Photos of recent events

Markets traditionally react to geopolitical crises by fleeing to safe assets, including physical gold. But the closure of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, combined with the explosive construction of compute capacity for artificial intelligence, has revealed raw materials and metals in an entirely new light. At the intersection of a Middle Eastern logistics blockade and AI giants' appetites, a large‑scale commodity supercycle is unfolding, reshaping prices for the planet's basic materials.

Long before the first silicon transistors and supercomputers appeared, the prophets of science fiction tried to predict what man‑made intelligence would become. In their novels, they did not merely depict metal androids and blinking server lights, but also remarkably accurately anticipated key challenges of the modern AI era: the safety and goal‑alignment problem, algorithmic failures and "hallucinations," autonomous digital agents, and technological singularity. Here are some interesting ideas of how past authors imagined neural networks.

September 2026 could have become a historic turning point when familiar levers of control were lost in both the traditional economy and technological progress. A change of the board at Berkshire Hathaway marked the end of an era of comprehensible and largely predictable capitalism. At the same time, mass departures of leading AI researchers were driven by the utter unpredictability of the projects they brought to life. Recently, Sam Altman addressed the UN Security Council as neural networks carried out their first unauthorized attacks. So, the world faces profound uncertainty.

The global elite are relocating en masse, reshaping the map of capital. Harsher taxes, geopolitical risk, and the loss of long‑standing privileges are driving multimillionaires out of traditional financial centers. London, long the world's wealth hub, is emptying fast and being replaced by unexpected destinations — a systemic shift that carries billions in lost tax revenue, investment, and infrastructure projects

Humanity is rapidly shifting from the role of passive observer to direct engineering of its environment. Next‑generation technologies are placing under total control what for centuries was considered uncontrollable. Engineering genius is expanding the limits of human capability on Earth and deep into space—from insect defense to cloud management to placing autonomous data centers in orbit.

Peter Thiel, co‑founder of PayPal and Palantir, has made a sharp strategic pivot. After two quiet quarters, Thiel Macro reentered US equities with nearly $419 million in new positions and ploughed more than 70% into energy. His thesis holds that the AI revolution will be constrained chiefly by physical infrastructure, including electricity generation, transmission networks, and on‑site power systems.

Imagine you bought an ordinary admission ticket to a museum or are waiting to board a plane—and suddenly... Sometimes purchasing a simple entry ticket to a museum, theme park, or observation deck can turn into a lottery win. Major world attractions and transport hubs closely track visitor numbers, and lucky people passing through turnstiles under certain numbers can receive unexpected bonuses. Here are eight curious and inspiring examples of unforgettable gifts granted to jubilee visitors.

Over the past three decades, the list of the world's richest people has become a clear chronicle of humanity's fundamental transformations. If in the late 1990s wealth concentrated around personal computers and traditional retail, today the top ranks are occupied by inventors of artificial intelligence, private spaceflight, and global digital ecosystems. Every change of leader marked the start of a new technological or economic era that reshaped the familiar world.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman officially announced the arrival of technological singularity. In other words, artificial intelligence has surpassed human capabilities and begun to develop at an uncontrollable speed. The statement came against the backdrop of an incident in which an autonomous AI agent broke out of a test environment and attacked the external platform Hugging Face. We have entered an era where artificial intelligence becomes everyday reality. It is a change that finally alters the rules of life on Earth.

No matter how high AI soars, the basic physical needs of data centers can bring its rally sharply back to earth — or even disrupt it entirely. A side effect of the artificial‑intelligence boom has been multimillion‑ and multibillion‑dollar windfalls for companies that seemed irrelevant to tech giants. While developers in Silicon Valley fight for users, big money is settling with firms that produce essential, purely utilitarian goods. Here are eight business stories of companies that unexpectedly profited from the cutting edge of technological progress.

Board games appeared alongside the first megacities and writing systems, proving that the desire for risk and strategic rivalry is rooted in human nature itself. The oldest board games accompanied pharaohs into the afterlife, taught Vikings military tactics, and united rulers of the earliest empires. The history of board games is a fascinating mirror of human civilization, where luck, magic, and cold reason met in a fair contest.

On August 12, 2026, an event took place that astronomers and photographers had awaited for 27 years—the first total solar eclipse visible in Europe since 1999. The moon's shadow moved from the Arctic through Greenland and Iceland all the way to Spain. In astronomical terms, this was a rare chance to see the silvery solar corona and prominences with the naked eye. In astrological terms, the eclipse in Leo symbolized a grand reset. The astronomical show did not last long, but it gave the world true masterpieces of visual art.