The procurement of raw materials and the difficulties in recycling batteries show that electric vehicles are not as green and sustainable as we’re prone to believe.
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The Dirty Truth Behind Electric Vehicles
Author: Worldcrunch
Even as it contends still with Brexit and the rise of right-wing populists, the European Union did enjoy some ‘almost good news’ this year.
LE MONDE Full Translation Of French Anti-#MeToo Manifesto Signed By Catherine Deneuve Some 100 prominent French women artists and intellectuals have issued an open letter in Le Monde condemning the movement to call out inappropriate male behavior that erupted in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal. CLARIN Interview With A Recovering Hippie Named Paulo […]
The Earth also rises … On Dec. 24, 1968, on the first human orbit of the Moon, astronaut Williams Anders looked out the window of Apollo 8. Reaching for his camera, and its color film, Anders would capture an image that would change human perspectives of our planet, ourselves and our place in the universe.
-OpEd- PARIS — In the sometimes cacophonous concert of demands from France’s “yellow vests’ protest movement, one measure keeps coming back: the Référendum d’initiative citoyenne (RIC), or “Citizens’ Initiative Referendum,” which allows individual citizens to submit a legislative text to a popular vote, and to thus express their opinions in the ballot box rather than […]
-Analysis- WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump pledged in his campaign that he would not be predictable. He’s more than lived up to that promise this week, and along the way, he has made a hash out of the way business is being done in Washington. Three times this week, Trump abruptly and unexpectedly changed course, lending credence to perceptions of a presidency in chaos. The biggest bombshell came Thursday afternoon, when Trump announced that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis would leave the administration at the end of February, and Mattis’s resignation letter explicitly stated that he and the president were not […]
There is a lot of planning behind the Christmas window decorations you find around the French capital, and keeping it traditional matters.
The normalization of sexual harassment and inequality in the workplace is keeping women from going to work, and holding back the rise of India’s economy.
-Analysis- NEW YORK — What a difference two decades make. In 1997, China’s gross domestic product was about 11% of the U.S’s. By 2017, it was up to 63%. But this overstates the difference in living standards between the two countries, since prices are generally lower in China. In purchasing-power-parity terms, China’s economy became the world’s largest in about 2013. So which country’s economy is really bigger? The truth probably lies somewhere between these two figures. If China were to abolish its capital controls and open its currency to foreign speculation, there’s a good chance the yuan would rise in […]
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Do Anti-Xenophobia Campaigns Work?
At best, pro-migrant advocacy raises awareness. At worst, it reinforces tensions, new research shows.
Hellen lives with a mental health condition in Juba, South Sudan. She says she fell ill after the birth of her sixth child. With this powerful portrait, New-Zealand born photojournalist Robin Hammond won 2017 second prize singles at the prestigious World Press Photo, in the “People” category. In this OneShot, Hammond explains why he thinks this particular image of Hellen touched the jury. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/embed/AVt2t5GHlL0 expand=1] Praying for a Miracle (©Robin Hammond/NOOR) | OneShot OneShot is a new digital format to tell the story of a single photograph in an immersive one-minute video. Follow OneShot:
The EU remains a work in progress, especially with Britain’s messy exit efforts. But if there’s one constant, it’s that Europe still needs France and Germany to be partners.
Patric Fassbender and Marcus Stahl are struggling to keep up with demand for their ‘Toniebox’ devices, which are now set to break into the English-speaking market.
-Analysis- MUNICH — At first glance, the video footage looks like a harmless Advent promotional clip. It showed cheerful people walking between decorated stalls, tinsels, Christmas trees, Santa hats. But back in 2000, the Strasbourg Christmas Market was already a prime target for terrorists, and this video was the most important piece of evidence against […]
How VR can help patients suffering from eating disorders, phobias and schizophrenia.
WASHINGTON — My first encounter with China was, oddly, at the top of the Empire State Building. I was a young student, and climbing to the top of the Manhattan landmark was the last thing I did before returning home from my first visit to the U.S., where I now live. I was not particularly […]
Trump’s trade war with China could be a golden opportunity for India. But first, it’ll need to revisit its trade policies and regulatory framework.
Google tried and failed to play the social media game. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing for the tech giant, which is doing just fine by sharing the tech market with California rival Facebook.
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Watch: OneShot — Reza’s Breath Of Freedom
It is one of the most iconic images taken by Iranian-French photojournalist Reza. For nearly four decades, Reza has spanned the globe covering conflict and communities, stories of faith and visions of beauty. This image capturing the eternal spirit of the nomad along the plains of Turkmenistan is now available for purchase as a print in Reza’s ongoing end-of-the-year Flash Sale. Discover the story below of this passing moment in moving words and images via One Shot. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/embed/i3tb-XHfwnE expand=1] Breath Of Freedom (© Reza) | OneShot OneShot is a new digital format to tell the story of a single […]
Monopolistic companies may be near a tipping point where people (and governments) want them reigned in.
In the West, the era of grand, strategic pacts between nation-states seems to have come and gone. But in Asia, the trend may just be catching on.
BARCELONA — It’s a large, bright open space, in which 80 people work, sitting behind brand new desks. The grey of the carpet is still pristine, the walls too white, impersonal. Except for a large sticker, whose shape, known throughout the world, provides an indication of what’s going on precisely in this room: it’s a […]
The Rohingya people’s long history of forced displacement tells us of the dangers of repatriation from Bangladesh before their safety and rights can be guaranteed.
In the 1950s, El Morocco was the It-spot for New York’s who’s-who — and the perfect place for a young Garry Winogrand to hone his skills as a street photographer.
KATOWICE — As a member of Germany’s federal government, Gerd Müller knows what UN climate change conferences cost. The Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development spearheaded the organization of last year’s edition in Bonn. At that time, the COP23, which Germany hosted to help the financially troubled Fiji Islands, cost around 60 million euros. And […]
The ‘yellow vest’ uprising is about more than Macron’s ill-conceived fuel tax. It’s symptomatic of a system-wide failure that must be fixed before it’s too late.
NEW DELHI — In an article in The Atlantic, Patrick Collison and Michael Nielsen express their concerns about the perceived slowdown of scientific progress. With “more scientists, more funding for science, and more scientific papers published than ever before,” they ask whether the rising investment in scientific research is yielding proportionately rising dividends, or whether we are “investing vastly more merely to sustain (or even see a decline in) the rate of scientific progress?” Yet, as they concede, it’s unclear how to measure the rate of scientific progress. Much ink has been spilled on the misplaced reification of the Nobel […]
Strict integration protocols can have the opposite effect on asylum seekers, compounding their sense of otherness, a Syrian man now living in Austria argues.
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Why Dieselgate Was Really An IT Problem
If cars are supercomputers, why are we not programming them for fewer emissions and speed?
Ethical concerns about last week’s CRISPR breakthrough in China are valid. But they can evolve quickly.
The outgoing Mexican president consolidated Mexico’s macroeconomic foundations. His socialist successor, the wildly popular López Obrador, may turn out to be a bigger disappointment.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/embed/yUa3mH8ixmU expand=1] Solar Impulse Above San Francisco Bay — © Solar Impulse / Jean Renvillard / Rezo.ch | OneShot Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg set out and accomplished something that still seems impossible today: the First Round-The-World Solar Flight, powered only by the sun, with no fuel or polluting emissions. Solar Impulse wanted to […]
Europe’s aggressive migration policy has seen Italy dive into the obscure world of national shipping flags to sabotage rescue missions.
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Africa Awakens From Its China Naivety
The letter bearing the reference “MC/19/3” represents a novelty in Chinese-African relations. Kabineh Kallon, Sierra Leone’s Minister for Transport and Aviation, explains in sober tones that, after careful consideration, no new airport in the capital city of Freetown will be built. China had promised a loan and construction works worth $318 million. But Freetown already […]
PARIS — Human migration is the story of our times. Victims of conflict and climate change, pushed by poverty at home and pulled toward opportunity abroad, people on the move are both a catalyst and consequence of globalization. Yes, immigration is a polarizing political issue, but also a keen reminder of the shared circumstances that […]
WASHINGTON — I loved Amazon when it first appeared. It was the 1990s, and I was living in Italy and then China, two countries that are strongly monolingual with a scarce number of foreign-language bookstores. Rome for instance, with three and a half million inhabitants at the time, had a couple of English bookstores and […]
After being left behind in the Internet revolution, places like France, Malta and Switzerland are making a concerted effort to stay ahead of the crypto-asset curve.
MUMBAI — They say that human memory tends to shut out trauma. But the pain caused by the attack 10 years ago on Mumbai will always be difficult to forget. What happened on November 26, 2008 was an act of pure terrorism: Defenseless civilians sought out and gunned down over three days in the glare of national television. For this reason, the “26/11” incident has been a watershed in India’s attitudes towards terrorism. It hardened the country’s attitude towards terrorists and militants of all stripes. Further, it has made any kind of a dialogue process with Islamabad difficult, given how […]
While Mexico lurches left and Brazil shifts right, Argentina, under Mauricio Macri, will try to stay a centrist course — at least until next year’s presidential elections.
What if the world’s refugees could be organized into a loosely connected, transnational polity? Critics call it a pipe dream. But migration researcher Nicholas Van Hear says his ‘Refugia’ idea may be the best way out of current crisis.