New Delhi, India | AFP | India’s Hindustan Motors has sold its Ambassador car to France’s Peugeot for just $12 million, capping a spectacular downfall for a vehicle once emblematic of the country’s political class. The CK Birla group, the owners of Hindustan Motors, have sold the car brand for …
Read More »Algorithms: the managers of our digital lives
Paris, France | AFP | Algorithms are a crucial cog in the mechanics of our digital world, but also a nosy minder of our personal lives and a subtle, even insidious influence on our behaviour. They have also come to symbolise the risks of a computerised world conditioned by commercial …
Read More »Trump backs ‘One China’ policy in first call with Xi
Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump reaffirmed Washington’s ‘One China’ policy on Thursday in his first conversation with Xi Jinping, an apparent effort to ease tensions after angering Beijing by questioning a major plank of Sino-US relations. During a phone call with China’s leader, the US president …
Read More »US appeals court rules against Trump on travel ban
Los Angeles, United States | AFP | A US court on Thursday unanimously refused to reinstate Donald Trump’s ban on refugees and nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries, dealing the new president and his controversial law-and-order agenda a major defeat. The ruling from the federal appeals court in San Francisco on …
Read More »The 9/11 mastermind told Obama attacks were America’s fault
Washington, United States | AFP | The self-proclaimed mastermind of the September 11 attacks wrote to former president Barack Obama to tell him 9/11 was a direct result of American foreign policy and the deaths of innocent people it has caused. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s 18-page letter was addressed to “the …
Read More »Data guru Hans Rosling dies at 68
Stockholm, Sweden | AFP | Data guru Hans Rosling, a Swedish public health expert famous for combating scientific ignorance with catchy YouTube videos in his mission to promote a “fact-based world”, has died at the age of 68, his foundation announced. Rosling, who described himself as an “edutainer”, was diagnosed …
Read More »COMMENT: New world order 2.0
COMMENT: By Richard N. Haass In a globalised world, a global operating system premised solely on respect for sovereignty is inadequate For nearly four centuries, since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 ended the Thirty Years’ War in Europe, the concept of sovereignty – the right of countries to an …
Read More »Syrian refugee, hounded over Merkel selfie, sues Facebook
Wuerzburg, Germany | AFP | A Syrian refugee whose selfie with German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been repeatedly manipulated to link him to violent jihad, took Facebook to court on Monday for spreading defamatory fake news. Anas Modamani, 19, says the US social media giant has failed to take down …
Read More »Trump’s White House: Five takeaways from Monday
Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump returned to Washington Monday from a weekend trip to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida — stopping off at a US military base where he made the provocative, and unexplained, claim that the media was deliberately disregarding jihadist attacks. Meanwhile on the …
Read More »Tech sector leads resistance to Trump travel ban
Washington, United States | AFP | A coalition led by some of the world’s biggest tech firms is taking on President Donald Trump’s travel ban, signaling the contentious relationship between the sector and the White House could be about to get worse. Scores of technology giants — including Apple, Facebook, …
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The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price