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The Economist is raising a pointed question this week: why can't the world's richest nation reliably defend its own critical infrastructure? The piece examines the structural and political failures that leave power grids, water systems, and communications networks persistently vulnerable despite years of warnings and billions in spending.
Shifting to markets, some eyebrow-raising trading activity has surfaced around former President Trump's recent comments about the crypto platform Hyperliquid. Call-buying surged in a pattern that analysts say is difficult to explain as coincidence, reigniting long-running debates about whether political commentary and financial markets have become dangerously entangled.
And in a story that captures just how quickly the defense technology landscape is shifting, Rakuten — yes, the Japanese ecommerce giant — has announced a partnership with German defense AI startup Helsing to bring military strike drones into Japan. With Tokyo's defense budget expanding rapidly, the deal signals that the line between commercial tech and weapons development is growing thinner by the year.
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