Signals

Film and television production in Los Angeles has fallen by nearly 40% over the last decade, according to FilmLA, a non-profit that tracks the region’s production. At the same time, governments around the world have offered more generous tax credits and cash rebates to lure productions, and capture a greater share of the $248bn that Ampere Analysis... See more

A 2024 Pew Research study found that 72% of Americans believe AI will reduce the value of uniquely human traits, with empathy, creativity, and intuition topping the list of what they want to preserve

The rise of algorithmically generated playlists and near-constant headphone use means music has often become background noise, something to fill space, not deepen experiences. A 2021 study by audio brand Jabra found that UK headphone users wore them for nearly an hour a day, with 38 per cent doing so specifically to avoid talking to others.

Last year, anti-tech activist and writer August Lamm predicted that abstention would be the next big thing. On X, she wrote: “I’m calling it right now, abstention is the new big thing; sobriety, celibacy, digital minimalism, dumb phones and religion. The age of hedonistic hyper-consumption is over. We are moving into a new peaceful age marked by mo... See more

While back in 2019, just 22 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds in the UK said they believed in God, by early 2025 that number had more than doubled to 45 per cent

At the time, for every five houses built in the UK, one-house-worth of material was being sent to landfill or incineration.

She works with a diaper company that just launched what it describes as the world’s first “self-decomposing” nappies, seeking to reduce the 18 billion diapers discarded in United States landfills each year. The diapers are seeded with plastic-eating fungi, which the company claims can decompose the discards into soil in just one year.

EU data shows nearly 3,000 grants were awarded to British science projects in 2024, the first year of the UK’s post-Brexit associate membership after a three-year pause caused by a Brexit row over Northern Ireland.