In The News

Kangaroos Killed for Pet Food Exports: DW

Georgina Kenyon December 23, 2019
The kangaroo is an iconic symbol of Australia, and the government issues licenses to hunters to cull herds and sell meat. The annual hunts divide Australia. Greg Keightley volunteered for a wildlife NGO and documented some hunts. The government and meat companies urge shooters to fire at animals’ heads, but kangaroos are not easy targets. Some hunters wound kangaroos, cutting off their legs to...

Lebanon and Syria Sinking in Debt: The Economist

December 23, 2019
Effects of Lebanon’s recent political and economic crisis, stemming from a drop in remittances and bank deposits, have spilled over into Syria. The two nation’s economies have been intertwined for some time. Following the Lebanese civil war (1975-90), Syrian workers helped rebuild the war-torn country. Lebanese banks were once “a safe place for wealthy Syrians to park their cash [and] since the...

Gulf States Reconsider Feud With Qatar: The Economist

December 23, 2019
Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates’ recent decision to take part in the Gulf Cup in Doha has signaled a cooling of tensions since the 2017 rift over an embargo of Qatar by the majority of members in the Gulf Co-operation Council, or GCC. The embargo stemmed from Qatar’s refusal to “comply with a list of demands from the Saudi-led camp, such as cutting ties with Islamist groups and...

The Pursuit of Authenticity: Yale Insights

Áine Doris December 23, 2019
Consumers value authentic products and foods, but definitions of “authentic” can vary widely. Anyone in marketing must understand what authenticity means for their particular products and customers. Balázs Kovács, who researchers organizational behavior at Yale’s School of Management, studied what authenticity’s means among ordinary people and found big differences when the word is applied to...

Clash of Killer Robots? Japan Times

Daisuke Akimoto December 22, 2019
Development of robots, artificial intelligence and autonomous machines outpaces regulations and leads to human rights concerns. “Although no ‘fully autonomous’ weapon exists at this stage, several countries, such as the United States, Russia, China, South Korea, and Israel, are thought to have developed ‘semi-autonomous’ weapons equipped with artificial intelligence,” explains Daisuke Akimoto for...

Life Under the Algorithm: New Republic

Gabriel Winant December 21, 2019
Productivity fuels economic growth and wealth, and management increasingly relies on technologies to motivate workers to achieve greater speed. Yet wages do not grow at the same pace, and top company officers and investors collect most of the gains. “The decline of unions, the rise of inequality, the crisis of liberal democracy, and the changing face of American culture all, in one form or...

World Averts Gaze From Impeachment: USA Today

Kim Hjelmgaard December 20, 2019
The House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump on two articles, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Only one Republican congressional representative has criticized Trump’s behavior and he left the party. Otherwise, all Republicans in the House opposed impeachment. Removing the president requires 67 votes in a Senate. The Republican majority probably will not convict Trump. Hence,...