MUNICH — For decades, the Federal Republic of Germany’s political stability rested upon an implicit, highly successful social contract: high-value, precision manufacturing would provide secure, well-remunerated jobs, robust export revenues, and broad-based national prosperity. In turn, stable political institutions would translate these economic dividends into enduring social cohesion. Today, relentless…
By Yemi Osinbajo and Alexander Tsado Published: September 18, 2026 Section: Innovation & Technology Main Facts The global narrative surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI) is routinely framed as a high-stakes, binary competition between the United States and China. Headlines are dominated by discussions of massive data centers, multi-billion-dollar compute clusters, and…
LONDON — Artificial intelligence agents are not conscious. They do not feel, experience, or suffer. They possess neither innate preferences nor underlying motivations. Fundamentally, they are sequence-completion engines—internally hollow architectures designed explicitly to follow instructions and accomplish goals set by humans. If human civilization is to flourish through the 21st…
By Guillermo Ortiz September 17, 2026 MEXICO CITY—For two consecutive years, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has anchored her administration’s economic legitimacy on a single, compelling metric: the dramatic reduction of extreme poverty. Following the ideological and political blueprint of her predecessor and mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (widely known as…
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the landscape of artificial intelligence, the transition from passive computational tools to autonomous, goal-oriented agents has been swift and largely unchecked. However, the theoretical hazards of autonomous systems collided with harsh reality this summer, highlighted by a security incident involving an automated swarm of OpenAI-developed agents…
VIENNA/CHICAGO — Across Western democracies, a profound political transformation is underway. Radical right-wing parties have steadily advanced by effectively weaponizing demographic anxieties, tapping into a pervasive sense of voter vulnerability by linking immigration directly to diffuse fears regarding economic stability, personal security, and shifting cultural identities. Rather than dismissing these…
By Filip Milačić, Eli Rau, and Susan Stokes September 16, 2026 VIENNA / CHICAGO Main Facts The political landscape across Western democracies is undergoing a profound and volatile transformation. Radical right-wing parties have made sweeping electoral gains in recent years, systematically capitalizing on public anxiety by linking the complex issue…
