Global Pulse

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  • Asian shares mostly higher tracking Wall Street gains and oil stabilizes

    Asian shares mostly higher tracking Wall Street gains and oil stabilizes

    Global financial markets entered a new trading session Tuesday with broad upward momentum across most Asian equity benchmarks, driven by a positive close on Wall Street and a sharp rebound for South Korean technology and chip stocks that pulled back sharply in prior sessions amid a sector-wide sell-off.

    The recovery in Asian tech stocks comes against a months-long backdrop of soaring investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence-linked assets, which has lifted shares of top chipmakers across the region even as growing fears over a potential bubble in overvalued AI stocks have injected widespread volatility into global markets. South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index, which has emerged as a major beneficiary of the global AI boom due to the outsized role of domestic chip manufacturing giants like SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, advanced 1.3% on Tuesday to close at 8,504.43. The gain reversed much of the index’s recent losses: it fell 0.2% in the previous trading session and tumbled 5.8% the session before that, dragged down by the broad tech sell-off. On Monday, both Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix had unveiled aggressive long-term investment plans totaling more than $500 billion to expand South Korea’s domestic chip manufacturing and AI infrastructure. On Tuesday, Samsung shares rose 3.6% while SK Hynix gained 1% as investor confidence returned to the sector.

    Other major Asian indexes also posted solid gains on Tuesday. Japan’s Nikkei 225, another index that has seen strong tailwinds from the global AI boom, climbed 0.9% to 70,116.82. Leading Japanese chip equipment manufacturer Tokyo Electron jumped 4.3%, while SoftBank Group, the major investment holding firm with a stake in AI startup OpenAI, added 0.6%. Taiwan’s Taiex index surged 3.2% in Tuesday trading, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 recorded a modest uptick of less than 0.1% to settle at 8,825.80. Mainland China’s Shanghai Composite Index edged 0.2% higher to 4,080.42, though Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index bucked the regional upward trend to fall 0.8% to 22,836.39. India’s Sensex also posted a small loss of 0.1% for the session.

    In energy markets, oil prices stabilized near pre-conflict levels as geopolitical developments emerged around the four-month standoff between the U.S. and Iran. Both countries announced separately this week that they would send delegations to Qatar, though Iranian officials clarified that no formal bilateral talks with the U.S. had been finalized. Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil pricing, traded 0.2% lower at $73.73 per barrel on Tuesday, a level that remains close to the $72 per barrel price recorded before the outbreak of hostilities in late February. U.S. benchmark crude fell 0.4% to $70.49 per barrel, as traders continue to monitor diplomatic progress that could lead to a permanent end to the conflict and ease geopolitical risks to global energy supplies.

    U.S. stock futures edged higher in early trading, pointing to a potential continuation of gains from the prior session. On Monday, all three major Wall Street benchmarks recovered from earlier losses to close solidly higher, recouping some losses from a rare down week for U.S. equities. The broad benchmark S&P 500 gained 1.2% to end at 7,440.43, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.6% to 52,182.74, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.1% to 25,820.14. Major U.S. chip and AI stocks led the gains: Intel rose 2.7%, Micron Technology gained 1.1%, Nvidia added 1.3%, and Advanced Micro Devices climbed 3.4%.

    In currency markets, the U.S. dollar strengthened slightly against the Japanese yen, rising to 162.18 yen from 161.94 yen as the yen continued its recent weakening trend. The euro edged lower against the dollar, trading at $1.1399, down from $1.1422 in the prior session.

  • Methodology for AP/’FRONTLINE’ investigation into how US tech is abused for global scams

    Methodology for AP/’FRONTLINE’ investigation into how US tech is abused for global scams

    A landmark joint investigation by The Associated Press and PBS’s FRONTLINE has uncovered new details about the sprawling transnational cyberscam industry operating out of militia-controlled compounds in Myanmar, revealing that illegal fraud operations have quickly reorganized and expanded following a high-profile government crackdown last year.

    The inquiry drew on an unprecedented array of evidence to map scam activity across the country: tens of thousands of internal leaked documents, visual materials including photos and videos from scam centers, a joint analysis of abusive AI deployment with conflict analytics firm C4ADS, in-depth interviews with 58 scam survivors and 36 current and former scammers spanning 19 nations, and a comprehensive review of hundreds of thousands of device connections linked to four major scam compounds tied to U.S.-sanctioned entities.

    All device connection data analyzed in the probe was collected by anti-trafficking non-profit International Justice Mission, which obtained commercially available advertising technology data covering multiple periods between February 2025 and January 2026 before sharing it with AP. Each entry in the dataset includes a device’s exact geographic coordinates and assigned IP address. To cross-reference and validate the information, AP worked with fraud prevention firm Scamalytics to cross-check IP address allocations to internet service providers, prioritizing Scamalytics’ results in cases of conflicting or unclear data. The dataset was also augmented with layered risk assessments from multiple sources: open-source IP blacklists maintained by Firehol, IP2ProxyLite, IPSum, Spamhaus and X4Bnet Spambot, plus Scamalytics’ proprietary risk scoring system built on past fraud reports and independent analysis. Investigators stress that these scores signal potential risk, not definitive proof of intentional fraudulent activity on the part of service providers.

    The investigation carried several important limitations that researchers openly acknowledge. The dataset only captures devices with geolocation capabilities activated, meaning the total scope of internet infrastructure serving Myanmar’s scam compounds is far larger than recorded here. Cybersecurity firm Spur Intelligence Corporation reviewed the dataset and flagged confirmed cases of ad fraud, which AP removed from its analysis, though investigators note that undetected ad fraud may still be present in the remaining data. Commercial data alone also cannot draw definitive conclusions about the specific role any given telecommunications or internet service provider plays in supporting scam operations, even when patterns of traffic align with fraudulent activity. Providers can offer a range of digital services that scammers exploit, from basic internet connectivity and hosting for fake crypto exchange and counterfeit retail websites to allowing VPN and proxy use that hides scammers’ true physical locations, even as traffic routes through global internet infrastructure.

    All devices included in the core sample were geolocated to four major established scam compounds: Tai Chang, Deko Park, KK Park, and a newly established site near Hpakalu, Myanmar.

    According to U.S. and European sanction documentation, KK Park—one of the most notorious scam hubs along the Thai-Myanmar border—operates under the protection of the Karen Border Guard Force, also called the Karen National Army (KNA). The KNA is an ethnic Karen armed militia affiliated with Myanmar’s ruling national military. In May 2025, the U.S. Treasury formally designated the KNA as a transnational criminal organization, citing its central role in facilitating cyberscams that target U.S. citizens and its involvement in human trafficking. The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control confirmed the group provides security for KK Park and profits directly from illegal scam activity by leasing land to criminal syndicates running the fraud operations. In October 2025, Myanmar’s military junta carried out a widely publicized demolition campaign targeting KK Park, forcing scammers to disperse to other undeveloped scam sites across the country, including the new emerging compound near Hpakalu. International Justice Mission’s data confirms that multiple devices active at KK Park just days before the military raid were already operating from the Hpakalu site by January 2026, proving direct movement of scam operations to new locations after the crackdown.

    The other two established compounds, Deko Park and Tai Chang, are located in territory controlled by the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), another armed ethnic group. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned the DKBA in November 2025 for its proven role in supporting cyberscam centers, including the Tai Chang compound. Rescued human trafficking victims held at Tai Chang have documented widespread abuse, including torture and beatings carried out by DKBA soldiers guarding the compound.

    Beyond the four core compounds, AP verified satellite imagery of 25 new scam compounds across Myanmar that were identified by International Justice Mission. All of these new sites have been established or have expanded dramatically since the October 2025 crackdown on KK Park. AP analyzed a sample of device activity from these new sites between March 1 and June 1, 2026, provided by the anti-trafficking organization, and found that at least 13 of the new compounds rely on Starlink IP addresses for their internet connectivity. Investigators note this finding comes from a limited sample and may not capture all Starlink activity across the new sites.

    AP shared full detailed data on the location and timing of device connections with all companies identified in the investigation ahead of publication.

    This report is part of an ongoing collaborative project between The Associated Press and FRONTLINE that will include a full documentary release in the coming months. The Associated Press receives financial support from multiple private foundations, but maintains full editorial control over all investigative content. AP’s standards for partnership with philanthropic organizations, a full list of financial supporters, and funded coverage areas are available to the public on AP.org. Members of the public can share tips with AP’s global investigative team via email or the official AP tip portal.

  • Four days to make victims fall in love: How global scammers use US tech to fleece people

    Four days to make victims fall in love: How global scammers use US tech to fleece people

    A year-long joint investigation by The Associated Press and PBS FRONTLINE has uncovered a sprawling, industrialized global fraud ecosystem operating out of unregulated scam compounds in Myanmar, powered largely by widely available artificial intelligence models and digital infrastructure from major United States technology companies. The investigation, which draws on tens of thousands of leaked internal scam center records, satellite imagery, network data analysis, and interviews with more than 50 scam victims and 36 current and former scammers from 19 countries, details how American tech tools have enabled transnational criminal networks to scale fraud to unprecedented levels, bilking victims out of hundreds of billions of dollars annually while exploiting a lack of U.S. regulatory pressure to force action.

    One of the most chilling firsthand accounts of this system comes from Safeer Mohammed Koorimannil, a young Indian man who was trafficked into a U.S.-sanctioned Myanmar scam compound after being lured by a fake tourism job advertisement. Held against his will alongside hundreds of other trapped workers, Koorimannil was forced to impersonate a 28-year-old Singaporean woman named “Ella” to run romance scams, with a strict mandate: convince each target to fall in love within four days. On a typical work shift, he managed more than 100 active conversations across dozens of fake profiles simultaneously, while armed supervisors patrolled the rows of desks carrying electric batons to punish workers who failed to meet strict performance quotas. In just one month, Koorimannil and his team targeted roughly 50,000 potential victims across at least 17 countries, a scale of outreach that would have been impossible without AI-powered tools built on models from leading U.S. tech firms. Victims targeted in these schemes spanned every continent and walk of life: a widowed tailor in Kurdistan, a pastry chef in Turkey, a sheep farmer in Kyrgyzstan, active-duty soldiers in Iraq, a Russian engineer, a German building painter, an Argentine port officer, an Indonesian student, a Polish security guard, and a Georgian dairy farmer, among countless others. Records smuggled out of the compound by Koorimannil confirm the full scope of the operation.

    The investigation, conducted with analytical support from Washington-based global security nonprofit C4ADS, found that two popular scam management tools—Kongtian Intelligent Customer Acquisition (KT) and Global Social Traffic Navigation (007TG)—are built on top of leading U.S. AI models, primarily OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. These tools enable scammers to automate core parts of the fraud process: generating convincing, natural-sounding chat responses, creating fully realized fake profiles and backstories for scammers to impersonate, and providing real-time translation across more than 100 languages to target victims across the globe. The platforms also automatically track worker productivity, making it easier for scam bosses to identify and punish underperformers. Blockchain analysis conducted by crypto analytics firm TRM Labs for the investigation found that developers of these scam tools have earned tens of millions of dollars in illicit revenue, while the scammers who use them have raked in well over $75 million in victim payments in just over a year. A single crypto wallet linked to 007TG received more than $860,000 in payments from known scam networks between April 2024 and December 2025, according to the analysis.

    Trapped workers like Koorimannil face brutal violence for falling short of quotas. Photographs taken after one beating show his body covered in red, swollen lash marks, and he recalled that his hands would shake uncontrollably whenever supervisors approached his workstation. After months of captivity, Koorimannil and a friend paid a 500,000 Indian rupee (roughly $5,300) ransom per person to secure their release, escaping back to his home in southern India where he now shares his story to warn others.

    Beyond AI models, the investigation found that U.S. companies provide the foundational digital infrastructure that allows these scam operations to function at all. An analysis of 202,013 device connections from four major Myanmar scam compounds linked to U.S.-sanctioned entities, conducted with data from anti-trafficking nonprofit International Justice Mission, found that one in five connection signals from these sites are routed through U.S.-registered internet service providers and cloud hosts, including Cogent Communications, AT&T, DigitalOcean, and Oracle. No other non-regional country comes close to this volume of scam traffic.

    The investigation also confirmed that Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service, operated by SpaceX, has become the top internet provider in Myanmar, and remains the service of choice for scam compounds even after multiple publicized crackdowns and U.S. government pressure. Satellite imagery shows that at least 25 new large-scale scam compounds have been built in remote areas of Myanmar since a high-profile crackdown along the Thai border in fall 2025, and analysis of geolocated device data found that scammers at 13 of these new outposts were actively using Starlink IP addresses to connect to the internet between March and May 2026. After Starlink cut service to more than 2,500 terminals near scam compounds in October 2025, its market share dropped from 15% to 6.5%, but rebounded rapidly by the end of the year. Today, Starlink holds nearly 20% of Myanmar’s internet market, making it the country’s largest provider—despite the company’s public map claiming it does not offer service in Myanmar at all.

    Accounts from former scam workers lay bare the human cost of this unregulated access. Ebisa, an Ethiopian engineer who was trafficked to the Deko Park scam compound and forced to target wealthy older men, endured constant abuse for failing to meet impossible quotas. When he tried to escape, security guards beat him so severely he lost vision in one eye; he recently learned that the damage is irreversible. Another trafficked worker, Nigerian Obinna Okeadu, died after a brutal punishment beating for poor performance at Deko Park in 2025, according to accounts from his co-workers and family.

    For victims in the United States and around the world, the impact of these scams is life-altering. Chris Colocousis, a 60-something divorced man from Massachusetts, lost $400,000 of his life savings to a romance scam run out of Myanmar, after a scammer using the name “Eliza” built a fake relationship and convinced him to invest all his retirement savings into a fraudulent crypto platform. “You just feel like your whole world fell apart,” Colocousis said. “I’m thinking about all this time that I invested into reaching a point where I could retire at a certain age—and it’s just gone.”

    Cybersecurity and policy experts agree that while U.S. tech companies have the technical capacity to curb this abuse, they lack sufficient legal, regulatory, and financial incentives to take meaningful proactive action. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission estimates that consumer losses from global scams will reach nearly $200 billion in 2024, with most originating from Southeast Asian transnational criminal networks. “If there’s no disincentive to continuing this, if there’s no cost to actually facilitating scamming, then why would I spend a dollar to prevent scamming?” said Sascha Meinrath, Palmer Chair in Telecommunications at Penn State University. “This is the problem. It’s identifiable, it’s addressable—at least somewhat—but it costs something. And right now the cost of facilitating scamming is zero.”

    While the United Kingdom, European Union, Australia, and Singapore have already enacted new regulations that impose financial penalties on tech companies that fail to prevent scam abuse, U.S. policymakers have only relied on voluntary cooperation from tech firms to date. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia launched the Scam Center Strike Force in November 2025 to target transnational scam networks, and a four-day disruption operation in May 2026 worked with major tech firms to take down more than 1.4 million fraudulent accounts and seize illicit infrastructure. “We will not allow criminal organizations to weaponize our own infrastructure against us or devastate the life savings of hardworking families,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro told AP in a statement. “Our message is clear: we will find you, we will stop you, and we will protect the American people.”

    In responses to the investigation’s findings, major tech companies have acknowledged the issue and taken limited targeted action. OpenAI said it has robust proactive detection systems that identify 95% of scam abuse and remove 100,000 scam-linked accounts each month, and after reviewing AP’s data, the company banned three accounts linked to Myanmar scam networks. OpenAI also noted that its model is used three times more often to help users identify and avoid scams than it is abused by scammers, and has partnered with the Global Anti-Scam Alliance to launch a public scam detection resource at scam.org. Google said it is committed to responsible AI development and builds safety guardrails into Gemini to block scam-promoting content. Oracle said it is “diligently working with law enforcement” on the issue, while AT&T has implemented new policy changes to close a loophole that allowed scammers to hide their traffic by routing it through AT&T’s network identity. Finland-based UpCloud, which operates U.S.-based servers, launched an internal review after receiving AP’s findings and updated its risk assessment processes. Starlink declined to respond to detailed requests for comment, but has publicly stated it has “zero tolerance” for illegal use of its service and proactively disables terminals linked to criminal activity.

    Cybersecurity advocates argue that U.S. regulation needs to be updated to force proactive action, comparing the responsibility of tech companies to prevent scam abuse to the responsibility of water utilities to provide clean drinking water. “This has to be like clean water,” said Matthew Moynahan, CEO of cybersecurity firm GetReal Security. “Anything coming out of the tap for an end user, whether that tap is a PC, a browser somewhere, or your mobile phone, dirty water shouldn’t get to you. This is what this is.”

    As AI capabilities continue to advance, experts warn that fully automated scams run entirely by AI agents—with no human scammer required—are just over the horizon. “We’re moving towards a world where maybe you don’t need human scammers anymore,” said Ari Redbord, global head of policy at TRM Labs. “All you need is hundreds, thousands, millions of agentic agents who don’t need to sleep, don’t need to eat, who are 24/7 doing this.”

  • A bat flip, a shout of ‘Venezuela’ and tears for home as Red Sox 1B Willson Contreras plays on

    A bat flip, a shout of ‘Venezuela’ and tears for home as Red Sox 1B Willson Contreras plays on

    BOSTON — For Boston Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras, the weight of tragedy unfolding thousands of miles from the baseball diamond has hung heavy over him in recent days. Back in his native Venezuela, communities are still reeling from the aftermath of two powerful earthquakes that have claimed hundreds of lives, leaving countless others displaced and trapped amid crumbled infrastructure. That pain, Contreras says, is impossible to leave off the field.

    The pull to fly home and join relief efforts to support his fellow Venezuelans is a visceral, urgent feeling for the 34-year-old veteran, who was born in Puerto Cabello, a coastal city roughly three hours west of the nation’s capital Caracas. But with the Red Sox in the middle of a packed MLB regular season schedule, that immediate trip home was not a possibility. So on Monday night, when Boston took on the Washington Nationals, Contreras channeled his grief, love, and hope into the only way he knew how to honor his homeland.

    In a game that would end in a 6-3 Red Sox victory, Contreras connected with a pitch for a 421-foot three-run home run — his 18th long ball of the 2024 season. As he rounded the bases after the hit, he turned toward the Boston dugout and shouted a single, defiant word: “Venezuela.” After he crossed home plate and returned to the dugout, the emotion that had built up since the earthquakes struck last week boiled over, and Contreras broke down in tears, his anguish for a nation reeling from disaster on full display.

    Contreras did not hide his frustration with the slow pace of aid reaching vulnerable communities after the quakes, telling reporters post-game that reports of blocked aid shipments and struggling volunteers have made the pain even harder to bear from afar. “Everything that’s going on in Venezuela, it’s not easy to hide,” he said. “It’s not easy just to show up and play with everything that is going on in my country. It sucks seeing so many bad things going on in Venezuela. I don’t think we deserve all of this. We’re a good people. Good country. We are good people.”

    “I feel like I could be there helping people and I can’t do that,” he added. “And the homer just represents something that I pray to God for it to happen, because that’s the only thing I can do for Venezuela right now physically. And that’s why I was emotional.”

    Contreras’ night on the field ended earlier than expected, however. In the second inning, first base umpire Nic Lentz ejected him from the game after ruling Contreras had not checked his swing on a pitch from Miles Mikolas that resulted in a strikeout. Despite the early exit, the moment of his home run and raw display of emotion for his homeland remained the defining image of the night for the Red Sox and their fans.

  • ‘Left on your own’: Angry Venezuelans accuse government of negligence and apathy

    ‘Left on your own’: Angry Venezuelans accuse government of negligence and apathy

    A week after powerful twin earthquakes rocked Venezuela, leaving at least 1,700 people confirmed dead, grieving families across the hardest-hit coastal region of La Guaira are confronting overwhelming loss and growing fury over what they describe as a lethargic, inadequate official response to the national disaster. The disaster, labeled the “most brutal natural catastrophe” in the country’s modern history by interim President Delcy Rodríguez, has left hundreds more still missing, trapped beneath the concrete ruins of collapsed apartment blocks – and many fear critical delays in deploying rescue resources have turned a preventable tragedy into an even larger catastrophe.

    At the site of a fallen 12-story residential building along one of La Guaira’s busiest roads, the tense rhythm of a search operation unfolded on a recent afternoon: rescuers called out for total silence, ordering moving vehicles to halt, construction equipment to power down, and crowds of waiting family members to quiet their breathing. One rescuer pressed his ear to a narrow hole drilled through a thick concrete slab, while another held a flashlight into the void, straining for any faint sign of life from those trapped below. This quiet vigil ended quickly with no sounds detected, and heavy machinery roared back to life – a pattern repeated countless times across the disaster zone.

    Among the anxious relatives gathered on the roadside is Miguel Oscar Núñez, whose 34-year-old only son Angel lived in the collapsed building. As he huddles with other waiting families, his frustration with the authorities boils over. “My son, like hundreds of others, is trapped here,” he says. “We desperately need more official support to dig them out now. It’s bad enough that the earthquake hit, but what if he dies simply because the government failed to act?” I haven’t given up hope, but I’m broken. No parent should ever have to outlive their child.

    Kevin Montilla also lost his home in the collapse, and was away at work when the earthquake hit. His wife Luzmary and 16-year-old daughter Jhoerlyzmar remain unaccounted for. Montilla echoes widespread criticism of the official response, saying rescue operations launched far too late and moved at a glacial pace. In the critical first hours after the quake, he says, only local community members showed up to dig through debris. Police only arrived to survey the damage, not to help. “The government’s response has been frustrating and impotent,” Montilla says. Families waiting at the site insist that multiple critical days were lost before any large-scale official rescue effort even began. While the building, part of a government-owned housing complex, has attracted rescue teams from both Venezuela and neighboring Colombia, large swathes of La Guaira state have yet to see any search personnel at all.

    For single mother Deilisbeth Herreira, the agony of uncertainty is compounded by total abandonment by official rescuers. When the earthquakes struck, Herreira was at work, leaving her two young daughters – 12-year-old Greydelys and 13-year-old Graybelys – at home. She has traveled to the local hospital to cross-reference names on injury and fatality lists, still clinging to the faint hope that the girls were outside when the building fell and survived. But no rescuers and no heavy equipment have been sent to clear the rubble where her home once stood. “I have no help at all,” she says through tears. “It’s like you’re left all alone to find your own loved ones. My girls were quiet, studious kids. I just want them back, no matter what it takes.”

    Across La Guaira, the story is the same: residents say they have been utterly let down by state authorities. At the collapsed Bello Horizonte housing complex, where two high-rise apartment buildings slid into a jumbled mass of concrete along the coastal highway, family members and local volunteers have been leading search efforts themselves. Wearing dust masks and rubber gloves, they dig through broken concrete and twisted rebar with nothing but hand shovels and crowbars.

    William Rodrigues has been searching nonstop for his uncle, even as the putrid stench of decaying bodies hangs thick over the rubble. “We can’t just stand by when there’s still a chance people are alive down there,” he explains. “Help arrived way too late in most areas, and in some places, it’s still not here at all.” Though police have been posted near the complex, they have not taken part in any rescue work, locals say.

    Sixty-year-old Juan Avendo, whose own home across the road from Bello Horizonte was destroyed in the quake, describes how local residents launched their own rescue effort with nothing but their bare hands. “We could hear people screaming trapped under the rubble, so we started clawing through the debris with our own nails,” he says. Avendo and his nephew Enyer Musics managed to pull one injured woman alive from the wreckage: they heard her cries overnight, but couldn’t reach her in the dark. At dawn, they found her, passed her water, and worked for hours to dig her out.

    The first official Venezuelan rescue team, made up of firefighters, did not arrive at the Bello Horizonte site until Friday – nearly two full days after the earthquakes struck on Wednesday. Additional teams from El Salvador and the United States soon joined, but after pulling out a small number of additional survivors, the entire operation was called off on Sunday. Avendo estimates that hundreds of people remain buried under the debris of the collapsed complex, and many may never be recovered, leaving the full death toll of the disaster unknown to this day.

    Across the entire disaster zone, the gap between official rhetoric and on-the-ground action has left a community traumatized not just by the force of the earthquakes, but by the failure of their government to come to their aid when they needed it most.

  • India’s biggest share sales tell the story of a country glued to its phones

    India’s biggest share sales tell the story of a country glued to its phones

    India is gearing up for two of the most anticipated initial public offerings in its modern economic history, with Jio Platforms and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) both targeting listings before the end of 2026. Industry analysts describe the dual offerings as potentially transformative events that could redefine the trajectory of the country’s capital markets, reflecting a decade of sweeping structural change across how India lives, works, invests and consumes.

    The two firms submitted their draft IPO prospectuses within days of each other last month, kicking off the formal approval process for the listings. Reliance Industries, the conglomerate controlled by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, owns Jio Platforms, the digital and telecom arm that sparked a nationwide digital revolution after its 2016 launch. Jio is projected to raise approximately $4 billion through the offering, with a total estimated valuation ranging between $120 billion and $160 billion. For the NSE, the world’s largest derivatives exchange and one of the top three equity venues globally by trading volume, the IPO will sell a 6% equity stake to raise around $3.3 billion, valuing the exchange at $57 billion.

    Yatin Singh, chief executive officer of investment banking at Emkay Global, explained that the scale and significance of these offerings extend far beyond their sheer size. Even at their current valuations, the combined listings will lift India’s overall national market capitalization considerably, but their real meaning lies in what they represent: a tangible reflection of the massive shifts that have reshaped India’s economy over the past 10 years. “These are unique businesses which don’t get built often,” Singh noted. “NSE is a direct proxy of the ‘financialisation’ of Indian household savings into mutual funds and stocks, while Jio is the story of a company that single handedly ushered in a digital revolution, becoming a driving factor for several new-age Indian businesses.” He compared the potential impact of the listings to the landmark software company IPOs that reshaped Indian markets decades ago.

    Jio’s disruptive entry into India’s crowded telecom sector in 2016 redefined the entire industry overnight. Offering nearly free data to hundreds of millions of first-time internet users, it triggered a brutal price war that consolidated a fragmented market of 17 operators into a near-duopoly. Ten years ago, fewer than 200 million Indians had access to the internet; today, that figure is approaching 1 billion, with Jio alone claiming 525 million subscribers who use its network for everything from digital payments to online shopping and streaming entertainment. Thanks to Jio’s low-cost tariffs that democratized smartphone access, India is now the world’s largest consumer of mobile data, outpacing developed markets including the United States and China.

    This digital transformation has rewoven the fabric of daily economic life in India. Launched the same year as Jio, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) real-time payment system grew from processing near-zero transactions to 228 billion annual transactions by 2025, according to brokerage firm Zerodha. Between 2019 and 2026, paid subscribers to over-the-top streaming platforms rose 40%, and Kotak Bank research shows Indian households’ monthly mobile data bills have tripled – growing three times faster than rural wages – as consumers spend more time on video streaming and social media. Today, Jio is evolving beyond its core telecom roots, positioning itself as a homegrown digital and artificial infrastructure giant through strategic partnerships with global tech leaders Nvidia and Meta to build domestic data centers and large language models trained on Indian languages. Elara Securities notes the firm is now shifting from market share acquisition to active monetization, driven by gradual tariff increases, rising data consumption, and growth in higher-value postpaid plans – a trend that signals India’s consumer market is maturing rapidly.

    The NSE’s growth trajectory, meanwhile, tracks the explosion of retail investing that has swept India in recent years. When the pandemic locked millions of households at home, a wave of first-time mom-and-pop investors entered the stock market, fueled by the widespread availability of cheap mobile data and affordable smartphones. The total number of active online trading accounts surged from roughly 30 million before the pandemic to more than 200 million today. The NSE now serves as the core backbone of India’s $4.85 trillion stock market, which ranks as the fourth largest in the world by total capitalization. The exchange generates revenue from every trade executed on its platform, and has delivered consistently strong profits even as trading volumes fluctuate with market conditions. After years of delays caused by a series of governance hurdles, its upcoming IPO signals the maturing of India’s market infrastructure and the broadening of its investor base, according to Feroze Azeez of Anand Rathi Wealth Limited.

    Azeez summed up the broader significance of the dual listings, saying “Together, Jio and NSE represent the twin pillars of India’s new economy.” The simultaneous offerings are expected to expand India’s investable universe for global capital, giving foreign investors direct access to two sectors that are central to India’s long-term growth narrative. However, industry experts remain divided on whether the IPOs will be enough to reverse the recent outflow of foreign capital from Indian markets. Over the past year, Indian equities have been among the worst-performing major markets globally, as foreign investors pulled billions of dollars out of the country to chase higher interest rates in the U.S. and AI-focused investment opportunities elsewhere in Asia. A depreciating rupee has further eroded India’s appeal for overseas investors.

    Domestic investor confidence has also been shaken in recent years, after many small retail investors suffered losses on high-profile IPOs from major domestic firms including PayTM and Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). Dozens of other recent large IPOs are currently trading below their initial listing prices, leaving many households wary of new offerings. Analysts agree that the final success of the Jio and NSE IPOs will hinge entirely on their pricing. “Even high-quality businesses can deliver disappointing returns if they are issued at overly aggressive valuations,” Azeez noted.

  • China’s factory activity expands in June with boost from tech exports

    China’s factory activity expands in June with boost from tech exports

    HONG KONG – A closely-watched official economic survey released Tuesday has delivered an unexpected bright spot for China’s manufacturing sector, revealing that factory activity accelerated its expansion in June, fueled by strong global demand for artificial intelligence-related hardware that has pushed export volumes higher.

    Data published by China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows the official manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) – a key benchmark for measuring manufacturing sector health – rose to 50.2 in June, up from a flat 50 reading recorded in May. This outcome outpaced the consensus forecasts from a survey of economists, defying widespread market concerns that China’s post-pandemic economic recovery was losing traction.

    The PMI operates on a 0-100 scale, where any reading above the 50 threshold signals the sector is expanding, while a figure below 50 marks contraction. Breakdown of the survey’s sub-indexes offers further evidence of the sector’s improved performance: the new orders sub-index jumped to 51.2 in June, climbing from 49.9 in May, while the production sub-index also edged up to 51.4 from May’s 51.2 reading.

    In an official statement accompanying the data release, NBS chief statistician Huo Lihui noted that the June PMI results confirm a gradual warming of China’s overall economic climate. However, independent analysts have struck a more cautious tone, pointing out that the current growth rebound remains heavily concentrated in a narrow range of sectors.

    “China’s economy has regained some momentum lately. But this remains heavily dependent on exports and AI-related tech,” Julian Evans-Pritchard, head of China economics at global research firm Capital Economics, wrote in a client note published Tuesday. “External demand remains the main engine of growth for China’s manufacturing sector.”

    Economists have repeatedly flagged persistent weaknesses in domestic demand, rooted in a multi-year downturn in China’s key property sector that has left consumers more cautious about discretionary spending. Many argue that the current growth model driven by exports and AI investment is unbalanced, and additional policy intervention will be needed to put the recovery on a more sustainable footing.

    Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING Bank, emphasized that further targeted policy support from Beijing this year to stimulate domestic consumption and private investment would deliver meaningful benefits. Such measures, Song noted, could help China avoid the risks of relying on an increasingly lopsided growth pattern.

    Chinese policymakers have set a full-year economic growth target of 4.5% to 5% for 2024. At present, most economists project the country is on track to meet this goal, supported in large part by the ongoing surge in AI-related manufacturing exports that is propping up overall factory activity.

  • Khadijah Farrakhan, ‘First Lady’ of Nation of Islam, dies aged 90

    Khadijah Farrakhan, ‘First Lady’ of Nation of Islam, dies aged 90

    The Nation of Islam, one of the most influential Black religious and political movements in the United States, is mourning the passing of Khadijah Farrakhan, the long-time wife of the organization’s leader Louis Farrakhan. She died on June 27 at the age of 90, leaving behind a 70-plus-year legacy of service to the movement’s mission of Black self-reliance.

    Affectionately known to followers as “Mother Khadijah,” she was far more than the spouse of the Nation’s leader — she was a foundational figure in the movement’s modern history. A formal statement released by the Shura Executive Council confirmed her passing, writing, “The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan with deep sadness yet with profound gratitude to Allah informs you that his beloved wife of 72 years, the First Lady of the Nation of Islam, Mother Khadijah has returned to Allah (may Allah be pleased).” The Farrakhan family has long been based in Chicago, where the Nation of Islam’s historic headquarters, Mosque Maryam, stands on the city’s South Side.

    Born Betsy Ross, Khadijah married Louis Eugene Walcott — who would later become Louis Farrakhan — in Boston on September 12, 1953. Two years after their wedding, both she and her husband converted to Islam, after Louis was invited to join the movement by legendary civil rights and religious leader Malcolm X. Over the course of their 72-year marriage, the couple raised nine children together.

    A commanding, respected leader in her own right, Khadijah made her own mark on the movement’s public advocacy. In 1997, two years after Louis Farrakhan organized the landmark Million Man March in Washington D.C., she took the stage at the Million Woman March in Philadelphia to address a crowd of thousands of Black women. In her memorable address, she argued, “A nation can rise no higher than its women,” adding, “We focus on women but cannot lose sight that we must rise as a family – men, women and children.”

    To contextualize Khadijah Farrakhan’s decades-long contribution, it is necessary to trace the origins of the Nation of Islam itself. The movement was founded in 1930 by Wallace D Fard Muhammad, a traveling salesman who began preaching to Black communities in Detroit’s segregated neighborhoods. Fard Muhammad’s core mission was to “teach the downtrodden and defenseless Black people a thorough knowledge of God and of themselves,” blending Islamic teachings with a radical ethos of economic self-determination for Black Americans, and encouraging followers to cast off the names and cultural practices imposed during chattel slavery.

    After facing repeated arrests and death threats from Detroit police over his teachings, Fard Muhammad disappeared, and his protégé Elijah Muhammad took over leadership of the movement, relocating its headquarters to Chicago. Under Elijah Muhammad’s direction, the Nation of Islam grew from a small congregation meeting in a rented storefront into a robust, interconnected network of independent Black-led institutions, including schools, a national newspaper, farms, and local businesses. This autonomous economic infrastructure grew from a core conviction: that Black prosperity must be built and seized by the community, rather than begged from the U.S. establishment.

    The movement’s message of empowerment spread rapidly in the mid-20th century. Malcolm X joined the Nation in 1952, and his charismatic advocacy helped swell the movement’s membership to roughly 300,000 within a decade. When legendary boxer Muhammad Ali converted to the Nation of Islam in 1964, the movement gained global media attention and expanded its reach.

    After Elijah Muhammad’s death in 1975, his son Wallace led a major restructuring of the organization, aligning it with mainstream Sunni Islam and abandoning the Nation’s historic Black nationalist infrastructure. Louis Farrakhan rejected this shift, splitting from the restructured organization in 1977 to rebuild the Nation of Islam in Chicago and revive its core mission of Black economic self-determination. It was this reborn, unapologetically independent movement that Khadijah Farrakhan nurtured and supported for more than 45 years.

    In the days following her passing, memorial arrangements have been announced. Khadijah Farrakhan will lie in state on Wednesday and Thursday at Mosque Maryam, the Nation of Islam’s National Center in Chicago, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. A formal funeral service will be held at the same location on Friday at 11 a.m.

  • Inside Paraguay’s tears of joy over their seismic World Cup shock

    Inside Paraguay’s tears of joy over their seismic World Cup shock

    In one of the most stunning upsets in recent FIFA World Cup history, underdog Paraguay has eliminated four-time tournament winner Germany from the 2026 competition, securing a 4-3 penalty shootout victory after a 1-1 draw in regular and extra time in their round of 32 clash. The result was sealed when calm defender Jose Canale blasted the decisive winning penalty past Germany’s goalkeeper, moments after Germany’s David Tah missed his chance by firing over the crossbar.

    The final whistle sparked extraordinary scenes of celebration across the pitch and stands, as Paraguay’s players sprinted to embrace match-winner Canale before collapsing into a jubilant huddle — a moment that will forever be etched into the country’s football folklore. Generations of Paraguay fans hugged and cried inside the stadium, chants of “Vamos!” echoing through the concourse as disbelief turned to unbridled joy.

    Entering the tournament ranked 41st in the FIFA world rankings, 31 spots below Germany, the South American side pulled off what many are calling the biggest upset of this year’s World Cup. What makes the victory even more remarkable is Paraguay’s underdog journey to this point: during World Cup qualifying, the side averaged just 0.78 goals per game, the lowest joint tally of any qualifying team to reach the 2026 finals. This is also Germany’s first ever World Cup elimination via penalty shootout; the four-time champions had won their previous four shootout appearances at the tournament, with only one prior shootout defeat at a major tournament dating back to the 1976 Euro final.

    For the thousands of Paraguay supporters who traveled to support the team, the result is far more than just a win. Speaking to BBC Sport outside Boston Stadium, 16-year-old Paraguay fan, who attended the match with her family, summed up the national mood: “So many people doubted us. And we proved all of them wrong. We haven’t been to the World Cup since 2010 and I was born in 2010. This means so much to everyone. Not many people know what or who Paraguay is. Now everyone is going to know who Paraguay is!”

    Paraguay’s dogged, disciplined defensive performance laid the groundwork for the historic win. Despite Germany dominating possession for 90 minutes plus extra time, holding 75% of the ball, completing 719 passes to Paraguay’s 161, and registering 21 shots to the South Americans’ seven, the resilient underdogs held firm, absorbing wave after wave of German pressure. That pragmatic, resilient style of play is the hallmark of Argentine manager Gustavo Alfaro, who took charge of the national side just six games into the qualifying campaign, and guided them to only one defeat in 12 subsequent matches to secure their tournament spot.

    The penalty shootout delivered drama from start to finish. Germany, going first, never held the lead: their opening penalty from Kai Havertz was saved by Paraguay goalkeeper Orlando Gill, and a second stop from Nick Woltemade put the four-time champions on the brink of elimination. Though Paraguay missed two earlier chances to seal the win, substitute Canale held his nerve to slot home the decisive spot kick.

    Paraguay defender Gustavo Gomez spoke of the team’s pride after the final whistle: “I think what we are feeling right now is really hard to explain. I am really proud of my team-mates, of the team. We deserved one more game. Today was a game where we needed to show our true colours as the Paraguayan team. Germany knew it would be really hard for them. They knew we would fight not to be defeated. We dedicate this to all the people of Paraguay.”

    Pundits and football experts alike were quick to praise the magnitude of Paraguay’s victory. Former Scotland winger Pat Nevin, commentating on the match for BBC Radio 5 Live, said: “We watch football for the emotion, for the joy and for the special moments and we are seeing them down there. It is magical to see such joy. People in front of us are in tears. They cannot believe it. This must be one of the greatest results in Paraguayan football history.”

    Leading South American football analyst Tim Vickery highlighted the unique spirit that drove the underdog side to victory: “Paraguay love adversity. If you’re looking for someone to relate to in this World Cup, look for Paraguay. That grit and drive, when it gets difficult, that’s when they come alive. They’ve come through adversity to knock out a giant of European football. It’s not always pretty, they play within their limitations, but what drama, what a story. The objective in this tournament was to make Paraguay feel represented and they’ve done that in full.”

    Within hours of the final whistle, Paraguay president Santiago Pena announced a national public holiday for Tuesday 30 June to celebrate the historic achievement. This marks the second public holiday the president has declared for the team, after he announced one when Paraguay secured their World Cup qualification with a match to spare. In his official statement, Pena said the holiday would “commemorate the Paraguayan national team’s epic victory over four-time world champion Germany and its historic advancement to the World Cup round of 16.”

    Alfaro, the team’s head coach, echoed the national mood of celebration after the match: “I want all of Paraguay to enjoy this. We may have our defects, but we have a heart that never gives up, and that’s what keeps us alive.”

    Paraguay will next face the winner of the France vs Sweden round of 32 tie in Philadelphia this Saturday at 22:00 BST, with a spot in the World Cup quarter-finals up for grabs.

  • CPJ board member removed as it undertakes review of journalists killed in Gaza

    CPJ board member removed as it undertakes review of journalists killed in Gaza

    In a bombshell revelation shared on social media platform X Monday, Nika Soon-Shiong, publisher of independent outlet Drop Site News, announced she has been ousted from the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) — a move that comes directly after she publicly challenged the organization’s controversial decision to strip dozens of Palestinian journalists from its official count of media workers killed in Gaza.

    Soon-Shiong posted the announcement alongside the full text of the internal email she sent to fellow board members outlining her concerns, writing simply: “I have been informed that I’m no longer a member of the Committee to Protect Journalists board.”

    When contacted for comment by Middle East Eye, CPJ offered a vague response in an emailed statement, claiming only that Soon-Shiong’s five-year board term was not set to expire until June 2026, declining to address whether her removal was tied to the ongoing internal review of its Gaza casualty database that she opposed.

    The conflict stems from CPJ’s announcement last week that it would launch a full review of its Gaza casualty list, after the militant groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad published obituaries identifying 20 people previously listed by CPJ as journalists as combatants. Those 20 names were immediately removed from CPJ’s count, dropping its official total of journalists killed in Gaza to 209, far below the 270+ confirmed by the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate. The full review is expected to conclude next month.

    In her internal email, Soon-Shiong questioned the entire premise of the review, noting CPJ had failed to establish clear objectives, a defined scope of work, or a public assessment of the institutional risks of revisiting the fundamental question of who qualifies as a journalist for protection. At the core of her criticism is the organization’s decision to single out Palestinian journalists for removal based on affiliations, while applying a double standard to journalists with links to the Israeli military.

    Soon-Shiong explicitly tied the push for the review to a hit piece published May 27 by the right-wing U.S. outlet Washington Free Beacon by reporter Adam Kredo, who has a long track record of targeting pro-Palestinian and pro-Muslim voices. Kredo’s article attacked the CPJ board for what it claimed was widespread anti-Israel sentiment, calling out Soon-Shiong and Nobel Prize-winning Filipino journalist Maria Ressa by name as “virulent anti-Israel voices” for publicly labeling Israel’s military campaign in Gaza a genocide and comparing its actions to those of Nazi Germany. Soon-Shiong wrote that the proposal to exclude journalists based on “behaviors and activities” or affiliation with “state-backed propaganda outlets, militant- and designated terror-affiliated organizations” emerged directly from the criticisms Kredo leveled in that article.

    “Accusations of terrorism are widespread and politically motivated to discredit journalists and political opponents,” Soon-Shiong wrote in the email. “I appreciated the Board’s dismissal of the article… [but] because baseless accusations will become more common, not less, CPJ must strive to rise above the fray. Reopening the question of ‘who is a journalist’ carries profound implications for the individuals CPJ protects and for the organizations with which they are affiliated. It’s a betrayal to our colleagues in Gaza who have faced the deadliest conflict for journalists ever recorded.”

    Weeks before Soon-Shiong’s removal, prominent Palestinian journalist Mohammed el-Kurd, Palestine correspondent for *The Nation*, warned of CPJ’s plans in a post on X. Citing anonymous sources inside the organization, el-Kurd said CPJ planned to formally revise its definition of a journalist to exclude Palestinian and Lebanese journalists working for state-funded outlets — while explicitly allowing Israeli, American, and Ukrainian journalists employed by state-funded outlets or embedded with national militaries to keep their recognized status.

    For mainstream U.S. and Canadian media outlets, CPJ’s casualty count has long been the default source for the number of journalists killed in Gaza, with most outlets declining to cite local Palestinian organizations or the Gaza Health Ministry’s official totals. That reliance makes CPJ’s review all the more consequential for public understanding of the unprecedented danger Gaza journalists face.

    In her criticisms of the review, Soon-Shiong pushed back on the organization’s unequal application of its new standards, asking why only Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad affiliations were being targeted for scrutiny. She noted that Israeli forces have been widely accused of war crimes in Gaza, and multiple U.S. journalists working for major mainstream outlets employ reporters who serve in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

    “What should happen to outlets like The Atlantic, LA Times, or BBC where editors served in the IDF directly?” Soon-Shiong asked. “CPJ cannot credibly position itself as an objective judge of who is a legitimate journalist and what merits protection.”

    In its response to Middle East Eye, CPJ denied changing its longstanding methodology, which it says applies uniformly across all global conflict zones, and claimed it has not altered how it classifies journalists. “Our long-standing policy is to include journalists working for state-backed media and those working with media organizations affiliated with militant groups provided they are not engaging in combat or inciting violence in a manner likely to have imminent effect. This is consistent with international humanitarian law,” the organization said. “If we determine an individual was an active combatant or incited imminent violence then they would be removed from our list regardless of their outlet’s affiliation.”

    Soon-Shiong, who is the daughter of Los Angeles Times billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, joined the CPJ board in 2021 and took over leadership of Drop Site News last year. Founded by veteran investigative journalists Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim, Drop Site News has gained recognition for its in-depth, on-the-ground coverage of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and Palestinian politics that is largely missing from mainstream U.S. media, including rare wide-ranging interviews with Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials.