Ten problems the whole world has, and one page each. Not opinions: what a country actually tried, what the numbers did afterwards, and who is genuinely ahead. Then the part nobody else prints — what a machine would do with the same problem, and what a machine would miss.
In 2025, 7.7% of people in the EU spent more than 40% of their income on housing. Five countries tried to move that number. Two of the attempts went backwards.
How this is measured Housing cost overburden rate — share of people living in a household that spends more than 40% of its disposable income on housing
In 2025, 8.8% of people in the EU could not keep their home adequately warm. Five countries tried to move that number — with a price cap, a wholesale intervention, a wall, a cheque and a voucher. Two of the five never reached the people they were built for.
How this is measured Share of the population unable to keep their home adequately warm — the household is asked whether it can, and the answer is taken as given
The world withdraws 18% of its renewable fresh water. Israel withdraws 119.6%. Cape Town halved its use in three years and then quietly doubled it again.
How this is measured Level of water stress (UN Sustainable Development Goal indicator 6.4.2) — fresh water withdrawn as a share of available renewable freshwater resources, after subtracting environmental flow requirements
There are 32.6 people over 65 for every 100 workers in the OECD, and 55.2 are projected by 2054. Japan built an insurance for it in 2000. England has been legislating one since 2011 and still has none.
How this is measured Demographic old-age to working-age ratio — people aged 65 and over per 100 people aged 20 to 64
Across the OECD, 7.1% of secondary teachers did not meet their own country's qualification standard in 2022/23. Four countries tried to change that number. One of them moved the money from training into the third and fifth year of teaching, and lost 275 maths teachers doing it.
How this is measured Share of secondary school teachers who are not fully qualified — who do not meet all the training and certification requirements their own country sets for the grade and subject they teach
Norway lost 1.6 people per 100,000 to its roads in 2024. The United States lost 11.6. Measured per kilometre driven the gap is half that size, and the missing half is the whole argument.
How this is measured Road deaths per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024 — everyone killed in road traffic, counted against the population, not against the driving
The EU promised to cut human antibiotic use by 20% by 2030. In 2024 it was using 2% more than in 2019, and not one member state had reached its own target.
How this is measured Total consumption of antibacterials for systemic use (ATC group J01) in humans, community and hospital sectors combined, in defined daily doses per 1 000 inhabitants per day
In 2022, 11.2% of people in the EU had nobody to ask for help — up from 7.7% four years earlier. Five countries built policy around it. One can point to a measured effect, and it came from a trial of 235 people.
How this is measured Share of people aged 16 and over with no one to rely on for help in case of need — the mirror image of Eurostat's published series, which counts the people who do have someone
In 2019 the world collected 15% of its plastic waste for recycling and recycled 9% of it. The gap between those two numbers is most of the story. Five places tried to close it and measured what happened.
How this is measured Recycling rate of plastic packaging waste, measured at the calculation point — the weight that actually enters a recycling machine, after sorting losses have been stripped out
In 2026, 62% of people across 48 countries said they worry about what is real and fake online. Nobody measures how much of what they see is actually false. Five attempts to fix it, one that made things worse, and one celebrated result that did not replicate.
How this is measured Media Literacy Index score — a composite ranking of assumed resistance to disinformation, built from press-freedom rankings (40%), PISA test scores (40%), interpersonal trust (10%), university enrolment (5%) and an e-participation index (5%)
Every morning, or once on Saturday — you choose. The story worth your time, and the question underneath it. One click to leave.
Your mail app should be open. Send the message and you are on the list.
One click to leave. We never sell or share your address.
Overview keeps you in the picture with about a dozen stories a day.
Gentle shows heavy stories as a summary — what happened, what it means, what the risks are, what can be done.
Thirty seconds, and the front page starts with what matters to you. You can change it any time, and you can skip this entirely.
Everything you tick stays in this browser. There is no account, nothing is sent anywhere, and we cannot see it. Clearing your browser data clears this too.
Everything you tick stays in this browser. There is no account, nothing is sent anywhere, and we cannot see it. Clearing your browser data clears this too.
You decide how much news you get and how hard it lands. Nothing is deleted — heavy stories are shortened to a calm summary you can open in full whenever you want.