Narrative A

Poaching is a savage and brutal practice. Some believe that shooting poachers on sight will reduce the problem, but that approach fails to address the root of the issue — namely, that countries demanding rhino horns enable its purchase by driving up demand for the product. The horns sell for $60K per kilogram on the black market, which is more than gold or cocaine. If we want to save the rhinos, we need to come up with a new plan because this one isn't working.

Narrative B

Botswana reported a dramatic drop in rhinoceros poaching in 2022 after taking further steps to protect its shrinking rhino population. After losing 126 animals between 2018 and 2021, only six rhinos were killed in Botswana in 2022. This is due to a robust national anti-poaching structure that deploys the army to poach hotspots, dehorning the rhinos, and moving the animals away from vulnerable areas. However, another reason could be that the poaching syndicates literally have cleaned it out and taken their business to neighboring countries.

Nerd narrative

There's a 50% chance that at least 24.6% of Earth's land will be protected for wildlife by January 1, 2050, according to the Metaculus prediction community.

Narrative A

This year will certainly be challenging, but it may well represent the turning point of the global economy. Though uncertainty still looms, confidence that a global recession can be avoided has improved as the world's three main economic engines – China, Europe, and the US – have outperformed expectations and averted some predicted problems so far.

Narrative B

Indeed, there's reason to be cheerful about the world economy as inflation has eased in the US, energy prices have plunged in Europe, and China has gotten rid of its destructive "zero-COVID" policy. It's too early, however, to dismiss the risk of a global recession as overheated labor markets and the energy crisis still endure.

Nerd narrative

There's a 66% chance that the US will enter a recession before 2024, according to the Metaculus prediction community.

Pro-establishment narrative

Now that Ukraine has fulfilled its desire for tanks, it is rightly asking for modern fighter jets to replace its long-outdated Soviet-era fighters. While the aircraft will not be a magic bullet, Western partners will continue to discuss Ukraine's needs in order to help them defeat Russia. Whether fighter jets are provided in the coming months is an open question.

Pro-Russia narrative

Irrespective of what weapons Ukraine receives, Russia's special military operation will continue till it meets its intended objectives. Western weapons simply drag out the conflict while increasing the prospect of an escalation into all-out war.

Nerd narrative

There's a 28% chance that there will be a large-scale armed conflict in Russia before 2030, according to the Metaculus prediction community.

Progressive narrative

This experiment will make strides toward treating addiction as the health issue it is rather than solely as a criminal situation. Although there is a ways to go – such as creating a regulated and safe supply – this is a step in the right direction to reducing the stigma associated with drug use, and it could help save lives in the province.

Conservative narrative

As Canada's nanny state — which usually employs stigmatization as a tool to regulate the middle class — continues its anti-stigma drug paradox, the very people the government claims to be helping are the ones who will suffer. The policy normalizes drug addicts as nothing more than a population with an incurable health condition to be pitied rather than fixed, denying them agency over their lives and thus making rehabilitation inaccessible.

Democratic narrative

Trump, who has a history of filing frivolous lawsuits that go nowhere, is at it again. He expects anyone to believe that after sitting for dozens of interviews with Woodward, throughout two book projects, he didn’t authorize the release of the recordings? Like his suit against Hillary Clinton and media companies, this Woodward case is going to be dead on arrival.

Pro-Trump narrative

As Woodward surely knows, consent to record interviews for a book project is different than permission to release those recordings, especially if they’re going to be edited to misrepresent what the subject has said. Woodward saw an opportunity to maximize revenue from his access, and at the very least Trump should share in that compensation.

Cynical narrative

From former Trump aids Mark Esper to Deborah Birx to Mark Meadows, many others have written "tell all" books about the former president in an attempt to cash in. Not surprisingly, the sales of these have largely flopped. If the warnings in this canon of Trump revelations were so severe, why didn't the authors come forward earlier in the public interest? Americans see through the banal and hollow intent of authors trying to capitalize on the lucrative book market.

Establishment-critical narrative

The Olympic Games are being used as an excuse for the French government to approve the mass surveillance measures it has long sought to impose. The legislation, which is allegedly intended to be temporary, even hints at making this long-term by mentioning gatherings other than sports events and setting the conclusion of the so-called experiment ten months after the Olympics end.

Pro-establishment narrative

This bill — overwhelmingly passed in the Senate — will help France detect potentially dangerous disturbances and ensure mitigated crowd control risks to those attending public events. Despite existing concerns about data privacy, neither biometric data nor facial recognition will be used and there will be no link with any other personal data system.

Nerd narrative

There's a 50% chance that a Machine Learning model will achieve 90% of human-crowd performance on Autocast by November 2026, according to the Metaculus prediction community.

Narrative A

London's leaders should be ashamed. The "corruption perceptions index" is the ultimate global poll, showing political and business experts' views on how transparent and frugal government leaders are. The UK's carelessness regarding taxpayer money and "pay-to-play politics" is clear for all the world to see.

Narrative B

What this report shows is that every nation — Western, democratic, Eastern, and authoritarian — is corrupt. With only eight countries actually improving their scores, the world is becoming more dangerous for people all across the globe with no signs of reversing. The UK's decline is symbolic of worldwide corruption.

Republican narrative

Even though casting Santos aside could have made it easier to punish Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell, and Ilhan Omar, Speaker McCarthy remained professional in his neutral stance on the Santos saga. But now that the New York representative has decided to step down, the GOP has the moral high ground to hold the three Democrat representatives accountable and strip their assignments.

Democratic narrative

This was likely part of a compromise among House Republicans to persuade those resisting to boot Ilhan Omar from her assignment on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Though the GOP may successfully limit its exposure to claims of hypocrisy, there is still a chance that this indicates another damaging story about Santos is about to break.

Nerd narrative

There's a 71% chance that Republicans will win control of the US House of Representatives in 2024, according to the Metaculus prediction community.

Democratic narrative

Though it was not always clear what the right answer was at the time, the US has managed to persevere through the pandemic, and the decision to officially end these emergencies will soon become necessary. COVID has not disappeared by any means, which is why Biden is giving healthcare facilities months to prepare.

Republican narrative

Though it is much appreciated that the government will finally declare the pandemic over, this move should have been made far earlier as opposed to waiting another third of a year. The Biden admin. is still unable to get a clear message out about COVID — having previously said it's over before backtracking. Biden's move to end Title 42 will likely exacerbate the southern border crises even more. The administration's COVID policies have been dysfunctional and harmful.

Narrative A

In the face of an unprecedented pandemic, governments did their best, and school closures were deemed necessary. While COVID's exacerbation of what was an already existing global education crisis is inarguable, it's now time to focus on collective action to lay the foundations for more equitable and resilient education systems worldwide.

Narrative B

School closures were universally rushed based on the misplaced presumption that it would prevent the spread of COVID, and children worldwide are now paying the price. Even with aggressive action, the drain on students' learning, mental health, and socio-economic development will be felt for years to come.