Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed the Munich Security Conference, stating Europe's fate remains intertwined with the US while criticizing what he called a shared Western values drift. The diplomatic message offered reassurance to allied leaders but did little to temper their growing push for independence from Washington on strategic matters.

A procession of tech industry leaders including Elon Musk and Tim Cook are sounding alarms about a global crisis in the making. The shortage of memory chips has begun to hammer profits, derail corporate plans and inflate price tags across multiple sectors, with executives warning the crunch will intensify despite industry efforts to expand production.

The semiconductor shortage is now affecting everything from laptops and smartphones to automobiles and data centers, forcing companies to either pay premium prices for components or delay product launches. Industry analysts expect the bottleneck to continue until production capacity catches with surging global demand across multiple consumer and industrial markets.