Competition is fierce as no fewer than six self-service electric scooter startups vie for control of a Parisian market particularly cut out for the light mobility solution.
Category: Ideas
The Trump administration had more than America’s commercial deficit with Mexico in mind when it demanded an overhaul of the 25-year-old North American trade deal.
Family and friends waited for incarcerated Egyptian blogger Shady Abu Zeid to be able to arrive at his father’s funeral.
With the rise of social networking, fake news and changing psychologies, political parties have little use now for traditional campaigns.
From Venezuela to Brazil, Latin American armed forces are returning to front-line roles in response to political crises and fighting organized crime. But will they threaten democracy again?
PARIS — Twice a year (for the Academy Awards and the Super Bowl), I renounce my 6-hour beauty sleep and fight timezones to tune in to a bit of live transatlantic spectacle. Blame it on three reasons, ranked by order of importance: my americanophile wife; a chance to take the temperature of U.S. cultural hegemony; […]
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 […]
From Spain’s Podemos to Noam Chomsky, many left-wingers around the world are too blinded by ideology to see the Venezuelan crisis for what it really is.
From Madrid to Cork to Shanghai, some of the most revered old bookshops are closing doors as they face pressure from big chains and e-readers. But our bookworm writer found some small signs of hope.
The United States is meddling in the region again in line with big-money interests and the imperialist tradition set off in the late 19th century.
The digital behemoths Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon have long sold dreamy ideals. In reality, their business models are very conventional. Their extraordinary power is founded solely on their digital leverage.
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.
-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 […]
-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 […]
Last week’s bomb attack in Bogota is symptomatic of the state’s continued inability to monopolize the use of force.
-Analysis- Two years ago Chinese President Xi Jinping — in the wake of the twin election victories of Brexit and Donald Trump — arrived at the Davos World Economic Forum as the would-be savior of international free trade. “We should adapt to and guide globalization, cushion its negative impact, and deliver its benefits to all […]
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 […]
-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. […]
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.
-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 […]
It’s high-time for an economic model that curbs waste while boosting productivity. But don’t expect market forces alone to bring about the necessary shift.
Categories
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 […]
-Analysis- BOGOTÁ — The Lima Group, a multilateral body of 14 American countries focused on resolving the institutional and democratic standoff in Venezuela, has declared Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s new term in office illegitimate, taking the firmest position so far on his conduct as ruler of Venezuela. But the group needs the support of more […]
-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, […]
Voice messages are unilateral and time-consuming: this is bad communication innovation.
-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 […]
NAPLES — It was the last game of 2018, and I was looking forward to it. I had planned to go with my brother, a staunch Napoli fan, my soccer-loving Argentine husband and a bunch of old friends. It was also a symbolic gesture: I am back in Italy after almost two decades living abroad, […]
Categories
Europe, The Naive Power
Standing alone against the United States and China, Europe must wake up in 2019. And come together.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Jan. 2 speech addressing “reunification” with Taiwan has done what no political leader on the island nation has managed recently: set off a wave of unity among the Taiwanese people. Xi had apparently seen an opportunity to exploit November’s huge setbacks for the pro-independence governing party in Taiwan’s local elections. The […]
And why he’ll never be the savior they’re looking for…
Beauty and happiness may be in the eye of the beholder. But they’re also fundamental components of a healthy society, writes Colombian novelist William Ospina.
Published 300 years ago, Daniel Defoe’s classic story of shipwreck and survival still has much to teach us about human nature and the environment.
LE MONDE Monstrous Times Call For Monstrous Fiction: A French Manifesto Against the omnipotence of “reality-show novels’ and costume fiction, a group of young French authors want to reassert the novel as a contemporary art. SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG The Real Invisible Threat To Democracy: Poverty Even in economically powerful Germany, poverty threatens the social fabric. And […]
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 celebration of Christ’s birth was always a little bit pagan for its associations with the Roman imperial religion. But the modern West has turned into a pure carnival of pleasures.
-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 […]
-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.