India’s youth are confident that they’re ready take on the automation trend. According to a new survey of more than 1,000 young professionals, most millennials…
“Mission-driven” leaders are losing their mystique
This week, business leaders convened in Philadelphia for the annual Conscious Capitalism conference, built around the idea that it’s possible to serve shareholders and do…
The internet shutdown in English-speaking parts of Cameroon is finally over
After a 93-day blackout, internet service has been restored to English-speaking regions in Cameroon. President Paul Biya ordered the restoration of internet services in the…
Marvel has tapped its weirdest, quirkiest directors for a superhero film yet
Marvel found its directors for its first female-driven superhero movie, Captain Marvel. After meeting with several prospects, many of them women, the Disney-owned studio reportedly…
Scientists are getting close to reversing age-related memory loss with young blood
Blood from umbilical cords may be medicine’s fountain of youth—at least for mice. The blood from the cord that connects fetuses to their mothers during…
Does Russia need Twitter more than Twitter needs Russia?
In 2015, Russia began requiring internet companies to store Russian users’ personal data inside Russia itself—or else be blocked. The measure, part of a broad…
Marijuana is a sacred plant with holy powers in this Abrahamic faith that celebrates 4/21—not 4/20
Rastafarianism is a religion, an idea, a sociopolitical movement, and an international pop culture phenomenon. For adherents, it’s a black-power Abrahamic faith with a reverence…
Is the US suffering a dangerous steel shortage? Donald Trump wants to know!
The White House has called for an investigation into whether the US is in peril due to an over-dependence on foreign steel. The move could…
More and more fossil fuel companies support a carbon tax—here’s a running list
“Climate change is no longer a matter of science,” a coal company executive recently told me. “It is a political and social reality.” Even though…
Marijuana businesses pay super high taxes to the US government
Legal pot businesses are still something of an oxymoron in the US. They exist, and are authorized in states where marijuana has been legalized medicinally…
Venture capitalists have found another trillion dollar market to upend: shipping
Software may be eating the world, but some industries have been off the menu. Now, international shipping’s time has come. The UN estimates at least…
High school students in the Dominican Republic are the most satisfied in the world
Fifteen-year-old students in the Dominican Republic are more likely to say that they’re very satisfied with their lives than in any other country. This finding…
Forget the far right. Investors now fear France will elect a radical socialist
For a long time, investors have considered the biggest risk to the status quo in France’s presidential election to be far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.…
Chinese parents are using Peppa Pig to prepare their toddlers for the Ivy League
Eddie Liu, a 47-year-old engineer in the southern Chinese metropolis of Guanghzou, began teaching his son English before he could even speak. Now 13 years…
Everywhere Indian engineers are unwanted
Donald Trump’s message to bring jobs back to America has been loud and clear, but by no means is it new. With the rise of…
Amazon has patented an automated on-demand clothing factory
Standard operating procedure in the apparel industry goes like this: Make clothes, and then sell them. It can take weeks, if not months, to manufacture…
The original owners of a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed dream house are selling, furniture included
A rare, perfectly preserved, modernist home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright is for sale in Minnesota. Listed by the original owners, retired radiologist Paul Olfelt…
This Iraqi greeting can open your mind and make you wiser
It’s great to talk straight. But life is complex, and logical articulations can often be inadequate, failing to express existence’s vastness, mysteries, and possibilities. In…
“Everyone treated me like a saint”—In Iran, there’s only one way to survive as a transgender person
In Iran, homosexuality is a crime, punishable with death for men and lashings for women. But Iran is also the only Muslim country in the…
The UK’s snap general election is an opportunity to argue about Brexit all over again
British prime minster Theresa May is fed up with a bickering parliament. To put her opponents in their place, today she announced a surprise snap…
The American mercenary behind Blackwater is helping China establish the new Silk Road
For years, China has groomed landlocked Yunnan province in its southwest to be the country’s strategic bridgehead into Southeast Asia, building highways and rail lines…
Does small government really work? A look at the least well-funded governments around the world
The deadline for filing 2016 tax returns in the US looms today. And it’s closely followed by Tax Freedom Day: April 24 will mark 31%…
How a handful of South American protestors took Europe’s space program hostage
Cayenne, French Guiana The Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana—a tiny territory wedged into the peak of South America between Suriname and Brazil—hosted unexpected…
The legacy of the man behind football’s Rooney Rule—requiring interviewing minority candidates—lives on in Silicon Valley
Dan Rooney, who died yesterday at age 84, was the owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team and former US ambassador to Ireland. His most…
Wanted: shuttered coal plants to turn into giant batteries
In the last two years, 135 coal power plants in the US have shut down. Dozens more are due to be decommissioned. To Curtis VanWalleghem,…
The UAE is expanding its influence in the Horn of Africa by funding ports and military bases
The semi-autonomous region of Puntland in northeastern Somalia signed a 30-year concession agreement with the Dubai-owned P&O Ports firm in early April, to develop and…
“Ghost in the Shell” is a poem to Hong Kong as it faces the 20th anniversary of its handover to China
“Your shell belongs to them. Your ghost is yours.” Those are the last words from cyberterrorist Kuze to Major in the Hollywood blockbuster Ghost in…
A deadly meningitis outbreak is taking hold in one of Nigeria’s poorest regions
Since late last year, northern Nigeria has been subject to an outbreak of cerebrospinal meningitis, with nearly 3,000 cases recorded—including 366 deaths. Zamfara, the worst-hit…
A new documentary shows how wrong China is about its African immigrants
Kingsley Azieh Che, from Cameroon, is known around Guangzhou as the “King of suits.” He owns a mens suit factory as well as a paper…
One of China’s richest men presides over an army of 80,000 couriers and 30 planes
A few decades ago Wang Wei was personally lugging suitcases and backpacks across China’s southern border, trying to make his fledgling Hong Kong-based courier business…

