Hello from London,

Yuval Noah Harari’s excellent new book, “Nexus”, is all about information, AI, truth and power. You can read our review of it. I’d also suggest turning to the historian’s provocative guest essay for us, published last year, where he argues that AI has the means to “hack the operating system” of civilisation.

Next week Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will lock horns in their first, and probably only, televised debate. Sometimes political theatre matters. Tony Blair recalled how, as Britain’s prime minister, the most “nail-biting, bowel-moving, terror-inspiring, courage-draining” times he endured were fending off hostile questions during debates in Parliament every week. He knew the danger of a bad performance, as it could cost him authority, popularity and eventually power. Joe Biden—remember him?—learned that lesson, after his woeful performance against Donald Trump, in June.

So what’s likely to happen on Tuesday? We think Kamala Harris has learned to talk better in debates: she has cut back on her previous abstract meandering. As a result, she probably has the advantage over Mr Trump in their face-off (read our column on the topic). For more on the candidates’ speaking styles, I strongly recommend our language columnist’s analysis of the number of words—and the variety of them—used by Mr Trump, Ms Harris and others in their debates. Back in 2015, Mr Trump bragged that “I know words. I have the best words”. Well, we’ve tested him on that. You can read the results.

In Europe we’ll be watching keenly as Mario Draghi, a much-respected former central banker, serves up bright ideas on how to make the EU’s stodgy economy more nimble. He is set to speak on Monday, and will challenge the rich but slow-growing bloc to wake up. He has written for us before (such as this piece on Europe)—and look out for a new guest essay from him in the coming days.

I want to tell you about a new offer. We have made our Espresso app free for students aged 16 or older anywhere in the world. (Read about the details.) This means you get a daily briefing on the most important stories in business, politics and culture, with videos and translations available in four languages. Plus, students will also receive our morning World in Brief newsletter, and get access to a selection of full Economist articles each week. If you’re a student, subscribe here . (And if you are the parent of a student, or a teacher of them, please tell them to sign up.)

Finally, thank you for the record number of responses to last week’s caption competition. For this week I thought we’d turn to a villain. What caption would you write for this image of Vladimir Putin that we first used on our cover early in 2022? Write to me at economisttoday@economist.com.