Murdoch’s broken family weaponize his own secrets against him

Bonfire of the Murdochs is the real succession story of the Murdoch empire. When Rupert Murdoch made a fateful decision about who should inherit his media colossus, he believed that pitting his children against each other would produce the most capable heir. Twenty-five years later that gamble would tear apart one of the world’s most powerful families and trigger a multi-million dollar reckoning in a succession battle featuring betrayals, lawsuits, and revenge plots.  This is the epic family feud, one whose seeds were planted 50 years ago in Australia, when he complicated patriarch left his homeland to conquer the world and … Continue reading Murdoch’s broken family weaponize his own secrets against him

Dangers ahead

Acclaimed Historian and professor of the history of International realtions at the University of Cambridge, Brendan Simms, brings a sweeping study of the past, present and future of the Great Powers revealing changing new rules of global leadership. From the dawn of the modern era to the end of the Cold War, global history was defined by rivalries between Great Powers. In the West, this meant the struggle for supremacy in Europe and the Americas, while in the East, it encompassed those vying for control over the successor states to Genghis Khan’s empire. Between 1989 and the year 2000, Great … Continue reading Dangers ahead

Linguicide: cultural emergency, as half of 7,000 languages due to disappear this century

Journalist Sophia Smith Galer who learnt French and Spanish at school  and added Arabic at university, travels across continents and generations to chart How to Kill a Language. She travel to Ghana to Kurdistan to explore minority languages that cling on, despite repression and neglect, and interview their speakers. In Ecuador, she sees first hand how shame deters parents from passing Kichwa onto their children. In Oman, she learns about languages with roots older than Arabic but never officially recognised. Smith Galer rushes to the 93-year-old emigrée’s beside in north London. In Italy, near Placenza where she grew up, she searches for … Continue reading Linguicide: cultural emergency, as half of 7,000 languages due to disappear this century

Trump lands in Beijing two trillion dollar leverage

American President Donald Trump is not politician but a businessman, landed in Beijing. When a president makes travels to a diplomatic summit a state visit, he brings diplomats, advisers and officials. Trump brought Tim Cook (Apple), Elon Musk (Tesla & SpaceXKelly), Larry Fink (Black Rock),Jamie Dimon (JP Morgan), Nvidia (Jensen Huang),  Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Laurence Culp Jr. ( GE Aerospace), Ryan McInerney (Mastercard), Kelly Ortberg (Boeing), Stephen Schwarzman(Blackstone), Brian Sikes (Cargill) David Solomon(Goldman Sachs), Jacob Thaysen (Illumina Conciliatory measures), Cristiano Amon (Qualcomm) including 17 American CEOs. You don’t bring the most powerful private sector CEOs on earth to a foreign capital … Continue reading Trump lands in Beijing two trillion dollar leverage

Do we have the courage to learn amid “Existential risk”?, a survival kit for the gloomy world

Award-winning journalist, John Kampfner travel to ten countries confronting our shared challenges with bravery and imagination provides a “survival kit” for a world enveloped in gloom. Kampfner’s Braver New World reveals ground breaking exploration of the countries solving the world’s most pressing problems differently and the lessons for the rest of the world. Democracies often gets paralyzed by fear and populations are turning inward. In Japan, he discovers inter-generational care homes ensuring dignity in later life. He visits Vienna’s century-old housing projects where 60 per cent of resident live in subsidised accommodation without stigma and communities thrive. Taiwan’s health system … Continue reading Do we have the courage to learn amid “Existential risk”?, a survival kit for the gloomy world

Is future bright or domination over others? Live life on our own terms

Ancient Oracles and medieval astrology that preceded used to be the prophets of the yesteryears which is taken over by the Tech empires. Award-winning University of Oxford Professor Carissa Véliz in Prophecy argues why we must reclaim that power and shows us how.   For thousands of years, oracles, seers and astrologers advised leaders and commoners alike about the future. But predictions are often power plays in disguise obfuscating accountability and stripping individuals of their agency. Today we face the same threat of powerful prophets but under a new façade: tech.   Not only do modern predictions made by tech … Continue reading Is future bright or domination over others? Live life on our own terms

The King’s Speech

“Mr Vice President, Mr Speaker, Members of Congress, representative of the American people across all states, territories cities and communities I would like to take this opportunity to express my particular gratitude to all for the great honour  of addressing this joint meeting of Congress and on behalf of the Queen and myself to thank the American people for welcoming us to the United States to mark this semi- Semiquincentennial year of Declaration of Independence. As my Prime Minister said last month Ours is an indispensable partnership.The executive power is   Subject to checks and balances.” It was a Masterclass in soft diplomacy … Continue reading The King’s Speech

Dispossessed, displaced, politically homeless and economically excluded immigrant

Ever wondered what is it like to be an immigrant- without a home in a world where people with home make the rules? Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Non-fiction from the internationally acclaimed Turkish Ece Tmelkuran author of How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Fascism: A personal exploration of exile and a galvanizing new vision of home. Dear stranger. Are you home? Do you feel home? For how much longer? Across the world the number of refugees and exiles, the dispossessed and displaced, the politically homeless and the economically excluded is growing. In the … Continue reading Dispossessed, displaced, politically homeless and economically excluded immigrant

 Insight into India’s economic prosperity and dramatic growth

Arvind Subramanian, a former chief economic adviser to the Indian government, and Devesh Kapur, a professor at John Hopkins University, provides a definitive guide to India’s 75-year development odyssey and dramatic growth. Democracy took root upon its independence in 1947, before significant development, social change and nation-building efforts. India’s development path skewed towards high-skilled service jobs, while a majority remain in fragile informal work. The authors compare relatively successful states such as Kerala with those that have struggled, including West Bengal and Punjab.  They reveal diagnosis of a country that has achieved impressive growth while struggling to translate it into broad-based … Continue reading  Insight into India’s economic prosperity and dramatic growth

Subversion of old Africa by the ways of the outside world

Nobel Prize-winning author, Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul’s The Masque of Africa is all about African belief, begins in Uganda, at the centre of the continent, do Ghana and Nigeria, the Ivory Coast and Gabon, and end at the bottom of the continent, in South Africa. My theme is belief, not political or economical life, and yet at the bottom of the continent the political realities are so overwhelming that they have to be taken into account. “Perhaps an unspoken aspect of my inquiry was the possibility of the subversion of old Africa by the ways of the outside world. The theme … Continue reading Subversion of old Africa by the ways of the outside world