The Trump administration is wielding the possibility that parts of the economy are in a recession as it raises pressure on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, hoping to ensure that the central bank will bear the blame for any economic weakness.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Stephen Miran, President Trump’s appointee to the Fed’s Board of Governors who is on a temporary leave from his job leading the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, this week struck a downbeat tone about the health of the world’s largest economy. Mr. Bessent went so far as to say some sectors were already contracting. He did not specify which sectors, but high mortgage rates have put housing and adjacent industries such as construction under pressure.

“I think that there are sectors of the economy that are in recession,” Mr. Bessent said on CNN on Sunday. He described the economy as being in a “period of transition” because of a pullback in government spending to reduce the deficit. He called on the Fed to support the economy by cutting interest rates.

Mr. Bessent’s remarks added to pressure on the Fed and deflected blame from Mr. Trump in case the economy does ultimately face a downturn, reinforcing a strategy that has been in place since the start of the year. As the administration has imposed aggressive tariffs on nearly all of America’s trading partners and slashed federal spending, potentially slowing growth, it has sought to pin blame squarely on the Fed in the event of an economic downturn.

Read it all.

New w/ @arappeport: The Trump admin is wielding the possibility that parts of the economy are in a recession in an attempt to raise pressure on the Fed to cut rates. The hope is that the central bank will bear the blame for any downturn https://t.co/KWNqktMXov @nytimes

— Colby Smith (@colbyLsmith) November 4, 2025

President Trump’s global tariffs ran headlong into a skeptical Supreme Court on Wednesday, with justices across the spectrum expressing doubt that a 1970s emergency-powers law could be read to provide the president unilateral authority to remake the international economy and collect billions of dollars in import taxes without explicit congressional approval.

But even if the court strikes down the tariffs Trump initiated on his self-declared Liberation Day last April, the justices gave little indication how they might unwind the president’s signature economic policy and favorite diplomatic tool. That left unclear whether previously paid duties would be refunded or whether Congress could be invited to step in, perhaps by ratifying the levies retroactively.

“It seems to me like it could be a mess,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett said during the later stages of an oral argument that ran nearly three hours.

Solicitor General John Sauer took heat from all sides as he pressed the administration’s argument: that the president’s power to regulate foreign financial transactions when he declares an emergency includes the authority to impose tariffs. Tariffs were taxes, a majority of justices agreed, and many were dubious that Congress would so casually surrender to the executive its core constitutional power to raise revenue.

“The Constitution is structured so that if I’m going to be asked to pay for something as a citizen, that it’s through a bill that is generated through Congress,” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor. “But I’m not going to be taxed unless both houses” of Congress and the president “have made that choice.”

Read it all.

And that is a wrap on the SCOTUS arguments.

After that argument, if I were the Trump Administration, I'd be burning the midnight oil over the next couple of weeks drawing up tariff backup plans. A clear majority of the Justices appeared skeptical that IEEPA authorizes the type…

— Peter Harrell (@petereharrell) November 5, 2025

The financing package stitched together for Meta’s humongous Hyperion data center campus in Louisiana made Alphaville curious about just how much energy the new AI infrastructure will consume if it all comes online.

After all, massive new projects are being announced almost every week, in what even KKR’s digital infrastructure lead called a “bragawatts” phenomenon in MainFT on Monday.

The latest example is OpenAI on Thursday revealing plans for a 1+ gigawatt data centre hub in Michigan. Together with previously announced “Stargate” projects this brings the total to over 8 gigawatts — close to the 10 target it floated earlier this year. This will cost over $450 billion over the next three years, according to the company that spends more on marketing and employee stock options than it makes in revenue.

So how many data center projects have now been started or announced? Which ones will actually happen and which ones are fantasy? As Barclays noted last week, tracking “what is real vs. speculative is a full-time job”, but the bank has forced some poor sell-side plebs to at least tally all the announcements and collect some rudimentary details.

So what is the total so far? With OpenAI’s Michigan project they now total 46 gigawatts of computing power. Apologies for the virtual shouting, but this seems a bit mad.

These centers will cost $2.5 trillion to build, according to Barclays, to service an industry that still doesn’t turn a profit. But the maddest bit arguably is how much energy they will require once completed. Using Barclays’ 1.2 “Power Use Effectiveness” ratio, all these data centres — if they are all completed — would need 55.2 gigawatts of electricity to function at full capacity.

If we also use Barclays’ rule of thumb that 1 gigawatt can power over 800,000 American homes, it means that these data centres will consume as much energy as 44.2 million households — almost three times California’s entire housing stock.

Read it all.

Hyperscalers announced new data centres with 46GW of computing power

>Cost: $2.5tn to build
>Require 55GW to 65GW of base load electricity

That's more than the total installed capacity of Poland or Sweden, 6 times New Zealand or Singapore, 50% of UKhttps://t.co/7j43C7QUwV pic.twitter.com/LrEfaKvpEk

— Assaad Razzouk (@AssaadRazzouk) November 4, 2025

Week two of the assisted suicide Bill Select Committee in the House of Lords showed that when Parliament hears from those most at risk, the Bill’s argument collapses. Disability rights campaigners, human rights experts, and mental health specialists gathered to reveal the dangers, shattering the illusion of effective safeguards.

The week began with evidence from leading palliative clinicians, care providers, and a representative from Age UK. Dr Sam Ahmedzai, a pro-assisted suicide doctor, acknowledged that “there will be mistakes and casualties” if the Bill passes. Even he, an assisted suicide fan, could not hide the reality. People would die who should not.

Baroness Hayter, a stalwart of the pro-camp, unwittingly admitted that it is very hard to safely legislate for introducing assisted suicide. Pro-assisted suicide Justice Minister Sarah Sackman floundered, offering evasions and vague complaints about the current law’s “conundrums” and “real difficulties” but few answers. Sackman’s silent sidekick, Paul Candler, spoke for less than 30 seconds during the 75-minute session.

A senior representative from Mind outlined threats to suicide prevention efforts. Dr Sarah Hughes said that Mind simply cannot support the Bill in its current form. Jurisdictions that have legalised assisted suicide have seen the law expand quickly, she said, and assessments by video call are utterly insufficient. Cherryl Henry-Leach, Chief Executive at Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse, summarised this well by stating, “It will be very difficult to deliver assisted dying safely”.

Paralympic legend and member of the House of Lords Tanni Grey-Thompson delivered one of the committee’s most emotional interventions. She branded the Bill “a danger to disabled people,” explaining through obvious emotion how parents fear how their adult children with Down’s syndrome will be treated if they outlive them. Baroness Grey-Thompson dismantled the Bill’s six-month prognosis safeguard, calling it “arbitrary” and a “best guess,” and warned it would not protect disabled people at all. She told her fellow parliamentarians that no disability organisation supports the Bill.

Read it all.

Those most at risk from this law are clear that assisted suicide is unsafe, writes @fleurmeston https://t.co/fTiDsUwZbL

— The Critic (@TheCriticMag) November 3, 2025

Valerie Ferebee rummaged through the front seat of her car searching for a pack of cigarettes as she sat outside Tanger Outlets. Everything she and her husband Milton own is in their Ford EcoSport, so it took her a few minutes to find them.

The four-door crossover has been their home for more than a year.

Once she found the Newport Menthol Greens in a side pocket, she pulled one out to light. She took a drag and considered their living situation.

“Disgusting. Degrading. Shameful. Humiliating,” she said. “I mean, I don’t know what word to use … I feel sort of stuck.”

Valerie and Milton are just two of thousands who have been evicted in the Charleston area. North Charleston once had the highest eviction rate in the country in 2016 with more than 3,600 tenants being evicted, according to data from Princeton University’s Eviction Lab.

In South Carolina, evictions are the ‘scarlet E’ that never go away https://t.co/9OutCBsLNF

— The Post and Courier (@postandcourier) November 2, 2025

The church is medieval (the earliest parts are 900 years old) but is not a place that rests on its historic laurels. It wants to welcome people and “express the love of God”.  

According to Roger Goodden, who is in charge of the fabric of the church, St Andrew’s  “is simply wishing to link with and be a friend to the rest of the community and to spread the gospel.”  

Oakington is a village in South Cambridgeshire, with a population of just 1,400 and St Andrew’s aims to share the presence of God with the rural community. As part of this call, the church hosts a summer garden party, a harvest and other concerts organised by the community, and performances from visiting choirs. 

If you’re going to do these things, you need a good heating system, not just a missional heart. “The better the facilities, the more welcoming we are as a church”, says Roger.  

Formerly, the church was heated by electric panels on the back of the pews. These dated back to the 1990s and had become notoriously unreliable.  

“The whole system was subject to breakdowns,” says Roger, “and whole sections of pews could lose their heating….” 

Read it all.

#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/J0U6bUmCEX

— St Andrew’s Church, Oakington (@StAndrewsOaky) January 28, 2021

At that hearing, Mr [Edward] Dobson said that the “starting point” was that evidence was to be taken in private, on the grounds that this would better protect children and young adults, and that the question whether the default should be for public hearings had been considered by the Synod (Synod, 12 July 2024).

The Measure, given final approval in February (News, 14 February), will now have to be considered further. The intention is that it will replace the Clergy Discipline Measure 2003.

Redress Scheme reviewed. The Ecclesiastical Committee took evidence this week on the Measure to introduce the Redress Scheme for abuse survivors, which was finally approved by the Synod in York in July (News, 18 July). Despite the raising of concerns at a hearing on Tuesday about a data breach by the law firm administering the scheme, the Committee is expected to give the Measure the green light to become law.

In August, it was announced that the email addresses of people who had signed up for updates on the scheme had been disclosed in a data breach by Kennedys, the firm administering the scheme (News, 29 August).

Read it all.

The Ecclesiastical Committee (MPs and Peers who advise on whether draft Measures approved by General Synod should be approved by Parliament) is expected to send the draft Clergy Conduct Measure (CCM) back to the General Synod. V unusual.https://t.co/nr8Et6xThU

— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) October 31, 2025

Across India’s sprawling landscapes, Christian organizations are stepping up with urgency and creativity to confront the mounting challenges posed by climate change. 

Their work spans everything from solar-powered schools and rural farming projects to national climate declarations and interfaith advocacy, positioning faith-based groups at the forefront of India’s green revolution.

India’s Catholic institutions have become unlikely climate champions. In the western provinces, Jesuit Father Frazer Mascarenhas coordinates the Ecology Platform for the Jesuit West Zone: “About 60 institutions have achieved zero electricity bills for quite some time and demonstrated that it is a viable project to save the only home we have — the fragile Earth,” Mascarenhas explained in a recent interview. 

Vinayalaya, a Jesuit-run center in Mumbai, is now fully powered by solar energy. The project aims to solarize all 110 Jesuit schools, seminaries and residences in four provinces by 2027.

Read it all.

Across India’s sprawling landscapes, Christian organizations are stepping up with urgency and creativity to confront the mounting challenges posed by climate change https://t.co/mbDQGY1BiE

— Religion Unplugged (@ReligionMag) October 31, 2025

The nation’s largest employers have a new message for office workers: help not wanted.

Amazon.com said this week that it would cut 14,000 corporate jobs, with plans to eliminate as much as 10% of its white-collar workforce eventually. United Parcel Service said Tuesday that it had reduced its management workforce by about 14,000 positions over the past 22 months, days after the retailer Target said it would cut 1,800 corporate roles.

Earlier in October, white-collar workers from companies including Rivian Automotive, Molson Coors, Booz Allen Hamilton and General Motors received pink slips—or learned that they would come soon. Added up, tens of thousands of newly laid off white-collar workers in America are entering a stagnant job market with seemingly no place for them.

At 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Kelly Williamson woke up to an alarming text from her employer, Amazon’s Whole Foods Market, urging her to check her email.

“Review asap and stay home from work today,” the message said. Williamson’s role on the asset-protection team was being eliminated. The badge and laptop for the 55-year-old from Austin, Texas, were deactivated. She was given 90 days to look for another job at the company. She said her personal belongings are being mailed to her.

Read it all.

Tens of Thousands of White-Collar Jobs Are Disappearing as #AI Starts to Bite#RiseoftheRobotshttps://t.co/xvlekZBJIq via @WSJ

— Martin Ford (@MFordFuture) October 29, 2025

President Donald Trump said he would immediately halt all trade negotiations with Canada, citing a Canadian advertisement against his signature tariffs plan featuring the voice of former President Ronald Reagan.

“TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A.,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.”

The ad in question comprises excerpts from an address Reagan gave in 1987 in which he defended the principles of free trade and slammed tariffs as an outdated idea that stifles innovation, drives up prices and hurts US workers.

Read it all.

"Trump Terminates Trade Talks With Canada Over Reagan Tariff Ad" via @dwallbank , @decloet and Hadriana Lowenkronhttps://t.co/VygvQUuiEg

— Stephanie Hughes (@StephHughes95) October 24, 2025

Editor’s note: Today, we’re announcing research that shows — for the first time in history — that a quantum computer can successfully run a verifiable algorithm on hardware, surpassing even the fastest classical supercomputers (13,000x faster). It can compute the structure of a molecule, and paves a path towards real-world applications. Today’s advance builds on decades of work, and six years of major breakthroughs. Back in 2019, we demonstrated that a quantum computer could solve a problem that would take the fastest classical supercomputer thousands of years. Then, late last year (2024), our new Willow quantum chip showed how to dramatically suppress errors, solving a major issue that challenged scientists for nearly 30 years. Today’s breakthrough moves us much closer to quantum computers that can drive major discoveries in areas like medicine and materials science.

Imagine you’re trying to find a lost ship at the bottom of the ocean. Sonar technology might give you a blurry shape and tell you, “There’s a shipwreck down there.” But what if you could not only find the ship but also read the nameplate on its hull?

That’s the kind of unprecedented precision we’ve just achieved with our Willow quantum chip. Today, we’re announcing a major algorithmic breakthrough that marks a significant step towards a first real-world application. Just published in Nature, we have demonstrated the first-ever verifiable quantum advantage running the out-of-order time correlator (OTOC) algorithm, which we call Quantum Echoes.

Read it all.

"Google claims ‘quantum advantage’ again — but researchers are sceptical" by Elizabeth Gibney of @Nature https://t.co/mD54zWFEKE
Original @Google article, "Observation of constructive interference at the edge of quantum ergodicity," is at https://t.co/tY8MiIq4Sn @JointQuICS pic.twitter.com/nh26Z4QWzA

— Charles W. Clark (@g8ge) October 23, 2025

Josh Batson no longer has time for social media.

The AI researcher’s only comparable dopamine hit these days is on Anthropic’s Slack workplace-messaging channels, where he explores chatter about colleagues’ theories and experiments on large language models and architecture.

Batson is among a group of core artificial-intelligence researchers and executives who are facing a relentless grind, racing to keep pace with a seemingly endless cycle of disruption in pursuit of systems with superhuman intelligence.

Inside Silicon Valley’s biggest AI labs, top researchers and executives are regularly working 80 to 100 hours a week. Several top researchers compared the circumstances to war.

“We’re basically trying to speedrun 20 years of scientific progress in two years,” said Batson, a research scientist at Anthropic. Extraordinary advances in AI systems are happening “every few months,” he said. “It’s the most interesting scientific question in the world right now.”

Read it all.

Take an early look at the front page of today's Wall Street Journal https://t.co/5Z4hcbTVXK pic.twitter.com/NrLMRqJWUU

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) October 23, 2025

Sequoia Capital’s chief operating officer resigned over comments made by partner Shaun Maguire that she regarded as Islamophobic, as political debates sow division at one of Silicon Valley’s most powerful venture capital firms.

Sumaiya Balbale — a practising Muslim who has spoken publicly about how her gender, ethnicity and faith have shaped her career — stepped down after five years at the company in August. Her decision to leave was precipitated by Maguire’s social media posts, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

Maguire, an outspoken and high-profile investor who is close to Elon Musk, wrote on X in July that New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani “comes from a culture that lies about everything. It’s literally a virtue to lie if it advances his Islamist agenda. The West will learn this lesson the hard way.”

Balbale complained to other senior partners at the firm, who declined to take action against Maguire, arguing he was just exercising his right to free speech, the people said. She left soon after, feeling her position was untenable.

Read it all (subscription).

Sequoia COO quit over Shaun Maguire’s comments about Mamdani https://t.co/3WQUHQ0Qnd

— FT Technology News (@fttechnews) October 22, 2025

Over the past two decades, no company has done more to shape the American workplace than Amazon. In its ascent to become the nation’s second-largest employer, it has hired hundreds of thousands of warehouse workers, built an army of contract drivers and pioneered using technology to hire, monitor and manage employees.

Now, interviews and a cache of internal strategy documents viewed by The New York Times reveal that Amazon executives believe the company is on the cusp of its next big workplace shift: replacing more than half a million jobs with robots.

Amazon’s U.S. work force has more than tripled since 2018 to almost 1.2 million. But Amazon’s automation team expects the company can avoid hiring more than 160,000 people in the United States it would otherwise need by 2027. That would save about 30 cents on each item that Amazon picks, packs and delivers to customers.

Executives told Amazon’s board last year that they hoped robotic automation would allow the company to continue to avoid adding to its U.S. work force in the coming years, even though they expect to sell twice as many products by 2033. That would translate to more than 600,000 people whom Amazon didn’t need to hire.

Read it all.

Amazon, the second largest employer in the U.S., aims to replace more than half a million jobs with robots, internal documents show. https://t.co/jzxzhcMmfo

— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 21, 2025

As a young woman in the late 1970s, Sanae Takaichi commuted six hours a day by bus and train from her parents’ home in western Japan to attend university. She was a fan of heavy metal music and Kawasaki motorcycles who yearned to move out. But her mother insisted at first that she stay home, forbidding her from living in a boardinghouse before marriage.

“I dreamed of having my own castle,” Ms. Takaichi wrote in a 1992 memoir.

On Tuesday, Ms. Takaichi won election as Japan’s prime minister, the first woman to do so in the nation’s history. It was the pinnacle of an improbable rise in politics and a milestone in a country where women have long struggled for influence.

Read it all.

Breaking News: Sanae Takaichi is Japan’s first female prime minister. She’s a heavy metal drummer and hard-line conservative. https://t.co/vfyRnftmfc pic.twitter.com/f17GPcm71o

— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 21, 2025

Donald Trump urged Volodymyr Zelenskyy to accept Russia’s terms for ending its war in a volatile White House meeting on Friday, warning that Vladimir Putin had said he would “destroy” Ukraine if it did not agree.

The meeting between the US and Ukrainian presidents descended many times into a “shouting match”, with Trump “cursing all the time”, people familiar with the matter said. They added that the US president tossed aside maps of the front line in Ukraine, insisted Zelenskyy surrender the entire Donbas region to Putin, and repeatedly echoed talking points the Russian leader had made in their call a day earlier.

Though Trump later endorsed a freeze of the current front lines, the acrimonious meeting appeared to reflect the US president’s shifting position on the war and his willingness to endorse Putin’s maximalist demands. The meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy came amid a fresh push by the US president to end Russia’s war following the ceasefire secured between Israel and Hamas. 

Read it all.

Trump urged Zelenskyy to accept Putin’s terms or be ‘destroyed’ by Russia https://t.co/AdUz5KW72A via @ChristopherJM @HenryJFoy @maxseddon @ak_mack

— Valentina Pop (@valentinapop) October 19, 2025

It is….increasingly likely that governments will…resort to inflation and financial repression to reduce the real value of their high debts, as they did in the decades after the second world war. The machinery for such a strategy is in place at central banks, which have a large footprint in bond markets. Already, populists such as Mr Trump and Nigel Farage in Britain attack their country’s central banks with proposals that would weaken the defenses against inflation.

Price rises are unpopular—just ask the hapless Joe Biden—but they do not need political support to get going. Nobody voted for them in the 1970s or in 2022. When governments cannot get their act together, and run economic policies that are unsustainable, bouts of inflation just happen. By the time markets wake up, it is too late.

All the more reason to think ahead and reflect on how inflation harms the economy and society. It redistributes wealth unfairly: from creditors to debtors; from those with cash and bonds to those who own real assets such as houses; and from those who agree on contracts and wages in cash terms to those wily enough to anticipate higher prices. It causes what John Maynard Keynes called an “arbitrary rearrangement of riches”. And that could happen just as societies are grappling with other transfers of wealth that the losers will also see as unfair: in the labour market, as AI takes on routine office work; and through inheritance, as baby-boomers bequeath vast property wealth to those lucky enough to have the right parents.

This multi-pronged upheaval of fortunes could wreck the middle class, which binds democracies together, and scramble the social contract.

Read it all.

Governments are living far beyond their means. Sadly, inflation is the most likely escape. Politicians should think ahead and reflect on how much harm that would do https://t.co/6H1nzpKQQS pic.twitter.com/RF2ACF0MzV

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) October 16, 2025

So here’s what we know. This year’s gold rally has come in fits and starts. The April move was about a loss of confidence in the Dollar, a move that’s since run out of steam. The move since Jackson Hole is about “global debasement” and coincides with three notable developments: (i) there’s a global rise in long-term government bond yields as markets increasingly worry about unsustainable fiscal policy in many places; (ii) the universe of safe haven countries has shrunk because Germany and Japan are at the forefront of the global rise in yields; and (iii) the few safe haven countries that remain – notably Switzerland – are small, with limited capacity to absorb safe haven inflows. These three forces are supercharging the rise in gold prices, which is really about the global deterioration in fiscal sustainability and growing risk that debt overhangs will be inflated away.

What we don’t know is who is driving the latest rise in gold prices. There’s endless rumors about another round of central bank buying, but I am skeptical. There’s a clear macro catalyst to the latest move in the form of Jackson Hole. I find it hard to believe that central banks in emerging markets will be trading such a catalyst. It’s more likely that this is a genuine market move, with a growing number of investors worried about fiscal sustainability and debasement. If that’s true, the gold move can go a lot further.

Read it all.

What's driving the crazy rise in gold prices? At its root, it's about fear that the Fed has capitulated to Trump and is easing into an economy where inflation is rising. This week's IMF/WB meetings may end the gold rally and replace it with a Dollar rally.https://t.co/fFtYIbm3tT pic.twitter.com/HhhBK2vISo

— Robin Brooks (@robin_j_brooks) October 16, 2025

Americans are set to pay more than half of President Donald Trump’s tariff costs as companies raise prices, according to economists of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

US consumers will likely shoulder 55% of tariff costs by the end of the year, with American companies taking on 22%, the Goldman analysts wrote in an Oct. 12 research note to clients. Foreign exporters would absorb 18% of tariff costs by cutting prices for goods, while 5% would be evaded, they wrote.

For now “US businesses are likely bearing a larger share of the costs” as it takes time to raise prices, economists Elsie Peng and David Mericle wrote in the note. “If recently implemented and future tariffs have the same eventual impact on prices as the tariffs implemented earlier this year, then US consumers would eventually absorb 55% of tariff costs.”

Read it all.

Americans are set to pay more than half of President Donald Trump’s tariff costs as companies raise prices, according to Goldman Sachs economists https://t.co/L04IgE1sdF

— Bloomberg (@business) October 13, 2025

The American stockmarket has see-sawed lately amid a flare-up in trade tensions, but remains near its all-time high. The surge, fuelled by enthusiasm around artificial intelligence, has drawn comparisons to the exuberance of the late 1990s that culminated in the dotcom crash of 2000. Though technological innovation is undeniably reshaping industries and increasing productivity, there are good reasons to worry that the current rally may be setting the stage for another painful market correction. The consequences of such a crash, however, could be far more severe and global in scope than those felt a quarter of a century ago.

At the heart of this concern is the sheer scale of exposure, both domestic and international, to American equities. Over the past decade and a half, American households have significantly increased their holdings in the stockmarket, encouraged by strong returns and the dominance of American tech firms. Foreign investors, particularly from Europe, have for the same reasons poured capital into American stocks, while simultaneously benefiting from the dollar’s strength. This growing interconnectedness means that any sharp downturn in American markets will reverberate around the world.

To put the potential impact in perspective, I calculate that a market correction of the same magnitude as the dotcom crash could wipe out over $20trn in wealth for American households, equivalent to roughly 70% of American GDP in 2024. This is several times larger than the losses incurred during the crash of the early 2000s. The implications for consumption would be grave. Consumption growth is already weaker than it was preceding the dotcom crash. A shock of this magnitude could cut it by 3.5 percentage points, translating into a two-percentage-point hit to overall GDP growth, even before accounting for declines in investment.

Read it all.

The exposure of the world to US equities is at record levels. A stock market correction would have more severe and global consequences as compared to what followed the dot-com crash. The tariff wars and lack of fiscal space compounds the problem. The underlying problem is not… pic.twitter.com/LFaN4mNgqn

— Gita Gopinath (@GitaGopinath) October 15, 2025

The Church of England has called for a national conversation on artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on the world of work. . 

A new edition of the Crucible journal, released this month, explored how automation and algorithms reshape jobs and identity.  

It follows a motion passed by the Church’s General Synod in February 2024, which acknowledged the effects of AI and the ‘fourth industrial revolution’. 

Read it all.

Renewed call for national conversation on AI and the Future of Work https://t.co/7607ZNflnM via @Anglican Ink © 2025

— George Conger (@GeorgeConger8) October 10, 2025

From cars and computer chips to tanks and fighter jets, China’s new export restrictions represent a sweeping effort to control global commerce and have set off a renewed trade fight that pits Beijing against not only the United States but also Europe.

The new regulations, which take effect in stages on Nov. 8 and Dec. 1, apply to the entire world, sharply escalating China’s sway over critical manufacturing at a time of increased international fractures over trade. The restrictions led President Trump on Friday to threaten to impose new 100 percent tariffs on Chinese imports starting Nov. 1.

The rules go far beyond China’s limits since April on the export of rare earth metals, which are mined and processed mainly in China, as well as magnets made from those metals. In a series of announcements on Thursday, China extended its restrictions to worldwide shipments of electric motors, computer chips and other devices that have become central to modern life and are now manufactured mainly in China.

The regulations prohibit exports from China to any country of materials or components for use in military equipment. Among the items banned are the small yet powerful electric motors in missiles and fighter jets and the materials for crucial range finders in tanks and artillery that are used to zero in on distant targets.

Read it all.

China’s New Export Curbs May Level a Heavy Blow Worldwide https://t.co/CX91lkUldK "The new rules apply to any shipments across national borders…European automakers, in particular, face a daunting task of seeking Chinese export licenses to move car parts within Europe"

— David Mulroney (@David_Mulroney) October 13, 2025

Ari Emanuel, the Hollywood talent agent and sports tycoon, has raised almost $3bn from investors for a new events venture in a bet that artificial intelligence will shrink the working week and give people more free time. 

The world could be “down to four-day work weeks” in the coming years, he told the Financial Times. This could go “down to three with AI” as more people use the technology to expedite everyday tasks, he said. “There’s going to be more free time.” 

MARI, Emanuel’s new company, will house the Madrid and Miami tennis Opens, as well as the Frieze art fairs, which Emanuel bought out of Endeavor, the sports and entertainment group he co-founded. The company announced on Wednesday that it had also agreed to acquire Barrett-Jackson, the collector car auction company, from Endeavor.

Read it all.

Ari Emanuel bets AI will boost leisure time with three-day working week https://t.co/tkaSMs2V7c

— Financial Times (@FT) October 8, 2025

Yaroslav Pavlivskiy waved his hands as he sprang from his car, pleading for mercy with the operator of a Russian drone circling overhead as he drove home from a market in the southern city of Kherson.

The operator flicked a switch to release a grenade, which exploded and tore into the legs of the 69-year-old pensioner. A passerby used a belt as a tourniquet to stop him from losing too much blood, saving his life.

In the hospital the next day, the doctor showed Pavlivskiy a Russian video of the incident, which was set to techno music and carried a caption: “A drone operator spotted another ‘civilian.’ After reconnaissance, the target was eliminated.”

Russian drone operators have turned daily life in Kherson into a terrifying gauntlet. A year ago, from the other side of the Dnipro River, they began sending drones, in addition to using bombs and artillery, to take potshots at civilians.

Now the attacks have intensified to such an extent that Ukrainian authorities, civilians and human-rights groups say it has become a systematic effort to keep people off the city’s streets under threat of execution from the skies.

Read it all.

“There will be no more mercy.”

“No one deserves pity. Spare me your whining.”

Those are captions to videos of Russian drone operators attacking civilians in Kherson city and oblast.

Living in Kherson means risking execution from the sky.https://t.co/Otunmnekn8 (read free)

— Jane Lytvynenko (@JaneLytv) October 9, 2025

Israel and Hamas on Thursday edged closer to ending their devastating two-year war, agreeing on the initial terms of a deal that could pave the way to an imminent cease-fire and bringing relief to the families of Israeli hostages and to two million Palestinians in Gaza.

The two sides were preparing for an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners this weekend after reaching an agreement overnight, the culmination of sustained pressure from President Trump and Arab mediators. Mr. Trump suggested that he would travel to the region over the weekend, and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had invited him to address Israel’s Parliament.

Though details were scarce, and the text of the agreement had not been made public, it promised at least a cease-fire if not a permanent end to a conflict that has set off a humanitarian catastrophe and widespread hunger in Gaza, battered Hamas militarily and left Israel exhausted and isolated internationally. 

Read it all.

Israel-Hamas ceasefire | Israel, Hamas agree to ‘first phase’ of peace plan, hostage-release, Trump says
Follow live updates here: https://t.co/fuAdxyAumN

— The Hindu (@the_hindu) October 9, 2025

France has been plunged into a fresh political crisis after Sébastien Lecornu, the newly appointed prime minister, unexpectedly resigned on October 6th after less than four weeks in the job. Mr Lecornu came under intense pressure the moment he unveiled a new minority government on Sunday night, keeping most of the incumbent ministers in big jobs in place. Opposition parties cried foul, and threatened to vote down his government with a no-confidence motion as early as this week. Even his coalition partners on the centre-right said they might quit. Mr Lecornu saw the writing on the wall, and decided to leave rather than be forced out.

France has now lost its fourth prime minister in little over a year, and Mr Lecornu becomes the shortest-serving prime minister under the Fifth Republic. A messy situation is fast turning into a crisis, prompting market worries as well as political uncertainty. On Monday morning the yield on France’s ten-year government bond rose nearly eight basis points to 3.6%, close to its highest level since 2011. The shares of France’s two largest banks fell by over 4%.

President Emmanuel Macron appointed the 39-year-old Mr Lecornu, a close political confidante, on September 9th. The new prime minister promised a “rupture” with the outgoing government, which was toppled by parliament the previous day after nine months in office. But when Mr Lecornu named his new team on October 5th, after weeks of discussion with different parliamentary parties, he kept most of the key ministers in place. It was less a new government than a recycling of the old one.

Read it all.

The unexpected resignation of Sébastien Lecornu, now the shortest-serving prime minister under the fifth republic, has rattled markets and plunged France into yet more political uncertainty https://t.co/Yxd8WlrbDW

Photo: Reuters pic.twitter.com/hAEFJeStaV

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) October 6, 2025

Online sports betting is not legal in Minnesota, but that hasn’t stopped Ian White from trading money on the outcomes of N.F.L. games. Mr. White, a special education paraprofessional, said he downloaded Kalshi, a “prediction market” app, after seeing an ad on TikTok. He buys contracts worth $10 a game and has made about $130.

“I do consider Kalshi betting,” he said, “but I love how they get around it by selling futures.”

Kalshi can “get around” state gambling laws because on paper it is not a sports gambling app, like FanDuel or DraftKings. Those kinds of online sportsbooks are banned in 20 states, including Minnesota, California and Texas. Instead, Kalshi is an exchange selling financial products tied to the outcome of sporting events — and, with the tacit approval of the Trump administration, is currently available everywhere in the country.

If you wanted to, for example, wager $100 on a Dallas Cowboys victory this weekend, your experience on FanDuel and Kalshi would look remarkably similar….

Read it all.

"… Kalshi, once known for offering wagers on elections, are now in the multibillion-dollar sports betting business and outside the reach of state regulations and taxes"

Is Sports Betting Illegal in Your State? Not if You Call It a ‘Prediction Market.’https://t.co/FSpVln6jtH

— Alfonso Straffon 🇨🇷🇺🇸🇲🇽 (@astraffon) October 5, 2025

Netanyahu returned to power in December 2022 after only a year and a half, blind to the fact that he was taking control of the state during the most precarious period in a nation’s life: its eighth decade.

Let me explain. The first generation of a country is the one that fought. It had no time for existential dilemmas because it was preoccupied with surviving. The second generation was too busy with state-building to entertain such questions.

But the third and fourth generations—my generation—are those for whom the state is a birthright, already built, paved, and functioning. All the profound existential dilemmas that our grandparents tucked away in the attic have come knocking on our national door. A nation’s eighth and ninth decades almost invariably mark the moment when it tears itself apart over the ultimate question: identity.

The United States, in its ninth decade of existence in the 1860s, emerged as a wonderland unlike any other ever seen. The pursuit of happiness swept across the country. Then, Americans found themselves confronting an unsettling question. How, Americans pondered, is it possible that Thomas Jefferson, the author of the words “All men are created equal,” also owns more than 600 black slaves?

The answer: It is not possible. In the United States, two values collided with devastating force: the right to liberty and the right to property. The American Civil War resolved this clash of two values through bloodshed, claiming over 600,000 American lives, including that of the president.

But America was lucky; it survived. Countries do not always survive their identity wars. We all know the Soviet Union’s fate in its eighth decade.

Against this backdrop, Israel’s five elections in four years, ending with Netanyahu’s return to power at the end of 2022, suddenly come into focus: This was the Israeli civil war.

Read it all.

October 7 Was Israel’s Midlife Crisis.

Read an exclusive excerpt from my new book, A Call at 4 AM, in @TheFP.

Link to pre-order the book in the reply.https://t.co/v8M1sLoEZB

— Amit Segal (@AmitSegal) October 7, 2025

If there were a Nobel prize for trying to will things to become reality, Donald Trump would already be a shoo-in. Since September 29th, when he offered his plan for ending the Gaza war, both Israel and Hamas have said they accept the plan while rejecting key elements of it. Arab leaders are also keen to stress that the text Mr Trump presented was very different from the one he discussed with them five days earlier at the UN. Yet the American president has glossed over those differences: for now, he insists that “countries from all over the world” are on board with his proposal.

Envoys from Israel and Hamas will hope to narrow those gaps when they start indirect talks in Egypt on October 6th. Their goal is to agree on at least the first phase of the plan, which calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, the release of the 48 remaining Israeli hostages and 1,950 Palestinian prisoners, and a surge of humanitarian aid for the beleaguered territory. Then they will need to discuss the second half of Mr Trump’s proposal, which lays out a vision for how to govern and secure Gaza after the war.

That is easier said than done, though, and not only because there are differences between Israel and Hamas. There are also disputes between the Palestinians themselves, and the Palestinians and their Arab backers: they agree that the Trump plan cannot be implemented without changes, but they disagree on what those changes should look like.

Read it all.

Diplomats need to find language on disarmament that will satisfy both Israel and Hamas. If their proposal is too credible, Hamas may balk. If it is not credible enough, it risks imperilling other parts of the plan https://t.co/y8sh2wsiDW

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) October 6, 2025

Most high, omnipotent, good Lord, grant unto thy people grace to renounce gladly the vanities of this world; that, following the way of blessed Francis, we may for love of thee delight in thy whole creation with perfectness of joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.