All posts by Intellicurious

News, Views and Reviews for the Intellectually Curious

Travel: A Walking Tour Of Gimmelwald, Switzerland

The Traveler Films (June 20, 2023) – Gimmelwald is one of the few traffic-free villages in Switzerland where access by car is not possible due to a missing road connection. The  Schilthorn cable car stops here, where it is possible to board another cable car which runs to Mürren.

Farming and tourism are the main source of income today. Farmers raise hay on tiny plots of land to feed small herds of cows. In winter, farmers often work as well for the Schilthorn cable car by performing jobs like running ski lifts or ski-slope grooming.

News: France Shuns Euro ‘Sky Shield Initiative’, West Bank Raids, Hindi Film Ban

The Globalist Podcast, Tuesday, June 20, 2023: France challenges the ‘Sky Shield initiative’, a new German-led air-defence plan.

Plus: violence breaks out in the West Bank, the rise of Hindu nationalism in Nepal and the latest music news.

The New York Times – Tuesday, June 20, 2023

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Greek Coast Guard Under Scrutiny for Response to Migrant Mass Drowning

Survivors of the shipwreck last week board a bus in Greece. Possibly more than 700 men, women and children drowned, one of the country’s worst maritime disasters.

Contradictions in the Coast Guard’s account cast new doubts over how the Greeks handled one of the worst maritime disasters in the country’s history.

G.O.P. Targets Researchers Who Study Disinformation Ahead of 2024 Election

The House Judiciary Committee chairman, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, has accused organizations that research disinformation of censoring conservative speech online.

A legal campaign against universities and think tanks seeks to undermine the fight against false claims about elections, vaccines and other hot political topics.

Trump Real Estate Deal in Oman Underscores Ethics Concerns

Details of the former president’s agreement to work with a Saudi firm to develop a hotel and golf complex overlooking the Gulf of Oman highlight the ways his business and political roles intersect.

Blinken Meets Xi as China and the U.S. Try to Rein in Tensions

U.S. diplomats visited Beijing to try to ensure that competition “does not veer into conflict.” The talks pave the way for a possible Biden-Xi meeting.

Preview: Foreign Affairs Magazine- July/Aug 2023

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Foreign Affairs – July/August 2023 issue:

The Treacherous Path to a Better Russia

Ukraine’s Future and Putin’s Fate

There is good reason to be pessimistic about the prospects of Russia’s changing course under Putin. He has taken his country in a darker, more authoritarian direction, a turn intensified by the invasion of Ukraine.

China Is Ready for a World of Disorder

America Is Not

In March, at the end of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin stood at the door of the Kremlin to bid his friend farewell. Xi told his Russian counterpart, “Right now, there are changes—the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years—and we are the ones driving these changes together.” Putin, smiling, responded, “I agree.”

An Unwinnable War

Diego Mallo

Washington Needs an Endgame in Ukraine

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was a moment of clarity for the United States and its allies. An urgent mission was before them: to assist Ukraine as it countered Russian aggression and to punish Moscow for its transgressions. While the Western response was clear from the start, the objective—the endgame of this war—has been nebulous.

The Korea Model

Why an Armistice Offers the Best Hope for Peace in Ukraine

In the middle of August 1952, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai traveled nearly 4,000 miles to Moscow to meet with the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin… The two Communist powers were allies at the time, but it was not a partnership of equals: the Soviet Union was a superpower, and China depended on it for economic assistance and military equipment.

Preview: Foreign Policy Magazine – Summer 2023

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Foreign Policy Magazine – Summer 2023: Artificial intelligence is suddenly everywhere. It seems as though no conversation about jobs, education, health care, technology, or politics happens without an inevitable question about how AI could disrupt it all. 

AI Is Winning the AI Race

Success isn’t just staying ahead of China.

A textural drawn illustraiton shows a robotic AI arm stabbing a flag through a globe wireframe containing two wrestling human-shaped figures with U.S. and China colors on each for a story about global competition over artificial intelligence.

Reviews: The Rotterdam Wildlife Film Festival 2023

Wildlife Film Festival Rotterdam
Filmmaker: Rachel Scott (Groot-Brittannië, 42 min, 2023)
Filmmaker: Yann Sochaczewski (Duitsland, 50 min, 2023)
Filmmaker: Christian Baumeister & Moritz Mayerle (Duitsland, 50 min, 2022)

Filmmaker: Lars Ostenfeld (Denemarken, 90 min, 2022)

Opinion: U.S. & India Draw Closer, UK As An AI Power, Lula Can’t The Amazon

‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (June 12, 2023) – Three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, why India is indispensable to America, how to make Britain an AI superpower (10:35) and Lula’s unsustainable plans to save the Amazon (18:45).

Joe Biden and Narendra Modi are
drawing their countries closer

India does not love the West, but it is indispensable to America

India’s prime minister has been afforded the honour of a state visit by President Joe Biden. Mr Modi will be one of the few foreign leaders, along with Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela and Volodymyr Zelensky, to address a joint session of Congress more than once. 

How Britain can become an AI superpower

Rishi Sunak’s enthusiasm is welcome. But his plans for Britain fall short

Britain, says Mr Sunak, will harness ai and thus spur productivity, economic growth and more. As he told an audience in London this week, he sees the “extraordinary potential of ai to improve people’s lives”.

Lula’s ambitious plans to save the Amazon clash with reality

A Kayapo tribe member walks on a highway during a protest in Brazil.

The Brazilian president faces resistance from Congress, the state oil company and agribusiness

 “There should be no contradiction between economic growth and environmental protection,” he said. Yet Lula’s green agenda is suffering setbacks.

Croatia Travel: A Tour Of Split & Diocletian’s Palace

Massimo Nalli Films (June 19, 2023) – Split, Italian Spalato, seaport, resort, and chief city of Dalmatia, southern Croatia. It is situated on a peninsula in the Adriatic Sea with a deep, sheltered harbour on the south side.

Split

A major commercial and transportation centre, the city is best known for the ruins of the Palace of Diocletian (built 295–305 CE). Collectively with the historic royal residences, fortifications, and churches in the city, the palace was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979.

From 812 Split developed as a major Byzantine city. In 1105, after brief incursions by Venice (998) and Croatia (1069), the city acknowledged the nominal suzerainty of Hungary-Croatia and fought sporadically with its rival Trogir; from 1420 to 1797 it was held by Venice. The Austrians ruled from 1797 to 1918 with a brief French interregnum in 1808–13. Split became part of Yugoslavia in 1918 and of independent Croatia in 1992.

Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – June 26, 2023

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The New Yorker – June 19, 2023 issue: Edward Steed’s “A Loveliness of Ladybugs” – In his cover for the June 26, 2023, issue, Ed Steed heralds summer, depicting some colorful Coccinellidae—the scientific term for the family of small beetles colloquially known as the ladybug, a swarm of which is collectively called a loveliness. I talked to the artist about the joy of painting, an affection for the little things, and the luck of the ladybugs.

What Can We Do About Pandemic-Related Learning Loss?

Pages falling from a calendar onto a student working at a desk.

Remote school was devastating for many students. In Richmond, Virginia, a plan to switch to a year-round calendar brought promise and pushback.

By Alec MacGillis

News: Blinken Meets With Yi In Beijing, Heavy Losses In Ukraine, Miami’s Mayor

The Globalist Podcast, Monday, June 19, 2023: The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, visits Beijing in a bid to ease relations between the US and China.

Plus: the latest on the conflict in Ukraine, a roundup of the day’s papers and a profile of Miami’s mayor, Francis Suarez, who is now a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.