Which emerging technologies will define the future? Once a year, we take stock and share some educated guesses with our readers. Here are the advances that we think will drive progress or incite the most change—for better or worse—in the years ahead. Technology Review
Venezuela claims to have more than 300 billion barrels in the ground, the largest reserves of oil of any country. But it struggles to produce about one million barrels a day, or around 1 percent of global production. In addition, much of Venezuela’s oil is extra heavy, making it polluting and expensive to process. The New York Times
In 2025, statutory tariff rates on U.S. imports rose to levels not seen in over one hundred years. This working paper shows that the tariff rate importers have paid is significantly lower than the tariff figures that Mr. Trump announced. The reasons include exemptions for specific countries and industries, rates that were lowered for some goods by the time they arrived in the U.S. and evasion of the rules by some companies. The New York Times Working Paper: The Incidence of Tariffs: Rates and Reality
Contrary to what far-right leaders claim, Europe’s greatest challenge is not immigration or “wokeness,” but its own economic and technological backwardness. With productivity growth lagging and innovation increasingly taking place elsewhere, Europe must confront its structural weaknesses or risk falling further behind. Project Syndicate
After a decade of backlash, it is time to accept not only that neoliberalism is dead but also that a new consensus is taking its place. Discussions in universities and think tanks are driven today by a common understanding that departs significantly from the neoliberal orthodoxy of the last 50 years. tipp insights
For a start, the heads of the top AI companies made promises they couldn’t keep. They told us that generative AI would replace the white-collar workforce, bring about an age of abundance, make scientific discoveries, and help find new cures for disease. Though the technology may have been billed as a universal multitool that could revamp outdated business processes and cut costs, a number of studies published suggest that firms are failing to make the AI pixie dust work its magic. Technology Review
What will really matter in the long run? We can’t see the future, but we expect these technologies to affect our world in a big way, for decades to come. Technology Review
Making steel is one of the largest industrial sources of carbon dioxide, emitting more carbon than all of India (the world’s third largest emitter) and far more than air travel. The first industrial green-steel plant, which uses hydrogen made with renewable power, is being built by Stegra, a $7 billion startup that is scheduled to begin operations 2026 in northern Sweden. Technology Review
From the end of passwords over a Covid pill and huge grid batteries to a carbon removal factory. MIT Technology Review.
Did the United States and its allies, through excess of optimism or naïveté, simply get Mr. Putin wrong from the outset? Or was he transformed over time into the revanchist warmonger of today, whether because of perceived Western provocation, gathering grievance, or the giddying intoxication of prolonged and — since Covid-19 — increasingly isolated rule? The New York Times