In The News

Inside Facebook’s Ambitious Plan to Connect the Whole World

Jessi Hempel March 2, 2016
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, views the internet as an essential service. He “believes peer-to-peer communications will be responsible for redistributing global power, making it possible for any individual to access and share information,” writes Jessi Hempel for Wired. “People could tap into government services, determine crop prices, get health care. A kid in India … could...

Growing Chorus of Experts Raising Ethical Questions About the Future of Robotics

Ian Munroe February 25, 2016
Japan, struggling with a labor shortage, leads in developing robotic technology. Robot development is underway in the defense, health care, transportation and other sectors, and as many as half of Japan’s workers could be replaced by robots by 2035, notes one research firm. “Japan remains one of the largest markets in the world for automated industrial machines, and the government is keen to stay...

Obama Visits a Mosque to Send Pointed Message to Non-Muslims

Roberta Rampton February 4, 2016
In his chapter on the "Tyranny of the Majority," Alexis de Tocqueville posed the question, "If it be admitted that a man possessing absolute power may misuse that power by wronging his adversaries, why should not a majority be liable to the same reproach?” Respect for minority rights, openness to the possibility that minorities might someday emerge as majority and will likewise...

Publish and Perish in Hong Kong

Frank Ching January 28, 2016
The odd disappearance of five staff members of a Hong Kong book publisher raises questions about China’s commitment to the “one country, two systems” arrangement with Hong Kong. One man was taken from Thailand, another from Hong Kong and three detained in China. Two are foreign nationals, and no charges have been filed. “By openly flouting its commitment to respect Hong Kong’s political system...

Abe and Blair: Political Apologies, East and West

Joji Sakurai January 26, 2016
Globalized communications ensure that national wrongdoings do not go forgotten. Official apologies for past wrongs are strategic affairs, crafted for public scrutiny. Journalist Joji Sakurai explores the cultural nuances of recent public apologies by Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s for sex slavery involving Korean women associated with World War II and by former British Prime Minister Tony...

Analysis: Iran Deals May Not Herald Rapid Changes

Adam Schreck January 18, 2016
The terms of a nuclear agreement with Iran are being implemented, followed by a prisoner exchange, planning for an order of Airbus planes, and release of frozen Iranian assets, but the Associated Press warns that rapid change is unlikely. “It will take time for the economic benefits to trickle down to ordinary Iranians, but the goodwill from the deal could translate into electoral gains for...

Al Jazeera America Will Shut Down Its Cable TV Network in April

Stephen Battaglio January 14, 2016
Al Jazeera America, launched in August 2013, will shut down in April. The channel, with a parent company owned by the Qatar government, was “squeezed by declining oil prices, a fiercely competitive TV landscape and a brand that American viewers never embraced,” writes Stephen Battaglio for the Los Angeles Times. He adds the channel “sought to distinguish itself by emphasizing a more serious...