto the general theme here: AI bots look confident in delivering convenient advice but ultimately have no responsibility if it all goes wrong.

USA - Stock markets are plunging around the world. Cryptocurrencies are in freefall. And millions of private investors are beginning to panic. I fear we are witnessing the beginnings of a global crash as the boom in artificial intelligence (AI) stocks turns to bust. The boss of Google warned only yesterday, if that happens, ‘no company is going to be immune’. It would almost certainly trigger a broader, bigger sell-off that would shake business and consumer confidence, cut investment and spending and potentially cause a global recession. It would also ravage the retirement hopes of millions of British savers whose pensions are increasingly tied to the fortunes of just a handful of the US tech companies that have come to dominate stock markets in recent years. The so-called ‘Magnificent 7’ – Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Google’s Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook-owner Meta and Tesla – now make up around a third of the benchmark S&P 500 index. It means when they sneeze – as they are doing now - everyone catches a cold.

USA - Washington's Mount Rainier has suddenly awoken and is buzzing with almost nonstop activity for days, stoking fears that an eruption could come soon. The mountain is one of America's most dangerous volcanoes, towering over millions of people in major cities such as Seattle, Tacoma, and Yakima in Washington, and Oregon's most populous city of Portland. It doesn't mean Mount Rainier is going to erupt at any moment, but it is a warning sign that volcanic activity could eventually build towards a critical level. Geologists will be watching for key signs of this volcanic tremor escalating, including its severity increasing in the coming days, actual earthquakes starting inside the volcano, and the ground at Mount Rainier beginning to swell. Volcano watchers on social media spotted the fresh readings from PNSN, noting that vibrations under the mountain went from normal to chaotic in a matter of hours. Mount Rainier has already experienced massive swarms of earthquakes earlier this year, sparking fears of an imminent volcanic explosion.

UK - Ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) have led to a “pandemic of chronic disease” such as cancer and diabetes, global experts have warned. Writing in The Lancet, 43 scientists and researchers argued that UPFs are “displacing” fresh foods and meals, as food firms “put profit above all else”. They have called for governments around the world to start treating food manufacturers like the tobacco industry, and introduce measures such as taxing UPFs and banning adverts. The term UPF is used to refer to mass-produced foods with multiple ingredients and additives, which could not be created in a home kitchen, and which make up more than half the typical British diet. Examples include processed meats, mass-produced bread, fizzy drinks and some breakfast cereals. Diets high in UPF have been linked to an increased risk of 32 different diseases, including diabetes, cancer, heart disease and depression.