Brazilians headed to the polls in October to elect a new president in a bruising runoff between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the future of Latin America’s biggest democracy. The vote came after a long and ugly campaign that pitted the right-wing incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, against the two-term former president, Luiz Inácio Lula […]
Month: January 2023
A Vibrant Nightlife Scene Booms in South Africa’s Townships
At night, quiet and darkness shroud much of Khayelitsha, a township outside of Cape Town. But along a roughly quarter-mile stretch of Spine Road, a major thoroughfare, blue-and-yellow lights glow from bare wooden structures that vibrate with the electronic beats of the wildly popular South African genre amapiano. Several Mercedes-Benzes and BMWs are among cars […]
Consumed by Murders – The New York Times
The city of Moscow, Idaho, had been on edge since four students at the University of Idaho were stabbed to death on Nov. 13 at a house near the campus. Residents mourned the victims — Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21 — and worried about the killer remaining […]
As China Lifts Pandemic Border Controls, Mixed Feelings at Home and Abroad
HONG KONG — Over the past three years, Zhou Wanhui, a Hong Kong resident, has visited her parents in China just three times. Though they live only two hours away by train, Covid restrictions made it so difficult to cross the Hong Kong border into mainland China that one of Ms. Zhou’s trips included a […]
Iran Executes 2 Men Arrested in Protests
Iran on Saturday hanged two men, a 22-year-old national karate champion and a 39-year-old poultry worker, who participated in antigovernment demonstrations and whose executions were condemned as a ploy by the government to use violence and sow fear to crush the protests. The men, Mohammad Mehdi Karami, the karate champion, and Sayed Mohammad Hosseini, the […]
Jack Ma, Ant Group Founder, Will Relinquish Control
One of China’s most influential financial tech companies, Ant Group, said on Saturday that the billionaire entrepreneur, Jack Ma, planned to relinquish control of the company. Mr. Ma’s retreat from the company he founded comes after the ruling Communist Party waged an unprecedented crackdown on Big Tech. Beijing had made Mr. Ma’s Ant Group and […]
Ukrainians Celebrate Orthodox Christmas at a Holy Site Long Linked to Moscow
As the tug of war for the Orthodox faithful in Ukraine rages on, the head of the church that is loyal to Kyiv delivered a Christmas sermon for the first time at the country’s most historically significant monastery. The Mass on Saturday marked a deeply symbolic moment, showing the deep fracture with the separate Moscow-led […]
Here Are the People Iran Sentenced to Death in Its Protest Crackdown
They are a doctor, a rapper, a karate champion, a barber and an actor, sons, grandsons and fathers. They are among the 13 people Iran has hurriedly sentenced to death in its campaign to quash the monthslong uprising against the Islamic Republic. In December, two men were hanged in quick succession, the second from a […]
New Armored Vehicles Will Help Ukraine Take the Fight to Russia
BRUSSELS — They will soon be covered in mud, riddled with shrapnel damage and under fire on Ukraine’s battlefields. But the three new types of armored vehicles offered to Ukraine this week signal that the Western allies are gearing up for another bloody year as the war enters a new phase of Ukrainian offensives against […]
‘Consciousness’ in Robots Was Once Taboo. Now It’s the Last Word.
Was it truly conscious, though? The risk of committing to any theory of consciousness is that doing so opens up the possibility of criticism. Sure, self-awareness seems important, but aren’t there other key features of consciousness? Can we call something conscious if it doesn’t feel conscious to us? Dr. Chella believes that consciousness can’t exist […]