6: At least six French prisons have faced attacks from gunmen and arsonists this week in what authorities say were acts of terrorism. No one has claimed responsibility for the incidents, although several featured graffiti of the letters “DDPF,” an acronym for “French Prisoners’ Rights.” The attacks come as the government tries to stamp out rising drug violence – cocaine imports to Europe are blowing through records.
5: In a ruling sure to echo into culture wars about gender around the world, five judges of the UK Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled unanimously that, under the country’s anti-discrimination laws, the term “woman” refers only to a person born biologically female. The ruling was seen as a blow for trans rights activists, though the court stressed that it did not remove protections under other laws for trans people. The case stemmed from a dispute in Scotland over a law that required 50% female representation on the boards of public companies.
1/7: US President Donald Trump is a well known lover of all things gold, but his policies are now dulling the luster of another luxury jewel: diamonds. Shipments of the precious stones through Antwerp, a major hub, have fallen to just one seventh of normal levels since Trump began slapping tariffs on most of the world. The highly-globalized diamond industry includes mines in Africa, Asia, and Canada, polishing centers in India, traders in Europe and the Middle East, and – crucially – certifiers in the US. Tariff uncertainty has thrown a wrench into all of that, right as the industry is already suffering from competition with lab-grown gemstones.
37 billion: Some potential buyers of diamonds now have some extra cash to burn, as Wall Street’s biggest banks clocked $37bn in trading revenues in the first quarter of this year. Why? The wild, Trump-induced gyrations of the stock market created huge volatility, handing smart traders an opportunity to find an angle – including US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who has drawn fire over the timing of her own recent stock jockeying.
300 million: Authorities in India have charged the opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia with money laundering, alleging that they used a shell company to illegally take control of properties worth more than $300 million. The Congress party said the probe, which began in 2022, is a “vendetta” by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
3: Protests erupted in Tunisia on Tuesday after the collapse of a school wall in the town of Mazzouna killed three students on Monday. Several hundred protesters gathered both in Mazzouna and in the capital, Tunis, accusing the government of negligence and incompetence. This is no small thing in a country that tightly polices dissent. Keep an eye on how the government responds – this is, after all, a place where a single exasperated street vendor once sparked a region-wide revolution.
