The Daily Digest

Trump landed in Beijing with smiles and fanfare — but the real story is what happened to global markets while he was there. A US-China summit has ignited a massive risk-on rally across equities and crypto, with the Nasdaq posting its best single-day performance in years, while the ASX sat out the party nursing its own wounds.

What Matters Today

• Trump meets Xi in Beijing — The summit is framed around avoiding the "Thucydides Trap" of great-power conflict, and markets loved the optics. Whether substance follows the smiles is the real question. BBC World
• Labor's budget breaks on negative gearing and CGT — Chalmers has torn up a long-standing promise, moving to wind back negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions. Bold or reckless? Generational shift or political grenade? The debate is just warming up. Guardian AU
• Coles busted for fake "Down Down" discounts — A Federal Court judge has ruled Coles misled shoppers with discount tickets that weren't genuine bargains at all. A record fine is now looming, and Woolworths is defending a similar case. Every Australian shopper has been vindicated in their suspicions. SBS News
• Russia's 30-hour drone and missile barrage on Ukraine — Over 1,600 drones and missiles were launched, killing at least 12 in Kyiv including children. Meanwhile, the US Army abruptly cancelled deployment of 4,000 soldiers to Poland. Rubio's claim that Ukraine now has Europe's strongest military feels grimly ironic. r/worldnews
• Princeton scraps its 133-year-old honour code because of AI — One of America's most prestigious universities is bringing back supervised exams for the first time since 1893. If Princeton can't hold the line on academic integrity, nobody can. Grades inflating everywhere since ChatGPT launched isn't a coincidence. r/technology
• AI data centres less popular than nuclear plants — seriously — A viral survey finds communities would rather have a nuclear reactor next door than an AI data centre. Power draw, water use, noise, and local grid strain are turning public sentiment against hyperscaler infrastructure fast. r/technology
• Cuba completely out of fuel — Rolling blackouts, rare street protests in Havana, and an energy minister publicly begging anyone to sell them diesel. The US embargo is being blamed, but decades of mismanagement have compounded the crisis into something genuinely dire. BBC World

Markets

The US-China summit lit a rocket under global equities — the S&P 500 surged 7.66% and the Nasdaq exploded 12.67%, one of its biggest single-day moves in recent memory, on trade-war de-escalation hopes. The Nikkei jumped 8.25% riding the same wave, while the ASX bucked the trend with a sharp 3.68% drop, likely reflecting local budget uncertainty and the Coles ruling hitting consumer staples. The AUD caught a bid, climbing to 0.722 on improved risk appetite and a softer USD. Bitcoin surged nearly 10% to around $81K — classic risk-on behaviour — while gold sold off 3.5% as safe-haven demand evaporated. Worth watching: whether this rally has legs once the summit communiqué details actually land.

Worth a Read

• The AI Layoff Bill Is Coming Due, And CTOs Are Going To Pay It Twice — Companies that cut engineers to "save costs via AI" are reportedly discovering the hidden bill: rebuilding institutional knowledge, rehiring at higher rates, and dealing with projects that quietly fell apart. Genuinely useful read if you're navigating AI strategy at work. r/technology
• Louis Rossmann dares Bambu Lab to sue him over banned 3D printer firmware — The right-to-repair movement is having a moment. Rossmann is hosting a banned firmware fork and openly taunting a billion-dollar company to take him to court. Other creators and Snapmaker are rallying behind the dev. A fascinating test case for who owns the device you bought. r/technology
• How Private Equity Quietly Bought Your Doctor, Your Vet, and Your Dentist — A deep dive into why your GP, dentist, and vet are all worse and more expensive than they used to be. Highly relevant for Australia as PE-backed healthcare consolidation accelerates here too. r/economics
• What technology are people seriously underestimating right now? — Over 1,100 comments from a generally thoughtful crowd. Solid signal-to-noise ratio for a Futurology thread. Good weekend reading for anyone who wants a temperature check on where technologists think the next inflection points are hiding. r/Futurology