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FOCAL POINTS
Welcome to the latest issue of NEWS RaiVIEW — your guide to the forces shaping our world. This week, we track Trump’s fiscal brinkmanship in New York, a sudden shift in U.S. economic sentiment, breakthroughs and risks in AI, a generational tobacco ban in the Maldives, and an Antarctic glacier retreating faster than expected.
We don’t just report the headlines. We break down the trends, the power plays, and the real-world consequences from policy and markets to climate and global governance. Sharp, concise, and challenging assumptions, NEWS RaiVIEW delivers context few briefings offer.
If you find value here, share this issue using the link at the end. Let’s dive into the stories shaping the week.
David Eifion Williams
Editor & Founder
TOP STORY
AI Mega-Deals Prop Up Markets
Wall Street’s new dependency on AI funding exposes the uneven recovery.
AI investment wave mirrors the dot-com phase when capital chased code
Recent billion-dollar AI infrastructure deals have become the market’s main growth engine. They now account for a disproportionate share of total capital inflows.
Outside tech, sectors from retail to energy remain flat, suggesting the rally masks deeper stagnation. AI optimism may be doing the job that the stimulus once did.
Investors chasing AI returns risk clustering around a narrow set of assets, amplifying fragility. Concentrated enthusiasm can distort valuations beyond fundamentals.
The danger isn’t hype — it’s over-reliance. A tech-driven recovery without consumer momentum is like a jet flying on one engine.
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CLIMATE
Glacier retreat suggests rapid sea‑level rise
A small glacier on the Antarctic Peninsula has retreated at record speed, suggesting previously underestimated ice‑sheet mechanisms may soon trigger broader shifts.
Glacier lost ice at a far faster rate than anticipated
Satellite and field data show Hektoria Glacier on the eastern Antarctic Peninsula lost approximately 25 km of ice from January 2022 to March 2023, including an ~8 km retreat in just two months. The rate is nearly ten times faster than anything previously documented for a glacier resting on bedrock.
Researchers argue the rapid change was driven by the glacier moving onto a flat bedrock “ice plain” that enabled buoyant uplift and sudden calving into the ocean. The mechanism raises concern because many larger glaciers share similar under‑ice topography.
While some scientists caution the precise grounding line for Hektoria remains uncertain, the broader consensus is that the continent’s ice is far less stable than anticipated. If ice‑plain retreat becomes more common, sea‑level forecasts may be too conservative.
The discovery is both alarming and instructive. It shifts climate risk from slow‑motion to potentially abrupt. Ice retreat could reshape global coastlines and economies far faster than anticipated.
For policymakers and investors, the implications are stark: a glacier the size of a small city has demonstrated behavior once thought confined to ice shelves. If larger glaciers enter similar regimes, coastal planning, insurance models, and financial strategies must be urgently reassessed.
The event also complicates global decarbonization projections: faster ice loss means higher sea levels, accelerated migration pressures, and increased economic exposures for port cities worldwide. Timing of adaptation measures will be as critical as the scale of the response.
For those tracking climate, finance, or policy, it suggests that planning assumptions based on slow change may need updating promptly.
ECONOMICS
US Trade Deficit Is an ‘Economic Emergency’
A poll shows growing anxiety over America’s trade imbalance.
‘National crisis’ as the US trade deficit increases and tariffs continue
Nearly 47% of Americans now view the U.S. trade deficit as a national crisis. The opinion is shared across party lines, suggesting a broader form of economic patriotism is taking hold, driven less by ideology than by fear of national decline.
Policymakers could move toward a harder line on trade and subsidies as the 2026 cycle looms. Behind the statistics lies a deeper anxiety: Americans may be less divided on values than on who they believe is protecting the nation’s prosperity.
Economists warn that such sentiment can drive short-term populist policies over long-term fiscal reform. A deficit narrative tied to emotion rather than economics could unsettle markets.
What appears to be public frustration may become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Younger readers should note how perception now shapes the direction of economic strategy.
CORRUPTION, RACKETS & DUBIOUS FINANCE
Oil Majors Cash In on Russia–Ukraine War
Western oil giants are quietly profiting from the war they publicly condemn. ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, and TotalEnergies all reported surging profits after Ukraine’s latest strikes on Russian refineries triggered fresh supply shocks. Sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil have tightened the market—and the margins. Profits from refining operations among the four largest Western oil companies rose by 61% in the third quarter, contributing to a 20% overall increase in earnings.
Big Tech’s Brussels Blitz
Meta, Apple, and Microsoft are spending record sums to shape Europe’s digital rulebook. Total lobbying spend in Brussels hit €151 million this year—a 33% jump since 2023—as the EU rethinks how to regulate AI and data transfers, report two non-profit organizations. Nearly 900 full-time lobbyists now patrol the Belgian capital on tech payrolls. Big Tech companies have on average more than one lobby meeting per day with EU Commission officials,” the NGOs write.
Wall Street’s Quiet Credit Bubble
U.S. insurers are deepening exposure to the $2 trillion private-credit market—and regulators are starting to worry. UBS Chair Colm Kelleher warned this week of “systemic risk” as insurers chase yield in opaque, lightly regulated corners of finance. Kelleher said the insurance industry, especially in the US, was engaging in “ratings arbitrage” akin to what banks and other institutions did with subprime loans before the 2008 financial crisis.
POLITICS
Strategic Shifts and Tactical Engagements
The latest clash over urban budgets hints at a deeper power struggle.
Withholding federal funds from New York sparked immediate pushback
Donald Trump’s warning to withhold federal funds from New York sparked immediate pushback from state lawmakers. The dispute underscores how fiscal pressure is now a political weapon.
Local leaders argue the threat undermines constitutional norms separating executive authority from state budgets. Yet the political calculus appears designed to rally supporters outside the city.
Markets largely ignored the spat, but policy analysts warn it sets a precedent for executive overreach. Such moves test the limits of federal power in an already polarized system.
Beyond the drama, this is about control. If budgets become bargaining chips, governance turns transactional.
SOCIETY
Ban on Tobacco for Post‑2007 Generation
The Maldives has prohibited anyone born on or after January 1, 2007 from buying or using tobacco products, pioneering a new era of generational public‑health policy.
Maldives is first nation to implement such a blanket generational prohibition
The government of the Maldives on November 1 2025 enforced a law banning the sale, purchase or use of tobacco products for anyone born on or after January 1 , 2007. The move positions the Indian‑Ocean archipelago as the first nation to implement such a blanket generational prohibition.
Under the amendment to the Tobacco Control Act, the rule covers vapes and e‑cigarettes, with retailers required to check birthdates at point of sale. The challenge now lies in enforcement across the Maldives’s tourism‑driven economy and numerous island jurisdictions.
The government cites WHO data showing that more than 21 % of the population aged over 15 were daily smokers as of 2022, making tobacco a leading cause of non‑communicable disease in the country. The policy signals a shift from taxation and restrictions toward a generational “start‑fresh” approach.
The law goes beyond public health, drawing a sharp line between generations. By using a birth‑year cutoff, the Maldives is creating a new standard for how society manages risk and privilege around personal behavior.
🕵️ INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM
TechCrunch reported that a former executive of Trenchant, a division of defense contractor L3Harris that develops surveillance and hacking tools for Western governments, stole eight “zero‑day” software exploits and sold them to a Russian broker, potentially undermining Western national‑security defenses. Zero days are security flaws in software that are unknown to its maker and are extremely valuable to hack into a target’s devices.
Houston Chronicle uncovered that Sable Offshore, a Houston‑based oil company, is under internal investigation after leaked audio and messages show its CEO allegedly tipping a select group of investors, including golf star Phil Mickelson, on undisclosed filings days before public announcements.
OCCRP wrote that NGOs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are pursuing legal action against a U.S. company awarded a methane‑gas concession at Lake Kivu under a controversial “2022 auction”, alleging that the contract was awarded despite the company being legally inactive in Texas and with prior tax/tax‑filing issues.
THE WEEK TO NOV 4, 2025
Trending in the US
1️⃣ World Series Game 7 — 10M+ searches
Dodgers still can't believe what happened in all-time World Series Game 7.
2️⃣ Daylight savings 2025 — 5M+ searches
Why clocks 'fall back' for daylight saving time.
3️⃣ Cardinals vs Cowboys — 2M+ searches
Jacoby Brissett snaps Cardinals losing streak with 3-TD night.
NEWS THAT YOU PROBABLY MISSED
What the Media Buried
“History Repeating” in Darfur Massacre
The head of the Red Cross warned that following the fall of El Fasher to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan’s Darfur region, a wave of mass killings and humanitarian crisis is unfolding, with reports of civilians being executed, large‐scale displacement and aid access blocked.
Western Tech Flowed to Russia’s Arctic Submarine Network
Despite sanctions, Russian defense forces built a spy‑infrastructure in the Arctic using Western‑made components routed through shell companies. An international media investigation shows that Russia’s “Harmony” seabed sensor network in the Barents Sea was built using sonar systems, underwater drones and fibre‑optic cables acquired from U.S., European and Asian firms, via a Cyprus‑based front company, Mostrello Commercial Ltd., under the guise of civilian research. The mainstream media has largely overlooked this procurement chain.
Cambodian Cluster Munitions Tragedy
Human Rights Watch reported that a 10‑year‑old boy died after encountering an unexploded cluster munition in Cambodia’s Preah Vihear province, allegedly leftover from a July border skirmish with Thailand. The incident underscores the hidden human cost of small‑scale conflicts: unexploded ordnance continues to claim lives long after headlines fade. Regional arms flows and the use of cluster munitions remain largely under‑examined by mainstream media.
