I've seen the future – it's in Shanghai

In Shanghai the other day, says Thomas Friedman in The New York Times, I visited the vast new research campus built by the Chinese technology giant Huawei. I've never seen anything like it: 104 individually designed buildings connected by a sleek monorail housing labs for 35,000 scientists, with 100 cafes, manicured lawns, gyms and other perks designed to attract the best Chinese and foreign technologists. They built it in just three years. It was fascinating and impressive, "but ultimately deeply disturbing" – a vivid confirmation of what a US businessman who has worked in China for decades told me. "There was a time when people came to America to see the future," he said. "Now they come here."

The whole project is basically Huawei's response to the US attempt to "choke it to death" in 2019 by restricting the export of American technology, including supposedly crucial semiconductors, over national security concerns. The ban inflicted massive losses – at first – but soon Huawei began to "innovate its way around us". In 2023, the firm released the "Mate 60" series of smartphones, equipped with advanced chips, and followed up with the world's first "triple-folding smartphone" and its own operating system to rival Google's and Apple's. The company also started developing AI for everything from EVs and self-driving cars to autonomous mining equipment that can replace human miners. In 2024, the firm installed 100,000 fast chargers across China for its electric vehicles. The US Congress allocated $7.5bn for its own network in 2021 – as of November, it contained just 214 chargers. Many in Washington still labour under the illusion that China can't innovate. Up close, it's "downright scary to watch".

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Heroes and villains

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Villains
Tourists in Dublin, who have manhandled the breasts of a statue in the city centre so many times that the council is having to re-cover the sculpture and hire some stewards to guard it. Officials say the busty artwork, depicting local legend Molly Malone, has become a popular attraction, and that it may have to be raised on to a higher plinth to keep the defaced décolletage out of reach.

Villain
Prince Harry, according to the chairwoman of his own charity, who has accused him of "harassment and bullying" in a spat that has led to his resignation from the organisation's board. Poor Harry, says Marina Hyde in The Guardian. It must be hard being a custodian of something dear to your heart, only for some "publicity-incontinent member of it to go on a full-spectrum media rampage, airing a load of dirty linen, but leaving you feeling like you have to bite your tongue because you can't really win against the specific types of identity-based accusations they're making against you".

Hero
Donald Trump, for boosting London's theatre scene. A record-matching 17.1 million people took in a West End show last year, says the FT, thanks in part to a "surge in interest" from Canadian tourists boycotting the US because of Trump.

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