Finance news

Migration: UN alerts about 18 deaths in US ICE custody

The immigration agency ICE is often criticized in the USA. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, is concerned about the number of deaths - and is demanding consequences.

Pharma: EU Commission initiates antitrust investigation against Sanofi

Has the pharmaceutical company Sanofi used anti-competitive practices in the flu vaccine business? The European Commission is now examining.

Air conditioning is worthwhile (also financially)

Due to the current situation, I would like to share a few experiences here. The cost at that time for a single split including installation was around 3500 euros. After funding, just over 2000 euros. The system saves me around 400 to 500 euros a year on heating (I get a performance figure of around 5). Why? Because it is a mega-efficient heat pump that also works in old buildings (SCOP > 6). Nice side effect, you can also use it to cool down in the summer. Even if I cooled for 50 euros in the summer, it would

China keeps an eye on AI smart glasses as privacy concerns come into focus

China has issued the first industry code of conduct for smart glasses powered by artificial intelligence, following public outrage over videos taken by users covertly filming strangers with the increasingly popular devices. The voluntary code calls on smart eyewear manufacturers to adopt a “minimum data collection” approach, provide clear indicators when cameras or microphones are active, and obtain explicit user consent before recording. The guidelines were released on Thursday by the China...

Global Trends: A Poor Kingdom and its Expensive Pleasures

King Charles III was the first British monarch. his tax payments disclosed. This could also put him in the political sights of the next Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

Disrupt: Will AI agents soon make the decisions of CEOs, Bianca Anghelina?

The founder of Aily Labs from Munich develops “Decision Intelligence”. Their goal: to make the work of managers much easier – or to replace it.

As Chinese EVs expand global footprint, banks raise export forecasts

Spurred by the rising popularity of electric vehicles (EVs), Chinese carmakers are consolidating their foothold in the global auto market, prompting international banks like Goldman Sachs to significantly raise their export forecasts. Buoyant overseas shipments have also effectively created a cushion against falling domestic deliveries and an expected overall sales decline for Chinese automotive groups including BYD and Xpeng, analysts said. “China’s new-energy vehicle exports have been...

Rheinmetall: The shattered dream of a maritime autocrat

Armin Papperger wanted to expand Rheinmetall into a new system house at sea. Now the group is likely to be demoted to a supplier. That damages the growth story.

Start-up check: Spatial AI from Munich: SE3 Labs gives autonomous systems spatial intelligence

SE3 Labs offers hardware-independent software for autonomous systems. Money for this comes from Lakestar, among others. Hensoldt is already cooperating with the Munich start-up.

Can China’s strict policing model ‘silence the guns’ in Africa?

As China’s relationship with African countries deepens, the country’s influence is spreading into more areas. In this series Jevans Nyabiage looks at an initiative to help control weapons and reduce conflict in a region where Beijing has vast economic interests. China is marketing its strict policing and arms control expertise as a blueprint to stabilise Africa’s conflict-torn Great Lakes region, leveraging its reputation as one of the world’s safest countries. Earlier this month, China and the.

New York City freezes rents for 1 million flats in win for Mamdani

A New York City housing board voted on Thursday to freeze the rents for about one million regulated flats for up to two years, fulfilling a central campaign promise of Mayor Zohran Mamdani only months into his term. The 7-1 vote by the city’s Rent Guidelines Board set increases at zero on both one-year and two-year leases from October. Hundreds ‌of tenants who crowded into a Manhattan museum auditorium cheered and blew whistles at the result. “This is a historic victory for New York City...

Artificial intelligence: Is AI a climate killer – or does it help green technology achieve a breakthrough?

The United Nations and the Oeko-Institut warn about the consumption of resources by AI. A climate expert counters this and points out an opportunity for Germany.

SoftBank sinks 12% as Asia tech rout tracks declines in the U.S.

SoftBank Group plunged, leading a broad selloff in Asian technology stocks amid mounting concerns over the rising cost of artificial intelligence infrastructure.

China’s award-winning 6G tech turns every wall and pipe into a sensor

China’s 6G engineers have built a special metasurface system that can bounce wireless signals around like a precision mirror to fill in dead spots, while still sensing people moving about – just like a radar. The innovation earned a gold award at the International Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva in March, the online results of which were announced on June 14. The innovation is named Distributed Integrated Sensing and Communication Metasurface (DISACM). It uses intelligent reconfigurable...

‘Do or die’ for small carmakers: China market braces for 156 new models as price war looms

A record 156 new models are expected to hit the Chinese automotive market in the second half of 2026, intensifying concerns about small players’ profitability as a new price war looms. The mass-market segment would see an influx of intelligent electric vehicles (EVs) priced at around 100,000 yuan (US$14,740), but only leading carmakers were expected to secure large orders thanks to their brand awareness and production advantages, analysts said. “Demand for new cars has rebounded but it is not...

North Korea’s border build-up opens a Seoul-UN Command rift

A public row between Seoul and the US-led United Nations Command (UNC) has revealed a fresh fault line over how the two interpret North Korea’s recent border fortification activities. South Korea views its arch-rival’s actions as a violation of the 1953 Korean war armistice agreement. The UNC does not. The dispute follows a separate disagreement over which authority should govern access to the demilitarised zone (DMZ), while analysts say differences also persist between Seoul and Washington over

The $7 Trillion AI Boom Is Running Out of Power

Forget the chips. Forget the code. The most expensive, in-demand commodity in the entire $3-trillion AI revolution is not a patented algorithm or a new Nvidia GPU. It's power. Specifically, a secure, high-voltage connection to the electrical grid that can deliver $100-500 million worth of juice to a new data center. Right now, the largest, richest companies on Earth—Google, Microsoft, Amazon—are in an unprecedented global land rush for energy. They are competing with small cities, massive manufa

HKEX pushes deeper into index business as AI reshapes Hong Kong market

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) is expanding into the index business with plans to launch more proprietary benchmarks and related investment products, as traditional market gauges have lagged regional peers during the artificial intelligence-driven technology rally. The operator of Hong Kong’s stock exchange will debut the first exchange-traded fund (ETF) tracking its HKEX Tech 100 Index on Friday. The index, launched on December 9, tracks the 100 largest technology companies listed in..

Global Trends: A Poor Kingdom and its Expensive Pleasures

King Charles III published his tax return for the first time. This could also put him in the political sights of the next Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

Ukraine’s top strike-drone maker moves into ballistic missile defense

Fire Point's drones already fly most of Kyiv's strikes inside Russia. With Germany's Hensoldt, the company is now building Freyja, a homegrown alternative.

Can Qualcomm actually compete with Nvidia? Inside its bold data-center gamble.

Qualcomm is chasing a massive $40 billion transformation. Meta is already buying in.

Ukraine’s newest strike weapon drifts into Russia on the wind

The U.S. and Russia are fielding the same balloons used by Ukraine that bait air defenses and now launch missiles.

Agreement on burden sharing: Suddenly a lot of harmony between the federal and state governments

The federal and state governments agree on new rules based on the principle: whoever orders, pays. The goal: to relieve the burden on municipalities.

US hearing warns Chinese economic espionage now targets AI

The United States has been asleep for decades as China undercut US economic strength by stealing ideas, technologies and, more recently, artificial intelligence advances, with the Chinese military first in line to benefit, according to testimony heard by a congressional committee on Thursday. The hearing by the House Select Committee on China, which focused on economic espionage and Chinese efforts to exert influence at state and local levels, was held amid mounting bilateral tension over export

Trump backs ‘Six Assurances’ to Taiwan but no arms sale timeline, US diplomat says

The top US diplomat for East Asia sought to reassure Taiwan that Washington stood by its “Six Assurances” despite US President Donald Trump’s earlier dismissal of the policy, but offered no timeline for approving a stalled US$14 billion arms package to the self-ruled island. Michael DeSombre, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Thursday that US policy on Taiwan had not changed, maintaining Washington’s commitment to..

Toyota car subscription arm Kinto shifts into high gear as profit doubles

US is ‘superhero’, China ‘supervillain’ in global AI contest, American officials warn

US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast warned that “America is the superhero” and China the “supervillain” in the contest for global artificial intelligence (AI) leadership on Thursday, just two days after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said America’s “biggest risk” on AI is China getting ahead. The United States and China remain locked in an increasingly competitive race for worldwide AI supremacy, with many American officials concerned that China is eroding the US’ early..

Army Air Assault brigade found AI tools ill-suited to tactical planning

“Large language models don’t really understand three-dimensional space. And so they’re not good for developing course of action,” said Col. Ryan Bell.

US assures India over AI ‘kill switch’ as ‘Pax Silica’ expands in bid to counter China

The United States has assured India that future artificial intelligence models will not be “cut off” days after Washington abruptly banned Anthropic’s advanced models on national security grounds, a senior Indian official told the South China Morning Post on Thursday. “There was an understanding, and something that they [US officials] certainly mentioned, that access to technology, once it is provided, will not be cut off. I think that was an assurance,” said S. Krishnan, secretary of India’s...

Iranian leader scoffs at Trump claim that Iran must buy U.S. farm products with unfrozen assets

"The only crop we're harvesting is what you planted: decades of mistrust," Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a social media post.