Weekend Edition: The privilege of citizenship

Welcome to the weekend!

With just a few weeks left in 2024, it’s high time to start thinking about travel in 2025. Will this be the year you spring for the Seychelles? Or is time for a sojourn to Skåne, Sweden? No matter what you’re in the mood for, our guide to Where to Go in 2025 has you covered. There are even personalized estimates for hotel and flight costs, because we’re helpful like that.

Speaking of international adventures, check out this week’s most-read story: Russia’s Military Found a Surprisingly Simple Way to Buy US Chips.

You can enjoy Bloomberg’s Weekend Edition online or in the app, where you can also listen to the stories if that’s your jam. Don’t miss Sunday’s Forecast email, in which we assess Iran’s future. For unlimited access to Bloomberg, subscribe!

Shifting Self-Determination

National citizenship is by its very nature random, contingent and unfair. Most of us obtain it through our birthplace (jus soli) or through our parents (jus sanguinis), neither of which we choose. But even these vagaries can no longer be taken for granted, writes Atossa Araxia Abrahamian. Many countries are redefining citizenship as we know it: to whom it is granted, and the rights and obligations it confers.

Citizenship is top of mind for Syrian refugees, who must decide whether the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad is reason enough to return home. In Turkey, writes Selcan Hacaoglu, 3 million such refugees are caught between euphoric optimism and the uncertainties of what may await them in Syria, as well as the countervailing certainties of the lives, however difficult, they have built in their adopted country.

Uncertainty is a powerful catalyst: It can determine where you build a life, and whether you diversify a career. But even the anxiety attendant to a fragile economy shouldn’t oversell the “portfolio career,” writes Harvard professor Mihir Desai. This approach may present itself as risk-decreasing, with high expected returns — but it is actually far from that, particularly for mid-career professionals.

Dispatches

London
A few times a week, playwright Ben Powers stops by the Gillian Lynne Theatre to take in The Lehman Trilogy, his three-hour English-language adaptation of Stefano Messini’s nine-hour marathon production. Powers’s award-winning iteration retains core elements of the original — all parts are played by three actors — while baking in a broader study of US capitalism’s evolution. Lehman’s fall, Powers argues, is in many ways “an origin story for everything that has happened since.”

Singapore
For three generations, Ken Koh’s family has bought a specific variety of chili peppers from the same Southeast Asian supplier to make its bestselling sauces. But last quarter Koh was forced to cut production by 25%, and he’s struggling to restock local supermarket outlets. The culprit? Climate change. Extreme weather across major chili-planting regions this year has disrupted supply, pushed up prices and, worst of all, made the peppers taste milder.

The Savings Struggle

Weekend Plans

What we’re thinking about: the price of eggs — not the ones you think. To examine a fertility industry worth billions, we followed a teen lured into selling her eggs, a model whose genetics are prized, and others risking their health for cash.

What we’re checking: the weather. For as long as countries have competed for power, the weather has been intertwined with military and national security interests. It’s now primed to become another flashpoint in the US-China rivalry.

What we’re asking AI: Can you approve my expenses? Big Tech’s new obsession is AI “agents” that can handle multistep chores like onboarding clients, responding to customer-service requests and participating in brainstorming sessions.

What we’re munching on: olives. One of Europe’s most iconic traditional industries, Italy’s olive business is an example of how the bloc needs to boost productivity to keep up with the US and China — and retain its role in the global economy.

One Last Thing

Enjoying Weekend Edition? Check out these newsletters:

Explore all newsletters at Bloomberg.com.