Li Yuan, As Huawei Loses Google, the U.S.-China Tech Cold War Gets Its Iron Curtain(The New York Times, May 21, 2019)
This article explains in quite some detail how the US administration’s tough approach vis-à-vis Huawei threatens to speed up the development of two technology worlds. China and the US have begun a technological cold war, in which the Huawei order can be seen as the beginnings of a digital Iron Curtain. China will continue to keep out much of the tech world, while the US (and many other countries) will, in turn, block Chinese technology. This will further isolate one-fifth of all internet users (reads in 7-8 min).
Please click here to read the article.Ana Paula Aguiar, Odirilwe Selomane and Pernilla Malmer, How to Live Better and Stop Destroying the Planet
(Project Syndicate, May 24, 2019)
The three researchers from the Stockholm Resilience Centre explain that if we want to reverse the destruction we are inflicting on the natural world, we need to undertake four major transformations: (1) adopt a new economic paradigm, (2) transform our food system, (3) treat the world’s oceans far better, and (4) think carefully about the best ways to tackle climate change. These changes are inevitable and their business/investment implications dramatic (reads in 6-7 min).
Please click here to read the article.Darren Loucaides, Building the Brexit party: how Nigel Farage copied Italy’s digital populists(The Guardian, May 21, 2019)
This is a must-read to understand how the far-right, anti-EU, Brexit party in the UK is leveraging digital tools for electoral wins. It recounts how Nigel Farage forged an alliance with the Italian Five Star Movement, using social media and the internet to create a new model for political communications. This has led to the emergence of a new form of populism, in which demagogues use digital tools to direct mass movements (a long read – around 20 min – but worth it to understand why representative democracy is in such trouble).
Please click here to read the article.James Hamblin, You Can’t ‘Starve’ Cancer, but You Might Help Treat It With Food(The Atlantic, May 20, 2019)
Increasingly, doctors recognize that altered metabolism in cancer results from a complex interaction of environment and genes, with one of the major factors at play being nutrition. New research is investigating how what we eat affects how cancers grow—and whether there are ways to potentially “starve” cancer cells without leaving a person undernourished, or even hungry. The bottom line is: there is no single “cancer diet” (reads in 6-7 min).
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