WTO downgrades global trade growth forecast to 0.5% for next year– www.channelnewsasia.com Source Link Excerpt:
GENEVA: The World Trade Organization sharply lowered its 2026 forecast for global merchandise trade volume growth to 0.5 per cent on Tuesday (Oct 7), citing expected delayed impacts from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
It marks a significant revision down from its previous estimate in August of 1.8 per cent growth.
“The outlook for next year is bleaker … I am very concerned,” Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told reporters in Geneva.
However, she said the world trading system is showing resilience, with the rules-based multilateral system providing some stability amid trade turmoil.
For 2025, the WTO upgraded its forecast for global trade volume growth to 2.4 per cent, from 0.9 per cent previously, driven primarily by the front-loading of imports into the United States ahead of tariff hikes and growth in the trade of AI-related goods. It is still below the 2.8 per cent growth seen in 2024.
Trump’s tariff decisions since he took office in January have shocked financial markets and sent a wave of uncertainty through the global economy.
On Aug 7, Trump imposed higher tariffs on imports from dozens of countries, leaving major trade partners like Switzerland, Brazil and India scrambling for a better deal, while the EU struck a deal that set duties at 15 per cent on most EU goods imported into the United States.
Netflix value continues to plummet as subscribers reject its trans grooming of kids– www.lifesitenews.com Source Link Excerpt:
(LifeSiteNews) — Netflix has ended this week having lost an estimated $25 billion in stock value.
On October 1, Elon Musk encouraged his 227 million X followers to cancel their subscriptions following troubling accounts of the giant streaming platform pushing radical transgender messaging on young children and teens.
In one of many posts calling for the boycott of Netflix, Musk wrote “Cancel Netflix for the health of your kids.” The post has been viewed over 90 million times and has received 1 million “Likes.”
Judge Rules Biden’s Offshore Oil Drilling Ban Illegal– conservativeroof.com Source Link Excerpt:
President Joe Biden’s ban on offshore drilling in certain parts of the ocean and the Gulf of America was illegal, a federal judge ruled on Oct. 2.
U.S. District Judge James Cain of Louisiana ruled that both Biden and President Barack Obama went beyond their authority when they banned offshore drilling in parts of the Outer Continental Shelf because the bans were imposed without an expiration date.
Their orders “purported to apply for ‘a period of time without specific expiration,’ i.e., indefinitely,” Cain wrote in a 16-page decision. That “constituted a departure from the executive branch’s longstanding practice” and exceeded the authority outlined in the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, he added. Biden, on Jan. 6, shortly before his term ended, barred oil and gas leasing across 625 million acres of ocean, including the entire East and West coasts.
“My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses, and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs,” Biden said in a statement at the time. “It is not worth the risks.”
On Jan. 17, several groups and five states sued the government over the action.
As AI redefines work, US employers cut jobs and remain cautious in hiring – Computerworld– www.computerworld.com Source Link Excerpt:
Ben Johnston, COO of small business lender Kapitus, said US businesses are grappling with tariffs that raise costs on imported goods, potentially making domestic manufacturing more competitive long term. But in the short term, those tariffs risk driving up inflation and disrupting global supply chains, threatening jobs across the manufacturing, wholesale, and retail sectors.
AI is also beginning to displace workers, especially in white-collar jobs. Companies are currently investing heavily in AI technologies that can analyze data and quickly make decisions that once could only be made by humans, Johnston said.
Companies are using AI to gather and analyze data from the web, internal systems, and third parties — tasks once done only by humans — mainly in white-collar roles like analytics and underwriting. And as robotics advance, AI could soon take on physical tasks in blue-collar jobs like driving, factory work, and even home healthcare, Johnston noted.
NATO ally warns of ‘hybrid war’ threat from Russia as drones plague European military bases and airports– fortune.com Source Link Excerpt:
Denmark, a founding member of NATO, has added to growing alarms about the threat of “hybrid war” from Russia as drone sightings spread to more European airports and even military installations.
On Thursday, the airport in Munich, Germany, grounded flights after several drone sightings. And on Friday, Belgium said it was investigating drone sightings above a military base near the German border. That’s after Denmark also reported drones flying above its airports and largest military base.
“I hope that everybody recognizes now that there is a hybrid war, and one day it’s Poland, the other day it’s Denmark and next week, it will probably be somewhere else,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters on Wednesday. “There is only one country…willing to threaten us, and it is Russia, and therefore, we need a very strong answer back.”
Denmark hasn’t directly attributed the recent drone incidents to Russia. But the remarks follow Russian drone incursions into Poland as well as Russian fighter jets violating Estonian airspace, forcing NATO to intercept them.
Shutdown enters second week with no breakthrough in sight– www.washingtonexaminer.com Source Link Excerpt:
The government shutdown entered its second week on Monday as a solution to Washington’s gridlock over the federal budget continues to elude lawmakers.
The Senate is set to vote on a “clean” continuing resolution, or CR, on Monday evening that would keep the government funded at its current levels until late November. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) will need to pick up five Democratic votes to pass the measure. That means the stopgap spending bill will likely not advance, as only three lawmakers in the Democratic caucus have crossed the aisle, with no others announcing plans to join Republicans over the weekend.
On the House side, Republicans have refused to budge on hashing out another deal viewed more favorably by Democrats. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has argued Democrats have backed similar “clean” CRs keeping the government open over a dozen times in recent years. Johnson has argued that concerns that the latest measure doesn’t contain provisions extending Obamacare subsidies, which have led Democrats to block the CR, are nothing more than a political ploy designed to appease fringe elements in the party opposed to President Donald Trump’s GOP.
Johnson sent his conference home in an attempt to push Democrats to the table, saying the chamber had already done its job when it passed the funding bill and sent it to the Senate on Sept. 19. Members are on a “district work period” in their home states until Oct. 13. They are scheduled to return to Washington on Oct. 14.
How U.S.-Gulf AI Deals Project Power– warontherocks.com Source Link Excerpt:
The great-power contest is not unfolding on battlefields or carrier decks, but inside data halls cooled by air conditioning, far from America’s shores. Rows of servers and racks of graphics processing units now carry as much strategic weight as military bases once did. Each deal for cloud access or advanced chips is a form of statecraft, binding partners into one camp’s technology ecosystem while locking out the other.
The United States is using AI infrastructure — data centers, cloud controls, and compute access — as a tool of power projection in the Arabian Gulf. By tying investment and capacity to governance safeguards, Washington can align regional partners with its security preferences, crowd out Chinese platforms, and set the rules for how AI is built and deployed. But the leverage is fragile. Without resilience and enforceable compliance, these arrangements risk becoming single points of failure or, worse, conduits for adversaries.
To make this new form of statecraft durable, U.S. policymakers should establish standard deal architectures with Gulf partners that combine hard technical safeguards, strict governance requirements, and built-in contingency plans. That means binding model weights to secure enclaves, tracking accelerators and workloads, embedding snapback clauses for violations, and pairing technical assurances with human rights standards. Done right, this approach can turn American-backed AI infrastructure into a lasting source of influence — quiet, scalable, and harder to dislodge than a forward operating base.
Democrats Thought They Had the Upper Hand in the Schumer Shutdown. WaPo Says They Just Fell Into a ‘Trap’– townhall.com Source Link Excerpt:
The Washington Post’s editorial board is worried about how Democrats might fare in the battle over the Schumer Shutdown, and they have every reason to be.
The editorial board published a piece on Wednesday describing how Democratic leaders rejected a short-term deal to avoid a shutdown after pressure from the progressive wing of the party. When Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) floated the idea of a seven-to-ten-day extension, Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) responded, “Hell no.”
Gov. Shapiro signs order to protect vaccine access, coverage in Pa. and combat misinformation – PennLive.com Source Link Excerpt:
Gov. Josh Shapiro on Wednesday signed an executive order aimed at protecting access to recommended childhood and adult vaccines, maintaining insurance coverage and aligning state health policies with the guidance of respected experts.
“As the federal government continues to create chaos and confusion, my Administration is stepping up to preserve access to vaccines, provide Pennsylvanians with clear, evidence-based guidance, and protect the freedom to make decisions over your own health care,” said Shapiro at a press event at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).
Musk becomes first person ever to see wealth top $500bn– www.bbc.com Source Link Excerpt:
Tesla boss Elon Musk has become the first person ever to achieve a net worth of more than $500bn (£370.9bn), as the value of the electric car company and his other businesses have risen this year.
The tech magnate’s net worth briefly reached $500.1bn on Wednesday afternoon New York time, before dipping slightly to just over $499bn later in the day, the Forbes’ billionaires index reported.
Alongside Tesla, valuations of his other ventures, including the artificial intelligence startup xAI and rocket company SpaceX, have also reportedly climbed in recent months.
Russia economy meltdown as bank profits ‘collapse’ amid market chaos | World | News– www.express.co.uk Source Link Excerpt:
Russia’s financial sector is grappling with significant challenges as bank profits plummeted in August, signalling potential economic instability. According to data highlighted by Kyrylo Shevchenko, a prominent Ukrainian banker, Russian banks’ collective profits fell to $2.4 billion (£1.79 billion) in August, down from $4.7 billion (£1.71 billion) in July, a staggering 49% decline.
Shevchenko noted that the corporate sector, particularly where floating-rate loans dominate, has been hardest hit by weaker margins. He tweeted: “The credit market is cooling, reserves are rising, and the era of easy wartime profits is fading. Despite surviving sanctions and high rates so far, the financial sector cannot remain immune to war and isolation forever.”
Greece general strike disrupts services across the country– abcnews.go.com Source Link Excerpt:
ATHENS, Greece — A nationwide general strike in Greece left ferries tied up in port and disrupted public transportation across the capital on Wednesday, as public and private sector workers protest changes to the country’s labor laws.
No taxis in Athens or trains will run for the duration of the 24-hour strike, while buses and the city’s subway, tram and trolley services were operating on a reduced schedule.
The strike was disrupting services across the country, including in schools, courts, public hospitals and municipalities. Two protest marches were planned in central Athens, with demonstrations also set for other cities.
Unions representing civil servants and private sector workers called the strike to protest labor law changes that will introduce more flexibility, including allowing overtime that could stretch shifts to 13 hours in a day. Under the new regulations, working hours that include overtime would be capped at 48 hours per week, with a maximum 150 overtime hours allowed per year.
Unions argue the new rules leave workers vulnerable to labor abuses by employers.
“We say no to the 13-hour (shift). Exhaustion is not development, human tolerance has limits,” the private sector umbrella union, the General Confederation of Workers of Greece, said in a statement. The union called for a 37½-hour working week and the return of collective bargaining agreements.
California Governor Gavin Newsom signs landmark AI safety law SB 53– fortune.com Source Link Excerpt:
California has taken a significant step toward regulating artificial intelligence with Governor Gavin Newsom signing a new state law that will require major AI companies, many of which are headquartered in the state, to publicly disclose how they plan to mitigate the potentially catastrophic risks posed by advanced AI models.
The law also creates mechanisms for reporting critical safety incidents, extends whistleblower protections to AI company employees, and initiates the development of CalCompute, a government consortium tasked with creating a public computing cluster for safe, ethical, and sustainable AI research and innovation. By compelling companies, including OpenAI, Meta, GoogleDeepMind, and Anthropic, to follow these new rules at home, California may effectively set the standard for AI oversight.
Newsom framed the law as a balance between safeguarding the public and encouraging innovation. In a statement, he wrote: “California has proven that we can establish regulations to protect our communities while also ensuring that the growing AI industry continues to thrive. This legislation strikes that balance.”
The legislation, authored by State Sen. Scott Wiener, follows a failed attempt to pass a similar AI law last year. Wiener said that the new law, which was known by the shorthand SB 53 (for Senate Bill 53), focuses on transparency rather than liability, a departure from his prior SB 1047 bill, which Newsom vetoed last year.
“SB 53’s passage marks a notable win for California and the AI industry as a whole,” said Sunny Gandhi, VP of Political Affairs at Encode AI, a co-sponsor SB 53. “By establishing transparency and accountability measures for large-scale developers, SB 53 ensures that startups and innovators aren’t saddled with disproportionate burdens, while the most powerful models face appropriate oversight. This balanced approach sets the stage for a competitive, safe, and globally respected AI ecosystem.”
Mike Johnson Blasts Democrats’ Government Shutdown Hypocrisy– www.breitbart.com Source Link Excerpt:
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) put the Democrats on blast with their own words, showing their hypocrisy as they protested against previous government shutdowns while refusing to put a stop to the looming shutdown that will occur at midnight Tuesday if they do not compromise with Republicans.
Johnson has the following video playing on loop on a television outside his office in the U.S. Capitol, pointing out the blatant contradictions of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and more:
“It is not normal to shut down the government when we don’t get what we want,” Ocasio-Cortez said on the House floor in 2019.
Almost exactly one year ago, Schumer apparently cared about how the government shutdown that he is currently hell-bent on forcing would impact average Americans.
Trump says US to impose 100% tariff on movies made outside the country– www.france24.com Source Link Excerpt:
President Donald Trump said on Monday he would impose a 100% tariff on all films produced overseas that are then sent into the U.S., repeating a threat made in May that would upend Hollywood’s global business model. Story by Bryan Quinn.
