This week’s Current Climate newsletter also looks at how AI is ushering in a new nuclear age and investing in developing nations amid a pullback in U.S. aid and private funding

Study finds that a week of political content can bring about a shift in views that previously would have taken three years Small changes to the tone of posts fed to users of X can increase feelings of political polarisation as much in a week as would have historically taken at least three years, research has found. A groundbreaking experiment to gauge the potency of Elon Musk’s social platform to increase political division found that when posts expressing anti-democratic attitudes and partisan animosity were boosted, even barely perceptibly, in the feeds of Democrat and Republican supporters there was a large change in their unfavourable feelings towards the other side. Continue reading...

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Remember, the Republican Party hit its lowest point ever on favorability in 2013. Then came huge wins in 2014 and 2016, and then 2024. Good reminder that polls aren’t destiny and forecasting is hard (...