AI Markets

Originally published May 1, 2026 for our monthly Issue of Mindful Intelligence Advisor.  Subscribe to get weekly issues.

Dates: 26-04-01 to 26-04-30

By STAFF

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

April 2026 was dominated by the Iran War and the continued breakneck development of AI and the institutions now forming around the technology.

The world continues to adjust itself to rapidly shifting dynamics of both AI’s development and the culmination of a century-plus “debate” between local national sovereignties and a global governance model, a debate muddled by the question of the role of ethnicity in that dynamic.

In the U.S., two competing nations, Conservative US and Progressive US, are becoming clearer to see, while America is still harder to see among the two and between them.

There have been no sudden downturns or upturns in the economy, which is still largely responding to the Iran War and AI development.

U.S. POLITICS

BACKGROUND:

1.1. 2026 ELECTIONS – A lot of major shifts in the GOP’s midterm prospects occurred this month, ending with the most recent, the SCOTUS ruling overthrowing race-based gerrymandering. It began with a major loss for the GOP, a Virginia referendum that promises to eliminate 4 GOP seats in the U.S. House. That election has yet to be certified, and there are serious doubts it will ever be certified.

President Trump’s executive order attempting to eliminate mass mailer elections may be more show than substance, though Red States have been moving to end mass mailer elections, as well as require Photo ID to vote.

While the Democrats were still celebrating their Virginia win, the GOP managed to hold the Marjorie Taylor Greene seat. Finally, SCOTUS delivered another victory for the GOP by approving a Texas redistricting map that eliminates 4 Democrat seats in the House.

1.2. CONSERVATIVE US – Two recent actions connected to FISA highlight the difference between Conservative US and America. The first action saw efforts by some members within the GOP to kill the Biden Vehicle Kill Switch mandate defeated by the top leadership of the GOP.

The second action saw the FISA courts challenging the use of a search spy tool by the government, only to see the Trump administration appeal their decision.

In previous reports, we’ve described this land as being occupied by three nations, Progressive US, Conservative US, and America. Within Conservative US and Progressive US there are still Americans who have not quite figured that out yet.

Here, with FISA, we see how conservatives consistently side with Law and Order over Dangerous Liberty when it comes to national security threats.

1.2. PROGRESSIVE FUNDING – While we at MIA are skeptical about the efficacy of the charges against the Southern Poverty Law Center by the DOJ, we have little doubt the organization is part of a network of progressive operations intended to use fear of the white devil to raise money and gain real market power.

Charges against the SPLC have at least gotten conservatives to look closer at the methodologies deployed by progressives to infiltrate institutions and win billions in contributions from the targeted corporations.

Unions are a part of that network, especially public-school teachers’ unions, which have become powerhouses in terms of boots on the ground action (from the teachers and their coopted children) and capital.

At least $1 billion in the last 10 years, that we know of, have been contributed by teachers’ unions to progressive organizations, including protest organizations.

1.3. TRUMP DEPORTATIONS – On the last day of the month, the U.S. House passed funding of the DHS, essentially ending the shutdown and allowing more robust deportation operations to pick back up (but nowhere near the peak levels of the first few months). This comes as over 1,000 TSA officers have quit during the DHS shutdown.

A 9^th circuit panel restored ICE’s right to use non-violent force to clear crowds before they turn violent, but by only a 2-1 vote. The majority offered an excoriating rebuttal of the District Judge.

An Appeals Court panel ruling struck down the Trump administration’s assertion it can hold immigrants indefinitely without bond hearings. The ruling was unanimous, and it included a Trump appointed Judge.

The panel wrote, “The government’s interpretation…would send a seismic shock through our immigration detention system and society, straining our already overcrowded detention infrastructure, incarcerating millions, separating families, and disrupting communities.”

The idea of holding an individual, even a non-citizen, indefinitely, without any attempt at a resolution of their case, seems on its face unconstitutional, and a dangerous precedent to want to set. This is another example of Conservative US, not America, in action.

Progressive states continue to pass legislation designed to punish ICE agents and protect illegal aliens. Tom Steyer, the Democrat’s Gubernatorial front runner in the California jungle primary, is promising to lock ICE officers up. California is also working to pass a law that would pay for legal fees for illegal aliens.

1.4. THE FIRST CASUALTIES? – Two high-profile Democrats have faced significant consequences, with one, James Comey, facing charges related to allegedly threating the President online, and the other, Eric Swalwell, losing his political career.

Comey’s charges seem hard to prove, even if we all understand the intent behind the message, “86 47” in the season of political violence we find ourselves in. If Comey is intended to appease the people without satisfying the people, the appeasement won’t work. Conservatives want convictions and prison cells with progressives locked in them.

Seeing Swalwell be abandoned so quickly by his party for accusations of sexual abuse that remain to be clearly proven suggests he was becoming a liability for far more reasons than the sexual abuse charges.

This is the man who had a Chinese Communist Party spy girlfriend. He is now out of the California Governor’s Race (where he was once a frontrunner) and out of congress altogether.

ASSESSMENT – The 2026 Election is looking more and more like an election no one wants to win, though surely, they do. While conservatives aren’t talking about the Epstein files with regularity, it’s not often far away from the conservation.

The growing skepticism with the Iran war, along with the still unresolved Epstein Files controversy is causing the GOP and Trump to lose support.

The courts have delivered some big wins for the GOP that have unleased a ripple effect which is sure to be the lead political story over the coming weeks and months. Progressive and conservative states are now scrambling to react to those rulings, especially the SCOTUS ruling ending race-based gerrymandering.

Progressives appear to have committed to the narrative that they can’t be the violent ones if they are using violence to stop violent people. They are escaping accusations they are responsible for the political violence by claiming their targets deserve it. Watch to see if Progressives start to use a new term to define their nation, a term that distinguishes them from America.

GEOPOLITICS

BACKGROUND – A quiet announcement by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the U.S. might reduce its military presence by 80% in Europe sets the backdrop for the geopolitical bellwethers we have identified for April 2026.

1.1. CHINA – China has been pushing a narrative many nations, especially in the West, want to hear, the U.S. World Order is crumbling and the world needs a new order. China is positioning itself to be the alternative to the U.S.

The fecklessness of its military hardware as used by Iran against U.S. forces might have an effect China has yet to see. For now, China is still seemingly making inroads into Europe through nations like Croatia. It is also competing healthily for influence in Africa in ways that are interfering with U.S. policy.

At home it faces fear of mass riots, a fear it is hoping to assuage with AI-led robot and drone riot control armies.

Iran has had a significant impact on its economy, and it continues to do so, yet the progressive media at home paints China as the winner in the Iran War so far.

1.2. IRAN WAR – An increasing number of nations are either coming out against the U.S. war with Iran, or claiming the U.S. is failing. Germany and the UK are two nations that have joined that list. The narrative that the dominance of the U.S. military is now over is proliferating in progressive corporate news not just domestically, but internationally as well.

The administration reaching out to car manufacturers for weapons manufacturing help has only strengthened the failing U.S. effort narrative.

The Russians, for the first time, perhaps emboldened by the corporate news narrative, are now staking their public reputation on protecting Iran from another massive U.S. assault. The Chinese have not joined them in that boldness, so far

With Iran’s Supreme Leader recently making comments that the U.S. is about to be destroyed in the Strait, Trump seems satisfied to mostly stay pat, for now, despite dipping approval numbers overall and on the war.

1.3. UKRAINE WAR – After a terrorist attack in Kyiv, President Zelensky of Ukraine has ordered personnel purges at the Ministry of International Affairs. The attacker opened fire on civilians in a supermarket, killing 8 and injuring 13 others. No one in the supermarket was allowed to carry a gun legally. There is talk of softening gun laws so terrorists can’t simply target unarmed populations.

Right before he lost his re-election bid, Prime Minister Orban of Hungary accused the Ukrainians of being essentially a money-laundering scheme for progressives in America. The Ukrainians would get the war funding and a certain amount would be siphoned off and sent back to the states to fund progressive organizations, including protest organizations.

1.4. UK – While Kier Starmer Watch has started, the Prime Minister of Britian has not yet resigned or hinted at resigning after it has been made clear he protected associates of Jeffrey Epstein that later became leading members of his government.

Yet even as he faces this pressure, he is yet attempting to maneuver to push Britain back into the EU without having a vote on it.

Their King came over to America and made a political speech challenging most of Trump’s important policies, including his deportation policy, his anti-DEI policies, and his war in Iran.

After another terrorist attack by an Islamist, this time targeting Jews, Restore Britian is becoming an increasing threat to the Conservative and Labour world order. Restore Britian is to America what no political party is to America today, a party that truly represents the nation from which multiple nations have sprung.

In Britian, there are the progressives of Britian, Labour, though the Greens are increasingly becoming the mantle-holders of that movement. There are the conservatives, who, like the conservatives in America, have a lot more Britishers within them than the progressives do, but they’re not quite truly “British” either.

They don’t stand for the same standards as the country that bore them.

Like the progressives of America, the progressives of the UK are very much anti-British in whole and in part, and like the progressives of America, they use the white devil trope as the primary means of creating moral-supremacist political power (backed up first by progressive corporations, including the media, and now by the government itself).

The fruit of progressivism in the UK is seeing shoplifting across the country hit record highs and the country’s birth rate going negative, meaning there are more deaths than births each year.

ASSESSMENT – The UK is becoming the bellwether of the progressive agenda, having aggressively pursued it more than any other western nation, including Canada (which is not far behind). Now, that ideology is coming to a head as its allies, namely the Islamists, appear ready to claim power under their own banners.

The response is the formation of a national party with a national interest serving specific indigenous ethnicities.

Nations of the world that have embraced progressivism, especially European ones, should be studying the results to come in the UK over the next two years. How the UK goes will largely indicate how Europe’s progressive nations go.

Does nationalism win without becoming fascistic or authoritarian in general? Do the Islamists remain the last faction standing? Or does the UK balkanize or descent into civil war?

Here, the battleground is largely built on the old-world order. In Iran, that war is increasingly becoming one that is both built on the new world order and creating it. On that front, the U.S. appears to have needed a pause, and the world has figured that out, which has emboldened its critics.

This strengthens China’s foreign presence as they look like an increasingly attractive alternative.

As we have said in a previous Sitrep, nations that cannot build impressive AI machines of their own must be useful to those that can. Germany is the only Western European country well-suited for AI machine development, though they are years away from reaching that potential.

CULTURE

BACKGROUND:

1.1. ABORTION – There have been a few victories this month for the pro-life camp and setbacks, but the biggest victory comes from the news that undercover reporters who exposed Planned Parenthood for selling deceased fetuses will no longer face charges which have loomed over them for years.

1.2. EUTHANASIA – After a U.S. citizen was euthanized by Spanish authorities, President Trump has questions. The person had been gang raped and soon after sought euthanasia. Signs she was second-guessing were ignored.

Euthanasia is spreading worldwide and gaining ground even here in the U.S. Wherever it is legalized, the fight to expand those eligible for suicide starts, and the expanders usually win.

Canada is leading the world in its embrace of euthanasia, with efforts to include children as eligible candidates now happening. They recently allowed a partially blind man to be euthanized. There is a pushback, which includes a bill that would halt the expansion for good. In Belgium, euthanasia is becoming big business. In Oregon, assisted suicides are increasing every year, with no end in sight.

1.3. WOKE – Red states continue to enact legislation designed to kill “woke” policies, while blue states seem to be doubling down on them.

SCOTUS appears to be afraid to address public school treatment of children claiming to be non-binary or transgendered, having rejected two challenges to schools that allow for stealth transitioning of the gender of students without parental knowledge or consent.

The Trump administration is also continuing to push policies that challenge any “Woke” policy such as DEI. RFK Jr. just announced hoe would replace the “woke” Obamacare panel determining what type of preventative care is covered.

Progressive judges seem to interpret wokeness as being rule of law rather than the constitution, with a recent ruling by another Federal district judge attempting to stop the Trump XO banning transgender surgery and chemical therapy for children.

Worldwide, “wokeness” is mostly advancing. In Canada, they are preparing to outlaw passages of the bible being publicly read because they condemn homosexuality.

The biggest blow to the woke cause was the indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which allegedly uses threats of market assassination to get funding for progressive organizations.

They also get to insert activists into corporations who can do more work transforming the company from within. This story is a strong contender for a near-future Deep Dive Report, should the charges have substantive evidence behind them.

ASSESSMENT – As we observed in our last SitRep, where Republicans rule, action continues to be taken to stop “woke” or socio-progressive policies, while where Democrats rule, they are accelerating their socio-progressive programs and becoming increasingly overtly hostile to opposition to it.

NOTE: Expect us to start using the term socio-progressive instead of “woke,” as the latter term is more difficult to pin down than the former, and the former more accurately describes the ideology.

Worldwide, euthanasia is advancing more than it’s retreating. Abortion in the U.S. is becoming mostly about taking a pill, not going to a clinic, which is sure to undermine Planned Parenthood’s alleged fetus-selling business.

There is no great movement against euthanasia in America today, and the public opinion polls on abortion have not significantly changed. Abortion continues to be one of the key centers of power for the progressives, who rely on this issue to capture and retain the white female vote.

MARKETS

BACKGROUND:

1.1. IRAN WAR – The war is having an increasingly negative effective on much of the world’s economies, though the U.S. stock market has yet to feel the pinch. Even if the war were to end today, the lingering economic impact of the war will last for months, if not years.

Europe is more impacted by the war than the U.S. is, with China also taking a heavy toll from the war.

1.2. TARIFFS – The tariff refund window has opened and corporations around the world are forming virtual lines, each hoping to collect millions. In the case of GM, they’re hoping for over $500 million from the refund window. The total refund amount is $166 billion, which is how much the tariff program collected before SCOTUS struck the tariffs down.

1.3. MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY – AI is fast on its way to becoming a utility as the number of users of AI continue to explode even as its popularity doesn’t. Opposition to Data Centers, for instance, is only growing, and politicians are picking up that scent.

Salesforce is claiming 1,000 new hires are the result of AI, reversing the overall trend of AI replacing human jobs.

Progressive media continues to take hits, with Disney announcing 1,000 more layoffs and Marvel announcing layoffs as well. The biggest announced layoffs come from Meta, which will cut 10% of its workforce, 8,000 jobs, starting this May.

ASSESSMENT – The U.S. economy continues to be trending mostly upward, with inflation holding steady, along with unemployment. What Americans are feeling, however, might not align with some of these numbers, as most Americans are employed in ways that might be replaceable by AI.

The world economy is restructuring itself, with the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz forcing alternative trade routes that might just survive the re-opening. Most of this reshuffle is being driven by preparation for and anticipation of the AI transformation everyone knows is already here.

The geopolitical fallout of the AI reality of power of nations has yet to emerge, and thus a new stable global market order is also going to have to wait until more is known about which nations have what kind of AI power.

The sheer capital need of AI development should create opportunities for flourishing for those paying attention to the industry.

SCI-TECH

BACKGROUND:

1.1. SUSTAINABLE FLOURISHING – Here are four bellwether discoveries from April 2026 that could advance sustainable flourishing for all (even if they were discovered by institutions antithetical to it):

Cryopreservation breakthrough could allow for freezing of transplant organs, extending the time dramatically available to deliver a donor organ to a patient in need.

Forest Waste to become high-performance bioplastics. The breakthrough could create an organic source for plastics which can easily be recycled.

Dirt will power our network of mini devices. Microbes in the soil will become fuel cells for low-power-requiring micro-devices that could be used in a variety of applications, including smart clothing.

Fuel Cell turns coal into electricity without burning it. This breakthrough could enable China to use a resource they have a lot of, coal, without polluting the atmosphere to do so. China is the number one coal producer in the world.

1.2. DEFENSE TECH – The Pentagon is seeking a record $1.5 trillion budget to pay for more ships, drones, AI development and integration, and even pay raises.

AI is becoming an increasingly dominant aspect of defense tech, with AI set to soon become the design leader, not fulfiller. AI will reshape the battlefield in ways that not even AI can currently predict.

The frontline of defense tech is AI integration and cheap drone hordes, along with cheap drone horde defense. Ukraine continues to be the frontline of drone development in the world, but the Iran War is teaching the U.S., and Iran, as well as observers, significant lessons as well. Yet those lessons might soon be moot after drone development starts to come from AI itself.

1.3. AI WATCH – We have mentioned AI creating 1,000 jobs in Salesforce. Now, AI has created the “Omniverse,” a place where you can test your whole manufacturing process in virtual environments that mimic the real close enough to make the results transferable to the material world. You can test your product from design to build to test, and cycle through until the design works.

The Americans have claimed they’ve created a computer chip that can survive temperatures as high as 1300 degrees Fahrenheit. The current chip max temperature tolerance is around 200, which is what makes data centers so water dependent. A chip such as this would significantly reduce the need for cooling, which is why data centers require so much water.

Thanks to AI, robots are becoming more high functioning, which can be seen in war. In the Ukraine War, the first ever military surrender of troops to robots was recorded when Russian troops surrendered to Ukrainian robots. China is now working on creating riot bots and drones in anticipation of mass protests.

The AI wars are only going to get hotter, with China signaling the way when it prevented an American company, Meta, from purchasing a Chinese AI agent company, Mantus. The U.S. has also ordered companies to stop sending certain chips to a Chinese chipmaker.

ASSESSMENT – Opportunities for sustainable flourishing technological development continue to happen on a near-daily basis. Yet opportunities for authoritarian technological development also continue to happen as well. AI is an aid to both.

The key technological developments we are looking for are ones that shrink the cost and resource demand of building and sustaining AI machines and their remote brains (data centers). We have little doubt breakthroughs like the computer chip that can sustain super-hot temperatures are on the way.

Be wary of building too big, too fast, for the next generation of AI machines and remote brains might be a lot less demanding, but every bit as powerful, as those massive AI machines.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

President Trump is settling in to being a professional politician leading Conservative US, not America. It seems like more Americans are realizing this. His support is not flagging because MAGA has changed their mind, it is flagging because Americans within his movement are starting to see his un-American tendencies.

While the Democrats are doubling down on their violent rhetoric, news of their demise seems hasty, as they continue to do well in the 2026 midterm polls.

The republicans are losing support from a base that sees them as what we at MIA see them as, the rear guard of the progressives, controlled opposition. Their passage of DHS funding will help offset that trend.

We continue to wait for an American movement similar to Restore Britain in the UK, sans the ethnic element. Britian is a nation-state, an ethnic-based state, while America is not. An American party would put Americans first, but that would not be race-dependent, it would be citizen-dependent.

As humans begin to adjust to an AI reality, they are also seeing the culmination of two radically different approaches to human organizing, the ethnic-based nation state versus the global state.

The progressives support the end of local sovereignties and the creation of a global sovereignty, where most of human history has followed more ethnic-based states. Even empires, more often than not, had a ruling ethnicity (like the Persians over their Empire).

Islamists are aligned with a global state, though theirs is a caliphate. This is one of the many reasons Islamists and Progressives are natural early allies. The more they both face beliefs that create local and individual sovereignty, the more likely they will form alliances.

Nations have been torn apart by the progressives’ attempts to reform landscapes ethnically so a global structure could more easily emerge. By inserting foreigners into localities, they hoped to destroy the local sense of sovereignty. They certainly hoped to do this at the national scale as well.

Now, the battle has come to a head, and we are about to find out how it might all play out, and the UK might just be the first nation to clearly show the results.