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  CAPITAL ACCOUNT By Greg Ip Is AI’s 9% GDP Goal Plausible? Believers in the artificial- intelligence boom need to take a close look at this number: 9% of GDP. That is how much American businesses and consumers eventually have to spend per year on the services of companies like Anthropic and OpenAI to justify the sums being committed to the technology right now. Is it plausible that Americans will spend as much of their income on this one technology as they do on food? Roughly twice what the nation pays for all forms of energy or all computers and software? Seven times what consumers spend on phone, streaming, and internet services combined? You should be skeptical. Even the most transformative inventions run into the law of diminishing returns: each additional dollar a user spends yields less additional productivity than the last. That imposes a natural ceiling. The question, of course, is where that ceiling is. Whether or not you think 9% of GDP is right, you have to care, becaus...
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 The stupidity of Western ignorant students surpasses all understanding. Part of the problem is the utter indolence of governments to educate the young. Students urged to call off October 7 Palestine march Jessica Sharkey - Crime Correspondent Police have urged student groups planning a pro-Palestinian march on the third anniversary of the October 7 massacre to reschedule, warning of the distress it would cause to the Jewish community. Student groups plan to march on Wednesday from King’s College London and University College London to mark the anniversary of the attacks in which Hamas killed more than 1,200 civilians and took 251 hostages. The Metropolitan Police said they had been unable to find the organisers to ask them to “carefully consider” the effect the march would have. James Harman, deputy assistant commissioner, said nobody had been willing to take responsibility as the organiser. Police have also asked King’s College London, the London School of Economics, Soas Univers...
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  1/2 Unione fragile di Federico Fubini Su Bce, debiti sovrani e inflazione tira aria di tempesta perfetta La Francia e il rischio di contagio finanziario Al vertice Christine Lagarde, presidente della Bce. Il suo mandato scadrà il 31 ottobre del 2027 L a tempesta perfetta non è sempre la più alta per intensità, ma la più ampia per la varietà di ingredienti: finanziari, politici, geopolitici e di lotta nelle istituzioni. Se questo è il criterio, allora in molti nei mercati finanziari (e qualcuno nella Banca centrale europea) si staranno chiedendo se in questo momento ci siamo. E nessuno come Christine Lagarde, la presidente della Bce che appare ormai quasi in uscita, avrebbe mai voluto trovarsi qui. Non è tanto per l’inflazione di settembre in area euro, che ieri è uscita al 3,8%: più alto rispetto ad agosto e soprattutto anche rispetto alle attese degli analisti; né solo per il mercato del lavoro negli Stati Uniti che, salvo revisioni, il mese scorso sembra aver registrato una fre...
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  The Battle of Hormuz Is Turning Did you notice the sudden media realization that the oil export pressure is now working against Iran? New reports from tanker-tracking groups confirm what the Trump Administration has been saying: Adm. Brad Cooper and the forces of U.S. Central Command have turned around the battle of the Strait of Hormuz. Data from Kpler indicate that the sevenday average for oil clearing the Strait is 14.19 million barrels a day, approaching the prewar baseline of 17.13 million. Most of what’s missing are Iranian oil exports stopped by the U.S. blockade. The recent resumption of oil flowing through the Saudi bypass pipeline, followed by accelerating loadings at the port of Yanbu to transit the Red Sea, will unlock more exports. This is what progress looks like: Iran’s oil is blocked while the world’s oil increasingly gets through. The effect is to reduce pressure on the West and its Gulf allies while Iran must scrounge for money. The regime is rapidly running out...
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  A Front Line at the Border: How Russia Uses Migrants as Weapons Against Europe The scheme is part of Russia’s larger strategy for sowing discord in the West, if more subtle than other recent operations blamed on the Kremlin. Listen · 10:00 min A Latvian guard patrols the border with Belarus. Migrants have streamed into Latvia, many through considerable border defenses, cutting gaps in fencing or burrowing under it. Credit... Ints Kalnins/Reuters Oct. 2, 2026, 12:01 a.m. ET It seemed a small act of vandalism. A man was caught on a surveillance camera in August cutting through a border fence from Belarus into Latvia, where he bashed another such camera with a pole before fleeing back to where he had come from. Yet his crime was also emblematic of a broader security threat emanating from Belarus and its close ally Russia, Latvian officials, including the foreign minister, Baiba Braže, said in interviews in Riga. The Russian and Belarusian intelligence services are facilitating an el...
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  Big Tech out-lob bies European groups in Brus sels  US cor por a tions lever age their influ ence to push back against bloc’s over sight of industry  Financial Times UK 2 Oct 2026 LAURA DUBOIS — BRUSSELS CHRIS COOK — LONDON Addi tional report ing by Kana Inagaki in Lon don US Big Tech com pan ies have an out sized influ ence in Brus sels, spend ing more money and meet ing more often with EU poli cy makers than European com pan ies, accord ing to an FT ana lysis. Google, Apple and Amazon each have more meet ings with offi cials at the European par lia ment and European Com mis sion than any indi vidual European com pany, accord ing to an FT ana lysis of the EU’s trans par ency register and meet ing data bases for the two insti tu tions. Amer ican cor por a tions have used their influ ence in Brus sels to push back against the bloc’s digital rules, over which US Pres id ent Don ald Trump has threatened tar iffs in response to Europe seek ing “tech sov er eignty” to reduce...
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  The US is deploying seven additional warships to the Middle East carrying at least 9,000 troops, as President Donald Trump weighs resuming strikes on Iran after November’s midterm elections. The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and three accompanying destroyers left their port in San Diego earlier this week and are expected to arrive in the Middle East by the end of November, according to a US official. The USS Theodore Roosevelt could replace either of the aircraft carriers already stationed in the region — the USS George HW Bush and the USS George Washington — or join them. The USS Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group, which comprises an amphibious warship and two docking ships, was also travelling to the region, the official said. The ARG is also carrying the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Trump told Time magazine on Thursday that it was “possible” he could increase strikes after the midterms if a satisfactory deal was not reached with Tehran. Together, the ships are ca...
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