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☆ Sudan one month on: Why cease-fires are failing, and what global leaders are missing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

KHARTOUM, Sudan - May 6, 2023: Sudanese Army sodliers walk near armoured vehicles stationed on a street in southern Khartoum, amid ongoing fighting against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. AFP via Getty ImagesOne month after fighting between Sudan's two military factions broke out in the capital, Khartoum, internationally-brokered peace talks in Saudi Arabia have yielded no solution. Almost a million people have fled their homes, both to locations within Sudan and across the border to neighboring countries. The World Bank and several global powers froze aid to the country after the military takeover, honoring calls from civilians not to legitimize its leadership. Targeted and collaborative efforts by the international community to exert pressure on the countries supporting Sudan's military factions were needed, Abdel-Magied said.

☆ Claire Chase Is Changing How People Think of the Flute
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Joshua Barone | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Something unusual happens when people speak about the flutist Claire Chase. They use superlatives that would seem reckless if they weren’t repeated so often. “It’s so difficult to talk about Claire,” the composer Marcos Balter said. “She’s so much more than a virtuoso flutist or a pedagogue. Earlier in May, she played Kaija Saariaho’s concerto “L’Aile du Songe” with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

☆ 7 things the Class of 2022 wish they knew before graduating from college: 'Don't be afraid to take time off'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Morgan Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

One of the most exciting parts of leaving college is leaving behind the scripted, predictable rhythm of school. After college, your friends change, your responsibilities change, your routine and habits change. If I could go back, I would tell myself to enjoy life a little bit more. Now is the time to enjoy life – don't be afraid to take time off from work, travel and take advantage of every opportunity to explore new places. Kalidas Shanti, 23, Cambridge, MassachusettsShanti graduated from Amherst College in May 2022 and started working as a data analyst at Mathematica in October.

☆ I lived and worked in Antarctica for 5 months without WiFi or running water. Here's what surprised me.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Sarah Jackson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Lucy Bruzzone is one of several women who spent the last five months working in Antarctica. I've always been fascinated by ice and the polar regions and I'd been exploring opportunities to visit Antarctica for many years. At the same time, changes in Antarctica affect our lives at home, destabilizing systems we depend on for food, water, and security. Lucy Bruzzone spent five months in Antarctica. Work was more physical day-to-day, but I still spent a lot of time working at a laptop for someone in Antarctica!

☆ I saw a quantum computer used by JPMorgan, with Microsoft and Nvidia as partners, and it was mind-blowing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( Julie Bort | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Quantum computers are wondrous because they operate on quantum mechanics. Quantum computers are wondrous because they operate on quantum mechanics: the tiniest parts of the universe where the rules of physics as we think we know them don't always apply. I visited as part of an invitational media-and-analysts' day held a few days before Quantinuum officially launched H2, its 32-qubit, second-generation quantum computer on Tuesday. Companies like Nvidia and Microsoft, which is building its own quantum computer, are partners to Quantinuum. A schematic drawing of the Quantinuum H2 computer.

☆ Eton v Harrow: Why this centuries-old schoolboy match has been the cause of division and debate in England
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( Issy Ronald | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which owns Lord’s, sought to axe the match from the ground’s schedule before granting it a reprieve after some of its members protested. As a compromise, the MCC announced in March that it would host both the Eton vs. Harrow and Oxford vs. Cambridge fixtures for another five years, before another consultation with members. Schoolboys look on from the grandstand during the Eton vs. Harrow cricket match at Lord's on Friday. Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty ImagesThe club will also host the finals of the UK’s school and university cricket competitions, rather than only the historic fixtures. They took to the field on Friday and Harrow emerged victorious by just four runs.

☆ Return of Benin Bronzes delayed after Nigerian president's decree
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Macdonald Dzirutwe | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

But an official gazette signed by President Muhammadu Buhari on March 28 said the Oba of Benin was the rightful owner of all returned Benin Bronzes and was responsible for the management of all places where the artefacts were kept. The commission has in the past signed agreements to return looted artefacts, including from Cambridge college and Germany. The University of Cambridge's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. There have been questions on whether Nigeria has capacity to safely keep artefacts returned from abroad. The palace has previously said it planned to build a museum to house returned artefacts.

☆ Elon Musk is escalating his beef with Mark Zuckerberg, claiming WhatsApp 'cannot be trusted' and saying the Meta CEO seems 'extremely partisan'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Elon Musk slammed Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday, saying he seemed "extremely partisan." Elon Musk is amping up his beef with Mark Zuckerberg this week, saying the Meta CEO seems "extremely partisan," and blasting WhatsApp over privacy concerns. And on Tuesday, Musk moved on to criticizing WhatsApp, which is owned by Meta. And when Zuckerberg questioned Musk's negativity toward AI as "irresponsible" in 2017, Musk tweeted that the Meta CEO's "understanding of the subject is limited." Musk and Meta did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment sent outside regular business hours.

CNN —A Swiss village has been ordered to evacuate amid warnings a large mass of rock looming overhead could come tumbling down in the coming days. Leaders in Brienz held a town hall event on Tuesday evening and told residents they would have to leave by 6 pm local time on Friday. Rebecca Dell, a researcher at the University of Cambridge warns that climate change is driving glacier melt in the Alps. If a slope becomes too unstable, events such as rockslides may occur,” she told CNN. The village, which houses under 100 residents, according to Swiss public broadcaster SRF, is located in Switzerland’s eastern canton of Graubünden.

☆ British Spies, Japanese Teens and a German Cop’s Wild Ride
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Mike Hale | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

It has been a quiet season for international television on American screens — nothing has grabbed attention on a “Squid Game” or “Downton Abbey” scale. But barely a day goes by, in the streaming age, without an interesting series washing up from some foreign shore. Here are four recent shows worth tracking down, from an elegant British thriller to a Chinese dramedy about a demon god and an immortal warrior who meet cute on the mortal plane. ‘A Spy Among Friends’Alexander Cary, a writer and executive producer on “Homeland,” wrote this six-episode spy thriller as a leisurely, literate, three- or four-dimensional game of chess. Tightly controlled yet somehow relaxed, Lewis gives a performance in which the coldblooded manipulator and the sentimentally loyal bro coexist at every moment.

☆ Heather Armstrong, mommy blogger also known as Dooce, dies at 47
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Scottie Andrew | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Heather Armstrong, an influential writer whose blog Dooce helped popularize mommy blogging, has died, her partner, Pete Ashdown, confirmed to CNN. “Heather B. Hamilton (Armstrong) was a brilliant, funny, compassionate writer who struggled with mental-health and alcoholism,” Ashdown said in a statement to CNN. In 2004, Dooce became the first personal website to start accepting a notable number of paid ads, the New York Times said. Toward the end of her life, Armstrong was characteristically frank with readers about her struggles with alcoholism. “Calling Dooce a mommy blogger was always an inadequate description of her breadth, her style and her early influence on blogging,” New York Times reporter Katie Rogers tweeted.

☆ Mohamed El-Erian says the US is in the second stage of the banking turmoil – and lists 4 ways to avoid a 'significantly damaging' third phase.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Zahra Tayeb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Mohamed El-Erian said conditions in the US banking sector have stabilized, but more can be done to prevent further damage. The Allianz economic adviser listed four ways the US can avoid a "damaging" third phase of banking tumult. Indeed, it must if we are to avoid a third phase entailing considerably more financial and economic damage," El-Erian, president of Queen's College, Cambridge University, said. "This second phase can also be contained. "Doing so is necessary if the US is to avoid a third, and significantly more damaging, phase of the banking turmoil," El-Erian said.

☆ This MIT economist helps decide when recessions officially begin and end. Here's why those dates matter
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

As the president of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a member on the Business Cycle Dating Committee, James Poterba helps determine when a recession officially starts and ends. With Federal Reserve economists predicting that the economy will enter a slump later this year, I spoke with Poterba about his research on recessions. While NBER doesn't make any forecasts, he still had lots of interesting things to say about our downturn worries. What is the chance that an increase of interest rates is associated, sometime afterwards, with a period of declining economic activity? Or, if you see a large run-up in oil prices, does that typically lead to a recession?

“This is the second train, there was one like it just before.”The video, seemingly filmed in late March, shows old Soviet tanks being transported, somewhere in Russia. Moscow has been known to bring out older military equipment from storage to help it prosecute the war in Ukraine, but these are different. The tanks are T-55s, a model first commissioned by the Soviet Union’s Red Army in 1948, shortly after the end of World War II. Soviet T-54/T-55 tanks form a threatening ring round the Parliament buildings in Hungary on November 12, 1956. T-55 tanks drive through the streets of Prague, capital of what was then Czechoslovakia, in 1968.

CNN —The Arab League has re-admitted Syria after an 11-year absence, the organization said Sunday, following an extraordinary meeting at the Arab League’s headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. The Arab League is an organization of Middle Eastern and African countries and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Member states agreed during Sunday’s meeting to “resume the participation of the delegations of the government of the Syrian Arab Republic in the meetings of the Council of the League of Arab States,” according to an Arab League statement. The Arab League also stressed the need to take “practical and effective steps” to resolve the Syrian crisis, the statement added. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could participate in the upcoming Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia if he is invited and if he wants to attend, Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit told journalists Sunday.

☆ King Charles: His life in pictures
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Jeremy Schultz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Britain's Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, along with Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace as part of Trooping the Colour parade during the Queen's Platinum Jubilee...moreBritain's Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, along with Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace as part of Trooping the Colour parade during the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations in London, Britain, June 2, 2022. REUTERS/Hannah McKayClose

☆ Arab nations set to rehabilitate Syria’s pariah president in defiance of US
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Nadeen Ebrahim | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Officials and analysts have said that Syria’s re-admission into the Arab League, while symbolic, comes with the hope that it could pave the way for President Bashar Al Assad’s rehabilitation internationally, and potentially the removal of crippling sanctions against his regime. Arab states have argued that the status quo in Syria is untenable and has caused them a headache at home. Syria has over the past decade turned into a narco-state, exporting highly addictive amphetamines across the border to Jordan and to Saudi Arabia. It’s unclear if the US will stand in the way of Arab states’ efforts to bring Syria back into the regional fold. “The US will not impose a veto on their allies when it comes to normalization with Assad,” said Hellyer.

☆ Microsoft M12 boss departs tech giant's VC arm to help turn London-based investor Systemiq Capital into the Sequoia of climate tech
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A founding partner at Microsoft's VC arm M12 has left to take up a GP role at a climate tech investor. Goldstein has joined Systemiq Capital and plans to turn it into the Sequoia of climate tech. One of the founding partners of Microsoft's venture arm M12 has left the company to join London-based investor Systemiq Capital, which he wants to help turn into the Sequoia of climate tech. Systemiq Capital, meanwhile, was spun out of advisory firm Systemiq in 2022 to allow it to thrive on its own, Goldstein said. The climate tech investor expects to reach final close on its second fund, worth $200 million, towards the end of 2023.

☆ Seeking a Lover, Not a Nurse
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Alicia Loh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

I have no hangups about height (my wheelchair is height-adjustable), and I am not looking for a man who shares my every interest. Still, being thought of as picky is far preferable to being thought of as undesirable. None have fancied me back — or at least, none have dared to admit a crush on the disabled girl. It turns out, Cambridge men and French business school men are the same — lovely to a fault, happy to be our friends (sometimes suggesting more), but never crossing the line. The part of me posting proudly about disability on Instagram says that my disability doesn’t make me any less datable — or lovable.

☆ TikTok had a 'list' of users who viewed LGBTQ posts — raising alarm as the company faces scrutiny over ties to China
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

TikTok users watching posts under LGBTQ categories were visible to employees, WSJ reports. A TikTok representative told the Journal the company cut off access to that kind of data last year. The employees had access to "a list" of users, or "a dashboard" which let them learn about users who watched certain types of posts, the Wall Street journal reported. The rise of generative AI chatbots, for instance, has sparked questions about whether company employees can view users' conversation histories, and how long they're stored. There's already some appetite in the US to curb users' access to the app.

☆ Moderna posts surprise quarterly profit despite waning demand for Covid vaccines
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Moderna on Thursday blew past estimates for first-quarter earnings and revenue, posting a surprise quarterly profit, despite lower demand for Covid vaccines, its only marketable product. The biotech company generated first-quarter sales of $1.9 billion, driven by Covid shot revenue deferred from 2022. Moderna maintained its full-year guidance of around $5 billion in revenue from its Covid vaccine, which will come from signed government contracts for the shot. But Covid shot demand is still falling as the pandemic eases and the U.S. shifts to an annual vaccination schedule rather than repeated booster doses. Moderna in April said it hopes to offer a new set of life-saving vaccines targeting cancer, heart disease and other conditions by 2030.

☆ This global commercial real-estate stock is set to rise by 60%, Jefferies says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Ganesh Rao | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Jefferies expects shares of U.K.-focused commercial real-estate stock Life Science REIT to rise by more than 60% over the next 12 months. The investment bank's prediction comes at a time when the global commercial real estate market has seen prices fall sharply over the past year . However, according to Jefferies, Life Science REIT will escape the brunt of the pressure facing the rest of the sector. These properties are then leased to "tenants operating in the life science sector," according to the company. The region is also set to benefit from the U.K. government's 10-year strategy, unveiled in 2021, to aid and develop the life science sector in the U.K.

☆ FTC says Meta should be barred from monetizing data from younger users
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The FTC said Meta should be banned from monetizing data it collects from younger users. In a statement on Wednesday, Meta spokesman Andy Stone called the FTC proposal “a political stunt” and vowed to contest the effort. Meta had allowed personal information to leak to apps that users of the platform were no longer using, the FTC alleged. That data sharing, the FTC claimed, contrasted with Meta’s public statements about how it cuts off a third-party app’s access to Facebook users’ information if the users stop using the third-party app for 90 days. In a statement, Bedoya said he was skeptical whether there was enough of a connection between Meta’s alleged harms and the proposed remedies to legally sustain a complete ban on monetizing the data of young users.

☆ FTC proposes barring Meta from monetizing kids' data
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The Federal Trade Commission proposed on Wednesday barring Facebook parent company Meta from monetizing kids' data after it says the company violated a 2020 privacy order. The FTC alleges Facebook also violated an earlier 2012 order by continuing to allow app developers access to private user information. The FTC is also accusing Meta of violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule by misrepresenting parental controls on its Messenger Kids app. Compliance with the 2020 order would also extend to any companies Meta acquires or merges with. After Meta responds, the Commission will decide whether updating the 2020 order "is in the public interest or justified by changed conditions of fact or law."

☆ Where the royal family goes in London, from Indian restaurants to theme parks
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Julia Buckley | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

Well, they’re not, obviously – but sometimes they do put down their tiaras, leave their palaces and join the hoi polloi at restaurants, bars and even theme parks. He once called Brilliant Restaurant in Southall, west London his favorite Indian restaurant – and Gordon Ramsay is also a fan. Stuart C. Wilson/Getty ImagesBack in the noughties, party Prince Harry was a regular at Mahiki, a Tiki-themed bar-club-restaurant in Mayfair. Simon Dack/AlamyIn his memoir “Spare,” Prince Harry wrote about popping out to shop for clothes at T.K. Toby Melville/Getty ImagesThe-then Meghan Markle was apparently spied In the heart of Chelsea while she was engaged to Prince Harry, getting a facial from Sarah Chapman.

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