   
CEO Picks - The best that international journalism has to offer!
 S50'I never lost a fight against a man': the story of the only woman to join Japan's notorious yakuza   Nishimura Mako is a petite woman in her late fifties, with flowing hair and a delicate face. But you soon notice that she is no traditional Japanese lady – she is tattooed up to her neck and hands and her little finger is missing. These are signs of affiliation to the yakuza – Japan’s notorious criminal syndicates. The yakuza is dominated by men and leaves only informal roles to women. Typically a woman involved with the yakuza might be an anesan, a boss’ wife who takes care of young affiliates and mediates between them and her husband. Wives and partners of the members support the group in a peripheral way. Some get involved to the extent that they manage yakuza-owned clubs or deal drugs.
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S34Uganda's battle for the youth vote - how Museveni keeps Bobi Wine's reach in check  Uganda is one of the youngest countries in the world, with an average age of 15.9 years. Young people aged below 30 make up about 77% of the country’s population of 47 million people.Young people have legitimate and wide-ranging grievances, from unemployment to disenfranchisement. Opportunities remain limited, with two-thirds of Ugandans working for themselves or doing family-based agricultural work.
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S41Valley of lost cities found in the Amazon - technological advances in archaeology are only the beginning of discovery  A valley of lost cities has been discovered in the Ecuadorian Amazon. When you hear of such a discovery you might think of archaeologists with chisels and brushes or explorers in pith helmets stumbling across sites deep in the forest. Instead, without needing to brave the hazards of the forest, Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar) has revealed networks of buried roads and earthen mounds. The point of exploratory science is to reveal what has so far been hidden. Whether at the edge of the universe with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the bottom of the sea with Underwater Autonomous Vehicles (UAVs), or through the canopy of the densest forests with Lidar, we are discovering things that reshape our understanding of the world.
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S20Taylor Swift could be the push the VR industry needs  The unprecedented popularity of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour has inspired fans to spend thousands on tickets, while its cinematic debut broke box office records. Now, some experts in the virtual reality (VR) space are hopeful it will also inspire her fans – "Swifties" – to adopt the immersive technology platform.Along with stadiums and cinemas across the globe, The Eras Tour is also streaming on Amazon's Prime Video app. Soon after its release fans discovered that, like much of Prime Video's content library, they could stream the film in their own private virtual theatres through Prime Video's VR app on a Meta Quest.
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S61Fowl language: AI is learning to analyze chicken communications to help us understand what all the clucking's about  Have you ever wondered what chickens are talking about? Chickens are quite the communicators — their clucks, squawks and purrs are not just random sounds but a complex language system. These sounds are their way of interacting with the world and expressing joy, fear and social cues to one another. Like humans, the “language” of chickens varies with age, environment and surprisingly, domestication, giving us insights into their social structures and behaviours. Understanding these vocalizations can transform our approach to poultry farming, enhancing chicken welfare and quality of life.
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S27Your fingerprint is actually 3D - research into holograms could improve forensic fingerprint analysis  Partha Banerjee’s Holography and Metamaterials (HaM) Lab has used Digital Holography for many applications funded by DARPA, Air Force and Army. The current joint work on fingermarks is supported by a grant from the Criminal Investigations and Network Analysis (CINA) Center of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). When you use your fingerprint to unlock your smartphone, your phone is looking at a two-dimensional pattern to determine whether it’s the correct fingerprint before it unlocks for you. But the imprint your finger leaves on the surface of the button is actually a 3D structure called a fingermark.
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S40COVID barely gets a mention these days - here's why that's a dangerous situation  The United States experienced its second largest COVID wave of the pandemic in January 2024. For the year to December 2023, in England COVID rates peaked at around one in 24 people. During the same month, Singapore also experienced record COVID cases and a spike in hospitalisations. COVID, then, is still a major public health problem, accounting for 10,000 deaths in 50 countries and a 42% increase in hospitalisations during December 2023 alone.
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S56Yumna Kassab's impressionistic novel Politica considers moral dilemmas and harsh choices in a time of war  Politica is the fourth novel by Yumna Kassab, who has made a significant impact on the Australian literary scene since the publication of her debut novel The House of Youssef in 2019. Politica is written in Kassab’s now signature polyphonic style. A variety of abruptly introduced characters (“Um Kareem came here with tears in her eyes”) ponder their possibilities, drift in and out of relationships, and seek personal solace in the midst of a prolonged and violent conflict.
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S53Why inheritance tax should be reformed  Around 50 Conservative MPs called for inheritance tax to be abolished after the Telegraph launched a campaign urging the government to scrap the tax in summer 2023. The move has since been discussed as a potential “pre-election giveaway” in the government’s upcoming spring budget. Beyond the coming election, another longer term reason for recent discussion of this tax is the increase in the size of inheritances in recent decades. Inheritances are growing in absolute terms as the amount of wealth held by older people increases over time. Inheritances are also growing relative to lifetime employment income, so they are set to be increasingly important determinants of people’s overall economic outcomes.
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S55S19Punk Rock, the Peace Movement, and Open-Source AI: The Mozilla Foundation's Mark Surman - MIT Sloan Management Review  The winter 2024 issue features a special report on sustainability, and provides insights on developing leadership skills, recognizing and addressing caste discrimination, and engaging in strategic planning and execution.The winter 2024 issue features a special report on sustainability, and provides insights on developing leadership skills, recognizing and addressing caste discrimination, and engaging in strategic planning and execution.When Mark Surman produced a pro-peace public service announcement for his local TV station as a self-proclaimed “punk rock kid” in the 1980s, he wasn’t thinking about a future career evangelizing fair, equitable, and trustworthy technology access for everyone. But today, as president of the Mozilla Foundation, he is focused on exactly that.
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S62S35South Africa's ANC marks its 112th year with an eye on national elections, but its record is patchy and future uncertain  The speech President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered at the 112th birthday celebration of South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), on 13 January can be seen as the party’s opening election gambit: a stadium packed to capacity, the display of a united leadership, and an invocation of three decades of success, delivered by a leader firmly in control of his party.The annual January 8 statement, unsurprisingly, was a 30 year self-assessment and is self-congratulatory. It was silent on the many failings under ANC rule: sluggish economic growth; crime and lack of security; failure to deliver essential services and maintain public infrastructure.
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S51What happens to your liver when you quit alcohol  According to Greek mythology, Zeus punished Prometheus for giving fire to humans. He chained Prometheus up and set an eagle to feast on his liver. Each night, the liver grew back and each day, the eagle returned for his feast. In reality, can a liver really grow back? The liver is the largest internal organ in the human body. It is needed for hundreds of bodily processes, including breaking down toxins such as alcohol. As it is the first organ to “see” alcohol that has been drunk, it is not surprising that it is the most susceptible to alcohol’s effects. However, other organs, including the brain and heart, can also be damaged by long-term heavy alcohol use.
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S69S37An ancient system that could bring water to dry areas  Some of Africa’s dry areas face serious water shortages due to minimal rainfall. An ancient system of drawing water from aquifers, the “qanat system”, could help. Gaathier Mahed, an environmental scientist and expert on the management of groundwater, has studied the feasibility of these systems. He tells us more.There are bodies of water underground known as aquifers, some of which can be found at the tops of valleys or near mountains. A qanat system taps these aquifers and, using underground tunnels, moves the water, using gravity, over many kilometres. The tunnel then exits at a lower-lying area.
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S39Why South Korea is banning the sale of dog meat  The South Korean dog meat trade will officially end in 2027 after a bill was passed making the slaughter of dogs and the sale of dog meat for human consumption illegal in the country (though the consumption of dog meat will still be legal). People who violate this new law could be fined up to 30 million won (about £18,000) and be jailed for three years.The news has been embraced in South Korea as a long-awaited victory by many animal protection organisations. But it has also been received very negatively by pro-dog-meat associations, as the livelihoods of dog meat farmers and retailers will be directly affected by this legislation.
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S45Gaza war: how South Africa's genocide case against Israel is shaping up  Over the past few days, South Africa has made its case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, accusing the Israeli government of committing genocide with its 100-day assault on Gaza. With the death toll approaching 24,000 in the Palestinian territory, South Africa’s lawyers laid out the grounds on which they are accusing Israel of breaching the 1948 Genocide Convention, while Israel’s legal team have presented their counter- arguments.
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S60S47S48Transhumanism: billionaires want to use tech to enhance our abilities - the outcomes could change what it means to be human  Many prominent people in the tech industry have talked about the increasingconvergence between humans and machines in coming decades. For example, Elon Muskhas reportedly said he wants humans to merge with AI “toachieve a symbiosis with artificial intelligence”. His company Neuralink aims to facilitate this convergence so that humans won’t be “left behind” as technology advances in the future. While people with disabilities would be near-term recipients of these innovations, some believe technologies like this could be used to enhance abilities in everyone.
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S49For All Mankind's Happy Valley: why a Martian city could well extend below the surface  Apple TV+‘s alternate space race, For All Mankind, imagines what would have have happened if USSR cosmonauts, and not Nasa’s astronauts, had been the first to land on the Moon. Rather than the waning of interest in space that followed the Moon landings in our reality, over the four seasons of the show to date, the race has continued towards lunar and then Martian settlement. In the latest season, the finale of which aired on January 12 2024, initial colonisation efforts on Mars have developed to the point where an international alliance supports and maintains a single large colony. Dubbed “Happy Valley”, the Martian city features an array of interconnected modules.
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S63Wheat Pool 2.0: The time might be ripe for a revival of Prairie co-ops  When Bunge announced its intention to purchase Viterra — the Regina-based grain handling subsidiary of Swiss mining giant Glencore — in June 2023, it represented another milestone in the slow, but steady, erasure of Saskatchewan’s long history with the wheat pool co-operative.The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, the once-mighty agricultural co-operative that became Viterra, is remembered by its iconic, but decaying, grain elevators that still dot much of the province’s rural landscape.
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S22Emmys 2024: Why Reservation Dogs is the biggest snub of this year's awards season  For Native Americans like me who have rarely seen ourselves accurately represented in entertainment, the revolutionary TV show Reservation Dogs has been both life-affirming and life-changing. Premiering in 2021, this coming-of-age tale told the story of four teens trying to navigate modern life on an Oklahoma Indian reservation. It didn't hold back on its depictions of the many hardships that tribal communities face in the wake of colonialism, such as forced assimilation, inordinate violence, marked health disparities, and lower life expectancies. But at its core, it was the humanity of the simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking storylines that enraptured fans – although not, it seems, Emmy and Golden Globes voters. I admit that, as a super fan, I'm far from objective. But I still have enough clarity to call it like I see it: with no nominations for last weekend's Golden Globes and just one nomination, for sound editing, at the Emmys – the main ceremony of which takes place on Monday – Rez Dogs is undoubtedly the biggest snub of this year's awards season so far. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since the groundbreaking series by Indigenous creatives Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi has been regularly overlooked by the Television Academy (the organisation behind the Emmys) throughout its three-season run. (Though it should be noted that the show has received a Peabody Award and repeat AFI TV program of the year awards, among other accolades.)
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S32Miami residents believe Biscayne Bay is 'healthy,' despite big declines in water quality and biodiversity, new study finds  Residents of Miami-Dade County appreciate Biscayne Bay for its ecological, cultural, recreational and economic offerings, but they see the estuary as “moderately healthy” – despite a significant decline in water quality and habitat health in recent decades. That’s according to an online survey of more than 1,000 Miami-Dade residents I conducted in 2022 to understand how locals use, think about and value Biscayne Bay. The bay borders 35 miles of Miami’s coastline and is made up of diverse ecosystems, including mangroves, seagrass beds and coral reefs.
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S21VOV: Where the story of Italy's eggnog war began  Hit the slopes at Cortina, Val Gardena or Mottolino, and you'll quickly become familiar with one of Italy's most iconic winter cocktails: bombardino.Invented in 1972 by Aldo Del Bò, a ski lift manager in Livigno, bombardino mixes whiskey or brandy and hot zabaione, the Italian version of eggnog, finishing it off with a heap of piped whipped cream. It's the perfect drink to warm yourself after a day on the powder – a "small indulgence", in the words of one Italian writer, "with an invigorating power".
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S58S44US election 2024: Trump victory in Iowa caucus not as big as he may have hoped - here's why Biden still wants him to get GOP nomination  News headlines reporting Donald Trump’s victory in the Iowa caucus on January 15 give the impression of a much larger victory than should sensibly be drawn from this first expression of American electoral opinion in 2024. Iowa grabs attention because it’s the first of the 2024 election primaries, but the historical record also shows that it has only predicted the eventual winner on six out of 13 occasions since it took on this role in 1972. This is partly because Iowa, with just over 3 million inhabitants represents less than 1% of the wider US population. Its voters are also much older, more rural, whiter (90%), more evangelical and less college educated than the US at large. Although formerly a swing state Iowa has been solidly republican since 2016.
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S64S31S28S24Emmys 2024: Why people are baffled by The Bear's wins  In general, last night's Emmy Awards passed without too much controversy, with the gongs going to obviously deserving winners – critically-adored shows like Succession, The Bear, Beef and Abbott Elementary. More like this: – The Emmys' biggest snub – How The Bear sweater went viral – 10 TV series to watch in JanuaryBut were they recognised in the correct categories? That was the night's key point of contention when it came to The Bear, the hit FX show about the workings of a Chicago restaurant, which went home with six awards in the comedy categories, including best comedy series, lead actor in a comedy series (Jeremy Allen White), supporting actor in a comedy series (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and supporting actress in a comedy series (Ayo Edebiri).
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S29S52Marvel's Echo is a one-of-a-kind superhero - and an inspiration to the Deaf community  Marvel’s latest superhero series, Echo, is now streaming on Disney+. Deaf actress Alaqua Cox plays the eponymous superhero, a character she already portrayed in the Hawkeye series in 2021. Echo, real name Maya Lopez, who is Deaf, is a vengeful and bitter Native American hero with a distinctive fighting ability that allows her to copy her opponent’s moves.The uppercase “Deaf” refers to deaf people who share a language, identity and culture. It therefore describes Maya Lopez, as she uses ASL (American Sign Language) all the time and hardly speaks.
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S30What social robots can teach America's students  Some experts believe these robots could become “as common as paper, whiteboards and computer tablets” in schools. Because social robots have a body, humans react to them differently than we do to a computer screen. Studies have shown that little children sometimes accept social robots as peers. For example, in the handwriting study, a 5-year-old boy continued to send letters to the robot months after the interactions ended.
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S596 questions you should be ready to answer to smash that job interview  With the new year underway employers are beginning to resume normal business activities and restart their hiring process. Similarly, many school and university graduates are beginning their job search after a well-earned break.While some employers are using increasingly sophisticated approaches to recruiting such as psychometric testing and artificial intelligence, interviews remain one of the most common selection methods.
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S36S23Has Mean Girls lost its bite?  "This isn't your mother's Mean Girls," announces the trailer for the new musical-movie remake of the 2004 classic, which is currently topping the US box office. If "not your mother's Mean Girls" means it's a departure from the problematic jokes that were a hallmark of the noughties (and of Tina Fey, who wrote the original, the Broadway musical from which the new version is an adaptation of and this current iteration), then it certainly delivers on that promise for Gen Z.A quick, relatively spoiler-free rundown of some of the big changes: much of the cast are queer people of colour, including Damian (Jacquel Spivey) and Janis (Auli'i Cravalho), from whose perspective the story is told. Cady (Angourie Rice) has transferred from being homeschooled specifically in Kenya instead of the monolithic Africa (and Kevin G nicknames her "Water Bird" – in the original it is "Africa"), and the different social groups aren't categorised by race. Damian sings the I, Carly theme song in French instead of Christina Aguilera's Beautiful at the Christmas talent show.
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