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Professor Tim Evans of Middlesex University explains to Simon Rose why, if Emmanuel Macron can't raise France's retirement age, Europe's fiscal union could be doomed. He ponders what the role is now for the UK's trade unions in a new age of industrial action. And he marvels at the enormous yawn factor of Rishi Sunak's cabinet reshuffle. With Volodymyr Zelensky's UK visit showing up our own politicians, he wonders why we no longer seem to have great Parliamentarians.

James Cameron-Wilson takes Simon Rose through the UK box office numbers, up 14% on the previous week. #1 is Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, the belated sequel pushing Avatar 2 into second place. James found it migraine-inducing. M Night Shyamalan's Knock At The Cabin is #3 but James found it mad and daft in equal measure. However, he thought Darren Aronofsky's The Whale at #5 one of the best films of the last 12 months. Starring Brendan Fraser, it's a claustrophobic tale of an immensely large teacher approaching the end of his life and has received many nominations.

Victoria Scholar of Interactive Investor tells Simon Rose why, despite the general air of doom and gloom in the UK, the FTSE 100 index has been hitting record highs recently. She discusses recent results from Unilever, Shell & BP and points out the research suggesting that the UK might just manage to avoid a recession this year.

Steve Caplin dives into the world of tech, telling Simon Rose about plans for charging users of ChatGPT and problems with Google's launch of its rival, Bard. There's also a stunning phone camera, how driverless cars might better cope with crossroads, Twitter being sued by the Crown Estate, a portable coffee printer, why skiers with Apple watches are annoying the Colorado police and a skyscraper in Detroit being built from the top down.

The 80:20 rule is a good yardstick for business, but have you ever considered that 80% of your quality of life could be improved by simple changes to the 20% that you spend on habits such what you drink and eat, being more active, or rest and recuperation? This is a short episode, and it focuses on just these basics of life that can make all the difference. So, if you're interested in improved health and well-being, this could be for you.

Microsoft's AI event is only the latest sign of the hottest area of tech. Jason Moser discusses: CEO Satya Nadella hailing "a new day in search", shares of C3AI, an enterprise AI platform company, doubling in the past five weeks, and Zoom Video announcing it's laying off 15% of employees. Then, at 12 minutes in, Robert Brokamp talks with former Pittsburgh Steelers lineman Jonathan Scott about playing in Super Bowl 45, managing an irregular income, and other takeaways from his book "The Winning Playbook: Strategies for Life on and off the Field". Stocks discussed: MSFT, GOOG, AMD, AI, ZM; Host - Chris Hill; Guests - Jason Moser, Robert Brokamp, Jonathan Scott

ChatGPT is getting plenty of attention, but there are other uses for artificial intelligence that investors should watch. Beth Kindig is the lead technology analyst for the I/O fund. Deidre Woollard caught up with Kindig to discuss where we are in the cloud adoption cycle, a key narrative playing out in semiconductor earnings, and what to learn from companies that went public too quickly. Companies discussed: MSFT, NVDA, TSM, META, AMD. Host: Deidre Woollard; Guest - Beth Kindig

Inflation is theoretically running out of steam but there's one essential that's still gloing up in price rapidly: food. Even as energy prices and other recent highly inflationary items run out of steam, the cost of food seems to show no let up - with reports reporting inflation-busting rises. What is going on here? How much have food prices risen, why have they gone up so much, are supermarkets or brand-name makers profiteering, and will costs ever come back down? Georgie Frost, Angharad Carrick and Simon Lambert, delve into food prices on this week's episode - and look at any ways you could save money. Plus, mortgage rates are falling while the base rate is going up: why is that and what happens next? Should you invest in a VCT, not just for the juicy tax breaks but also for the investment opportunities on offer? And finally, we met the founders of Seatfrog to find out how they are helping passengers buy up unused first-class seats on trains at bargain prices and their plans for making train ticket-buying better.

The earthquake disaster in Turkey shows yet again how little we learn from the past, and the limited attention we give to planning for the future. Constitutional principles could do much to help - but are we making best use of them? Meanwhile insurers tend to refer to natural disasters as 'Acts of God', but such a description doesn't align with with the Christian understanding that the nature of God is love. In March 2020 we recorded 'Love at the Cutting Edge' seeking to provide an answer, and it's included as the second part of this commentary. Background music: 'Elegy' by Wayne Jones; and to accompany 'Love at the Cutting Edge', Gorecki's Symphony No. 3, first movement as performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1995.

The huge take-up of ChatGPT over recent weeks has brought the challenge of Artificial Intelligence into sharp relief. As the Chief Executive of its creator, OpenAI, said in one of his blogs, 'Artificial Intelligence will bring unimaginable wealth but, unless something changes, most of us will get none of it. We need a radical solution'. Conventional wisdom sees Universal Basic Income as the way through this dilemma, but this will only bring us more state intermediation and human subservience. We can put forward a better solution, by enabling all to share in the wealth that technology brings and to play their part in its future governance. Background music: 'Digital Solitude' by Silent Partner