Morning Briefing — May 21, 2026

World News

Raúl Castro indicted by US over 1996 plane downing — US federal prosecutors announced criminal charges against the 94-year-old former Cuban president over the 1996 downing of two small planes flown by Miami exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Experts say Castro will be 'keeping his head down' amid questions about whether Washington plans to take him by force. CBC

Tehran warns of 'surprises' as Xi and Putin meet in Beijing — Iran's government issued fresh warnings to Washington after President Trump threatened renewed military action and gave Tehran 'two to three days' to strike a deal. The escalation comes as Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a summit in Beijing focused on economic cooperation and 'key international issues.' Al Jazeera

WHO chief warns over 'scale and speed' of Congo Ebola outbreak — The World Health Organization said the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has produced more than 500 suspected cases and over 130 suspected deaths, with only 30 cases confirmed so far. The WHO has declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern and warned a vaccine remains months away. NPR

Cuba says it has run out of oil amid US energy blockade — Cuba's government announced the island has exhausted its oil supplies after months of a US economic blockade aimed at forcing political change. The shortage threatens widespread power outages and deepens an already severe economic crisis. NPR

Bolivia's President Paz faces siege of La Paz amid protests — Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz is confronting a deepening political crisis as widespread protests and road blockades have left the political capital under siege less than six months into his term. Demonstrators have clashed with security forces in La Paz. NPR / AP

US threatened to revoke Palestinian visas over UN post bid — A leaked State Department memo shows Washington warned it would revoke Palestinian officials' visas if they pursued a senior United Nations position. The revelation has raised new concerns over US pressure tactics at multilateral institutions. NPR

Russian jets intercept UK aircraft, flying within 19 feet — Russian fighter jets intercepted a British military aircraft, with one jet reportedly flying as close as 19 feet from the British plane's nose. The incident has prompted concerns about escalating military encounters between NATO and Russia. CBS News

Business

EU and US strike deal to implement Turnberry tariff agreement — European Parliament and Council negotiators agreed late Tuesday to implement the controversial trade agreement signed last summer in Turnberry, Scotland, which eliminates duties on most US industrial goods entering Europe while raising US tariffs on EU goods up to 15%. The Commission can suspend the deal if Washington fails to lift steel and aluminium tariffs by the end of 2026. Euronews

Global stocks rally as AI trade returns and IPOs pile up — Global equities extended a rally as investors flocked back to artificial intelligence stocks and a clutch of upcoming IPOs kept tech-sector enthusiasm elevated. MSCI's Asia Pacific equity index rose 2.5%, with South Korea's Kospi surging more than 7% as regional tech names rallied as 'picks and shovels' of the AI buildout. Bloomberg

Nvidia tops Wall Street estimates with record Q1 revenue — Nvidia reported fiscal 2027 first-quarter earnings of $1.87 per share on revenue of $81.62 billion, beating Wall Street forecasts of $1.78 EPS on $79.2 billion. CEO Jensen Huang said 'demand has gone parabolic' as agentic AI arrives, and the company raised its dividend. Kiplinger

Record heat forces New England grid to burn oil for power — An unseasonable heat wave has pushed New England's electric grid to tap oil-fired generation to keep up with surging air conditioning demand. The episode highlights regional grid vulnerabilities as warming weather collides with constrained natural gas supplies. Bloomberg

TSX rallies more than 400 points; US markets follow higher — Canada's S&P/TSX composite jumped over 400 points on Wednesday, with US markets also moving higher amid renewed risk appetite. The rally came as Prime Minister Mark Carney laid out conditions for a potential new oil pipeline before talks with BC Premier David Eby. Business in Vancouver

Stellantis CEO courts investors with flurry of deals — Stellantis' chief executive is pursuing a series of partnerships and deals aimed at reassuring investors after a period of turbulence at the automaker. Meanwhile, KGHM, the EU's top copper miner, is eyeing takeovers amid surging demand for the metal driven by the global energy transition. Bloomberg

Hyperscaler capex revised up to $725 billion for 2026 — Analysts have lifted projections for combined 2026 capital spending by Big Tech hyperscalers to roughly $725 billion, while sovereign AI revenue tripled to over $30 billion in Nvidia's fiscal 2026. Analysts say Nvidia's Blackwell architecture is mid-ramp and Vera Rubin samples are already in customers' hands. Kiplinger

Technology

Google revamps iconic search bar for the AI era — Google is changing the design of its iconic search bar for the first time in more than 25 years as it pushes generative AI deeper into its core product. The redesign reflects how AI-powered answers are reshaping the way users interact with search. CBS News

Microsoft signs $9.7 billion AI infrastructure deal with IREN — Microsoft signed a $9.7 billion partnership with data-center operator IREN to gain expanded access to Nvidia chips and additional capacity for its Azure AI workloads. The deal also expands Microsoft's collaboration with Lambda as hyperscalers lock in long-term compute amid chip and power constraints. Tech Startups

Nvidia commits $90B across 145 companies in AI supply chain push — Nvidia has committed roughly $90 billion across deals and investments in 145 companies over 16 months, including AI developers, cloud providers and hardware suppliers. The strategy positions Nvidia as supplier, investor, customer and gatekeeper across the AI ecosystem, but has drawn comparisons to dot-com-era vendor financing. CNBC

Saudi Arabia's Humain taps Goldman Sachs for $5.3B data centre push — PIF-backed AI firm Humain has chosen Goldman Sachs to advise on financing a Saudi data-center project that could cost at least 20 billion riyals (~$5.33 billion). The project underscores the Gulf region's growing ambition to become a hyperscale AI compute hub, leveraging cheap energy and state capital. Tech Startups

Courts swamped by AI-powered DIY lawsuits — Courts in the US are being inundated with lawsuits drafted using consumer AI tools, as artificial intelligence has made it easier than ever to turn legal grievances into workable cases. The trend is straining court resources and raising questions about access to justice and legal quality. Bloomberg Businessweek

Google and Blackstone back AI cloud venture to challenge Nvidia — Google and Blackstone are funding a new AI cloud venture designed to expand the market for Google's custom Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), including an initial $5 billion investment from Blackstone and plans for 500 megawatts of data-center capacity in 2027. The move is a direct challenge to Nvidia's grip on AI infrastructure. Tech Startups

AI chatbots found leaking users' real phone numbers — Privacy concerns about generative AI are mounting after users discovered that chatbots have been sharing real phone numbers in their outputs. The revelations have intensified scrutiny over how AI systems are trained and how they handle personally identifiable information. CBS News

Renewable Energy

BloombergNEF: Solar to become world's largest source of electricity by 2032 — BloombergNEF's New Energy Outlook 2026 projects that solar will become the world's single largest source of electricity within six years, while storage capacity jumps 17-fold to 3.8 terawatts by 2050. The report finds that countries dependent on imported fossil fuels can materially reduce exposure to price shocks by scaling clean power and electrification. BloombergNEF

Wind and solar saved UK £1.7bn in gas imports since Iran war began — Carbon Brief analysis found wind and solar generated a record 21 TWh in Great Britain since the US and Israel attacked Iran in late February, avoiding the need to import roughly 34 tankers of LNG. The displaced gas imports would have cost the country around £1.7 billion at current market prices. Carbon Brief

China's clean-tech exports surge 70% year-on-year — China's exports of the 'new three' clean-energy technologies — solar cells and panels, EVs, and lithium-ion batteries — surged 70% year-on-year in March 2026, reaching $21.6 billion. The Iran war is one driver, prompting countries to emphasise non-fossil energy supplies, alongside a domestic policy deadline and falling silver prices that nearly doubled solar exports. Carbon Brief

Canada updates federal carbon price to match lower Alberta level — Ottawa has revised its federal carbon pricing backstop downward to align with Alberta's lower provincial level, in what the government described as a show of cooperation with the province. Critics say the move weakens Canada's carbon pricing framework and emissions trajectory. Bloomberg

Carney pitches reluctant BC on new oil pipeline to fuel Asia — Prime Minister Mark Carney is making the case to British Columbia Premier David Eby for a new oil pipeline to Pacific tidewater that would supply Asian markets. The proposal is a flashpoint between Ottawa and BC, where the provincial government and environmental groups have long opposed major new pipeline projects. Bloomberg

Britain's wind and solar beat fossil fuels for 15th straight month — Wind and solar generation in Great Britain has now exceeded fossil-fuel output for a record 15 months in a row, according to Carbon Brief. Since the Iran war began, wind and solar have generated roughly twice as much electricity as fossil fuels — a dramatic flip from a decade ago when fossil fuels generated four times more. Carbon Brief

Solar and wind plus storage now cheaper than fossil fuels round-the-clock — An International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) report concluded that solar and wind paired with battery storage are already delivering reliable, round-the-clock electricity at lower cost than fossil-fuel-dominated systems in a growing number of regions. The findings strengthen the economic case for accelerating clean-energy buildout. BusinessGreen via Carbon Brief

Soil Science

Potato wart detected in PEI soil samples, CFIA confirms — The Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed it has detected potato wart in soil samples collected from one potato field in Prince Edward Island. The detection raises fresh concerns for PEI's potato industry, which has previously faced trade restrictions due to the soil-borne fungal pathogen. Global News

Machine learning maps lead hotspots beneath farmland — Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences applied machine learning to soil chemistry data in the Czech Republic's Moravian-Silesian region, revealing spatial relationships between lead, zinc, iron and soil organic carbon. The approach offers a scalable alternative to costly traditional soil sampling for monitoring toxic metals in croplands. Newswise

Soil science reimagined: from farmland to the final frontier — A new framework published by Chinese Academy of Sciences researchers argues soil science must expand beyond agriculture to address carbon cycles, urban ecosystems, infrastructure safety and even space exploration. The authors say soils are no longer just the foundation of farming but key actors in global sustainability and resilience. Newswise

Strait of Hormuz closure cascades through global fertilizer and agrifood systems — The FAO warned that the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed as of May 18 — shut since February 28 — squeezing global energy and fertilizer supplies and rippling through agrifood systems worldwide. The agency is examining short-, medium- and long-term policy responses to the prolonged disruption. FAO

Alley-cropping agroforestry shows limited water-quality gains in temperate regions — A study published in SOIL found that while tree roots in temperate alley-cropping systems reduced nutrient leaching up to 7 metres deep, fertilisation in crop rows offset those gains. The result was no overall difference in dissolved organic carbon and nutrient leaching between agroforestry and open cropland. SOIL Journal

Improving soil health cuts locust damage in Senegal farmer trials — Scientists working with farmers in Senegal demonstrated that enriching soils with organic matter and improving overall soil health can dramatically reduce damage from locust swarms. The approach offers a low-cost, farmer-led tool to reduce vulnerability to outbreaks that threaten food supplies across the Sahel. ScienceDaily

FAO: Two-thirds of West Bank farming families need emergency aid — A new FAO survey found more than 72,000 farming and herding families in the West Bank — nearly two-thirds of all agricultural families — urgently require emergency agricultural assistance. The findings highlight how conflict and access restrictions have undermined soils, water access, and farming livelihoods. FAO

Chickpeas grown in simulated lunar regolith hint at off-Earth farming — Scientists successfully grew chickpeas in simulated moon soil by mixing lunar-like regolith with worm-produced compost and beneficial soil microbes, offering a step toward farming on the lunar surface. The research underscores how insights from terrestrial soil science underpin future space agriculture. ScienceDaily

Cover photo by Anna Keibalo on Unsplash.