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Sectarian violence in Manipur is a mirror for Modi’s India
Speaking in Hindi, from the ramparts of Delhi’s monumental, 17th-century Red Fort, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ran through a laundry list of his government’s achievements over the last nine years. August 15 marked his 10th consecutive Independence Day address. If he gives an 11th, it will be as prime minister for a third five-year term. India goes to the polls next year, and Modi is widely anticipated to secure a return to power.
The Kremlin revises a textbook to dictate future understanding of Russian history
Russian high schoolers are heading back to school this fall with a new history textbook, revised by the Kremlin, that tells a story about Nazis running amok in Ukraine and the necessity of invading the country. It’s the kind of direct political interference in education not seen in Russia since...
Senegal is stifling its democracy in the dark
On July 31, after jailing opposition leader Ousmane Sonko and dissolving the political party that he leads, Senegal’s government ordered a nationwide mobile internet shutdown. The communications ministry said the shutdown was meant to curb “hateful messages.”. The authorities had made a similar decision in June after a...
Echoing its battles in Florida, Disney circles a Turkish maelstrom
Turkey’s broadcasting regulation agency announced last week that it was opening an investigation into Disney after the beleaguered company decided to pull a TV series about the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, from its streaming platform Disney+. The series was set to air on the 100th anniversary...
Apple caves to the Kremlin, for a minute
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, Silicon Valley companies responded with uncharacteristic speed and conviction. Meta, Google and Twitter (back when it was still Twitter and still had some principles) put out statements declaring their support for Ukraine and their intentions to go after Russian state propaganda on their platforms. Even Apple — with its sleek products that seem to always know what we need before we need it and its notoriously tight-lipped overlords — took a stand, suspending iPhone sales and Apple Pay.
Migrants take the US to court over its glitchy asylum app
It has been more than half a century since U.S. immigration laws were written to enshrine the right to apply for asylum at any port of entry to the country. But a new lawsuit argues that today, the right to seek safe haven from persecution is only accessible to people who show up at America’s doorstep with a working smartphone in hand.
You want to tackle the fentanyl crisis? Print smaller bills
There is an interesting case in Wales (where I’m from), in which a drug smuggling gang used the crypto exchange Coinbase to launder their profits. This provides further evidence for the commonly expressed concern about the role that cryptocurrencies play in helping criminals to hide their profits. “In an...
Musk joins the right-wing legal crusade against tech researchers
Another social media research organization is being sued this week, this time by the company formerly known as Twitter. On Monday, X filed a lawsuit against the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization that tracks violent and hateful speech on social media. X claims that the research organization violated its terms of use when it scraped data from the platform, among other allegations.
‘Sunscreen for the earth’ could curb climate change. It could also destroy us
When the Mount Pinatubo volcano erupted in the Philippines in 1991, it spewed a massive cloud of ash and sulfur into the air. The sulfate particles then scattered into the Earth’s stratosphere where, for the next two years, they reflected sunlight back into space. The particles cooled the planet by about 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit.
As Zimbabwe elections near, China is the dragon in the room
Hugged by long, dry grass and weary acacia thorn trees, the banks of the Mungezi River in southeastern Zimbabwe’s arid Bikita district appear to be an unlikely site for the geopolitical maneuverings of global superpowers. Across the water, shimmering in the heat, stand imposing steel and concrete structures —...
The AI apocalypse might begin with a cost-cutting healthcare algorithm
On Monday, patients in California filed a class action lawsuit against Cigna Healthcare, one of the largest health insurance providers in the U.S., for wrongfully denying their claims — and using an algorithm to do it. The algorithm, called PXDX, was automatically denying patients’ claims at an astonishing rate — the technology would spend an estimated 1.2 seconds “reviewing” each claim. During a two-month period in 2022, Cigna denied 300,000 pre-approved claims using this system. Of claim denials that were appealed by Cigna customers, roughly 80% were later overturned.
Inside New Mexico’s struggle to protect kids from abuse
Ivy Woodward can turn her emotions off like a water faucet. It served her well when she worked in child protective services in Hobbs, a small oil town in southeastern New Mexico. She looks at it this way: “If you give in to emotion, the job’s not going to get...
How the Kremlin rewards loyalty with beer and dairy
A friend of my cousin has a brick-sized bundle of pre-revolutionary Russian rubles, which he gets out and shows off occasionally. The story goes that the friend’s ancestor made a sizable business deal with a Russian aristocrat during World War I and got paid in cash. But then, well, one thing led to another, the monarchy fell, the aristocracy was scattered, the Bolsheviks came to power, and there were some significant alterations to Russia’s constitutional arrangements and economic policy. And those rubles have sat in the safe ever since, not worth the paper they were printed on.
Life on Earth, after humans
The Anthropocene refers to the idea that, particularly since the mid-20th century, humans have created a new geological epoch through our transformational impact on the Earth. Earlier this month, the Anthropocene Working Group, an international team of scientists, claimed they had found clear evidence of the beginning of the Anthropocene in a lake in Ontario, Canada. In the lake’s depths, sedimentary evidence was found of radioactive plutonium and hazardous fly ash from the burning of fossil fuels.
Why trans people can’t trust Tennessee with their data
Patients in Nashville receiving gender-affirming care from the Vanderbilt University Medical Center were told last month that their records had been turned over to the Tennessee Attorney General’s office. The request was made as part of an investigation into insurance fraud claims. The investigation comes at a time when...
Meta’s business model is crumbling in Europe
It has been 15 days since the launch of Threads and the media razzle dazzle about it has become impossible to avoid. Meta’s new Twitter-like service, which various outlets have casually termed a “Twitter killer,” racked up more than 30 million users by the end of its July 5 launch date, and topped 100 million by July 10. Whew! Zuck must be getting champagne flute emojis in record numbers.
A law intended to unite India splits the nation
Since May, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been on a triumphant world tour. In Sydney, as the Indian diaspora chanted Modi’s name in an indoor stadium, Anthony Albanese, the star-struck Australian prime minister, said even Bruce Springsteen had not received such a reception at the same venue. “Prime...
How NATO can help beat back corruption in Ukraine
Ever since the NATO summit took place in Vilnius last week, I’ve been trying to work out what to think about the Anglo-American suggestions that Ukrainians should show more “gratitude” for what Western countries are doing for them. There was the predictable social media cycle — hot take, response, annoyance, political capital taken, explanation, general confusion — but none of that helped me understand why the remarks intrigued me so much in the first place.
Lithuania goes after bots following spikes in pro-Russian propaganda
Big surges in international attention are unusual for LRT, the public media broadcaster in Lithuania. But last June, that changed suddenly when it began reporting on Lithuania’s decision to enforce EU sanctions on goods in transit to Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave that depends on trade routes through neighboring Lithuania for around 50% of its imports.
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