(The opinions expressed here are those of the authors.)

By Anna Szymanski

July 31 (Reuters) - Looking for inspiration? Every Friday,

Weekend Reads rounds up what the Reuters Open Interest team has

been reading, watching and listening to this week. The latest

picks cover aging Venezuelan refineries, gold flows, the son of

Iran's former Shah and more.

This weekend, we're reading...

RON BOUSSO, ROI Energy Columnist: I enjoyed this Reuters feature

on Venezuela's old and run-down refining industry. Once among

the biggest and best in the world, Venezuela's refineries are

today rusty and damaged by years of neglect and, most recently,

a devastating earthquake.

MIKE DOLAN, ROI Finance & Markets Columnist: Take a look at the

latest Bank for International Settlements bulletin on how

central banks are flummoxed as they try to assess the impact of

AI on their economies, making them increasingly wary of a

"policy miscalibration". It may partly explain why they don't

want to move fast in either direction on interest rates right

now.

ANDY HOME, ROI Metals Columnist: This Reuters exclusive explores

the tension between the U.S. government's drive to stop

purchases of Chinese critical minerals and the reality of a

domestic supply chain that is still far from being able to meet

the country's needs.

CLYDE RUSSELL, ROI Asia Commodities Columnist: The latest

quarterly gold demand trends report from the World Gold Council

shows steady gold demand in the second quarter. On the surface,

that might look somewhat uninteresting, but the makeup of that

demand, with ETF outflows but central bank buying, is

interesting and illustrative of a wider trend.

We're listening to...

AL REED, ROI Research Assistant: Much attention has been focused

on the shifting fortunes of chipmakers and hyperscalers, but the

memory supply shortage related to the AI buildout is also

causing the price of everyday consumer electronics to soar. The

Atlantic's Galaxy Brain podcast recently delved into the

specifics of why this is happening and the potential broader

impacts.

And we're watching...

ANNA SZYMANSKI, ROI Editor-in-Charge: Reuters investigative

reporters Steve Stecklow and Gavin Finch recently sat down with

Iranian opposition figure and son of Iran's last shah, Reza

Pahlavi, to discuss his campaign to bring democracy to Iran and

the criticism he has faced along the way.

Opinions expressed are those of the authors. They do not reflect

the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is

committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.