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In The News

Why Hindu Nationalism Will Never Kill Gandhi’s Legacy

Despite episodes of hatred and nationalism, Gandhi’s ideas are still alive and well in India.

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Food / Travel OneShot

Watch: OneShot — Syria, When War Was Just A Game

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/embed/GrGHbA32YJ0 expand=1] When War Was Just A Game (© Étienne Mallard) | OneShot Etienne Mallard has spent a lifetime venturing far and wide. A retired high-school philosophy teacher, he has always considered himself just an amateur photographer — with decent equipment. He has visited a running total now of 80 countries since he first […]

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Ideas

In Egypt, A Jailed Blogger’s Brief Farewell To His Father

Family and friends waited for incarcerated Egyptian blogger Shady Abu Zeid to be able to arrive at his father’s funeral.

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Economy Future

Myth Debunked: Machines Create More Jobs Than They Destroy

MUNICH — Do machines replace humans? Since the beginning of industrialization 200 years ago, we earthlings have been plagued by this fear. From the early uprisings of the weavers to the 1970s “job killer computer” slogan, and up until the 2013 thesis of researchers Michael Osborne and Carl B. Frey, according to whom machines could […]

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In The News

Vatican, Costa Rica, France: #MeToo And The Sound Of Broken Silence

-Analysis- The #MeToo movement was, above all, a collective “breaking of the silence” that shifted the longstanding balance of power on the question of sexual misconduct, particularly in the professional world. Many have noted that what became a collective raising of (mostly female) voices may have required the accusations of a few Hollywood movie stars […]

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Green Or Gone OneShot Society

Watch: OneShot — Bertrand Piccard’s Solar Impulse Selfie

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/embed/IR3JN13nloA expand=1] Bertrand Piccard’s Selfie — © Solar Impulse | OneShot Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg accomplished a feat of aviation that few believed possible: the first Round-The-World flight, powered only by the sun, with no fuel or polluting emissions. The flight of Solar Impulse demonstrated not only that clean technologies are the future, […]

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Ideas

Drug Dealers’ Love For U.S. Postal Service At All-Time High

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service likes to boast that it is the nation’s most trusted government agency. It certainly has the trust of dope dealers. A report by the Postal Service Office of Inspector General demonstrates just how valuable the mail is as a marketing tool for drug pushers: “For example, a cocaine trafficker claimed to have used the Postal Service to successfully distribute nearly 4,000 shipments, stating that they had a 100% delivery success rate. In addition, of the 96 traffickers who indicated they used the Postal Service as their shipping provider, 43% (41) offered free, partial, or […]

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Economy Society

Mumbai’s Monorail Debacle, Lessons For Other City Planners

MUMBAI — On December 14, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) abruptly terminated its contract with the Indo-Malaysian consortium L&T-Scomi Engineering Bhd to manage the city’s monorail. The authority said that there had been issues such as poor maintenance of the monorail fleet, as many rakes were found unfit for use. This ended another chapter in the sorry saga of a transportation experiment that was doomed from its very inception. India’s first monorail was flagged off on February 1, 2014, with the hope that it would resolve Mumbai’s transport woes — or some of them, at least. The MMRDA […]

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Geopolitics Ideas

Caribbean Nations Must Open Arms To Displaced Venezuelans

While many displaced Venezuelans are crossing over into Colombia or Brazil, others head offshore, to nearby Caribbean island nations, which have been less than welcoming.

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In The News

The ‘Mid-Life Crisis’ Of Latin American Democracy

As evidenced by this year’s elections in Mexico and Brazil, people across the region are increasingly disenchanted with traditional parties and the democratic status quo.

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In The News

Indian Elections: Gandhi Siblings v. Mister Modi

The full plunge of Priyanka Gandhi into Indian politics, alongside brother Rahul, is a whole new challenge for President Narendra Modi ahead of this spring’s general elections.

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Eyes on the U.S. OneShot

Watch: OneShot — Tijuana, And The Other Sides Of Shutdown

Jonatan Matamoros, 36, climbs the border fence at La Playas de Tijuana, Mexico on December 8, 2018. He was part of a migrant caravan with his wife and son from Central America, and was scouting for possible places to cross to the U.S. eventually. He was just having fun at Playas de Tijuana border, looking […]

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Ideas Society

China’s Dark Side Landing: How The Moon Loses Its Mystery Appeal

-Essay- The Moon’s cultural history is one of disenchantment. Thousands of years ago, people still believed that it was a deity, there were legends about beautiful Moon girls and a man in the Moon. But its proximity to Earth made the myths around it one of the first victims of the scientific worldview. Already in […]

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Future Ideas

How We Build Human Bias Into Artificial Intelligence

-OpEd- PARIS — When Amazon realized that its AI recruiting tool favored men, the company quickly shelved it. Back in 2016, a chatbot released by Microsoft turned into a sex-obsessed neo-Nazi machine in only 24 hours. These incidents, along with others, played right into the hands of all those who say there is too much […]

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Society

Educating Adivasi: The Side Effects Of School For India’s Indigenous

“Why do we want to fit everyone in our narrative of what is civilized?…’

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Green Or Gone Society

Is Biodegradable Always Environment-Friendly?

Bioplastic sounds like a welcome eco-alternative to the many plastic products we use daily. But the reality isn’t so simple.

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In The News

Thou Shalt Never Be Polite To Robots

Google and Amazon are trying to force us to speak politely to their AI-driven personal assistants. But giving souls to our technology is a dangerous return to the past.

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Economy Geopolitics

Brexit Deadlock Spooks Asian Corporate Heavyweights

The growing alarm after UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal suffered a defeat in Parliament isn’t just unsettling for British politics. Global businesses are on edge as well. Asian companies, whose operations and investments stretch far into Britain and the European continent, have a lot at stake as they face higher tariffs and costs. Tuesday’s setback will do little to cure the anxiety. Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond has sought to assure business leaders that their no-deal nightmare scenario could still be avoided, but with only 10 weeks left before the UK is due to leave the European […]

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Food / Travel Ideas

Between Ljubljana And Trumplandia, A French Airport Odyssey

WASHINGTON — If you ever want to fly to America from Charles de Gaulle Airport, be sure that you are not landing in terminal 2F, as you might miss your flight, or even get arrested before reaching your point of departure, Terminal 1. But if you are starting your journey towards the U.S. from Charles […]

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In The News OneShot

Watch: OneShot — Salvador Dali 30 Years On, Still Suspended In Surrealism

There’s nothing (and everything) left to chance in the world-famous image Life magazine photographer Philippe Halsman, shot in 1948, of the legendary surrealist painter Salvador Dalí.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Grandmother’s Memory – India’s Religious Misogyny Must End

-Essay- MUMBAI — In my memories of my grandmother, one image of her comes to my mind: that of a widow with a tonsured head, wrapped in a dull brown cotton sari worn in traditional style, a blank forehead without the usual vermilion powder or kumkum, bare neck, empty ears and hands unadorned and shorn off all jewelry. Her ankles and feet were bare too — without the traditional anklets or silver rings worn on the toes of both feet — the symbol of married women. I also have a very vivid story of my grandmother etched in my memory. […]

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Green Or Gone Ideas

Achtung Autobahn! Why Germany Needs A Highway Speed Limit

Going all out on the autobahn may be part of the German way of life, but speed limits are necessary to limit road accidents and lower CO2 emissions.

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In The News

Not Only Syrians: Turkey Must Welcome All Asylum Seekers

As Turkey takes sole responsibility from UNHCR for processing the asylum claims of Afghans and other non-Syrians, it must register them and allow them to access their basic rights.

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Future

Clean Trees In Naples: When Ecology Invades Mob Territory

Outside of Naples, researchers have turned land polluted by illegally-dumped chemicals into a living laboratory.

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Economy Ideas

How Japan Can Help Soften U.S.-China Showdown

-OpEd- TOKYO — The United States has turned to inward-looking politics, while the unifying force of Europe has waned due to rampant populism and confusion in Britain, Germany and France. The pillars that have sustained global stability are seemingly fading away. Given the situation, we cannot but be wary of confusion stemming from the intense […]

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OneShot Society

Watch: OneShot — UNICEF France Welcomes 2019

UNICEF France is ringing in 2019 with their greatest mission of all: ensuring every child grows up in the best conditions and has all the tools needed to build a future. And first on the list is “Hope.” Discover their animated Greeting Card — and New Year’s resolution — with this OneShot: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/embed/0WYMdqgKiJQ expand=1] UNICEF France Welcomes 2019 — Jiro Ose/UNICEF/OneShot OneShot is a new digital format to tell the story of a single photograph in an immersive one-minute video. Follow OneShot:

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Ideas

Is Modernity Destined To Destroy Beauty?

-OpEd- PARIS — Between all the brutal Brexit fireworks, the British government took an initiative of rare poetic dimension by establishing a “Building Better, Building Beautiful” commission. According to its official terms of reference, the commission’s task is to “develop practical policy solutions to ensure the design and style of new developments, including new settlements […]

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Economy Future

What China Flexing Tech Muscle Means For India

The digital relationship between the Asian neighbors has rapidly evolved over the past decade, and India must now think strategically about China’s ambitions in the way Western countries have been forced to do.

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Future Society

A Hacker Pays For Egypt’s Ambiguous Relationship With Data

Dubbed ‘the International,’ a young Egyptian computer programmer had built a program to scrape user data from Facebook. But the same practice is routinely done by the government and large corporations.

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Geopolitics OneShot

Watch: OneShot — The Face Of Trump’s Shutdown

It’s the silent (and sullied) face of an unprecedented presidency. The partial government shutdown that Donald Trump has brought on in his battle with congressional Democrats over funding for the president’s proposed border wall with Mexico has become the longest in U.S. history.

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Economy Geopolitics Ideas

Behind The Yellow Vests: The Great Fear Of Having Less And Less

-Analysis- PARIS — Did they really have to set France on fire for just a few cents? More than eight weeks after it began, the revolt of the “yellow vests’ still seems hard to grasp. For extremists on all sides who happily fanned the flames, it looked like the much-awaited beginning of the great revolution, […]

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Future Ideas

Just Call (Or Text) Me — Enough With Voice Messages!

Voice messages are unilateral and time-consuming: this is bad communication innovation.

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Ideas Trump And The World

Russia Is Exploiting American Racism

-OpEd- WASHINGTON — Two newly released reports from the Senate Intelligence Committee about Russian interference in the 2016 election have been nothing short of revelatory. Both studies — one produced by researchers at Oxford University, the other by the cybersecurity firm New Knowledge — describe in granular detail how the Russian government tried to sow discord and confusion among American voters. And both conclude that Russia’s campaign included a massive effort to deceive and co-opt African Americans. We now have unassailable confirmation that a foreign power sought to exploit racial tensions in the United States for its own gain. Ever […]

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OneShot Society

OneShot: Starman Waiting In The Sky — Remembering Bowie

On January 10, 2016, two days after his 69th birthday and the release of his final album, Blackstar, the great David Bowie was gone. The shape-shifting rock icon behind songs such as “Space Oddity,” “Starman,” “Heroes’ and “Let’s Dance” was also a major creative force in film, fashion and technology, constantly pushing the boundaries of performance-based disciplines. Born David Robert Jones, his chameleon career is reflected in the many flamboyant alter egos he used over the years. We made this OneShot to mark his death and celebrate what would have been his 72nd birthday on January 8. Ashes to ashes […]

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Economy Geopolitics Ideas

Europe, The Naive Power

Standing alone against the United States and China, Europe must wake up in 2019. And come together.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Why Evangelical Christians Keep Betting On Trump

And why he’ll never be the savior they’re looking for…

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Migrant Lives

In South Sudan, A Tailor’s Tales Of Fleeing War — Over And Over

Peter Koang has been displaced three times since the war in South Sudan began. Each time, he managed to salvage his sewing machine, which now brings him a rare bit of stability at a time of fragile peace.

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In The News

Making A Very Metaphysical Leap Into 2019

Somewhere in between confusion and wonder is not a bad place to be at all.

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In The News

Shift To Asia? Africa Rising? Big Questions To Track For 2019

-Analysis- NEW YORK — As 2018 comes to a close, attention is turning to what is likely to happen in 2019. I have no idea. But if you follow these questions, you will have your finger on the pulse of the world to come: What will happen with Chinese civil society? Five to 10 years ago, China had a proliferating and diverse group of non-profit groups, think tanks and cooperative civil society institutions, such as charities and clubs. They never stood on a firm legal foundation, but in the last few years they have been subject to a severe crackdown, […]

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In The News

A Brief And Bitter History Of Being Atheist In Modern Egypt

Egyptian society simply doesn’t recognize the reality of atheism, and often punishes anyone who declares it publicly.

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