It's @foreignpolicy.com free week: all pieces are free to read, with no paywall or need to log in - on this occasion I'm re-upping my third most popular column ever, outlining how strains on the Russian economy were accumulating last Fall (and it's now much worse)

Women’s use of AI is perceived as a sign of incompetence, while men’s use of AI is seen as an indication of initiative. 🤦🏻‍♂️

AMERICA SHOULD NOT IMPRISON FRONTIER AI I have a leader in @economist.com this week on the lessons from Fable, for America and everybody else. A few core ideas in a thread below, and you can read the full leader here: www.economist.com/leaders/2026...

It's @foreignpolicy.com free week: all pieces are free to read, with no paywall or need to log in - on this occasion I'm re-upping my third most popular column ever, outlining how strains on the Russian economy were accumulating last Fall (and it's now much worse)

Wowsers. Even though causality is always complex, that’s a big effect. From @soumayakeynes.ft.com column on the interactions between weight and the labour market www.ft.com/content/a7a9...

Trump discloses 327 unreported stock trades made a day before his first tariff pause www.nbcnews.com/business/mar...

KAL's cartoon in The Economist this week

It's @foreignpolicy.com free week: all pieces are free to read, with no paywall or need to log in - on this occasion I'm re-upping my most popular column ever, outlining how the initial US-Russia peace deal last year came with a US$300bn signing bonus for Trump

Trump's factory boom is only in his head cepr.net/publications...

Quantum computing could be next tech boom after AI • Google and IBM target delivery of useful machines by 2030, focusing on highly-advanced applications • Quantum and AI are interlinked, as quantum devices could help to generate new data for AI models to learn from www.ft.com/content/7e46...

as.ft.com/r/4fbeeb6f-8... OpenAI proposes handing Trump administration 5% stake

It's @foreignpolicy.com free week: all pieces are free to read, with no paywall or need to log in - on this occasion I'm re-upping my most popular column ever, outlining how the initial US-Russia peace deal last year came with a US$300bn signing bonus for Trump

It's @foreignpolicy.com free week: all pieces are free to read, with no paywall or need to log in - on this occasion I'm re-upping my second most popular column since 2023, on how Canada may not be doing too badly in terms of fending off Trump's economic coercion tactics (happy Canada day!)

Russian Urals oil is now below $45 or around 3500 rubles per barrel. The Russian budget is based on 5500 rubles per barrel ($59 per barrel and 92.2 exchange rate). Link to source: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

It's @foreignpolicy.com free week: all pieces are free to read, with no paywall or need to log in - on this occasion I'm re-upping my second most popular column since 2023, on how Canada may not be doing too badly in terms of fending off Trump's economic coercion tactics (happy Canada day!)

If a picture is worth a thousand words (of alt text) it's this one. The UK's lack of Brexit preparation was pretty wild. But I also think prep isn't all that decisive when you're the junior partner, asking for things the bigger one isn't minded to give you. ✍️ www.linestotake.com/p/preparatio...

Chinese AI models are just a few months behind American ones • GLM 5.2, DeepSeek V4 pro and Kimi K2.6 are almost as good as Opus 4.8 and ChatGPT 5.5 • China's advanced models are about ten times cheaper than their US competitors, outlining China's "good enough" bet www.economist.com/china/2026/0...

The EU approaches finance for the economy it used to have, not the one that will decide power in 2040 - for @ipq.bsky.social I argue that budget choices, joint debt and the digital euro may decide if Europe remains a great power or slips into the middle-power league

Our new issue features contributions from @pawelzerka.bsky.social @lucyaash.bsky.social @nvondarza.bsky.social @agathedemarais.com @henninghoff.bsky.social @josephdeweck.bsky.social @rebeccawire.bsky.social @fraghi.bsky.social @veghzsuzsanna.bsky.social & more! ip-quarterly.com/en/ipq-summe...

Health #misinformation does incredible harm. 26% believe autism / vaccine lie ‼️ 24% believe COVID vaccine changes DNA ‼️ 27% believe COVID vaccine killed more than COVID ‼️ These are Flat Earth level misbeliefs. Lies that kill. #VaccinesWork

An extraordinary cancer stat recently just dropped: zero. That’s how many UK women in their early 20s died from cervical cancer between 2020-24. My latest @opinion.bloomberg.com is on 20 years of HPV vaccines--& how the US could better maximize the potential of this critical public health tool (🎁):

New post, on why we should stop telling people the normal distribution is in places that it isn't: kucharski.substack.com/p/no-the-nor...

Most AI models lean sharply left (even Grok) • Apart from DeepSeek V3.2, they all strongly favour affirmative action for women and minorities • Grok is more centrist than others on economic matters, but it is socially just as liberal as the rest www.economist.com/briefing/202...

Russian ammonium nitrate production for the period January-May 2026 decreased by 9% to 4,7 million tons. In April 2026 the drop was 11% and for May 2026 14%. The drop is due to damage by UAVs to plants and export limits as in 2025 1/3rd of production was exported.

The EU approaches finance for the economy it used to have, not the one that will decide power in 2040 - for @ipq.bsky.social I argue that budget choices, joint debt and the digital euro may decide if Europe remains a great power or slips into the middle-power league

GOOD NEWS! A personalized mRNA vaccine, known as mRNA-4157, has shown promise in keeping melanoma, a deadly skin cancer, from returning. FIVE years later, NEARLY 70% of people in the vaccine group are CANCER-FREE. The vaccine also cut a person’s risk of the cancer metastasizing by NEARLY 60%.

Combined with debt rise, drop in Chinese birth rate will put pressure on next generations • Shrinking population will hit consumption and Beijing’s ability to repay debt from 2040s • China is betting on robots to make up for lost labour force, but shift may also kill jobs www.ft.com/content/c873...

This is literally how the English Civil War started.

Russia's diesel production is dropping amid Ukrainian drone strikes on refineries • Oil-products output plunged by 13.5% year on year in May after 9.1% decline in April • Two-thirds of regions report shortages or fuel rationing, lifting gasoline prices and inflation www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Next, cancer treatment will be prescribed by a random jury of plumbers and hair-dressers.

Coming El Niño could be strongest ever, further lifting global temperatures • Forecasts for rest of 2026/early 2027 suggest rise in Pacific sea-surface temperatures of 2.5-3°C • That would be unprecedented in 75 years for which scientists have been keeping records www.economist.com/science-and-...

Ukrainian drone strikes are having huge toll on Russian refineries • At least two-thirds of regions are reporting shortages, with many introducing rationing - a red flag for social stability • Russia's oil products output dropped by 13.5% year on year in May www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Russian authorities have announced a state of emergency in occupied Crimea. They’re telling the people it’s for “economic issues”. Translation: no fuel, electricity supplies failing, food running out. If they think it’s an emergency now, give it a couple more days of Ukrainian strikes.

lol, nicely pitched. NB This line of argument is already an axis of conflict, as there are emerging fights over leveraging AI in the world of Accommodations. This is one of several reasons why theories of AI that only see top-down imposition are missing how its diffusion is happening.

There is a lull (for now) in sovereigns having no option but to restructure their debt. And there is a boom underway in private and/or collateralised lending to sovereigns away from bond markets. These may be connected... good round-up on that www.ft.com/content/784c...

Ukrainian drone strikes are having huge toll on Russian refineries • At least two-thirds of regions are reporting shortages, with many introducing rationing - a red flag for social stability • Russia's oil products output dropped by 13.5% year on year in May www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Here is the cover of our Summer issue! Available on Tuesday, read contributions on the EU’s search for new partners from @jbenford-berlin.bsky.social, @nvondarza.bsky.social, @agathedemarais.com, Swati Prabhu, and Takahiro Tsuchiya.

🥵Why are so many Europeans/Britons unnecessarily sweating through a heatwave without cooling? Why are portable AC units so crap? The answers are both interesting and maddening. My latest on air conditioning👇 edconway.substack.com/p/the-missin...

Octopuses use microbes to “taste” their surroundings with their arms

Beijing is struggling to translate its rising global trade footprint into greater use of its currency, writes @agathedemarais.com.

KAL's cartoon in The Economist this week

China's dedollarisation efforts are stalling as few global firms are rushing to adopt the renminbi, CIPS or the e-yuan - in my latest for @foreignpolicy.com I outline how Beijing is learning the hard way that demand, unlikely infrastructure, cannot be built to order

The thing to know about the elderly is that they lose the ability to sense heat with age. So they are likely cooking to death before they realize they are hot. It's why you often find dead elderly heat stroke victims with the windows closed and no AC on. It's why check ins are so important

Dollaren er den seneste periode blevet styrket - hvor den igen måske alligevel anses som en sikker havn. De voldsomme told-elementer som Trump havde forsøgt sat i sving er også svækket betragteligt. Og så har Kina måske også mindre held med at gøre deres valuta central. bsky.app/profile/agat...

What does matter to the UK economically - the relative performance of China and Europe, the way governments interact with the large companies that dominate our economies, movement of people, which sectors are attractive to investors... bsky.app/profile/agat...

194 banks directly on CIPS. Almost all Chinese. Just two US banks, two Eurozone banks, three Japanese. You can build the rails. You cannot compel anyone to ride them.

China is quietly winning global AI race • Chinese models are not far behind US ones performance-wise, and they are 30-60 times cheaper • Many firms could choose good-enough Chinese AI instead of expensive (and seemingly unreliable after Fable 5 export controls) US models www.ft.com/content/1d37...

Reuters: UK, France, and Germany missions raise alarm about Chinese activities off eastern Taiwan – ‘“We have noted with ​concern novel Chinese activity in the waters east of Taiwan,” the de facto British, French and German embassies in Taipei said in a rare joint statement.’

China's dedollarisation efforts are stalling as few global firms are rushing to adopt the renminbi, CIPS or the e-yuan - in my latest for @foreignpolicy.com I outline how Beijing is learning the hard way that demand, unlikely infrastructure, cannot be built to order

China's gross fixed capital formation officially dropped by 0.8% in 2025 for first time since 1989 • Decline could reflect under-reporting, as well as possible data revisions • Xi called for crackdown on excessive industrial competition, hitting out at "wasteful spending" www.ft.com/content/7db7...