#geopolitics

#geopolitics

I still like European defence as a theme. The rearmament story is yet to really even begin and whilst we have seen a material rerating in several large defence names on the continent and in the UK, a selloff in the autumn on some fuzzy 'Ukraine peace deal hope' trade is overdone and fails to capture the long-term value in the sector.

Euisun Chung, the Executive Chairman at the Hyundai Motor Group, has sounded the alarm on what a difficult year 2026 could become for the car-making game. Not just for Hyundaialthough the South Korean automaker is likely at the top of his list of concernsbut for the entire global auto industry. Things have shifted. Free trade across to one of the brand's largest markets has become less about being free and more about being how well a country can negotiate tariffs for its various industries.

The story presented the Federationa fictional alliance of South American countries whose capital was Caracasas a military superpower that becomes the main enemy of the United States. At the time, this narrative choice sparked considerable controversy in Venezuela, where the newly elected president, Nicolas Maduro, considered that the game was associating his country with a global military threat and symbolically positioning it as an antagonist.

This growing idea that Trump thinks, and so does [Russian President] Putin and so does [Chinese President] Xi, that they should all have their spheres of influence and that other countries should not get involved and they should be able to essentially do what they think is the right thing to do, what they want to do in the interests of their country, in the countries in the surrounding area...

President Donald Trump has brought Americans into an undeclared, unprovoked, illegal, and unconstitutional war against a sovereign country, murdered its citizens, and kidnapped its leader in what Trump called a large scale strike against Venezuela and its President Nicolas Maduro. Why war? For what reason? Trump is pushing our country into war without any explanation. The Constitution requires Trump to go to Congress. Without congressional approval, Trump's actions violate U.S. law.

From Jeff Bezos commandeering Venice for his lavish wedding at a time of a growing backlash over inequality, to the spectacle of Donald Trump returning to office for a second term, the material was endless for cartoonists, though often difficult to navigate. The less surreal included violence against Palestinians in Gaza by Israel, the entrenchment of the Russia-Ukraine war, the threat AI posed to human creativity and the return of the far right across Europe and the US.

The velocity of change alone, says Constantine Alexandrakis, CEO of Russell Reynolds Associates, is unlike anything he has seen in his nearly twenty years at the executive recruitment firm. "Our clients are moving at a frenetic pace," he says. "Every company is driving transformation to either meet the moment or take advantage of it." The issues aren't new-trade, geopolitics, technology-but the intensity and overlap are. "The convergence of all these forces has made transformation ubiquitous and urgent," Alexandrakis says.

The United States and the Soviet Union signed numerous arms control treaties to limit the scope, danger, and expense of their competition. Future arms control treaties are possible but unlikely in the present tense geopolitical climate. Check out: 2 Dividend Legends To Hold Forever and Discover "The Next NVIDIA During the Cold War, the superpowers signed a number of arms control agreements that helped build trust and limit the scope of their competition.

Most managers of global companies came of age in an era where geopolitics did not have such a constraining role. These managers took for granted greater economic integration and strong institutional foundations that support it. They went to business school to learn about reading financial statements, analyzing investments, and selling to old and new customers. However, they had little-to-no training on navigating a world dominated by trade wars, national security concerns, shifts in the global balance of power, or technology decoupling.

There is a point during Tamara Stepanyan's My Armenian Phantoms when the documentary cuts to the final scene of the 1980 Soviet film, A Piece of Sky, in which the orphaned lead character, joyfully rides a horse and cart through the town that had long shunned him and the sex worker he married as social outcasts. A flock of birds are then framed gliding through the pristine blue sky above.

EUAU Summit Shows West now Taking Africa Quite Seriously

Well, if you can tell by his body language and the whole setup there, Trump gave him an out. Like, you know, Trump went and attacked that ABC reporter. MBS didn't have to say anything, he interrupted Trump, and he had a pre-canned answer that he wanted to get out there. There's no way he thought up and concocted that answer on the spot.

The European economy is somewhat different to the rest of the world. Europe is still struggling with an overall GDP recovery, much more susceptible to the uncertainty with their global trade. They are looking at 'geo-repatriation,' a portion of the digital sovereignty movement who is trying to get more technology from companies closer to home.

A survey of CIOs and tech leaders in Western Europe has found 61 percent want to increase their use of local cloud providers amid global geopolitical uncertainty. Around half (53 percent) said geopolitics would restrict their use of global providers in the future. Gartner surveyed 241 CIOs and IT leaders in Western Europe between May and July. It found that ongoing geopolitical tension was fueling concerns over digital sovereignty.

Softbank, the Japanese tech holding company run by legendary Masayoshi Son, sold 100% of its Nvidia Corp. ( NASDAQ: NVDA) shares, which yielded $5.8 billion. It is speculated that the money will be allocated to other tech investments, which Son may believe yield larger returns. Softbank holds equity positions in several artificial intelligence (AI) companies, led by OpenAI. It is also part of a huge U.S. AI infrastructure play known as Stargate.

Almost certainly woven for one of the Safavid kings, the 550-year-old textile retained a startling vibrancy; the leading artisans of the Islamic world had woven leaping birds and curling tendrils on 16 feet of rich red wool, dyed in pigments and carried thousands of miles across the Silk Road to the royal atelier in Qazvin, Northern Iran. And yet, it failed to make its reserve price,

Small, flat squares of silicon with maze-like patterns etched on their surface are now the backbone of pretty much every major industry. That means that trade barriers and disruptions in semiconductor production can have ripple effects across the world. That's exactly what's happening now, as a major European automotive chipmaker has found itself in the middle of a geopolitical firestorm between China and the West, which could upend car production.