April 20, 2026

06 Market

AI Is Being Misunderstood as a Breakthrough in Planning. It’s Not.– warontherocks.com

pgnewser February 26, 2026 0

Blurb:

In the age of AI, the scarcest resource in headquarters is no longer time. It is, rather, the willingness to say no.

Artificial intelligence is moving rapidly into military planning staffs because it compresses routine cognitive labor. AI excels at absorbing guidance, reorganizing complex material, and producing clear strategic language at speed. This feels like a qualitative advance, creating the impression that planning itself has become easier. But this impression misleads. The risk of AI-enabled planning is that it will produce plausible constructs that obscure where judgment is required, creating the illusion that analytic completeness can substitute for prioritization.

AI is seen as “raising the floor” by making it easier to produce adequate products. That is true. Yet AI also “collapses the median” by increasing the relative cost of real insight. As AI-enabled planning begin to inform real-world operations, the temptation is to treat complete answers as sufficient, without interrogating whether they represent the right answers to the hard questions of what to resource, what to defer, and what risk to accept.

Scott Bessent Lays Out Future of Trump’s Tariffs, Trade Deals– www.dailysignal.com

pgnewser February 26, 2026 0

Blurb:

Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent told “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday that revenue from tariffs would not drop, despite the Supreme Court’s ruling against the authority President Donald Trump’ invoked to levy his “Liberation Day” tariffs.

The high court decided Trump exceeded his powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) in a 6-3 ruling issued Friday. Bartiromo questioned Bessent about claims made Friday by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget that the deficit would increase due to the loss of revenue.

“Yes, so, Maria, let’s take a step back here. And Maya MacGuineas should be ashamed, and they should take the word ‘responsible’ out of her organization’s name,” Bessent responded. “Everything she told you was completely irresponsible and, look, where were they when the Biden administration blew out the deficit that we had a fiscal contraction last year? So she should be ashamed.”

“So let me tell you what’s going to happen first, this ruling was a very narrow ruling in terms of the president’s ability to use IEEPA to collect revenues. The Supreme Court said the president can put in a full embargo, but he cannot collect one dollar,” Bessent continued.

Why Nvidia beat estimates, again– www.washingtonexaminer.com

pgnewser February 26, 2026 0

Blurb:

The technology giant Nvidia just reported a great fourth quarter. The company operates on a January fiscal year. It comfortably beat analyst expectations, primarily because of the explosion in artificial intelligence infrastructure spending. Importantly, the largest U.S. data center companies just announced dramatic increases in artificial intelligence capital spending. Spending by the so-called hyperscalers will rise well over 50% to almost $700 billion in 2026.

Nvidia’s revenue reached $68.1 billion, a growth rate of 73% year over year. That exceeded the consensus estimate of around $66 billion. Data center revenue was up 75%, a huge beat. Earnings per share were also higher than expected. The market was looking for earnings of around $1.53. The reported number was $1.62. Nvidia’s gross margin was also outstanding at 75%. That indicates the company continues to have pricing power and appears to be largely unaffected by the shortage of high-bandwidth memory semiconductors.

SCOTUS Tariffs Ruling Gives Congress Permission To Be Useless– thefederalist.com

pgnewser February 26, 2026 0

Blurb:

Many have disagreed with the rationale for the Trump tariffs, lamented their content and consequences, and been alarmed about the president’s expansive use of emergency powers to impose them. But the Supreme Court’s ruling challenging them ought to be alarming because it allows Congress’s dereliction of duty to continue while tipping the balance of power even further toward the judiciary.

The Supreme Court’s decision, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, is also alarming for a number of other reasons. To begin, it was dubious, seeing as how a splintered majority dismissed all “[s]tatutory text, history, and precedent” to the contrary in holding that tariffs are not a means to “regulate … importation” under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), as Justice Brett Kavanaugh, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, persuasively argued in his dissent. The court’s decision was also nonsensical, given that under its ruling, per the dissent, a president could “shut off all or most imports from China, but not … impose even a $1 tariff on imports from China.”

What the Supreme Court Ruling on IEEPA Tariffs Means for South Korea • Stimson Center– www.stimson.org

pgnewser February 25, 2026 0

Blurb:

Most observers predicted the recent Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruling striking down President Trump’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariffs; however, the decision raises new doubts and questions about trade with the United States for exporters from countries like South Korea. This explainer discusses what the recent ruling means for trade between South Korea and the United States and how South Korea may respond to relations with the U.S. in the coming days.

Why are data centres fuelling tensions in Northern Virginia ahead of US midterms?– www.channelnewsasia.com

pgnewser February 24, 2026 0

Blurb:

NORTHERN VIRGINIA: Rising energy costs are fuelling frustration among American voters ahead of this year’s midterm elections.

In Northern Virginia, data centres – notorious for guzzling massive amounts of electricity and water – are emerging as a flashpoint over power demand and infrastructure strain.

The region on the eastern coast of the United States is widely regarded as the data centre capital of the world, with a large concentration of server farms clustered in counties just outside Washington, DC.

White House Prioritizes Domestic Phosphorus, Glyphosate Production for Food Security– legalinsurrection.com

pgnewser February 24, 2026 0

Blurb:

 

The last time I covered the topic of the week-killing compound called glyphosate, it was in the context of concern over chemical supply shortages in 2022.

In that report, I shared concerns about the lack of phosphorus, used in compounds that support agriculture. I also noted that farmers were struggling because weeds had developed resistance to the exposure levels of this chemical, usually linked to the product Roundup.

This week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order using the Defense Production Act (DPA) to prioritize and expand U.S. production of elemental phosphorus and ensure adequate production of glyphosate‑based herbicides, designating them as “critical” to national defense and food security and extending liability protections to producers that comply with the order.

“I find that ensuring robust domestic elemental phosphorus mining and United States-based production of glyphosate-based herbicides is central to American economic and national security,” Trump said in the order. “Without immediate Federal action, the United States remains inadequately equipped and vulnerable.”

…Phosphorus, which is also covered in the order, is a precursor to the production of glyphosate and is also used in the manufacturing of certain military equipment.

The order will require Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to issue orders and regulations to implement the increased supply of phosphorus and glyphosate.

A White House Fact sheet on the executive order said Trump signed it to “ensure domestic production of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides, the loss of which would cripple critical supply chains.”

Trump’s new global tariffs kick in at 10% – business live | Business– www.theguardian.com

pgnewser February 24, 2026 0

Blurb:

President Donald Trump’s new tariffs have come into effect today at a rate of 10%, after the US supreme court blocked many of his import taxes on Friday.

The president signed an executive order last Friday authorising the 10% tariffs just hours after the supreme court ruling. He later threatened to raise the rate to 15%, but did not officially do so by Tuesday 12.01am time in Washington, when the 10% levy came into effect.

However, Bloomberg is reporting that officials in the White House are working on a formal order that will increase the rate to 15%.

It comes after Trump declared this week that he can use tariffs in a “much more powerful and obnoxious way”.

White House Interferes in Florida Attempt to Limit AI for Minors– www.dailysignal.com

pgnewser February 24, 2026 0

Blurb:

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The White House is engaging against a Florida bill that would establish limits on artificial intelligence, including protections for minors, sources familiar with the matter tell The Daily Signal.

The White House has contacted Florida Speaker of the House Daniel Perez and his staff members about opposing Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights, sources said.

So far, Perez has sent the bill through four committees in the House since its introduction early this year. Perez told reporters on Tuesday that he is skeptical that states should pass legislation on an issue where the federal government has “first dibs.”

Canada PM heads to Asia seeking new trade partners as US ties fray – www.channelnewsasia.com

pgnewser February 24, 2026 0

Blurb:

TORONTO: Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney heads to Asia this week seeking to broaden international trade, part of his plan to reduce Canadian reliance on the United States, which he says has left the country vulnerable.

Carney leaves Thursday (Feb 26) for India, the first stop on a three-country tour that includes Australia and Japan.

“In a more uncertain world, Canada is focused on what we can control,” Carney said in a statement announcing the trip.

“We are forging new partnerships abroad to create greater certainty, security and prosperity at home.”

Sam Altman Defends A.I. Energy Use With Human Comparison, Spark Debate– observer.com

pgnewser February 24, 2026 0

Blurb:

Sam Altman challenged critics of A.I.’s water and electricity consumption. Photo by John MacDougall/AFP via Getty Images

Sam Altman is pushing back on mounting criticism over the environmental toll of A.I. The OpenAI chief has dismissed claims about A.I.’s water consumption as “fake” and drawn comparisons between the electricity required to power A.I. systems and the energy it takes to develop human intelligence.

Figures suggesting that tools like ChatGPT consume multiple gallons of water per query are “totally insane” and have “no connection to reality,” Altman said in a Feb. 20 interview with The Indian Express on the sidelines of the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi. Last year, Altman claimed that ChatGPT uses 0.000085 gallons of water per query—roughly one-fifteenth of a teaspoon—though he did not explain how he calculated that figure.

A.I.’s water footprint largely stems from the need for evaporative cooling systems used to keep data center hardware from overheating. But Altman argued that companies like OpenAI are no longer directly managing such cooling processes. Many A.I. developers, he noted, are shifting toward cooling systems that recirculate liquid rather than continually drawing fresh supplies. Meanwhile, tech giants like Microsoft, Meta, Google and Amazon have pledged to replenish more water than they withdraw by 2030.

Researchers baked 3x inference speedups directly into LLM weights — without speculative decoding– venturebeat.com

pgnewser February 24, 2026 0

Blurb:

As agentic AI workflows multiply the cost and latency of long reasoning chains, a team from the University of Maryland, Lawrence Livermore National Labs, Columbia University and TogetherAI has found a way to bake 3x throughput gains directly into a model’s weights.

Unlike speculative decoding, which requires a separate drafting model, this approach requires no additional infrastructure — just a single special token added to the model’s existing architecture.

Amazon’s AI ‘Deleted and Recreated’ a Live AWS Environment – RedState– redstate.com

pgnewser February 24, 2026 0

Blurb:

Amazon Web Services suffered a 13-hour outage in December after its internal AI coding agent determined that the optimal solution to a problem was to wipe and rebuild an environment in production. This was not a cyberattack. It was not foreign interference. It was an AI system operating with operator-level permissions inside one of the most economically critical cloud platforms in the world.

“The people said the agentic tool, which can take autonomous actions on behalf of users, determined that the best course of action was to ‘delete and recreate the environment’.”

Delete and recreate the environment.

That command halted a live cloud service for half a day. AWS accounts for roughly 60 percent of Amazon’s operating profits and supports payroll systems, logistics networks, enterprise back ends, and consumer-facing applications used by millions. Its reliability is not a bonus feature. It is the product.

‘Biggest dilemma’ in homeland counter drone strategy is ‘how broad the threat exists’– www.washingtonexaminer.com

pgnewser February 23, 2026 0

Blurb:

The federal government, in conjunction with state and local governments, is desperately trying to catch up to the threat posed by drones, but needs to close the gap for U.S. defenses before it’s too late.

The sheer scope and scale of what’s needed is hard to quantify. Any public event, airport, airplane, military installation, or critical infrastructure could be targeted by a drone or drone swarms, and the U.S. needs to be prepared to not only stop the perceived threat, but do so in a way that avoids collateral damage.

“The biggest dilemma is just how broad the threat exists. And then how do you layer in solutions that can take into account how much just territory is required to be defended,” Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told the Washington Examiner. “What keeps me up at night is just the sheer magnitude of the problem that is required.”

Alan Dershowitz Says Trump Team Made ‘Wrong Argument’ In Tariff Case– dailycaller.com

pgnewser February 23, 2026 0

Blurb:

Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Friday on Newsmax that President Donald Trump’s legal team made the “wrong argument” defending Trump’s tariff authority.

The Supreme Court ruled 6–3 Friday that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize Trump to impose tariffs, holding that the statute’s phrase “regulate importation” does not include the distinct and extraordinary power to levy duties absent explicit congressional approval. Dershowitz appeared on “The Record with Greta Van Susteren.”

“I thought that the lawyers for Trump made the wrong argument to the Supreme Court, and I predicted they were going to lose based on their argument. Look, if you argue that it’s fundraising activity by Congress, of course you’re going to lose,” Dershowitz said. “This, the Article One of the Constitution, says that duties and taxes can be imposed only by Congress, and Congress can delegate that authority to the president.”

 

Trump Announces Increase In Global Tariff Rate, Vows Additional Moves– trendingpoliticsnews.com

pgnewser February 23, 2026 0

Blurb:

President Donald Trump announced Saturday an increase in the global tariff rate on imports from 10 percent to 15 percent. The change — which comes just a day after the administration was forced to restructure due to a controversial Supreme Court ruling — took effect immediately and applies to goods imported from most countries.

The announcement came one day after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6-3 ruling on in the consolidated cases Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump and Trump v. V.O.S. Selections, Inc. The Court held that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not authorize the president to impose tariffs.

EU demands ‘full clarity’ from Trump on tariffs — RT World News– www.rt.com

pgnewser February 23, 2026 0

Blurb:

The EU’s top executive body has urged US President Donald Trump not to impose new tariffs on the bloc’s goods and to clarify his position following the US Supreme Court ruling that struck down most of his earlier measures.

On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump had no authority to impose tariffs under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Trump responded by signing an order imposing a 10% global tariff through a different law and later said he would raise it to 15%. He denounced the justices who ruled against him as “a disgrace to the nation.”

US trade chief says no countries have said they will withdraw from tariff deals– www.channelnewsasia.com

pgnewser February 23, 2026 0

Blurb:

He told ABC that the USTR already had open investigations into Brazil and China, and expected to initiate investigations into areas such as industrial excess capacity, which would cover many countries in Asia, and unfair trading practices regarding rice, which is heavily subsidised by some countries.

Greer said he did not expect the ruling and subsequent change in tariffs to affect Trump’s planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the end of March.

“The purpose of this meeting with President Xi is not to fight about trade. It’s to maintain stability, make sure that the Chinese are holding up their end of our deal and buying American agricultural products and Boeings and other things,” Greer said. “I don’t see this really affecting that meeting.”

Trump unveils critical minerals, 2 other investment projects with Japan– japantoday.com

pgnewser February 18, 2026 0

Blurb:

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration said Tuesday that Japan will finance the production of synthetic diamonds and two energy projects worth about $36 billion as the initial tranche of investments under a deal reached last year following months of tariff negotiations.

Trump’s announcement that the three projects had been selected, as part of a $550 billion package that Japan committed to in exchange for his administration reducing tariffs on Japanese cars and other goods, was confirmed hours later by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

“These projects are so large, and could not be done without one very special word, TARIFFS,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “America is building again. America is producing again. And America is WINNING again.”

Thousands of executives aren’t seeing AI productivity boom, reminding economists of IT-era paradox– fortune.com

pgnewser February 18, 2026 0

Blurb:

 

In 1987, economist and Nobel laureate Robert Solow made a stark observation about the stalling evolution of the information age: Following the advent of transistors, microprocessors, integrated circuits, and memory chips of the 1960s, economists and companies expected these new technologies to disrupt workplaces and result in a surge of productivity. Instead, productivity growth slowed, dropping from 2.9% from 1948 to 1973, to 1.1% after 1973.