Happy Thursday and welcome to your morning wrap of the latest political and business headlines.
We begin once again with the pending summit in Alaska later this week between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
President Trump has warned there will be “very severe consequences” if Putin does not agree to stop the war in Ukraine. He did not specify what the consequences might be. The comment came after Trump held a virtual meeting with European leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
At a joint press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz following the meeting, Zelensky said he was “very positive” after the call, the BBC reported.
Trump also said overnight that there was a good chance of a second meeting with Putin and Zelensky, which he believed will be more productive than the one scheduled for Friday (local time). "I would like to do it almost immediately, and we'll have a quick second meeting between President Putin and President Zelensky and myself, if they'd like to have me there," Trump told reporters in Washington.
Volodymyr Zelensky.
To Gaza, where there are conflicting reports over whether Israel is in talks to resettle Palestinians from the enclave to South Sudan.
The Associated Press reported the development early last night, citing six people familiar with the matter. It said it was unclear how far the talks had advanced. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he wants to realise Donald Trump’s vision of relocating much of Gaza’s population through “voluntary migration”. However, he did not make a specific reference to South Sudan.
Israel’s foreign ministry declined to comment on the report, and South Sudan’s foreign minister did not respond in time. However, Al Jazeera later reported that South Sudan denied holding talks with Israel about potential resettlement.
South Sudan “firmly refutes recent media reports claiming that the Government of the Republic of South Sudan is engaged in discussions with the State of Israel regarding the resettlement of Palestinian nationals from Gaza in South Sudan,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In business news, US authorities have secretly placed tracking devices in targeted shipments of advanced computer chips to see whether they’re being diverted to China, Reuters reported.
The measures aim to detect whether artificial intelligence chips are being sent to countries that are subject to strict US export restrictions.
The report, citing five sources involved in the AI server supply chain, said they were aware of trackers being used in shipments of servers from manufacturers such as Dell and Super Micro, which include chips from Nvidia and AMD.
Homeland Security and the FBI declined to comment, while the US Commerce Department did not respond to requests for comment.
To Europe, where many countries across the continent are grappling with heatwaves that have sparked wildfires from Portugal to the Balkans.
Greece’s third-largest city, Patras, which has a population of 200,000 and is located in the west of the country, is under threat. People have been forced to evacuate, including a children’s hospital, the BBC reported. Nearly 10,000 hectares have burned in the surrounding Achaia region in two days.
In Spain, a civilian and a volunteer firefighter were killed on Wednesday during the country’s tenth consecutive day of extreme heat, which peaked at 45 deg C.
In neighbouring Portugal, 1800 firefighters have been deployed to tackle five major blazes, while Albania’s defence minister called it a “critical week” for the eastern European country as 24 fires burned.
Turning to Wall Street, where Peter Thiel-backed crypto exchange Bullish surged 170% in its market debut, the Financial Times reported. Bullish priced its shares at US$37 and opened at US$90 on the New York Stock Exchange before rallying to US$102, following an IPO that raised US$1.1 billion.
The company’s strong debut comes as the price of Bitcoin has surged in recent months to record highs and has been propelled by Trump’s crypto-friendly policies.
Bullish, which is registered in the Cayman Islands, calls itself an “institutionally focused” exchange. It holds vast quantities of bitcoin and other stablecoins on its balance sheet.
Peter Thiel was an early investor in Bullish.
Staying on Wall Street, the main indices have continued to rise on expectations the Federal Reserve will cut rates at its next meeting.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.9%, the S&P 500 inched 0.2% higher, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.1%.
The gains come as recent inflation data aligned with investors’ expectations, solidifying the view that the Fed will cut rates.
Baird investment strategist Ross Mayfield also pointed out that the strong second-quarter earnings season in the US has been another market catalyst.
“This has been a really impressive earnings season, which showcases a kind of corporate resilience from all the headwinds that we saw across the summer,” he told CNBC.
