The Globalist, May 4, 2023: Lynne O’Donnell reports from Goa as the foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation nations meet. Plus: Drone strikes Kremlin and anti-mafia raids across Europe, a flick through today\’s papers and the latest theatre news.
All posts by Intellicurious
Front Page: The New York Times- Thursday May 4, 2023
Fed Makes 10th Rate Increase and Opens Door to Pause
The Fed raised rates by a quarter point, bringing them above 5 percent for the first time in more than 15 years.
Moscow Claims Explosions Above the Kremlin Were an Attempt to Kill Putin
Russia said Ukraine had launched a drone attack, which Kyiv vehemently denied, accusing Russia of manufacturing a pretext for escalation.
Companies Flock to Biden’s Climate Tax Breaks, Driving Up Cost
A law to boost clean energy appears to be more potent than predicted, with big implications for both budget talks and efforts to fight climate change.
The ‘Peace Dividend’ Is Over in Europe. Now Come the Hard Tradeoffs.
Defending against an unpredictable Russia in years to come will mean bumping up against a strained social safety net and ambitious climate transition plans.
Research Preview: Nature Magazine – May 4, 2023
Is the world ready for ChatGPT therapists?
The current landscape of mobile mental-health apps is the result of a 70-year search to automate therapy. Now, advanced AIs pose fresh ethical questions.
Since 2015, Koko, a mobile mental-health app, has tried to provide crowdsourced support for people in need. Text the app to say that you’re feeling guilty about a work issue, and an empathetic response will come through in a few minutes — clumsy perhaps, but unmistakably human — to suggest some positive coping strategies.
Fish on dry land hint at why we blink
Insights from mudskippers suggest that blinking is an adaptation to emerging from the sea.
Travel Tours: The Top Ten Places To Visit In Tanzania
Special thanks to Safari Goats for being our guide and showing us around Tanzania – https://safarigoats.com/
Hong Kong Art Exhibits: ‘Zhang Xiaogang – Lost’
Zhang Xiaogang: Lost
Mar 21 – May 18, 2023
The artist has been refining his expressive depictions of light for some 30 years, since the 1980s and 1990s. As such, light has become a key subject in its own right in Zhang’s practice.
Zhang Xiaogang, Light No. 9, 2022
Zhang Xiaogang is a contemporary Chinese symbolist and surrealist painter. Paintings in his Bloodline series are predominantly monochromatic, stylized portraits of Chinese people, usually with large, dark-pupiled eyes, posed in a stiff manner deliberately reminiscent of family portraits from the 1950s and 1960s.
Travel In Peru: A Tour Of Cusco And Machu Picchu
From Cusco the journey continues to the world-famous ruined city of Machu Picchu, just 100 kilometers away. City guide Saul Palma, a Cusco local, shows us Cusco and Machu Picchu, both of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Art: Vincent Became “Van Gogh” With ‘Jardin Devant le Mas Debray’ In 1887
It was during this period of time, from 1887 to 1890, that Van Gogh’s greatest masterpieces were created, forever changing in the history of modern art. Surrounded by artists, dancers, musicians, actors and writers in Montmartre, Van Gogh abandoned the dark palette that dominated many of his early paintings in Holland and replaced it with a newfound love of color.
Politics: The Guardian Weekly – May 5, 2023
The Guardian Weekly (May 5, 2023) – The awkward inheritance of Charles III. Plus: Ukraine readies for the counter-offensive…
Seventy years have passed since Britain last held a royal coronation. But, with polls suggesting public support for the monarchy is at a historic low, Charles’s big day this weekend comes at a moment when Britain feels more generationally divided than ever.
At 74, Charles is the oldest person ever to be crowned as a new British king. Opinion polls suggest 78% of the nation’s over-65s still strongly support the monarchy. But, in the 18-24 age bracket, enthusiasm dips to just 32%.
As Jonathan Freedland argues in an essay for our cover story this week, the new king faces an uphill challenge to establish his own legacy in the shadow of his mother, Elizabeth II, “who, even the staunchest republicans had to admit, barely put a foot wrong over seven decades”. Can he really offer a compelling vision to reunite the realm, and should he even try? It may be that his best hope is simply to lay the foundations for the next generation.
A calm before the storm has been felt in Ukraine ahead of a widely expected counter-offensive on the frontline with Russia. Emma Graham-Harrison and Artem Mazhulin report on a critical moment looming for the country and the war.
Wilderness: Time Travel In Britain’s Lost Rainforests
Aeon Video (May 2, 2023) – With a deep view of time, a regenerative forester extracts resources to cultivate growth in an ancient English rainforest.
Living and working in the woodlands of the Teign valley in Devon, England, the regenerative forester John Williamson has cultivated a deep connection to and unique understanding of this rare patch of English rainforest. This includes knowing that a healthy ecosystem means an eclectic variety of landscapes rather than perfect tree cover; that no parcel of land in Great Britain has gone untouched by humans; and that, while storms can mean devastation for people, for woodlands they’re simply another phase in an ancient cycle.
In this short documentary, Williamson explains how, through viewing these woodlands in terms of the deep past, present and future, he’s developed a sustainable method of extracting wood and creating charcoal that actually encourages biodiversity.
Director: Hugh Hartford
Producer: Anson Hartford
Executive Producer: Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee
Banyak Films: banyak.co.uk/
Middle East Ecosystems: Can The Dead Sea Be Saved?
The drying up of the Dead Sea is causing widespread damage, from huge sinkholes to abandoned beaches and collapsed roads. This is not an act of nature. It is the result of overconsumption and poor water management. If something is not done soon, very little of the Dead Sea will remain. In a region marked by ongoing conflict, natural resources are being depleted. To save the Dead Sea, surrounding countries must work together.
Three individuals — a Jordanian, an Israeli and a Palestinian — feel they can’t just sit idly by. They decide to draw the world’s attention to the problem with a heroic act. In an unprecedented and extremely dangerous undertaking, the three decide to swim across the Dead Sea, from Jordan to Israel, to highlight the plight of the dying waters.
