KCNA, Aug 31 — N. Korea's foreign ministry said the Trump administration's confrontational stance toward N. Korea remains unchanged, accusing the US of violating North Korean sovereignty, political system and security through “human rights” activities and military threats. The ministry said US words and actions are a structural source of regional instability and warned Washington's policy will not change; Pyongyang said it will more resolutely and clearly exercise sovereignty to defend national

Swiss National Bank governing board member Chu Ding says medium-term price pressures have changed little.

Politico reports monthly electricity bills have become a new electoral flashpoint, prompting North American and European leaders to act to contain power costs. In the UK, Prime Minister Andy Burnham scrapped a power tax shortly after entering Downing Street; France’s National Rally leader Le Pen proposes cutting power taxes and exiting the European electricity market. In the US, voter anger over data centers’ potential to raise bills forced Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro and Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott to impose restrictions on high‑energy facilities they had previously backed. Populists from US progressives to Germany’s AfD are using high power prices as a mobilizing issue. Eurasia Group chairman Gerald Butts says multiple macro and micro factors are elevating electricity’s importance and that exponentially higher electricity demand over the next 25 years is a reasonably reliable bet. Separately, Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz did not push oil to the $150 many analysts expected, a signal that oil may be less geopolitically constrained and less indispensable than before.