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How to measure a good life – tips for moving beyond GDP

How to measure a good life – tips for moving beyond GDP

Richard Heys, Himanshi Bhardwaj and Cliodhna Taylor write: For decades, economists have known that using gross domestic product (GDP) alone to guide policy is problematic. The metric is mainly a measure of market production, albeit one with strong marketing and branding, and misses key elements of what makes a good life. Nevertheless, failure to agree on alternatives has held back the debate over what should replace it. This year will be pivotal for changing how policymakers use data to guide…

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Targeting of energy facilities turned Iran war into worst‑case scenario for Gulf states

Targeting of energy facilities turned Iran war into worst‑case scenario for Gulf states

A view of the liquefied natural gas production at the Ras Laffan facility in Qatar. Stringer/picture alliance via Getty Images By Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Rice University The U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran took a dangerous turn on March 18, 2026, with tit-for-tat strikes on critical energy infrastructure that amount to the most serious regional escalation since the conflict began. First, an Israeli drone strike targeted facilities at Iran’s Asaluyeh complex, damaging four plants that treat gas from the offshore South…

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U.S.-Israeli war on Iran is a disaster for the environment, analysis shows

U.S.-Israeli war on Iran is a disaster for the environment, analysis shows

The Guardian reports: The US-Israel war on Iran is a disaster for the climate, according to an analysis that finds it is draining the global carbon budget faster than 84 countries combined. As warplanes, drones and missiles kill thousands of people, level infrastructure and turn the Middle East into a gigantic environmental sacrifice zone, the first analysis of the climate cost has found the conflict led to 5m tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in its first 14 days. The analysis,…

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Trump is already eyeing regime change in Cuba

Trump is already eyeing regime change in Cuba

Vivian Salama and Sarah Fitzpatrick write: A Russian oil tanker is creeping west across the Atlantic, quite possibly toward a confrontation with the United States Navy. The Anatoly Kolodkin is carrying tens of thousands of tons of crude oil apparently meant for Cuba, which is battling a fuel shortage. But it may not reach its destination: The U.S. Navy is policing the Caribbean to choke off Havana’s oil supply. The Trump administration is squeezing Cuba to a breaking point—and is…

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I predicted the 2008 financial crisis. What is coming may be worse

I predicted the 2008 financial crisis. What is coming may be worse

Richard Bookstaber writes: At the start of the 2008 financial crisis, I was at a hedge fund. By its end, I was at the U.S. Treasury. At both, I worked with people only a few years out of college. The drama of 2008 was all they knew about financial markets. “Remember what’s happening,” I told them. “You’ll never see anything like this again.” Now I’m not so sure. Maybe they’ll see worse. We have returned to a period of risk,…

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California sheriff running for governor seizes more than a half million ballots from 2025 election

California sheriff running for governor seizes more than a half million ballots from 2025 election

The Associated Press reports: A California sheriff running for governor has seized more than half a million ballots cast in a November special election from county election officials, saying he’s investigating a ballot count discrepancy. County elections officials have disputed the claims by Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, called Bianco’s move unprecedented and says it is designed to sow distrust in elections. Bianco held a news conference Friday saying his office…

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Pierre-Édouard Stérin: The billionaire funding France’s far right

Pierre-Édouard Stérin: The billionaire funding France’s far right

The New York Times reports: As France elects thousands of mayors this Sunday, one of the most influential players is not on the ballot. His name is Pierre-Édouard Stérin. He is a billionaire entrepreneur who left France 14 years ago to pay less tax, but has since spent millions, he said in an interview, to “ensure France doesn’t disappear.” Inspired, he said, by George Soros’s support for liberal causes, Mr. Stérin has steered money to right-wing think tanks, political training…

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Britain’s Conservative Party has become a cesspit of Islamophobic and racist bigotry

Britain’s Conservative Party has become a cesspit of Islamophobic and racist bigotry

Peter Oborne writes: At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Keir Starmer turned brutally on Kemi Badenoch and demanded that the Conservative leader sack Nick Timothy as shadow justice secretary. He had every reason to do so. Timothy, who has ignited the latest culture war to engulf British politics, has a record of stirring up hatred and division against Muslims. Earlier this week, Timothy went on the attack yet again by sharing a video on social media of London Mayor Sadiq…

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Iran’s willingness and ability to escalate this high-stakes war is its greatest weapon

Iran’s willingness and ability to escalate this high-stakes war is its greatest weapon

Patrick Wintour writes: Brinkmanship, the ability to take a country to the edge of war without plunging it into the abyss, was the cornerstone of cold war diplomacy. But in our different, more unstable times – in which the line between state and non-state actors has blurred, and weapons of war have diffused – the world this week finally tipped over the edge, and suddenly it is in freefall. The first six days of the Iran war cost the US…

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‘Punish Iran’: Saudi Arabia and UAE inch closer to supporting U.S.-Israeli war

‘Punish Iran’: Saudi Arabia and UAE inch closer to supporting U.S.-Israeli war

Middle East Eye reports: Earlier this month, Elbridge Colby, a senior official in the US Department of War, held a call with Saudi Arabian Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman, who is also the brother and top adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Iran’s attacks on US bases in the Gulf were heating up, and the US needed expanded access and overflight permissions. Saudi Arabia agreed to open King Fahd Air Base in Taif, in Western Saudi Arabia, to the…

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Trump reportedly sending Marines to attack Kharg Island – will it really happen?

Trump reportedly sending Marines to attack Kharg Island – will it really happen?

  Are US boots on the ground inevitable in a war with Iran? With reports that over 2,000 Marines are being deployed, questions are growing over Washington’s strategy and whether Donald Trump has a clear plan. Could the US attempt something as bold as seizing Kharg Island, Iran’s critical oil hub? On this episode of The Fourcast, Matt Frei is joined by Nate Swanson, former National Security Council Iran desk official, and investigative journalist Ronen Bergman to unpack the latest…

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Trump’s desire to ‘take’ Kharg Island dates back to 1988

Trump’s desire to ‘take’ Kharg Island dates back to 1988

In 1988, The Guardian’s Polly Toynbee interviewed Donald Trump, about whom she wrote, “[His g]litz, greed, glamour and an ambition so colossal that it will probably not rest until he rules the world – which one day he just might.” So what do you do when you’re only 41 and you have made more money than you could ever spend? He is lionised in a city of lions. People try to touch him in the street, as if some of…

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To tilt Hungarian election, Russians proposed fake assassination attempt while Trump affirms ‘total endorsement’ of Orbán

To tilt Hungarian election, Russians proposed fake assassination attempt while Trump affirms ‘total endorsement’ of Orbán

The Washington Post reports: In the run-up to Hungary’s pivotal election in April, a unit of Russia’s foreign intelligence service last month began sounding the alarm over plummeting public support for Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose friendly ties to Moscow have long given the Kremlin a strategic foothold inside NATO and the European Union. Officers from the intelligence service, or SVR, suggested that drastic action might be necessary — a strategy they called “the Gamechanger.” In an internal report for…

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Bags of shredded documents at New York jail after Epstein’s death, officer tells FBI

Bags of shredded documents at New York jail after Epstein’s death, officer tells FBI

Miami Herald reports: Less than a week after Jeffrey Epstein was found dead inside his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, something was afoot inside an office where the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ After Action Team had set up a probe into what had happened to their most high-profile inmate. The FBI was told that there were people shredding documents. Bags of them. An inmate at the jail was ordered to take the bags of shredded material to…

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