Work in progress
Spain curbs tourist rentals, a glacier buries a village, a new market of fake offices, and A.I. comes for entry-level jobs
Work has always been a central part of adult life, but something about how we relate to it has shifted. For young people entering the workforce, the path forward feels less like a ladder and more like a tightrope. Economic uncertainty looms with talk of tariffs, stubborn inflation, and a potentially cooling job market. And where entry-level roles once offered a foothold, many of those positions are now being reshaped, or even erased, by A.I. tools that promise to do more, faster, for less.
For those already in the workforce, the challenge is less about getting a foot in the door and more about keeping the door from shutting and trapping us at work. The rise of remote work offered flexibility, but it also blurred the lines between personal time and professional obligation. As The Atlantic recently put it, the laptop didn’t just make work portable, it killed the very idea of working hours. When your office is wherever your screen is, the workday becomes boundless. Tasks that could wait until morning are now dealt with at night. “Later” has turned into “right now.”
This isn’t just an economic shift, but also an emotional one. It’s harder to engage meaningfully with work when the goalposts keep moving, when burnout feels like a baseline, and when the future of employment feels more uncertain than ever.
With that, let’s dive in:
1. Spain Orders Airbnb to Remove 66,000 Listings
Spain has ordered Airbnb to take down nearly 66,000 rental listings, part of a broader push to tackle one of Europe’s worst housing crises. Officials said the listings either lacked proper licenses, used fake ones, or failed to disclose ownership details. Airbnb is appealing the order and has kept the listings online for now.
The move reflects growing frustration over housing affordability, which has triggered mass protests across Spain. Critics argue that speculative investment and a boom in short-term tourist rentals have priced locals out. The Spanish government has launched an ambitious plan to build more affordable and social housing, and even proposed a 100% tax on foreign real estate investors.
Spain’s struggle echoes wider European trends: as housing becomes more of a financial asset, long-term tenants are being pushed out by more lucrative short-term options. Meanwhile, social housing stock has been shrinking after years of privatization.
Interested in more? NYT - Spain orders Airbnb to take down 66,000 rental listings
2. Glacier Collapse Destroys Swiss Village
The village of Blatten in southern Switzerland has been largely buried by a collapsing glacier. While residents had evacuated days earlier, one person is missing, and dozens of homes have been flattened.
Authorities had been monitoring the Birch glacier and warned it was unstable. As climate change accelerates glacier melt and thaws the permafrost that binds mountain rock, these disasters are becoming more frequent.
Swiss officials have pledged support to keep displaced residents in the region, but more evacuations may follow. A recent report suggests that Switzerland’s glaciers could vanish entirely within a century unless the 1.5°C Paris climate target is met, a benchmark many scientists now believe we might have already missed.
Interested in more? BBC - Glacier collapse buries most of Swiss village
3. Renting an office to pretend to work, a rising trend in China
In China’s largest cities, a new kind of workspace is booming. For 30 to 50 yuan a day (roughly $4 to $7), “pretend-to-work” companies offer a desk, Wi-Fi, coffee, lunch, and the background hum of productivity. They cater to a growing group of young people out of work, but eager to keep up appearances.
In a country where unemployment among 16 to 24-year-olds (excluding students) has hit 16.5%, nearly three times the national average, finding a job has become a draining and emotional challenge. Many would rather pay to sit in a fake office than field questions from family or feel the stigma of joblessness.
These spaces have gone viral on Chinese social media, drawing millions of views. Ads pitch them as places to “live like an office worker,” offering the performance of normalcy in a job market where real stability feels increasingly out of reach.
Interested in more? El País - Going to an office and pretending to work: A business that’s booming in China
4. Is A.I. Already Replacing Entry-Level Workers?
The job market for recent U.S. college graduates is showing signs of strain, and A.I. may be part of the reason. Unemployment for this group has risen to 5.8%, a level the New York Fed recently called a “noticeable deterioration.” The damage is most acute in technical fields like finance and computer science, where A.I. tools are advancing faster.
Some of this reflects growing momentum behind automation. Companies are testing “virtual workers” to handle junior tasks at a fraction of the cost. Anthropic, the maker of the Claude chatbot, claims its newest model can now write code for hours on end, rivaling the productivity of a junior developer.
Managers are also being encouraged to adopt an “A.I.-first” mindset and to test whether a task can be automated before bringing on a human. That’s already changing how companies think about entry-level roles. Firms may scale back mentorship, training, and the slow, essential work of helping young employees grow into senior ones. This could have lasting consequences, not just on individual careers, but on the pipeline of talent companies depend on.
Interested in more? NYT - For some recent graduates, the A.I. job apocalypse may already be here, The Atlantic - Something alarming is happening to the job market
5. Canada battles wildfires
Western Canada is battling a wave of wildfires, with more than 180 blazes prompting evacuations in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta, and British Columbia.
Thick smoke has spread across the U.S. Midwest, affecting air quality for more than 20 million people. Both Saskatchewan and Manitoba have declared states of emergency and requested international assistance to fight the fires.
Canada faced its worst wildfire season on record in 2023, and this year could rival it. While wildfires are a natural and common event, climate change is making extreme heat and drought more common, drying out forests and fueling faster, larger burns.
Interested in more? BBC - More hot, dry weather forecast as Canada battles wildfires
That’s it for this week! These were five stories that didn’t necessarily make it to the headlines. If something stood out to you, feel free to share this edition or pass it along to someone who might find it interesting.
I always welcome your thoughts, questions, and story tips, whether it’s something underreported or just something that caught your eye.
Thanks, as always, for reading. I’ll see you next Sunday.
Any views expressed in this space are solely my own and do not reflect those of my current or former employers, or any institution I’ve been affiliated with.