Latest news with #globaluncertainty
Forbes
10 hours ago
- General
- Forbes
1 Powerful Way To Keep Your Relationship Strong During Uncertain Times
The world may feel messy, but your relationship doesn't have to feel the same way. Here's why, ... More according to new research. Wars are raging. The economy is teetering. The world is spinning faster than we could ever keep up with. And, unfortunately, it's not slowing down. Recessions, pandemics, conflict and social unrest have historically been associated with steep declines in romantic relationship satisfaction. People usually expect love to be a shelter of sorts in times like these — but when both partners are completely overwhelmed, that shelter can start to cave inwards. However, new research suggests our relationships don't have to be collateral damage in the midst of worldly chaos. In fact, they might be our best chance at staying grounded. Global uncertainty can deplete emotional bandwidth in ways that few people are consciously aware of. And, too often, this exhaustion gets mistaken as just a sign of the times. As an unfortunate result, this tension usually goes unchecked. Unfortunately, relationships are often first to bear the brunt of this. A 2021 study published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships tracked couples throughout the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the months that followed. These months (if not years) were defined by ambiguity in almost every aspect of life: health, career, family, finances and daily routines. The researchers found that this chronic sense of uncertainty led to significantly elevated levels of psychological distress for the participants. Naturally, when we're this burned out from stress, our capacities for even the most basic forms of relationship maintenance run thin. Practicing patience and empathy is difficult when we can barely offer it to ourselves. Unsurprisingly, the study found that higher levels of individual stress were linked to lower relationship satisfaction. Instead of being a source of comfort during trying times, relationships became just another source of emotional strain. This is just one of many symptoms of systemic stress. When one or both partners feel overwhelmed, they lack the necessary emotional resources to truly look after one another in the ways they otherwise would. Importantly, these declines aren't necessarily due to resentment or a lack of love. In uncertain times, individuals simply can't afford to divert their gaze away from everything happening globally. Consequently, they lose sight of what's happening internally — for both themselves and those close to them. While prior studies like these may give cause to be cynical, February 2025 research from McGill University gives us reason to be hopeful. Published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the study found that couples who co-create a 'shared reality' experience much less uncertainty during times of doubt. More importantly, they report experiencing much more meaning in their lives, too. In simple terms, this refers to the understanding partners share regarding what's happening in their lives. They see events unfold around them, and interpret them in similar ways. Regardless of whether these events are terrifying, chaotic, joyous or even just neutral, they unpack it — and make sense of it — together. These shared realities can be formed in countless ways. Today, it might look like a couple venting to each other after a long day. Maybe they've been doomscrolling, watching footage of families in Gaza displaced by war, families being torn apart by deportation or seeing another climate disaster unfold. One puts their phone down, sighs and says, 'It's just headline after headline. I feel like all I can do is just sit here and watch it happen, doing nothing.' Like so many people right now, this partner is experiencing what can only be described as helpless dissonance: the feeling that the world is unraveling, and they're powerless to do anything about it. In moments like these, we often talk about the importance of 'feeling heard' or 'feeling seen' in relationships. But when distress reaches this level of extremity, saying 'Yeah, that sucks,' or, 'I'm sorry you're feeling that way,' just isn't enough. Instead, what matters most is knowing that you aren't alone in these feelings, nor in coping with them. In this case, their partner doesn't dismiss their concerns, nor do they try to fix it. Instead, they meet them where they are. They say something like, 'I've been feeling that, too. It's like the world is on fire, and all I can do is watch it burn from the couch.' They talk more. They unpack their fear, their anger, their guilt. They sit with their discomfort together. Maybe in the days that follow, they find small things they can do. They donate to a cause. They join a protest. They talk to their friends. They take breaks from the news when they need to. They remind each other that, even though they can't solve every world problem single-handedly, they can at least see them through the same lens together. This is their greatest buffer. Their rituals in empathy remind them that even when the world feels shaky, they can still hold each other steady inside it. As the lead author of the 2025 study, M. Catalina Enestrom, explains in McGill University's press release, 'Shared reality doesn't necessarily require shared experiences.' She continues, 'One partner can describe a stressful event they experienced, and if the other partner sees it the same way, this too can foster shared reality. As couples accumulate these shared reality experiences, they come to develop a sense of shared understanding about the world in general.' The power of shared reality was especially clear in high-stress, high-stakes contexts. Specifically, frontline healthcare workers during the pandemic and Black Americans during the peak of the Black Lives Matter movement reported significantly more meaning in life, and significantly less uncertainty, when they shared a worldview with their partner. In other words, uncertainty becomes much less destabilizing if you're not holding it alone. Your version of reality starts to feel more real if you have a partner who validates your interpretations of events. Even if nothing around you has actually changed — and even if there's nothing you could actually do to change it — you can still find meaning and control, together, in your situation. While a shared reality is particularly important during times of upheaval, Enestrom and her colleagues argue that these benefits can be reaped even in normal, everyday life. That is, knowing you aren't experiencing daily life in complete isolation makes you feel more coherent, more connected and less alone in your own head. Importantly, this doesn't mean you and your partner necessarily have to agree on everything. You don't need to merge your identities or parrot your ideas and feelings back at one another. Otherwise, it's simply an affirmation for the sake of affirmation. Saying the right words means very little if they aren't backed with genuine empathy; it only works if you truly care about how the other person sees the world. The single most important part of it is that you form a framework for understanding the world. In doing so, you can rely at the very least on your shared sense of direction — even when everything outside your relationship feels completely unpredictable. Is your relationship a safe space for expressing your true thoughts and feelings about the world? Take this science-backed test to find out: Authenticity In Relationships Scale
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
G7 leaders aim for unity, facing escalating wars in Ukraine, Middle East
Leaders from the Group of Seven nations began annual talks on Monday with wars in Ukraine and the Middle East adding to global economic uncertainty, as host Canada tries to avoid a clash with US president Donald Trump . The G7 leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US, along with the European Union, are convening in the resort area of Kananaskis in the Canadian Rockies until Tuesday. With an escalating Israel-Iran conflict , the summit in Canada is seen as a vital moment to try and restore a semblance of unity among democratic powerhouses. Canada has abandoned any effort to adopt a comprehensive communique to avert a repeat of a 2018 summit in Quebec, when Trump instructed the US delegation to withdraw its approval of the final communique after leaving. READ MORE [ Israel and Iran continue to exchange attacks as death tolls and calls for de-escalation grow Opens in new window ] Leaders have prepared several draft documents seen by Reuters, including one calling for de-escalation of the Israel-Iran conflict and other statements on migration, artificial intelligence and critical mineral supply chains. None of them have been approved by the United States, however, according to sources briefed on the documents. 'I do think there's a consensus for de-escalation. Obviously, what we need to do today is to bring that together and to be clear about how it is to be brought about,' British prime minister Keir Starmer told reporters. The first five months of Trump's second term upended foreign policy on Ukraine, raised anxiety over his closer ties to Russia and resulted in tariffs on U.S. allies. Talks on Monday will centre around the economy, advancing trade deals, and China. Efforts to reach an agreement to lower the G7 price cap on Russian oil even if Trump decided to opt out have been complicated by a temporary surge in oil prices since Israel launched strikes on Iran on June 12th, two diplomatic sources said. Oil prices fell on Monday on reports Iran was seeking a truce. The escalation between the two regional foes is high on the agenda, with diplomatic sources saying they hope to urge restraint and a return to diplomacy. 'We are united. Nobody wants to see Iran get a nuclear weapon and everyone wants discussions and negotiations to restart,' France's President Emmanuel Macron told reporters in Greenland on Sunday before travelling to Canada. He added that given Israel's dependence on U.S. weapons and munitions, Washington had the capacity to restart negotiations. Trump said on Sunday many calls and meetings were taking place to broker peace. Highlighting the unease among some of Washington's allies, Trump spoke on Saturday with Russian President Vladimir Putin and suggested the Russian leader could play a mediation role between Israel and Iran. [ Amount of aid getting into Gaza 'minuscule', Doctors Without Borders chief says Opens in new window ] Macron dismissed the idea, arguing that Moscow could not be a negotiator because it had started an illegal war against Ukraine. A European diplomat said Trump's suggestion showed that Russia, despite being kicked out of the group in 2014 after annexing Crimea, was very much on U.S. minds. 'In the eyes of the U.S., there's no condemnation for Ukraine; no peace without Russia; and now even credit for its mediation role with Iran. For Europeans, this will be a really tough G7,' the diplomat said. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and NATO secretary general Mark Rutte will attend the summit on Tuesday. European officials said they hoped to use the meeting, and next week's NATO summit, to convince Trump to toughen his stance on Putin. 'The G7 should have the objective for us to converge again, for Ukraine to get a ceasefire to lead to a robust and lasting peace, and in my view it's a question of seeing whether President Trump is ready to put forward much tougher sanctions on Russia,' Macron said. - Reuters (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025
Reuters
10-06-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Australia has stabilising role amid rising global division, says PM Albanese
SYDNEY, June 10 (Reuters) - Australia will seek to disprove the "corrosive" idea that democratic institutions are failing amid significant global uncertainty, and play a stabilising role in the region, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday. In his first major speech since his centre-left Labor party was re-elected in May, Albanese said the rise of far right and far left populism elsewhere in the world was because people felt they did not have a stake in the economy and that institutions were not working for them. "We are living in a time of significant global uncertainty - and that reaches beyond just economic instability, it is the more corrosive proposition that politics and government and democratic institutions, including a free media, are incapable of meeting the demands of this moment," he said in a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra. Albanese said that while some "cynically seek to harvest it", the Australian government saw its responsibility was to disprove such perceptions. He also referred to an Australian journalist hit by a rubber bullet during protests on Sunday in the U.S. city of Los Angeles as "horrific", and said that his government had contacted the U.S. over the incident to say it was not acceptable. Albanese is expected to meet U.S. President Donald Trump for the first time next week on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Canada, where the security allies will discuss tariffs and a request from the United States for Australia to increase defence spending from 2% to 3.5% of gross domestic product. Albanese has declined to publicly commit to a defence spending target, saying Australia would focus on capability needs, such as local manufacturing of missiles. "I think that Australia should decide what we spend on Australia's defence," he said on Tuesday, adding the country's ties in the Pacific and Asia were also important for its security. Australia was focussed on strengthening relationships in Asia, amid strategic competition in the region, he said.
News.com.au
03-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
‘Unusual' thing happening to the Aussie dollar in wake of Trump tariffs, says Reserve Bank
The global uncertainty sparked by US President Donald Trump's tariff agenda has resulted in something unusual happening to the Australian dollar. RBA assistant governor Sarah Hunter noted on Tuesday that the Aussie dollar has been behaving differently against the greenback than what we would historically expect. 'When the outlook for global growth weakens, the Australian dollar typically depreciates,' she explained in a speech at the Economic Society of Australia Business Lunch in Brisbane. This is because investors expect the Australian economy 'to be buffeted by the global headwinds and the RBA to respond with cuts to the cash rate'. The fact that the Australian dollar is a 'risk-sensitive' currency also contributes to the depreciation as 'when global investors are worried, they tend to focus on reducing risk exposure, moving their capital to low-risk assets in countries like the United States, Switzerland and Japan.' 'This means the Australian dollar tends to lose value against these currencies,' she said. When Trump announced his global 'Liberation Day' tariffs the Aussie dollar did as expected and fell, plummeting to below 60 US cents for the first time since the pandemic. However in recent weeks, the Aussie has recovered against the greenback and has been sitting between 64 and 65 US cents which, according to Dr Hunter, is 'more unusual' in a continuing time of uncertainty. Dr Hunter said this is in part due to a broad weakness in the USD after some global investors reduced their exposure to US assets. 'The weakness in the US dollar during a period of heightened risk is in contrast with many previous episodes,' she said, 'though it's too early to know whether this dynamic will continue.'
News.com.au
03-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
‘Not time': Why the RBA took a cautious approach to rate cuts
Global uncertainty on the back of the US President Donald Trump's tariff policy and a weakening Australian economy saw the Reserve Bank of Australia debate an outsized rate cut last month. Minutes from the RBA's May 20 policy meeting show the central bank is still nervous about the impact of Mr Trump's trade policy but wants to move 'cautiously and predictably' in line with market expectations. As such, households were not given an outsized 'insurance against global growth' 50 basis point rate cut. Instead, the bank highlighted the need for monetary policy settings to remain 'predictable at a time of heightened uncertainty'. 'They agreed that developments in the domestic economy on their own justified a reduction in the cash rate target and that the case for that action was strengthened by developments in global trade policy,' the minutes reveal. Ultimately though, the board agreed the case for a 25 basis point rate cut was 'the stronger one' as members were not persuaded that weakening global growth and domestic factors warranted an outsized rate cut. In a silver lining for households, should the impacts of global uncertainty materialise, the RBA board agreed it would need to move to 'expansionary settings' meaning there would be more cuts to the cash rate. The board judged in May however that there was not enough data around the impacts of any global uncertainty to switch to a more expansive monetary policy setting. 'They also judged it was not yet time to move monetary policy to an expansionary stance, taking account of the range of estimates involved, given that inflation was yet to return sustainably to the midpoint of the target range and the staff's assessment that the labour market was still tight,' the minutes read. The board also highlighted they had the firepower left to kickstart global growth should the worst of global uncertainty impact the local economy. 'In finalising the policy statement, members agreed that it was appropriate to convey their commitment to both of the Board's objectives,' the board said. 'They also agreed to convey that policy was well placed to respond decisively to international developments if they were to have material implications for activity and inflation of the kind described in the severe downside scenario set out in the May Statement on Monetary Policy.' Meeting for the second time under its new dual-board structure, the RBA cut the national cash rate by 25 basis points, from 4.10 to 3.85 per cent, but RBA governor Michele Bullock revealed a 50 basis point cut had been debated. 'There was an argument and we did debate it (a 50 basis point cut) but it wasn't the strongest argument in the room,' Ms Bullock said at the time. She stressed 'inflation hurts everyone', particularly those on lower incomes and renters. Responding to a question from NewsWire on whether households could expect further relief, and what message she had for those doing it tough, she acknowledged Australians had gone through a 'really rough few years', accentuated by sharp rises in everyday prices. 'I would say that bringing inflation down is the best thing we can do to help them, while keeping employment strong,' she said. 'At the moment we are on track to deliver that. I know you're doing it tough, but conditions are improving.'
