Previews: The Economist Magazine – April 22, 2023

This week's cover | The Economist

The Economist – April 22, 2023 issue: This week’s worldwide cover considers the rapid progress being made by artificial intelligence (ai). The technology is arousing a mixture of fear and excitement. The key to regulating it is to balance its promise with an assessment of its risks—and to be ready to adapt.

Large, creative AI models will transform lives and labour markets

They bring enormous promise and peril. But how do they work?

Is the worst now over for America’s banks?

In order to assess the damage, we look at three financial institutions

In Sudan and beyond, the trend towards global peace has been reversed

Conflicts are growing longer. Blame complexity, criminality and climate change

The Arts: Insights Of The ‘Louvre Looks’ Film Series

The twelfth film was conceived by artist Bianca Bondi. In her video, she undertook to convey the sense of timelessness and existence beyond time that is the very fabric of the Louvre.

Musée du Louvre (April 20, 2023) – As part of its contemporary programs, the Louvre has invited twenty young creative figures to present their take on the museum in the form of a 3:30 min film.

The “Louvre Looks” initiative brings together creatives under forty – whether they come from the visual arts, poetry, film, experimental music, or fashion. They created new films in the palace itself and thus reconnect with the past of the Louvre – which hosted artist studios even before it became a museum.

These films go live every Thursday on YouTube. Over the course of twenty weeks, you will be given the opportunity to discover many fresh insights into the Louvre.

The tenth film was conceived by painter, performer, and musician Eliza Douglas. She assembled images released by visitors on their Instagram feed to give a polyphonic image of the museum’s lives through its audiences – your Louvre.

Travel: A Walking Tour Of Verona In Northern Italy

Tourister (April 20, 2023) – The historic city of Verona was founded in the 1st century B.C. It particularly flourished under the rule of the Scaliger family in the 13th and 14th centuries and as part of the Republic of Venice from the 15th to 18th centuries. Verona has preserved a remarkable number of monuments from antiquity, the medieval and Renaissance periods, and represents an outstanding example of a military stronghold.

News: Sudan Cease-Fires Failing, Brazil’s Lula ‘Pro-Russia’ Stance Angers West

The Globalist, April 20, 2023: The latest in Sudan, where thousands are fleeing intense fighting in Khartoum, Europe frets about the Brazilian president’s stance on Russia, and why trust in religion is floundering in Japan.

Plus: Ukraine’s finance minister on the country’s path to recovery, and the latest film news.

Front Page: The New York Times — April 20, 2023

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India Is Passing China in Population. Can Its Economy Ever Do the Same?

An auto rickshaw factory in Aurangabad, India, on Tuesday.
CREDITATUL LOKE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

India has a young, vast work force that is expanding as China’s ages and shrinks. But the country’s immense size also lays bare its enormous challenges.

Supreme Court Delays Decision on Abortion Pill, Preserving Access for Now

A federal judge in Texas recently declared that the F.D.A.’s approval of an abortion pill, mifepristone, was invalid.
CREDITANNA MONEYMAKER/GETTY IMAGES

The drug will remain widely available as the justices extended their deadline to Friday on whether to uphold the F.D.A.’s approval of the pill.

3 Nuclear Superpowers, Rather Than 2, Usher In a New Strategic Era

China is on track to massively expand its nuclear arsenal, just as Russia suspends the last major arms control treaty. It augurs a new world in which Beijing, Moscow and Washington will likely be atomic peers.

Sudan’s Generals Dined With Peace Negotiators, Then Started a War

What led the two generals, recently allies, to turn their forces on each other — devastating a country of 45 million people?

Travel Tour: The Island Of Marken, Netherlands (8K)

The Flying Dutchman (April 19, 2023) – The island of Marken has been inhabited since the thirteenth century. During this period, the island was owned by the Frisian monastery Mariëngaarde, who built dikes and a drainage system here. They also ensured that agriculture and livestock farming became possible here.

About a century later, the monks were expelled here by Count William the Fourth of Holland. After this, the island quickly impoverished, the islanders were forced to live on mounds to protect themselves against the water.

These mounds are known here as wharves, a number of these wharfs are still inhabited. The many floods made farming impossible and fishing became the island’s main source of income. This came to an end with the arrival of the Afsluitdijk.

Research Preview: Nature Magazine – April 20, 2023

Volume 616 Issue 7957, 20 April 2023

nature Magazine – April 20, 2023 issue: Although currently there is no known threat to Earth from asteroids, strategies to protect the planet from a collision are being explored. On 26 September 2022, NASA and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory successfully tested one such approach: the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft was deliberately crashed into Dimorphos, a moon orbiting the small asteroid Didymos, resulting in a change in the moon’s orbit.

Is Africa’s Great Green Wall project withering?

The plan to re-green a 7,000-kilometre swathe south of the Sahara is at risk of losing its pan-African vision and ambition.

A glacier’s catastrophic collapse is linked to global warming

Eleven hikers died after weeks of unusually warm weather led to melting of the Marmolada Glacier in the Alps.

Sunshine is transformed into green hydrogen on an ambitious scale

Prototype facility smashes record for converting solar power to hydrogen for its technology category.

Museums: A Tour Of The Humboldt Forum In Berlin

DW Travel (April 19, 2023) – Have you heard of Berlin’s newest tourist attraction? It’s the Humboldt Forum right in the heart of the German capital. With high-profile exhibitions around art and culture, it aims to be a place for discussion and exchange.

But the prestigious building in the reconstructed Berlin Palace has itself been the subject of controversy from the start. Not least because art from former colonies in Africa is on display. DW’s Hannah Hummel checks out the Humboldt Forum to see whether is worth a visit. We can tell you one thing in advance: The great view from the roof terrace is a must-see.

The Humboldt Forum is a museum dedicated to human history, art and culture, located in the Berlin Palace on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin. It is in honour of the Prussian scholars Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt.

Arts/Books: Times Literary Supplement – April 21, 2023

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Times Literary Supplement @TheTLS (April 21, 2023) – This week’s issue features @tylercowen on long- vs short-termism; @ecshowalter on Jonathan Rosen and Michael Laudor; @NickHoldstock on Wang Xiaobo; @BenBollig on Sergio Raimondi; @islomane on noise pollution – and more.

Travel Tour: Pula, On The Istrian Peninsula, Croatia

Massimo Nalli (Uploaded April 18, 2023) – Pula is situated at the southern tip of the Istrian peninsula in Croatia. The city is best known for its many surviving ancient Roman buildings, the most famous of which is its 1st-century amphitheatre, which is among the six largest surviving Roman arenas in the world, and locally known as the Arena.

Video timeline:00:00 – VIEW OF THE PULA FROM ABOVE – 00:13 – TWIN GATE AND CITYT WALLS – 00:55 – TRIUMPHAL ARC OF THE SERGI – 02:04 – FORUM SQUARE – 04:07 – TEMPLE OF AUGUSTUS – 05:03 – ST.FRANCIS CHURCH – 06:55 – CATHEDRAL – 09:55 – ADMIRALTY BUILDING – 11:31 – CASTLE – 13:37 – CHURCH OF ST.MARY FORMOSA – 14:46 – AMPHITHEATER

During the World War II Italian fascist administration, there were attempts to dismantle the arena and move it to mainland Italy, which were quickly abandoned due to the costs involved. Two other notable and well-preserved ancient Roman structures are the 1st-century AD triumphal arch, the Arch of the Sergii and the co-eval Temple of Augustus, built in the 1st century AD built on the forum during the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus.

The Twin Gates (Porta Gemina) is one of the few remaining gates after the city walls were pulled down at the beginning of the 19th century. It dates from the mid-2nd century, replacing an earlier gate. It consists of two arches, columns, a plain architrave, and a decorated frieze. Close by are a few remains of the old city wall.

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