Financial Mindset

Australia banned under-16s from social media in December; the U.K. is now investigating whether TikTok’s age checks even work; and France just finalized its own under-15 ban this week, racing to beat the August recess. Platforms are grappling with how to handle the “age verification trap,” how do you collect information about a user online without infringing on their privacy and being too intrusive. And while these bans are taking place abroad, some states in the country are toying with similar measures, or fully banning users from specific sites if the platforms can’t verify their age accurately. David Inserra, a fellow for free expression and technology at the Cato Institute who also sits on TikTok’s US Content Advisory Council, told Fortune that each of these laws gets sold as a narrow fix for kids, and each one ends up asking something much bigger of everyone else. “It’s not just about verifying the age of kids,” Inserra s...

Moldova’s pro-Western parliament elected businessman and investor Vasile Tofan as prime minister on Tuesday, entrusting a political newcomer with advancing the former Soviet republic’s bid to join the European Union. Tofan, 44, who is backed by President  Maia Sandu  and her Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS), was elected by 53 to 21, with 21 abstentions in Moldova’s 101-seat Parliament. A senior partner at the Ukraine-based investment firm Horizon Capital until recently, Tofan gained a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School, and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in public administration from Erasmus University, in the Netherlands. His election comes three weeks after former Alexandru Munteanu  stepped down  as prime minister after only eight months in a surprise move that automatically triggered the government’s resignation. Munteanu did not give a clear reason for his departure, saying only that ...

President  Donald Trump  on Monday imposed 50% tariffs on most Canadian goods, declaring that Canada has unfairly discriminated against American autos, alcohol and dairy products. The move could unleash a  new wave of economic chaos , with risks of higher inflation and further fraying of relations between two nations that had been closely woven together before Trump’s return to the White House. The administration official previewing the action said that Canada was one of the only nations other than China that retaliated against Trump’s previous tariffs and must be held accountable. The official insisted on anonymity on a call with reporters to preview the president’s actions and said that Trump signed three proclamations to launch the tariffs under Section 338 of the 1930 Trade Act. Several Democratic lawmakers last year proposed repealing the section because they said Trump could use it to destabilize the economy. The new 50% tariffs would ...

In today’s CEO Daily: The agentic economy is starting to take shape. The big leadership story: United Airlines’ ‘premiumization’ strategy is paying off. The markets: Mixed globally as chipmakers continue to slide. Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune . Good morning. How do you plan to move your company’s money when AI agents start doing the buying and selling for you? And how can you make sure that agentic commerce is accurate, compliant, fast, and smart? A year after the GENIUS Act passed , a wave of new stablecoins, platforms, and partnerships point to how the ecosystem is taking shape. The most compelling scenario I’ve seen so far comes from Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, who last week published an 18,500-word treatise called The Agentic Economy . (There are several iterations available, including a 60-second version.) He argues that the “planetary nervous system for information” must now be matched by a “circulatory system for value.” ...

President Donald Trump’s administration sought phone records of several New York Times journalists and even those of some of their relatives, according to a motion unsealed Monday — an unusually aggressive attempt to  unmask the confidential sources  of reporters who wrote about Trump’s Qatari-gifted  Air Force One jet . The efforts by the Republican president’s administration to compel the identity of sources in the form of additional subpoenas come at a time when the executive branch’s relationship with the press is increasingly contentious. The efforts, described in a letter-motion filed by the Times over the weekend, were more expansive than previously known, the newspaper noted. They also covered a time frame that exceeded the news articles in question. “Two of the subpoenas seek records beginning on January 1, 2026, long before the events that are purportedly the basis for the Department’s investigation,” lawyers for the Times wrote in the...

Stock futures were mixed Sunday evening and oil prices continued to climb as the deaths of American service members over the weekend added more fuel to the U.S.-Iran war. Futures tied to the Dow Jones industrial average fell 61 points, or 0.12%. S&P 500 futures were down just 0.05%, but Nasdaq futures were up 0.08%. West Texas Intermediate futures rose 2.75% to $84.76 a barrel, and Brent crude climbed 3.2% to $90.92. Gold dropped 0.53% to $3,997 per ounce. Two U.S. troops died in Jordan from an Iranian attack, and another was missing. A third service member was killed in Iraq while attempting to dispose of a downed Iranian drone. The deaths at the hands of the Islamic Republic would appear to cross a red line that President Donald Trump had reportedly described when he considered the threshold for ending the earlier ceasefire before signing last month’s memorandum of understanding, which has since collapsed. So far, the White House hasn’t announced ...

The winner of the  World Cup  will hoist a trophy, receive championship rings for the first time and gain a lifetime of glory in what will be a defining moment in the country’s sports history. It’ll also lead to a significant payday. The World Cup winner earns $51 million. The second prize is $34 million. FIFA expanded the payout for the 2026 World Cup, setting a record with a combined $871 million paid to the 48 participating teams. That tally includes more than $100 million that was added in April after some federations in Europe lobbied for help to cover costs at a tournament across three countries that has required extensive travel and lodging costs. The $51 million for Spain  is a large sum, but it also pales in comparison to the fortunes that are spent on global soccer. It’s also smaller than what last year’s Club World Cup winner earned in a tournament also played in the U.S. For perspective, the $51 million for the winner is les...