The Ukraine war remains the most important geopolitical conflict in the world, says bestselling author and historian Yuval Noah Harari.
In a wide-ranging conversation with Ian Bremmer filmed live at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, Harari says that if Russia wins in Ukraine, the global order as we’ve known it for decades is over. “The most fundamental rule was that you cannot just invade and conquer another country just because you’re stronger. This is exactly what Putin is trying to do in Ukraine.”
The conversation also touches on the potential ripple effects of Russia’s actions, suggesting that a successful annexation could embolden other nations to follow suit, destabilizing global peace. Harari even entertains the notion that we might be in the early stages of a third World War, unrecognized in the current moment, much like the early years of World War II were not immediately identified as such. “If he gets away with it, we’ll see more and more Putins all over the world” Harari says. “There is a scenario that we are already living in the midst of the third World War and we just don’t know it.”
30 Dec 2023 Full Episodes | 60 Minutes From January 2019, Scott Pelley’s interview with “the oracle of AI,” Kai-Fu Lee. From this past April, Pelley’s report on Google’s AI efforts. And from this past March, Lesley Stahl’s story on chatbots like ChatGPT and a world of unknowns. #news#artificialintelligence#technology “60 Minutes” is the most successful television broadcast in history. Offering hard-hitting investigative reports, interviews, feature segments and profiles of people in the news, the broadcast began in 1968 and is still a hit, over 50 seasons later, regularly making Nielsen’s Top 10.
16 Feb 2019 What if many of our health care issues could be solved not with drugs but with engineering? Watch Miles O’Brien, science correspondent for “PBS NewsHour,” and Dr. Ali Rezai, director of the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute at West Virginia University, discuss during a 1/31 event at Purdue University. See more at: purdue.edu/giantleaps
15 Jan 2024 American neurosurgeon Ali Rezai is pioneering ways to try to help people with drug addiction and with Alzheimer’s disease. One experiment focuses beams of ultrasound on the brain. “60 Minutes” is the most successful television broadcast in history. Offering hard-hitting investigative reports, interviews, feature segments and profiles of people in the news, the broadcast began in 1968 and is still a hit, over 50 seasons later, regularly making Nielsen’s Top 10.
France’s Macron wants to make abortion a right at EU level
Reuters
March 8, 2024 1:23 PM GMTUpdated 6 min ago
[1/3]People attend a ceremony to seal the right to abortion in the French constitution, on International Women’s Day, at the Place Vendome, in Paris, France March 8, 2024. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/Pool Purchase Licensing Rights
PARIS, March 8 (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that he wants the European Union to guarantee the right to an abortion in its Charter of Fundamental Rights.
Macron was speaking at a ceremony held in Paris, where Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti used a centuries-old press to seal the right to abortion into the French constitution, following an overwhelming vote by lawmakers on Monday.
“Today is not the end of the story but the start of a fight,” Macron told the ceremony, which coincided with International Women’s Day.
“We’re going to lead this fight in our continent, in our Europe, where reactionary forces are attacking women’s rights before attacking the rights of minorities,” he told the crowd attending the ceremony in Paris, in front of the Justice Ministry.
“This is why I want to enshrine that guaranteed freedom to abortion in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.”
Changing the EU charter, which would require unanimity, may prove difficult. While most of Europe has legalised abortion, some countries impose restrictions on women seeking to terminate a pregnancy, and deep divisions over abortion rights remain.
Last year, the government of EU member Malta backed down on a bill which would have allowed the abortion of pregnancies when the mother’s health was at serious risk, saying instead that terminations would only be allowed when the mother’s life was in danger.
Along with Malta, Poland’s anti-abortion laws are among the most restrictive in Europe. Pregnancy can be terminated only in cases of a threat to the mother’s life or health or in a case of rape, and the numberof abortions fell to 161 in 2022 from over 1,000 in 2020.
Monday’s vote by the two houses of the French parliament enshrined in Article 34 of the French constitution that “the law determines the conditions in which a woman has the guaranteed freedom to have recourse to an abortion”.
Abortion rights are more widely accepted in France than in the United States and many other countries, with polls showing around 80% of French people back the fact that abortion is legal.
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Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, Elizabeth Pineau, additional reporting by Tassilo Hummel, Editing by Ingrid Melander
Joe Biden is addressing the country on Thursday in his State of the Union address. Here’s some free advice about what he should say about the economy – which is the issue most voters care most about.
Instead of telling Americans the economy is great – which many will not believe – the president must tell them the truth: that most of the economic gains haven’t been felt by average working people because the gains have been going to the top.
Biden should denounce the greed and political corruption that have caused this.
He should explain that the biggest change in America over the last four decades – lurking behind the insecurities and resentments of many working people – has nothing to do with “woke-ism”, immigration, critical race theory, transgender kids, the “deep state”, or any other Republican bogeymen.
It’s been a huge upward shift in the distribution of income and wealth.
The nation’s economy has seen massive gains, but the income and wealth of the bottom 80% of America have barely budged while the income and wealth of the richest Americans have exploded.
This change didn’t happen because of the so-called “invisible hand” of the free market.
It happened because of policy decisions pushed by the monied interests – decisions that deregulated Wall Street, allowed corporations to bash unions and monopolize their industries, opened the American economy to Chinese imports, let pharmaceutical companies charge exorbitant prices, cut taxes on the rich and bailed out the biggest banks while saddling working people with student debt and medical debt.
In Biden’s first term he reversed much of this. He negotiated lower drug prices, funded infrastructure that will create good jobs, forgave some student debt, attacked monopolies and protected workers’ rights to organize. He even walked a picket line.
But in his second term Biden needs to tell Americans he’ll go even further.
Mr President, tell us you will:
Stop CEOs from raking in record-breaking 350 times the pay of average workers.
Support legislation linking the rate of taxes a corporation pays to the ratio of its CEO pay to average worker pay.
Enforce the antitrust laws against grocery chains and food processors that have kept food prices high.
Make it illegal for hedge fund and private equity managers to buy up houses to drive up rents when average Americans can barely afford to keep a roof over their heads.
Stop big banks and credit card companies from adding junk fees and charging usurious interest payments approaching 30%.
Prevent monopolies like Amazon from hurting small businesses and firing their workers for unionizing.
Raise taxes on the rich and lower them on average working Americans.
