Guacaccino? Starbucks Explores Chipotle Takeover In Potential Record QSR Mega-Deal

Rogue AI "Regulation" - A Potential Worst Case Scenario Authored by Kit Knightly via OffGuardian, We're now several weeks into our new global fear narrative - "Rogue AI is going to kill us all". The problem is stated, the reaction stage-managed, and we're heading for the "solution", which will inevitably be some kind of "regulation". They have been diligently vague about what this "regulation" might entail, and that means only one of two things - either they don't really know yet and are keeping their options open, or they know it will be so...

China Loads Up On US Chip Tools Via Southeast Asia Amid Supply Chain Shift China's imports of chipmaking equipment from Malaysia and Singapore rose sharply in 2025 to surpass those from the US, which sank to an eight-year low, an analysis by Nikkei Asia has found - even as American companies remain a vital source of advanced tools for the country. While the Netherlands and Japan remain China's primary foreign sources of critical semiconductor manufacturing machines by shipment origin, imports from the two Southeast Asian countries reached record levels: $5.7 billion...

As Stocks Hit Record Highs, Americans' Consumer Confidence Collapses To Record Low With the "mini war" still ongoing (albeit with a 'ceasefire' in place), expectations were for UMich consumer sentiment to continue languishing at record lows in final May data released this morning. And it did, with the headline sentiment - along with both Current Conditions and Expectations - all plunging to record lows... Source: Bloomberg Yep... Americans have never been more miserable... Black Friday, meh; 9/11, nothingburger; GFC, fleshwound... “The cost of living continues to be a first-order concern, with 57% of consumers spontaneously...