Markets | Ideals

Bill To Outlaw Trade In Dog Meat Passed By The Parliament Of South Korea

South Korea's parliament passed a bill on Tuesday to ban the consumption and sale of dog meat, outlawing the contentious centuries-old practice amid increased support for animal welfare. ...

The Two Priciest Cities In The World Are Singapore And Zurich

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has announced that Singapore and Zurich were tied for the most expensive cities in the world this year, followed by Geneva, New York, and Hong Kong....

Pocket wallets vs. smartphones: Can we replace cash with digital currencies?

The more than a decade-long history of cryptocurrency has clearly demonstrated that the world is keen on the new form of money. The crypto frenzy has even prompted leading central banks to work on...

A Reset Year for Gaming: How 2025 Redefined Power, Platforms, and Player Expectations

Europe’s Strategic Balancing Act: How AI Ambitions Are Colliding With Climate Commitments

From Prescription to Platform as Weight-Loss Drugs Enter the Consumer Economy

Diplomacy at a Delicate Juncture as Washington Pushes Ukraine Talks Toward Compromise

Intelligent Payments Take Shape as AI Agents Begin to Transact on Behalf of Consumers

SoftBank Turns to Data Center Control as AI Strategy Shifts From Bets to Backbone

Tesla’s Delivery Slump Exposes Demand Strains as Incentives Fade and Rivals Crowd the Market

Australia’s Goldfields Draw a New Wave of Prospectors as Record Prices Rekindle Old Dreams

Fiscal Signals and Social Engineering Shape China’s New Push to Reverse Demographic Decline

Shifting Rate Expectations and Fiscal Unease Reset the Dollar’s Trajectory at the Start of 2026

Markets

Shifting Rate Expectations and Fiscal Unease Reset the Dollar’s Trajectory at the Start of 2026

The U.S. dollar entered 2026 on noticeably softer footing, extending the implications of its steepest annual decline in nearly a decade. After losing close to a tenth of its value in 2025, the greenback began the new year under pressure from forces that go well beyond short-term market positioning....

Australia’s Goldfields Draw a New Wave of Prospectors as Record Prices Rekindle Old Dreams

Australia is witnessing a modern revival of gold fever, not driven by pickaxes and mass migration, but by soaring prices, advanced technology, and a cultural rediscovery of the country’s historic goldfields. As bullion prices surge to record levels, a new generation of prospectors is fanning out...

SoftBank Turns to Data Center Control as AI Strategy Shifts From Bets to Backbone

SoftBank’s decision to acquire data center investment firm DigitalBridge for $4 billion marks a strategic turning point in how the Japanese conglomerate intends to participate in the artificial intelligence boom. After years defined by high-risk equity stakes and platform-centric investments, the...

Intelligent Payments Take Shape as AI Agents Begin to Transact on Behalf of Consumers

The global payments industry is quietly re-engineering itself for a future in which humans are no longer the primary actors at the checkout screen. Instead, artificial intelligence agents—software systems capable of reasoning, searching, negotiating, and executing transactions—are expected to...

Europe’s Strategic Balancing Act: How AI Ambitions Are Colliding With Climate Commitments

Europe’s economic future is increasingly being shaped by a tension that policymakers can no longer postpone. On one side lies the imperative to compete in artificial intelligence, a technology reshaping productivity, defence, healthcare, and industrial power. On the other stands the continent’s...

A Reset Year for Gaming: How 2025 Redefined Power, Platforms, and Player Expectations

The video game industry entered 2025 carrying unresolved tensions from the pandemic boom years and exited it reshaped by consolidation, delayed blockbusters, and a fundamental rethink of how games are made, distributed, and monetised. What initially looked like a year of momentum instead became one...

Water Stress Tightens the Screws on India’s Beverage Industry as Growth Meets Scarcity

India’s accelerating water crisis is emerging as a strategic risk for global beverage companies, reshaping how they invest, operate and engage with communities across the country. What appears on the surface as a localised struggle in arid regions such as Rajasthan is, in reality, part of a...

Wall Street’s Balance of Power Shifts as Individual Investors Cement Their Influence

The surge in retail investing during 2025 has done more than fuel a strong market rally. It has fundamentally altered how price discovery, momentum, and even institutional strategy unfold on Wall Street. After a record year of inflows and trading activity, individual investors are no longer a...

Corporate Cash Flow Tactics Turn Tariff Uncertainty into Tradable Assets

As trade policy uncertainty drags on, a quiet financial workaround has taken hold among U.S. companies squeezed by tariffs. Rather than waiting years for courts to decide whether levies imposed under emergency powers will be refunded, some firms are choosing to monetize the possibility now—by...

Controlled Reopening of AI Hardware Trade Signals Strategic Reset Between Washington and Beijing

Nvidia’s plan to resume shipments of its H200 artificial intelligence chips to China by mid-February reflects a carefully calibrated shift in global technology trade, shaped as much by geopolitics as by supply chains and market demand. The move, still contingent on regulatory approvals on both...

Grid Liberalisation and AI Power Demand Propel China to the Centre of the Global Battery Surge

China’s battery industry is entering a new phase of expansion, driven not by electric vehicles alone but by a convergence of domestic power market reforms and an unprecedented global buildout of data centres. What once appeared to be a supplementary segment of the clean-energy transition—battery...

Capital Floods Into Data Centers as AI Demand Outpaces Investor Confidence

The global rush to build data centers has reached a new peak, with dealmaking hitting record levels even as investors grow increasingly uneasy about artificial intelligence valuations and the financial structures supporting the boom. The contrast between surging investment volumes and rising...

Lifestyle

Bill To Outlaw Trade In Dog Meat Passed By The Parliament Of South Korea

The Two Priciest Cities In The World Are Singapore And Zurich

Pocket wallets vs. smartphones: Can we replace cash with digital currencies?

A Reset Year for Gaming: How 2025 Redefined Power, Platforms, and Player Expectations

Europe’s Strategic Balancing Act: How AI Ambitions Are Colliding With Climate Commitments

From Prescription to Platform as Weight-Loss Drugs Enter the Consumer Economy

Diplomacy at a Delicate Juncture as Washington Pushes Ukraine Talks Toward Compromise

Intelligent Payments Take Shape as AI Agents Begin to Transact on Behalf of Consumers

SoftBank Turns to Data Center Control as AI Strategy Shifts From Bets to Backbone

Tesla’s Delivery Slump Exposes Demand Strains as Incentives Fade and Rivals Crowd the Market

Australia’s Goldfields Draw a New Wave of Prospectors as Record Prices Rekindle Old Dreams

Fiscal Signals and Social Engineering Shape China’s New Push to Reverse Demographic Decline

Shifting Rate Expectations and Fiscal Unease Reset the Dollar’s Trajectory at the Start of 2026

Shifting Rate Expectations and Fiscal Unease Reset the Dollar’s Trajectory at the Start of 2026

Australia’s Goldfields Draw a New Wave of Prospectors as Record Prices Rekindle Old Dreams

SoftBank Turns to Data Center Control as AI Strategy Shifts From Bets to Backbone

Intelligent Payments Take Shape as AI Agents Begin to Transact on Behalf of Consumers

Europe’s Strategic Balancing Act: How AI Ambitions Are Colliding With Climate Commitments

A Reset Year for Gaming: How 2025 Redefined Power, Platforms, and Player Expectations

Water Stress Tightens the Screws on India’s Beverage Industry as Growth Meets Scarcity

Wall Street’s Balance of Power Shifts as Individual Investors Cement Their Influence

Corporate Cash Flow Tactics Turn Tariff Uncertainty into Tradable Assets

Controlled Reopening of AI Hardware Trade Signals Strategic Reset Between Washington and Beijing

Grid Liberalisation and AI Power Demand Propel China to the Centre of the Global Battery Surge

Capital Floods Into Data Centers as AI Demand Outpaces Investor Confidence

World

Diplomacy at a Delicate Juncture as Washington Pushes Ukraine Talks Toward Compromise

Taiwan Rolls Out Universal Security Handbook as China’s Threat Deepens

Wealthy Nations Retreat from Climate Leadership as COP30 Chief Warns of Fading Resolve

Brazil’s Amazon ‘Time Machine’ Tests the Future of Climate as COP30 Nears

Europe’s Strategic Break-with-China: How the EU Is Rewiring Its Industrial Core to Escape Beijing’s Grip on Rare Earths

People

Fiscal Signals and Social Engineering Shape China’s New Push to Reverse Demographic Decline

Reagan’s Enduring Shadow: How an Old Conservative Ideal Still Defines and Challenges Trump’s Presidency

South Korean Workers Recount Ordeal After U.S. Immigration Raid on Hyundai Plant

Federal Judge Likely to Stand Guard Over Fed’s Independence in Cook Dispute

When Allies Turned Adversaries: The Dramatic Implosion of the Trump–Musk Alliance