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Switzerland votes to relax immigration rules in defiance of anti-Muslim rhetoric
Early returns show Swiss voters want to make it easier for "third-generation" foreigners to get Swiss citizenship. Swiss broadcaster SRF said Sunday's projections showed that the "simplified naturalisation of third-generation immigrants" measure passed in a national referendum. It will Read More...
Politics 2.0: Fixing democracy with technology
Can technology help fix democracy and bring citizens closer to their governments? That’s an inspiring new challenge for Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who have recently opened up the sharing economy. “We tackle hard problems, we plow through walls, that’s what we do for a living,” says one Read More...
Europe's cleanest-living teens: Iceland knows how to prevent drug abuse
In 1998 the percentage of 15- and 16-year-olds in Iceland who had been drunk in the previous month stood at 42 percent. Today it is 5 percent. The percentage who have ever used cannabis was 17 percent; today it is 7 percent. And the percentage of those smoking cigarettes every day fell from 23 to Read More...
The world's happiest and greenest countries
Costa Rica was the most environmentally advanced and happiest place on Earth last year, followed by Mexico, Colombia, Vanuatu and Vietnam. So concluded the World Economic Forum's Happy Planet Index, which recently released its 2016 ranking of "where in the world people are using ecological Read More...
Could restoring ancient water tanks help build peace in Sri Lanka?
After almost three decades of civil war, Sri Lanka has the daunting task of nurturing cohesion in its multi-faith and multi-ethnic community while also addressing the increasing impacts of climate change. The small island country is already facing environmental challenges that could dwarf the Read More...
Colombia begins peace talks with ELN rebels to end 52-year war
Colombia's Marxist ELN rebels began official peace talks with the government on Tuesday in a bid to end their part in a five-decade conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, damaged the economy and left millions displaced. The National Liberation Army (ELN), the nation's Read More...
Nearly 100 tech companies file court document opposing Trump’s immigration ban
Nearly 100 American companies have filed an amicus brief expressing their opposition to an executive order by US president Donald Trump that places immigration restrictions on citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries. They filed the letter late Sunday (Feb. 5) to the 9th Circuit Court of Read More...
The Netherlands keeps closing prisons because it doesn't have enough prisoners
The Netherlands closed five prisons in 2016 after the country closed 19 prisons in 2014 and eight in 2009. Crime is down, sentences are too and there are fewer and fewer inmates to put in the cells. Sweden is also closing jails for the same reason as the Read More...
What are the chances of being killed by a terrorist attack on U.S. soil?
Terrorism is a destabilizing scourge on the world. It disrupts societies and steals lives. It is also something less likely to kill an American than much more ordinary dangers. According to risk analysis research from 2016 by the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, since 9/11, an average of 9 Read More...
British lawyer plots legal bid to make Brexit reversible
As British lawmakers gather to debate whether to trigger the formal exit from the European Union, London lawyer Jolyon Maugham is building a case which he hopes will ensure that British voters can still reverse it. The 45-year-old tax specialist, an opponent of leaving the EU, said it was right for Read More...