Capsizing a shadow fleet

On January 22nd, the Grinch was sailing in international waters off Spain when two helicopters from the French navy hovered overhead. Soldiers burst into the cabin, searched the ship and rerouted her to a port near Marseille, where she is now moored under guard. The Grinch was under sanctions, flying a false Comorian flag and carrying 730,000 barrels of Russian oil. It is one of at least five slippery vessels to land in Western nets this month. Despite waves of sanctions, shadow tankers have been chugging along, allowing Iran and Russia, now the biggest users, to ship crude to China and India. But now the flotilla faces a perfect storm. Western countries are blacklisting ships en masse and directly targeting the tankers themselves. With buyers and ports fearful of falling foul of sanctions, the volume of Russian and Iranian oil loitering at sea — much of it off the Chinese coast — is hitting records.

(Adapted from “The West And Ukraine Are Capsizing Russia’s Shadow Fleet,” by Lindsay Ellis, published on January 19, 2026, by the Wall Street Journal)

Replacing smartphones

When Laurene Powell Jobs, during a recent interview, asked Sam Altman and Sir Jony Ive about the artificial-intelligence “thing” they were working on, both men were coy. But Mr Altman, OpenAI’s boss, did suggest that using the new device would feel different to the all-consuming iPhone created by Sir Jony and Ms Powell Jobs’s late husband. He likened the experience of a smartphone to walking through Times Square, with its flashing lights and loud noises. Mr Altman and Sir Jony are not alone in working on an alternative. Over the past two decades, smartphones have come to dominate how consumers interact with the digital world. The result has been one of the most successful duopolies in business history, comprising Apple, with its iPhone, and Google, with its Android operating system. Now challengers, including OpenAI, Meta and Amazon, are hoping to unseat them with alternative devices — from smart glasses to wearable AI pins. The race to replace the smartphone is on.

(Adapted from “Will The Smartphone Survive The AI Age?” published on January 25, 2026, by The Economist)

AI inefficiency?

Business leaders’ faith in the productivity-boosting powers of AI is getting a reality check — from their own workforces. Employees say AI isn’t saving them much time in their daily work so far, and many report feeling overwhelmed by how to incorporate it into their jobs. Companies, meanwhile, are spending vast amounts on artificial intelligence, betting that the technology’s power to speed everything from sales to back-office functions will usher in a new era of efficiency and profit growth. The gulf between senior executives’ and workers’ actual experience with generative AI is vast, according to a new survey from the AI consulting firm Section of 5,000 white-collar workers. Two-thirds of nonmanagement staffers said they saved less than two hours a week or no time at all with AI. More than 40pc of executives, in contrast, said the technology saved them more than eight hours of work a week.

(Adapted from “CEOs Say AI Is Making Work More Efficient. Employees Tell A Different Story,” by Lindsay Ellis, published on January 21, 2025, by the Wall Street Journal)

MBA struggles

It’s taking many of America’s most credentialed business-school graduates months to land and accept job offers. With companies scrutinising every white-collar hire, the job market for MBAs has sputtered for more than a year. That is weakening a reliable catapult into executive-track jobs that can pay hundreds of thousands of dollars. Though there were hiring rebounds at some of the most elite programs — including Harvard and Columbia universities — hiring from many top-tier business schools remains below prepandemic levels. At Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, for instance, 21pc of job seekers were still looking for work three months after graduation last summer. About 15pc of those at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business remained on the hunt. Those rates are similar to 2024 but sharply higher than 2019, when many employers couldn’t hire enough white-collar professionals.

(Adapted from “Even MBAs From Top Business Schools Are Struggling to Get Hired,” by Lindsay Ellis, published on January 19, 2026, by the Wall Street Journal)

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, February 2nd, 2026