Weekly Selection

The US lives in China’s world. Stealing secrets from the US government has never been easier. When AI’s power grows, so does our workday. The new travel warnings are for the US. 5 hard truths about marriage (and relationships).[...]

Renewed optimism about Europe. The USD: an exorbitant privilege or an exorbitant burden? MAGA’s line of fire turns to universities. The failure of modern liberalism. Meta’s methods revealed.[...]

Trump’s US is spiralling into tyranny - but ways to stop it do exist. The fallout from the Trump-Zelensky debacle: a sense of profound shame. How Covid 19 re-shaped American society - and not for the better. What does a post-Churchill-Zelensky look like? Can those pushing back against harmful wellness advice succeed?[...]

It’s useless to look for a grand policy plan coming from the White House - there isn’t one, beyond self-aggrandisement. Why Germany must seize the moment to safeguard Europe’s future - or else. Rather than re-building, Musk and DOGE are unravelling  both institutions and civic trust. AI's coming of age in five important areas of medicine. The astonishing ripple effect of the Danish wonder drugs.[...]

Competitive authoritarianism’s threat to US democracy. The sacrifice of Ukraine to Trump’s Russian reset. The global economy paying for China’s economic errors at home. The human traits that will be most prized in an AI dominated labour market. How to survive the onslaught of bad news.[...]

Lessons to be learned from Trump's tariff drama. The end of the rule-based order. And is democracy done for too? How Bill Gates saw the future. Have the technologies of connection and communication torn us apart? [...]

Could Trump’s anti-globalism have negative repercussions for the US? A sobering caveat about the potential catastrophic consequences if the US gets the future context for AI wrong. Is the US learning from Asian oligarchies? Is Big Tech destined to eat itself alive? Stark revelations of a key MAGA leader's plans for the new Trump era.[...]

Nobel laureate sees tough social consequences of Trump 2.0 economics. The only safe place to be in the AI race in intelligence is ahead. Why has the Israel-Hamas truce deal happened now? The true price of a $12 Shein dress. Better health and wellbeing could be only 35 steps away.[...]

Far from out of the geopolitical woods - we’re heading back into the law of the jungle. The paradox of American power in context. Trump’s ‘peace through strength’ strategy heralds anything but. Think twice before embarking on a ‘glowing up’ journey. It would be far better for you to take a caring journey into nature.[...]

For Putin, it’s the point of no return. Populism doesn’t last for ever. The environment: the good news among the bad news. The German model is failing. And the Internet misses the point.[...]

How to find hope in an age of resentment; how to identify the eight headwinds that threaten global growth; how to make the case for improved globalisation; how to make sense of what just happened in Syria; and how to pick 52 interesting things.[...]

What the OECD sees in store for the global economy. Inflation surprises fuel populist support. Find the creativity burgeoning below the algorithms. Why domesday ‘prepping’ is innately American. The healing power of music.[...]

The grim reality of Europe’s economic problems. Why Trump’s presidency will see a rise in crony capitalism. What will Putin do next? No one really knows. What are microplastics doing to our health? No one really knows. What’s cooking in Silicon Valley kitchens?[...]

The possibility of a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine with a DMZ. How the ‘diploma divide’ destroyed support for the Democrats. Can we shape AI for better not for worse? The lure of longevity. How forgetting can in fact help our brain function.[...]

The end of US exceptionalism. Hope for constructive climate action is waning fast. It’s hard to grasp what its hosts hope for COP29. Beware the pitfalls of AI search. The power of storytelling persists - how to do it well.[...]

What brought the US to the brink of authoritarianism. Five geopolitical questions that political leaders must address and which of them are on Trump’s winning side. The power and influence of social media imagery. The idea of ‘field theory’.[...]

The economic importance of inclusive institutions. Signs that the US political system is drifting into autocracy. What happened at OpenAI. Why reading matters. Could pop-up restaurants be here to stay.[...]

There is an economic storm brewing. New economic fault lines emerging. Whatever the outcome, the post-election US will be increasingly divided and dysfunctional. Abuse of wellness can be a source of sickness. How to get the best out of stress.[...]

How viable is a market for ‘conservation’? Can Europe create an innovation economy? Does AI hold the key to productivity growth? Should AI weapons be allowed to decide to kill? We probably have no choice. Seven ways to love better. [...]

The new era of net mortality will require major adaptation. A perilous new era for planet Earth. A caveat about the power of AI to destroy human kind from within. How will China’s ‘anaconda’ in Taiwan play out in the long term? Some guidance for the path ‘beyond religion’. [...]

Why the green transition risks being held hostage to geo-economic security. But why tariffs don't make economic sense either. Why a 'strategic vacuum’ hovering between two world orders makes halting war in the Middle East so difficult. Why the technology has made finding Mrs or Mr right harder than ever. Why grasping the science of life is no easy matter. [...]

A new trilemma dogging the world economy. What democratic governments must do to resist and reverse the political inroads of big tech. A detailed portrait of Giorgia Meloni. Revelations about Total Energies’ dealings in Mozambique pose far-reaching questions relating to human rights and security. Inflammation has the capacity to help us heal but it can also do much harm. [...]

Democracy and our very capacity to communicate are under threat from a new generation of bots. A perspective from which population decline is a good thing. Political uncertainty risks costing France its status as a core EU asset. Three tips to win an argument. What makes a memory real? [...]

Population decline counts economically, and needs to be taken into account. Keynes' organic theory of society helps explain the enduring appeal of live performances. The exorbitant costs related to ports becoming pawns of geopolitics. What the future holds for today’s new borns. We can work on, even ‘work out’ our drive to seek positive emotions and the happiness that comes with them. [...]

If everything is a national security issue, nothing is a national security priority. Economic analysis might be better if underpinned by complexity theory rather than the search for equilibrium. Smart phones replacing smart parenting. Ageing spikes at 44 and 60 worth knowing about. Why today fascination with and affiliation to the Faustian tale is stronger than ever. [...]

Chinese economy stuck in a quagmire of overcapacity. Global food supplies on the point of radical transformation. The reasons behind pronatalism. Beware ‘moral fading’. Perfumes for dogs don’t smell good. [...]

A class of politically powerful ‘giant’ companies, not ‘big’ government, is quashing ‘animal spirits'. Political violence on the rise. The ‘secrets' of living longer are relatively simple and not secret, they're not big business either. But there are leading roles for AI and friends. [...]

Rising inequality - a danger to democracy. Vance as VP will implement the MAGA project 2025 to the letter. How China is remodelling itself as a tech, green giant. Open AI coming close to being able to reason like us. A list to indulge in - 100 best books of the 21st Century. [...]

India courting a ‘coalition of the unwilling’. Political unrest, wherever, is nearly always fuelled by economic anxieties. ’Stuckopia’ can be the pre-cursor of ‘dystopia’ - but it doesn’t have to be. A portrait of a president. A check list to rumble bad arguments. [...]

Frustration and a lack of hope are pushing young voters right. Industrial policies are back. Desperate resort to AI warfare in Ukraine is weaponising consumer technology in unprecedented ways. The devil is in the detail - Bernard Arnaud’s mantra for success. The lure of analogue activities to right the life-screen balance. [...]

How to dispel disappointment with democracy. Cultural shifts that are impacting birth rates - everywhere. The impact of the top 10 technologies of 2024. Top Israeli names decry the US Senate invitation to Netanyahu. Shedding new light on the importance of the brain’s nocturnal 'waste clearance system’. [...]

Why the dollar is still ’top’. Will 2035 see a ‘Japanification’ of China? Why social media should have a (mental) health warning. It’s the WBGT (wet-bulb global temperature) that matters. The health-enhancing power of trees. [...]

A likely war is not an inevitable one. Markets are wary of a weakening France. Big tech suffocating the disruptors. Fall out when financial systems feel the heat. Battery innovation.[...]

Exporting can't solve China’s economic issues. Incumbents are faring badly in 2024 elections, the European elections will be no exception. If the technology exists it will be used. Nigel Farage and the ’Trumpification’ of the UK Conservative party. A young male mental health crisis going largely unnoticed.[...]

The potential price for the rest of the world of Trump’s America first. What today divides the sexes? Is the end of greenwashing in view? What unites disparate conspiracists? Deciphering the glorious logic of animal patterns.[...]

How best to assess the 2nd Cold War? What lies at the heart of the new 'politics of gold'? Notes from Norway - a more equal country. How recognising randomness can encourage both gratitude, empathy and determination. Why we all need time alone… and without our phones.[...]

The power and importance of hope. The power of geo-economics. US tariffs on China: meanings and implications. Does ‘entropy’ characterise the new world ‘order’? The new Google AI tool set to change the ‘world order’ of the internet.[...]

The history of world energy is entering a new era of renewables. Climate scientists now say temperature rising beyond well beyond 1.5 C is inevitable. Learning from history: Cold War II with China. How bad really are ultra-processed foods and why? The late Daniel Kahneman helps us understand how we think.[...]

What Trump 2.0 would look like - according to Trump. Why a strong dollar weighs on the rest of the world. China’s vision and how it’s getting there. The need for nuance when diagnosing and treating ‘anxiety’. Cellular and molecular processes offer more proof of the benefits of exercise.[...]

Radical change required for Europe in a world (economy) where the key players no longer play by the old rules. Why geopolitics is now fundamental to global businesses. Al Gore puts his faith in human nature. Venice’s 5€ response to over-tourism - will others follow suit? How science fiction provides the vision for our real future.[...]

The scope and scale of the climate crisis’ impact on the world economy. How miscalculation risks escalation in the Middle East. Russia’s secret foreign 'policy’ plan to undermine US global dominance and re-align the balance of power. Do longer lives inevitably include difficult last years? What’s behind senior execs' new obsession with weights? [...]

Unlike in the past, technological innovation, our era’s engine of progress, risks provoking cultural and political regress. Will Europe’s economy surprise its naysayers in 2024? How the big tech giants are breaking the rules in their desperate quest for (our) digital data. What is causing cancer in today’s young? Could co-operation rather than competition be the secret to survival?[...]

The race is on between green technology and political backlash. Protopias outlining a hopeful future. How to build cyber resistance. How to reap the benefits of exercise for our brains. One author's view from the deck of the biggest cruise ship ever to sail.[...]

Why a global trade backlash is brewing against China. The increasing clout of the ‘middle powers’. A Nobel economics laureate rethinks economics. Why our digital tools sometimes create more problems than they solve. Figuring out why we age.[...]

Geo-economic fragmentation does impact firms’ financial results. Connected and cheap weapons could pose an existential threat to the sophisticated US defence system. How to give away a fortune. Frictionless payments make it too easy to spend too much. MAGA conspiracists - crazy but dangerous and potentially decisive.[...]

The impact of dramatically falling birthrates - almost everywhere. What could the de-dollarisation of the global economy look like? A new Iran might be coming into view - but what will it look like? How milk has entered the culture wars. Why memory is more about now than then.[...]

US Stock-Market disconnect. The Middle East power vacuum. ‘Last-chance' tourism. Dishabituate to learn to enjoy again. The benefits of not-so ’small’ talk.[...]

How to close the green investment gap. Don’t bank on interest rates cuts yet. Giving nature a market value is the only way to protect it. The rich and very personal stories now up for grabs thanks to the ad tech ecosystem. How to become a 'supercommunicator’.[...]

Ukraine under attack from the ‘weak man’. How the Jevons Paradox impacts the green transition. How AI is turbocharging chipmaking. Spring clean to avoid bureaucratic creep. The dangers of doom scrolling.[...]

Can today's US productivity good news story become a permanent narrative? Why today’s chaotic times can be likened to a ’neo-medieval’ era. The story of Palantir and AI in Ukraine on the battle field and well beyond. The story of small and smart states. The incredible tale of MrBeast.[...]