Category Archives: Analysis

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.

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.

Green Energy: Potential & Economics Of Hydrogen

Financial Times (June 13, 2023) – In this film, the FT’s Simon Mundy explores how hydrogen – the lightest, most abundant element in the universe – could play a crucial role in the global push for net zero carbon emissions.

Video timeline: 00:00 What is Hydrogen 00:50 Green Hydrogen 02:50 Current uses of hydrogen 04:10 The concerns 05:00 The Hydrogen rainbow 05:51 Emerald Hydrogen 07.35 The investors 10:50 The policymakers 13:40 Green steel 17:35 Cleaning up aviation 22:15 The hydrogen economy of the future

From southern Spain to Swedish Lapland, we meet those at the forefront of this fast-growing space – all seeking a share of the billions to be made in the emerging hydrogen economy.

#hydrogen #greenhydrogen #EmeraldHydrogen #steel #hydrogeneconomy #zerocarbon #emission

Opinion: Ukraine Strikes Back, Apple’s Vision Pro, The Global Cities Index

‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (June 12, 2023) A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist – Ukraine strikes back, why Apple’s new Vision Pro gadget matters (9:00) and the results of our new global cities index (13:35).

Ukraine strikes back

The counter-offensive is getting under way. The next few weeks will be critical

Trailed ten days early with a blood-stirring video in which Ukrainian troops asked God to bless their “sacred revenge”, Ukraine’s counter-offensive is under way. For weeks its armed forces have conducted probing and shaping operations along the 1,000km front line, looking for weaknesses and confusing the Russians.

Apple’s Vision Pro is an incredible machine. Now to find out what it is for

The Apple Vision Pro headset in a showroom on the Apple campus in Cupertino, California.

The meaning of “spatial computing”

Apple’s message is clear: after desktop and mobile computing, the next big tech era will be spatial computing—also known as augmented reality—in which computer graphics are overlaid on the world around the user.

Amoral cities are flourishing in a turbulent geopolitical era

Visitors at Jewel Changi Airport mall in Singapore

Our index ranks economic performance over the past three years

 In order to assess which are thriving in this new era, The Economist has compiled a rough-and-ready index. It scrutinises a sample of ten locations, looking at changes in four measures—population, economic growth, office vacancies and house prices—over the past three years.

Tech Products: Noise-Cancelling Headphones

Wall Street Journal (June 10, 2023) – Noise canceling is a hallmark feature of top headphones across brands, from Apple and Beats to Sony and Bose. Behind the simplicity of the technology from a user perspective, though, is cutting-edge hardware running sophisticated algorithms.

Video timeline: 0:00 A sound wave and its inverse 0:32 Destructive interference 1:30 Noise-canceling headphones’ origins 3:17 What background noise to remove 4:46 Transparency modes or aware modes

What kind of audio processing is necessary to eliminate background noise when listening to music or watching a movie? WSJ dives into how noise canceling works, how the technology has changed and where things are headed.

#NoiseCanceling #Headphones #WSJ

Business Analysis: Electric Vehicle Conversions Rise

CNBC (June 10, 2023) – Interest in electric vehicles is at an all time high, with sales of new EVs up 55 percent in 2022 compared to the year prior. But there are still a lot of gas cars on the road today and there will be for a long time. EV conversions are becoming a bigger trend that could help.

Chapters: 00:00 — Introduction 02:40 — EV conversions 04:12 — Conversion shops 06:45 — DIY community 11:16 — Challenges

Both the shops and aftermarket community are growing substantially to meet the new demand. CNBC explores what it takes to convert a gas-powered car to an electric vehicle and whether it could go mainstream.

Tech: Inside Samsung’s Growing Chip Business

CNBC (June 8, 2023) – Samsung may be known for android phones, TVs and appliances, but it’s also been the undisputed leader in memory for more than three decades. Now, as memory prices continue to fall, it’s doubling down on manufacturing chips for outside customers, with a $17 billion new chip fab in Texas and new $228 billion cluster in South Korea.

Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 02:31 — From fish to microchips 06:10 — Making more chips in the U.S. 11:17 — Concerns and controversy 14:40 — Ambitious road map ahead

CNBC got a rare look inside Samsung’s chip business to bring you the untold story of how it became the world’s second biggest advanced chipmaker, just as it makes plans to catch the industry leader TSMC.

Reviews: How Global Lake Water Levels Are Falling

SCIENCE MAGAZINE VIDEOS – JUNE 6, 2023: Some of the most notable lakes in the world, from the Great Salt Lake to Poyang Lake, have shrunk dramatically in recent decades. But because most lakes lack long-term, on-the-ground measurements, it was hard to say whether this was a widespread phenomenon.

Now, researchers have published a first-of-its-kind data set to look at how lake water storage has changed in nearly 2000 of the world’s largest lakes. They find significant global losses and tease out what might be driving these decreases.

Opinion: Global Fertility’s Crash, Scotland Populism Unravels, Bad Bunny Rises

‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (June 5, 2023) A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, the economic consequences of the global collapse in fertility, Scotland’s holiday from reality (10:10) and the business of the rapper, Bad Bunny (18:10). 

Global fertility has collapsed, with profound economic consequences

What might change the world’s dire demographic trajectory?

Even as artificial intelligence (ai) leads to surging optimism in some quarters, the baby bust hangs over the future of the world economy.

Scotland has been on a ten-year holiday from reality

Populism can unravel quickly. But its effects are long-lasting

Scotland was the first part of Britain to get high on populist referendums. In 2014, two years before the Brexit vote, the Scottish independence campaign exhorted people to ignore the experts and revel in a glorious national renewal.

Bad Bunny, a superstar rapper, is good business

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - SEPTEMBER 04: Bad Bunny attends Made In America Festival on September 04, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Shareif Ziyadat/WireImage)

On Spotify and Netflix Spanish seems to be taking over the world

In November Spotify crowned Bad Bunny, a rapper from Puerto Rico, its most-streamed artist for the third year in a row.

Views: Ukraine’s Zelensky On The Counteroffensive

Wall Street Journal (June 3, 2023) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with Wall Street Journal editor in chief Emma Tucker in Odesa ahead of his meeting with European leaders to press for membership in NATO and as the world waits for Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia.

Video timeline: 0:00 Ukraine’s counteroffensive 0:50 Ukraine’s long-term security and Western allies 2:23 U.S. election’s effect on Ukraine 4:03 Ukrainian weapons 5:44 NATO and Ukraine 7:05 Zelensky’s thoughts on China 7:38 How Zelensky is personally dealing with the war

#Ukraine#Zelensky#WSJ