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A new movement is coming to boil among independent restaurateurs in America. Concerned about US president Donald Trump’s hardline approach to immigration, these small business owners are beginning to line up to stand as a first line of defense for their staff—many of whom are immigrants, and some of whom are in the US illegally. […]

Adam Smith, the influential 18th-century Scottish philosopher and economist, spent his life dismantling the theory of mercantilism. Centuries later, newly installed US president Donald Trump wants to bring it back. From the 16th to the 18th century, most countries in Western Europe viewed international trade as a zero-sum game. Mercantilism, the belief that countries are […]

For students of German history, the first week of Donald Trump’s presidency summons a word fraught with dark meaning: Gleichschaltung. It literally means synchronization or “to bring into line,” but it refers to the process in Nazi Germany that ensured political conformity “in all sectors, from the economy and trade associations to the media, culture, […]Read More

A tumultuous period in The Gambia looks to be ending as the country’s new president, Adama Barrow, returned to the country from Senegal today to begin his tenure. Gambians elected Barrow as their next president in December, but longtime leader Yahya Jammeh contested those results and refused to step down. Barrow was inaugurated in a […]

US president Donald Trump’s nomination of financier Philip Bilden for US Navy Secretary was a bit of a surprise to those in the organization he may soon run. After all, Bilden’s military experience is limited to serving in the US Army Reserve, and he’s spent “most of his career” working in Hong Kong high finance, […]Read More

For a few hours on Jan. 31, McDonald’s will give Boston its first “Big Mac ATM,” which is exactly what it sounds like. McDonald’s franchisee Vince Spadea called it a “really just a fun way to be modern and progressive.” But restaurants have been attempting to automate the fast-food business for more than 50 years—and […]Read More

Universal Pictures has won a bidding war for the rights to Little America, a film produced by Transformers director Michael Bay about a near-future America that is literally owned by China. In the film, a “Trump-like president” has bankrupted the country and China has called in its debts, forcing the US into China’s servitude, according […]

This is a story of a gas acting in a way it shouldn’t. For the first time, physicists from Harvard University turned hydrogen into metal. It proves a concept that was first predicted over 80 years ago by physicists who won the Nobel prize for their work. Hydrogen, the tiniest element on the periodic table […]

In Donald Trump’s first few days in office, American journalists have been surprised at how rapidly the new US presidential administration began to curb their access to government. For Indian journalists, the Trump White House’s effort to control how members of the media can engage with government sources is eerily familiar. In the weeks after […]

After spending 20 years and spending $15 million on an ambitious new project in Colorado, contemporary art superstar Christo will give up before its completion—and he blames US president Donald Trump. The 81-year old Bulgarian-born artist announced on his website yesterday that he would stop work on a colossal installation called Over The River, Project […]

On Jan. 21, an estimated 3.2 million Americans took to the streets for Women’s March protests. Given the sheer scale of the protests, it would be reasonable to assume they led headlines across the US. In reality, a significant number of American newspapers chose not to feature the story on their Sunday front pages—a striking […]Read More

It wasn’t too long ago that preparing for the breakdown of civilization was the obsession of fringe groups on the margins of society—cult members waiting for the rapture or white supremacists bracing for a race war. According to a new report in the New Yorker (paywall), a growing number of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and other […]