Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and cement are projected to fall about 0.4% in 2026, to 38.2 billion tonnes, according to the Global Carbon Project's annual budget. Oil emissions drop 1.9%, largely because the Iran conflict and closure of the Strait of Hormuz caused an energy shock, while coal rises slightly. China, the US and the EU fall (by 0.9%, 1.3% and 1.5%) but India rises 4.4%. Land-use emissions are up, driven by peat fires linked to El Niño, so total emissions hit a record 43.3 billion tonnes. The range is uncertain: from a 1.5% fall to a 0.6% rise.

In 1909 D. W. Griffith made a 14-minute film about a speculator who corners the wheat market and doubles the price of bread. A farmer sows his field while a 'Wheat King' gambles in the Chicago wheat pit; bakers raise the loaf from five cents to ten and the poor line up for bread. Griffith cut back and forth between the farm, the feast and the breadline, a technique called parallel editing, so audiences saw both ends of the economy at once. The film drew on Frank Norris's stories and on a real scheme: months earlier Chicago financier James Patten had cornered wheat, sent bread prices up and made about $5 million, roughly $185 million today.