
Erotica, gore and racism: how America’s war on ‘ideological bias’ is letting AI off the leash
Feb 25, 2025 07:51 am UTC| Insights & Views Technology
Badly behaved artificial intelligence (AI) systems have a long history in science fiction. Way back in 1961, in the famous Astro Boy comics by Osamu Tezuka, a clone of a popular robot magician was reprogrammed into a...

Feb 25, 2025 07:50 am UTC| Insights & Views Governance Politics
In recent days, the Chinese Navy conducted two live-fire military exercises in waters near Australia and New Zealand, sparking concern in both countries. The Albanese government lodged a diplomatic protest with Beijing....

South Africa’s ‘working for water’ programme is meant to lead to skills and jobs: why it’s failing
Feb 25, 2025 07:49 am UTC| Insights & Views Business Economy
South Africas Expanded Public Works Programme is part of its social safety net. It complements the countrys social grants system, which has over 28 million recipients. The public works programme helps fill a gap for people...

Ukraine war: Trump is not trying to appease Putin – he has a vision of a new US-China-Russia order
Feb 25, 2025 07:49 am UTC| Economy Insights & Views Politics
There has been much and justified focus on the implications of a likely deal between US president Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and the overwhelmingly negative consequences this will have for...

Asteroid has a very small chance of hitting Earth in 2032, but a collision could devastate a city
Feb 25, 2025 07:48 am UTC| Insights & Views Science
In December 2024, astronomers in Chile spotted a new asteroid streaking through the sky, which they named 2024 YR4. Whats significant about this 100m-wide space rock is that it has a small chance of hitting Earth in 2023....

The quest to extend human life is both fascinating and fraught with moral peril
Feb 25, 2025 07:48 am UTC| Insights & Views Health Entertainment
Who wants to live forever? Freddie Mercury mournfully asks in Queens 1986 song of the same name. The answer: Quite a few people so much so that life extension has long been a cottage industry. As a physician and scholar...

Feb 25, 2025 07:47 am UTC| Insights & Views Law Health
After a long, largely successful march over 25 years to liberalize cannabis laws in the United States, the movement had a tough election in 2024. Legalization ballot measures failed in Florida, North Dakota and South...