A vote to force President Donald Trump to pull back from the war in Iran failed to pass in the U.S. Senate Wednesday. The resolution faced plenty of hurdles and was largely symbolic, as Trump was almost certain to veto it. French President Emmanuel Macron has said that France will increase its number of nuclear warheads and promised more cooperation with European allies that have expressed interest. That’s “the most significant update to French nuclear deterrence policy in 30 years,” according to an analyst.

A prolonged conflict in the Middle East will dent India’s remittance flows enough to impact its economy. The Indian diaspora in the Gulf countries contributes nearly 38% to India’s total remittance inflows, according to a Citi report. Based on the inflows of $135.4 billion in the financial year 2025, the share of Gulf countries is $51.4 billion. To put it in perspective: India’s total trade surplus with the U.S. was $58.2 billion in 2025.

China on Thursday set its GDP growth target for 2026 at 4.5% to 5% — the lowest target on record going back to the early 1990s — according to a copy of the government work report seen by CNBC, as Beijing grapples with persistent deflationary pressures and trade tensions with the U.S. Defense spending will rise by 7%, the slowest increase since 2021, although analysts believe the official figures are understated.

Amazon’s Bahrain data center was targeted by Iran for supporting the U.S. military, state media Fars News Agency said Wednesday. The company’s cloud computing unit said Monday that one of its facilities in Bahrain was damaged due to a nearby drone strike on Sunday. Two data centers in the United Arab Emirates were also damaged after they were “directly struck” by drones.

A tech industry group expressed “concern” to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after a company was designated as a supply chain risk. The letter, written by the Information Technology Industry Council, did not name Anthropic, though the artificial intelligence company was given that label on Friday after failing to reach a deal with the Defense Department. Among the participating firms were Nvidia, Google, Anthropic, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon.

Broadcom reported earnings and revenue beat, and issued a strong forecast for the current period, as the chipmaker rides the artificial intelligence boom. The stock rose as much as 5% in extended trading Wednesday. “We have line of sight to achieve AI revenue from chips, just chips, in excess of $100 billion in 2027,” Broadcom CEO Hock Tan said on a conference call with analysts. “We have also secured the supply chain required to achieve this.”

The U.S. insists the Iran conflict won’t be a…

Through several name changes, adoption across Silicon Valley to Beijing, and mounting controversy, the open-source AI agent now known as “OpenClaw” has emerged as one of the most talked-about tools in the artificial intelligence space this year.

Previously called Clawdbot and Moltbot, the AI agent was launched just weeks ago by Austrian software developer Peter Steinberger.

Its sudden ascension, driven by its capabilities and social media attention, comes amid growing interest in AI agents that can autonomously complete tasks, make decisions, and take actions on behalf of users without constant human guidance.

Until recently, AI agents have failed to reach mainstream consciousness in the same way large language models did following the emergence of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but OpenClaw could signal a shift.

Not only do business leaders predict that AI agents like OpenClaw will improve productivity as personal assistants, but some believe they’ll soon be running entire companies on their own.

Media reports suggest that adoption first took off in Silicon Valley, where companies have invested billions in their AI agent ambitions.

But the agent has since spread to China, where major AI players are also embracing the tool. That includes cloud providers from Alibaba, Tencent, and…

The de minimis exemption, an obscure trade law provision that has simultaneously fueled and eroded businesses across the globe, officially came to an end on Friday following an executive order by President Donald Trump. 

For nearly a decade, shipments valued under $800 were allowed to enter the country virtually duty-free and with less oversight. Now, those shipments from the likes of Tapestry, Lululemon and just about any other retailer with an online presence will be tariffed and processed in the same way that larger packages are handled. 

In May, Trump ended the exemption for goods coming from China and Hong Kong, and on July 30 he expanded the rollback to all countries, calling it a “catastrophic loophole” that’s been used to evade tariffs and get “unsafe or below-market” products into the U.S. 

The de minimis exemption had previously been slated to end in July 2027 as part of sweeping legislation passed by Congress, but Trump’s executive order eliminated the provision much sooner, giving businesses, customs officials and postal services less time to prepare.

“The ending of that under-$800-per-person-per-day rule, from a global perspective, is about to probably cause a bit of pandemonium,” said Lynlee Brown, a partner in the global trade division at accounting firm EY. “There’s a financial implication, there’s an operational implication, and then there’s pure compliance, right? Like, these have all been informal entries. No one’s really looked at them.”

Already, the sudden change has snarled supply chains from France to Singapore and led post offices across the world to temporarily suspend shipments to the U.S. so they can ensure their systems are updated and able to comply with the new regulations. 

It’s forced businesses both large and small to rethink not just their supply chains, but their overall business models, because of the impact the change could have on their bottom lines – setting off a panic in boardrooms across the country, logistics experts said. 

“Obviously it’s a big change for operating models for companies, not just the Sheins and the Temus, but for companies that have historically had e-com and brick-and-mortar stores,” Brown said.

The change also means consumers, already are under pressure from persistent inflation and high interest rates, could now see even higher prices on a wide range of goods, from Colombian bathing suits to specialty ramen subscription boxes shipped straight from Japan. 

The end of de minimis could cost U.S. consumers at least $10.9 billion, or $136 per family, according to a 2025 paper by Pablo Fajgelbaum and Amit Khandelwal for the National Bureau of Economic Research. The research found low-income and minority consumers would feel the biggest impact as they rely more on the cheaper, imported purchases.