Agathe Demarais
@agathedemarais.com
Geoeconomics @ecfr.eu • Columnist @foreignpolicy.com • Advisor, French MFA • Author, Backfire @columbiaup.bsky.social Global economy, trade wars, economic statecraft, geopolitics of AI, fine tea 🍵 💌 agathe.demarais@ecfr.eu | 🖥️ agathedemarais.com
Interestingly blockchain analytics firm Elliptic appears to confirm there's a drop in A7A5 transactions?
Raphael Wimmer@raphaelwimmer.bsky.social · 14h agoCurrently, a diagram is making the rounds that is claimed to show a significant reduction in Russian disinformation bot activity after Ukrainian drones hit Yandex data centers. There is no evidence that this plot shows real data. I suspect that this image is AI-generated.
China is going all in on electrification to power EVs and data centres • Electricity accounts for about one-third of energy use, up from around 10% in early 2000s • Regions in western China that produce more power than they can consume are becoming data-centre hubs www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
China's official figures suggest investment in manufacturing and infrastructure has plunged • Beijing's data typically paint a rosy picture, fuelling suspicion among analysts • This time round the figures are suspicious because they look too bleak to be true www.economist.com/briefing/202...
Chinese tech firms raise far less money than their US competitors • Data show how Beijing's diffusion-first AI strategy could be more sustainable than US race to frontier • Beijing sees AI like the internet: a tool to embed in economy in bid to achieve broader goals www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Forecasts about the impact of AI on employment and wages vary wildly • So far headline employment rates in OECD economies stand at near record-highs • However, data suggest cross-country slowdown in entry-level hiring for tech-related jobs www.ft.com/content/8f78...
Maersk has for 10 years tried to become and increasing integrated logistics company. But this year the company realised it really needs to compete again on the shipping side even though the number of container ships on order is near all-time highs: www.ft.com/content/bcf1...
Maersk goes on shopping spree for ships in strategy U-turn
Danish liner is hoping that ship shopping spree will help it fend off CMA CGM
ft.com
America's approach to the AI race rests on a basic idea: if US labs do not double down, their Chinese competitors will pull ahead and reach AGI first - for @foreignpolicy.com I explore how Beijing could be running another, diffusion-first race that has no off switch foreignpolicy.com/2026/10/07/c...
China’s AI Rollout Has No Off Switch
Beijing may talk about safety, but its model of AI diffusion is made to go rogue.
foreignpolicy.com
A Berlin-based search engine used by govt is dropping its French AI partner, Mistral, in favour of open-source models, including Chinese “We are disappointed with the quality of Mistral,” Ecosia CEO Christian Kroll said, stating its models are “a year behind” competition
Beijing measures the success of its AI rollout in terms of adoption and diffusion across its economy and beyond. This has a key safety implication: it has no off switch, writes columnist @agathedemarais.com. foreignpolicy.com/2026/10/07/c...
China’s AI Rollout Has No Off Switch
Beijing may talk about safety, but its model of AI diffusion is made to go rogue.
foreignpolicy.com
Price of Chinese lithium futures dropped by around a quarter over past month • Price slump reflects growing concerns about flagging demand in the medium run • Like many Chinese industries, battery-makers have built more capacity than market can absorb www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Credit to the US for making the point the conference was trying to make about US foreign interference in European democracies for them, and bringing more attention to the conference and its themes than they could have possibly hoped for. www.politico.com/news/2026/10...
EU, Canada and Lithuania pull out of disinformation conference after US pressure
The Trump administration was bothered by panels that referred to the U.S. as a disinformation threat.
politico.com
America's approach to the AI race rests on a basic idea: if US labs do not double down, their Chinese competitors will pull ahead and reach AGI first - for @foreignpolicy.com I explore how Beijing could be running another, diffusion-first race that has no off switch foreignpolicy.com/2026/10/07/c...
China’s AI Rollout Has No Off Switch
Beijing may talk about safety, but its model of AI diffusion is made to go rogue.
foreignpolicy.com
Majority of Britons regret Brexit, but support for rejoining the EU is not a given • In September YouGov poll found that 59% of Britons favour rejoining the EU, vs. 32% against • Yet support for rejoining EU drops to 35% if Britain had to adopt euro and join Schengen area www.ft.com/content/3d43...
Elon Musk's America PAC is quietly donating to the most consequential races of November's midterms, and @wired.com is tracking all of it - in real time. amazing work from @dell.bsky.social, who built this, and big lifts from @hugolowell.bsky.social, @dmehro.bsky.social, and @regret.bsky.social:
Elon Musk’s America PAC Is Spending Big on the Midterms. We’re Tracking It Daily
To follow Elon Musk’s America PAC money, WIRED created a live-updating tracker that highlights the trillionaire’s overall influence on November’s elections.
wired.com
Russia's draft budget for 2027-29 suggests Moscow is preparing for many more years of war • In 2027 defence spending could total US$205bn, up 40% from 2026 and 380% from 2021 • Financing remains open question as Moscow has exhausted politically affordable money pots www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
"Information from Russia has been incomplete, confusing, and contradictory." My colleague @martinenserink.bsky.social on what we know so far about the possible plague death in Russia and the implications. 🧪
Possible plague death at a Siberian lab baffles scientists
Much is unclear about the tragedy, but plague researchers say there is “zero” chance of an epidemic
science.org
China is going all in on Six networks infrastructure plan • Plan focuses on water, electricity, computing (data centres), communications (5G/6G), logistics and urban pipelines • US$3.7trn financing comes from central government, SOEs and local government bonds www.economist.com/briefing/202...
High tax burden complicates France's difficult budget equation • Further raising taxes would be tricky; at 44% of GDP, tax burden is 10 percentage points higher than OECD average • Almost a quarter of public spending goes to pensions, but hints of reform trigger protests www.ft.com/content/9b25...
WELL NOW, would you look at that? A massive, 4-YEAR-LONG study of NEARLY 30 MILLION people in France found that individuals who received a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine had a 74% LOWER risk of death from severe COVID-19 compared to unvaccinated individuals and ZERO increased risk of all-cause mortality.
US leads race for frontier AI, but not by much • All frontier models since 2023 have been American, but Chinese models lag just four months behind • China has diffusion-first AI strategy that comes with no off-switch for open-weight models, making it hard to stop www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Every woman now nodding in unison.... And yet it is dismissed, under researched, etc etc. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
Women suffer more pain than men across the whole body, major global study finds
Researchers looked at pain around the world and across the human lifespan, finding steepest rise happens before age 55
theguardian.com
Global LNG crunch looks likely • Before Iran war, wave of new projects in Qatar and US looked set to increase supply by 20% in 2026-27 • IEA now reckons global LNG supplies over 2026-2030 will be ~15% below pre-war forecasts, with shortfall concentrated in 2026-27 www.economist.com/finance-and-...
Most Europeans would support a UK return to the EU • French and Italian voters are least enthusiastic, but they still broadly approve of potential UK return • Potential UK referendum could complicate talks; EU officials would be wary of investing time in talks for nothing www.ft.com/content/3d43...
🚨🚨A #climate nightmare lurks in the Atlantic. A slowdown of ocean currents that would disrupt life on the continent on an unthinkable scale. www.politico.eu/article/clim...
A climate nightmare lurks in the Atlantic. Europe is starting to pay attention.
A slowdown of ocean currents that would disrupt life on the continent on an unthinkable scale.
politico.eu
Most Europeans would support a UK return to the EU • French and Italian voters are least enthusiastic, but they still broadly approve of potential UK return • Potential UK referendum could complicate talks; EU officials would be wary of investing time in talks for nothing www.ft.com/content/3d43...
Le Monde starting to take an interest again ...
Centre for European Reform@centreeuropeanref.bsky.social · last wk.» Selon une étude du @centreeuropeanref.bsky.social, publiée en juin, « le Brexit a entraîné une baisse de 12 % des exportations britanniques vers l’UE et réduit de 16 % les importations de l’UE ». buff.ly/wPIOWha
