News & Features

‘We Will Fight’: Iran Protests Following Death of Mahsa Amini Continue

France 24

Despite internet restrictions, protesters have adopted new tactics to get their message across."We are not afraid anymore. We will fight," said a large banner placed on an overpass of Tehran's Modares highway, according to online images verified by AFP. In other footage, a man is seen altering the wording of a large government billboard on the same highway from "The police are the servants of the people" to "The police are the murderers of the people.”

Will the New Far-Right Government of Italy Turn Its Back on Europe?

Benjamin Dodman

“Understandably, there is a lot of anxiety regarding Meloni’s stance on Europe. She can either continue to align with Orban or take a more institutional path once in power,” said Arturo Varvelli of the European Council on Foreign Relations. “EU leaders view Meloni with great suspicion because her rhetorical insistence on Italy’s national interest is at odds with the notion of European integration,” he said.

How the British Monarchy Became a Global Brand

John M.T. Balmer

At present, some 800 entities – from fishmongers to well-known products such as Heinz ketchup – have the right to mark their products with the Royal Arms and “By appointment to Her Majesty the Queen” (now His Majesty the King, of course), which implies a product is fit for a monarch. Other organizations are granted the use of the royal prefix such as the Royal Opera House in London.

Digital Rights Management and the Modern-Day Pirate

Garrett Hartman

Even though a person locally owns and has a piece of software downloaded and installed to their hard drive, that storage space is useless without an internet connection to verify it is legitimate. This greatly restricts the use of the media you allegedly “own.” Playing games or using software that use this sort of DRM protection is no longer possible on laptops in places without connection, such as airplanes.

Reflections on Sorrow and Happiness Past

Tara Taghizadeh

My father sits back trying to recall my first walk across the tightrope, the initial plunge, the consequent falls, however you want to mark the spot. Perhaps I was never steady, thrown off course long ago. My mother, refusing to allow my faith to disappear, repeats a story I have often heard: I was dying inside her and just when doctor, nurse, and family gave up, I didn’t. Instead, I chose to cry and scream and claim my place among my race. She smiles as she tells this as if to say, you have always defeated the worst.

Artificial Intelligence: The Robot Apocalypse Is Not Happening. Yet.

Angelo Franco

More so than simple awareness, sentience can be defined as the ability to feel feelings, to be moved and driven by those feelings and, importantly, to be aware of others and their feelings. It’s possible that LaMDA met that last criterion (it seemed to know that it was speaking to a specific Google engineer), but whether it’s able to feel emotions is contested, to say the least. LaMDA was only doing what it was taught to do, make calculations to put a sequence of words together to form a response. Besides, it’s not the only AI of its kind with these types of capabilities.

Confidence in the Supreme Court Is Declining – For a Valid Reason

Eve Ringsmith

It is also difficult to enforce this law with Supreme Court justices, since there is no higher judicial body in the country that can review the justices’ actions. Congress could pursue impeachment of a justice for violating this law. But, as is the case for other government officials, if the House of Representatives votes to impeach a justice, removal from office still requires a two-thirds Senate vote – a very tall order.

‘The Martha Mitchell Effect’ Shows a Lesser-Known Side of the Watergate Scandal

Ulises Duenas

During Nixon’s reelection bid in 1972, Martha Mitchell made multiple statements to the press about the underhanded tactics used by his reelection committee. She made waves because women in politics were discouraged from being outspoken, especially in front of the press. When the Watergate story broke, she wasn’t shy about criticizing Nixon and those close to him. The documentary does a good job of showing the viewer the kind of person Mitchell was. She was an animated character in the dry, boring world of humdrum politics. 

Gabby Giffords Is a Heroine in the Ongoing Effort to End Gun Violence

Ben Friedman

While West and Cohen’s documentary never discusses Highland Park, Uvalde, or any of the other 3,800 mass shootings, it is undoubtedly about them. Their anger is palpable, yet the documentary wisely chooses not to dedicate much of its runtime to the January 8 shooting, instead opting to focus on Giffords’ recovery, her family, and activism against gun violence.

Japan Mourns Slain Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

France 24

A steady stream of mourners visited the scene of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe's assassination in the western city of Nara on Saturday as a motorcade carrying the late leader's body arrived in the capital, Tokyo. Japan's longest-serving modern leader was shot while making a campaign speech on Friday morning by a 41-year-old man, in a deed decried by the political establishment as an attack on democracy itself.

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - News & Features