| I’m Lara Williams, and this is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a procurement of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. Sign up here. There’s nothing like living near Russia to make you feel exposed. It’s why the Finns are so good at prepping. It’s also why Europe wants to have a fully functional “drone wall” by the end of 2027. It’s sorely needed, as demonstrated last month when Vladimir Putin began sending drones to probe NATO airspace over Poland, Romania, Denmark and Germany. But, in the same way that Europe’s defenses aren’t fit for modern-day warfare, neither is its slow and bureaucratic procurement process. Ukraine — which knows the pain of living next to a country that will just invade you, unprovoked — and its startups have been forced into shedding that system in favor of a more agile approach. As Marc Champion sees it, Europe could learn a lot from the nation as it debates building its protective drone wall.  General Cherry’s signature Air, interceptors are largely manual and each requires a pilot to operate. Source: General Chereshnya For example, Kyiv has created an internal Amazon of sorts, called Brave1 Market, where companies can sell directly to brigades. “It’s worth looking at whether Ukraine’s digital marketplace for drones can be rolled out at a pan-European level … sourced from companies across the continent to create both scale and competition,” Marc writes. Ultimately, Europe won’t be able to achieve its ambitions without including and integrating Ukraine. Though Europe increasingly needs Ukraine to aid its own defense goals, the Eastern European nation is still in need of financial help. The government in Kyiv has drawn down most of its International Monetary Fund financing and faces a $65 billion shortfall through 2027. Meanwhile, as US allocations have dried up under President Donald Trump, Europe has been left to fill the gap — and it’s not nearly enough. One solution, however, looks attractive both in size and in symbolism. With an estimated €210 billion ($245 billion) in Russian frozen assets, EU officials are considering unlocking about €135 billion in interest-free “reparations loans” to Ukraine by swapping cash assets for guarantees to Belgium’s Euroclear — effectively using Russia’s billions to help defend Ukraine. The Editorial Board writes that “European leaders should work out the remaining obstacles to the loans as swiftly as possible.” With winter drawing closer, there’s no time to waste.  | | | It seems lately that all conversations these days somehow lead to a discussion about artificial intelligence (AI), whether it’s at the pub, on a hike or at a dinner party. Is that a sign of a bubble? The dot-com bubble occurred during my formative years, when I was much more interested in Play-Doh and Playmobil than websites, and I definitely wasn’t around during the tulip mania of the 17th-century Netherlands, so I don’t personally have a lot of bubble experience to compare it to. But there seems to be clear signs that I'm witnessing one now. Take Fermi Inc., the latest AI-adjacent energy company to launch an initial public offering. It has all the hallmarks of a bubbly IPO: a weird trademarking of the basic concept of resiliency under “HyperRedundant,” a vague stated mission, a co-founder who used to be a politician and a valuation of $17 billion — higher than some established utilities — despite having zero revenue. It wants to develop a data center and energy campus in the Texas panhandle to host up to 11 gigawatts of generating capacity by 2038, powered by nuclear, solar and gas. But despite that, Liam Denning writes that the IPO does tell us something useful. The AI boom is defined by a desire to deploy capacity yesterday, hence hyperscalers are moving quickly to secure power from existing or recently retired nuclear plants or signing huge deals for gas-fired turbines. Fermi has followed that playbook, securing a huge site in the heart of gas country with water access, a long-term gas supply contract and over a gigawatt of capacity it can deploy within 12 months. This approach, Liam explains, “says a lot about the stress building on the grid and how companies are being forced to adapt.” I — according to our AI quiz — am a Pro-Human Idealist. I therefore question the wisdom of supporting an industry that is sucking up precious grid capacity to, as far as I can see, largely enable the generation of slop and porn, and to contribute to growing mental health concerns, when it could be used for any number of more essential things. I mean, I’m not one to turn my nose up at pasta but I’ll pass on the *squints* tortigelle spinat: But electricity isn’t the only resource being diverted to AI. Demand for water is soaring as Fermi and others add more and more data centers to Texas’s already-large collection. As Mark Gongloff writes, the state’s existing centers could use 25 billion gallons of water this year. That pales in comparison to water use from industry and agriculture, but creates a problem when you consider that water supplies are being stretched perilously thin. Climate change, which is heating the state and making rainfall less predictable, only serves to make the problem more severe — and make the area less enticing for investors. Perhaps it’s just me, but I’d rather be able to shower than watch a deepfake of Henry VIII playing basketball with Kobe Bryant. Every pet owner has a tale about having to pay exorbitant fees for something stupid their loved one has done. My childhood cat, Wilbur, came to us distressed one day, sneezing and with a bloody nose. One surgery and large credit card bill later, it was revealed that he had simply got a piece of grass trapped in one nostril — too far up for any of us to see or reach. The cost was worth it, of course, but I dread to think what it’d be these days as UK vet bills have risen much faster than overall inflation. Chris Bryant writes about concerns that large private equity-owned groups are overcharging pet owners. Happily, the Competition and Markets Authority has proposed some reforms to make pet care more affordable and competitive. Sadly, Chris finds them underwhelming. Perhaps those vet bills wouldn’t seem so bad if you’d had the foresight to stash some gold before its record-breaking run. But if you haven’t, then you’re not alone. As Shuli Ren points out, a whopping 39% of money managers have no gold holdings meaning they’ve missed out on the bull market. Now Wall Street is having to adapt to the new normal. The $11 billion Oura Ring is finding its voice. — Parmy Olson Delaware will keep the corporations because it must. — Justin Fox The era of the illiquid millionaire is here. — Allison Schrager The Gaza peace plan will fail without US troops. — James Stavridis This year’s Economics Nobel holds a warning for the US. — Adrian Wooldridge Diane Keaton is proof that Hollywood needs rom-coms again. — Jason Bailey Bessent is reverting to his hedge fund ways with Argentina. — Jonathan Levin What climbing 214 mountains taught Sarah Green Carmichael about goals. Mark Carney has learned lots of things from Trump. Birth defects plague South Sudan’s oil patch. 1990s nostalgia is yet to peak. Evolution keeps creating crabs. The quest for lab-grown babies. 65 essential books to read to your kids. Mind your eyes if you’re playing pickleball. Notes: Please send pet stories and feedback to Lara Williams at lwilliams218@bloomberg.net. 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