The gist: Some of the world's most influential financial leaders are meeting in Bangkok this week, facing two enormous challenges: record government debt and an energy crisis fuelled by the war with Iran.

The meetings bring together the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, two organizations that play major roles in the global economy.

The IMF helps countries facing financial instability, while the World Bank focuses more on financing long-term development and reducing poverty.

Global public debt has reached its highest level since World War II, and the IMF projects it will exceed 100% of global GDP before 2030. In other words, governments collectively could owe more than the world produces in a year.

Meanwhile, the ongoing war with Iran has disrupted the Strait of Hormuz, a shipping route that normally carries roughly 20% of the world's oil supply. Higher energy prices are adding to inflation and making an already difficult economic situation worse.

Developing and low-income countries face particular pressure because debt repayments and rising borrowing costs leave less room to respond to economic shocks.

Why it matters: Government debt can sound abstract until you consider what it competes with.

Money spent servicing debt is money that can't also be spent on hospitals, schools or infrastructure without finding additional funding.

And when an energy crisis pushes prices higher, governments may need to spend even more to support households and businesses.

The concern isn't just how much countries owe. It's how much flexibility they'll have when the next crisis arrives.

Go deeper: Reuters: Middle East war and high debt dominate IMF–World Bank meetings

The gist: When you think of cultural heritage, you probably picture historic buildings, traditional dances or centuries-old festivals.

Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, has something a little different: poetry on garbage trucks.

Since 1988, the city has displayed lines of poetry on municipal garbage trucks and street sweepers. The idea was to keep poetry from the annual Poetry International Festival visible in the city long after the festival ended.

The project, called Het gedicht is een bericht (“The poem is a message”), has featured hundreds of lines from Dutch and international poets over the years.

Now, the tradition has officially been added to the Dutch Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

And in 2026, the project introduced its first poetry line in Dutch Sign Language, expanding the tradition in a new direction.

Why it matters: Cultural heritage isn't always something ancient or preserved behind glass.

Sometimes it's an everyday tradition that becomes meaningful because a community continues it.

Rotterdam's poetry trucks are a reminder that art doesn't have to live in a museum or require a ticket. It can appear in the middle of your commute, on the side of a vehicle collecting rubbish.

Go deeper: Poetry International: Rotterdam's garbage-truck poetry receives heritage recognition

The gist: Off the southern coast of Türkiye, underwater archaeologists have uncovered what they believe could be the world's oldest known shipwreck.

The site, near Kekova Island, is estimated to be approximately 4,500 years old, dating to around the time the Great Pyramid of Giza was being built.

Divers working roughly 30 metres underwater recovered more than 30 ancient ceramic vessels and three stone anchors.

But here's what makes the discovery particularly interesting: none of the ship's original wooden structure survived.

Without wood to radiocarbon-date, researchers have estimated the wreck's age by comparing the pottery with known examples from the Early Bronze Age. Their estimates place it between approximately 4,400 and 4,700 years old.

For comparison, a previously identified ancient wreck near the Greek island of Dokos is estimated to be around 4,200 years old.

Why it matters: Long before container ships, international shipping companies or modern ports, people were already moving goods across the Mediterranean.

A discovery like this can help researchers understand early trading networks, including what people transported and how distant communities were connected.

The oldest-known claim remains provisional, based on the evidence and dating methods available so far.

Roughly 4,500 years later, a lost cargo is still telling us how the world was connected.

Go deeper: ABC News Australia: Archaeologists reveal possible world's oldest shipwreck

Idiosyncrasy id-ee-oh-SING-kruh-see | noun

Definition: A distinctive habit, characteristic or way of behaving that's particular to a person or group.

In a sentence: One of his idiosyncrasies is insisting on sitting in the same seat every time we go to dinner.

Why it's worth knowing: It's a more precise and interesting way to describe someone's little quirks without necessarily suggesting they're strange or unreasonable.

The next time you're talking to someone who knows a lot about something, don't ask what they'd recommend. Ask what they've stopped buying.

It's a surprisingly revealing question.

Someone who's really into skincare might tell you which expensive products they realized weren't worth the money. A frequent traveller might explain why they stopped paying for certain upgrades. A great home cook might tell you which kitchen gadgets they regret purchasing.

Most recommendations focus on what people love right now. But what someone has stopped using often tells you more about what they've learned along the way.

And it doesn't have to be about shopping. You can ask what habits someone has abandoned, what advice they no longer follow or what they used to think was important but don't anymore.

Try asking: “What's something you used to swear by that you wouldn't bother with now?”

You'll often get a much more interesting answer than another top-five list.

Sometimes the best advice isn't what to start doing. It's what you can stop wasting your time and money on.

COPY AND PASTE:

I'm currently [DESCRIBE YOUR SITUATION, DECISION OR PLAN].

Before giving me any advice, identify five important questions I probably haven't thought to ask.

Focus on hidden costs, overlooked opportunities, assumptions I might be making, and things that could surprise me later.

For each question, explain briefly why it matters and what information would help me answer it.

Avoid obvious questions and generic advice. I want the kind of questions an experienced insider would ask.

One thing you didn’t know you wanted to know.

Someone says, “I've never missed a flight,” and immediately knocks on the nearest wooden surface.

Most of us know the gesture. Far fewer know where it came from.

One popular explanation traces the superstition to ancient beliefs that spirits lived in trees. Another connects it to the wood of the Christian cross.

But there's a much less mystical theory.

British folklorist Steve Roud has suggested the custom may have developed from a 19th-century children's game called Tiggy Touchwood, a version of tag where touching wood made you temporarily safe from being caught.

In other words, something we do to protect ourselves from bad luck today might have originated as a playground rule.

The exact origin remains uncertain, and historians haven't established which explanation is correct.

Sometimes the rituals we inherit have histories stranger than the superstitions themselves.

Go deeper: HISTORY: Why do people knock on wood for luck?