Despite five weeks of war, last night's prime-time address from the White House failed to provide clarity or a defined strategy regarding its progress https://t.co/RK0TnGGWsmpic.twitter.com/sZB5EAASuj
A U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II aircraft assigned to the 495th Fighter Squadron maneuvers through the Mach Loop valleys, Wales, May 8, 2025 (US Air Force).
BELFAST — Switzerland is deliberating over whether to cancel a long-delayed Patriot air defense system order, while saying that it will extend a payment freeze for the in-demand platform unless the US communicates a firm timeline for deliveries — the latest development in a high-dollar diplomatic spat between the two countries.
“We’ve informed them [the Swiss Federal Council] about this [Patriot termination] option today and we’re also making this option public today,” Switzerland’s defense minister Martin Pfister said at a press conference, according to an official translation.
“We are still assuming today that we will receive these systems; we don’t know when, and we are currently in the process of negotiating all possible options with the US,” he added. “This also includes a complete termination.”
Pfister conceded that the conditions for a cancellation are unclear.
Last July Washington decided to reshuffle Switzerland’s Patriot deliveries to support urgently needed supplies to Ukraine, with Breaking Defense reporting earlier this month that Swiss delays could run up to five years. Even that window is in doubt however, likely because demand for the platform has grown markedly since the outbreak of the US-Israeli war with Iran. On Tuesday, Poland reportedly turned down an informal US request to send its Patriots to the Middle East.
In the meantime, Switzerland has grown increasingly impatient about the delay, publicly acknowledging today that it halted payments for the Patriots in the fall of 2025. The Swiss Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) said that Washington’s “reprioritization” of deliveries “significantly alters the contractual basis” of the acquisition.
The Swiss government says the Patriot order is linked to other Foreign Military Sale agreements, like a $7.5 billion order for F-35A fighter jets as well as spare parts for Swiss F/A-18 fighters. Bern says the US has pulled Swiss payments for those programs to fund Patriot production, which the European government warned risked timely delivery for the aircraft as well.
“For Switzerland’s security and defense, it is crucial that the delivery of spare parts for the F/A-18 and the procurement of the F-35A are not jeopardized by decisions concerning the Patriot system,” according to an online translation of the DDPS statement. The State Department had not responded to a request for information at press time.
The European nation signed off on an order for five Patriot systems in 2022 with deliveries originally set to take place between this year and 2028. Based on spiralling costs and an estimate from Urs Loher, director of national armaments at Switzerland’s defense procurement office, local media reported last month that the total price of the procurement could increase by 50 percent to reach CHF3 billion ($3.8 billion).
Near term, the troubling situation facing Switzerland threatens to get worse. Should the US’ Swiss FMS based fund’s liquidity dip below a “critical threshold, projects can be suspended and, if it falls further, terminated,” according to Bern. “This could affect not only the Patriot procurement but the entire Swiss Foreign Military Sales (FMS) portfolio with the USA.”
In March, Switzerland decided to cut its F-35 order by six aircraft, down to a fleet of 30 jets, after a contract dispute over increased pricing with the US government.
The Swiss defense procurement office has previously stated that terminating the stealth fighter contract “would have significant consequences,” rendering it incapable of guaranteeing the security of national air space from 2032 as the timeline coincides with F/A-18 aircraft retiring.
Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Getty Images
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Forget gas prices and fertilizer. One of the biggest casualties of the US war on Iran could be your favorite AI chatbot.
As the hare-brained conflict enters its fifth week, the tech industry is raising alarm about a growing shortage of helium, the odorless gas that makes birthday balloons lighter than air — and which, it turns out, is silently undergirding the AI boom.
Per the Wall Street Journal, when the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps effectively shut off travel through the Strait of Hormuz in response to US and Israeli aggression, they also cut off nearly a third of the world’s helium supply.
That’s because Qatar, the gulf state laying claim to the largest natural gas field on the planet, is responsible for 30 to 35 percent of the world’s helium production. Qatar, host of the US’s Al Udeid Air Base, is effectively a belligerent of Iran, meaning that until hostilities cease, that helium isn’t getting through.
That’s bad news for anybody buildingdata centers right now. Per the WSJ, helium is a crucial component for cooling the machines responsible for building AI chips. With a tightening bottleneck on the critical gas, it’s likely that chip manufacturers will have to curb production as they ration their remaining gas. As the helium industry typically operates via long-term contracts, chip producers have scrambled to secure short-term suppliers, exacerbating the effects of the shortage with an all-out-bidding-war.
“The helium shock highlights a deeper vulnerability in the AI build‑out: extreme dependence on a small number of geopolitically exposed nodes,” Ralf Gubler, research director at S&P Global Energy told the WSJ.
Even when the Straight of Hormuz eventually opens, relief will take months, if not years. As Qatar’s mining facilities have taken hits from Iran, state-owned petrochemical giant QatarEnergy estimates its overall helium exports will drop by 17 percent, Al Jazeera reported. Even assuming hostilities cease today, it would still take three to five years to repair this capacity.
“The first victims are party balloons: you can quite easily allocate less there and deal with a few angry parents,” Anish Kapadia, founder of energy consulting firm AKAP Energy told the WSJ. “But clearly when you take a third of global supply off the market overnight, there’s going to be a significant impact across the board.”
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Jerome Powell (right) with David Laibson.Veasey Conway/Harvard Staff Photographer
Christina Pazzanese
Harvard Staff Writer
April 1, 2026 4 min read
Current trends ‘not sustainable,’ says Fed chair, whose conversation with Harvard undergrads also touched on inflation, impact of war, independent decision-making
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell expressed confidence in the “resilience” of the U.S. financial system during a visit to Harvard on Monday and said that the Fed will take a “wait-and-see” approach to the economic impact of the Iran war.
Powell spoke at Sanders Theatre with undergraduates in “Principles of Economics,” a macroeconomics course co-taught by Jason Furman, Aetna Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy at the Kennedy School and in the Department of Economics, and David Laibson, Robert I. Goldman Professor of Economics. Laibson moderated the talk.
Powell said that the Fed remains committed to its target inflation rate of 2 percent even against headwinds created by U.S.-imposed tariffs and the conflict in Iran. The Federal Open Market Committee thought the goal was within reach in late 2024 when U.S. growth was at 2.5 percent, 12-month inflation was just above 2 percent, and the labor market was essentially at full employment. These data followed a period of serious recession worries among many economists.
“I would call that a soft landing,” Powell said.
Nominated to serve as Fed chair by President Trump in late 2017, Powell was nominated a second time by President Biden in 2021. His term officially ends in May, but he has said that he will remain as chair until his successor has been approved by the Senate.
Historically, the Fed tends not to react when oil and gas prices rise because energy supply shocks are often short-lived, so the central bank will “wait and see” how Iran-related oil prices affect the broader economy and will monitor inflation expectations “very, very carefully” before making any policy adjustments, Powell said.
He expressed deeper concerns about the nation’s balance sheet. Our $39 trillion debt is not the real problem, he said; it’s that the current path Congress is on — spending more than the U.S. is taking in — is “not sustainable.”
“The country has to get back to ensuring that the economy is growing fast enough to keep pace with spending,” he said.
“It will not end well if we don’t do something fairly soon,” Powell warned.
On emerging threats, Powell said that the Fed has taken significant measures to fortify the U.S. financial system against outsized risks and credit losses like those that fueled the 2008 global financial crisis.
“We have a hugely resilient financial system,” he said.
With the financial sector constantly evolving, what the country needs from the Fed is “vigilance,”not the elimination of all risk, Powell said. “You just need to always know that there’s another thing coming.”
The Federal Open Market Committee is monitoring private credit markets “super carefully,” he said, but at the moment sees no systemic threat to the nation’s financial stability.
Asked by a student about the Fed’s view of employment, Powell acknowledged a tough labor market for younger people.But given U.S. dynamism and growth since World War II, he urged students to be optimistic about the medium- and longer-term economic outlook and to become comfortable and proficient with AI.
Though Powell did not comment on Trump’s nominee for Fed chair, Kevin Warsh, he did make a case for the importance of Fed independence and rejected the idea of partisan motives in the central bank’s policymaking.
“We’re not trying to work against any politician or any administration, but we have to be careful to stick to what we’re doing,” he said, adding: “The Fed is not a perfect institution. What we do is very challenging, highly uncertain, but it’s a great American institution and I’m very proud to work with the people I work with.”
Many observers have warned that any effort to interfere with the Fed’s traditional independence from politics would threaten significant harm to the financial system and to the country. “It’s very hard to build great democratic institutions and much easier to bring them down,” Powell said.
CNBC says investors have “nowhere to hide.” But one exclusive platform just posted a 22.9% net return. Here’s how to get in.
Despite an exciting bull run, gold fell 25% from its January peak.
Bloomberg’s Marcus Ashworth said it this week: “No more reliable safe havens.”
But Masterworks has been offering fractional investments well outside the norm. Typically those exclusive to the ultra-wealthy.
One of those was an Elizabeth Peyton painting. Total net return to hundreds of their members: 22.9%. Typically 3-10 years, this rare turnaround took just a few weeks.
That’s sale number 27. Net annualized returns on sales like 14.6%, 17.6%, 17.8%.
So, despite macro turmoil, the art market has been trending up.
U.S. auction sales jumped 23.1% last year. The $1mm-$5mm segment grew 40.8% in value.
Few people know this. But postwar and contemporary art grew 10.2% annually with near-zero correlation with the S&P 500 over the last 30 years.*
Masterworks lets you invest in shares of works featuring Banksy, Basquiat, Picasso, and more.
*According to Masterworks data. Investing involves risk. Past performance not indicative of future returns. See important disclosures at masterworks.com/cd.
The Rundown: SpaceX just filed for what would be the largest IPO in history, targeting a valuation north of $1.75T and a raise of up to $75B — which would make Elon Musk’s rocket-AI-social media mega-company one of the most valuable on Earth.
The details:
The SEC filing sets up a June debut that would beat OpenAI and Anthropic to public markets, making Musk’s company the first U.S. AI-era mega-listing.SpaceX is targeting a $1.75T+ valuation, and its $50B–$75B raise would more than double the largest IPO ever (Saudi Aramco’s $29B offering in 2019).Musk absorbed xAI into SpaceX before filing, though the AI side reportedly pulls in under $1B in revenue against the rocket business’s roughly $20B.About 30% of shares would be open to everyday investors, while a special two-tier voting structure lets Musk keep full control after going public.
Why it matters: After all of the talk surrounding AI mega-IPOs centering on OpenAI and Anthropic, it’s xAI (via SpaceX) that will be the first U.S. lab to hit the public markets. Despite now losing every one of his 11 co-founders, Musk’s vision and tie-in of rockets, AI, robotics, and data make for a combo few other rivals can match at scale.
The Rundown: Twitter founder and Block CEO Jack Dorsey just co-authored a post arguing AI can replace middle management, framing Block’s recent 40% workforce cut as the opening move in a massive workplace restructure for the AI era
The details: Block cut over 4K employees in February, over 40% of its staff — with Dorsey calling it a bet on AI, not a response to weakness.Dorsey said managers exist to route information up and down a chain, and AI can now do that via a live “world model” of the business. He said everyone at
Block now falls into one of three roles: builders, problem-owners over specific outcomes, and player-coaches who develop talent.
Block is remote-first, and Dorsey says every decision, design, and plan already exists as a digital record, giving AI the raw material to replace managers.
Why it matters: Dorsey’s thesis is an interesting one, especially as lean, AI-first teams go head-to-head with bloated legacy firms that have layers of approval. Block’s bet is that remote work already generated the data, and AI just needed to catch up to use it — but not everyone is going to trust the tech to completely cut out the managerial layer.
Jim VandeHei interviews JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. Photo: Christopher Gill for Axios
JPMorgan Chase chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon tells Axios CEO Jim VandeHei the U.S. is facing the most concurrent risks in 80 years — and that’s before AI starts displacing a large number of American workers.
Dimon, in an interview for “The Axios Show,” says American business leaders need to step up, and speak up, to help guide the country through these high-risk, tumultuous times.
“We in business made a mistake in not getting more involved earlier,” Dimon told Jim at JPMorgan’s new global headquarters in Manhattan. “I do not think the problems of society will be fixed by politicians alone.
“Dimon’s annual shareholder letter, out next week, will dive deep into geopolitical threats. “There’s more geopolitical risk than we’ve seen since World War II,” he said.
A top threat: He told Axios that AI is likely to displace lots of workers in the medium term and increase the likelihood of a large-scale cyberattack. “AI makes cyber — and these [AI agents] make cyber — far worse,” he said.
Dimon was briefed on Anthropic’s unreleased Mythos model, which the company fears may dramatically increase the ability of hackers or foreign adversaries to carry out potentially catastrophic attacks.
Dimon’s other risks, in no particular order: China, cyber, Iran war escalation, Russian aggression, rogue AI, private credit crisis, unsustainable U.S. debt, political dysfunction, economic uncertainty and nuclear weapons.
When asked why so many CEOs seem “chickensh*t” when it comes to speaking honestly to employees and the public, Dimon downplayed fear of upsetting President Trump as the reason. But his own on-camera caution when critiquing the president captured the unease vividly.
Dimon remains optimistic about the country’s ability to navigate myriad risks. But he didn’t sugarcoat the ever-growing threats to business and safety:
“We still have the most prosperous nation the world’s ever seen [and] the best military. We’re in a great position — and we have issues. … You can’t fix problems when you don’t acknowledge them.”
What’s next: Dimon said an independent candidate might be needed to fix things. But, at 70, he’s not running — for anything, under any party: “I do get asked, but I’m not sure I’m suited to it.“
“We’re so tough on our politicians,” he said. “We just annihilate them, and I just think it’s wrong.”Watch on YouTube … Share this column.
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Image source: Lovart / The Rundown
Image source: Lovart / The Rundown
Jim VandeHei interviews JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. Photo: Christopher Gill for Axios
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