US stocks were mixed Monday, as relief over falling oil prices was overshadowed by renewed anxieties in the AI trade.

Oil fell nearly 6% after the US and Iran paused strikes, but a new round of Nvidia deals exceeding $750 billion fueled investor concerns over AI’s circular funding and excessive capex, along with broader turmoil in semiconductor stocks: ASML plunged after The Information reported that a Chinese state firm would mass-produce advanced lithography machines, which the Dutch chipmaker currently has a stranglehold on.

Earnings from Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon expected later this week could fuel further volatility, amid fears of the “air being let out” of the AI bubble, a portfolio manager said.

China on Monday offered a subdued protest against the US’ latest tariffs without announcing retaliatory actions, but adopted a more aggressive tone in response to Washington’s proposed sanctions on Chinese AI firms.

Beijing said that Washington had agreed to cap tariffs at 20% as part of the countries’ trade truce, with analysts noting the new duties would likely have a limited impact on China. Meanwhile, Beijing said it would take “all necessary measures” to counter Washington’s threat to penalize Chinese firms for their alleged theft of American IP through distillation.

The rhetoric signals the extent to which AI is now central to the superpowers’ economic jousting: The White House has also considered banning China’s open-source models.

France and Germany are pursuing a new initiative to boost industrial provisions and protect jobs, as Europe endeavors to shield its businesses from China.

A joint Franco-German fighter jet program collapsed last month amid squabbling between defense contractors, underscoring the bloc’s difficulties in unifying around lofty industrial goals. This latest attempt involves Paris relaxing a planned phaseout of new combustion-engine cars, as Berlin tries to staunch bleeding among its carmakers. Volkswagen is weighing 100,000 job cuts amid competition from Chinese rivals.

As the EU struggles to unify against China’s growing trade surplus, Beijing is courting individual states: “It has always been a favourite pastime of the Chinese leaders to divide and conquer us,” a trade expert said.

Oil-driven inflation fears may push central banks to tighten policy, but that is unlikely to deter the AI investment boom driving much of today’s growth, analysts said.

The US Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan, and the Bank of England are all expected to hold interest rates steady this week, though each could leave the door open to future hikes if inflationary pressures stemming from the Iran conflict persist:

Traders priced in an 82% likelihood of a rate increase at the Fed’s September meeting. But Bridgewater analysts noted that higher interest rates “are unlikely to disrupt companies’ and governments’ desire to spend on AI.”

Amazon plans to launch more than 5,000 satellites to provide global data and phone services, as competition heats up in the commercial space sector.

The planned constellation would be a significant increase upon the Jeff Bezos-owned firm’s 390 satellites currently in orbit — a figure dwarfed by Elon Musk’s Starlink, which dominates satellite mobile communications with nearly 11,000 satellites.

Musk also claims a virtual monopoly on launches through SpaceX, which is reportedly mulling a mobile service for US consumers. The two moguls are also competing to design NASA’s next lunar lander, with Blue Origin and SpaceX’s respective models set to begin testing next year.

European countries are severely reducing overseas aid budgets, compounding Washington’s cuts.

US President Donald Trump shuttered USAID, the world’s largest provider, last year. But new figures show that the EU cut its own aid budget 13.8% in 2025, and member states’ individual aid contributions fell almost 10% on average, World Politics Review reported.

The UK also published its country-by-country funding plans, showing how previously announced cuts would be distributed: Some African countries, such as Malawi, will see aid inflows fall by more than 90% by 2029. The impacts of aid cuts on global health have been disputed, but the Center for Global Development estimates that USAID cuts caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and fueled armed conflicts in Africa.

Stocks in Chinese memory-chip giant CXMT jumped 466% in their debut, making it the country’s most valuable publicly listed firm and underscoring investors’ appetite for the companies underpinning the AI boom.

CXMT has recently emerged as Beijing’s best hope of challenging foreign producers of memory chips, a key component in smartphones and AI servers, Bloomberg reported.

The broader shortage has lifted chip companies worldwide — Micron reported a 15-fold increase in quarterly profits last month — while forcing retailers to hike prices for cars and mobile phones, among others.

Though some analysts see the stock surges as overblown, others believe the furor is justified given forecasts that the memory crunch could last years.

Russia canceled its annual St Petersburg Navy Day parade for the second straight year because of the threat of Ukrainian drone attacks.

Kyiv’s long-range strike capabilities are increasingly hurting Russia far from the front lines: Moscow’s Victory Day parade in Red Square in May was significantly scaled back because of the possibility of attacks, St Petersburg’s oil terminal was damaged during a showpiece economic forum in June, and an e-commerce logistics hub in the same city came under fire last week.

Attacks on oil refineries have caused a fuel crisis, with gasoline sales volume down 47% and prices up 45% since the start of the year, according to Meduza.

The Ukraine and Iran wars collided over the weekend, as Kyiv attacked an Iranian commercial ship in the Caspian Sea.

Tehran accused Ukraine of trying to expand its war with Russia, while Kyiv said the ship contained military cargo headed to Iran.

Ukraine also accused Russia of assisting Iran with satellite surveillance of US bases.

Ukraine has played a role in the Iran war by providing counter-drone tools to Gulf states, but now the conflicts “have officially merged,” a Wall Street Journal reporter wrote.

Some in Tehran believe Iran should expand cooperation with Russia or consider attacks against Ukrainian vessels or infrastructure, an expert wrote, though that could “give NATO members a stronger incentive to participate in military action against Iran.”

A wildfire around Madrid remained “active and uncontrolled” and France faced a race against time to tame blazes near Bordeaux, with temperatures expected to soar across the continent this week.

The fires sweeping across Europe — the world’s fastest-warming continent — have forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes; a senior EU official warned the region is “not prepared” for the consequences of climate change.

Soaring temperatures have caused havoc throughout the Northern Hemisphere: More than 400 people were hospitalized for heat-related issues in Tokyo last week, a scorching heat dome is expected to affect as many as 70 million people in the US in the coming days, and even usually sodden Scotland has raced to contain fires.

Russia is suffering from “narrative collapse” in its war against Ukraine, a journalist said, as Kyiv turns the tide in the conflict — on the front lines and in American right-wing media.

Within US President Donald Trump’s MAGA coalition, “fault lines on Ukraine are widening,” The Insider editor Michael Weiss added.

In a turnaround, hard-right activist and Trump ally Laura Loomer told The Associated Press in Kyiv that some American leaders “are being influenced by propaganda” from Russia.

She said she spoke with Trump after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is set to visit the White House on Tuesday.

And in a rare face-to-face remark, the president of Kazakhstan, a Kremlin ally, told Russia’s Vladimir Putin that the war should be “frozen.”

A wave of US tech executives, led by Nvidia’s CEO, rushed to back the development of open-source AI models as divides in the industry widen.

Jensen Huang’s letter, which was signed by Meta, Microsoft, and Palantir, argues that open models, which anyone can download and modify, drive innovation and commerce.

It marks an effort to head off potential government restrictions on open-source AI as the White House debates how to respond to the rise of advanced Chinese AI models that are accused of ripping off the top US systems.

Closed model maker Anthropic didn’t sign Huang’s letter — rival OpenAI backed it later — reflecting rifts in the fight over “who controls the AI economy,” one tech newsletter wrote.

Weeks of youth-led protests forced the resignation of India’s education minister, a rare concession from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

Fueled by the leak of a national medical school entrance exam, the demonstrations quickly evolved into a broader campaign over youth unemployment and stagnant job prospects, with the satirical Cockroach Janta Party harnessing social media and comedy to tap into youth frustration.

After Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation, the CJP called off nationwide protests, claiming victory — a public setback for Modi, a leader long seen as politically untouchable.

The movement has put Modi on the defensive, but as The Hindu noted, the question now is “whether the humour and anger that built the Cockroach Janta Party can hold together.”

A deadly attack on a Pride celebration in Berlin on Saturday inflamed Europe’s fraught debate over migration and extremism.

Authorities said a 21-year-old man — a German citizen whose family immigrated from Lebanon — drove a van into the crowd, killing one person and injuring more than 25.

It comes weeks ahead of regional elections in which the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which campaigns against migration and casts Islam as a threat to German society, leads in the polls.

The suspect, who was killed by police Sunday, was known to authorities and was in deradicalization consultations, Die Welt reported: His next meeting was scheduled for Monday.

Such assaults are the “inevitable consequence of a deliberately overburdened system,” Berliner Zeitung’s editor argued.

The Trump administration rolled out a fresh batch of tariffs that took effect when a prior round lapsed at midnight, effectively replacing the global levies the Supreme Court struck down earlier this year with permanent duties related to forced labor.

President Donald Trump imposed the expiring tariffs following the February ruling, but the levies had a 150-day time limit that ran out Friday. The latest tariffs, which officials teased in June, will indefinitely apply to 59 countries and the European Union following investigations under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.

Countries that have implemented bans on forced labor will be tariffed at 10%, while those that have not will be tariffed at 12.5%. Senior administration officials pushed back on the idea the new levies were crafted explicitly to replace earlier tariffs, distinguishing them from a universal, global rate.

Goods that were loaded onto ships before the new levies took effect will not be tariffed, the senior administration officials said, nor will certain imports like oil, gas, fertilizer, and cork. The Trump administration reviewed about 10,000 requests for exemptions, the officials said.

Also carved out: goods subject to the security-related tariffs imposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 and the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a new version of which officials are currently negotiating. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said this week he hoped to reach “potential interim agreements” that could stand in for the lapsing USMCA by the end of the year.

And more tariffs are on their way. Officials said that dozens of separate investigations under Section 232 and Section 301, including a probe into manufacturing practices that officials described as more complex than the forced labor investigation, are still underway. Trump this week also proposed new levies on some Canadian goods and prescription drugs and followed through with new tariffs on Brazil.

Tariff threats from Washington and trade tensions with Beijing are leaving Brussels little room to maneuver.

Though an EU spokesperson argued tariffs announced by the US overnight were “in line” with a prior trade deal, a senior European parliamentarian described the levies as “crazy” and continental powers voiced frustration.

The EU’s decision yesterday to impose a $1 billion fine on Google piled further pressure on the transatlantic relationship. It also faces a tricky balance over ties with China: A European Parliament delegation visited Beijing this week with the legislature deadlocked over how to deal with the superpower, a quandary EU member states are themselves grappling with. “The EU is between a rock and a hard place,” Euronews said.

US President Donald Trump’s sudden changes of Middle East policy caused uncertainty for allies and enemies alike.

After months of fighting an unpopular, expensive war with Iran, Trump is losing patience with negotiations, The Wall Street Journal reported, and he told Axios he was instead considering “a massive attack,” in a sign of his diminishing diplomatic options.

“There are no good ways out of this mess,” an analyst wrote in Foreign Policy, but the least bad is to “pay off Iran” to open the Strait of Hormuz.

Meanwhile, Trump’s newly signed nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia is already in peril, after he unilaterally declared that it required Riyadh to normalize relations with Israel and would not include uranium enrichment.

Oil prices, which recently topped $100 a barrel for the first time in weeks, look likely to increase further with unrest in the Middle East unlikely to abate, analysts warned.

Hefty stockpiles among major consumers, alongside reductions in demand, have so far kept oil prices from careering out of control. But, Commerzbank’s chief economist noted, “risks continue to rise.”

Any persistent, significant increase in oil prices — with knock-on consequences for diesel, gasoline, and jet fuel — could drive up inflation ahead of a fall election season that includes midterms in the US, parliamentary elections in Israel, and presidential polls in Brazil.

“The world’s energy crisis risks entering a far more damaging and economically painful phase,” a Reuters columnist noted.

Africa’s biggest oil refinery said it secured $2.5 billion to fund its expansion, which is at the core of continent-wide efforts to boost domestic energy self-sufficiency.

Nigeria’s Dangote refinery, which currently handles about 650,000 barrels of oil per day, aims to more than double its capacity, potentially making it the world’s biggest facility of its kind.

The latest announcement comes as Dangote — owned by Africa’s richest man — gears up for a $4 billion IPO this year and prepares further projects, including a major refinery in East Africa. Its plans are the most ambitious of a series of investments underway across Africa, where resource-rich nations are seeking to capture more value from the oil and metals they dig up.

India’s government will likely quell the student-led Cockroach protests, but it will have a harder time suppressing the underlying frustration fueling them, prominent Indian commentators argued.

The movement, which began as a satirical campaign after a judge derided India’s unemployed youth as “cockroaches,” has transcended grievances about the education system’s failings to become an outlet for a “generation of desperate and furious young people who have seen their future snuffed out,” Arundhati Roy wrote.

Nearly 83% of India’s unemployed are young people who sit through grueling exams and chase job security for a future of “prolonged uncertainty,” academics wrote in Frontline. The authorities have violently cracked down on protesters, Vir Sanghvi wrote, “but what the government can’t fight is an emotion.”

Oil hit $100 a barrel and Magnificent 7 stocks shed nearly $800 billion in market value on Thursday, as pessimism over steep AI spending and the Iran war dragged down global markets.

Wall Street’s fear gauge hit its highest level in a month with rising crude prices reigniting inflation fears and exposing “just ⁠how fragile the ​market’s recovery has been,” a Reuters columnist wrote.

Tech earnings, meanwhile, failed to satisfy investors hyper-attuned to capital expenditures: “Any chink in the armor and the stocks are being sold off,” an investment strategist said. Still, investors are betting that oil prices will fall in the coming months as Washington comes under pressure to ease tensions with Tehran.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday injected uncertainty into his newly signed nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, saying the pact hinges on Riyadh normalizing relations with Israel.

The stipulation threatens to stymie the agreement, which allows Saudi to build nuclear power plants with US technology, giving the kingdom a path to an enrichment program.

Riyadh has long pegged normalization with Israel to the establishment of a Palestinian state, which Israel’s government opposes. But Iran’s attacks across the Middle East have placed the Gulf and Israel on the same side of the conflict, which could at least “make normalization easier,” Semafor’s Gulf editor wrote.

The US-Saudi deal faced criticism from some lawmakers and experts who worry it could unleash an arms race in the Middle East.

Chinese nationals were awarded the prestigious Fields Medal for the first time, in the latest sign of the country’s growing academic prowess.

Hong Wang and Yu Deng, both Peking University grads, were among the four winners of the prize, a Nobel-like honor for the world’s top mathematicians under 40. The achievement comes as several prominent scientists, including last year’s chemistry Nobel winner, are moving from the US to China, as global competition for academic talent heats up.

Ph.D. admissions at top US institutions fell 15% this year owing to the Trump administration’s federal funding cuts, with one expert saying China is taking “advantage of the United States’ unforced errors.” Both Wang and Deng, though, currently teach at US universities.

US regulators on Thursday said they plan to develop rules to address the safety risks linked to the hidden electric car door handles popularized by Tesla.

Investigations from Bloomberg have uncovered more than a dozen deaths from crashes in which people became trapped inside a Tesla because the doors wouldn’t open. The EV giant said it is working on a redesign.

China earlier this year became the first country to ban the modern handles, in a move analysts said could influence norms around the world and cement China’s status as a global “rule-setter” for new vehicle tech. Beijing’s ban takes effect next year; safety advocates don’t expect a US rule to come into force before 2030.

The EU hit Google with a record-breaking €890 ($1 billion) fine for breaching antitrust laws, putting Brussels on a potential collision course with Washington.

The bloc said the tech giant had illegally used its market dominance to prioritize its own search services, as well as preventing developers from steering customers towards cheaper alternatives.

The European Commission ordered Google to treat third-party services in a “fair and non-discriminatory manner,” The Guardian reported.

But the timing is awkward, with US President Donald Trump expected to unveil new tariffs soon. The EU and US agreed a 15% cap on levies last year, but a swingeing fine on a major American firm could spark retaliation.

Brussels is facing “one of the trickiest transatlantic balancing acts in months,” Politico said.

The White House is readying a raft of new global tariffs after previous levies were struck down by US courts.

Since then, the Trump administration has imposed 10% duties on trading partners, but they were limited to 150 days without Congressional approval; a successor regime is expected this week.

The new proposals, including 50% tariffs on Canada, are based on allegations of unfair trade practices and are unlikely to be overturned, an Atlantic Council analyst wrote in The New York Times. They could also be a major revenue stream for Washington that future politicians will be unwilling to dismantle: The protectionist bent “will last well beyond this presidency,” Josh Lipsky argued.

Tensions between China and the US surrounding AI and technology development intensified just weeks before a planned visit by Chinese leader Xi Jinping to Washington.

According to The Information, the US is investigating Chinese AI firms’ access to cutting-edge chips — ostensibly restricted by American export controls — after accusing a Chinese company of distilling data from Anthropic’s AI models and warning that responses could include sanctions and the blacklisting of companies.

Beijing, meanwhile, is mulling imposing its own tech restrictions, the Financial Times reported, alongside curbs on acquisitions of Chinese firms by Western rivals. After meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Manila yesterday, the US secretary of state acknowledged that “great differences” between the superpowers would remain “for the foreseeable future.”

Car sales in Europe grew at the fastest pace in years last month, driven by an influx of cheap Chinese EVs that threatens to hollow out the continent’s manufacturing capacity.

BYD and SAIC sales in the UK jumped by a third year-on-year, with competition from Chinese brands forcing European manufacturers to slash prices and offer incentives in a bid to keep up, Bloomberg Intelligence said last month.

While senior EU officials have called for more protections for the bloc’s car industries, Chinese cars continue to flood the market, driven by overcapacity in the Asian nation as its domestic market craters. “China’s assault on Europe’s car market has barely begun,” the Financial Times said.

Attacks on tankers in the Red Sea and US bases in the Gulf raised fears that the Middle East conflict could intensify.

Two Saudi ships were struck by Houthi militants, after the Iran-backed group warned it would blockade the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, through which about 10% of global trade passes.

Washington has reportedly moved more troops and ordnance to the Gulf as President Donald Trump considers stepping up hostilities in the wake of Iranian attacks that killed three US soldiers.

The accuracy and sophistication of Iranian strikes on CIA facilities raised questions about Russian involvement, Reuters reported. The fighting and pressure on shipping pushed Brent crude prices above $98 for the first time since early June.

Europe’s climate-change-driven heatwaves have caused a continent-wide drought.

Major river systems across Europe, including the Rhine and Danube, have seen water levels fall. Low rainfall has impacted some regions, but scientists say heat is the real driver: High temperatures accelerate water loss, both because warm water evaporates faster and because warm air can hold more moisture, meaning river beds dry faster.

Low river levels have hit cargo shipping, agricultural harvests, and hydropower; some countries have banned non-essential water use such as residential gardening. Researchers said climate change had made droughts more likely and more severe: In Wales, rivers are approaching all-time lows, killing fish and other wildlife.