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The Digital Identity Leapfrog
More than 500 million Africans have no official identity document, which can severely limit their access to public, financial, and social services. Rwanda's Irembo platform had processed more than 30 million cumulative service requests by 2025; Kenya saw the rollout of Huduma Cards canceled due to t
The deployment of robots beyond warehouses will depend less on embedded intelligence than on energy cost per mission
A Korean quadrupedal robot has just completed a full marathon on a single battery charge. RAIBO2, developed at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, covered 42.195 km in 4 hours 19 minutes, with a transport cost lower than that of a human walker. This result, published in Nature,
For Lack of Childcare Spots, Families Are Giving Up on Having Children
France spends more on families than almost all its neighbors. Yet it has fewer children than at any point since the end of the First World War. The problem is not the amount. It is that the money does not finance what is missing. Social protection spending devoted to families amounts to €65.8 billio
Growing Old in Dependency Costs More Than a Lifetime of Median Wages
Entering a medicalized facility for dependent elderly persons represents, in 2026, an average out-of-pocket cost of 1,800 euros per month after all benefits. The average retirement pension hovers around 1,500 euros. The gap is 300 euros each month, structurally, for the duration of the stay. Familie
Water Governance: Saudi Arabia Reduces Its Dependence
In nine years, Saudi Arabia has cut its extraction from fossil aquifers in half. The country went from 21 to 11 billion cubic meters of non-renewable groundwater between 2016 and 2025, according to MEWA, a figure cited by Arab News in June 2026. This result accompanies a policy comprising measuremen
How Regenerative Agriculture Sequesters Carbon
Global agricultural soils have lost, through plowing and chemical inputs, a massive fraction of the carbon they contained before agricultural modernization. A 2025 Springer review of 214 time series from 23 long-term agricultural experiments shows that regenerative agriculture can reverse this traje
In Latin America: Emigration Empties Territories More Than Declining Birth Rates
In Guatemala, the total fertility rate fell from approximately 4.1 children per woman in 2003 to approximately 2.4 in 2022-2023 according to projections from the INE, while incomes have not followed a comparable progression. This demographic shift, long attributed to economic development, accompanie
Unemployment Insurance Tapped by the State at the Expense of Precarious Workers
Sixteen percent of salaried jobs have precarious status in 2024, twice as many as forty years ago [1]. This doubling of the precarity baseline is the structural fact weighing on unemployment insurance. Successive reforms since 2017 have tightened compensation conditions for those who needed it most,
Book Review. "State of the Sector 2026" by On Think Tanks
Nineteen organizations from West Africa responded to On Think Tanks' annual survey in 2026. Their shared diagnosis can be summed up in one sentence: they speak to the right people, but lack the means to sustain the conversation over time. The report State of the Sector 2026, based on 299 organizat
European Leagues Double North America in Sportstech Funding
In 2025, Europe captured more than half of global sportstech funding for the first time. A dispute between the LFP and DAZN in 2025 preceded the launch of Ligue 1+, a direct-broadcast platform by the LFP. CANAL+ recorded record growth in its direct subscribers in France in 2024. North America is als
Europeans Are Moving More
Six percentage points in four years: the share of Europeans who never do sport fell from 45% to 39% between 2022 and 2026, according to the Eurobarometer on sport and physical activity published this year. This decline is real and measurable. But it masks an almost unchanged social geography: in an
Intermediate Formats Are Losing the Algorithmic Race
A portion of page visits is very brief according to visit duration data, not according to eyetracking measurements. Attention varies strongly depending on platforms: short formats dominate on TikTok, while YouTube also accommodates intermediate and long durations. Intermediate formats face obstacles
Electrical Grid Connection: France Chooses Data Centers and Established Sites
Thirty-three gigawatts of industrial demand are waiting in the queue for France's transmission network—equivalent to three times the current electricity consumption of the entire national industry. RTE has learned from the congestion: starting in 2025, RTE's procedure strengthened project maturity m
Book Review. "Clearing the Air" by Hannah Ritchie
The +1.5°C threshold had a simple political virtue: a memorable figure around which to mobilize. In 2026, the WMO gives 91% for at least one year above 1.5°C between 2026 and 2030, and 75% for the 2026-2030 average. This partial failure is real, and acknowledging this fact can redirect action toward
In Central Europe, 80% of Homeowners
In Central and Eastern Europe, owning your home is the norm, and it has become a climate trap. In several countries where homeownership rates are high, thermal renovation represents a significant cost compared to the disposable income of many households. The European financing that supported this wo
In France 33 GW of Industrial Capacity Stuck by Outdated Rules
France has nearly 33 GW of industrial projects waiting to connect to the grid. Queuing rules constitute a brake, but the network's physical capacities and reinforcements remain equally decisive. A project reserves its capacity upon acceptance of the grid connection offer, under conditions of maturit
Fifteen Years Are Sufficient to Make an Illiberal Drift Irreversible
Israelis must vote on October 27, 2026 for the first time since the legislative elections of November 1, 2022. These elections arrive at a moment when several institutional variables remain undetermined. The country has experienced judicial contestation, pressure on the media, and fragmentation of t
European Workers Win Seats on Corporate Boards
Spain inscribed workplace democracy in its Constitution in 1978, and since then, article 129.2 has received no general implementing law, though legislation has established limited rights of representation, information, and consultation. A report by experts commissioned by Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz
Global Logistics: Climate Bottlenecks Remain Unfunded
In 2023, drought reduced the daily transit capacity of the Panama Canal—not the annual traffic of nearly 40 percent. Global supply chains rest on bottlenecks, some of which have adaptation plans and financing, though needs remain substantial. Adapting a Pacific island port represents a significant c
Small Island States Test the Limits of Climate Equity
A considerable number of people live less than one meter above sea level in the Asia-Pacific region. For most of them, the word "relocation" still designates an option. For the inhabitants of Tuvalu or the low-lying islands of Fiji, it designates something more brutal: the end of a territory. The As
Aramco and Pasqal, Quantum Computing as a Geopolitical Tool
In November 2025, Aramco and French startup Pasqal deployed the first 200-qubit neutral-atom quantum computer installed on-site in a Gulf country in Saudi Arabia. This deployment is a local industrial partnership with a French supplier, accompanied by efforts to localize technology. Uncertainty abou
AI-Intensive Companies Hire 25% Fewer Junior Workers
An HEC Paris / Banque de France study published in 2026 documents for the first time the generational effect of AI on recruitment in France. Companies that adopt AI intensively hire between 17 and 25% fewer young people aged 21 to 29 on permanent contracts than the rest of their sector. Among softwa
Young people without qualifications are losing ground while public money funds the others
Fewer than one in two young people without qualifications are employed ten years after leaving the education system. France ranks 22nd in Europe on this indicator. Meanwhile, 16.5 billion euros of public support for apprenticeships go each year primarily to young people preparing for higher educatio
Physical Access to Sports Is Not Enough to Reduce Health Inequalities
Access to sports facilities in poor areas can contribute to measurable health improvements, but practice levels and certain social determinants differ by gender and resources, without causal effects of facilities on these gaps being established. In 2019, priority neighborhoods concentrated 4% of spo