Global Scans · USA · Weekly Summary

WHAT'S NEXT?: Donald Trump's surprise win in the Presidential election mean the world and America can expect prolonged uncertainty as new domestic policies are put in place, different international relationships formed and attitudes change towards current friends and rivals.

• [New] The 2026 FIFA World Cup is expected to draw millions of foreign and domestic visitors, and individuals visiting or residing near host cities may be vulnerable to sex or labour trafficking by perpetrators seeking to exploit the surge in economic activity. / USA FinCEN.gov
• [New] The Pentagon recently placed the largest drone order in American history - 30,000 one-way attack drones, with plans to scale past 300,000 by early 2028. Yahoo Finance
• [New] Iran has reportedly regained access to 30 of its 33 Strait of Hormuz missile sites, enough to threaten American warships and oil tankers. Democracy Now!
• [New] Large U.S. banks are deploying workflow automation platforms integrated with AI for fraud detection, loan processing, and compliance reporting, significantly reducing processing time and operational risk. Persistence Market Research
• [New] Organizations in the United States face the highest breach costs globally, at $9.44 million per incident, due to stringent regulatory penalties and class-action litigation risks. Ordr
• [New] Unless productivity takes a sharp turn for the better, the U.S. economy will grow more slowly than expected, since economic growth is the sum of increases in working hours plus increases in output per hour worked. George W. Bush Presidential Center
• [New] In the United States, as the number of working-age people per adult consumer falls more than 15% from 2020 to 2050, labour will become increasingly scarce, and employers will find themselves competing ferociously for talent. George W. Bush Presidential Center
• [New] Annual rates of natural increase - births minus deaths - will turn negative starting in 2038, census demographers project. / USA George W. Bush Presidential Center
• [New] The second megatrend facing the United States is that, following the year 2030, the population of Americans younger than 25 will start shrinking in absolute terms. George W. Bush Presidential Center
• [New] Sustained US leadership will depend less on countering China and more on reinvesting in scientific capacity, regulatory excellence, and global health partnerships. PubMed Central (PMC)
• [New] The erosion of domestic scientific capacity, the contraction of global health partnerships, and the underfunding of regulatory agencies pose far greater risks to US biomedical leadership than China's progress. PubMed Central (PMC)
• [New] Former FDA Commissioner Gottlieb's perspective, Securing America's Pharmaceutical Innovation Edge, is the most overtly strategic, warning that US underinvestment in the NIH and strain on the FDA threaten to erode America's biomedical leadership at a moment when China is rapidly advancing. PubMed Central (PMC)
• [New] AI adoption could potentially create up to 400 billion dollars in annual value for the U.S. economy. Market Data Forecast
• [New] Total international visitation to the United States is expected to grow by 25% from 68.3 million visitors in 2025 to 85.2 million visitors in 2030. Lisabeth.Phelps@trade.gov
• [New] As ERCOT increasingly meets rising demand with renewable energy sources, we expect approximately 40% of total solar capacity additions in the United States in 2026, or 14 BkWh, to occur in Texas. EIA - Energy Information Administration
• The next question is not simply whether AI will use 400 TWh, 600 TWh, or 800 TWh in the US by the end of the decade, but which constraint has the most impact: chips, data centers, grid connections, power supply, capital, politics, or demand. /dev/sustainability
• US data center electricity use is around 180 TWh today and credible forecasts point to 400-600 TWh by 2030, but chips, grids, politics, and the changing shape of AI workloads make estimates difficult. /dev/sustainability
• Whether used in targeted modeling or enterprise-wide tools, AI will become a force multiplier for the financial system, and in the broader U.S. economy. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
• US AVoD revenue will triple between 2020 and 2026 to US$31bn. C21media
• Global AVoD revenue will increase by 144% between 2020 and 2026 to reach US$66bn. C21media
• National Grid invested GBP 45 million in grid AI, estimating annual expected value of AI-prevented grid incidents at GBP 340 million across UK and US operations. The Thinking Company
• The U.S. will generate a total of 341 billion kilowatt-hours of solar energy in 2026 and 418 billion kWh in 2027. Novogradac
• A U.S. strategic Bitcoin reserve could lend additional legitimacy to digital assets as a store of value, potentially influencing other nations to follow suit. MEXC

Last updated: 20 May 2026