Turkey “Isolation” from European Union
Turkey is seeking to simplify European visa access for its citizens and to update a 1995 customs agreement with the bloc that could help boost exports. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell last week recommended offering Turkey both in return for a series of concessions. Turkey has been an official candidate to join the European
Regulation of Artificial Intelligence in Europe
When ChatGPT was launched almost exactly one year ago, in November 2022, users were wowed by its ability to produce complex works such as poems, essays and speeches within seconds. Advocates of AI insist that its benefits could go much further, assisting humanity by transforming, streamlining and accelerating everything from work processes to health care.
Protecting the Rainforests in the Amazon
Deforestation tends to be worst in areas where property rights are hazy. A lack of clarity about who owns a plot of forest makes it harder to assign blame for torching it. And a tradition of local officials tolerating land-grabbing encourages more of it. Ranchers seek to establish facts on the ground by chopping down
The French Baltic mission
After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, nato beefed up these air-policing operations. Fighter jets on the ground are on 24-hour alert. Air policing by nato air forces over the Baltic Sea has been going on for nearly two decades. None of the three Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania has a serious air force, and
China is building Nuclear reactors fastest
The growth of nuclear power has stalled in Western countries for a number of reasons. Reactors require a large upfront investment and take years to construct. The industry is heavily regulated. China, though, has smoothed the path for nuclear power by providing state-owned energy companies with cheap loans, as well as land and licences. Suppliers
Progress on climate change
As the world gathers in Dubai for the 28th cop, the assessment of the first part of that stocktake is in some ways surprisingly positive. At the time of the Paris cop, the global warming expected by 2100 if policies did not change was more than 3°C above pre-industrial levels. If policies in place today
A brutal battle for southern Gaza
Israel’s cabinet approved the hostage deal on November 22nd after hours of debate and weeks of indirect negotiations with Hamas. The first day went according to plan. Both sides stopped fighting on the morning of November 24th. That afternoon Hamas released 13 Israeli hostages, ranging in age from a two-year-old girl to an 85-year-old woman,
Spotify to cut on costs
In its latest results, Spotify had reported a profit of €65m (£55.7m) for the three months to September – its first quarterly profit for more than a year – helped by price rises and higher subscriber numbers. The tech company has been expanding worldwide as it seeks to reach a billion users by 2030. Since
The future of X
In 2022, Twitter’s advertising revenue was around $4bn. Insider Intelligence estimates this year it will drop to $1.9bn. The company has two major outlays. The first is its staffing bill. Musk has cut X to the bone already, laying off thousands. The second is servicing the loans Musk took out to buy Twitter, totalling about
Biden the ‘destroyer’ of democracy
Trump has long promised to prosecute Biden in retaliation should he return to the White House. On Saturday, though, the former president extended his arguments about Biden’s threat to democracy to lawsuits filed by two liberal organizations seeking to rule him ineligible for office under a rarely used Civil War-era constitutional provision that prohibits those