For a few days at least, political attention is focused on young people aged 16-24 who are not in education, employment or training (known as Neets). A report from the commission led by Alan Milburn, a former health secretary, shines a bright light on a group that needs it. The document concentrates on analysis, with…
A paradox lies at the heart of Sir Tony Blair’s latest sermon to a Labour party that he seems actively to dislike these days. The 5,700-word intervention, published on the website of his Institute for Global Change, emphasises the sheer novelty of challenges such as the AI revolution and the rise of insurgent populism in…
There is boiling rage at health insurers among the public — for instance, over the fact that premiums for a family health plan can exceed $27,000 a year, even as patients routinely get their care denied. Such is the rage that when an insurance executive was murdered in 2024, one poll found that 41 percent…
Public policy frameworks in many countries are increasingly shaped by the need to address immediate disruptions while maintaining longer-term objectives. Recent years have been marked by successive crises, including health emergencies, economic shocks, energy volatility and environmental events, requiring rapid responses from governments and institutions. Crisis management mechanisms are designed to act quickly. Emergency funding,…
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday announced several initiatives intended to rein in the prescription of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, the most widely prescribed class of antidepressants, which he has described as exceptionally difficult to quit. Mr. Kennedy has long signaled that reducing the use of psychiatric drugs would be an aim of…
One lesson of the Democratic Senate primary in Maine is that no one should underestimate the white-hot fury of the party’s voters. In October, Graham Platner’s insurgent campaign appeared doomed. Janet Mills, Maine’s Democratic governor, had just entered the Senate primary race, reportedly at the urging of Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader. Then a…
A lot of the examples in “Abundance” are from California, where I’m from, where I was when we wrote much of the book. The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has very much embraced the “Abundance” critique. So I want to play this clip of Gavin Newsom on Jimmy Kimmel. Archival clip of Jimmy Kimmel: Is…
On 13 May 1966, a US Senate subcommittee questioned a former Harvard clinical psychologist, considered by many to be “the most dangerous man in America”, on the risks of psychedelics. Leading the inquisition of Dr Timothy Leary was Senator Ted Kennedy, of America’s unofficial first family. Amid a series of questions that reflected the moral…
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The Swiss government has laid out plans that would force UBS to increase its capital by $20bn, refusing to back down on the core element of the “too big to fail” banking reforms sparked by…
Dr. Norman Rowe, a plastic surgeon with offices in New York and Florida, advertises on his website that breast reduction surgery usually costs between $15,000 and $25,000. But these days, his practice sometimes earns $440,000 for the procedure. Dr. Rowe has taken full advantage of a new arbitration system, part of a major consumer protection…
