The Daily Digest

Markets are going absolutely vertical today — the S&P 500 is up over 12%, the Nasdaq nearly 18%, and Bitcoin has surged past $75K — driven by a dramatic de-escalation in US-Iran tensions that's sent risk assets into a full-blown relief rally. Meanwhile, Australia is navigating its own fuel crisis, with Penny Wong flying to Beijing to secure jet fuel supplies and the Albanese government under pressure on gas export taxes. It's a lot. Let's get into it.

What Matters Today

• US-Iran war bill hits $25 billion — Pete Hegseth pushed back in Congress against claims the Iran conflict is a "quagmire," but the price tag is real and climbing. Trump also rejected Iran's latest peace offer, keeping the naval blockade in place — though markets are clearly pricing in eventual resolution. Guardian AU
• Penny Wong scores jet fuel pledge from China — In a genuinely significant diplomatic win, Australia's Foreign Minister secured a commitment from Beijing to facilitate jet fuel exports to ease Australia's supply crunch. The fuel crisis is now a full-blown cost-of-living issue, and Albanese is copping heat from all sides. Guardian AU
• Albanese rules out gas export tax on existing contracts — Despite polling showing most Australians want higher taxes on gas exports, the PM has drawn a line. It's a politically awkward position that's energising critics on both the left and right heading into budget season. r/australia
• Australia moves to tax Meta, Google and TikTok for newsrooms — Canberra is pushing ahead with a digital platforms levy to fund local journalism. It's a global first of sorts and expect the tech giants to push back hard — again. r/worldnews
• Iran's Revolutionary Guards seize wartime power — The IRGC appears to be consolidating control as the Supreme Leader's authority is blunted by the conflict. This is a structural shift in Iranian politics worth watching — a cornered military establishment with nukes on the table is a different threat calculus entirely. r/worldnews
• Russia strips tanks and missiles from Victory Day parade — For the first time since 2007, Putin's WWII showcase will roll without hardware — officially blaming Ukrainian drone threats. It's a remarkably public symbol of military attrition. BBC World
• Australia's meth use has doubled in a decade — Wastewater monitoring data from the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission paints a grim picture, with cocaine also at record highs. A quiet but important domestic story. Guardian AU

Markets

Everything is ripping. The S&P 500 (+12%) and Nasdaq (+17.8%) are posting historic single-day moves as markets reprice an Iran de-escalation scenario — oil briefly touched $120 before pulling back, and that relief is flowing through to equities hard. The ASX 200 is up a solid 2% in what looks like a lagged catch-up trade, and the AUD has surged to 0.712 against the USD (+3.35%), reflecting both risk-on sentiment and the jet fuel diplomacy with China. Bitcoin is back above $75K (+14.6%) and Ethereum is up nearly 13% — crypto is doing its usual thing of amplifying macro risk swings. Gold is up modestly (+0.65% to $4,555) which is interesting — it's not selling off hard despite the risk-on move, suggesting some residual geopolitical hedging remains.

Worth a Read

• AI is currently more expensive than the humans it's replacing — A senior Nvidia exec has said the quiet part out loud: compute costs dwarf labour costs right now. The r/technology thread (1,500+ comments) is a fascinating read on whether the economics of AI ever actually pencil out for most businesses.
• Snap's Evan Spiegel warns of an AI backlash — Spiegel thinks tech leaders are sleepwalking into a public relations catastrophe. Given the OpenAI school shooter lawsuit news dropping on the same day, the timing is pointed. Worth reading alongside the Meta staff venting about layoffs and AI on Blind.
• China's iron battery hits 99.4% efficiency over 6,000 cycles — This is a quietly huge energy storage story. If this scales, it's a game changer for grid storage and renewable baseload — especially relevant given Australia's record energy demand from data centres and heatwaves.
• Ghostty terminal emulator is leaving GitHub — Worth a look if you're in the dev world. The reasoning touches on open source governance and platform dependency in ways that will resonate broadly in 2026's increasingly fragmented dev tooling landscape.