topics

Topics

1992 Consensus — Cross-strait framework: one China, different interpretations
2026 FIFA World Cup — Football tournament jointly hosted by US, Mexico and Canada
Academic freedom in America — Republican states legislating university curricula and punishing dissent
Acupuncture — Ancient Chinese practice of needle therapy, useful for pain
Adjustment of status — US green-card route from within the country, restricted by Trump in 2026
Administrative Procedures Act (APA) — 1946 US law governing federal rulemaking procedures
African Continental Free Trade Area — African Continental Free Trade Area, vast informal trade underestimated
Affordable Care Act — Obamacare health-insurance marketplaces, 24m enrolled with subsidies
African aviation — Intra-African air travel hampered by poor connections and high taxes
African Debt — Sub-Saharan sovereign debt at 59% of GDP, domestic borrowing surging
African electricity — 600m without power, solar transformation, pricing conundrum
African Emigration — Growing global migration driven by Africa's demographic youth
African waterways — Underused inland waterways, 80% of freight goes by road instead
Afrobeats — African pop music gone global, six-fold streaming growth
Agentic web — AI agents navigating the web via MCP, A2A and NLWeb protocols
African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) — America's duty-free trade deal with Africa, expiring in 2025
AI Alignment — Ensuring AI models pursue goals consistent with their designers'
AI and education — How AI is transforming schooling, tutoring and childhood
AI and jobs — Debate over whether AI will cause mass unemployment
AI capital expenditure — Hyperscalers' AI infrastructure buildout, dwarfing previous tech booms
AI Companions — Growing industry of AI apps providing friendship, therapy and romance
AI conflict prediction — Machine-learning models forecasting riots, wars and displacement
AI in drug discovery — AI transforming pharma R&D with 80-90% early-trial success rates
AI regulation in America — MAGA split over state vs federal AI regulation
AI Therapy — AI chatbots as mental-health therapists, lawsuits and regulation
AI Weather Forecasting — AI models democratising weather prediction for poor countries
Airlines — Record $40bn profits in 2025, ageing fleets and aircraft shortage
Alcohol and civilisation — Humankind's 10m-year relationship with booze, now fading
Alzheimer's disease — Most common dementia, first slowing drugs arrived in 2023-24
Amazon Rainforest — World's largest tropical rainforest, carbon sink and atmospheric aqueduct
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) — Atlantic ocean-current system that could freeze Europe if it collapses
Animated film — Animation's rise from niche to nearly a quarter of box office
Anticipatory action — Pre-disaster cash transfers to reduce harm from floods and storms
Antifungal Resistance — Drug-resistant fungi and the shrinking antifungal arsenal
Antisemitism — Surging hostility to Jews from Islamist, far-left and far-right currents
Arctic geopolitics — Great-power competition in the warming Arctic, Adak and icebreakers
Artemis Programme — NASA's programme to return astronauts to the Moon
Artificial General Intelligence — AI capable of replacing desk workers, predicted by 2027-2035
Artificial intelligence — AI business adoption, investment gap and productivity effects
Assisted dying — Legalised in 12+ US states, Oregon model since 1994
Attention economics — Emerging field modelling attention as a scarce economic resource
AUKUS — US-Australia-Britain submarine and defence-technology pact
Autism — Neurodevelopmental condition, 80%+ heritable, four emerging subtypes
Autonomous driving — Self-driving car technology; China leads in L2+ deployment
Bandung Conference — 1955 Afro-Asian summit that launched the non-aligned movement
Basel III — International banking-supervision rules, fraying amid deregulatory competition
Battery Storage — Grid-scale batteries, California leads with 16,000MW
Baumol's cost disease — Rising service prices driven by productivity gains elsewhere
Belt and Road Initiative — China's global infrastructure programme since 2013, 130+ signatories, surging
One Big Beautiful Bill Act — Trump's 2025 tax-and-spending omnibus, adds $4.5trn to debt
Big Mac index — The Economist's purchasing-power-parity gauge since 1986
Bilharzia — Parasitic disease affecting 200m people, catfish-based control in Lake Victoria
Biodiversity credits — Nascent nature-asset market, under $10m globally in 2024
Biological Computing — Using human neurons on silicon chips as computational elements
Birthright citizenship — 14th Amendment principle granting citizenship to all born on US soil
Black Sea — Critical waterway for Ukraine's grain exports
Breastfeeding — Mammary lactation, the neglected medical specialism of "lactology"
Bretton Woods system — 1944 global economic order: dollar-gold peg, IMF, World Bank
British farming — Post-Brexit subsidy transformation, environmental payments, dairy supercows
British foreign aid — ODA cut from 0.7% to 0.3% of GNI, DfID merged into Foreign Office
British nuclear deterrent — Trident submarines, deeply dependent on American technology and parts
British property taxes — Highest in the OECD, council tax based on 1991 valuations
British public services — Austerity-hit local government, policing and private alternatives
Business-process outsourcing in Africa — Africa's growing outsourcing industry, 1m workers, 14% annual growth
Buy Now, Pay Later — Consumer credit in instalments, blurring into mainstream finance
CAHOOTS — Eugene, Oregon mobile crisis service, medics instead of police
California housing — California's housing crisis, SB 79 and the YIMBY movement
Cancer Prevention — Advances in vaccines, screening and drugs to avert cancer
Cap and trade — Carbon markets in California, Washington and beyond
Capital punishment in America — Death penalty surge in 2025, Supreme Court retreat from oversight
Catastrophe bonds — Disaster-linked debt instruments, record $17bn issued in H1 2025
Catholic Church — 10,000+ saints, 32% of Europeans Catholic, canonisation surge
Central-Bank Independence — Political threats to monetary-policy autonomy worldwide
Cetacean Communication — Sperm-whale codas resembling vowels, studied by CETI
Cha chaan teng — Hong Kong fusion cafes going global with the diaspora
Chagos Islands — Indian Ocean archipelago ceded by Britain to Mauritius in 2025
Charcoal — Africa's stubbornly important dirty fuel, a tens-of-billions trade
Chernobyl — Site of 1986 nuclear disaster, NSC dome damaged by Russian drone in 2025
Chessboxing — Hybrid sport of chess and boxing, born in Berlin in 2003
Child Care — Early-childhood programmes, Perry experiment, Quebec's mixed results
Chinese wine — China's growing wine industry, centred on Ningxia near the Gobi
Cholesterol — Lipoprotein science beyond simple good-and-bad, ApoB and Lp(a)
City of London — London's financial district, global hub for FX, insurance and derivatives
Climate change — Global warming trends, Paris agreement, polar ice and tipping points
Climate Tipping Points — Irreversible thresholds in Earth's climate system, from Amazon to AMOC
Cloud-seeding — Weather modification by seeding clouds, invented 1940s at GE
Cluster munitions — Wide-area weapons being rehabilitated to deter Russia
Coal trade — Global coal trade, 17% crosses borders, Indonesia biggest exporter
Cocaine trade — Global cocaine business worth $84bn+, outsourced supply chain
Cognac — France's brandy appellation, 97% exported, caught in trade wars
Cognitive offloading — AI's effects on critical thinking, creativity and mental effort
College Sports — $19bn American industry, second-biggest sports league in the world
Common Agricultural Policy — EU farm subsidies, ~⅓ of EU budget, facing cuts
Congestion Pricing — Tolls on urban driving, pioneered in London
Congo basin rainforest — World's largest terrestrial carbon sink, second-biggest rainforest
Copper — Red metal vital to EVs and data centres, warped by Trump's tariffs
Cosy crime — Puzzle-driven mystery genre, inter-war origins, Christie to Osman
Creatine — Legal sports supplement with cognitive and muscular benefits
Critical minerals — America's state-sponsored mining campaign to break China's grip
Cruise-ship catering — Industrial-scale feeding of 7,600 passengers aboard mega-ships
Cryptocurrency — Digital assets worth $3trn, regulatory battle in America
Cultivated Meat — Lab-grown meat and plant-protein alternatives to animal farming
Cults — Online recruitment, legal frameworks and coercive-group taxonomy
Custody law — Evolution of child-custody rights from paternal property to best interests
Cyber warfare — America's 2026 pivot from cyber-defence to offensive operations
Cybercrime — Global criminal gig economy of ransomware and data theft
Dalit cuisine — India's invisible cuisine shaped by caste exclusion and ingenuity
Dark patterns — Deceptive digital design exploiting cognitive biases, coined 2010
Dark tourism — Travel to sites of atrocities, $35bn market, coined 1996
Data centres — AI-driven power demand reshaping grids, prompting political backlash
De minimis exemption — US tariff exemption for small parcels, eliminated for China
Dead Sea Scrolls — Ancient Hebrew and Aramaic scrolls discovered in the 1940s
Decembrist revolt — Russian aristocratic uprising of 1825 that inspired Tolstoy
Declaration of Independence — America's 1776 founding statement of liberal principle
Deep-sea mining — Extraction of mineral nodules from the ocean floor
Deepfakes — Synthetic imagery technology, nudify apps, and regulatory responses
Denisovans — Elusive hominin cousins of modern humans, identified from Siberian DNA
Desalination — Gulf states' critical water source, vulnerable to Iranian attack
Digital advertising — $700bn global market, 60% of ad spend, growing recession sensitivity
Digital Services Act — EU rules regulating online platforms, fines up to 6% of turnover
Disparate Impact — Civil-rights doctrine on unintentional discrimination, under attack
Dog domestication — How wolves became dogs over 14,000+ years of symbiosis
Dollar dominance — The greenback's waning pre-eminence in the global economy
Drones — Military and commercial drone markets and supply chains
Drug Pricing — Transatlantic imbalance in pharmaceutical pricing and innovation funding
Druze — Mystical religious minority influential across the Levant
Dutch disease — Currency appreciation from export booms hurting other industries
E-waste — 62m tonnes of electronic waste a year, only 22% recycled
Early-Onset Cancer — Rising cancer rates in young adults, linked to colibactin
Earth Biogenome Project — Mission to sequence all 1.5m eukaryotic species by 2035
Economic Nationalism — Protectionist trend as America, China and Europe capture trade benefits
Economic Policy Uncertainty Index — Newspaper-based measure of uncertainty from Northwestern and Stanford
Education Technology — $165bn industry with little evidence of boosting learning
El Niño — Recurring warming pattern causing droughts and floods in poor countries
El Segundo defence-tech cluster — LA beachside city emerging as America's hardware startup hub
Electric hydrofoils — Boats on submerged wings, electric drivetrains, for urban waterways
Endangerment Finding — EPA's 2009 greenhouse-gas determination, terminated by Trump in 2026
Engel's law — 1857 regularity linking rising income to falling food-spending share
Enhanced Games — Performance-enhancing-drug-friendly sporting competition launching May 2026
Epigenetic Editing — Modulating genes via chemical markers without cutting DNA
Epigenomics — Heritable markers on DNA that alter gene expression without changing sequence
EU migration policy — EU's invisible wall of transit-country deals cutting illegal crossings
EU regulation — EU's prolific rule-making machine and deregulation efforts
European capital markets — Europe's listing exodus as firms decamp to America
European Convention on Human Rights — International rights treaty, Britain first to ratify in 1951
European digital sovereignty — EU's push to escape dependence on American cloud and AI giants
European Green Deal — EU climate framework targeting neutrality by 2050, under political pressure
European housing crisis — Continent-wide housing shortage driving rent inflation and populist anger
European labour market — Low job-switching and long tenures holding back growth and innovation
European pensions — EU's $5trn pension gap vs America's $43trn, reform outliers
European space industry — Europe's lagging space sector, €470bn market heading to €2trn by 2040
eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) — Electric flying taxis nearing commercial launch in China and Dubai
Exchange-Traded Funds — $15.5trn investment vehicles, more tax-efficient than mutual funds
Executive compensation — S&P 500 CEO pay at $19m, 285 times the average worker
Exposomics — Emerging discipline mapping environmental influences on health
Extra-chromosomal DNA (ecDNA) — Circular DNA in cancer cells that drives rapid drug resistance
Fentanyl — Synthetic opioid crisis linking China's chemicals industry to America
Food allergies — Rising childhood allergy rates, immunotherapy advances
Formula One — F1 championship, $3.9bn revenue, Liberty Media's entertainment push
Four-day school week — Over 2,100 US schools on four-day weeks, modest test-score costs
Four Pests Campaign — Mao's sparrow cull that killed 2m people during the Great Leap Forward
Fragrance industry — Global perfume market disrupted by TikTok and Gen Z
Franchising — Business model spreading from fast food to fitness and child care
Fusion energy — Tokamak-based commercial fusion, CFS and Helion nearing deployment
Gender-Affirming Care — Puberty blockers and the Cass Review's challenge to weak evidence
Gender wage gap — Male-female earnings gap, explained largely by motherhood
Gene Editing — CRISPR and base editing, first bespoke therapy in 2025
Geothermal Energy — Clean firm power from Earth's heat, EGS and superhot rock
Gerrymandering — Partisan redistricting in America, national war heating up
The Gilded Age — Late 19th-century American era of plutocrats, busts and reform
Global population decline — World population likely to peak in the 2050s then shrink
GLP-1 agonists — Weight-loss drug class behind the $90bn obesity-treatment market
Go (board game) — Ancient board game disputed among China, Japan and South Korea
Gold — Ancient asset accounting for 80%+ of America's foreign-exchange reserves
Golden Dome — Trump's proposed $175bn+ missile-defence shield for America
Golden visas — Residency-for-investment programmes offered by 60+ countries
Green Steelmaking — Decarbonising steel, 8% of global emissions, startup approaches
Grey wolves in America — Reintroduced in the 1990s, now hunted again in the West
Grey-zone warfare — Hybrid tactics between peace and war, used by Russia and China
Guest-worker schemes — Temporary-migration programmes booming across the OECD
Gunboat Capitalism — State meddling in multinationals' cross-border operations
Hajj — Annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, one of the five pillars of Islam
Hantavirus — Rodent-borne virus with strains that can be lethal in humans
Herculaneum Scrolls — Ancient Roman scrolls being decoded with particle accelerators
High Seas Treaty (BBNJ) — BBNJ agreement protecting ocean biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction
Hindutva — Hindu-nationalist philosophy underpinning the RSS and BJP
Historical video games — Paradox Interactive and Civilization as history-teaching tools
HIV/AIDS — Global HIV/AIDS epidemic, 1.3m new infections a year
Hollywood — American film industry born from immigrant studios fleeing Edison's patents
Homelessness in America — Record 771,000 homeless in 2024, cities criminalising rough sleeping
HOPE VI — US public-housing programme, 1993-2010, $17bn, mixed-income redevelopment
Hormone Replacement Therapy — HRT for menopause and emerging mental-health applications
House of Lords — Britain's upper chamber, removing last hereditary peers in 2026
HS2 — Britain's high-speed rail project, costs exceeded £100bn
Hubble Tension — Persistent disagreement over how fast the universe is expanding
Hudson River — New York waterway, Superfund site cleaned up by GE at cost of $1.7bn
Human trafficking — Forced labour and sex trafficking in Latin America, $52bn annual profit
Humanoid robots — Race to build human-like robots, led by China
Huntington's Disease — Inherited brain disease caused by CAG repeats in huntingtin gene
Hypersonic Missiles — Atmosphere-skimming missiles evading radar, detection via sound
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) — US emergency-powers law invoked by Trump for tariffs
Illegal gold mining — Latin America's criminal gold trade, rivalling cocaine
In-Vitro Gametogenesis — Creating eggs from skin cells via SCNT or stem-cell methods
Industrial policy — Government intervention to promote industries, Washington Consensus debate
Industrial robots — 4.7m robots worldwide, physical AI closing the sim-to-real gap
Inflation Reduction Act — Biden's climate law, largely rescinded in 2025
Information asymmetries — Seller advantages over consumers, from lemons to AI negotiators
Internal Revenue Service — America's tax-collecting agency, gutted under Trump
Indian Premier League — The world's most lucrative cricket franchise tournament, launched 2008
Irish language — Ireland's endangered ancient tongue, making a cultural comeback
Jaguars — South America's apex predator, conservation and ecotourism
Jainism — Indian religion of 5-8m adherents, wandering temple in California
JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) — 2015 Iran nuclear deal abandoned by Trump in 2018
Jones Act — Century-old law requiring domestic ships be American-made and crewed
K-dramas — South Korean TV dramas, smuggled into the North at risk of death
K-pop — South Korean pop music genre expanding globally beyond Korean roots
Kashmir conflict — Decades-long territorial dispute between India and Pakistan
Kuroshio Current — Pacific current shaping East Asian climate, fisheries and history
Lancaster House Treaties — 2010 Franco-British defence pact, nuclear coordination since 2025
Lapsang souchong — Smoky black tea born 400 years ago in Fujian, fading in West
Latin American inequality — Structural income disparities rivalled only by sub-Saharan Africa
Latin American Surrealism — 1940s art movement rooted in Mexico, booming female artists
Laurel Canyon — 1960s-70s LA music scene that shaped folk-rock
Laws of war — International humanitarian law from Grotius to the Geneva conventions
Leveraged ETFs — Speculative exchange-traded funds managing $100bn, mostly American
Lewis and Clark expedition — 1804-06 trek across America's Louisiana Purchase territory
Liberalism — Political philosophy of individual rights, constrained power, open discussion
LIBOR — Defunct benchmark rate, $300trn in contracts, scandal and convictions quashed
Liquefied natural gas — America's LNG exports and global gas trade
Lithium — Battery metal, prices crashed 90% from 2022 peaks amid global glut
London — Britain's capital, global hub for law, finance and startups
Loneliness — Global affliction worst in poor countries, not rich ones; Africa loneliest
Longevity drugs — Rapamycin and metformin as anti-ageing candidates
MAGA tax — The Economist's term for the growth drag from Trump's second-term policies
Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) — MAHA food movement driving state-level bans on additives and junk food
Mahjong — Tile-based Shanghai game enjoying a global revival
Main melody films — Chinese nationalist propaganda blockbusters, peaked 2020, now fading
Malaria — Mosquito-borne disease killing 600,000 a year, worsened by climate change
Marathon running — Booming endurance sport, World Marathon Majors series
Maritime Chokepoints — Strategic narrow waterways through which most global seaborne trade flows
Mars Colonisation — Terraforming, applied astrobiology and the quest to settle Mars
Maven Smart System — Palantir-built military targeting tool used by America and NATO
Measles in America — Falling vaccination rates risk making measles endemic again
Medicaid — American health programme for the poor, covering 71m people
Medicare Advantage — Privately provided Medicare plans, costlier than traditional Medicare
Megachurches — America's ~1,800 giant churches, 70% of churchgoers attend the largest 10%
Mennonites — Anabaptist farming diaspora across the Americas, speaking Low German
Metal-organic frameworks — Self-assembling chemical cages, from CO2 capture to drug delivery
Micro-dramas — Chinese two-minute mobile series, $12.7bn revenue in 2025
Military Balloons — Revived aerial surveillance using aerostats and stratospheric balloons
Minimum Wages — Legally mandated pay floors, rising worldwide since 2014
Mobile money — Africa has more than half the world's mobile-money users
Modular Housing — Factory-built homes, 3% of US stock, growing after disasters
Mormonism — American Christian sect booming in Africa, 120% growth 2011-21
Mpox — Viral disease declared WHO emergency in 2024, worst in Africa
mRNA Technology — Platform tech for vaccines, cancer treatment, gene therapy
Mughal Empire — Muslim empire that ruled India 1526-1857, shaped its culture
Multi-cancer blood tests — Blood tests for early detection of 50+ cancer types
Nanobodies — Camelid-derived mini-antibodies, stable, deep-penetrating, broad-spectrum
National Park Service — America's most popular federal agency, 332m visitors in 2024
Naxalite insurgency — India's six-decade Maoist rebellion, nearly crushed by 2026
Neanderthals — Ice Age hominins with surprising medical sophistication
Neuromodulation — Brain stimulation techniques for depression and other conditions
Neuromorphic Computing — Brain-like computers using memristors, perovskites as key material
Neutrino physics — Elusive particles beyond the Standard Model, studied by JUNO and others
New Deal — Roosevelt's Depression-era programme: bank insurance, social security, jobs
New Orleans — Louisiana port city, sinking and depopulating since Katrina
Nicotine — Addictive stimulant with cognitive benefits and a booming vaping market
Nitazenes — Synthetic opioids stronger than fentanyl, emerging on illicit markets
Non-invasive prenatal testing — Blood test for fetal abnormalities, now predicting maternal conditions
Non-tariff trade barriers — Technical standards now shape 90% of global trade
Nord Stream — Russian-German gas pipelines, sabotaged in September 2022
NRA v Vullo — Unanimous Supreme Court ruling on government coercion of speech
Nuclear Fusion — Farnsworth fusors, Orbitrons and the quest for net fusion power
Nuclear power — Civilian nuclear industry dominated by Russia's Rosatom
Nuclear proliferation — Spread of nuclear weapons, cold-war lessons and modern debates
Nuclear waste — Geological disposal of radioactive waste, 38m cubic metres worldwide
Nushu — Ancient women-only script from Jiangyong County, Hunan, China
Oasis — British rock band from Manchester, 70m albums sold
Obergefell v Hodges — 2015 Supreme Court case establishing right to same-sex marriage
Offshore finance — Tax havens thriving despite secrecy crackdowns, indispensable to China
Oil Painting Conservation — Saponification threatening 70% of museum oil paintings
Osmotic Power — Generating electricity from salinity differences using membranes
Ottawa Convention — Treaty banning anti-personnel landmines since 1999
Palaeoproteomics — Ancient protein analysis extending molecular study of extinct species
Panama Canal — Handles 40% of America's cargo, geopolitical battleground
Paris Agreement — 2015 climate treaty, 195 countries, led by Christiana Figueres
Passive Investing — Index-tracking funds holding 60% of US equity fund assets
PEPFAR — America's AIDS-relief programme, founded 2003, credited with 26m lives saved
Peptideins — New category of small molecule encoded in the human genome
Peptides — Short amino-acid chains, Wolverine stack, regulatory grey zone
Plant-based meat — Alternative-protein industry, sales declining after 2020 boom
Pokémon — Highest-grossing media franchise, $150bn, created in Japan in 1996
Pompeii — Ancient Roman city buried by Vesuvius in 79AD, one-third unexcavated
Posse Comitatus Act — Reconstruction-era law barring military domestic law enforcement
Pre-eclampsia — Dangerous pregnancy complication, first disease-modifying treatment trialled
Pre-term birth — Leading cause of neonatal death, worsened by rising temperatures
Prediction Markets — Platforms for speculating on future events, led by Polymarket
Premier League — Britain's world-beating top-flight football competition, broadcast to 191 countries
Press freedom — Global decline in media freedom, Granger-causal link to corruption
Private credit — Non-bank lending industry with $1.9trn in assets, targeting $40trn
Private Military Companies — Booming mercenary industry, from Iraq reconstruction to Ukraine
Pro-natalism — Tech-trad alliance pushing Americans to have more babies
Proceeds of Crime Act — UK law enabling police to confiscate criminal assets
Project 2025 — Heritage Foundation transition plan for Trump's second term
Prompt Injection — Fundamental LLM security flaw, data-instruction conflation
Protein Design — AI-driven design of proteins from scratch, led by the IPD
Psilocybin — Magic-mushroom compound studied for depression and spiritual experience
Psychedelic medicines — Therapeutic psychedelics, boosted by Trump's April 2026 executive order
Public debt — Rich-world debt dynamics, fiscal rules and historical consolidation
Quantum computing — Qubit-based computing, Britain second in startups after America
Ransomware — Malign software extorting firms, 44% of breaches in 2025
Rare-earth minerals — Vital magnet materials, 92% produced by China
Rare earths — 17 critical minerals, China dominates, Brazil holds second-largest reserves
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) — World's biggest free-trade deal by GDP, linking ASEAN to regional powers
Remote work — Post-pandemic working from home, strongest in the Anglosphere
Rohingya crisis — Persecuted Myanmar minority, 1m+ refugees in Bangladesh camps
Sami people — Indigenous reindeer herders of northern Scandinavia
Sargassum — Floating Atlantic seaweed blighting Caribbean beaches since 2011
Satellite design standards — CubeSats, DiskSats and modular satellite form factors
Satellite mega-constellations — Low-orbit satellite swarms threatening astronomy, 500,000 by 2040
Satellite Navigation — GPS, BeiDou, Galileo and GLONASS positioning systems
School choice — Florida's voucher-funded experiment in unbundled education
Scientific Fraud — Paper mills and complicit editors driving a crisis in peer review
Scientific spillovers — How American research benefits the rest of the world
Syrian Democratic Forces — Kurdish-led Syrian militia, America's IS partner, collapsed January 2026
Seasonal Affective Disorder — Winter depression treatable with bright-light therapy
Seed Oils — Vegetable oils targeted by RFK Jr, healthier than critics claim
Self-driving cars — Economics and urban impact of autonomous vehicles and robotaxis
Sex Work — Economics of the global sex industry, regulation and research
Sex work regulation — Nordic Model, decriminalisation and online sex work rules
Shipbuilding — Global shipbuilding industry dominated by East Asian yards
Singlehood — Rich-world relationship recession, 100m additional singles in a decade
Sixth-Generation Fighter Jets — Next-wave combat aircraft: F-47, J-36, Tempest, FCAS
Slang lexicography — Documenting colloquial English from Anglo-Saxon to Gen Z
SNAP — America's federal food-stamp programme, 42m recipients
Snooker — British-Indian cue sport with a Chinese boom
Social media and children — Global wave of bans and regulation for under-16s
Solar Geoengineering — Reflecting sunlight to cool the climate, led by British funding
Solar power — Costs down 90% since 2010, a third of global electricity
Solid-state batteries — Next-generation cells with solid electrolytes, denser and safer than lithium-ion
Son preference — Shrinking bias for boys, emerging preference for girls
South China Sea — Contested waterway, Chinese militarisation, Scarborough Shoal flashpoint
Sovereign AI — Governments building national AI infrastructure, 20+ countries
Sovereign wealth funds — State-directed investment vehicles like Norway's and Alaska's
Soviet psychiatric abuse — Systematic Soviet use of psychiatry to silence political dissidents
Space Weapons — Counter-space weapons developed by Russia, China and America
SPACs — Shell companies used to take firms public, reviving in 2025
Sports betting — Legalised in America in 2018, player props and NBA scandals
Stablecoins — Dollar-pegged crypto tokens, $300bn market, less than 1% used for payments
State antitrust enforcement — US state attorneys-general asserting independent antitrust enforcement
State media — China and Russia's global news operations as the West retreats
Strait of Hormuz — Persian Gulf chokepoint, a third of seaborne crude transits it
Subsea cables — 1.4m km of ocean-floor fibre-optics carrying 99% of internet traffic
Sumo — Japan's traditional wrestling, women banned from the sacred ring
Svalbard Treaty — 1925 treaty on Svalbard, with Russian town and rising tensions
Synthetic Biology — Writing DNA from scratch, from bacterial genomes to human chromosomes
Tariff revenue — America's customs duties, historical role and modern limits
Tax Progressivity — Rich-world tax systems have become more progressive since 1990
Test cricket — Five-day cricket format, dominated by the Big Three since 1877
The Archers — World's oldest daily radio serial, BBC Radio 4, since 1950
The Troubles — 30 years of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, 3,500+ killed
Tideway Tunnel — New sewer under the Thames, with public parks above
Tobacco industry — Dying industry thriving on price-inelastic smokers, 60% margins
Toll roads — American highway tolling spreads as petrol-tax revenue dwindles
Total factor productivity — Growth not explained by inputs, China's contested TFP debate
Traditional Chinese medicine — Ancient medical practice modernising with AI, 700,000 practitioners
Trump v CASA — Supreme Court ruling ending nationwide injunctions by district courts
Tunney Act — 1974 law requiring disclosure of executive contacts in merger settlements
UN Refugee Convention — 1951 treaty defining refugee rights, extended worldwide in 1967
Unitary executive theory — Conservative vision granting all executive power to the president
Urban cycling — Cycling boom reshaping rich-world cities, culture-war flashpoint
United States Congress — America's legislature, record-low productivity and rising threats
United States Constitution — America's founding document, only 27 of 12,000 proposed amendments ratified
American construction industry — America's fragmented, unproductive construction sector
US defence industry — America's shrinking, consolidating military-industrial base
US government shutdowns — Government funding standoffs, longest ever ended November 2025
US hospital pricing — Hospital prices up 250% since 2000, Indiana and Vermont cap charges
US manufacturing — America's shrinking manufacturing base and ageing infrastructure
United States Navy — America's fleet of ~300 ships, Trump's Golden Fleet plan
America's nuclear weapons — America's nuclear arsenal, maintained by three NNSA laboratories
US refugee program — America's refugee resettlement system, closed by Trump to all except Afrikaners
Road deaths in America — 39,000 Americans die on roads each year, double France's rate
US science funding — America's $120bn federal research system, facing deep cuts
US student loans — America's $1.8trn federal student-loan portfolio and reform efforts
US war on drugs — Trump's militarised drug campaign, Caribbean naval deployment
United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) — North American trade deal shielding Mexico and Canada from tariffs
Uvalde School Shooting — 2022 Texas school shooting, 21 dead, officer on trial for inaction
Uyghurs — Xinjiang's largest ethnic minority, facing forced labour and linguistic erasure
Vaccine Injury Compensation Programme — US vaccine court created in the 1980s, funded by excise tax
Value of a statistical life — Concept measuring willingness to pay to prevent anonymous deaths
Venice Biennale — World's oldest global art show, founded 1895
Venture capital — $1.3trn American VC industry chasing AI unicorns
Vera Rubin Observatory — Chilean telescope cataloguing 40bn cosmic objects over a decade
Vibe-coding — Prompting AI to write software instead of coding by hand
Vietnam War — American war in Vietnam, 1954-1975, and its cultural legacy
Vocational education — Gen Z shift toward trades, apprenticeships and skilled manual work
VTubers — Virtual YouTubers using cartoon avatars, a $2.9bn industry
War Powers Act — 1973 law limiting presidential war-making, rarely enforced
Wealth taxes — Net wealth levies, once common in the OECD, now rare
Webtoons — South Korean digital comics, a $9bn industry going global
Western secularism — Decades of rising irreligion have stalled, Gen Z turning to faith
WHO Pandemic Agreement — 2025 pandemic treaty adopted without America
Wind power — European expansion targets, Chinese turbine-makers pushing overseas
Wine industry — Global wine in decline, only big alcohol category falling at all price points
Wolf-warrior diplomacy — China's confrontational diplomatic style, peaked 2021, retreating since
Women's sport — Women's professional sports boom, $2.4bn revenue in 2025
Wooden Satellites — Using timber instead of alloys for spacecraft, LignoSat pioneered
World models — AI concept for simulating physical and virtual environments
Xenotransplantation — Pig-to-human organ transplants using gene-edited donor pigs
Yiwu — Chinese city that is the world's Christmas-decoration capital
Zombie fires — Underground fires that smoulder unseen and re-emerge
Zombie firms — Persistently unprofitable firms dragging down productivity