22 results

• PeopleUnemployment can be low while the job market still feels terrible.The U.S. is approaching the 2026 midterms with unemployment around levels economists call full employment, yet hiring is slower, job switching is weaker and many workers feel insecure. The unemployment rate only measures one part of labor-market health.
• MoneyBrazil voted on Sunday. Markets voted on Monday.Flávio Bolsonaro led Brazil’s first-round presidential vote 47% to 45% over Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The next trading session, Brazilian stocks surged. The useful question is not which candidate markets ‘like’. It is which policy probabilities investors suddenly changed.
• MoneyBond yields are high. Tech stocks are still breaking records. That is not as contradictory as it looks.Higher long-term interest rates usually make distant future profits less valuable. Yet AI-linked technology shares have kept climbing. The reason is that markets price several forces at once: rates, earnings, growth expectations and risk.
• ExplainedHow can a medicine change what supermarkets sell?GLP-1 medicines reduce appetite and food intake for many users. At population scale, that can alter portion sizes, snacking frequency and the types of foods companies choose to develop, even though the medicines are not food products themselves.
• MoneyA bond yield just hit a 24-year high. Why should anyone outside Wall Street care?The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield briefly touched 5.34%, its highest level since 2002. That number lives in the bond market, but its effects reach mortgages, business loans, government budgets and the price investors put on almost everything else.
• TechBig Tech does not want to buy every AI chip from the same shelf.Nvidia remains the center of the AI-computing boom, but cloud companies are also designing custom silicon for specific workloads. Marvell’s rising forecasts show how valuable that second market is becoming.
• ExplainedCountries keep emergency oil underground for moments exactly like this.The IEA is discussing another coordinated release of oil and diesel stocks as energy markets face supply disruptions. Strategic reserves exist to buy time during severe shortages, not to make fuel permanently cheap.
• CuriousTwo thousand ordinary people are helping restore a 240-million-year-old predator.A nearly six-metre Mastodonsaurus skeleton is being restored in a glass-walled laboratory in Warsaw with help from more than 2,000 trained volunteers. The project turns fossil preparation into public science without pretending the work is easy.
• TechWant to be cited by AI Search? Start by publishing something worth citing.There is no guaranteed switch that makes a page appear in AI answers. Google’s own guidance points to a less glamorous strategy: original information, crawlable pages, clear structure, strong images, real sourcing and normal SEO fundamentals.
• TechGoogle just signed for 3.6 gigawatts of power. AI is turning tech companies into energy companies.Google’s new Constellation Energy agreement covers 3,590 MW of power, including 890 MW of added nuclear capacity. The deal shows how AI competition is moving from chips and models into electricity, grids and long-term energy contracts.
• ExplainedWhy do AI data centers use so much electricity?AI computing concentrates thousands of power-hungry chips in facilities that run continuously. The electricity demand comes from computation, memory, networking, cooling and the simple fact that useful AI services have to answer requests all day.
• ExplainedWhat is optogenetics? Think of it as a remote control for selected neurons.Optogenetics combines genes and light to control selected cells, especially neurons, with unusual precision. It lets researchers test what specific brain circuits actually do rather than only watching them become active.
• CultureThe Emmys are leaving broadcast TV. That says more about television than the awards themselves.The Emmy Awards will move exclusively to Prime Video from 2027 under a six-year deal, ending the long-running rotation among ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. The ceremony is following the audience it was created to celebrate.
• CultureHollywood just put Batman, Harry Potter, Star Trek, HBO, CNN and CBS under one roof.Paramount completed its $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros Discovery, creating Skydance, a media giant spanning two film studios, HBO, CBS, CNN, streaming services, sports and some of entertainment's biggest franchises.
• MoneyA few narrow stretches of water can still move the price of almost everything.Energy companies are reconsidering a just-in-time export system after disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb. The lesson is bigger than oil: global supply chains can be efficient and still be fragile.
• MoneyInflation can fall. The cost-of-living crisis can keep going.When inflation slows, prices usually do not return to where they started. New IMF research says repeated food and energy shocks can also change what households expect about future inflation and push more people into poverty.
• MoneyWeight-loss drugs are becoming a snack-company problem.PepsiCo is already fighting inflation, weak snack volumes and investor pressure. GLP-1 drugs add a more structural question: what happens to a food business built around frequent snacking when some customers feel less hungry?
• MoneyRich people can get richer while luxury brands still sell less.Citi credit-card data showed U.S. luxury purchases down 6% year over year in September, even as top-end wealth remained resilient. The reason is that wealth, confidence, value perception and willingness to spend are not the same thing.
• TechGoogle may have to put ChatGPT and Perplexity beside Search. The fight is really about the default.UK regulators have proposed putting AI assistants on Android and Chrome search-choice screens, while publisher disputes are putting pressure on how Google uses and pays for content. The bigger shift is distribution: the next search war may be decided before anyone types a query.
• ExplainedWhat is AI search? It is not just Google with a chatbot on top.AI search combines retrieval, ranking and language models to produce an answer instead of only a list of links. The useful way to understand it is to follow what happens between your question, the sources and the final response.
• NowBrazil is choosing a president. It is also choosing how it deals with the world.Nearly 159 million Brazilians are eligible to vote in a polarized presidential election between Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro. The contest is domestic, but the consequences reach Washington, Beijing and the future of Latin America’s largest economy.
• CultureGreta Garbo died in 1990. An AI version of her is now selling ball bearings.A new SKF advertisement recreates the famously private Hollywood star with generative AI. The technology is impressive. The stranger question is what happens to a person’s image when death is no longer the end of their commercial presence.