Category: Analysis
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Bacteria attached to charcoal could help keep an infamous ‘forever chemical’ out of waterways
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – USA – By David Ramotowski, Ph.D. Candidate in Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Iowa Biochar, which can be made from corn, is a versatile material. Tom Fisk/pexels.com, CC BY Polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a class of fire-resistant industrial chemicals, were widely used in electrical transformers, oils, paints and…
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South Sudan is unstable: how a weak state benefits the ruling elite
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By Steven C. Roach, Professor of Internatiional Relations, University of South Florida Salva Kiir, the president of South Sudan, met with then US president Barack Obama at the White House in 2011 to discuss the future of the newly independent state. Officials seated at the table…
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Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy sentenced to five years in prison: Republic’s judiciary frees itself
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – France – By Vincent Sizaire, Maître de conférence associé, membre du centre de droit pénal et de criminologie, Université Paris Nanterre – Université Paris Lumières Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been found guilty of criminal conspiracy in a case related to the Libyan funding of his 2007 presidential…
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Trump’s dip into the Nile waters dispute didn’t settle the conflict – in fact, it may have caused more ripples
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Fred H. Lawson, Professor of Government Emeritus, Northeastern University Activists from the Ethiopian community march in protest of Donald Trump’s comments on Ethiopia and the Renaissance Dam on Oct. 29, 2020, in Washington. J. Countess/Getty Images President Donald Trump chided the United Nations on Sept.…
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Close relatives of emperor penguins lived in NZ some 3 million years ago. What caused their extinction?
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Daniel Thomas, Honorary Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Three million years ago, an extinct relative of todays’s great penguins – emperors and kings – lived in Aotearoa New Zealand. We know this because our new study describes a…
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The crisis of Indonesian policing: Guardians of the people or protectors of power?
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – Indonesia – By Perdian Tumanan, PhD Candidate in Ethics and Religion, Villanova School of Law The death of 21-year-old Indonesian online delivery driver Affan Kurniawan, who was crushed by a Barracuda police vehicle during a protest, invites comparisons to George Floyd. The African American was killed by a police…
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Mushrooms may have been part of early human diets: primate study explores who eats what and when
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By Alexander Piel, Asso. Professor in Anthropology, University College London, UCL Mushrooms may not be the first food that comes to mind when we imagine the diets of wild primates – or our early human ancestors. We tend to think of fruits and green leaves as…
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Friday essay: new revelations of the Murdoch empire’s underbelly – from The Hack’s real-life journalist
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Rodney Tiffen, Emeritus Professor, Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney David Tennant as Nick Davies in The Hack Stan This is the humblest day of my life, declared Rupert Murdoch to a parliamentary committee on July 19, 2011. This was at the…
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Civil society helps uphold democracy and provides built-in resistance to authoritarianism
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – USA – By Christopher Justin Einolf, Professor of Sociology, Northern Illinois University Alex Soros is the board chair of the Open Society Foundations, the philanthropy funded by his father, George Soros. AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta The New York Times reports that a senior Department of Justice official recently “instructed…
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AI systems can easily lie and deceive us – a fact researchers are painfully aware of
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Armin Alimardani, Senior Lecturer in Law and Emerging Technologies, Western Sydney University In the classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey, astronaut Dave Bowman asks the ship’s artificial intelligence, HAL 9000, to open the pod bay doors to let him back into the spaceship. HAL refuses:…