06 Market

Iran shipped $6 billion worth of oil products before new blockade– www.washingtonexaminer.com

pgnewser July 14, 2026 0

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In the 26 days between the signing of the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding and the reinstatement of the U.S. blockade, Tehran shipped over $6 billion worth of oil products to foreign buyers.

Iran shipped out over 80 million barrels of crude oil and refined products between June 18, when the first blockade was lifted, and when it was reimposed on July 13, according to TankerTrackers.com, a tanker-tracking research firm. The blockade, however, closed around Iran before Tehran was able to ship out all of its storage capacity, so around 30 million barrels of Iranian crude oil were unable to embark.

TankerTrackers said over 60 million barrels of floating storage capacity remain available within the blockade perimeter, with the shipments and returned ships taken into account.

Meta reaches $50 billion investment in 5-gigawatt Louisiana data center– www.washingtonexaminer.com

pgnewser July 14, 2026 0

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Meta announced Monday that its Louisiana data center investment has grown from $10 billion to $50 billion and that it expects to generate substantial local tax revenues as it pursues artificial superintelligence.

The Richland Parish Data Center, nicknamed “Hyperion,” will be a nearly 10 million-square-foot, five-gigawatt facility, equivalent to a power plant capable of supplying enough electricity to power roughly 4 million average U.S. homes simultaneously. Altogether, that is about as much energy as New York City uses on a winter day.

“We’re delivering real economic impact alongside the AI infrastructure that will power the future,” Meta Vice President of Data Centers Rachel Peterson said in a statement.

Paramount Vows to ‘Vigorously’ Fight California’s Lawsuit to Block Warner Bros. Discovery Merger– www.breitbart.com

pgnewser July 14, 2026 0

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NEW YORK (AP) — Twelve states sued to block Paramount’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on Monday, arguing that the $81 billion merger would “extinguish competition” in Hollywood and lead to fewer choices for consumers across the U.S.

“Audiences on every sofa and in every movie (theater) seat would feel the impact of this unlawful merger,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is leading the case, said in a news conference from Los Angeles. He said the deal would result in higher prices, fewer movies and TV shows and lower quality of content overall.

‘Funflation’ is back and hitting gaming and streaming services– www.cnbc.com

pgnewser July 13, 2026 0

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For decades, video games have been a go-to hobby for Alyx Green. But in recent years, Green has felt priced out.

Instead of buying the biggest releases, the Illinois graduate student has opted for cheaper alternatives from smaller studios or turned to board and card games. In some cases, the 31-year-old watches videos of others playing hot games on YouTube in lieu of actually playing.

“The price has been going up,” Green said. “It’s just hard to keep up.”

U.S. consumers have for years grappled with “funflation,” used to describe the sharply higher prices for live experiences like concerts or sporting events that were halted during pandemic lockdowns.

4K Jobs Gone to AI at Microsoft – scitechwire.com

pgnewser July 7, 2026 0

The software giant Microsoft announced it was laying off 4,000 people, primarily its X-box division. The move is designed to optimize X-box and other divisions using AI. The layoffs amount to 2.1% of its workforce. 1,600 of those layoffs are already happening, and they’re all in the X-box division.

Go Deeper

Trump Accounts Open for Business – americanistpress.com

pgnewser July 7, 2026 0

 President Trump’s plan to help children build up a nest egg for their 18th birthday officially begins. The program has been dubbed “Trump accounts,” which are stock portfolio accounts for children. President Trump said, “Children, at the age of 18 and after, become very wealthy people, come into the world with essentially no money and end up, at a pretty young age, being very rich.”

Go Deeper

Trump Admin Won’t Renew Trade With Canada, Mexico in Its Current Form– legalinsurrection.com

pgnewser July 7, 2026 0

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U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer confirmed that the Trump administration will not renew the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade agreement in its current form after a joint review.

The USMCA replaced NAFTA during President Donald Trump’s first term.

“The United States will continue to engage with Mexico and Canada to address the Agreement’s shortcomings and our trade deficits with these countries,” announced Greer. “However, the Agreement remains in force pending resolution of these issues or until the Agreement’s termination.”

Oil prices rise after reported Iran attack– www.cnbc.com

pgnewser July 7, 2026 0

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Oil prices rose on Tuesday morning following a report of an Iranian attack on commercial ships in the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.

The reported attacks in the waterway, which typically handles around 20% of the world’s oil traffic, reaffirm the fragility of the U.S. and Iran’s interim peace agreement, as they negotiate a permanent end to their war.

International benchmark Brent crude futures with September delivery traded 1.5% higher at $73.09 per barrel, extending earlier gains.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures with August delivery advanced 1.5% to $69.56, after closing at its lowest level since Feb. 27 in the previous session.

AI ‘actor’ Tilly Norwood to appear in feature film set in the ‘Tillyverse’ – National– globalnews.ca

pgnewser July 7, 2026 0

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The AI “actor” known as Tilly Norwood will be used in a new feature film entitled Misaligned, its first lead role as a digitally generated persona.

Particle6, the AI production studio that built Norwood, is developing and producing the film, the company told Global News in an email statement. The company is led by comedian and writer Eline Van der Velden.

 

Counterpoint: China’s 618 smartphone sales fall 13% year-on-year– technode.com

pgnewser July 7, 2026 0

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According to market research firm Counterpoint Research, smartphone sales in China fell 13% year over year during the month-long 618 shopping festival, as major brands raised prices to offset higher memory costs. Between May 26 and June 21, all major Chinese smartphone brands except Huawei posted double-digit sales declines. Promotions were less aggressive than last year, dampening consumer demand. Honor’s sales dropped 33%, while Xiaomi’s fell 24%.

Ivan Lam, Senior Analyst at Counterpoint Research, said: “Some Chinese smartphone brands priced both their new and existing models higher than comparable devices a year ago. Discounts during this year’s 618 shopping festival were also generally less aggressive, both in terms of price reductions and the range of products included in promotions.” [Jiwei, in Chinese]

The business logic of asteroid mining– www.americanthinker.com

pgnewser July 7, 2026 0

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Beyond Earth, there are abundant resources on the Moon and, more significantly, on asteroids. The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter alone is estimated to contain between 700,000 and 1,700,000 asteroids with diameters of at least 0.6 miles. In addition, there are over 30,000 known near-Earth asteroids (NEAs), and about 2,000 to 3,000 more are discovered each year.

A common objection to asteroid mining is that it would cost too much to transport raw materials from an asteroid to Earth, rendering mining economically unviable. The fact that transporting materials is expensive is partly true, but the argument still misses the point. Experts such as John S. Lewis, who raised the issue as early as 1997 in his book Mining the Sky, argued above all that the raw materials extracted from asteroids should primarily be used in space.

DOGE cuts to USAID have worsened the Congo’s Ebola outbreak that has killed 500, experts warn– fortune.com

pgnewser July 7, 2026 0

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More than 500 people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a result of the ongoing Ebola outbreak, as experts say cuts to international aid have hampered the country from containing the virus.

There have been 1,561 recorded cases of Ebola, including 506 deaths, since the disease’s outbreak was declared on May 15, according to DRC’s Ministry of Health. The World Health Organization deemed the first month of the Ebola outbreak the worst on record, and slowing the virus’s spread has been complicated by the lack of treatments for Bundibugyo, the strain behind the most recent Ebola outbreak.

The International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian aid organization, previously said severe cuts to global aid weakened frontline healthcare and preparedness systems, leaving the Congo with a more fragile health system now than during the 2018-2020 outbreak that killed more than 2,000 individuals.

“The warning signs are flashing red,” Bob Kitchen, vice president of emergencies at IRC, said in a statement. “Increased conflict and cuts to global aid funding have dismantled defenses at exactly the wrong moment. The lesson from every previous outbreak is clear: delays cost lives. The risks are growing and the resources are shrinking; that is the brutal arithmetic facing global aid today.”

New online rules change in force when people go to buy at till in UK– www.mirror.co.uk

pgnewser July 7, 2026 0

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A BBC expert has explained there are new rules being enforced now which come into action when you get to the till for any online purchase. Appearing on BBC Morning Live, Radio 4 Money Box expert Dan Whitworth spoke about the annoying design of websites which add on large amounts to ‘offers’ when you finally get to pay.

He said in fact hidden fees are illegal – and now the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is clamping down. Earlier this month, it was announced that StubHub has been fined £889,200 by the UK’s competition watchdog for not showing people additional fees on tickets until they got to checkout.

The live event ticket marketplace will also have to refund more than 50,000 customers with an average payout of £10.33. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) was investigating the platform as part of a drive to clamp down on illegal and unfair online pricing practices.

It found that StubHub was using an illegal practice known as drip pricing, which can cause fans to be caught out by extra charges and means they may not have had a chance to accurately compare prices between sellers.

Zuckerberg Admits Meta’s Push to Replace Workers with AI Agents Is Not Going to Plan After Major Layoffs– slaynews.com

pgnewser July 6, 2026 0

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has told staff that the company’s effort to replace human workers with AI agents is moving slower than expected, even after the tech giant cut thousands of jobs and reorganized aggressively around artificial intelligence.

The admission came during an internal town hall after months of restructuring at Meta.

Earlier this year, the company cut roughly 10% of its workforce and reassigned about 7,000 employees into new AI-focused roles.

Those moves were framed internally as urgent, as Meta raced to compete with OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and other major players in the artificial intelligence arms race.

Scientists want to quarantine alien life on the Moon before it reaches Earth– www.sciencedaily.com

pgnewser July 6, 2026 0

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A new policy paper argues that a future NASA base on the moon should include a specialized biocontainment facility designed to keep Earth safe from any potentially hazardous biological material brought back from space.

The proposal comes as scientists and space agencies prepare for more ambitious missions that could return samples from the moon, Mars, and other destinations across the solar system.

“Humanity is entering a new era of space exploration, but our planetary protection strategies have not kept pace with the risks associated with returning extraterrestrial samples to Earth,” said paper co-author Frederick I. Moxley, Director of Strategic Threat Analysis and Research Laboratories, an Idaho-based consultancy.

Why Iran may find it difficult to clear its oil inventories even after sanctions relief– www.cnbc.com

pgnewser July 6, 2026 0

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Iran is likely to face challenges in clearing its oil inventories even after restrictions on its exports are lifted, as its biggest customer tweaks its energy strategy while oil from other suppliers floods the market, according to analysts.

China, the world’s top crude importer, has not been particularly enthusiastic about purchasing Iranian oil, despite traditionally being the main buyer of the country’s energy. “In fact, the Chinese do not show any enthusiasm to buy much oil from anybody,” Fereidun Fesharaki, chairman emeritus at FGE NexantECA, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”

China’s crude imports have dwindled since the Iran war started in late February, depressing oil demand. In May, they plunged 29% from a year earlier to 7.82 million barrels per day, the lowest level since February 2018, according to Wind Information.

Xbox layoffs microsoft layoffs today Xbox CEO Asha Sharma’s Message For Staff After Firing 3200 Employees– www.ndtv.com

pgnewser July 6, 2026 0

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Xbox is handing the pink slip to 3,200 of its employees, or 20 per cent of the total workforce, over the next year. The move comes as part of the Microsoft-owned company’s broader AI-led layoffs, with Xbox being affected the most as its “business is not healthy”, Chief Executive Officer Asha Sharma said in a letter to employees.

In her email to workers, Sharma noted that 1,600 employees will be laid off on Monday, while the remaining ones will be let go over FY27. In addition, Xbox will divest four of its gaming studios and is preparing to part ways with another.

Ford Rehires 300 Engineers After Replacing Them With AI– wltreport.com

pgnewser July 1, 2026 0

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It appears humans still have the edge over AI.

For now at least.

Ford has announced it has rehired nearly 300 engineers after initially letting them go after replacing them with AI.

The decision by Ford to rehire the engineers comes after its AI system was unable to perform well while conducting quality checks.

BBC had more details to report on Ford’s latest move:

Ford says it has hired back some human engineers after AI failed to match their skills and experience.

In a bid to reap the benefits of the tech, which developers claim can cut costs and boost productivity, the US carmaker adopted it across some parts of its operations including for quality checks.

But, according to Bloomberg, its executives said the firm has rehired more than 300 “veteran” quality inspectors in recent years to make up for the pitfalls of automated systems.

“Artificial intelligence is a fantastic tool, but it’s only as good as the information you use to train it,” Charles Poon, vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, told reporters.

“Over prior years, we didn’t pay as much attention as we should have to the experience of our most knowledgeable engineers that have been with us through many product cycles,” he said.

The US automaker is among many to have seized on the buzz around AI, particularly amid Wall Street fervour about the tech’s potential to increase margins.

Are We Handing Biotech to Chinese Military? House Panel Demands Answers From Pfizer, Merck and More – RedState– redstate.com

pgnewser July 1, 2026 0

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Do American pharmaceutical companies conducting clinical trials on drugs in China help the CCP’s military capability? A bipartisan group of lawmakers wants to know, and they’ve opened an investigation into drugmakers, including Merck, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Bristol Myers ⁠Squibb, and AbbVie (a spinoff of Abbott Laboratories), and are demanding that they detail their policies and due diligence efforts in their overseas operations.

Rep. John Moolenaar (MI-02), chair of the China Select Committee, is leading the charge: