Trump keeps digging the grave of transatlantic diplomacy in Davos
“Who the hell wants to defend a licence agreement for a piece of ice?” This may not be the most important sentence in Trump’s long speech in Davos today, 21 January, but it is perh...
Will the Board of Peace replace part of the United Nations?
Is Donald Trump creating a new international organisation in his own image, as an alternative to the United Nations? Over the past few days, the US president has sent invitations to a number of worl...
Crisis
Misinformation, social polarisation, extreme weather events, inequality, erosion of human rights, armed conflicts, pollution. According to the highly influential analysis of systemic risks publ...
The High Seas Treaty takes effect: now international law
With the ratification of the 60th state in September, the 120-day countdown to the entry into force of the High Seas Treaty began, which takes effect today, 17 January. Also known as the BBNJ (Biodi...
Global Risks Report 2026: The “Age of Competition” shapes the future threats
The year ahead opens against a backdrop of accumulated tensions, unresolved crises and shifting global balances. After years marked by pandemics, wars, inflationary shocks and accelerating technolog...
River systems amidst laws, policies and economy: the interviews of RM60
The Think Tank section of Renewable Matter #60, focused on rivers, provides a broad, international overview of the complex interactions between human society and river ecosystems, addressing th...
Free to Flow: The Fragile Success of River Renaturalisation
Within days of the removal of four dams on the Klamath River, on the border between California and Oregon, silver salmon began swimming upstream again, and one year later – after nearly a cent...
My Rivers
My childhood memories are tied not only to strolls under the porticoes of Saronno, a small town in the Milanese hinterland, but also to the local stream, the Lura. Largely covered over, the peculiar...
Cory Doctorow: “The creeping digitisation of society brings forth the enshittification of it”
He was the European Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation for many years; he’s on the front lines for digital rights; an essayist, science fiction writer, and one of the most influent...
Trump's aims for Greenland divide Europe and put NATO at risk
The United States has set its sights on Greenland, and the matter can no longer be dismissed as a far-fetched provocation, especially by the European Union. As White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavi...
Meloni, press conference marked by a pragmatism that suggests a slowdown
A three-hour-long press conference, forty questions. Giorgia Meloni picked the traditional start-of-the-year conference to discuss the latest foreign policy shifts by the US, explain the government'...
Attack on Venezuela: how did China react?
“It was a friendly meeting, reaffirming the strong bonds of friendship between China and Venezuela. In good and bad times!” The last words posted on Nicolas Maduro's social media profile...
Trump's energy imperialism is a danger to the future of the human species
Oil's role in the US military action in Venezuela is first and foremost made clear by figures: the world's leading oil producer has attacked the country with the world's largest oil reserves. But it...
New Nightmare on Elm Street: The “Donroe Doctrine” and Its Implications
In the 1984 slasher film, Nightmare on Elm Street, US Midwestern teenagers fall prey to the evil Freddy Krueger, who after invading the teenagers’ dream worlds turns their dreams of disme...
Gen-Z, tariffs and elections: 2025 seen through Asia
While, contrary to popular belief, the famous Chinese anathema ‘May you live in interesting times’ is not Chinese at all, 2025 has certainly been a decidedly “interesting” ye...
China heads towards five-year plan for strategic resilience
The Fourth Plenum of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party has concluded in Beijing. For four days, from 20 to 23 October, the CCP leadership convened in what is traditionally a time ...
Think Business, Think Hong Kong 2025 lands in Milan
In a challenging phase for transatlantic trade relations, especially for the green economy sector, looking to China and Hong Kong in particular becomes an opportunity for Italian companies to divers...
The Africa of critical minerals seeks a fair energy transition
They are called sacrifice zones: territories where the well-being of people and the environment is put on the back burner in the name of the common good. This often happens in Africa, where many of ...
Israel and Hamas have signed the agreement for the first phase of Trump’s plan
“The final draft of phase one was signed this morning in Egypt by all parties for the release of all hostages.” This was announced by Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian, who...
A New Global Map Reveals 426 Shared Aquifers Crossing Borders
This article is also available in Italian / Questo articolo è disponibile anche in italiano The world’s hidden water reserves have just been mapped with unprecedented detail. The Inter...