hold

The U.S. gross domestic product grew 3.3% year over year in the second quarter. That number shows the resilience of the U.S. economy despite higher interest rates and global macroeconomic uncertainty.

In such an environment, investors can particularly benefit from putting their money into companies with scale, durable cash flows, and the ability to ride secular tailwinds.

Image source: Getty Images

Here’s why these two stocks fit the criteria, making them wise buy-and-hold choices for the long term.

1. Nvidia

Nvidia (NVDA -3.38%) has firmly established itself as the leading player in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, as it accounts for nearly 92% of the data center GPU market. That dominance has been the foundation of its robust financial performances of recent years. In its fiscal 2026 second quarter (which ended July 27), Nvidia reported revenues of $46.7 billion, up 56% year over year and exceeding guidance, while its GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) gross margin was 72.4%. Management now expects fiscal third-quarter revenue to reach $54 billion, plus or minus 2%, driven by increasing demand for its Blackwell-architecture GPUs.

Nvidia estimates that between $3 trillion and $4 trillion will be invested in AI infrastructure by the end of 2030. En route to that total, it expects hyperscalers and enterprises to invest nearly $600 billion in data center infrastructure and computational technologies in calendar 2025, nearly double the amount that was invested in 2023. Nvidia’s Blackwell-based AI systems, such as the GB200 NVL System and GB300 platform, are increasingly being used by cloud service providers and consumer internet companies to train and power large AI models.

Nvidia’s proprietary Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) software stack can be used to optimize its hardware for specific AI workloads. CUDA has become the industry standard, used by over 5 million developers. Nvidia has also strengthened its position in networking solutions, where its record quarterly revenue of $7.3 billion was driven by demand for Spectrum-X Ethernet, InfiniBand, and NVLink from customers building massive AI clusters. The company also highlighted that networking is now a $10 billion-plus annualized revenue business for it, underlining its importance as data centers evolve into AI factories.

Although U.S. restrictions on exporting the highest-end GPUs to China have been a headwind for the company, Nvidia is responding by adapting versions of its Blackwell chips (B30A ) that adhere to the new regulations and seeking regulatory approvals for broader deployments. It has already done this with its previous Hopper architecture, creating the H20 for Chinese customers. The company estimates the Chinese market opportunity to be nearly $50 billion in 2025.

Nvidia has also continued to reward its investors. In its fiscal second quarter, it returned $10 billion to shareholders through buybacks and dividends, and the board authorized an additional $60 billion stock repurchase program.

Trading at about 39.5 times expected forward earnings, Nvidia’s stock is quite expensive. However, that valuation seems justified considering its robust financials and unmatched AI ecosystem.

2. Alphabet

Alphabet (GOOG 0.56%) (GOOGL 0.63%) has firmly established itself as a dominant technology powerhouse, with a leadership position in digital advertising and rapidly expanding presences in cloud computing and artificial intelligence. In the second quarter, it reported revenues of $96.4 billion, up 14% year over year, and operating income of $31.2 billion. Those results underscore the scalability and profitability of its business model. The company also had $95 billion in cash and securities on its books at the end of the quarter, giving it the flexibility to keep investing in growth while returning capital to shareholders.

Alphabet’s core advertising businesses have demonstrated remarkable resilience. Google Search continues to provide more than half of total revenues, with AI-enhanced search features such as AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Lens offering new ways for users to access information. This has helped deepen user engagement and improve monetization. YouTube generated nearly $9.8 billion in advertising revenues in the second quarter, while subscriptions added another layer of recurring revenue streams.

Google Cloud accounted for a 13% share of the global spending on cloud infrastructure services in the second quarter, up 1 percentage point year over year. Google Cloud is benefiting from a growing demand for AI infrastructure and generative AI services worldwide. Google Cloud revenues were up 32% to $13.6 billion.

Alphabet has also successfully integrated advanced AI technologies across its entire ecosystem to improve productivity and efficiency, and create better user experiences. Its Gemini models are powering Search, Gmail, Workspace, and Maps. This is helping it hold onto its user base and improve avenues for monetization. Alphabet is also investing in other opportunities such as autonomous driving through its Waymo, healthcare, and quantum computing units — giving investors exposure to next-generation technologies.

It has been returning significant capital to shareholders, including nearly $16.1 billion returned through share buybacks and dividends in the second quarter.

Despite a resilient advertising business, a fast-growing cloud division, and deep AI integration, Alphabet trades at 18.3 times forward earnings, lower than its five-year average of 23.9.

Risks such as increased regulatory scrutiny, a looming court ruling in a major anticompetition case, rising competition in digital advertising, and concerns about the long-term impact of AI on search monetization may be among the reasons why the stock trades at a discounted valuation. Yet this very discount provides investors with the opportunity to buy shares of a dominant, cash-rich business with an AI-enabled platform at a reasonable price.

Considering these factors, Alphabet stock looks like an attractive stock to buy now and hold for the foreseeable future.

Latinos unleashed a political earthquake after voting for Donald Trump, who has long painted the country’s largest minority as an existential threat, in unexpectedly large numbers in the fall.

This swing to MAGA helped Trump win, kicked Democrats into the political wilderness, launched a thousand thought pieces and showed politicians that they ignore Latinos at their own risk.

Now, Latinos once again hold the power to make or break American politics, thanks to redistricting fights shaping up in Texas and California. And once again, both Democratic and Republican leaders think they know what Latinos want.

In the Lone Star State, the GOP-dominated Legislature last week approved the redrawing of congressional districts at the behest of Trump, upending the traditional process, to help Republicans gain up to five seats in the 2026 midterms. Their California counterparts landed on the opposite side of the gerrymandering coin — their maps, which will go before voters in November, target Republican congressional members.

Texas Republicans and California Democrats are both banking on Latinos to be the swing votes that make their gambits successful. That’s understandable but dangerous. If ever a voting bloc fulfills the cliche that to assume something makes an ass out of you and me, it’s Latinos.

Despite President Reagan’s famous statement that Latinos were Republicans who didn’t know it yet, they rejected the GOP in California and beyond for a generation after the passage of Proposition 187 in 1994. When Hillary Clinton supporters whispered during the 2008 presidential race that Latinos would never vote for a Black candidate, they gladly joined the coalition that put Barack Obama in the White House. Trump increased his Latino support each time he ran — to the point that in 2024, a bigger proportion of Latinos voted for him than for any previous Republican presidential candidate — even though Democrats insisted that Latinos couldn’t possibly stomach a man that racist.

Many Latinos hate being taken for granted and don’t like the establishment telling them how to think. It’s classic rancho libertarianism, the term I created in the era of Trump to describe the political leanings of the people with whom I grew up: Mexican Americans from rural stock who simultaneously believed in community and individualism and hated the racist rhetoric of Republicans but didn’t care much for the woke words of Democrats, either.

Such political independence exasperates political leaders, yet it’s long been a thing with Latino voters across the U.S. but especially in Texas and California, where Mexican American voters make up an overwhelming majority of each state’s Latino electorate. As Republicans in the former and Democrats in the latter launch their initial redistricting volleys, they seem to be forgetting that, yet again.

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), poses for a portrait in the Rayburn House Office Building in 2021.

(Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times)

The GOP is hoping voters in South Texas, one of the most Latino areas of the U.S., will carry their Trump love to the 2026 congressional races. There, two of the three congressional seats are held by Democrats Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, despite a swing from most of the region’s 41 counties supporting Hillary Clinton in 2016 to just five going for Kamala Harris eight years later.

In their new maps, Texas legislators poured more Republican voters into those South Texas districts. They also configured new districts in the Houston area and central Texas so that Latinos are now the majority, but voters favored Trump last year.

But a lawsuit filed hours after the Texas Senate moved the maps to Gov. Greg Abbott for his approval alleged that all the finagling had created “Potemkin majority-Latino districts.” The intent, according to the lawsuit, was to dilute Latino power by packing some voters into already Democratic-leaning districts while splitting up others among red-leaning districts.

The legislators especially threw San Antonio, a longtime Democratic stronghold that’s a cradle of Latino electoral power, into a political Cuisinart. Three Latino Democrats currently represent the Alamo City and its metro area: Cuellar, Joaquin Castro and Greg Casar. Under the new maps, only Castro is truly safe, while Casar is now in a district represented by Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who has announced he will retire.

“We have three Hispanic-predominated districts in South Texas that we believe we can carve out for Republican leadership,” state GOP Rep. Mitch Little bragged on CNN this month. “It’s good for our party. It’s good for our state. And we need to ensure that Donald Trump’s agenda continues to be enacted.”

The thing is, fewer and fewer Latinos are supporting Trump’s agenda. In Reuters/Ipsos polls, his Latino support dropped from 36% in February to 31% this month. Only 27% of Latinos approved of his performance in a Pew Research Center poll released this month.

If this slide continues through next year and Latinos continue to reject MAGA, Texas Republicans would have done Trump’s gross gerrymandering and sparked a nationwide legislative civil war for nothing.

In California, Latino voters are also crucial to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s redistricting push — but Democrats are hoping they’ll be GOP spoilers, despite their recent tack to the right.

Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley’s district would swing into Sacramento, picking up many more Latino voters than he now has in the majority white Eastern Sierra.

Proposed districts for Democrats Josh Harder and Adam Gray in Central California and Derek Tran in Orange County, all of whom the party is trying to buttress after they squeaked through in close elections in the fall, also include areas with more Latinos. A new congressional district in southeast L.A. County would probably be filled by a Latino Democrat.

Powerful Latinos in the state have already come out in favor of Newsom’s so-called Election Rigging Response Act, and the governor is counting on them to convince Latino voters to approve the maps in November.

But all this shuffling is happening a year after those very voters jolted state Democrats. Although the party still holds a super-majority in Sacramento, Democratic legislators serve alongside the largest number of Latino GOP colleagues ever. The biggest swings to Trump happened in areas with larger Latino populations, according to a Public Policy Institute of California report published last month.

The president’s popularity is especially souring in California due to his deportation deluge — but whether Latinos will support redistricting is another matter.

Although 51% of Latinos support Newsom’s performance, only 43% said they would vote yes on his redistricting push — the lowest percentage of any ethnic group, according to a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll conducted for the Los Angeles Times. The poll also found that 29% of Latinos are undecided on redistricting — the highest percentage of any group.

Such skepticism is the bitter fruit of a generation of Democratic rule in Sacramento, at a time when blue-collar Latinos are finding it harder to achieve the good life. Politicians blaming it all on Trump eventually created a Chicken Little situation that pushed those Latinos into MAGAlandia — and Newsom, by constantly casting redistricting as a necessary uppercut against Trump, is in danger of making the same mistake.

California Latinos have helped to torpedo liberal shibboleths at the ballot box more often than Democrats will ever admit. A Times exit poll found 45% of them voted to recall Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 while 53% voted yes on the anti-gay marriage Proposition 8 in 2008 even as a bigger majority voted for Obama. So egghead arguments about how redistricting will save the future of democracy won’t really land with the rancho libertarians I know. They want cheaper prices, and Trump isn’t delivering them — but neither is Newsom.

Latinos, as another cliche goes, aren’t a monolith. They could very well help Republicans win those extra congressional seats in Texas and do the same for Democrats in California.

But any politician betting that Latinos will automatically do what they’re expected to … remind me what happens when you assume something?

Dividend investing can be tricky, since income-focused investors want to find high yields while also avoiding stocks that end up cutting their quarterly payouts. There’s a balance that has to be found, and company quality is highly important to consider. That’s why you should be interested in dividend-paying healthcare stocks like Johnson & Johnson (JNJ 0.08%), Medtronic (MDT 1.66%), and Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI -0.38%).

If you have $500 in available cash (or $5,000) that isn’t needed for an emergency fund, to pay monthly bills, or to lower short-term debt, you might want to consider using it to buy and hold one of these dividend stocks (or maybe all three). 

1. Johnson & Johnson is a Dividend King

Johnson & Johnson’s big draw right now is two-fold. First, it has increased its dividend annually for more than 50 consecutive years, making it a Dividend King. Second, its 2.9% dividend yield is well above the 1.2% of the broader market and the 1.8% of the average healthcare stock. But the big story for buy-and-hold investors is really its business.

Johnson & Johnson is an industry leader in both the pharmaceutical and medical device niches. It has a global reach and industry-leading research and development (R&D) chops, making it a valuable partner to medical professionals around the world. The business will wax and wane over time, since R&D success can be lumpy. But it has a proven record of, eventually, either finding its own new blockbuster product or buying smaller peers that have novel product candidates.

There are some concerns right now about litigation around talcum powder to worry about, but if you don’t mind some near-term uncertainty, this high-yield and diversified medical giant is worth a deep dive. A $500 investment would buy you roughly two shares, with $5,000 allowing you to buy 27 shares.

Image source: Getty Images.

2. Medtronic is closing in on Dividend King status

Medtronic has a similar story to Johnson & Johnson, except that Medtronic is focused on just medical devices. That said, Medtronic is diversified across the cardiovascular, neuroscience, medical surgical, and diabetes niches. It has 48 years’ worth of dividend increases under its belt, and its 3% dividend yield is high relative to the market, the healthcare sector, and its own yield history. That last comparison suggests that Medtronic’s shares are on sale today.

There are some reasons for that, with the company only now coming out of a period in which it didn’t introduce many new products. Investors are in a wait-and-see mood, noting that rising costs have also put pressure on the company’s profitability. But new products are starting to gain traction, with demand for its new cardiac ablation products pushing that business segment’s revenue up nearly 50% year over year in the second quarter of fiscal 2026.

Management is working to improve margins by focusing on the company’s most profitable businesses. On that score, the company is spinning off its diabetes business in 2026, a move that is expected to immediately boost earnings.

A $500 investment will get you around five shares of Medtronic, and $5,000 will allow you to buy 55 shares. Either way, you’re still getting in early on the business upturn that’s starting to take shape right now.

3. Omega Healthcare is still standing tall

Johnson & Johnson and Medtronic are both appropriate for risk-averse investors. Omega Healthcare involves a little more risk. This real estate investment trust (REIT) is focused on owning senior housing, a property niche that took it on the chin during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. But, while some other senior housing REITs were cutting dividends, Omega stood behind its payment. It didn’t increase the dividend, mind you, but it didn’t cut the dividend either, showing that it understood just how important that dividend is to shareholders. The yield is currently an ultra-high 6.4%.

The good news here is that the world has moved past the worst of COVID-19, and the age wave that is cresting into retirement is already pushing a strong recovery in Omega’s core business. Funds from operations (FFO), which are like earnings for a REIT, rose nearly 8% year over year in the second quarter of 2025. The company is again starting to invest for the future, making over $500 million in new investments in the quarter.

With Omega’s business on the mend, the massive size of the baby boomer generation suggests that the future is going to be bright. You can buy roughly 11 shares with $500, or 119 with $5,000.

A high yield needs a strong business

The big story here is that Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, and Omega have all proven resilient to adversity over time. The long history of dividend hikes backs that up at the first two companies, and Omega’s ability to hold the dividend line through the pandemic proves its dividend bona fides. If you have $500 (or $5,000) to invest in dividend stocks today, any one of these healthcare stocks could easily find a home in your portfolio.

As a buy-and-hold investor, I closely follow my long-term investments through exchange-traded funds and retirement accounts. I’ve always followed a Warren Buffett-style of investing, in which I look for strong, profitable companies to hold over the long term.

However, I also recognize that tech stocks are way too important — and profitable — to miss out on. Tech stocks represent companies that are at the forefront of innovation and development, leading the world’s charge into the future. Without tech companies, we wouldn’t have a host of massively significant advances that we take for granted today — things like personal computers, online banking, 5G wireless service, the internet, smartphones, and GPS technology. Nor would we have the incredible types of tech that companies are still making rapid progress on today — such as cloud computing, the Internet of Things, generative AI, and autonomous vehicles.

Including strong, profitable tech stocks in your portfolio is one of the best ways to give yourself an opportunity to outperform the market. Consider that the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite is up nearly 18% in the last 12 months, handily outperforming the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500.

Three tech stocks that I think would be great choices for any retail investor’s portfolio are Nvidia (NVDA 1.65%), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM 2.58%), and Meta Platforms (META 2.04%).

Image source: Getty Images.

1. Nvidia

Semiconductor maker Nvidia is the biggest company in the world by market capitalization, so it naturally gets the top position on this list, too. While a recent pullback has driven the market cap from $4.4 trillion down to $4.2 trillion, the tailwinds that have propelled Nvidia’s upward over the last few years are still present — and they won’t be going away any time soon.

Nvidia designs graphics processing units (GPUs) that are used by data centers to provide the computing power required by a host of advanced computing tasks, such as training and running large language models (LLMs) and artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Nvidia’s GPUs are designed to be deployed in clusters of hundreds or thousands, boosting the parallel processing power they can apply to workloads. In addition, Nvidia’s CUDA platform provides libraries and tools for developers who are working on software that will be powered by its GPUs. It’s a popular platform with developers, and it’s only compatible with Nvidia’s chips. That added competitive advantage is one reason why I’m confident that it will continue to control the lion’s share of the GPU market for years to come.

Nvidia will release its results for its fiscal 2026 second quarter on Aug. 27, and I think it’s going to be another sterling report. I’ll also be looking carefully at management’s guidance, as the company is expected to resume selling its H20 AI chips to customers in China after being blocked from exporting them to that country earlier this year.

2. Taiwan Semiconductor

As the company that fabricates the advanced chips designed by Nvidia (as well as an array of other chip companies), Taiwan Semiconductor benefits from many of the same tailwinds as the GPU leader. But there are some differences between their businesses that make TSMC stock even more appealing.

As the world’s leading third-party chip foundry, Taiwan Semi manufactured nearly 12,000 products for 522 customers in 2024, employing 288 separate process technologies. It’s involved in about 85% of all semiconductor start-up product prototypes. In short, this is an ideal stock to own if you believe that the semiconductor business broadly will continue to grow, but you want to hedge some of your exposure away from Nvidia.

Taiwan Semi is also moving to limit its exposure to the trade war between Washington and Beijing, and to expand its manufacturing footprint further beyond the island of Taiwan, which China has designs on. The company is in the midst of spending $165 billion to expand its new manufacturing and R&D facility in Arizona and bring some of its most advanced fabrication processes to the U.S.

3. Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms, which operates Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, is the unquestioned king of the social media companies. On average, 3.48 billion people use its platforms every day — and that number is increasing. Its daily active user count was up by 6% in June from a year earlier.

The company leverages that massive audience — and the mountain of information it collects about them — into an impressive revenue stream. Ad impressions were up 11% in the second quarter from the previous year. Overall, Meta reported $47.5 billion in revenue in the second quarter, up 22% year over year.

Meta’s own artificial intelligence platform, Meta AI, has been driving a lot of its recent success. Meta AI’s chatbot can generate content, answer questions, and create images. The company also provides AI-powered tools to advertisers to help them reach the customers they want, making their ads on its social media platforms more effective.

Tech stocks to buy and hold

Companies in the tech sector must constantly innovate in their efforts to stay relevant, and their stocks can sometimes be volatile. But Nvidia, Taiwan Semiconductor, and Meta Platforms aren’t merely chasing trends — they’re shaping them. I expect that these companies will remain at the forefront of their industries as we move into the second half of the decade, and I view them as good bets to continue outperforming the market. That’s why I like them for any buy-and-hold portfolio.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a massive opportunity for investors. Just as the internet spawned several new industries, such as e-commerce and smartphones, AI will also create new industries in the next 20 years that don’t exist today.

Sticking with industry-leading tech companies that are enabling the AI revolution is all you need to do well. If you have a few thousand dollars you’re committing to a long-term investment plan, here are two AI stocks you can buy and hold for the long term.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC)

Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM 2.58%) have delivered outstanding returns for investors over many years. It’s the largest chip manufacturer in the world. Top AI companies like OpenAI and Alphabet‘s Google (GOOGL 3.10%) (GOOG 2.98%) are using TSMC to build their chips. This puts TSMC in a lucrative position to capitalize on the AI boom.

Importantly, TSMC’s long-term track record of delivering profitable growth is why you can sleep well at night investing in this stock. Over the last 10 years, revenue grew 14% on an annualized basis, and that includes a few soft demand cycles along the way, yet AI chip demand is causing revenue to accelerate. The company’s revenue grew 44% year over year in the most recent quarter.

The momentum continues to build for TSMC. For example, Google just announced its Tensor G5 AI chip will be made by TSMC and deliver improved performance for AI features on Google’s Pixel phones.

Meanwhile, ChatGPT maker OpenAI is tapping TSMC for its first custom AI chip. Given the lead times for making new chips, TSMC should be mass-producing OpenAI’s new chip in 2026. This is a positive indicator for TSMC’s future growth.

While some on Wall Street might be concerned about spending on AI infrastructure, including chips, running out of gas in the near future, the key signal for investors is that the largest tech companies continue to guide for more capital spending in data centers and AI infrastructure, which benefits TSMC. The company expects growth for advanced AI chips to increase more than 40% annually over the next five years.

Despite these demand trends, the stock is still reasonably priced. At a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 23, investors should continue to outperform the broader market with TSMC stock.

2. Alphabet (Google)

Alphabet is benefiting from multiple growth opportunities. The company hauled in $371 billion in trailing revenue over the last year from advertising, cloud computing, and AI. The stock also trades at a reasonable valuation that suggests it’s likely undervalued, especially as its cloud computing business continues to report strong growth.

Alphabet has more than 2 billion users across seven products, making Google one of the most valuable brands. Its investments in AI features are making its products more useful and driving solid gains for its core advertising businesses like Search and YouTube. Google Search reported another solid quarter of growth with ad revenue increasing by 12% year-over-year in Q2.

The company’s advantage in AI can be seen in the growth happening at Google Cloud. Cloud revenue grew 32% year-over-year last quarter, and this lifted the segment’s operating profit to $2.8 billion for the quarter, up from $1.2 billion in the same quarter last year. This shows businesses are increasingly choosing Google Cloud at a time when there is stronger competition than ever in the cloud market due to AI.

Alphabet said it will spend $85 billion in capital expenditures this year to meet cloud demand. Despite spending this huge amount on technology infrastructure, management expects the demand-supply situation for cloud services to remain “tight” entering 2026. This indicates incredibly strong demand that should see Alphabet’s cloud business continue to report high double-digit growth for the foreseeable future.

This echoes the strong demand for AI chips that TSMC is seeing in its business, and suggests that the AI opportunity is still in the early innings. Despite Alphabet’s strong competitive advantage with billions of people using its services every day, in addition to a booming enterprise cloud business, the stock trades at a reasonable forward P/E of 20. This makes Alphabet stock a solid long-term buy.

The growth of artificial intelligence (AI) is the biggest opportunity in technology since the internet and PC adoption in the 1990s. Top tech companies continue to report surging demand across cloud services, software, and semiconductors.

Investors who choose wisely among the top companies benefiting from AI adoption could make a fortune over the next decade. Here are two top AI stocks to help you profit from this opportunity.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. Applied Digital

There is massive spending pouring into data center infrastructure for AI. But as AI advances, it creates potential bottlenecks in power requirements and data center capacity. This is a huge opportunity for Applied Digital (APLD 1.78%) — a small but fast-growing data center builder with a market cap of $3.7 billion.

The Dallas-based data center operator has delivered tremendous growth over the past few years. While quarterly revenue can be lumpy due to the timing of revenue recognition from new projects, revenue has grown from $55 million in fiscal 2023 to $215 million in fiscal 2025 (which ended in June), and it grew 41% year over year in the most recent quarter.

The stock is volatile, which is evident in the company’s large operating losses. This results from high upfront costs to build new data centers. In the most recent quarter, Applied Digital reported a loss of $26 million. But this is not concerning because demand is robust for more data center power, and Applied Digital stands ready to supply it.

Goldman Sachs has found that data centers currently have about 55 gigawatts of power capacity, with 14% being used for AI. By 2027, the global power used by data centers will increase to 84 gigawatts, with AI’s percentage increasing to 27%.

Applied Digital recently signed a 15-year lease agreement with AI hyperscaler CoreWeave to deliver 250 megawatts of power for CoreWeave’s Ellendale, North Dakota, data center campus. CoreWeave just recently extended this agreement to 400 megawatts. For Applied Digital, this will help generate approximately $7 billion in contracted revenue over the lease term, which is a big deal for the company’s value.

AI chip leader Nvidia held a $77 million stake in Applied Digital stock in the second quarter. This is a huge vote of confidence by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in Applied Digital’s strategy to capitalize on this opportunity. It’s still early in this market. Investors will have to endure volatility in the share price, but patiently holding over the next 10 years could have a big payoff.

2. Microsoft

Microsoft (MSFT 0.56%) is a highly profitable business that makes it a great complement to a volatile stock like Applied Digital. The software giant is on pace to eventually take the No. 1 market-share position in the cloud-computing market. It has a large offering of software products to capitalize on the growing demand for AI.

A big advantage of Microsoft is that many businesses and individuals are familiar with its software. Windows, Office, and Teams are software products widely used by millions, if not hundreds of millions of people. This puts Microsoft in a lucrative position to benefit from growing adoption of AI, as it rolls out advanced features in the form of subscriptions through Copilot.

On the enterprise side, Microsoft Azure is experiencing strong demand. Azure and other cloud services revenue grew 39% year over year in the June-ending quarter. This is double the growth that competitor Amazon Web Services is reporting, positioning Microsoft Azure to take the lead in the not-too-distant future.

Azure’s recent growth is an acceleration from the 33% growth rate reported in the previous quarter, signaling that demand for AI remains red hot. But this growth shouldn’t come as a surprise, since most of the world’s data is still stuck in on-premise servers. The arrival of AI is clearly incentivizing more businesses to migrate to the cloud to take advantage of cutting-edge tools that can improve their efficiency, and this will continue to benefit Microsoft.

But Microsoft isn’t stopping there. Quantum computing is the next growth opportunity for cloud computing. Microsoft is partnering with Atom Computing on a quantum computer built on Azure Elements, which will be shipping to customers by the end of 2025. Earlier this year, Microsoft unveiled its Majorana 1 quantum chip to solve the most complex computing problems, positioning it to be a top player in this burgeoning market.

The ability for Microsoft to benefit from AI demand while generating growing free cash flow makes it a solid investment. It generated $71 billion in free cash flow on $281 billion of revenue over the last year, which is driving the stock higher.

The financial sector is dominated by big banks which mainly focus on generating stable profits instead of breakneck growth. However, a new generation of fintech companies — which are modernizing traditional payment and banking services with their tech platforms — are growing a lot faster than those aging industry leaders.

But it can be tough to separate the winners and losers in that fragmented fintech market. So today, I’ll discuss three potential winners which have plenty of long-term growth potential: Upstart (UPST 8.34%), Adyen (ADYE.Y 2.86%), and Nu Holdings (NU 1.94%).

Image source: Getty Images.

1. Upstart

Upstart is an online lending marketplace that uses AI to approve loans. Instead of using traditional data like an applicant’s annual income or credit score, it uses non-traditional data points like standardized test scores, GPAs, and previous jobs to approve a broader range of loans for younger and lower-income applicants with limited credit histories.

Upstart doesn’t provide any loans of its own. It only serves as an AI-powered middleman for its partners, which mainly include banks, credit unions, and auto dealerships. It generates most of its revenue by charging those partners processing fees for approving their loans.

Upstart suffered a severe slowdown in 2023 as soaring interest rates curbed the market’s appetite for new loans. But its growth accelerated again in 2024 as interest rates declined, and analysts expect its revenue and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) to grow at a CAGR of 36% and 245%, respectively, from 2024 to 2027. Those are incredible growth rates for a stock that trades at 21 times next year’s adjusted EBITDA. The near-term concerns about slower interest rate cuts are likely squeezing its valuations, but its stock could soar a lot higher once those headwinds dissipate.

2. Adyen

Adyen is a Dutch fintech company that doesn’t provide any consumer-facing payment apps. Instead, it develops backend software for processing payments, analyzing customer data, and organizing financial information. Its software works behind the scenes and can be directly integrated into a merchant’s existing online, mobile, and on-store payment platforms. It also enables merchants to develop their own digital wallets and branded payment cards.

That flexibility makes it popular choice for businesses that don’t want to lock themselves to a bigger payments platform like PayPal (PYPL 3.43%). That’s probably why eBay, PayPal’s former parent company and top e-commerce partner, chose Adyen to replace PayPal as its preferred payment platform in a five-year transition from 2018 to 2023.

Adyen’s revenue growth accelerated during the pandemic as more customers ramped up their online spending, but it suffered a slowdown in 2022 and 2023 as it lapped those gains. Rising interest rates, geopolitical conflicts, and other macro headwinds exacerbated its slowdown.

But Adyen’s growth accelerated again in 2024, and analysts expect its revenue and adjusted EBITDA to rise at a CAGR of 22% and 28%, respectively, from 2024 to 2027. Adyen still looks reasonably valued at 22 times next year’s adjusted EBITDA, and it should keep growing as it pulls more merchants away from centralized payment platforms.

3. Nu Holdings

Nu Holdings owns NuBank, the largest digital bank in Latin America. It’s based in Brazil, and it also provides its services in Mexico and Colombia. Without any brick-and-mortar branches, it expanded much faster than traditional banks. It served 122.7 million customers at the end of the second quarter of 2025, compared to 33.3 million customers at the end of 2021. As Nu gained more customers, it increased the stickiness of its platform with credit cards, e-commerce services, and cryptocurrency trading tools.

As a result, its average revenue per active customer (ARPAC) jumped from $4.50 in 2021 to $12.20 in its latest quarter. Its average cost for serving each customer also held steady, and its margins expanded. Nu has plenty of room to grow because about a quarter of Latin America’s adult population remains unbanked.

From 2024 to 2027, analysts expect Nu’s revenue and net income (which turned positive in 2023) to rise at a CAGR of 23% and 36%, respectively. Yet its stock still looks dirt cheap at 18 times next year’s earnings per share (EPS) — presumably because investors are concerned about the persistent inflation and political instability in its top markets. If you expect Nu to overcome those challenges — as it did in the past — then it deserves a much higher valuation.

Gavin Lux hit an early two-run homer and the Cincinnati Reds used three leadoff triples to beat the Angels 4-1 on Monday night.

TJ Friedl had a leadoff single in the first inning off Victor Mederos, making his second career start, and Lux followed with his fifth homer for a 2-0 lead.

Elly De La Cruz led off the fifth with his fourth triple this season before scoring on a sacrifice fly by Austin Hays to make it 3-1. Hays tripled in the third but was stranded.

Ke’Bryan Hayes hit the Reds’ third leadoff triple when center fielder Luis Rengifo let the ball get over his head in the eighth. Matt McLain’s sacrifice fly pushed it to 4-1. The three triples were the most for the Reds since they hit five in a 17-9 win over the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on July 13, 2019.

Brady Singer (11-9) went six innings for Cincinnati and yielded only an RBI double by Taylor Ward in the first. Singer is 3-1 in four August starts, giving up five runs over 21⅔ innings.

Scott Barlow replaced Luis Mey with two on and two outs in the eighth and struck out Jo Adell swinging to keep it 4-1. Barlow fanned three more in the ninth for his first save this season.

Mederos (0-1) gave up three runs on nine hits and three walks in five innings.

Key moment: Singer retired nine straight batters until Nolan Schanuel and Mike Trout hit back-to-back singles with one out in the sixth. Singer retired Ward on a shallow fly to right and struck out Yoán Moncada looking to keep it 3-1.

Key stat: The Reds used their ninth straight victory over the Angels to pull within one game of the Mets for the final National League wild card.

Up next: Reds RHP Hunter Greene (5-3, 2.47 ERA) starts Tuesday opposite Angels RHP Kyle Hendricks (6-8, 4.88).

Early results showed centrist Rodrigo Paz take the lead, with 32.8 percent of the vote, in surprise outcome.

Bolivia is heading to a presidential run-off between a centrist and right-wing candidate, confirming the end of two decades of government by the Movement for Socialism (MAS), according to the South American country’s electoral council.

With more than 91 percent of the ballots counted on Sunday night, preliminary results showed centrist Rodrigo Paz of the Christian Democratic Party (PDC) in the lead, with 32.8 percent of the vote.

Conservative former interim President Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, of the Alianza Libre coalition, was in second place, with 26.4 percent of the vote, meaning he will face Paz, the son of former left-leaning President Jaime Paz, in a run-off election on October 19.

Candidates needed to surpass 50 percent, or 40 percent with a 10-point margin of victory, to avoid a run-off.

Al Jazeera’s Latin America editor Lucia Newman, reporting from Bolivia’s Santa Cruz de la Sierra, said the early results confirmed that MAS, which has governed the country since 2005, is “out of the picture”.

But the “biggest surprise”, Newman said, is “that the frontrunner is none other than somebody who was polling between fourth and fifth place up until now”.

Paz is “more to the centre” than his father, Newman added.

Eight presidential candidates were in the running in Sunday’s presidential election – from the far-right to the political left.

Pre-election polls had shown Samuel Doria Medina, a wealthy businessman and former planning minister, as one of two frontrunners alongside Quiroga, who served as interim president and vice president under former military leader President Hugo Banzer.

Former leftist President Evo Morales was barred from running, and the outgoing socialist President Luis Arce, who had fallen out with Morales, opted out of the race.

The division within their leftist coalition, along with the country’s deep economic crisis, meant few expected MAS to return to power.

Official results are due within seven days. Voters will also elect all 26 senators and 130 deputies, and officials assume office on November 8.

Spiralling inflation

The Andean country has been struggling through its worst economic crisis in a generation, marked by annual inflation of almost 25 percent and critical shortages of US dollars and fuel.

Bolivians repeatedly took to the streets to protest rocketing prices and hours-long waits for fuel, bread and other basics in the lead-up to Sunday’s election.

Bolivia enjoyed more than a decade of strong growth and Indigenous upliftment under Morales, who nationalised the gas sector and ploughed the proceeds into social programmes that halved extreme poverty during his stint in power between 2006 and 2019.

But a lack of new gas projects under Morales, who was outspoken on environmental issues and climate change, has seen gas revenues plummet from a peak of $6.1bn in 2013 to $1.6bn last year.

With the country’s other major resource, lithium, still underground, the government has nearly run out of the foreign exchange needed to import fuel, wheat and other foodstuffs.

Thousands of protesters in Israel have taken to the streets demanding an end to the war in Gaza and a deal to free captives held there, as the military intensifies attacks on Gaza City to force tens of thousands of starving Palestinians to flee again.

Israeli schools, businesses and public transport have been shut down, with demonstrations planned in major cities as part of a national day of action by two groups representing a number of the families of captives and bereaved families.

Protesters, who fear further fighting could endanger the 50 captives believed to remain in Gaza, only about 20 of whom are thought to be alive, chanted: “We don’t win a war over the bodies of hostages.”

“Military pressure doesn’t bring hostages back – it only kills them,” former captive Arbel Yehoud said at a demonstration in Tel Aviv’s so-called “Hostage Square”. “The only way to bring them back is through a deal, all at once, without games.”

Police said they had arrested 32 as part of the nationwide demonstration – one of the fiercest since the uproar over six captives found dead in Gaza last September.

Sunday’s rallies came just days after Israel’s security cabinet approved plans to advance on Gaza City, nearly two years into a genocidal war that has devastated the enclave, left much of its population on the brink of famine, and led to Israel being increasingly internationally isolated.

At Tel Aviv’s so-called “Hostage Square”, activists unfurled a huge Israeli flag covered with the faces of captives still held in Gaza. Protesters also blocked major roads, including the highway linking Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where tyres were set alight and traffic came to a standstill, according to local reports.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents relatives of those held, declared a nationwide strike. “We will shut down the country today with one clear call: Bring back the 50 hostages, end the war,” the group said, pledging to escalate their campaign with a protest tent near the Gaza border.

“If we don’t bring them back now – we will lose them forever,” the group warned.

In Jerusalem, businesses closed as demonstrators joined marches. “It’s time to end the war. It’s time to release all of the hostages. And it’s time to help Israel recover and move towards a more stable Middle East,” said Doron Wilfand, a 54-year-old tour guide speaking to the AFP news agency.

Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat and consul general in New York, told Al Jazeera from Tel Aviv that while protests were spread across the country, turnout remained relatively small.

“The number of people is pretty small … I do expect it to increase during the day,” he said, noting many shops, restaurants and universities were closed, with public transport running at half capacity. “It’s not a general strike in the sense that people envisage, but it is palpable, it’s tangible, you can feel it in the air.”

On Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to the unrest, Pinkas was scathing. “Most prime ministers would have resigned after October 7th … He is not just another prime minister. He cares only about his survival. He is driven by some Messianic delusions of redrawing the Middle East.”

Pinkas added that Netanyahu was deflecting public anger by blaming “the elites” and a “deep-state cabal” rather than taking responsibility.

Israeli government condemns protests

President Isaac Herzog voiced support for the captives’ return, urging international pressure on Hamas rather than heeding calls to halt the war.

But senior government figures lashed out at the protests.

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich denounced them as “a perverse and harmful campaign that plays into the hands of Hamas,” while Culture Minister Miki Zohar said blocking roads “is a serious mistake and a reward to the enemy”.

Police reinforced their presence across the country, warning that no “public order disturbances” would be tolerated. Demonstrations were also held near the Gaza border, including in Beeri, a kibbutz badly hit during the Hamas-led attack of October 2023. At least 1,139 people were killed in that attack that triggered what campaigners say is Israel’s war of vengeance. More than 61,000 Palestinians have been killed, the majority women and children, in an Israeli offensive that has been dubbed genocide by multiple rights groups.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yaov Gallant have been issued arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.

Meanwhile, Egyptian officials said efforts were under way to broker a 60-day truce that would include captive releases. A previous round of talks in Qatar collapsed without progress. The last trace agreed to in January was broken by Israel in March.

Israel’s plan to expand the offensive into Gaza City has been met with international alarm, as United Nations-backed experts warn of famine across the territory.

German chancellor has arranged a series of meetings, beginning with European leaders and followed by a call with the US president.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will travel to Berlin for talks with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, European leaders and top United States officials ahead of a planned summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin later this week.

Both the German and Ukrainian governments confirmed the visit on Wednesday, which comes as Kyiv and its European allies push to ensure their voices are heard in discussions about ending the war.

Merz has arranged a series of virtual meetings, beginning with European leaders and followed by a call with Trump and US Vice President JD Vance about an hour later.

The day will conclude with a separate discussion among leaders of the so-called “coalition of the willing” – an assemblage of Western countries allied with Ukraine.

At a news briefing on Wednesday, Merz also pledged to help Ukraine develop long-range missile systems without Western-imposed restrictions on their use or targets.

Trump to meet Putin

Trump has described Friday’s summit with the Russian leader in Alaska as “a feel-out meeting” to gauge whether Putin is serious about ending the conflict.

But he has unsettled European allies by suggesting Ukraine will have to give up some Russian-held territory and by floating the idea of land swaps, without specifying what Moscow might surrender.

European governments have insisted Ukraine must be part of any peace negotiations, warning that excluding Kyiv could benefit Moscow.

On Monday, Trump declined to commit to pushing for Zelenskyy’s participation in his talks with Putin, saying a meeting between himself, Putin and Zelenskyy could be arranged afterwards.

Zelenskyy claimed he rejected an offer on Tuesday that Putin had proposed, where Ukraine would withdraw from the 30 percent of the Donetsk region it still controls as part of a ceasefire deal.

Kyiv and European officials fear that any US–Russia agreement reached without them could legitimise Moscow’s seizure of Ukrainian territory – including Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson – four regions which are partly occupied by Russia.

Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday said Trump and Putin would discuss “all the accumulated issues” at the meeting.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexei Fadeev also said that consultations requested by European countries were “insignificant”.

Russia’s position on ending its war on Ukraine was set out by President Vladimir Putin in June 2024 and has not changed, he added. Putin at that time demanded a full Ukrainian withdrawal from the four regions of the country that Russia has claimed as its own territory but does not fully control.

Fighting continues in eastern Ukraine

Meanwhile, fighting continues along the front line, with the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reporting 165 clashes with Russian forces over the past day, with the heaviest fighting in the Pokrovsk, Novopavlivka and Lyman sectors.

In the Kherson region, Russian forces used a drone to strike a civilian car on the Novoraisk–Kostyrka highway, killing a man and a woman, according to regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin on Telegram.

The Russian Defence Ministry said its air defences destroyed 46 Ukrainian drones overnight across Russian territory and the Sea of Azov.

Debris from intercepted drones fell on the roof of an apartment block in the southern city of Volgograd and in the yards of four residential buildings in Slavyansk-on-Kuban.

The AFP news agency has also reported that Ukraine is continuing to lose more ground, with evacuations in Bilozerske, while Ukrainian battlefield monitoring group DeepState reported that Russian forces had advanced in Nikanorivka, Shcherbynivka and near Petrivka in the Donetsk region.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian General Staff said its forces were engaged in “difficult” fighting near Pokrovsk in Donetsk, a key logistical hub for Kyiv’s forces, whose capture would deal a significant blow to its front-line defences and prospects at securing a favourable peace deal with Russia.

IPSWICH TOWN were unbelievably forced to hold their half-time team-talk on their team BUS due to a plumbing issue during their Carabao Cup clash with Bromley.

Championship outfit Ipswich travelled to Hayes Lane to take on League Two side Bromley in the first round of the competition.

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Kieran McKenna‘s side had been playing in the Premier League last season, lining up in stadiums like Old Trafford and the Emirates in front of tens of thousands of fans.

But the Tractor Boys were slapped in the face by the reality of the football pyramid when they found themselves taking on Bromley in their 1,300-seat Hayes Lane ground.

That reality hit even harder when they went in trailing 1-0 at half-time, only to be told they had to hold their team talk on their team bus due to plumbing problems in the changing rooms.

Their squad, which featured the likes of Ashley Young and Ben Johnson, had to cram onto the bus just so that they could use the toilet.

However, the unusual circumstances didn’t seem to immediately bother the travelling team as they came out swinging in the second half.

Former West Ham man Johnson netted an equaliser just nine minutes after the break.

That was only enough to force penalties as Bromley held firm to keep the game tied at a goal a piece.

Incredibly, Bromley seemingly pulled off the impossible as they came out on top in the test of nerves from 12 yards – knocking out their heavyweight opposition on a historic night for the club.

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The result will have been a frustration for pop superstar Ed Sheeran, a minority owner of Ipswich, who had made the journey to watch the game from the stands.

The first round of the Carabao Cup had already thrown up some madness throughout the evening.

Tranmere Rovers’ tie against Burton Albion was postponed because of a power cut at Prenton Park.

The clash was called off just 26 minutes before kick-off after a Scottish Power outage had left Tranmere unable to operate any tills, floodlights and some of the turnstiles.

Elsewhere Bradford City fans were hit by travel delays after a COW shut down the motorway en route to their tie against Blackburn.

A photo taken at the scene saw a marked vehicle attempting to guide the cow safely off the M62.

However, the animal’s wellbeing came at the expense of Bradford fans, who were left pressed for time ahead of a 7.45pm kick-off.

Many were left in gridlocked traffic as their movements ground to a halt.

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Russia says both sides affirm intention for Putin-Trump meet in Alaska on Friday, where Ukraine war set to be discussed.

The top diplomats from Russia and the United States have held a phone call ahead of a planned meeting this week between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In a post on Telegram on Tuesday, the ministry said Sergei Lavrov said the two sides had reaffirmed their intention to hold successful talks. The US Department of State did not immediately confirm the talks.

But speaking shortly after the announcement, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt revealed that Trump would meet with Putin in the city of Anchorage. She said the pair would discuss ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“On Friday morning, Trump will travel across the country to Anchorage, Alaska for a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin,” Leavitt told reporters.

She added that Trump “is determined to try and end this war and stop the killing”.

On Monday, Trump told reporters he was “going to see” what Putin “has in mind” when it comes to a deal to end the fighting.

Trump also said he and Putin would discuss “land swapping”, indicating he may support an agreement that sees Russia maintain control of at least some of the Ukrainian territory it occupies.

Kyiv has repeatedly said that any deal that would see it cede occupied land – including Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia – to Russia would be a non-starter.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw from the remaining 30 percent of the Donetsk region that Ukraine controls as part of a ceasefire deal, saying the position had been conveyed to him by a US official.

He reiterated Ukraine would not withdraw from the territories it controls, noting that such a move would go against the country’s constitution and would serve only as a springboard for a future Russian invasion.

Moscow has maintained that any deal must require Ukraine to relinquish some of the territories Russia has seized since 2014. He has also called for a pause to Western aid for Ukraine and an end to Kyiv’s efforts to join the NATO military alliance.

Friday’s planned meeting will be the first time Putin has been in the US since 2015, when he attended the UN General Assembly.

The pair met six times during Trump’s first presidency, including a 2018 summit in Helsinki, during which Trump sided with Putin – and undermined the US intelligence community – by saying Russia did not meddle in the 2016 election.

SEOUL, Aug. 12 (UPI) — South Korean President Lee Jae Myung will travel to Washington to hold a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump on Aug. 25, Lee’s office said Tuesday, with trade and defense issues expected to be at the top of the agenda.

The three-day visit will be Lee’s first trip to the United States since taking office in June, presidential spokeswoman Kang Yu-jung said at a press briefing.

“The two leaders plan to discuss ways to develop the Korea-U.S. alliance into a future comprehensive strategic alliance in response to the changing international security and economic environment,” Kang said.

“They will also discuss ways to further strengthen the robust South Korea-U.S. combined defense posture and to cooperate to establish peace and achieve denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula,” she added.

The summit comes weeks after Seoul and Washington struck a trade deal that lowered Trump’s threatened 25% tariffs on South Korean goods to 15%. As part of the package, South Korea pledged to invest $350 billion in the United States and to purchase $100 billion in U.S. energy.

Based on the tariff deal, Trump and Lee will consult on economic cooperation in semiconductors, batteries and shipbuilding, as well as partnerships in advanced technologies and key minerals, Kang said.

The future of the decades-old South Korea-U.S. military alliance is also expected to be in the spotlight as the two countries prepare to kick off their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield joint exercise on Monday.

During his previous term in office, Trump called for massive increases in Seoul’s financial contribution for the 28,500 U.S. forces stationed in Korea.

Seoul signed a new five-year cost-sharing agreement with Washington in October, but Trump has suggested he would look to renegotiate the terms of the deal amid calls for allies to increase their defense spending.

“South Korea is making a lot of money, and they’re very good,” Trump told reporters at a Cabinet meeting in the White House last month. “They’re very good, but, you know, they should be paying for their own military.”

On Friday, Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, discussed the need to restructure the military alliance in response to an evolving regional security environment.

“Alliance modernization … reflects the recognition that the world’s changed around us,” Brunson told local reporters at a press briefing in Pyeongtaek. “We have a nuclear-armed adversary who’s north of the border. We have increasing involvement of Russia, along with the DPRK, and we also have the Chinese and the threat that they pose to a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.

Brunson avoided the question of a potential of U.S. troop reduction on the peninsula, stressing military capabilities and strategic flexibility over numbers ahead of the Lee-Trump summit.

“We’re going to have two chief executives sitting down together to discuss not only the security situation in the region, but the security situation in the world,” he said. “For us, it’s about the capabilities. We want to have the right capabilities resident on the Peninsula.”

Lee will be in the United States from Aug. 24-26 for his summit with Trump. In response to local media reports that Lee may also stop in Japan around the time of his U.S. trip, presidential spokeswoman Kang said that nothing had been confirmed.

Boxers Shigetoshi Kotari and Hiromasa Urakawa died following fights on the same card in Tokyo last week.

Japanese boxing officials will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday as the sport in the country faces intense scrutiny following the deaths of two fighters in separate bouts at the same event.

Super featherweight Shigetoshi Kotari and lightweight Hiromasa Urakawa, both 28, fought on the same card at Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall on August 2 and died days later following brain surgery.

The Japan Boxing Commission (JBC), gym owners and other boxing officials are under pressure to act and will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday.

They are also expected to have talks about safety next month, local media said.

“We are acutely aware of our responsibility as the manager of the sport,” Tsuyoshi Yasukochi, secretary-general of the JBC, told reporters on Sunday.

“We will take whatever measures we can.”

Japanese media highlighted the risks of fighters dehydrating to lose weight rapidly before weigh-ins.

“Dehydration makes the brain more susceptible to bleeding,” the Asahi Shimbun newspaper said.

That is one of the issues the JBC plans to discuss with trainers.

“They want to hear from gym officials who work closely with the athletes about such items as weight loss methods and pre-bout conditioning, which may be causally related (to deaths),” the Nikkan Sports newspaper said.

In one immediate measure, the commission has decided to reduce all Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation title bouts to 10 rounds from 12.

“The offensive power of Japanese boxing today is tremendous,” Yasukochi was quoted by the Asahi Shimbun as telling reporters.

“We have more and more boxers who are able to start exchanges of fierce blows from the first round. Maybe 12 rounds can be dangerous.”

The exercise coincided with President Ferdinand Marcos’s departure for a five-day trip to India, where he said he would look to deepen maritime ties.

India and the Philippines have staged their first joint sail and naval exercises in the disputed South China Sea.

The two-day joint military deployment that kicked off on Sunday is likely to anger China, which claims nearly the entire key waterway and has separate territorial disputes with the two Asian countries.

Philippine Chief of Staff Romeo Brawner Jr said on Monday that the joint sail took place inside his country’s exclusive economic zone.

“We did not experience any untoward incidents, but there are still those shadowing us – as we had already expected,” Brawner told reporters, without naming China.

In past joint patrols with other foreign navies, Chinese navy and coastguard ships have kept watch from a distance, according to the Philippine military.

Indian navy ships that took part included guided missile destroyer INS Delhi, tanker INS Shakti and corvette INS Kiltan. The Philippines deployed two frigates, BRP Miguel Malvar and BRP Jose Rizal.

The exercise coincided with President Ferdinand Marcos’s departure for a five-day trip to India, where he said he would look to deepen maritime ties and seek cooperation on sectors including defence, pharmaceuticals and agriculture.

Brawner, meanwhile, expressed hope that Filipino forces could engage India’s military in more joint manoeuvres in the future.

The drill “sends a powerful signal of solidarity, strength in partnership and the energy of cooperation between two vibrant democracies in the Indo-Pacific”, he said.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that territorial and maritime disputes should be resolved between the countries directly involved, and no third party should intervene.

In response to a question last week about the Philippines’ plans to build up military cooperation, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense called the country a “troublemaker” that has aligned itself with foreign forces to stir up trouble, in what China deems its own territorial waters.

“China never wavers in its resolve and will safeguard national territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, and take resolute countermeasures against any provocations by the Philippine side,” spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang had told reporters.

The South China Sea is a strategic shipping route where $3 trillion of annual shipborne commerce takes place.

A 2016 ruling of an international arbitral tribunal found China’s sweeping claims have no basis under international law, a decision Beijing rejects.

Andrew Benintendi had a double and a home run, Lenyn Sosa also homered among his two hits, and the Chicago White Sox beat the Angels 6-3 on Friday night.

White Sox starter Shane Smith gave up two runs and two hits while striking out four over 4⅓ innings in his first start since July 11 following a stint on the 15-day injured list. Jordan Leasure (4-6) earned the win in relief, striking out four in 1⅔ innings.

Benintendi and Sosa each hit solo home runs in the second inning off Angels starter Tyler Anderson (2-7), and Luis Robert Jr. had a sacrifice fly drove Miguel Vargas home in the fourth inning to make it 3-0.

Gustavo Campero‘s second home run of the year, a two-run blast to deep center field in the fifth, got the Angels within one, but Colson Montgomery answered with a deep homer of his own in the sixth inning.

Campero’s baserunning error prevented the game-tying run from scoring in the seventh, ending what was a bases-loaded, one-out threat for the Angels.

Logan O’Hoppe scored on Zach Neto‘s sacrifice fly to bring the Angels within one again, and Nolan Schanuel appeared to drive in Travis D’Arnaud with a two-out single, but Campero was thrown out at third prior to d’Arnaud crossing the plate.

Sosa had an RBI single in the eighth and Josh Rojas added a solo homer in the ninth.

Steven Wilson got the last six outs for his second save of the year for Chicago (41-69).

Mike Trout did not play for the Angels (53-57) because of illness.

Montgomery continued his second-half tear with a solo home run, which represented his 18th RBI since the All-Star break. He is now tied with Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber for the most RBIs since the break.