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Geopolitics Ideas Russia-Ukraine War

Why Beijing Isn’t Happy About The Crimes Of Bucha

The revelations of the alleged war crimes in Bucha are making Russia’s war more complicated for the leaders of China, who could have supported a victorious Moscow without hesitation, but a humiliated Moscow is a different matter. Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin’s shared ambitions of a new world order is at stake.

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LGBTQ Plus Society

How A Dutch Clinic Pioneered Pediatric Transgender Healthcare, Through 40 Years Of Criticism

Since its founding in the 1970s, the Amsterdam-based Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria has been working with often very young children and their parents to address gender identity issues. Their model has been both adopted and widely criticized around the world.

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Society

Indigenous Tribes Use High-Tech Tools To Unearth Buried Crimes Of The Past

Indigenous groups in the U.S. and Canada are using ground-penetrating radar to look for burial sites at former schools. The technology has the potential to help a reckoning with a dark chapter in the countries’ histories.

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Geopolitics Russia-Ukraine War

What If Putin’s Invasion Of Ukraine Was Really A China-U.S. Proxy War

Putin may seem an irrational actor, but he is clearly staging a wider war against the West and the U.S. Even if Russia couldn’t survive an urban guerrilla battle in Ukraine, it has China’s silent support.

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Geopolitics Ideas

The U.S. Has Quietly Told Europe It Won’t Fight On Its Behalf Again

It went largely unnoticed, but Washington’s refusal to let MiG fighter jets destined for the Ukrainians take off from their base in Germany is a clear message, according to a retired French general: Even if a NATO country is attacked, the U.S. will never send their soldiers to fight on our soil.

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In The News

Peace-Loving Putin v. War-Mongering West: How Russian Media Is Spinning Ukraine

The message from state-controlled media in Russia is clear: we are a peace-loving country constantly provoked by the West. The coverage is very different to the war hysteria before the annexation of Crimea and hides how the Kremlin benefits financially from tensions in Ukraine.

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Society

How Altered Consciousness Is Changing Psychiatry

From self-induced trance to psychedelics, altered states of consciousness are experiencing a renewed interest in the scientific community for their therapeutic value.

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In The News

Why Western Brands Are Dumping Russia So Quickly

More than 300 companies have announced plans to close stores, reassign staff or stop selling products in Russia since the Feb. 24 invasion. These decisions fit in with a recent trend of companies listening to customers, though the geopolitical factors are a new twist.

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Geopolitics

Welcome To The End Of Western Dominance

We are no longer in the age of liberal democracy’s inevitable triumph. Instead, we are living in a new multipolar world of ideological turbulence in which the West is not the main player.

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Geopolitics Ideas

What Putin Feared Most About Ukraine: It’s A European Democracy

For authoritarian leaders from Beijing to Moscow, it’s unbearable that democratic institutions like the European Union succeed. So it is vital that we Europeans build measures to protect democratic sovereignty.

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Geopolitics

State Of The Union, State Of The World: Biden’s Hard Line On Putin

Less than a week after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered a new cleavage in international affairs, U.S. President Joe Biden outlined a vision for confronting Moscow as necessary for the pursuit of America’s ambitions at home and abroad.

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In The News

The Price Of India’s UN Vote On Ukraine Will Be Paid In Washington

The Modi government chose to abstain on the UN Security Council condemnation of the Russian invasion, but it underestimates how much India will be condemned on the wrong side of history in the minds of American leaders for years to come.

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Geopolitics Ideas

1939 v. 2022: Putin Like Hitler, The West Without A Churchill

The Russian leader’s invasion is a both a pursuit of his Hitlerian obsession to rectify his nation’s humiliation, and a bet that the West’s decline is permanent.

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Economy Geopolitics

Russian Oligarchs Turn To Crypto To Skirt Sanctions

Faced with a $32 billion drop in their wealth this year, Russian oligarchs are looking for assets to allow them to overcome sanctions that will increase with the invasion of Ukraine. Familiar with crises, they see bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as an escape from the hegemony of the dollar, and a way to diversify their holdings.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Russia’s Prime Export Under Putin: Chaos

Russia’s president is neither clearly right-wing nor left-wing. As his dubious allies around the world suggest, he simply hates Western liberal democracy and seeks to expand his personal power, at home and abroad, by sowing unrest and conflict.

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Economy Future Geopolitics

In Brazil, A New Gambit In 5G Battle Between U.S. And China

A recent tender for Brazil’s 5G network once again highlighted the growing rivalry between the two superpowers. Now, the Biden administration may even have a formula to free countries of their debt to Beijing.

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Economy Society

Why Classic Fender Guitars Are Striking A Chord With Gen Z

With the electric guitar in full revival thanks to the pandemic, the mythical Fender brand is reviving the glory days of rock and roll stars. Taking advantage of free time during lockdown, many Americans discovered their passion for the classic six-string.

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In The News

Welcome To The Age Of Instability

As Russia and China push their way to the top of the power heap, and the United States balks at playing global police force, expect fundamental changes to accepted norms governing international affairs.

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In The News

From California, A Watershed In Fight Against Indian Caste Oppression

The inclusion of caste in its anti-discrimination policy by the California State Universities is as a major triumph for activists.

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Future Ideas

The Metaverse Will Make All That’s Bad With The Internet Worse

The change of Facebook’s name to Meta is a hint to the general public of where social media and digital sovereignty risks taking us in a future “virtual” world.

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Geopolitics Ideas

China-Russia Alliance, How The West Failed To See It Coming

A resurgent, ambitious Russia has taken the West by surprise, just when the United States was pivoting and bracing itself to face down China.

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Economy Future

Masahiro Hara Takes Aim: The QR Code Inventor Builds Post-Pandemic Applications

Conceived in the early 1990s, the QR Code has spread exponentially during the pandemic. Its creator, Masahiro Hara, is one of the many continuing to innovate his most famous invention, which has changed everything from medicine to how we dine.

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In The News

How Facebook Knowingly Undermines The World’s Largest Democracy

Facebook whistleblower Sophie Zhang says that the tech giant knowingly facilitates undermining democracy in India. Fair voting cannot be guaranteed if real people’s voices are drowned out by armies of fake online commentators.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Why U.S. Vaccine Diplomacy In Latin America Makes “Good” Sense

Echoing its cultural diplomacy of the early 20th century, the United States is gifting vaccines to Latin America as part of a renewed “good neighbor” policy.

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In The News

Are Rich Latin Americans Creating A Miami Real Estate Bubble?

Wealthy Latin Americans have been among the most active home buyers in Miami, which now may be creating a “tough” sellers’ market perceived by some as simply a haven for assets threatened by instability in home countries.

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In The News

Born In COVID: Measuring Long-Term Effects Of Pandemic Pregnancy

The in utero impact of high stress during pandemic conditions may last for decades in some babies.

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Economy Future

Why Africa Has So Few Nobel Prizes In The Sciences

Even as it celebrates this year’s literature prize going to Tanzanian author Abdulrazak Gurnah, Africa is again completely absent from the list of Nobel winners in science. In research as elsewhere, money is the key.

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Economy Future

De-Uberization? Food Delivery Apps Opt For Employees Over Gig Economy

Startups that offer to deliver groceries in less than 15 minutes have learned from the past and are hiring full-time employees, even if they need temporary workers to meet demand.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Biden’s Democracy Summit: The Sad Truth About The Invitation List

Can the countries the United States have invited to an exclusive summit on democracy safeguard and spread a system that is inherently flawed and fragile?

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Economy

Parag Agarwal & Co: Why India Should Stop Boasting About Twitter’s New CEO

So a dozen of the top CEOs in the world (including heads of Google, Microsoft, IBM and now Twitter) come from a country with 18% of the world’s population. But there are other numbers our overly proud fellow Indians should be running.

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In The News

From Abidjan To New Orleans, Shaking Out The Origins Of Twerking

Popularized by raucous music videos, sometimes considered quasi pornographic, this phenomenon has its origins in the ancestral Afro-descendant dances and advocates the liberation of the body.

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In The News

“Emotional Stripping,” A Pop Idol’s New Path To Exposure

Billie Eilish and Demi Lovato represent a new kind of performance artist for our confessional times.

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In The News

How The Urban Battle Against HIV Helped Cities Fight COVID

HIV health and support groups in LGBT neighborhoods offered COVID-19 testing and other community services during the pandemic.

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Migrant Lives Society

For Chinese Adoptees In The U.S., Identity Comes In Layers

Over the past 30 years, more than 170,000 Chinese-born children have been raised by U.S. families. Most of the parents are white and many live in areas where Asians are almost nonexistent.

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Geopolitics Society

They’re Back: Why Taliban Return Is Such Bad News For Afghan Women

The Taliban insurgents continue their deadly war to seize control of Afghanistan after the departure of United States and NATO forces. As they close in on major cities that were once government strongholds, like Badakhshan and Kandahar, many Afghans – and the world – fear a total takeover. Afghan women may have the most to fear from these Islamic militants. We are academics who interviewed 15 Afghan women activists, community leaders and politicians over the past year as part of an international effort to ensure that women’s human rights are defended and constitutionally protected in Afghanistan. For the safety of […]

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Future

Social Media And Fruitful Conversations: It’s Complicated

Good-faith disagreements are a normal part of society and building strong relationships. Yet it’s difficult to engage in good-faith disagreements on the internet, and people reach less common ground online compared with face-to-face disagreements. There’s no shortage of research about the psychology of arguing online, from text versus voice to how anyone can become a troll and advice about how to argue well. But there’s another factor that’s often overlooked: the design of social media itself. My colleagues and I investigated how the design of social media affects online disagreements and how to design for constructive arguments. We surveyed and […]

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Future Geopolitics Green Or Gone

Hot Canada! How Climate Change Impacts the Weather

Professors Christian Jakob and Michael Reeder explain how heatwaves form … and why they weather is a part of climate change we should pay closer attention to.

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Economy Society

To Cannes And Back: The Subtle French Infiltration In Hollywood

Since Agnès Varda, Louis Malle and Michel Gondry, trying one’s luck in Hollywood has become an obsession for some French filmmakers. But Netflix and friends are changing the formula.

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Future

Lockdown Neuroscience: Your Brain Must Return To Social Life

With COVID-19 vaccines working and restrictions lifting across the country, it’s finally time for those now vaccinated who’ve been hunkered down at home to ditch the sweatpants and reemerge from their Netflix caves. But your brain may not be so eager to dive back into your former social life. Social distancing measures proved essential for slowing COVID-19’s spread worldwide – preventing upward of an estimated 500 million cases. But, while necessary, 15 months away from each other has taken a toll on people’s mental health. So how can people be so lonely yet so nervous about refilling their social calendars? […]

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Future

Why It’s So Hard To Know The Origins Of The COVID-19 Outbreak

Every time there is a major disease outbreak, one of the first questions scientists and the public ask is: “Where did this come from?” In order to predict and prevent future pandemics like COVID-19, researchers need to find the origin of the viruses that cause them. This is not a trivial task. The origin of HIV was not clear until 20 years after it spread around the world. Scientists still don’t know the origin of Ebola, even though it has caused periodic epidemics since the 1970s. As an expert in viral ecology, I am often asked how scientists trace the […]

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