Artificial intelligence investment boom is fuelling US growth as Trump doubles down on AI bet • Data suggest that tech sector has been main contributor to US growth so far this year • Consumption is getting a lift too, via a stock market propelled by bets on AI despite worries of bubble bursting

"China can produce almost a terawatt of renewable-energy capacity in a year. That is enough to supply as much energy as more than 300 big nuclear-power plants." www.economist.com/leaders/2025... I love The Economist's bullishness here

Despite US tariff turmoil, global activity has proved quite resilient so far this year • Efforts to make stocks ahead of tariffs, alongside US dollar depreciation, have played a role here • Weaker greenback typically benefits emerging markets through boost for dollar-borrowers’ balance sheets

Russia's main tank producing company Uralvagonzavod is planning on laying off 10% of its work force in 2026. This is likely linked more to the railway section of the company but still isn't a good look mid war if railway car demand is dropping. www.kommersant.ru/doc/8181859

Huge Nexperia news The Netherlands is prepared to suspend a ministerial order that gave it control over Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia if chip shipments resume in the coming days

KAL's cartoon in The Economist this week

In some US states data centres consume more than one-third of power supply • Power use from data centres is becoming sensitive issue as some argue AI is driving up electricity prices • Some utility firms now require data centres to pay upfront for electricity, even if they end up using less

Suggestions that AI could boost productivity by up to 20% may well be overblown • Experienced software developers tend to forecast and report that AI speeds up their work by about 20% • Yet recording how long AI-aided task actually takes shows AI slows developers by 20%

This would be extremely interesting if true, but that's a big if www.newscientist.com/article/2503...

US aid cuts are devastating health services across Africa • America used to supply more than two-thirds of bilateral aid for public health in sub-Saharan Africa • Impact of cuts is obscured by fact that data systems to track disease used to be paid for by American aid

As soon as Trump rolled out his "reciprocal" tariffs, I warned that they would be unlikely to survive court challenge. SCOTUS reaction during oral arguments today suggests that's right. Unfortunately there are other ways that Trump can impose tariffs. Congress needs to stop him. wapo.st/4lcJ2fw

US pharma to abandon UK unless NHS pays more, says Trump’s ambassador www.politico.eu/article/us-p...

Solar looks set to become the world's largest source of green energy by 2030 • Large-scale manufacturing has driven cost of solar panels down by about 99% since 1970s • Shift has been huge in Europe, where countries have supercharged buildout to ditch expensive natural gas imports

Skilled workers are increasingly shunning America and Britain as top place to emigrate to • In 2008 more than one-tird of educated young adults picked US or UK as top destination • Share has dropped to 23%, with Canada among biggest beneficiaries from loss in US and UK allure

"Every week that passes costs the economy anywhere from $10 billion to $30 billion, based on analysts’ estimates, with several landing in the $15 billion range." Unfathomable. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Some pretty useful charts in this Martin Wolf column on tax including UK's tax burden is close to the median for advanced economies; UK taxation has reached high levels by historical standards; and the top 10 per cent of earners pay 60 per cent of income tax on.ft.com/47nYFvX

Ukraine's funding gap, including cash and arms, could stand at around US$389bn in 2026-29 • That is almost double the roughly US$206bn that Europe has supplied since early 2022 • EU's ability to help Kyiv finance war will test of Europe's willingness and ability to count on global scene

France's budget drama will come at steep cost for public finances • Political instability and loss in investor confidence are fuelling borrowing costs • France's ten-year borrowing costs are now roughly on a par with those of Italy

Qu'attendre de la décision de la Cour suprême, attendue mercredi, sur la légalité des tarifs douaniers de Trump ? J'ai été ravie de discuter de ce sujet dans Affaires Etrangères @franceculture.fr ce weekend avec C. Ockrent, A. Deysine, E. Chelle et F. Pisani

"Economists calculate that the AI boom accounted for more than half of America’s 1.6% growth rate over the first six months of 2025" How? 1. Investment: data centres, IT, software 2. Wealth effect: booming AI stocks → people feel richer → consume more www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

People around the world are getting (a bit) less grumpy, worried and stressed • Negative feelings are back to pre-covid levels, below where they would be if earlier trend had continued • Age also plays role, with oung adults everywhere angrier than older people and middle-aged folks most stressed

"“Our negotiators had never seen this before in any international talks,” said one European official. “People being summoned to the U.S. Embassy in London — intimidation, threats of cessation of business, threats of family members losing visas.”

Qu'attendre de la décision de la Cour suprême, attendue mercredi, sur la légalité des tarifs douaniers de Trump ? J'ai été ravie de discuter de ce sujet dans Affaires Etrangères @franceculture.fr ce weekend avec C. Ockrent, A. Deysine, E. Chelle et F. Pisani

My latest: Move over bat tunnel, here’s the wild story of how HS2 were forced to build a multi-million pound bridge for a road that… doesn’t actually exist.

"State-owned giants such as Sinopec and PetroChina Co. are staying on the sidelines, having canceled some Russian cargoes in the wake of US sanctions...Smaller private refiners, dubbed teapots, are also holding off, fearful of attracting similar penalties.." www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

In 2030 data centres could consume about 10% of US electricity supply as US doubles down on AI • Half of Americans say they do not want data centres to be built near them • Data suggest fears that data centres fuel rise in electricity prices are overblown, however

" #Finland plans to exclude high-risk vendors from a bigger portion of its fifth-generation mobile network in line with a push by the #EU to boost telecommunications security across the bloc" www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Maduro’s government received between $1.8 billion and $2.2 billion tied to licensed foreign oil activities in both 2023 and 2024, according to estimates from Aurora’s Hernández. Chevron accounted for most of that revenue. www.wsj.com/business/ene...

”Shy of thy poorness never be; be calm, be glad, be free." #Finland's national poem Maamme (Our Land) contains this small sentence, which made me think about the country's national character and life philosophy. My latest for The @economist.com. www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

Very interesting piece, Jamaica’s finance minister Fayval Williams sounds impressive. Curious what other countries have similar disaster risk insurance plans www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/w...

KAL's cartoon in The Economist this week

2️⃣🎤 How should the European Union react to the economic pressure of the Trump 2.0 era? 🗣️ @agathedemarais.bsky.social (@ecfrgeotech.bsky.social) | Senior Policy Fellow, @ecfr.eu

Just two decades ago, China had little capacity to manufacture cars — and owning one was considered a novelty. Today, China produces and exports more cars than any other country in the world. Meanwhile we in Europe still pretend we can somehow stop EVs from taking off by holding on to old tech.

¿Pragmatismo o rendición? Tuvo el placer de debatir sobre el impacto de la política económica de Trump en las economías europeas con Joaquín Almunia y Marta Blanco en Madrid - Lea más sobre nuestra conversación en este artículo de @elpais.com 👇 @ecfrmadrid.bsky.social elpais.com/economia/202...

Valuing Amazon forest as if it were an economic asset could make its preservation economically rational • Amazon provides ~$40,000 of value/km² per year, giving it a fair asset value of around US$3trn • If forest were destroyed, any chance of meeting goals of Paris COP agreement would disappear

US-China tariff wars are increasingly spilling over into other areas • Washington-Beijing tensions could push US to double down on fossil fuels in bid to ditch China's clean tech • Chinese leverage lies with critical raw minerals (incl. rare earths), cheap consumer goods and medical kit

Chinese exports to the US are dropping, but they are not sinking • China’s sway over sectors like electronics means US firms cannot ditch Chinese goods entirely • Data show how tariffs are not enough to convince US firms to switch to non-Chinese suppliers

Despite Beijing's huge investments, Chinese semiconductors are still not on a par with US-designed ones • Median performance of Chinese AI chips isjust 114 teraflops (a trillion calculations per second) • Virtually all US-designed chips from Nvidia and AMD offer higher levels of performance

Currency movements explain apparent recent drop in US dollar share of global currency reserves • Raw data suggest drop in US dollar share of reserves to 56.3% at end-Q2, from 57.8% at end-Q1 • Yet after holding exchange rates constant the drop was only minimal - of just 0.1 percentage point

The US is increasingly flying blind for weather, climate and disaster analysis • Since early 2025 hundreds of federal websites have erased text or deleted datasets related to climate change • Noaa, the parent agency of the National Weather Service, has lost thousands of staff this year

China is not exactly struggling to reroute its goods exports away from America • So far this year China's exports have grown by 8% year on year despite a 27%-drop in US-bound shipments • Beijing can likely endure US tariff pain - the real question is whether US export controls on key tech will bite

US government appears keen to take on China's global domination over shipbuilding sector • 35% of global vessels are made in China these days, with share set to rise further in coming years • Chinese-owned or Made In China ships could face regular taxes upon docking in US ports

AI-led growth in data centres is fuelling global rush towards gas turbines • In US roughly half of electricity that data centres consume comes from natural gas • By 2030 global data centres’ electricity use could reach equivalent to Japan’s power consumption today

Fiscal and debt metrics vary greatly across G7 economies • Canada is (by far) best-in-class outlier, with low net government debt and comparatively low fiscal deficit • France is laggard with high debt, huge fiscal deficit and little political room to address situation

Chinese shipbuilders produce more than half of global vessels these days • Many of China's shipbuilding firms are state-owned and receive public subsidies/cheap loans • Economies of scale that Chinese shipyards have achieved make it hard for global firms to compete with them

Great piece by @agathedemarais.bsky.social. Canada's quite march to geo-economic resilience offers a roadmap to the EU and beyond. The key is to recognize that a. the post war bargain is over b. believe you have agency to forge a new path. foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/20/c...

The Ontario ad is accurate. Heck it is Reagan’s own words. Reagan was a free trader. Very different from Trump. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

The Mediterranean Sea is warming at a much faster rate than the global average • In June sea surface temperature reached 27°C in western Mediterranean, 3.7°C. above average • Global warming-fuelled atmospheric changes mean there is more energy over Med Sea, fuelling intense storms

excellent survey. We have to do what we can, and we are. But none of this will change the reality of our huge dependence on the US market