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In The News

High-Tech Lemons: Why New Cars Keep Breaking Down

Packed with more and more digitally-powered features, today’s vehicles are more advanced than ever, and more prone to failure. As recalls surge, experts warn that the race for innovation may be pushing quality control to the limit.

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Economy In The News

Dieselgate To “China Speed” — Gernot Döllner’s Radical Plans To Remake Audi

Sales are falling, rivals are surging, and China no longer craves the four rings. CEO Gernot Döllner is cutting bureaucracy, betting on speed, and trying to steer the brand through a maze of tariffs, scandals, and shifting markets.

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Economy In The News

Germany Is Stalled In Car Culture As China Pulls Ahead

As Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government doubles down on highways and combustion engines, critics warn that ignoring electric trends and digital innovation could cost Germany its place in the global auto industry.

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Economy Future Geopolitics Ideas In The News

Digital Apartheid? How Control Of AI Capacity Will Deepen The World’s Divides

A report from Oxford University lists the 32 countries – 16% of the world’s nations – with the infrastructure needed to develop artificial intelligence. The gap is widening with the rest of the world, in the key technological sector of the 21st century.

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Economy

The Economic Occupation Of Egypt: How Gulf States’ Petrodollars Control A Once Great Arab Nation

Egypt’s economic subjugation: A nation for sale.

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Economy Green

Tesla Sales Sink In Europe — And It’s Not Just A Backlash Against Elon Musk

Demand for the U.S. automaker’s vehicles is waning, with sales of new Tesla cars almost halving in Europe in January 2025. While this is partly due to its CEO Elon Musk’s cahooting with President Donald Trump, there are also other factors at play.

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Economy Green

Why We’re Falling Out Of Love With Tesla — And It’s Not Just About Elon Musk

The U.S. automaker is struggling with a severe drop in sales. This is, of course, partly due to its CEO Elon Musk’s cahooting with President Donald Trump. But there is something else going on.

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Economy Future

Duralex: How A Workers Cooperative Took Over An Iconic French Glassmaker

In Spain and beyond, Duralex plates and glasses have been part of the lives of different generations. So when workers of the French tempered glass manufacturer took over the emblematic company a few months ago, turning it into a cooperative to save it from bankruptcy, Spanish media took note.

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Economy Food / Travel

The Mysterious Threat To Norway’s Lucrative King Crab Industry

For the past two decades, Norway has developed an industrial and tourist sector around the king crab, a giant crustacean whose leg span can exceed two meters. But this boon for the economy of the great Norwegian north is now in more than a pinch.

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Economy

Why India Has Failed To Overtake China As The “New Factory Of The World”

Ten years after the launch of the Modi’s “Make in India” program, India’s industry problem has deepened — just like its dependence to China.

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Economy Food / Travel Society

Bernardaud: How One Family Is Keeping The Art Of Limoges Porcelain Alive

While most of its competitors, crushed by competition from Asia, have closed their doors, this family company founded in Limoges in 1863 has never been doing so well thanks to to collaborations with artists and starred chefs, as well as some unexpected uses.

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This Happened

This Happened — May 3: Margaret Thatcher’s Historic First Election

Updated May 3, 2024 at 9:15 a.m. Margaret Thatcher was elected prime minister of the United Kingdom on this day in 1979. She served as prime minister for 11 years, until her resignation in November 1990. What were Margaret Thatcher’s key policies as prime minister? As prime minister, Margaret Thatcher pursued a program of economic […]

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Economy Future Green special series

Amazon Greenwashing: How The U.S. Retail Giant Covers Its Carbon Footprint In Spain

An investigation reveals that the company does not own any of the three renewable power plants it claims to operate in Spain — as well as a scheme allowing Amazon to dodge full regulatory oversight of its projects.

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Economy Food / Travel

Hot Cuisine: How France’s La Cornue Cooking Range Has Become The Epitome Of Kitchen Elegance

From Brad Pitt to Céline Dion and Michelin-starred chefs, the high-end cooking ranges manufactured by La Cornue have seduced celebrities around the world. Despite despite its extra high prices, the French company’s sales have jumped 125% in the past five years.

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Society

Can LEGO-Loving “Kidults” Give A Dwindling Toy Industry The Boost It Needs?

The surge in toy sales sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic has tailed off, and the industry is now in a serious crisis. LEGO, Mattel and others see a potential lifeline in a new target: adults who play. The “escape into the inner child” could become a market worth billions.

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Economy

How Socialist Bolivia Is Trying To Cash In On Lithium, To The Benefit Of China

Bolivia believes lithium is the new “white gold,” for its role in fueling new technologies. Distrusting Western investments and technology, it’s counting on collaborations with Russia and China. But there will be problems at home that could block it all.

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Green

The Zimbabwean Town Drowning In Chinese Factory Waste Water

Fishermen bemoan dwindling catches as contamination by industrial waste and other pollutants raises concerns about the safety of food and drinking water.

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Economy Future

Inside Malaysia’s Intel Factory, A Global Hub Of The Microchip Market

As the importance of the global microchip economy continues to grow, companies like Intel may one day reign supreme over today’s corporate giants: Meta, Apple and Google. And, in a measure some are calling “reverse globalization,” production is beginning to move back into the Global North, including Poland. In a rare visit to Intel’s factories in Malaysia, Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza takes a look into what the future of its manufacturing will look like.

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Economy Russia-Ukraine War

How Russia’s War Economy Has Withstood The Onslaught Of Sanctions

The Russian economy has proven remarkably resilient to Western sanctions, a phenomenon largely driven by Russia’s expanding military-industrial complex and increased trade with India and China. One challenge remains unsolved however: a lack of young working-aged men ready for hire in the country’s industrial and white collar sectors.

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Economy Society

Gustave Eiffel: 100 Years Later, Still Defining ‘French Entrepreneur’

The memory of the famous engineer-entrepreneur who designed much more than Paris’ iconic Tower will be honored throughout 2023, on the occasion of the centenary of his death.

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Green Society

You, Me And 65 Million Chickens: Shifting To Sustainable Food Production, Without The Guilt

Industrial-style farming should certainly be reimagined, but not with a guilt-ridden assault on the livelihoods of millions of farmers, herders and fishermen.

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Economy Food / Travel

Twisting Open The Secrets Of Portugal’s Cork Empire

In the hands of the same family since 1870, the world’s largest producer of corks almost disappeared in the early 2000s. Today, this gem of Portuguese industry has not only reconquered its historic market, but has made cork the darling of many other sectors.

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Economy Russia-Ukraine War

Blitz Build: How Germany’s Rheinmetall Is Cranking Up 24/7 Production To Arm Ukraine

Marder infantry fighting vehicles, Leopard 2 tanks, thousands and thousands of rounds of ammunition: the armament company Rheinmetall is running flat-out, around-the-clock to supply Ukrainian forces. For the first time, Die Welt was granted access to the production floor at the Rheinmetall factory, which is churning out arms as quickly as it did during the depths of the Cold War.

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Food / Travel Geopolitics Society

Italy’s Right-Wing Government Turns Up The Heat On ‘Gastronationalism’

Rome has been strongly opposed to synthetic foods, insect-based flours and health warnings on alcohol, and aggressive lobbying by Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government against nutritional labeling has prompted accusations in Brussels of “gastronationalism.”

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Green Society

As Air Quality Worsens, Kampala Citizens Find It Difficult to Breathe

Kampala’s air quality is much worse than globally accepted standards, but several interventions are being instituted to avert its effects.

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Economy Russia-Ukraine War

How Western Sanctions Are Quietly Undermining Russia’s Fighting Power

Despite what the Kremlin claims, Western sanctions against Russia are working. Perhaps most important is the embargo on electronic component exports, which prevents the Russian army from rebuilding tanks and missiles severely depleted in the war.

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Geopolitics

What A Nuclear Deal Could Mean For Iran’s Broken Economy

Ordinary Iranians are hoping for a speck of economic relief and nothing more, if Tehran can sign a nuclear deal with world powers that could alleviate longstanding sanctions.

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In The News

Why Japan’s Auto Industry Can’t Keep Pace With The Electric Vehicle Revolution

The “Made in Japan” label used to be a mark of progress, but Japanese manufacturing has declined rapidly. Now, the automobile industry, the last bastion of the country’s technology, has fallen behind in the transition to electric vehicles.

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Green Or Gone special series

What’s That Smell? The Perfume Industry’s Upcycling Savoir Faire

The circular economy is a hot trend, being embraced by everything from fashion to home decor. But one industry has been upcycling for decades. And the benefits and potentials go far beyond the environment. Soon, your perfume might help you fight stress and even wrinkles.

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Economy Future

How Facebook’s Metaverse Could Undermine Europe’s Tech Industry

Mark Zuckerberg boasted that his U.S. tech giant will begin a hiring spree in Europe to build his massive “Metaverse.” Touted as an opportunity for Europe, the plans could poach precious tech talent from European tech companies.

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Economy Ideas Society

Grocery Shopping In Egypt: Local Ingredients Meet Global Trends

A new high-end food retailer, Gourmet, is helping reshape Egypt’s supermarket industry.

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In The News

What COVID-19 Means For Worldwide Push To Legalize Marijuana

New Zealand’s referendum last month to legalize recreational marijuana use was the first time a country put the controversial topic to a popular vote. Initial results point to a narrow defeat of the measure, which would still leave Uruguay and Canada as the only countries to fully legalize cannabis at a national level. Still, in […]

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In The News

A Disturbing Peek Inside Argentina’s Horse Meat Industry

A new documentary uncovers some disturbing truths about the unregulated networks that provide more than half of the horse meat that Europe consumes.

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In The News

Face Masks Around The World, Manufacturing And Moving On

There has been plenty of debate and questions surrounding the use of masks since the coronavirus pandemic started. Should we wear them or not? What type of mask works the best? Should countries make them compulsory? But even as a general scientific consensus has emerged that masks are one of the most effective tools at […]

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In The News

After COVID-19 Cut, Global Film Industry Looks To Bounce Back

No crisis has ever hit the entire film industry as badly as the coronavirus lockdown. With sets empty, movie premieres postponed, screenings canceled and box offices closed, the global film industry has been largely frozen in time — and revenue. Even as activity is gradually resuming, it will take time for the movie business to […]

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In The News

Coronavirus And The Problem With Cheap Sausages

Advertising has us convinced that cheap meat is something we can’t live without. But the meat industry is based on exploiting both people and animals.

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In The News

Airline Industry: Arrival Time For The Nightmare Scenario

Airline operators and manufacturers are taking one on the nose and scrambling to contain the fallout from a crisis that appeared out of the blue.

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In The News

Coronavirus, A Two-Way Street For India’s Economy

While there are significant supply chain concerns across sectors in the short-term, others see this as yet another distant opportunity to take some business away from China.

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Economy Future Ideas Society

Why The Digital Revolution Hasn’t Boosted Productivity

Information technology was supposed to make everything move faster. We need to rethink the way we use our digital tools to serve our real needs.

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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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