China’s Housing Downturn Deepens as Rating Agency Flags Sharper Sales Drop and Prolonged Oversupply

China’s property market, once the backbone of the country’s growth model, is facing a more protracted and severe downturn than previously anticipated. Fresh projections from a leading global ratings agency suggest that the contraction in home sales will exceed earlier expectations, reinforcing concerns that the slump has become structurally embedded rather than cyclical. The revised…

TotalEnergies Sees Trump’s Venezuela Oil Ambitions as Financial and Environmental Liability

TotalEnergies, one of Europe’s most prominent energy companies, has made it clear that the thrilling narrative of tapping Venezuela’s vast oil reserves does not align with its strategic priorities. Despite political pressure from the U.S. administration to help revive Venezuela’s oil industry, TotalEnergies has pushed back, citing prohibitive costs, environmental concerns, and complex geopolitical realities.…

Mistral’s Swedish Expansion Signals Europe’s Bid to Build Sovereign AI Infrastructure at Scale

Europe’s most prominent artificial intelligence challenger to Silicon Valley’s dominance has unveiled a billion-euro infrastructure expansion in Sweden, marking a decisive shift from model development toward full-stack technological sovereignty. The move reflects how and why European AI leaders are seeking to secure control over computing power, data processing and cloud architecture at a time when…

US Post-Election Rally Reverses as Bitcoin Volatility Exposes Crypto’s Fragile Liquidity Cycle

Bitcoin’s retreat from the highs reached during the surge that followed Donald Trump’s election underscores a recurring feature of cryptocurrency markets: rallies built on policy optimism can unwind quickly when liquidity tightens and macro uncertainty resurfaces. The erosion of those gains has not simply been a price correction. It has illuminated how and why digital…

Cheap Disruption, Costly Doubts: Why Hims & Hers’ Weight-Loss Bet Failed to Lift Its Shares

When Hims & Hers unveiled a $49-a-month weight-loss pill, the announcement landed like a thunderclap across the pharmaceutical and digital health landscape. The price undercut blockbuster obesity drugs by a wide margin and appeared to challenge the economics of one of the fastest-growing segments in global healthcare. Yet the market’s response was tellingly muted. While…

Digital Lifelines and Sanctions Pressure: Why Iran’s Crypto Surge Is Triggering U.S. Alarm

Iran’s accelerating use of cryptocurrencies has moved from the margins of global finance to the centre of U.S. strategic scrutiny. What was once viewed primarily as a retail phenomenon driven by currency collapse is now being examined as a systemic channel through which sanctioned actors may be accessing hard currency, moving value across borders, and…

Innovation Versus Valuation: Why Software’s AI Moment Is Being Mispriced by Markets

The global software industry is living through a paradox. Inside companies, executives and engineers describe an era of unprecedented technological acceleration, driven by rapid advances in artificial intelligence. Outside, in public markets, investors are treating much of the sector as collateral damage in an AI arms race dominated by model builders and infrastructure giants. The…

When Ultra-Fast Fashion Meets Friction: Why Brazil Couldn’t Become Shein’s Manufacturing Engine

Shein’s attempt to turn Brazil into a regional production hub was meant to solve several strategic problems at once. It would localize manufacturing closer to a fast-growing consumer base, blunt rising trade barriers against Chinese imports, and showcase a more politically palatable version of its business model built around local jobs rather than cross-border shipments.…

Novo Nordisk’s Reckoning as Price Wars Redefine the Economics of Obesity Drugs

Novo Nordisk’s warning of “unprecedented” pricing pressure marks a turning point not just for the company, but for the broader obesity drug market that until recently appeared insulated from the usual forces of pharmaceutical competition. After years of near-exponential growth driven by soaring demand for Wegovy and related therapies, the Danish drugmaker is confronting a…