President Trump's engagement with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and related Khashoggi concerns dominate, alongside Congress's approval of a bill to release Jeffrey Epstein files and debates on domestic policies like the joint-employer rule.
A widespread Cloudflare outage disrupting major services like X and ChatGPT occurred, while the sector saw massive investments in AI companies like Anthropic from Microsoft and Nvidia, amidst fund manager warnings about frothy AI valuations and Meta's antitrust victory.
Diverse corporate earnings from La-Z-Boy and Medtronic were reported, with Home Depot cutting its outlook due to consumer pullback, significant **M&A activity including Anheuser-Busch InBev's potential deal for BeatBox, and a notable $1.2 trillion crypto market sell-off**.
Efforts to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear plant with US backing are underway, contrasting with **green group lawsuits to block Trump’s Gulf oil lease auction, as the EU plans to restrict aluminum scrap exports and ExxonMobil faces criticism over a Scottish plant closure**.
A **judge ruled Purdue Pharma must pay $7 billion in its bankruptcy settlement, while Larry Summers steps back from public roles due to ties with Jeffrey Epstein, whose files Congress is moving to release, alongside UK investigations into private dental charges and a crackdown on online pricing**.
Debates are emerging on Fed bank oversight and interest rate targeting, while the UK raised its bank deposit guarantee, and discussions continue on whether Budget measures will sway the Bank of England's views on rates, also noting FCC regulatory pitches for media companies.
China's escalating economic pressure on Japan over Taiwan concerns is a key event, Poland blames Russia-linked operatives for a rail explosion, and China's global lending spree is detailed, amidst various UK domestic policy discussions on immigration and housebuilding targets.