Axios (November 13)
In what security experts believe is “likely just the beginning,” Chinese hackers are suspected of using “Anthropic’s AI coding tool to target about 30 global organizations,” with some success. The perpetrators utilized “Claude’s agentic capabilities,” which allow the model “to take autonomous action across multiple steps with minimal human direction.” It appears “the dam is breaking on state hackers using AI to speed up and scale digital attacks.”
Tags: Agentic, AI, Anthropic, Chinese hackers, Claude, Coding, Digital attacks, Experts, Global, Human direction, Modelm Autonomous, Security, Suspected
The Economist (June 14)
“The world must escape the manufacturing delusion.” Nearly everywhere you turn, “politicians are fixated on factories.” They want to win them, open them, expand them and bring them home. But this fixation “with factories is built on myths—and will be self-defeating…. the global manufacturing push will not succeed. In fact, it is likely to do more harm than good.”
Tags: Escape, Expand, Factories, Fixated, Global, Harm, Manufacturing, Manufacturing delusion, Myths, Open, Politicians, Self-defeating, Succeed, World
CNN (June 10)
According to the World Bank, “Global economic growth is on track for its weakest decade since the 1960s.” Its current forecast now estimates global GDP growth in 2025 at 2.3%, a downgrade “from the 2.7% it had forecast in January.” If the World Bank’s current projections for 2025 and 2026 transpire, the global economy will be “on course for its weakest pace of growth in 17 years, excluding two global recessions” arising from the2009 financial crisis and the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.
Tags: 1960s, 2.3%, 2025, 2026, Downgrade, Economic growth, Financial Crisis, Forecast, GDP growth, Global, Weakest decade, World Bank
Traders Magazine (April 30)
“As global financial markets face mounting volatility and exponential growth in data and message traffic, infrastructure resilience has become a cornerstone of stability. Global market infrastructure is facing unprecedented stress tests, not from system failures, but from the relentless pace of data and messaging traffic, regulatory complexity, and volatile geopolitical conditions.” Essentially, this “means building systems to handle two or even three times their previous peak volume—ensuring not only capacity but also continuity during high-stress events.”
Tags: Capacity, Continuity, Data, Exponential growth, Financial markets, Geopolitical, Global, Market infrastructure, Message traffic, Peak volume, Regulatory complexity, Resilience, Stability, Stress tests, System failures, Volatility
Barron’s (April 4)
“The tariff damage can’t be undone.” Many uncertainties still remain regarding the extent of their ultimate impact, how much the world will reorient to exclude the U.S., and the benefit the tariffs will provide China. However, “the scope, speed and magnitude of the Trump administration’s tariff blitz” made one point “crystal clear: The post–World War II global world economic order is no longer.”
Tags: Damage, Economic order, Exclude, Extent, Global, Impact, Magnitude, Post–World War II, Reorient, Scope, Speed, Tariff, Trump, U.S., Uncertainties, Undone
Washington Post (February 21)
“By the end of 2023, some 43 percent of global electricity generation was powered by solar, wind and other renewable sources — up dramatically since the turn of the 21st century, when these sources accounted for only 18 percent. Yet the distance to 100 percent remains daunting.”
Tags: 100, 18, 2023, 43%, Daunting, Electricity, Generation, Global, Power, Renewable sources, Solar, Wind
South China Morning Post (February 11)
“China has long held ambitions of turning global aviation into an ‘ABC’ market: breaking the duopoly of Airbus and Boeing with the entry of world-class Chinese jets. That strategy is already well under way, with the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) having already received orders for hundreds of its regional and narrowbody planes.” Its ambitions to develop a world-class jumbo jet, however, “may hinge on cooperation from Western regulators and suppliers.”
Tags: ‘ABC’ market, Airbus, Ambitions, Aviation, Boeing, China, Comac, Global, Jets, Jumbo jet, Narrowbody, Planes, Regional, Regulators, Suppliers
Financial Times (December 10)
“Global public debt is set to exceed $100tn by the end of this year” according to IMF estimates, “with total government borrowing set to approach 100 per cent of global GDP by the end of the decade.” This development led the outgoing chief economist of the Bank for International Settlements to warn that “rising government debt levels will cause turbulence in the global economy and financial markets unless political leaders start tackling them soon.”
Tags: $100tn, BIS, Borrowing, Chief economist, Debt levels, Economy, Financial markets, GDP, Global, Government, IMF, Political leaders, Public debt, Turbulence
Washington Post (December 6)
“Global temperatures remain at near-record levels. After 2023 ended up the warmest year in human history by far, 2024 is almost certain to be even warmer. Now, some scientists say this could indicate fundamental changes are happening to the global climate that are raising temperatures faster than anticipated.”
Tags: 2023, 2024, Faster, Fundamental changes, Global, Global climate, Human history, Record levels, Temperatures, Warmest
WARC (November 26)
Global advertising spend looks set to exceed “$1 trillion for the first time this year.” It is on course to grow 10.7% this year to a total of $1.08trn, with online media leading the charge – the strongest growth rate in six years and the largest absolute rise on record if the post-Covid recovery of 2021 (+27.9% year-on-year) is disregarded.”
Tags: $1 trillion, 10.7%, 2021, Advertising spend, First time, Global, Growth rate, Largest, Online media, Post-Covid, Record, Rise
