All posts tagged: Cautionary

Trump is in China. Vitro is a cautionary tale of Chinese investment

Published by Sam Flores

Construction materials sit in front of the loading docks at the Fuyao Glass America production facility in Moraine, Ohio, U.S., on Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. Ty Wright | Bloomberg | Getty Images MEADVILLE, Pa — President Donald Trump is in China, courting new trade deals with Beijing. One glassmaker in the U.S. is warning that their top Chinese competitor exemplifies the risks of letting China in. CNBC last week visited a Vitro glass plant in Meadville, Ohio, with Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who is the top Democrat on the U.S.-China select committee in Congress. The plant is helping produce glass for solar panels, and has long produced automotive glass. CNBC travelled with Khanna throughout the Rust Belt as part of his “Heartland Tour,” a multi-state swing through the country’s industrial heart to highlight the growth of U.S. manufacturing and the risks from China, the U.S.’s chief competitor. During Khanna’s visit, executives from Vitro aimed their fire at chief rival, Fuyao, and warned that without protection, all competitors in the glass industry would be pushed out. …

Goblin Market? In This Economy? Five Cautionary Tales About Shopping

Published by José Betancourt

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Get in, reader, we’re going shopping! Even though it was 1862 when Christina Rossetti’s narrative poem Goblin Market was published, its influence still resonates today. In the poem, Laura and Lizzie are very close sisters, but they differ in their feelings toward the local market. One day, Laura purchases fruit from the market, and eating it makes her delirious and delighted. But her sister reminds her about the dangers of the fruit and about a girl who died after eating fruit from the goblin market. The poem has been interpreted in many ways: as a tale of temptation referencing Adam and Eve, an expression of Rossetti’s queer and feminist politics, a warning of the dangers of capitalism or addiction, an exploration of sexuality, and more. Whatever the interpretation, there has been no shortage of “buyer, beware” novels about the dangers of shopping, some literally set in goblin markets. Here are five fun books about such retail adventures. (Retale …

The Cautionary Tale of Joe Kent

Published by Sam Flores

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. When Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned today in protest of the Iran war, he blamed everyone except the person who launched it. In his resignation letter, addressed to President Trump, Kent portrays the president as a passive figure manipulated by others—“high-ranking Israeli officials” and “influential members of the American media”—rather than the most powerful person imposing his will upon the world. Again and again, Kent casts Trump, a two-term president, as someone swept up in events rather than driving them. “I support the values and the foreign policies that you campaigned on in 2016, 2020, 2024, which you enacted in your first term,” Kent writes. “Until June of 2025, you understood that the wars in the Middle East were a trap that robbed America of the precious lives of our patriots and depleted the …

Anthropic’s Pentagon deal is a cautionary tale for startups chasing federal contracts

Published by skeptic

The Pentagon has officially designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk after the two failed to agree on how much control the military should have over its AI models, including its use in autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance. As Anthropic’s $200 million contract fell apart, the DoD turned to OpenAI instead, which accepted and then watched ChatGPT uninstalls surge 295%. As the stakes keep rising, the question remains: how much unrestricted access should the military have to an AI model? Watch as Equity hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane break down what startups should know about chasing federal AI contracts, plus the week’s biggest tech stories, from Paramount’s Warner Bros. deal and MyFitnessPal’s Cal AI acquisition to Pinterest’s $1B AI push, Anduril’s $60B valuation, and whether the “SaaSpocalypse” is real. Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Source link

A Cautionary Tale Against Quitting Zyn—or Anything—Cold Turkey

Published by Jenni Sidey

This story is part of our ‘Habits to Embrace—and Ditch—in 2026’ series. Read the whole list here. A couple months ago, on a Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles, I sat cross-legged on a shit-stained sidewalk, staring at my hands, uncertain of where I was, or even if I was. According to my brain, I knew I was in Echo Park, the LA neighborhood that’s home to Dodgers Stadium. But whether it was the real Echo Park or a simulation, a convincing-enough mix of new highrises and grungy cottages in imitation of Echo Park, I wasn’t sure. For several hours, I’d been haunted by yellow-tinted hallucinations, sweeping in and out of my mind like searchlights, which told me I might’ve slipped between worlds. The street was quiet and empty. I knew I shouldn’t stand, let alone go anywhere, in case the situation got worse. Meanwhile, the idea of running into somebody, having a conversation, was terrifying. I touched the ground with my hands, unmoved by the dog shit, and wondered if maybe this square of concrete …

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