U.S. Crypto Rally Finds Its Peak in 2025 as Political and Regulatory Risks Loom

The U.S. crypto industry entered 2025 in a markedly different mood from the defensive posture that defined much of the previous decade. After years of lawsuits, regulatory warnings and uncertainty over whether digital assets belonged in securities law at all, the sector found itself celebrating a series of rapid-fire wins that reshaped both perception and…

Meta’s Intelligent Agent Bet Signals Strategic Shift From Models to Automation at Scale

Meta Platforms’ acquisition of intelligent agent developer Manus marks more than the close of a single deal. It represents a strategic inflection point in the company’s artificial intelligence roadmap, signaling a decisive move beyond building foundational models toward owning the software agents that actually perform work. After a year defined by heavy capital deployment, talent…

Humanoid Ambitions Redraw the Tech Race as China Moves Faster Than Musk’s Vision

Elon Musk has rarely been subtle about where he believes the next technological frontier lies. In recent years, he has increasingly framed humanoid robots not as a side project but as a central pillar of future economic value, arguing they could eventually eclipse cars in importance. In Musk’s telling, robots that look and move like…

Citigroup’s Russia Exit Crystallizes Strategic Retreat as Accounting Losses Meet Geopolitical Reality

Citigroup’s decision to approve the sale of its Russian unit marks the near end of a withdrawal process that has unfolded over several years and across shifting geopolitical terrain. The board’s approval of the transaction, alongside the acknowledgment of a roughly $1.2 billion pre-tax loss, underscores how strategic exits from sanctioned or high-risk markets often…

Silence in the Cockpit: How Fear and Regulation Push Pilots to Hide Mental Health Struggles

The modern airline cockpit is built on redundancy, precision, and checklists designed to leave nothing to chance. Yet when it comes to mental health, many pilots operate in a culture where silence feels safer than disclosure. Across commercial aviation, pilots privately wrestle with anxiety, depression, burnout, and stress while publicly projecting calm competence, driven by…

Google Moves to Modernise Digital Identity as Gmail Address Changes Become Possible

Google’s quiet rollout of a long-awaited feature allowing users to change their Gmail address without creating a new account marks a significant shift in how digital identity is managed across its ecosystem. While the update may appear cosmetic on the surface, it reflects deeper strategic pressures around user retention, privacy expectations, platform maturity and competition…

Markets Look to a New Growth Equation as AI Investment, Earnings Momentum and Fed Policy Shape the 2026 Outlook

The U.S. stock market is heading into 2026 carrying the momentum of an unusually durable rally, but expectations for the year ahead are less about repeating outsized gains and more about sustaining a complex balance between growth, policy and valuation. After three consecutive years of double-digit advances, investors are increasingly focused on how artificial intelligence…

Mainstreaming Alternative Assets Reshapes Markets as Crypto and Private Credit Expand Investor Risk

The rapid march of crypto assets and private credit into the financial mainstream is transforming how capital is allocated, how portfolios are constructed, and how risk is distributed across the investment landscape. What was once the preserve of hedge funds, institutions, and wealthy individuals is increasingly being repackaged for mass-market investors, driven by policy shifts,…

AI Power Hunger Revives America’s Emergency Power Fleet

On a summer afternoon in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, the hulking outlines of an oil-fired power station stand in uneasy contrast to nearby playgrounds and residential streets. For years, facilities like this were regarded as transitional relics—kept alive for emergencies, then penciled in for retirement as cleaner power sources expanded. That assumption is now being upended.…