Instead of obsessing over rules that have ceased to matter, we must consider giving Beijing a dose of its own medicine

The US and Israel may have started the war in Iran, but – apart from the belligerents themselves – it is China and Europe that stand to lose the most from it. Yet while European leaders watch like rabbits caught in the headlights as energy prices shoot through the roof, China has responded to the crisis with remarkable equanimity. It is striking how self-confident Beijing is ahead of this week’s Trump-Xi summit.

That’s because China is better prepared for what I call an age of “un-order”. This is not the same as disorder, where rules exist but are broken. Un-order is a world where the rules themselves have simply ceased to matter. While European governments have been obsessed with preserving order, China has been working out how to survive chaos.

Mark Leonard is director of the European Council on Foreign Relations and author of Surviving Chaos: Geopolitics When the Rules Fail

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London mayor talks up coalition-building, highlights his environmental record, and worries national Labour party is on the wrong track

When Sadiq Khan was first elected as mayor of London 10 years ago, Barack Obama was US president, the UK was still in the European Union and Leicester City had just been crowned the unlikely champions of the English Premier League.

In the intervening decade, Donald Trump has gone from reality TV star to two-time US president, the UK has had six different prime ministers, and Brexit has convulsed the country. London has been rocked by tragedies ranging from terror attacks to the Grenfell Tower fire.

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Minister defends preparedness against novel threat after officials detonate device suspected to be from Ukraine

Authorities in Greece have intensified investigations into how an explosive-packed drone ended up in waters off the west of the country.

An inquiry, involving specialised military teams, broadened at the weekend after bomb disposal experts detonated the unmanned device at sea.

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Up to 150 passengers and crew from Hantavirus-hit MV Hondius start flying home aboard military and government planes from Spain’s Canary Islands

The complex operation to repatriate passengers and crew of the hantavirus-hit cruise ship, the MV Hondius, is almost complete.

Up to 150 people have started flying home aboard military and government planes from Spain’s Canary Islands, and the World Health Organization has recommended, but not mandated, a 42-day quarantine once they have landed.

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Uitval van energie, mobiele communicatie of de cloud. Producten, onderdelen, machines of grondstoffen die ineens niet meer binnenkomen. Afhankelijkheden van ondernemers voor hun processen zijn groot. Terwijl die door zowel natuurverschijnselen, technische storingen als vijandige opzet kunnen uitvallen. Meer dan de helft (51%) van het Nederlandse bedrijfsleven geeft aan hiervoor géén voorzorgmaatregelen te nemen. Daarom start het ministerie van Economische Zaken en Klimaat (EZK) een Denk Vooruit publiekscampagne voor bedrijven, zodat zij zich beter voorbereiden op verstoringen.

De eerste dag van de voor velen korte werkweek verloopt koud. Eerst schijnt de zon nog even, maar later in de ochtend raakt het vanuit het noordwesten bewolkt.

In dit blog houden we je op de hoogte van het belangrijkste en meest opvallende 112-nieuws uit de regio van maandag 11 mei.

In dit blog houden we je op de hoogte van het belangrijkste en meest opvallende 112-nieuws uit de regio van maandag 11 mei.

‘Het is zijn vrouw, hij doet ermee wat hij wil.’ De verweren van de vijftig mannen die terechtstonden voor het verkrachten van Gisèle Pelicot laten zien dat ‘de vrouw als bezit’ nog altijd een breedgedragen idee is. De verwachting is blijkbaar dat een vrouw alle seksuele wensen van haar mannelijke partner vervult: haar onwil moet wijken voor zijn ‘natuurlijke’ zin in seks. Voer je die dynamiek door tot het uiterste, dan drogeer je je vrouw – en verkracht je haar.

In Polymarket's prediction market, "most people end up losing money," reports the Washington Post — typically a few bucks.

"Since Polymarket launched in 2022, a few thousand people have lost the bulk of the money... and an even smaller group — .05 percent of users — has gone home with most of the overall profits, according to a new analysis from finance researcher Pat Akey and colleagues."


A lot of users aren't that good at predicting the future. They're losing money at roughly the same rate as online gamblers betting on sports and other real-life events at traditional sportsbooks, according to the U.K. gambling regulator's analysis of 2024 data. On Polymarket, the odds of making a profit are slightly higher on weather and tech markets — and a little lower on sports...

On Polymarket, just 1,200 people took more than half the profits — $591 million, or more than $100,000 each. ["The top 1% of users capture 76.5% of all trading gains," the researchers write.] When you dabble in prediction markets, you're competing against these sophisticated players who consistently win. Most of those 1,200 big winners didn't place just a few smart bets. They appear to be pros making thousands of trades, mostly in the past year and a half, that were probably automated. One user made $3 million since January on more than a million trades about the Oscars, according to TRM Labs...

The most profitable participants are also just good at picking what to bet on, Akey found, winning so often it was statistically unlikely to be dumb luck. They had some sort of edge — expertise, deep research or, perhaps, inside knowledge.

"Our results suggest that the informational benefits of prediction markets come at a cost to unsophisticated participants," the researchers conclude.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.