Part I of a two-part series exposing the truth behind the world’s most popular prediction market and its dark ambitions to alter both markets and representative government forever Shayne Coplan, now the world’s youngest “self-made” billionaire, is the public face of what purports to be the world’s largest crypto-powered prediction market – Polymarket. Coplan and…
The possibility that AI will end up unleashing waves of ‘Anti-Progress’–malicious uses, untrustworthy output and uncontrollable floods of slop–also doesn’t occur to those confined in the current belief construct. A funny thing happens on the way to understanding risk: we discover it’s tricky. We think we see all the risks, and think we can mitigate or…
The future of the United Nations (UN) is in play, largely because of its refusal to censure Iran—a member nation. In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio reprimanded the UN: “If you’re telling me that the international community and hundreds of countries cannot rally behind that, then I don’t know what the utility of the UN…
In the U.K., the government developed a group tasked with “dreaming up psychological tricks to alter our behaviour” without the people being aware of it. The Behavioural Insights Team, known unofficially as the “Nudge Unit”, set the narrative for the COVID-19 fiasco. They were the team behind the infamous slogan, “Stay Home, Protect the NHS,…
Story at-a-glance No industry, organization, or cause tasked with solving a problem will actually solve it, because the problem disappearing threatens their economic livelihood or political power The pharmaceutical industry has perfected this model: drugs are designed to be taken perpetually rather than cure, side effects create demand for additional drugs, and the entire regulatory…
Freddie Ponton21st Century Wire Three hundred bodies. Children among them. Hands tied behind their backs. Buried in a hospital courtyard in Khan Younis. That is what an unnamed French woman described in a short clip that went viral on May 21, 2026, almost drowned out by a louder story breaking the same day when French nationals from…
Yesterday, the US House of Representatives quietly passed a bundle of “digital protections” collectively labelled the Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act (KIDS Act). You might not have heard, because the US news was focused on other things, like the Supreme Court refusing to review the civil verdict that Donald Trump sexually assaulted E Jean…
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan passed away last week at the age of 100. Greenspan chaired the Fed from 1987 through 2006. Despite being a lifelong Republican, Greenspan refused to lower interest rates, though doing so may have helped George H.W. Bush’s 1992 reelection campaign. However, he did tailor monetary policy to support President…
Story at-a-glance Researchers found that every 10% increase in ultraprocessed food intake linked to measurable declines in attention performance, even in adults without dementia Attention problems such as brain fog, distractibility, slower thinking, and mental fatigue often appear long before obvious memory loss and may reflect early metabolic stress in the brain The study found…
The Iranians have never wavered from their position that they intend to control traffic through the Strait of Hormuz permanently. They just underscored this point by launching an attack on a cargo vessel near the coast of Oman. During the 60 day negotiation window with the United States, Iran is not charging commercial vessels to…
