Opinion

Mobile World Congress A microcosm of a hyper-connected future

Mobile World Congress 2016 has given us a glimpse into the innovations that will hit our stores this year. From the looks of things we will get much more than just thinner handsets. Many phone manufacturers have flooded the event with gadgets and accessories that can be bundled with phones. These include virtual reality headsets, 360-degree cameras, and a digital ...

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Leaving Europe would be a terrible investment

The countdown to Britain’s EU referendum has started. Prime Minister David Cameron has secured some important concessions from his European counterparts. This is all very welcome, but deal or no deal I would have argued for Britain to stay in Europe. I became involved in the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign —comprised of organizations and individuals that favour Britain remaining ...

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A next-generation battlefield

Little noticed amid the daily news bulletins about the IS and Syria, the Pentagon has begun a push for exotic new weapons that can deter Russia and China. Pentagon officials have started talking openly about using the latest tools of artificial intelligence and machine learning to create robot weapons, “human-machine teams” and enhanced, super-powered soldiers. It may sound like science ...

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Decision in Apple-FBI case to set precedent

The dispute between Apple and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has rattled everyone, and spawned a raging National Security vs Consumer Privacy debate. Though the row is in the US, it has captured global attention, as the world is caught up in a suspension, waiting which party will win. The standoff has a bearing on the public. According to ...

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China’s trade slows

China’s foreign trade shrank by 8 percent in 2015, far off the target of 6 percent growth set at the beginning of the year, China’s commerce minister revealed on Tuesday. Gao Hucheng made the announcement in a press conference on China’s trade development last year. According to Gao’s figures, most of the decline came from rapidly slowing imports. China’s exports ...

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Airbus might be brought down to earth

Is the civil aircraft market becoming over-inflated? Airbus’s annual report card captures a company in rude health: full-year net profit jumped 15 percent, cash flow was strong and its backlog of orders for commercial aircraft stands at a record high. Even the long-suffering Airbus A380 is at break-even. But investors holding Airbus on the seeming strength of its order book ...

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Kill the trade, not the animals

It is the fourth most lucrative illegal trade in the world and Malaysia is among its thriving hubs. The global black market for wildlife and wildlife products is estimated to be about US$20 billion, ranking below drug smuggling, human trafficking and the illegal arms trade. Over the past four decades, more than 50 percent of the world’s wildlife has been ...

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Cruz isn’t out, and Rubio isn’t a shoo-in

Donald Trump’s big win in Nevada, with Marco Rubio pulling even with or just ahead of Ted Cruz, fuels the conventional wisdom that the Republican presidential contest is now down to a two-man race. However, this year the conventional wisdom has been consistently wrong. Next Tuesday will test that two-man theory. Ted Cruz, despite third-place finish in South Carolina and ...

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Vietnam’s interestes in the South China Sea

International attention has once again closed in on the South China Sea over claims that China has deployed HQ-9 surface-to-air missile batteries to Woody Island. Reports suggest that US intelligence sources have confirmed the presence of these mobile batteries, whereas satellite images of Woody Island earlier this month showed no such batteries. China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, has downplayed concerns ...

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Executive overreach meets resistance

“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction” Newton’s Third Law of Motion Notice the Newtonian physics of America’s Madisonian system. Barack Obama’s Woodrow Wilsonian hostility to the separation of powers, expressed in his executive authoritarianism, is provoking equal and opposite reactions from the judicial and legislative branches. The Supreme Court has inflicted on Obama a defeat accurately ...

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