Showing 11 - 20 of 22
Safer vehicles can make terrorist strikes much harder
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 07/06/2017
» 'Enough is enough," UK Prime Minister Theresa May declared after the London terror attack on Saturday night, the third one this year. But what she proposed to counter the terrorist attacks was, essentially, some freedom of speech restrictions, more powers for law enforcement and longer sentences for terror-related offenses -- the same old toolbox that has been used for almost two decades.
US intelligence got the wrong cyber bear
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 04/01/2017
» The "Russian hacking" story in the US has gone too far. That it's not based on any solid public evidence, and that reports of it are often so overblown as to miss the mark, is only a problem to those who worry about disinformation campaigns, propaganda and journalistic standards -- a small segment of the general public. But the recent US government report that purports to substantiate technical details of recent hacks by Russian intelligence is off the mark and has the potential to do real damage to far more people and organisations.
That special human 'thing' will always beat AI
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 19/12/2016
» This year's news about what artificial intelligence can do in the arts has been both exciting and scary. Neural networks have learned to paint like masters and compose sophisticated music. Those of us in creative endeavours might be as endangered by technological advances as blue-collar workers are often said to be -- though we are protected by certain limitations that technology is never likely to overcome.
A new Russia policy requires Exxon CEO's skills
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 14/12/2016
» If Donald Trump chooses Exxon Mobil Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson as his secretary of state, it will be proof that his administration will take a new approach to US policy toward Russia, as he hinted during the campaign. The dismay about that shift in the expert and intelligence community may be a good sign: The same experts and spies have led the Obama administration into a series of missteps that have embarrassed the US and helped advance President Vladimir Putin's agenda.
Anti-Trump protests are detrimental
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 17/11/2016
» The footage of the anti-Donald Trump marches and the belligerent tweets criticising the US president-elect fill me with ambivalence. On the one hand, Mr Trump's victory hardly makes me happy; then again, as someone who has seen, and taken part in, both successful and failed mass protests, I believe the liberal cause would be better served if the demonstrators stayed home.
US-EU trade negotiations getting hung up on politics
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 31/08/2016
» Germany's vice-chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, says talks about a major trade deal between the European Union and the US have failed, though "nobody is really admitting it". That statement should be taken with a grain of salt, but the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) appears to be doomed, at least until after elections in the US and major European countries.
World-class experts in atonement
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 07/06/2016
» The German parliament's recognition of the 1915 genocide of Armenians in Turkey has predictably angered the Turkish government, which has even recalled its ambassador from Berlin. But more importantly, it raised the question of what constitutes sufficient atonement for the past sins of entire nations.
Don't trust Putin's troop pullback
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 16/03/2016
» President Vladimir Putin's unexpected announcement that Russian troops would pull back from Syria shouldn't be taken at face value: he's made similar announcements in the past to show Western negotiating partners how constructive he can be. He always has a hidden agenda.
Pope's historic meeting ends up benefitting Putin
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 15/02/2016
» Russia's state-owned media covered the first-ever meeting between Pope Francis and Kirill, patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, as a historic event. The official news agency, Tass, even ran a real-time blow-by-blow account. The meeting's value wasn't in any ecclesiastical breakthrough: The Pope, probably inadvertently, played a part in a Kremlin propaganda gambit.
Emissions lawsuit tipped to scare VW out of US market
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 07/01/2016
» The US government's lawsuit against Volkswagen threatens the German automaker with such heavy penalties that, in hindsight, it may not have been worth it for VW to be present in the US market at all.