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Original reporting by Pulse, synthesizing breaking news from multiple sources with AI-powered analysis. Each story combines insights from leading publishers, expert commentary, and real-time data.
In the United States, gasoline prices jumped sharply over the past 24 hours, a development reported by BBC Business that is intensifying political pressure on the Biden administration. The surge comes as consumers face higher fuel costs and lawmakers question the government’s response to rising inflation. The rapid price increase was noted in a domestic market report released on March 18, 2026.
On March 16‑17, 2026, the intensifying Iran‑Israel war shut down the Strait of Hormuz, trapping roughly 20 million barrels of oil per day and lifting Brent crude to just above $100 a barrel. The shock spurred the Reserve Bank of Australia...
On Monday, March 16, 2026, Cuba’s Ministry of Energy and Mines announced a complete, island‑wide disconnection of the electrical grid, leaving roughly 11 million people in the Caribbean nation without power. The blackout comes as the country’s already fragile energy infrastructure buckles under...
On March 18, 2026, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a $26.5 billion loan package that could finance up to 16 GW of new power‑generation capacity across nuclear, solar, wind and gas projects, marking the largest single financing effort in the...
Taiwan Defence Minister Wellington Koo said on Tuesday that the United States’ internal review of a second $14 billion arms package – featuring 102 Lockheed Martin PAC‑3 air‑defence missiles – is proceeding on schedule. The sale, awaiting President Donald Trump’s signature...
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a defence partnership in London on Tuesday, March 18, 2026, aimed at countering low‑cost drone attacks. The deal combines Ukraine’s battlefield expertise with the UK’s industrial base and includes...
On March 18, 2026, the United Arab Emirates announced the closure of its civilian airspace after its military reported responding to incoming missile and drone threats launched from Iran. The decision, issued from Dubai, reflects an immediate escalation in regional...
On March 17, 2026, the U.S. Air Force launched a new wave of strikes against Iran’s missile program, sending nearly a dozen B‑1B Lancer bombers from RAF Fairford in the United Kingdom and deploying Lockheed Martin’s Precision Strike Missile (PrSM)...
Iran’s government confirmed on March 18, 2026 that Ali Larijani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and the country’s top security official, was killed in an Israeli air strike. The death was announced alongside reports of renewed drone and...
On March 17, 2026, the Reserve Bank of Australia’s Monetary Policy Board voted 5‑4 to raise the cash rate by 25 basis points to 4.10%, citing a resurgence of inflation driven by higher fuel prices from the Middle‑East conflict. Governor...
On Tuesday, U.S. investors pushed the benchmark 10‑year Treasury yield down to 4.202% and the 30‑year to 4.848% as they weighed escalating Middle‑East tensions involving Iran and a surge in oil prices ahead of the Federal Reserve’s upcoming policy decision....
On March 18, 2026, the Bank of Canada will release its scheduled overnight rate decision, a policy move that directly influences Canadian government and corporate bond yields. The announcement comes as the central bank projects inflation to stay near its...
On Monday, March 16, 2026, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 387.94 points (0.83%) to 46,946.41, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq climbed 1.01% and 1.22% respectively, marking the strongest rally since the Iran‑U.S. conflict began. The surge was driven...
The World Bank released its March 2026 Commodity Markets Outlook, forecasting a 7% decline in global commodity prices this year – the lowest level since the 2020 pandemic lockdowns. The drop is anchored in a massive oil glut of about...
On Tuesday, investors pushed Asian equity markets higher for a second straight session, with the MSCI Asia‑Pacific index outside Japan up 0.9%. South Korea's Kospi surged 2.4% and Japan's Nikkei 225 added 0.3% as a crowded central‑bank calendar and lingering...
FinAi announced a new Banking Summit on March 18, 2026, dedicated to AI‑driven innovations in the financial sector. The event, slated for later this year, will feature case studies from Launch Credit Union’s 75% automation of account openings, Nordea’s staff‑cutting...
On March 18, 2026, Thunes announced a partnership that lets 11,500 banks receive stable‑coin payouts using the existing SWIFT infrastructure, merging legacy finance with digital‑asset technology.
On March 18, 2026, the Bank of Canada will publish its scheduled overnight rate decision in a national press release. The announcement, expected to shape Canadian financial markets, follows the central bank’s ongoing mandate to promote economic stability and keep...
On March 17, 2026, Australia’s four major banks—National Australia Bank, ANZ, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac—announced immediate increases to mortgage and deposit rates after the Reserve Bank of Australia lifted the cash rate by 0.25 percentage points to 4.1%. The hikes,...
On March 17, 2026, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) voted 5‑4 to raise its cash‑rate target by 25 basis points to 4.1%, up from 3.85%. Deputy Governor Andrew Hauser warned that high inflation was "toxic" and that the war...
On March 13, 2026 the U.S. Air Force announced a $2 billion modification to Raytheon’s Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite‑terminal contract, lifting the total potential value to $2.97 billion. The work, split between Raytheon facilities in Marlborough, Massachusetts and Largo, Florida,...
On March 17 2026, Isar Aerospace signed a launch service agreement with Astroscale Ltd to fly the 520 kg ELSA‑M in‑orbit demonstration from its Spectrum rocket at Andøya Space in Norway. The mission, backed by the UK Space Agency and ESA’s ARTES Sunrise...
On March 17, 2026, AeroVironment Inc. announced the completion of a $200 million acquisition of Empirical Systems Aerospace (ESAero) in San Luis Obispo, California. The deal, financed with roughly $160 million in stock and the balance in cash, brings ESAero’s 32,000‑sq‑ft design...
On March 17, 2026, Rupert Pearce, the UK Ministry of Defence’s national armaments director, told the House of Commons Defence Committee that Boeing had become a “troubled partner” in the E‑7 Wedgetail airborne early‑warning program, which is now unlikely to...
NASA announced on March 19 that the rollout of the Artemis II Space Launch System from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center has been postponed to March 20. The delay stems from a faulty electrical harness in the...
On March 18, 2026, the Bank of Canada will announce its next overnight interest‑rate decision, a key monetary‑policy move that could shift Canadian borrowing costs, the loonie and capital markets. The announcement comes as the central bank notes that inflation...
On March 18, 2026, Knox Systems announced a $25 million Series A financing to scale its AI‑managed cloud platform. The funding will enable the company to deliver FedRAMP‑ready services in 90 days while cutting compliance costs by roughly 90%, targeting government‑focused SaaS...
On March 17, 2026, visa‑processing platform Atlys announced a $36 million Series C round led by Susquehanna Asia Venture Capital, with existing backers Elevation Capital, Long Journey Ventures and Peak XV Partners and new investor MakeMyTrip. Founded in 2021 by Mohak Nahta,...
On March 18, 2026, venture capital firm Halogen Ventures, led by founder Jesse Draper, announced that its portfolio now includes more than 100 investments in female‑founded companies and is collectively valued at over $15 billion. The milestone was disclosed in a...
On Tuesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled "EU Inc," a voluntary EU‑wide legal regime that lets founders register a company in any member state within 48 hours and with a minimum...
Redmond‑based Starcloud, a Nvidia‑backed startup, filed an FCC application on March 16, 2026 to deploy up to 88,000 low‑Earth‑orbit satellites that would act as orbital data centers for AI workloads. The plan envisions a dusk‑dawn, sun‑synchronous constellation operating between 600...
On March 16, 2026 at its GTC conference in San Jose, Nvidia announced Groq 3, a dedicated inference processor built on technology licensed from Groq Inc. The chip arrives in 256‑LPU LPX server racks with 128 GB of solid‑state RAM and 40 PB/s...
On March 16, 2026, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced at the GTC developer conference in San Jose that the company expects $1 trillion in AI chip orders through 2027, unveiled the Vera Rubin CPU/GPU platform, and introduced the BlueField‑4 STX reference...
On March 18, 2026, IBM announced the completion of its $10 billion acquisition of data‑streaming platform Confluent, cementing the deal in the United States. The transaction gives IBM full ownership of Confluent’s Apache‑Kafka‑based technology, which IBM says will become the engine...
On February 24, 2026 the European Parliament in Brussels, led by MEP Ondřej Knotek and the ALLATRA Global Research Center, hosted the "Nanoplastics: Hidden Connections and Emerging Risks" conference. The event gathered international scientists, policymakers and civil‑society representatives to discuss...
On March 18, 2026, Graphene Manufacturing Group (GMG) announced that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved its THERMAL‑XR graphene‑based coating, granting permission to import, distribute, sell, use and dispose of the product across the United States through its exclusive North...
On March 18, 2026 Nano One Materials Corp. announced that detailed engineering for its Candiac, Quebec, lithium‑iron‑phosphate (LFP) expansion is over 25% complete and on schedule for a July 2026 finish, with procurement, installation and commissioning slated for the first...
On March 18, 2026, researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne—including Dr. Lei Bao, PhD candidate Nan Nan, and Dr. Haiyan Li—announced a new smart wound dressing that simultaneously monitors infection and delivers healing agents. The hydrogel patch embeds multifunctional carbon‑dot...
On Dec 30, 2025, researchers reported a breakthrough nanotechnology drug‑delivery system that can home in on tumor cells, delivering chemotherapy directly to malignant tissue while sparing healthy cells. The advance, detailed in ScienceTimes, highlights engineered nanoparticles—liposomes, polymeric carriers, dendrimers and...
On March 18, 2026, JD.com announced it will cease all e‑commerce operations in Indonesia and Thailand after failing to grow in the face of tough regional competition. The move marks a strategic retreat from two of Southeast Asia’s largest online...
On March 18, 2026, Alibaba Group announced the launch of a new enterprise AI platform from its cloud arm, aimed at serving the rapidly expanding agent‑commerce ecosystem in China. The service, rolled out from Alibaba’s headquarters in Hangzhou, is positioned...
On Monday, March 17, 2026, Chinese e‑commerce giant JD.com launched its Joybuy marketplace in the United Kingdom and Germany, alongside France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The rollout, overseen by Joybuy UK Managing Director Matthew Nobbs, promises same‑day delivery to...
On Tuesday, Amazon announced the rollout of paid one‑hour and three‑hour delivery options across more than 90,000 products in U.S. cities and towns. Prime members will pay $9.99 for one‑hour and $4.99 for three‑hour service, while non‑Prime shoppers face $19.99...
In less than five months, a consortium led by Dutch firm QuantWare and U.S. partners has deployed the Q-PAC quantum network at the Quantum Commons campus in Denver, marking the United States’ first fully operational quantum communications system. The network...
On March 17, 2026 Geloso Beverage Group partnered with PubMatic and Butler/Till to run a fully agentic media‑buying campaign for its Johnny Bootlegger and Clubtails brands. The test, executed on PubMatic’s AgenticOS using Butler/Till’s Claude interface, reduced buy‑side costs by 5.5 times...
On March 16‑17, 2026, startup Okara introduced its subscription‑based “AI CMO” platform, a suite of autonomous agents that handle SEO audits, content generation, community engagement and a new Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) score. The service, priced at $99 per month,...
On March 18, 2026, Adobe, led by CEO Shantanu Narayen, and NVIDIA, founded by Jensen Huang, announced a strategic partnership to develop next‑generation Firefly AI models for creative, marketing and agentic workflows. The collaboration will fuse Adobe’s Firefly suite with...
Candid announced today the launch of Live Marketing, an AI‑powered platform that it says will perform 90% of all operational marketing tasks. The new suite is positioned as a turnkey solution for brands seeking to automate campaign setup, reporting, and...
On March 17, 2026, Google announced that its Personal Intelligence service is moving out of beta and into a broader U.S. rollout called AI Mode, now integrated with the Gemini app and Chrome browser. The company also confirmed that users...
Silicon Valley‑based Frore Systems announced on March 18, 2026 that it closed a $143 million Series D round, bringing its post‑money valuation to $1.64 billion. The funding, led by MVP Ventures among other investors, will accelerate the rollout of its liquid‑cooling platform for...
