Crypto News: ‘Maybe I have to take it on myself’

Welcome to the weekend!

In a South American country, lawmakers this week ousted the president just four months into his term — making him the fourth leader removed from power there since 2020. Which nation is it? Find out with this week's Pointed quiz.

Speaking of falls from power, don't miss this week's bonus episode of The Mishal Husain Show, which unpacks the arrest of King Charles's brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, over alleged misconduct tied to Jeffrey Epstein.

Train your brain with today's Alphadots and don't miss tomorrow's Forecast on India's AI dreams. For unlimited Bloomberg.com access, subscribe!

The Way It Used to Work

For 88 years, Gallup Inc. has asked the same question: "Do you approve or disapprove of the way the president is handling his job?" Month to month, the answers have provided rare historical continuity — and shaped much of our understanding of the modern presidency. Now Gallup is dropping the question, a reflection of both the proliferation of polling and the state of US politics, Gregory Korte writes. As polarization grows, approval ratings are increasingly decoupled from economic indicators. Researchers find "approval" has essentially become "a shortcut term for partisan predilections about the president."

Weekend Essay

Say Goodbye to a Simple Statistic That Graded US Presidents

After 88 years, Gallup is dropping its question on presidential approval.

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"Back in my day," we'll tell our kids, "presidential approval ratings used to mean something." Then we'll follow it up with: "And when we went to the club, we actually danced." These days, clubbing increasingly resembles a concert — forward-facing, phone-lit and strangely static. Critics blame a younger generation that wants to post every experience online, but commercialization also plays a role. As electronic dance music booms and clubbers behave more like viewers, venues are leaning into big stages and high production values, Tiffany Ap writes, driving up costs and feeding the cycle.

Weekend Feature

The Dance Floor Is Disappearing In a Sea of Phones

Social media and spectacle are killing the club culture of electronic music.

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Not every "how it used to work" is cause for complaint. Moviegoers used to watch films in their native language, catching relatively few foreign titles. But when Netflix dropped KPop Demon Hunters last year, it debuted simultaneously in 120 countries. That reach helped fuel its virality — at more than 500 million views, it's the streamer's biggest movie ever — as did the musical's blend of Korean influences and broader themes. "I thought, Nobody has done this yet. Maybe I have to take it on myself to make something for our culture," co-director Maggie Kang tells Mishal Husain. "So that's what I did."

Weekend Interview

She Bet on K-Pop. Netflix Got Its Biggest Movie Ever.

Maggie Kang's Netflix hit blended Korean culture with universal themes.

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Dispatches

India and Pakistan
When Dhurandhar was released in December, India and Pakistan were only months removed from their worst conflict in decades. The Bollywood thriller wasn't cleared for theatrical release in Pakistan, and critics accused the film — about an Indian intelligence officer infiltrating Karachi's criminal underworld — of blatant anti-Pakistan propaganda. But when Dhurandhar premiered on Netflix in January, it soon topped the charts on both sides of the border, underscoring the complex and often contradictory relationship between the two nations.

Photographer: Studio

Saudi Arabia
Forty miles outside Riyadh, a woman steps off Falcons Flight — the world's longest, tallest and fastest roller coaster — adjusts her head covering and heads straight back to the queue. She's among the first visitors to Six Flags Qiddiya City, Saudi Arabia's first major theme park and the centerpiece of a $32 billion entertainment hub backed by the Public Investment Fund. A decade ago, public music and cinemas were largely banned and socializing across genders was taboo. But since 2017, Mohammed bin Salman has been pushing entertainment as a pillar of Saudi Arabia's future.

Photographer: Maya Anwar for Bloomberg Businessweek

Conversation Starters

There's a "doom loop" at the heart of the global economy. In a new book, economist Eswar Prasad argues that as power shifts and voters feel left behind, elites and populists reinforce one another, turning trade and globalization into sources of conflict rather than stability.

The AI boom isn't another dot-com bubble. Unlike 2000, hyperscalers are spending their own profits, not borrowed money. That means the bigger risk isn't a crash but whether the costs — higher prices, backlash and vast infrastructure demands — outstrip the payoff.

MAGA's biggest threat may be its own intellectual elite. A rising class of "aristo-populists" wants to channel popular anger into an elite-led political project — but populism runs on instinct, not theory, and the tension could prove its undoing.

Analog Rebellion

"The promise of AI is that no child will have to do anything hard ever again. I can't think of a worse way to raise a child."

Jonathan Haidt

Author of 'The Anxious Generation'

Gen Alpha was supposed to be the most screen-addled cohort yet. Instead, many kids are turning skeptical — of smartphones, social media and even AI. As parents embrace phone bans, some children are even policing their own device use, rediscovering print media and gravitating toward CDs, graphic novels and screen-free gadgets.

Is It Worth It?

A $20 newborn vitamin K shot: Only if you'd like to prevent a rare but potentially fatal brain bleed with one of the safest interventions in pediatrics! While online fears abound, decades of data show the injection saves lives at minimal cost.

11 ringgit ($3) nasi lemak at Nasi Lemak Wanjo: Yes. This is Malaysia's national dish made the way the locals eat it — coconut rice, fried chicken and fiery sambal. It's also the value standout in our Five Top Tables guide to Kuala Lumpur.

A $499 Google Pixel 10a: Depends on your Apple attachment. This capable, AI-packed phone will run you $100 less than the budget iPhone. The upgrades are modest and there's no magnetic charging, but seven years of updates and strong cameras make it a sensible buy.

Tesla Model S: We'll never know. It might have been the car of the century — the electric vehicle that jolted the auto industry into the future — but Tesla is discontinuing the Model S just as its broader ambitions move beyond cars. The EV's legacy now lives in the cars it inspired.

A $150-per-person murder-mystery add-on at the Wilburton Inn: Why not? The costumes are thrifted, the plots are gleefully over the top, and the payoff is a vacation that doubles as live-action Clue. It beats scrolling on your phone by the fire.

Photographer: Gabriela Herman for Bloomberg Businessweek

What Everyone's Reading

What everyone's watching: What's the True Value of Greenland?

What everyone's listening to: The Sixth Bureau. Bloomberg follows Xu Yanjun, a Chinese intelligence officer accused of stealing US aerospace secrets, and the FBI sting that led to the first conviction of a Chinese spy on American soil.