When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
blog

Sanders Surprises, Queen On Brexit, 5th Beatle Dies

Sanders Surprises, Queen On Brexit, 5th Beatle Dies

Sanders Surprises, Queen On Brexit, 5th Beatle Dies

SANDERS SURPRISES, TRUMP KEEPS ROLLING

Bernie Sanders notched a surprise win over Hillary Clinton in Tuesday's Democratic primary in the state of Michigan, even as the former first lady won easily in the smaller southern state of Mississippi. Sanders, the underdog anti-establishment challenger, edged Clinton by 49.9% to 48.2% in Michigan, a key northern industrial state. The win keeps the race for the party nomination alive, heading into upcoming contests in even bigger states like Florida and Ohio. On the Republican side, brash billionaire Donald Trump continued to stay ahead of his nearest rival, Senator Ted Cruz, with wins in both Michigan and Mississippi, as well as a caucus victory in Hawaii. Cruz won in Idaho. Read more coverage from The Washington Post.


TOP ISIS LEADER "LIKELY KILLED" IN STRIKE

The U.S. military is assessing whether Abu Omar al-Shishani, the red-bearded top ISIS leader dubbed "the Chechen," was killed in an airstrike carried Friday near al-Shaddadi, Syria. The jihadist, who was born in the former Soviet state of Georgia to an ethnic Chechen mother, was "likely killed," a Department of Defense official told CNN.


WORLDCRUNCH-TO-GO

Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was detained last week as part of a widespread corruption scandal at state oil giant Petrobras. But the probe could actually prove to be the spark to help him succeed Dilma Rousseff, Clóvis Rossi writes for Brazilian daily Folha de S. Paulo: "The latest poll from the Datafolha institute shows that Lula has 20% support among voters a full two years out, which is an excellent starting point for a potential candidate, especially one who has been dogged for months by accusations. As a matter of fact, Lula himself seems to hold the same view. ‘I won't bow my head,' he said from the Workers' Party headquarters after he was released by police, explaining that what happened had instead ‘ignited in him the flame to keep up the fight.'"

Read the full article, Why A Tainted Lula Could Be Back As Brazil President.


VERBATIM

"The nuclear warheads have been standardized to be fit for ballistic missiles by miniaturizing them," North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was quoted as saying by the country's official news agency KCNA. North Korea has claimed today that it has developed a nuclear bomb small enough to fit into a warhead. This is the latest in a series of threats and provocative behavior from North Korea, as tension with South Korea and the U.S. has escalated after new UN sanctions were imposed following Pyongyang's latest nuclear test and missile launch.


SNAPSHOT

Photo: He Changshan/Xinhua/ZUMA

Although some clouds spoiled the view, millions of sky gazers across the Pacific were able to experience a total solar eclipse, here pictured from Belitung island, Indonesia.


QUEEN DENIES BACKING BREXIT

Buckingham Palace has insisted the Queen is "politically neutral" over the EU referendum, following claims by The Sun newspaper that she "backs Brexit", the BBC reports.

Quoting anonymous sources, the tabloid daily alleged that the Queen told pro-EU former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg back in 2011 that he was "heading in the wrong direction."


BIDEN'S ISRAEL VISIT MARRED BY ATTACKS

A series of knife attacks and shootings is rocking Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden kicks off his two-day visit to Israel and the West Bank. Shorty before Biden landed Tuesday, a Palestinian man stabbed an American tourist to death and wounded at least nine other people in the Jaffa port area of Tel Aviv, before being shot, Al Jazeera reports. And early Wednesday, two assailants opened fire near a public bus in Jerusalem, seriously injuring one person in the third attack to hit the city in 24 hours.

Biden is expected to meet separately today with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.


ON THIS DAY


Celebrating 57 years of Barbie dolls in today's 57-second shot of history.


RIP 5TH BEATLE

Sir George Martin, the London-born producer, arranger, composer, conductor, audio engineer and musician sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle" for his work as a producer of the Fab four, has died at age 90. Without his arrangements, Yesterday, Penny Lane, Eleanor Rigby or A Day In The Life wouldn't have sounded the same.


MY GRAND-PERE'S WORLD



GHOST MELODY

Google celebrates Lithuanian theremin virtuoso Clara Rockmore, born March 9, 1911, by letting you play this spooky-sounding ancestor of electronic instruments.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Future

AI Is Good For Education — And Bad For Teachers Who Teach Like Machines

Despite fears of AI upending the education and the teaching profession, artificial education will be an extremely valuable tool to free up teachers from rote exercises to focus on the uniquely humanistic part of learning.

Journalism teacher and his students in University of Barcelona.

Journalism students at the Blanquerna University of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

© Sergi Reboredo via ZUMA press
Julián de Zubiría Samper

-Analysis-

BOGOTÁ - Early in 2023, Microsoft tycoon Bill Gates included teaching among the professions most threatened by Artificial Intelligence (AI), arguing that a robot could, in principle, instruct as well as any school-teacher. While Gates is an undoubted expert in his field, one wonders how much he knows about teaching.

As an avowed believer in using technology to improve student results, Gates has argued for teachers to use more tech in classrooms, and to cut class sizes. But schools and countries that have followed his advice, pumping money into technology at school, or students who completed secondary schooling with the backing of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have not attained the superlative results expected of the Gates recipe.

Thankfully, he had enough sense to add some nuance to his views, instead suggesting changes to teacher training that he believes could improve school results.

I agree with his view that AI can be a big and positive contributor to schooling. Certainly, technological changes prompt unease and today, something tremendous must be afoot if a leading AI developer, Geoffrey Hinton, has warned of its threat to people and society.

But this isn't the first innovation to upset people. Over 2,000 years ago, the philosopher Socrates wondered, in the Platonic dialogue Phaedrus, whether reading and writing wouldn't curb people's ability to reflect and remember. Writing might lead them to despise memory, he observed. In the 18th and 19th centuries, English craftsmen feared the machines of the Industrial Revolution would destroy their professions, producing lesser-quality items faster, and cheaper.

Their fears were not entirely unfounded, but it did not happen quite as they predicted. Many jobs disappeared, but others emerged and the majority of jobs evolved. Machines caused a fundamental restructuring of labor at the time, and today, AI will likely do the same with the modern workplace.

Many predicted that television, computers and online teaching would replace teachers, which has yet to happen. In recent decades, teachers have banned students from using calculators to do sums, insisting on teaching arithmetic the old way. It is the same dry and mechanical approach to teaching which now wants to keep AI out of the classroom.

Keep reading...Show less

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch

The latest