Artificial intelligence continues to strongly drive the United States economy, which grew at a robust rate of 2% in the first quarter. AI also explains the sustained rise, despite the war, of the New York Stock Exchange, whose main indices closed April with
President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he will increase tariffs on vehicles from the European Union (EU) and accused the Old Continent bloc of not complying with its trade agreement with the United States.
The Pentagon expands its partnerships with the artificial intelligence (AI) sector. The command center of the U.S. defense announced this Friday agreements with eight companies, including giants OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, SpaceX, Oracle, and Nvidia, to deploy their AI capabilities in the classified networks of the Department of War (Defense). Several of them were already working with the entity. According to a Pentagon statement, they will now be integrated into its secret and top-secret network environments, which will involve greater use in sensitive matters.
The Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) has developed the most advanced open-source microchip in Europe. It is a tiny chip, whose transistors measure only 1.8 nanometers. This microchip is capable of processing information very quickly and consuming less energy than the chips that are more widespread in the market, whose transistors measure between 4 and 5 nanometers.
El Banc Sabadell has completed today the sale of its British subsidiary TSB to Santander for 3.3 billion euros once all the relevant authorizations have been obtained. That amount includes 300 million in capital gains (extraordinary profit) from the operation.
A May Day focused on “no to war” and the right to housing kicks off, with the Andalusian elections as a backdrop. The major unions, CCOO and UGT, will hold more than a hundred demonstrations across Spain this Friday. This year’s protest will have as its main axes the demand to end the offensive in the Middle East, its economic consequences, the problem of access to housing, and the elections on May 17 in Andalusia.
The United States economy grew at an annualized rate of 2% in the first quarter of the year. In this way, it gained momentum after a poor final quarter of 2025, when it ended with a GDP of 0.5% due to the government shutdown.
The giant TotalEnergies has yielded to political pressure and announced this Thursday, on the eve of the May Day holiday, that it is extending the fuel price cap “while the crisis in the Middle East lasts,” at the 3,300 service stations it owns in France.
The European Central Bank (ECB) has decided, as planned, to keep the cost of money with the deposit interest rate at 2%, for the sixth consecutive time since June 2025. The entity does not consider that the current economic disturbances, with a resurgence of inflation due to the energy crisis following the Iran war, justify at this time implementing a more restrictive monetary policy.
Puig continues with negotiations with the American group Estée Lauder for a possible merger, but admits that there is no guarantee that the operation will go ahead. “As long as there is no agreement, it cannot be guaranteed that there will be an operation or its terms,” reiterated the Catalan fragrance multinational in its communication to the CNMV of the results up to March.