EU Outermost Regions Strategy: The European Commission unveiled a new strategic vision for its outermost regions—including Martinique—aimed at stronger support, resilience, and fairer opportunities. The plan pairs a strategy with proposed targeted tweaks to EU rules for realities on the ground, covering areas like agriculture, forestry, fisheries, migration, and taxation. Geostrategy & Market Access: The Commission wants to better align EU internal and external policies to deepen regional integration, while boosting competitiveness and access to the single market through smart specialisation in fields such as the blue economy, renewable energy, biotechnology, research, and space. Resilience & Preparedness: A major focus is climate adaptation, biodiversity protection, disaster response, energy autonomy, and safeguarding critical infrastructure like ports and submarine cables, alongside food security. Mobile Data Costs (UK study): A new Broadband Genie ranking of 3,446 SIM-only tariffs across 234 “countries” put the UK at 46th for average mobile broadband cost—about $0.27 per 1GB—though the study’s lack of weighting and other caveats mean results should be treated cautiously.