Thursday 17 December 2020

Death to the Negative Restaurant Review

What critics’ obsession with the vicious takedown says about the current state of food journalism.



Beethoven and Freedom

On the composer’s 250th birthday.



Top Medical Journal

No sex designation on birth certificates.


 

Alibaba Offered Clients Facial Recognition to Identify Uighur People

Software could be used to identify videos filmed and uploaded by Uighur person.



China’s Horrific Triumph

It turned a domestic epidemic into a successful biological attack on the rest of the world.




Elon Musk Sparks Trans Rights FURY After Branding Gender Pronouns an ‘Eesthetic Nightmare’

BILLIONAIRE entrepreneur Elon Musk has once again found himself at the centre of a row about transgender rights after branding pronouns an ‘esthetic nightmare’ on Twitter.





Cops Question Man for ‘Hate Speech’

 For writing ‘Islam Is Right about Women’ outside mosque.




How the Black Blocs Seized French Sstreets

A new wave of anarchist violence is threatening the country.



Trudeau’s China Syndrome

PM invites China’s army for ‘cold weather training’ in Canada - while China holds Canadians captive.



Charlie Hebdo trial: French Court Convicts 14 over 2015 Terror Attacks

Defendants found guilty on range of charges from membership of criminal network to complicity in attacks.



Experts Predict The Worst-Case Scenario With China Under A Feeble Biden Foreign Policy

Whether Biden seems actively pro-China, or merely weak on the communist country, his lack of position on China foreshadows a number of plausible crises.



Tuesday 15 December 2020

San Francisco to Rename Abraham Lincoln High School

Because former president did not demonstrate that ‘black lives mattered to him.’



Pond Frogs Must Go, French Judge Rules, After Neighbours Complain Amphibians are Noisy When They Mate

The complaint is one in a slew of legal actions taken against noisy countryside animals in France — smelly cows, quacking ducks and one crowing rooster.



Claim: Arctic Ocean–Climate Change is Flooding the Remote North with Light

And new species...



Why Not Put All Kids on Puberty Blockers, Trans Activist Asks. Do You Have a Good Answer?

How about ‘because?’ Does ‘because’ work for you?



Where Did the New Mad Left Come From?

Utopianism is age-old, as are its tragic consequences — and we haven’t seen the worst yet.



Gardening, Sewing and the Politicisation of Absolutely EEverything

The creep of the culture war into all areas of life is – to borrow a favourite woke phrase – exhausting.



China’s ‘Tainted’ Cotton


China is forcing hundreds of thousands of Uighurs and other minorities into hard, manual labour in the vast cotton fields of its western region of Xinjiang. 


  

Canada to Contribute $485M to Help Developing Countries Cope with COVID-19

Funding will support international efforts to aid vulnerable populations around the globe.



How Science Beat the Virus

And what it lost in the process.



Can We Deduce Our Way to Salvation?

A new book suggests that modern readers can still follow the path of reason that Spinoza traced to true well-being, but they might not want to.




Tome Raiders: Solving the Great Book Heist

When £2.5m of rare books were stolen in an audacious heist at Feltham in 2017, police wondered, what’s the story?



A Great Wave of Hokusai Drawings Resurfaced at the British Museum

“This is definitely one of the greatest discoveries of Hokusai works in a long time.”