Le Monde: In the age of AI, Chinese universities overhaul their curricula Le Monde describes how Chinese universities are overhauling their degree programmes to align with artificial intelligence, which has been made the top priority of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) — the government wants to embed the technology in as many sectors of the real economy as […]
links: 26.06.2026
The New York Times: Climate Change Fueling Europe’s Ferocious Heat Wave, Scientists Find A rapid scientific analysis concludes that this June’s scorching heat in Western Europe would not have been possible without human-caused climate change. Even in today’s climate, a heat wave this widespread and intense is still rare for June — with a less than 1% chance […]
links: 25.06.2026
Yle: What annoys Finns the most? Wars, selfishness, and telemarketers A survey commissioned by a Finnish communications agency has found what annoys Finns most: wars, selfishness and telemarketing cold calls. It also revealed generational differences — pensioners tend to be irritated by more things (three in four are angered by wars, and many are also bothered by boastfulness […]
links: 24.06.2026
Wired: The ‘Parasite of Parasites’ Has Been Discovered in the Tropical Forests of Borneo In the rainforests of Borneo, Malaysian scientists have identified a new fungal species, Pleurocordyceps cornusynnemata — a parasite that feeds on another parasite. Its victim is the so-called zombie fungus (Ophiocordyceps), which infects ants, hijacks their nervous system and drives them to spread its […]
links: 23.06.2026
The New York Times: X-Ray Specs for the World’s Oldest, Sealed Letters A team of historians, scientists and engineers has built a portable X-ray scanner that can read 4,000-year-old letters without breaking open the clay envelopes they were sealed in. More than half a million cuneiform artefacts have been found across the Middle East, but many went unstudied […]
links: 22.06.2026
The New York Times: The Secret Reason Bosses Want Everyone Back in the Office, Every Day of the Week Researchers at the Wharton School spent six years finding that the only personality trait that consistently predicts a leader’s objection to remote and hybrid work isn’t distrust of employees or a love of being around people — it’s narcissism. […]
links: 21.06.2026
LSM: Turning all of Pārdaugava into one big Victory Square? An interview with researcher Skaidrīte Lasmane Skaidrīte Lasmane — an emeritus professor, philosopher and historian at the University of Latvia — discusses the history of Riga’s Victory Square (Uzvaras laukums) and the grandiose construction planned under Kārlis Ulmanis, which was deliberately turned into a nationwide volunteer effort, a […]
links: 20.06.2026
PBS / PolitiFact: Comparing the mood of America’s 250th anniversary with its 200th in 1976 As the US approaches its 250th anniversary, historians compare the national mood with the bicentennial of 1976 and see eerie parallels — international conflict, high inflation and gas prices, culture wars and low presidential approval. The key difference: society is far more polarised […]
links: 19.06.2026
Wired: How the Peter Thiel-Linked Dialog Club Secretly Ranks Its Members WIRED has obtained internal data from Dialog, the private club co-founded by Peter Thiel — dossiers on nearly 200 prominent people, complete with home addresses, private phone numbers, dates of birth and even food allergies. It turns out the club secretly grades its members by wealth and […]
links: 18.06.2026
Wired: Silicon Valley’s Elite Financial Advisers Say This Era of Wealth Is Different WIRED talks to two wealth advisers serving Silicon Valley’s high-net-worth tech clients about how the new generation of tech millionaires handles its sudden fortune as SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic head toward liquidity events. The very scale of wealth has shifted — the average client is […]