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Jahel Queralt, essayist: ‘Those who most criticize meritocracy are those who need it the least’

2 October 2026 at 10:42
Jahel Queralt in Barcelona on September 25.

Her life could inspire one of those biopics about personal triumph, but Jahel Queralt, 43, says her fate is pure chance. The jurist, PhD and professor of political law at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona went from growing up in an isolated house without water or electricity to feeling “like you’ve gatecrashed a party in the wrong shoes” when she arrived in the world of academia. It happened in 2007, in Oxford, when she met Gerald A. Cohen, a leading figure in analytical Marxism and one of the mentors of her theses. He was so approachable that the young woman let her guard down while eating with the other fellows in the All Souls dining hall, inside the most elitist of the Oxford colleges. There she uttered the forbidden word that starts with F: “You do this in Spain and you are totally fucked,” she stated, and immediately heard the rest of the diners clear their throats. People still ask her at parties if she is “the girl who said fucked in the All Souls dining hall.” That, she says near her son’s public school a few yards from the Barcelona zoo, is what happens when “you learned English watching The Wire.”

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Queralt in Barcelona.

Why China is missing the big AI rally

2 October 2026 at 10:04

TOKYO – China gave global investors one of 2026’s biggest AI thrills. Yet the country that helped ignite excitement about artificial intelligence is home to one of the worst-performing major stock markets. While AI fever has propelled Seoul, Taipei and Tokyo higher, Chinese shares are stuck in reverse.

So what gives? Several forces, actually. Weak household demand, for one. Consumer spending continues to disappoint, weighing on the earnings potential of mainland internet companies, automakers, and retailers.

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The post Why China is missing the big AI rally appeared first on Asia Times.

Why Americans pay 41% more for SK Hynix shares than Koreans

2 October 2026 at 04:45

On September 30, SK Hynix’s American depositary shares closed at US$184.15 on the Nasdaq. Earlier that day in Seoul, one ordinary share closed at 1,776,000 won, about $1,308.80. Ten ADSs represent one Seoul share, so each ADS’s slice was worth about $130.88. Comparing those two closing prices gives the ADSs a 40.7% premium. The markets […]

The post Why Americans pay 41% more for SK Hynix shares than Koreans appeared first on Asia Times.

‘Feeling the Heat’?: Pharma Spent Record $456.9 Million Last Year on Lobbying — With No Signs of Slowing Down

By: SGT
2 October 2026 at 01:00
by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D., Childrens Health Defense: The pharmaceutical and health industry spent $456.9 million on lobbying expenses in 2025, according to OpenSecrets. According to STAT, it was the largest-ever single-year increase in lobbying spending. Leslie Manookian, president of the Health Freedom Defense Fund, suggested the industry may feel threatened by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s […]
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