geopolitics
Can a war be won from the air? A group of renegade pilots in the 1930s thought so.
The Bomber Mafia nearly changed the world—and you’ve likely never heard of them.
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10 min
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A brief passage from a recent UN report describes what could be the first-known case of an autonomous weapon, powered by artificial intelligence, killing in the battlefield.
Too few babies — not overpopulation — is likely to be a major problem this century.
A new study calls the technique “location spoofing.”
The world’s 10 most affected countries are spending up to 59% of their GDP on the effects of violence.
Global inequality takes many forms, including who has lost the most children
People often divide the world into “us” and “them” then forget about everybody else.
“It’s not always about agreement, more often it’s about business.”
The public sphere should be open to conflict.
For some philosophers, hope is a second-rate way of relating to reality.
The independent news collective is teaching a new generation of journalists and citizens to spot the stories in plain sight.
For democracy to prosper in the long term, we need more people to reach higher levels of education.
By 2050, there may be more plastic than fish in the sea.
In May 2018, the city of Paris set an ambition to be carbon-neutral by 2050.
The debate over whether or not there is a place for political correctness in modern society is not always black and white.
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13 min
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The opening lines of Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox News lay bare the culture of denial in the US.
The UAE is the first Arab nation to send a spacecraft to the Red Planet.
Even tyrants and despots offer wisdom worth heeding.
7 scholars and legal experts dissect what you can and can’t say in America.
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22 min
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“Deepfakes” and “cheap fakes” are becoming strikingly convincing — even ones generated on freely available apps.
Most people believe you can win an argument with facts – but when “facts” are so often subject to doubt, are personal experiences trusted more?
Dr. Eric Lander is a pioneer in genomics. What role will he play in the new administration?
Debating is cognitively taxing but also important for the health of a democracy—provided it’s face-to-face.
The attack on the Capitol forces us to confront an existential question about privacy.
The AI constitution can mean the difference between war and peace—or total extinction.
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5 min
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A new survey shows who believes what and how it differs from what Americans believe as a whole.
Research from MIT’s School Effectiveness & Inequality Initiative found making college more affordable cut dropout rates and boosted degree attainment.
A deeper appreciation for science and less unnecessary spending could be in our future.
“The function of private media is to make money for the people who own the media. It is a business,” Sanders said.