‘He is a man wired for the market’

Welcome to the weekend!

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Considering Causality

If you wanted to measure the global economy by one number, it might be the price of oil. The many considerations that go into it are dwarfed only by its many impacts, ranging from the flow of trade to the prospects for peace in the Middle East. After OPEC+'s recent decision to expand production, speculation abounded as to Saudi Arabia's current considerations, setting the mood for Trump's visit to the Gulf. His wide-ranging agenda highlighted the mutual enrichment particular to this web of relationships, Philip Delves Broughton writes; the tighter that web gets, the more that decisions made in the Gulf will affect American wallets.

Weekend Essay

The Price of Oil Is Both Personal and Political

Pay attention to the particular interests of Saudi Arabia's leaders.

Read the Story

Some causes and effects are straightforward, while others remain frustratingly unclear. Nearly a decade after the 2016 US presidential race produced evidence of attempts to influence voters, no one has proved that it or any election was actually swayed by online sabotage, Morgan Meaker and Andra Timu write. That uncertainty hangs over Romanians this week, as they vote in the final round of an election whose earlier results were annulled amid allegations of a coordinated social media campaign to boost right-wing candidate Călin Georgescu.

Weekend Essay

No One Knows Whether Social Media Swings Voters

Romania's election annulment rests on an unproven relationship.

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Then there are the causes that drive the very effects you were hoping to avoid. OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit research lab dedicated to developing artificial general intelligence to benefit everyone — without spurring a dangerous AI arms race. Since then, the company has pivoted to the pursuit of profit. What happened? Two books on OpenAI and its founder Sam Altman look at how cost, consumer demand and ambition pushed OpenAI toward commercialization, Seth Fiegerman writes, a pivot that helped instigate the arms race it once pledged to prevent.

Review

'He Is a Man Wired for the Market'

Two books unpack why OpenAI and Sam Altman pivoted to profit.

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Dispatches

Johannesburg, South Africa
Just off a potholed street in the impoverished township of Alexandra, Black teens toss around a rugby ball on a patch of concrete. Every few weeks, some travel for a match against a nearby rival. It's a scene that would have been unimaginable 30 years ago, when South Africa was emerging from an apartheid era in which Black South Africans were barred from Whites-only clubs and the national team.

Photographer: Jodi Bieber for Bloomberg

Punta del Este, Uruguay
A short drive from Cipriani's future oceanfront casino, the Fasano gated community and hotel recently debuted its first polo field. Nearby Estancia Santa Cruz just hosted 200 horses at its polo club and resort, and billionaire Eduardo Costantini is teaming up with polo legend Adolfo Cambiaso to build an all-inclusive club along the coast. It's all part of a polo renaissance in the beach retreat for Latin America's rich and famous.

Photographer: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images North America

Tokyo, Japan
If Yu Kusuda hadn't met his neighbors, they might not even know he was there — the singer-songwriter's 283-square-foot apartment is completely soundproof, leaving him free to blast movies and host his friends for band practice. After debuting its first soundproof apartments in 2000, real estate developer Livlan now operates nearly 900 units around the city, and its waiting list is 6,000-strong.

Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg

Agree or Disagree?

It's OK to be comfortable with German rearmament. It's not at levels that imply anything like a Nazi war economy, and it could allow escape from a cycle of slow growth while helping Europe — and the US — get their houses in order, John Authers writes for Bloomberg Opinion.

Companies should nix "one world" strategies. Taking lessons from the last great period of deglobalization, corporations should reorganize into federations of national firms and embrace alliances that boost resilience, Adrian Wooldridge writes for Bloomberg Opinion.

75 Years of War

"The squabbling siblings never grew up, and so the border is never really quiet."

Mirza Waheed

Novelist

In many ways, the most recent military confrontation in Kashmir is an old war. Three generations have grown up since Partition in 1947, but India and Pakistan continue to fight the same fight. Waheed, whose parents and grandparents lived through conflict in Kashmir, writes that the time is nigh for peace, so future generations can avoid the same trauma.