Is technology key to improving global health and education, or just an expensive distraction?
By: Stefan Dercon Forum May 31, 2019 After decades of attempting to improve failing health and education systems in developing countries, the situation in many areas is still dire. In some sub-Saharan African countries, children achieve as little as 2.3 to 5 years of learning, despite typically spending 8 years in school. More than five […]
Half of job growth to be limited to London, inequality inquiry finds
By: Helen Pidd May 30, 2019 London and the south-east will see more than half of the UK’s future job growth if the government does not address the massive gulf between the capital and everywhere else, an independent inquiry into the UK’s deep–rooted inequalities has warned. Bob Kerslake, the former head of the civil service […]
Pension inequality at majority of FTSE 100 companies
By: Maria Espadinha May 29, 2019 The pension contribution rates of FTSE 100 chief executives are on average four times higher than those received by employees, research has found. After analysing FTSE 100 companies’ financial reports in 2018, pensions consultancy LCP found about half paid defined benefit pension contributions for their CEOs of 25 per […]
Margrethe Vestager fined Google and Apple billions, now she may lead Europe
By: Gian Volpicelli May 29, 2019 When I meet her, Margrethe Vestager is not one of the frontrunners for the presidency of the European Commission, yet. The European elections haven’t happened yet, and Vestager is still fully focused on enforcing antitrust law across the European Union. She’s very busy. And she has strong ideas about […]
Can think-tanks survive a post-fact world?
By: R.C. May 29, 2019 A HUNDRED years ago this week, diplomats and academics from the British and American delegations at the Versailles peace conference at the end of the first world war met for a dinner at the Hotel Majestic in Paris, a short stroll from the Arc de Triomphe. Their aim was to […]
Unsettling Sex Robot Looks Almost Exactly Like a Real Person
By: Futurism May 29, 2019 Some sex experts predict we’re headed toward a future in which “virtual” lovers replace human ones — and based on advances happening in the field of sex robots, it could eventually be hard to tell the difference. One company in particular, DS Doll Robotics, has cooked up incredibly lifelike robotic […]
‘Spider-like senses’ could help autonomous machines see better
By: Purdue University May 29, 2019 What if drones and self-driving cars had the tingling “spidey senses” of Spider-Man? They might actually detect and avoid objects better, says Andres Arrieta, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, because they would process sensory information faster. Better sensing capabilities would make it possible for drones […]
Virtual reality: how women are taking a leading role in the sector
By: Tola Onanuga May 28, 2019 Despite a well-documented gender imbalance within the tech industry, a survey suggests that when it comes to VR, women are starting to take up leadership roles in greater numbers When the Arab spring uprising began in 2010, film-maker Tamara Shogaolu was living in Egypt. As she travelled around the […]
New ranking reveals corporate tax havens behind breakdown of global corporate tax system; toll of UK’s tax war exposed
By: Mark Bou Mansour March 28, 2017 Decades of tax wars among the world’s richest countries are unravelling the century-old global corporate tax system, new research finds. Forty per cent of today’s cross-border direct investments reported by the IMF – $18 trillion in value – are being booked in just 10 countries that offer corporate […]