The United States trade deficit has jumped to $77.6bn in May on rising imports, driven by goods that include pharmaceuticals, mobile phones and semiconductors. Imports ticked up 3.3 percent from April to $395.3bn while exports fell 3.2 percent to $317.7bn, according to a report released on Tuesday by the US Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Census Bureau. The surge came amid a boom in artificial intelligence spending across the economy. Notably, semiconductor imports jumped by $1.2bn. In the oil and gas sector, petroleum imports jumped to their highest level on record despite the US-Israel war on Iran.

Elon Musk's AI model Grok will no longer be able to edit photos of real people to show them in revealing clothing, after widespread concern over sexualised AI deepfakes in countries including the UK and US. We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis. This restriction applies to all users, including paid subscribers, reads an announcement on X, which operates the Grok AI tool. The change was announced hours after California's top prosecutor said the state was probing the spread of sexualised AI deepfakes, including of children, generated by the AI model. The update expands measures that stop all users, including paid subscribers, editing images of real people in revealing outfits.

China announced record export numbers for 2025, a year when US President Donald Trump's tariffs and trade policy caused turmoil in the global economy. Beijing on Wednesday reported the world's largest-ever trade surplus - the value of goods and services sold overseas compared to its imports - at $1.19tn (£890bn). It's the first time China's full-year trade surplus has passed $1tn, beating 2024's record figure of $993bn. China's monthly export surpluses passed $100bn seven times last year - a sign that Trump's tariff campaign have barely affected its overall trade with the rest of the world. Trade with the US did weaken, but this was made up for by a rise in Chinese exports elsewhere, especially to South East Asia, Africa and Latin America.