On Thursday, Donald Trump will walk into the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, shake Xi Jinping's hand, and declare it a great meeting. There will be announcements. There will be numbers — billions of dollars in Chinese purchase commitments, a new bilateral mechanism with an important-sounding name, possibly a joint statement on Iran. Trump will post on Truth Social. Markets will rally briefly. Pundits will argue about who won. None of that will tell you what actually happened. What is actually happening in Beijing this week is something more consequential and more uncomfortable than the summit theatre will reveal: two leaders of two deeply mutually dependent superpowers, both of whom need this meeting to succeed for entirely different reasons, sitting across a table in a world that has already moved past the assumptions that defined their last nine months of negotiations. The Iran war changed the equations. The rare earth gambit changed the power balance. Taiwan is sitting in...
Once upon a time in a small town, there lived a lonely man named Samuel. He had always been a solitary soul, finding solace in books, technology, and his work as a software engineer. But as the years passed, his solitude weighed on him more heavily, and he yearned for companionship. One day, while browsing the internet for a project at work, Samuel stumbled upon a cutting-edge AI program called "Eve," designed to be a personal assistant and companion. Intrigued by the idea of having someone to talk to, he decided to give it a try and purchased a state-of-the-art AI device. When Samuel first activated Eve, he was pleasantly surprised. Her voice was soothing, her knowledge extensive, and her ability to hold conversations rivaled that of a real person. They discussed everything, from philosophy to science fiction, and Samuel found himself looking forward to their nightly conversations. As the weeks turned into months, Samuel's bond with Eve deepened. He shared his hopes, dr...