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What this article is about

This summary covers The Economist’s March 28th, 2026 Business article listed in the contents as The EU's merger dilemma and headlined on the page as Seeking scale.

The article asks whether looser EU merger rules will finally let European firms bulk up enough to challenge American and Chinese rivals. Its answer is sceptical. Europe does have a competitiveness problem, but the article argues that mergers are mostly being asked to solve the wrong problem. The deeper obstacles are fragmented markets, national political resistance and sector-specific rules that keep firms boxed inside their home countries.

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Why this article stands out

Lisa Verzella’s article is nominally about one meet in Ager, Spain, but its real subject is a broader shift in how paraglider racing can work. The Sports-Class Racing Series is built for competent cross-country pilots flying EN-C wings or lower, which immediately changes the tone. Instead of treating racing as an arms race toward hotter gliders and narrower margins, the series tries to preserve the tactical fun of competition while keeping the equipment and task design closer to what many experienced recreational pilots actually fly.

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Footage shows US citizen shot by ICE agent in Texas traffic stops (r/news)

• schmoob: Died last month in a car accident unrelated to this case? They sure? They sure about that??
• JustaguynameBob: If my mom reacted like this I’d be just as scared as he was.

Texas megachurch pastor Robert Morris is free after 6 months in an Oklahoma jail for child sex abuse (r/news)

• whatproblems: 5 years for following the advised procedure
• WallyMcBeetus: In case anyone was wondering.

Supreme Court rules against Colorado ban on ‘conversion therapy’ for LGBTQ kids (r/news)

• effortfulcrumload: The satanic temple should open camps in Colorado that “convert” straight christian children into LGBTQ atheists, then take a lawsuit against the state all the way to the top.
• BassLB: Republicans think it should be illegal to tell kids to be gay. But they’re still good with molesting, raping, and trafficking kids I guess.

What’s something you stopped buying once you realized it’s mostly a scam? (r/AskReddit)

• chinchenping: “organic” and “non-gmo” labels on food
• ZarathustraGlobulus: Reverse osmosis water filters. They’re already installed on most taps as standard, but the salesman will tell you that you need a special ass filter system for your whole house and quote some insane price.

People over 40, what’s something you’ve learned about life that younger people don’t realize yet? (r/AskReddit)

• Adventurous_Recipe80: That the grass isn’t greener on the other side, the grass is greener where you water it. I’ve learned to count my blessings and appreciate where I am and the people I share my life with.
• fan_ling: There are times when it will be obvious that you need to walk away from a dream and grieve it, but most of the time, it’s too early to be sure the dream is over.

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Software dev job postings are up 15% since mid 2025 (r/programming)

• pydry: It’s still not enough to bring things to pre-covid levels. I keep hearing no one wants to work in tech anymore, but I don’t see any proof of that.
• T-MoneyAllDey: Looks like there was a small spike in Q1 2025, but it was mostly wiped out by the latest quarter. Hiring seems to be on a downward slide again this year.

So… how are we juniors meant to upskill in this new AI market? what is our roadmap (r/cscareerquestions)

• garenbw: Code, with or without AI, as much as you can. You need to write and debug code to get better at it. Something I do myself to upskill is create small projects to use new technologies.
• dontreadthis_toolate: The only real answer is to actually build software that works. People will talk all day about the market but at some point you just have to make things.

Hiring manager perspective: hiring is the most broken I’ve ever seen (r/cscareerquestions)

• Pe4rs: People are basically giving ChatGPT applications to me. There are obvious signs, if you know what to look for.
• Kaze_Senshi: Time to create an open source open role notifier, and fit your resume to each role automatically tool

If you think your SaaS job is safe… you’re lying to yourself (Blind)

• rddcvgjc: irrespective of AI, workday is a company that should die miserable death for their shitty job application software.. ceo and PMs who designed this crap should be made to use it daily 50 times as a punishment
• GtQM82: Why is Workdays UX still so shitty, after all this time? Frankly, they deserve to be disrupted. Their moat (the inherent conservatism of HR departments) can’t (and shouldn’t) protect them from agentic disruption.

Vibe coders are low performers (Blind)

• taxhamster: You sound mad you got pipped by a non tech PM who out performed you
• IXuS40: Keep coping boomer while one junior vibecoder finishes the work you do in a day in an hour and goes out for drinks the same evening

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A ski partnership stretched across adulthood

Carolyn Highland’s “Ski You Soon” takes a premise that could have been handled as a sentimental reunion story and gives it more texture than that. The article follows Highland and her longtime ski partner Lindsay as they try to make a short spring tour happen after years of life drift: marriages, children, demanding careers and a move from Colorado to opposite ends of the country. What makes the piece work is that Highland does not pretend the old ease still exists. The logistics are harder, the bodies are different and the windows for adventure are narrower. The story’s emotional weight comes from the fact that the friendship has to be maintained deliberately now, with the same kind of patience and improvisation that a backcountry day often demands.

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Quick facts

• Difficulty: HARD
• Problem: Longest Valid Parentheses
• Main tags: String, Dynamic Programming, Stack

What the problem is really asking

The input is a string made only of ( and ).

The task is not to check whether the whole string is valid. The task is to find the length of the longest contiguous substring that forms a valid parentheses expression.

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Quick facts

• Difficulty: HARD
• Problem: First Missing Positive
• Main tags: Array, Hash Table

What the problem is really asking

Given an unsorted integer array, return the smallest positive integer that does not appear in the array.

The tricky part is not the definition of the answer. The tricky part is the constraint: the best solution must run in O(n) time and use only O(1) extra space.

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Quick facts

• Difficulty: MEDIUM
• Problem: Integer to Roman
• Main tags: Hash Table, Math, String

What the problem is really asking

The input is an integer between 1 and 3999, and the output must be its Roman numeral form.

The main challenge is not basic lookup. The hard part is handling the subtractive cases correctly:

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Quick facts

• Difficulty: MEDIUM
• Problem: Surrounded Regions
• Main tags: Array, Depth-First Search, Breadth-First Search, Union-Find, Matrix

What the problem is really asking

The board contains X and O. The task is to flip only the O cells that belong to regions fully enclosed by X.

The important phrase is “surrounded region.” A region is safe if it can reach the border through adjacent O cells. A region is captured only if there is no such path.

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Quick facts

• Difficulty: MEDIUM
• Problem: 3Sum Closest
• Main tags: Array, Two Pointers, Sorting

What the problem is really asking

The input is an integer array and a target value. The job is to pick exactly three numbers whose sum is as close to the target as possible.