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Poles who grew up during the communist era love to tell their children and grandchildren that as kids, they would be satisfied with a simple orange under the Christmas tree. This is, in part, an admonition against expecting a bountiful haul of presents, but it’s also an expression of nostalgia for less complicated times. During […]

After spending his first weeks as US president-elect getting pounded with criticism about his potential conflict of interests, Donald Trump announced that Dec. 15 will bring a big reveal: Legal agreements freeing him from his companies—and ostensibly all the attendant ethics problems—are finally going to be made public. Hence, legal documents are being crafted which […]

Even before he is sworn in as president, Donald Trump’s team has picked a fight with US intelligence officials. The Washington Post reported yesterday that the CIA has concluded that Russia intervened in this year’s presidential election to help Donald Trump win, and the president-elect’s transition team was quick to shoot back a dismissal of […]Read More

It’s more than a month after the US election and most—but not all—of the votes have been counted. Although it only took a few hours of tallying to tell that Donald Trump had prevailed, sifting through the provisional, absentee, and contested ballots can take weeks. By now, most states have finalized the count for what […]Read More

On average, women get paid 18% less than men in the UK. That may still sound like a lot but it’s the lowest since records began in 1997. Back then, the pay gap was 27.5%, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Even as broad advances have been made to close the gap, across […]

Nobel laureates gathered on a stage in Stockholm today to receive their awards, but one of this year’s winners was notably missing from the award ceremony: Bob Dylan. The American singer-songwriter has been mostly silent since the Nobel Committee surprised many making one of the first musicians to win the prize for literature. He did […]

The decision of Yahya Jammeh, president of The Gambia, to reject the results of the Dec. 1 elections only eight days after giving a concession speech live on state TV is drawing criticism from far and wide. Senegal, which borders Gambia on three sides, has condemned Jammeh’s call to annul the results and demand fresh […]

The White House hex on Goldman Sachs has clearly been lifted. Six weeks from now, former Goldman banker Stephen Bannon will be ensconced in the West Wing as chief advisor to incoming US president Donald Trump. Former Goldman partner Steven Mnuchin will be seeking Senate confirmation to run the Treasury Department. And Gary Cohn, currently […]

Donald Trump supporters are calling for a boycott of the upcoming Star Wars film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The film, slated for US release on Dec. 16, has come under fire from Trump supporters, some of whom, it seems, have been suckered in by the unstoppable spread of fake news. Jack Posobiec, of […]

Virtual reality’s ability to distract people from pain could redefine child birth. Erin Martucci was able to block out much of her labor pain by gazing at a serene beach landscape with waterfalls instead. Once she wore the Samsung Gear VR headset, her virtual experience was peppered with instructions like “focus on the birds” and […]

The world’s largest soda company today (Dec. 9) announced it would reshuffle its top leadership, calling upon CEO Muhtar Kent to make way for James Quincey, who has been serving as COO. Quincy is set to take the reins May 1, 2017. Kent will remain with the company as chairman, a role he currently also […]

In southern Africa, Fidel Castro is almost universally seen as a hero. After all it is the Cuban leader who sent his forces to Angola to halt apartheid South Africa. What southern Africans would easily forget is that Cuban troops were sent to many other African conflicts with mixed results. Professor Piero Gleijeses, who chronicled […]