Washington’s 11th-hour squeeze on Anthropic is more than a $200 million contract dispute—it is a stress-test of liberal democracy’s ability to curb the militarisation of general-purpose AI. By threatening the company with Defence Production Act powers and a supply-chain blacklist if it refuses unrestricted military use of Claude by Friday, the Pentagon revives Cold-War coercive tools for a technology whose dual-use risks scale exponentially faster than uranium ever did. (apnews.com)

History shows that once a capability is folded into national-security doctrine, guardrails rarely return: the post-9/11 PATRIOT Act still governs bulk data collection two decades on. If Washington compels access now, Brussels and Beijing will cite the precedent, accelerating an arms race in autonomous decision-making where normative debates trail hardware deployments by years.

I see a different strategic calculus: preserving trusted-supplier status may ultimately matter more to the U.S. military than short-term capability gains. AI that allies refuse to integrate for ethical or interoperability reasons erodes, rather than enhances, security. As researcher Timnit Gebru warns, “Technological power without democratic control is just another form of tyranny.” (MIT Tech Review, 2023).

The Gist AI Editor

Innovation on Trial

A fierce debate is escalating over the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) role in medical innovation, with critics arguing its stringent approval processes prioritize “academic purity” over patient access to life-saving technologies (WSJ). This perspective suggests that excessive regulatory burdens may be stifling the very breakthroughs needed to combat rare and fatal diseases. The core of the issue lies in balancing rigorous safety standards with the urgent needs of patients who have exhausted all other options. Our view: regulatory frameworks must evolve to embrace calculated risks, especially when the alternative for patients is a certainty.

Central Bank Maneuvers

The U.S. Federal Reserve is signaling a potential pivot in monetary policy, as Governor Stephen Miran advocated for a one-percentage-point cut in interest rates this year to stimulate the economy (WSJ). Lower rates would reduce borrowing costs for businesses and consumers. Concurrently, regulators are nearing a revised “Basel III endgame” proposal, a complex set of international banking rules that will define how much capital banks must hold (Bloomberg). Vice Chair Michelle Bowman confirmed a consensus has been reached on the plan, which could impact lending capacity across the financial system.

Digital Rights Under Scrutiny

In a significant ruling against state-sponsored surveillance, a Greek court sentenced four individuals to prison for their roles in the “Predatorgate” scandal. The case involved the use of Predator spyware to illegally monitor politicians, journalists, and business leaders, highlighting the growing threat of sophisticated digital tools to individual liberty (Politico.eu). This verdict represents a rare moment of accountability for the purveyors of cyber-espionage technology, reinforcing the principle that technological advancement cannot come at the cost of fundamental privacy rights.

EU Navigates Contentious Funding

The European Commission has rejected a citizens’ initiative calling for a new, dedicated fund to finance abortion access across the bloc (Politico.eu). Instead, officials clarified that member states can voluntarily use existing EU social funds to support women who travel to other EU countries for the procedure. This decision sidesteps a direct EU-wide policy, placing the onus on individual governments and reflecting the deep divisions on the issue while still allowing a pathway for cross-border access to services.

Stay tuned for the next Gist—your edge in a shifting world.

Fed’s Miran Says Four Cuts Are Appropriate This Year
— Wall Street Journal

Basic Materials Roundup: Market Talk
— Wall Street Journal

Safety Shouldn’t Mean Medical Stagnation
— Wall Street Journal

Fed’s Bowman Says Consensus Has Been Reached on Basel Plan
— Bloomberg

The Story Behind the Failure of ‘Highguard’
— Bloomberg

RBC Seeks to Bet on New Defense, Energy Projects in Canada
— Bloomberg

German State Power Checked

A German court has delivered a crucial, if temporary, check on the power of the state’s domestic intelligence agency. The Administrative Court in Cologne ruled the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) cannot currently classify the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party as a “confirmed right-wing extremist” entity (ZDF). This injunction forces the BfV to await the outcome of the main legal proceedings. While the AfD’s politics are contentious, the principle at stake is fundamental: intelligence agencies should not be the arbiters of political legitimacy. Allowing them to brand a major opposition party—effectively marking it for enhanced surveillance and public condemnation—creates a chilling effect on political discourse and risks turning security services into tools for the party in power. This is a procedural victory for the rule of law over political expediency.

Brussels’ Belated Integrity Test

The European Commission has referred Peter Mandelson, a former EU Trade Commissioner, to the bloc’s own anti-fraud office, OLAF (Politico). The referral concerns his links to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and potential breaches of the EU’s code of conduct. This move, years after the facts, raises serious questions about the timeliness and robustness of the EU’s internal accountability mechanisms. For an institution that legislates stringent transparency and ethical standards for member states and corporations, its own house must be in impeccable order. This investigation is a critical test of whether the EU can police its own elites with the same vigour it applies to others. The credibility of the entire Brussels apparatus hangs on OLAF conducting a thorough and transparent inquiry.

Catch the next Gist for the continent’s moving pieces.

Nach Kritik: Berlinale-Chefin Tuttle darf vorerst bleiben
— ZDF

Mandelson referred to EU fraud investigators over Epstein files
— Politico Europe

‘Hicks with very little taste’: Why Silicon Valley and the far right are so determined to build colossal monuments
— El Pais

Der Ukraine-Krieg im Zeitraffer
— ZDF

Urteil: AfD nicht gesichert rechtsextremistisch – vorerst
— ZDF

Borsa: Milano in aumento con Nexi e Stellantis, debole Tim
— Ansa