• Tanamesa
  • Posts
  • Real life succession and perfect babies

Real life succession and perfect babies

about recent news: mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.

Author

Micael Balioni
September 18, 2025

THE MUSTS

World

gen z revolution

 When democracy goes Discord

 Forget printed ballots or electronic voting machines. In Nepal, Gen Z took to Discord — yes, the gamer chat app — to decide who should lead their country after the Prime Minister resigned and parliament collapsed.

  • Over 145,000 people joined a server run by the NGO Hami Nepal, turning voice channels and chatrooms into a national assembly. The “winner”? Sushila Karki, former chief justice, now appointed interim Prime Minister — and the first woman to hold the post.

But the Discord vote was just one twist in a week of chaos. What started as protests against a social media ban quickly turned into a nationwide uprising. Government buildings set on fire, army helicopters rescuing politicians, at least 50 people killed, and youth openly confronting the political elite they accuse of corruption and nepotism.

The government’s attempt to block Facebook, YouTube, and X was meant to look like regulation, but it backfired spectacularly. Instead of silencing dissent, it gave birth to a Gen Z protest movement that refuses to go home, even after the ban was lifted. For them, the fight is no longer about apps — it’s about dignity, jobs, and the right to a future in their own country.

And the economic backdrop makes the anger even sharper. Nepal relies heavily on remittances, yet unemployment among young people sits at around 20%. More than 2,000 leave the country daily to work abroad, while the “nepo kids” of politicians flaunt designer brands online. That contrast — hustling abroad versus sipping lattes in Kathmandu with dad’s influence — became the perfect fuel for rebellion. Does that sound familiar?

Personal Opinion: What’s happening in Nepal isn’t just local unrest — it’s a generational statement. A youth that refuses to accept a status quo built on inequality, inherited privilege, and closed doors. When the government tried to silence them by banning social media, the message became clear: this isn’t about apps, it’s about the right to speak, to question, to demand change. Freedom of expression online isn’t a luxury. Without it, democracy limps. With it, a new generation has the tools to design the future they’ve been denied.

What else in on

  • Brazil: Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former president, has just become the first ex-head of state in the country’s history to be criminally convicted for undermining democracy. In a nation marked by past coups and a long tradition of impunity for the powerful, this verdict is unprecedented. (Read)

  • Albania: For the first time ever a country has appointed a minister created by artificial intelligence. Named Diella, she will be responsible for all decisions in public tenders, promising “100% corruption-free” processes and fully transparent spending. (Read)

  • France: The country of baguettes is changing prime ministers faster than you change cell phones. François Bayrou, France's prime minister, lost his job after a vote of confidence in Parliament. The centrist, who had been in power since December, became the fourth prime minister to leave office in less than two years. (Read)

 

Economy & Business

i’m in the second season still

Succession, but make it real life

The saga is over: Rupert Murdoch, 94, has finally secured his son Lachlan as heir to the empire — Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post.

  • After two years of family feuds and court battles, Murdoch struck a $3.3 billion deal to buy out his other three children — James, Elisabeth, and Prudence — who are now out of the game.

The patriarch’s greatest fear was that, after his death, the siblings would unite and use their voting power to dethrone Lachlan and shift the editorial line of the empire. For Rupert, that would be catastrophic. He believes Fox News and News Corp’s value lies in maintaining the conservative, pro-business profile he built over decades.

And it’s not just family drama — it’s big money. Fox Corp alone makes over $1 billion a year in ad revenue, while News Corp, with its newspapers, publishing houses, and international titles, is valued at around $17 billion.

Meanwhile, in the broader media circus: the Wall Street Journal itself dropped a bomb last week — billionaire David Ellison’s Skydance/Paramount CEO is preparing a bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, which includes HBO, CNN, and the Warner Bros. studio. The rumor sent WBD stock soaring almost 30% in a single day. If it happens, the merger would completely reshape the industry, bringing together some of the biggest names in news and entertainment under one roof.

Bottom line: Warner Bros. Discovery is valued at $33 billion — more than double Paramount. In other words, this isn’t just Succession. It’s Succession meets Monopoly.

What else is on:

  • Armani: Giorgio Armani, who passed away last week at 91, spent his life keeping his fashion house independent and Italian-owned while other luxury brands joined global conglomerates. But his will flips the script: his heirs are instructed to sell the company — with priority given to LVMH, L’Oréal, EssilorLuxottica, or another major player — or, alternatively, take it public in Italy or another major market. (Read)

  • Tiktok: the U.S. and China’s ByteDance finally reached a deal on TikTok’s U.S. operations. The app’s assets will move to a new group — led by Oracle, a16z, and Silver Lake with 80% control — while ByteDance keeps 20%. For users, that means downloading a new U.S.-based app under government oversight, while Beijing gets to export its tech without running the show. (Read)

  • Nike: Ever since 1988, “Just Do It” has been the tagline and philosophy that propelled Nike to become an iconic global brand. Now almost 40 years later, Nike is aiming to remind a new generation what “Just Do It” actually means. The brand’s newest campaign is called “Why do it?”, and it takes aim at the pervasiveness of cringe culture. (Read)

  • Klarna: The company successfully landed on the New York Stock Exchange, having raised $1.4 billion, largely for its existing investors, rather than itself.

    The fintech giant sold shares at $40, above its announced range of $35 to $37, and came out of the gate with a $15 billion valuation. (Read)

  • Nvidia: The company is now officially worth more than Canada's entire GDP. (Read)

 

Technology & Science

do you accept credit card?

Would You Pay for the “Perfect” Baby?

 

Imagine a world where, before getting pregnant, you could see a score predicting your child’s genetic predisposition to complex diseases — based on hundreds or even thousands of genetic variants. Sounds intriguing? Or terrifying? Either way, it’s becoming a reality among the wealthy, as companies promise precise embryo selection.

  • Alzheimer risk? “No thanks.” Schizophrenia? “Better skip that one…” Want to boost IQ? “Sounds like a plan.”

Parents undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) can now hire companies that provide a kind of genetic “X-ray,” highlighting rare mutations and predispositions to conditions like:

  • Bipolar disorder

  • Obesity

  • Hearing loss

  • Cancer

The method is called Polygenic Risk Score (PRS). In marketing pitches, one embryo can have twice the genetic risk for a condition compared to a sibling. Soon, AI will likely be integrated to provide even more predictive insights.

But this isn’t exactly new…

Back in 1980, American engineer Robert Klark Graham launched the Repository for Germinal Choice, nicknamed the “Nobel sperm bank.” Graham believed humanity could be improved through eugenics, collecting sperm from exceptionally intelligent men and pairing it with women of high IQ to create a “superior generation.”

  • The project ran from 1980–1999.

  • Initially focused on Nobel laureates, but only three agreed.

  • Later expanded to include high-IQ men, elite athletes, and scientists.

  • Around 200 children were born via this method.

Critics at the time decried the project as pseudoscientific and racially tinged. It ended after Graham’s death in 1997, with all records destroyed two years later.

Fast forward to 2025…

  • The difference today is scale and precision. What was once subjective now uses machine learning and statistical validation.

Estimates suggest 1 in 3 IVF couples in the U.S. now consider this type of genetic screening, with adoption likely to increase as costs drop and results improve.

Bigger picture: If an algorithm can predict which embryo has the lowest risk of schizophrenia, cancer, or obesity… how many decisions stop being medical and start being strategic?

Does genetic screening prevent disease, or exclude potential lives? If everyone could pick embryos with higher IQ, what happens to those born without that advantage? Does genetics become a new filter of meritocracy?

At what point does preventive medicine become human design — and what happens if the “selected” child fails to meet expectations?

What else is on:

  • Personal cancer vaccine: The Gamaleya Institute, which developed Sputnik V against COVID-19, announced that it is ready to begin clinical trials of its mRNA and AI-based cancer vaccine. The medicine is “non-transferable”: it uses genetic data from each patient's tumor to create, in about a week, an immunizer that trains the immune system to recognize and destroy malignant cells. (Read)

  • Making history. Woman paralyzed for two decades uses Neuralink to write her name with her mind. (Read)

EDITOR’S RECOMMENDATIONS

Books

If one’s different, one’s bound to be lonely.

 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: Remember when, in the last newsletter, I wrote about conditioning and how obsessed I’ve been with that topic lately? Well, here’s the explanation. My cousin recommended a long time ago this book, a Brave New World by Aldous Huxley — one of those famous “dystopian classics” that, at first glance, feels like it belongs to another era. But the deeper you read, the more unsettlingly current it feels.

  • I’ll admit it took me a while to really get into it. The first chapters felt cold, almost clinical. But once you start to grasp the book’s vision — this dystopian future where society is conditioned to live in stability, pleasure, and conformity — the fascination only grows. It’s a world without pain, without conflict, without risk… and yet, also without depth, without truth, without freedom.

What struck me most was how Huxley anticipated decades ago something that feels increasingly real today: the idea that we don’t need censorship to be controlled, we only need to be drowned in distractions. It’s not a State that oppresses us by force, but a society that lulls us with comfort — keeping us docile through entertainment, consumption, and the promise of instant happiness. Sound familiar?

Brave New World is deceptively easy to read, but it’s not just a dystopia about the future — it’s an uncomfortable mirror of the present. It pushed me to revisit my own choices and ask: what matters more to me — happiness as the ultimate goal, or freedom? And is it even possible to live freely without also experiencing pain and suffering? Huxley exposes a paradox we rarely confront: how often we’re willing to trade freedom for comfort, and how easily distraction becomes control.

In the end, Huxley isn’t simply asking “what if…”. He’s nudging us with a much more intimate question: what are you willing to give up in the name of your own freedom? (Rating 9/10)

WHAT ABOUT ME?

Micael

now she knows what a Hugo Spritz is

This week, I had a very special visitor: my sister Ana came to Milan with her husband, Fabiano. She may look 35 in this photo, but there’s over 25 years between us. Like most of my siblings, we never lived together because of the age difference. When I was born, she was already happily married, and when I was five, she had her first child — (yes, I was a “little uncle” before I could even ride a bike - which as you know, I still can’t).

For context: I’m the youngest of five, all on my father’s side (he had fun in his time…). The only sibling I lived with, Paulo, had his honeymoon last year, and we met in Rome. Now Ana, the oldest, came to Italy to celebrate 30 years of marriage, and they decided to spend a day in Milan with me — basically, a tiny family reunion slash tourist day.

Seven years waiting for this moment. This was the first time anyone from my family — on either side (except my cousin, who basically has a free pass at this point) — had come to see me. I think it’s normal to want to share your life with the people who mean the most to you: to show them the space you inhabit, the streets you walk, the little corners that make up your everyday. And sometimes, for one reason or another, that moment never comes.

  • I’ve been lucky recently — my best friend visited not long ago — but there are still so many friends back in Brazil who know my day-to-day, hear all my stories, yet have never seen my apartment, my Italian friends, or me in my daily life. It’s funny how someone can know so much about you and yet know so little at the same time.

I feel truly blessed to have my siblings. We don’t speak every week — or even every month, to be honest — but all of them are incredible humans, each in their own way showing me what I wanted to become. Fun fact: it was actually Ana’s advice, years ago, that pushed me to come to Italy in the first place — advice I still carry in my heart today. Crazy, right? The butterfly effect.

Seven years later, we spent the day together, talking about life, wandering through the city, and just being together. A simple day, but one of my favorites of the year. I wanted to share this sweet memory with you — and for anyone who wants to visit, the invitation is open.

With love,
Micael

Subscribe to Tanamesa for your regular fix of content, entertainment, and my life. Our mission is bring everything you need to know about the most important things happening worldwide, with exclusive recommendations curated by the editor-in-chief.

Take it easy: It lands in your inbox only every second Thursday. And just like me, it is not only free but also kind of addictive.