Chinese tech firms raise far less money than their US competitors
• Data show how Beijing's diffusion-first AI strategy could be more sustainable than US race to frontier
• Beijing sees AI like the internet: a tool to embed in economy in bid to achieve broader goals
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Forecasts about the impact of AI on employment and wages vary wildly
• So far headline employment rates in OECD economies stand at near record-highs
• However, data suggest cross-country slowdown in entry-level hiring for tech-related jobs
www.ft.com/content/8f78...

Maersk has for 10 years tried to become and increasing integrated logistics company.

But this year the company realised it really needs to compete again on the shipping side even though the number of container ships on order is near all-time highs: www.ft.com/content/bcf1...

America's approach to the AI race rests on a basic idea: if US labs do not double down, their Chinese competitors will pull ahead and reach AGI first - for @foreignpolicy.com I explore how Beijing could be running another, diffusion-first race that has no off switch
foreignpolicy.com/2026/10/07/c...

Beijing measures the success of its AI rollout in terms of adoption and diffusion across its economy and beyond. This has a key safety implication: it has no off switch, writes columnist @agathedemarais.com. foreignpolicy.com/2026/10/07/c...

Price of Chinese lithium futures dropped by around a quarter over past month
• Price slump reflects growing concerns about flagging demand in the medium run
• Like many Chinese industries, battery-makers have built more capacity than market can absorb
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Credit to the US for making the point the conference was trying to make about US foreign interference in European democracies for them, and bringing more attention to the conference and its themes than they could have possibly hoped for. www.politico.com/news/2026/10...

America's approach to the AI race rests on a basic idea: if US labs do not double down, their Chinese competitors will pull ahead and reach AGI first - for @foreignpolicy.com I explore how Beijing could be running another, diffusion-first race that has no off switch
foreignpolicy.com/2026/10/07/c...

Majority of Britons regret Brexit, but support for rejoining the EU is not a given
• In September YouGov poll found that 59% of Britons favour rejoining the EU, vs. 32% against
• Yet support for rejoining EU drops to 35% if Britain had to adopt euro and join Schengen area
www.ft.com/content/3d43...

Elon Musk's America PAC is quietly donating to the most consequential races of November's midterms, and @wired.com is tracking all of it - in real time.

amazing work from @dell.bsky.social, who built this, and big lifts from @hugolowell.bsky.social, @dmehro.bsky.social, and @regret.bsky.social:

Russia's draft budget for 2027-29 suggests Moscow is preparing for many more years of war
• In 2027 defence spending could total US$205bn, up 40% from 2026 and 380% from 2021
• Financing remains open question as Moscow has exhausted politically affordable money pots
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

"Information from Russia has been incomplete, confusing, and contradictory."

My colleague @martinenserink.bsky.social on what we know so far about the possible plague death in Russia and the implications. 🧪

China is going all in on Six networks infrastructure plan
• Plan focuses on water, electricity, computing (data centres), communications (5G/6G), logistics and urban pipelines
• US$3.7trn financing comes from central government, SOEs and local government bonds
www.economist.com/briefing/202...

High tax burden complicates France's difficult budget equation
• Further raising taxes would be tricky; at 44% of GDP, tax burden is 10 percentage points higher than OECD average
• Almost a quarter of public spending goes to pensions, but hints of reform trigger protests
www.ft.com/content/9b25...

US leads race for frontier AI, but not by much
• All frontier models since 2023 have been American, but Chinese models lag just four months behind
• China has diffusion-first AI strategy that comes with no off-switch for open-weight models, making it hard to stop
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...