Weekly

Is Progress Back?

For decades, the world seemed to be idling. Beyond digital gadgets and faster internet, real breakthroughs felt elusive. But the engines of progress are roaring again. AI is revolutionising entire industries. Fusion energy is edging toward reality. Maglev trains break speed records, reusable rockets slash the cost of space travel, and manned Mars missions are no longer science fiction. The future is everywhere: China builds, America innovates, and the Gulf states invest—only Europe regulates, restricts, and retreats - —for the moment. This issue of "Subject of the Week" will analyse the close connections between progress and politics, self-confidence and technology, investing and future—and what it will take to put Europe again on the tracks towards a brighter destiny.