Latest Interviews

How will businesses use the metaverse?

Tom Standage

The metaverse has evolved from a sci-fi concept into a multi-billion dollar industry driven by corporate investments from entities like Meta and NVIDIA, while industrial leaders such as ILM and Lockheed Martin leverage virtual production and digital twin technologies to revolutionize film, manufacturing, and military operations. Despite massive capital flows totaling over $120 billion in early 2022, the ecosystem faces a critical hurdle in establishing universal interoperability standards like Pixar's Universal Scene Description to connect disparate virtual worlds. As platforms like Roblox demonstrate the potential for decentralized economic creation, the technology continues to mature through advancements in real-time rendering and computing power, promising to reshape global interaction while replicating existing societal challenges.

Who should pay for a warming planet?

Saúl, Yasser Mozby, Catherine Braille

Accelerating climate disasters and stalled political action have driven a surge in climate litigation, with cases tripling from 83 in 2011 to 227 in 2021 to hold entities like German utility RWE liable for global emissions and compel government action. High-profile precedents include the September 2022 UN Human Rights Committee ruling against Australia for violating the rights of Torres Strait Islanders and Peruvian farmer Saúl Luciano Lliuya's suit seeking compensation for flood defenses. Despite legal hurdles regarding jurisdiction and causation in jurisdictions like the US, these lawsuits increasingly serve as strategic tools for Indigenous communities and vulnerable populations to pressure governments and corporations into accelerating adaptation and mitigation policies.

Why Belgium is now the cocaine capital of Europe

Tom Standage

The Port of Antwerp has become Europe's primary cocaine trafficking hub, handling 40% of EU seizures in 2020 as Balkan criminal groups exploit high-volume business models to bypass a 2% physical inspection rate. Despite recent major seizures and the arrest of high-ranking officials linked to widespread corruption, law enforcement intercepts only 10% of shipments while cartel profits and market prices remain stable due to the trade's high profit margins and adaptable logistics. Experts now warn that without resource expansion or a strategic shift toward decriminalization, Belgium faces the risk of becoming a "narco state" within a decade as criminal networks outmaneuver traditional interdiction efforts.

Climate change: can money stop deforestation?

Andrew Mitchell, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, Tom Standage

Global deforestation continues to accelerate due to economic incentives that favor land clearance over conservation, as evidenced by the collapse of Costa Rica's forest coverage from 75% to 21% between 1940 and 1987. Costa Rica subsequently reversed this trend by implementing a Payments for Environmental Services (PES) scheme funded by fuel and water levies, which raised forest cover to over 50% while sustaining a 4.2% annual GDP growth. Despite these successes, the unregulated global carbon market and trillions in harmful agricultural subsidies remain major barriers, necessitating a fundamental economic shift that values standing forests higher than industrial profits to address the climate crisis.

Incels: how online extremism is changing

Andrew Tate, Tom Standage

Homeland Security and researchers highlight a critical surge in online extremist violence, noting that fluid digital ecosystems are accelerating the fusion of ideologies like misogyny and far-right radicalism. Despite this trend manifesting in numerous fatal attacks and a 59% rise in mass murder code words, law enforcement strategies remain struggling to adapt to these rapidly evolving subcultures. Experts urge a shift toward treating these acts as monitorable patterns and implementing large-scale digital interventions, such as Moonshot's redirect methods, to counter the increasing threat before it escalates further.

How Trump is still damaging American politics

Trump, John Priddoe, Tudor Dixon

Following the 2020 election, Donald Trump's rejection of the results triggered political violence, widespread harassment of election officials, and a shift within the Republican Party where truth-tellers face expulsion while Trump allies actively recruit election deniers for state-level offices. Concurrently, 52 voting restriction laws enacted in 2021 and 2022 have narrowed access to voting under unsubstantiated fraud claims, creating systemic vulnerabilities for the 2024 presidential election. Experts warn that these combined forces of anti-democratic rhetoric, legislative interference, and a polarized party apparatus pose an existential threat to the certification of future elections and the stability of the American federal system.

How the Mexican cartels are making profits now

Tom Standage

Over 100,000 annual fatalities in the United States are now driven by a synthetic opioid crisis where Mexican cartels have shifted production to decentralized, low-tech mobile labs that operate with gig-economy efficiency. This transformation has replaced traditional organized crime conglomerates with approximately 200 semi-autonomous groups that source cheap precursor chemicals from China to manufacture potent fentanyl at minimal cost. The resulting market shift has seen synthetic drug seizures surpass cocaine and heroin in 2021, as these criminal networks diversify revenue through high-value, low-volume trafficking to middle-class consumers.

Who Is Xi Jinping?

Xi Jinping

President Xi Jinping's rule is defined by an absolute prioritization of stability and national security, a stance rooted in the traumatic childhood experiences of the Cultural Revolution that instilled a lifelong aversion to chaos. Having consolidated power through a sweeping anti-corruption campaign, constitutional changes eliminating term limits, and an unprecedented surveillance apparatus, he has positioned the reunification of Taiwan as a historical imperative to surpass Mao Zedong's legacy. This ambition creates a critical strategic tension between completing the civil war and the potential for nuclear conflict, making Xi's decisions the central determinant of future global stability.

What to expect from King Charles III

King Charles III

Upon becoming the world's oldest British monarch and longest-serving heir, Charles III must balance his role as Supreme Governor of the Church of England with the demands of a modern, religiously diverse nation. To ensure the institution's survival, he is strategically reducing the size of the working royal family to address public concerns over cost while navigating internal family tensions and the risk of constitutional crisis arising from his past political advocacy. This transition marks a shift from the universal respect commanded by his mother toward a more polarizing leadership style that relies on rapid adaptation to maintain the monarchy's public relevance.

The Saudi prince: how dangerous is MBS?

MBS, Khalid Al-Jabri, Nick Pelham, Nicholas Pelham

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has rapidly consolidated absolute power in Saudi Arabia while dismantling the religious establishment to implement sweeping social reforms like women's driving rights and public entertainment. These changes accompany a controversial economic strategy known as Vision 2030 aimed at reducing oil dependence, despite the regime facing severe scrutiny over the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and persistent human rights abuses. Analysts warn that MBS's aggressive centralization of authority and reliance on fear to suppress dissent create a volatile political environment where internal fractures or miscalculations could threaten the kingdom's stability.

How China crushed Hong Kong

Su Lin Wong, Dr Chung Kim Wah, Ching Chong, Carrie Lam, Anna Kwok

This presentation analyzes the systematic erosion of Hong Kong's autonomy following the 2019 extradition protests and the subsequent imposition of Beijing's National Security Law. Through detailed accounts of decades-long infiltration strategies involving civil servants, security forces, and academics, the discussion highlights how the Communist Party dismantled local resistance to transform the region into a police state. Former residents and exiled figures, including Dr. Chung Kim Wah and Anna Kwok, now warn that these tactics pose an immediate threat to liberal democracies worldwide, urging global vigilance against the export of authoritarian control.

How gene editing could reduce the cost of cosmetics

Sunil Chandran, Jason Kelly, Alok Jha

Biotech firms like Amaris and Ginkgo are rapidly scaling the production of cosmetic ingredients through synthetic biology, currently supplying the majority of the global squalane market while securing contracts to engineer novel scents and fragrances. This shift replaces unsustainable extraction methods that endanger shark populations and deplete natural resources, offering companies the potential for 50% cost savings alongside regulatory advantages in the US and EU. Beyond ingredient sourcing, the sector is increasingly leveraging engineered microbes to address industry-wide waste challenges, such as breaking down the 120 billion units of single-use packaging generated annually.

Alien life: are we about to find it?

Alok Jha

Driven by a decade of technological advancement, the scientific community is shifting from sci-fi speculation to rigorous analysis with the James Webb Space Telescope and upcoming 40-meter ground-based observatories poised to detect biosignatures like oxygen on Earth-like exoplanets. Despite the light-lag constraint making intelligent technosignatures unlikely to be verified soon, researchers are prioritizing the identification of liquid water and biological markers on targets such as Teegarden B. Experts project that these initiatives will either confirm the existence of extraterrestrial life within ten years or fundamentally alter our understanding of life's rarity in the universe.

War in Ukraine: how has the world changed?

The ongoing conflict represents the most significant geopolitical shift since the Cold War, fundamentally altering global security dynamics, European defense postures, and transatlantic unity while exposing Russia's military weaknesses and economic fragility. Global markets face amplified inflation and supply chain disruptions, prompting a long-term restructuring of trade networks and driving China to develop defensive strategies against Western financial sanctions. Meanwhile, Ukraine has demonstrated unexpected resilience with credible victory prospects, potentially accelerating the collapse of the Russian regime and forcing a reconfiguration of the international order where two-thirds of the world remains neutral or supportive of Moscow.

Could Ethiopia’s war in Tigray spark conflict with Sudan?

Sudan and Ethiopia are engaged in a volatile border confrontation over the fertile Al-Fashaga region, where Sudanese forces seized territory from Ethiopian farmers following the collapse of a 2008 treaty during Ethiopia's 2020 Tigray civil war. This territorial dispute has intensified amid wider regional tensions involving the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, prompting Sudan to align with Egypt in the "Guardians of the Nile" military operation. Despite the involvement of multiple armed factions and failed international mediation, experts continue to advocate for an African Union-led process to resolve the crisis and prevent a broader regional escalation.