
Feb 05, 2023 04:24 am UTC| Insights & Views Life
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the demographics of cities shifted. As stay-at-home orders, remote work and bubbling reduced social interaction, and restaurants, venues and arts destinations shut down temporarily, people...

Yakuza battle Chinese gangs for control of Japan's criminal underworld
Jan 31, 2023 07:25 am UTC| Insights & Views Life
On the afternoon of October 16 last year a brawl erupted between two groups of gangsters in a restaurant on the 58th floor of the Sunshine 60 high-rise building in Ikebukuro, a central neighbourhood of Tokyo. A group of...
Jan 26, 2023 12:06 pm UTC| Insights & Views
Like many others around the world, I watched the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI live on the internet. Before the service began, an unexpected announcement came over the loudspeakers requesting that members of the...

Ukraine war: why Zelensky's corruption purge could be key to the outcome of the conflict
Jan 26, 2023 12:06 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has announced a sweeping clear-out of senior national and regional government officials and the appointment of a new supervisory board for the state-owned natural gas giant,...
Jan 26, 2023 12:00 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature
On Jan. 24, history was again made when the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists organization moved the seconds hand of the Doomsday Clock closer to midnight. It is now at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been...
Free online courses could be a path to higher education in African countries but awareness is low
Jan 26, 2023 12:00 pm UTC| Insights & Views
Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the largest regions in the world and has the lowest rates of participation in higher education anywhere in the world. The World Bank reported in 2020 that only 9.4% of the regions tertiary...

The SAT and ACT are less important than you might think
Jan 26, 2023 11:59 am UTC| Insights & Views Life
College admission tests are becoming a thing of the past. More than 80% of U.S. colleges and universities do not require applicants to take standardized tests like the SAT or the ACT. That proportion of institutions...