Around a month ago now, I got an email from Doha Debates inviting me (and anyone else who signed up at their booth during the Career Fair) to sign up for one of their upcoming debates. The question posed to the would-be debaters was as follows:   “Superintelligence, Is humanity ready for the intelligence explosion?” Putting aside that ‘superintelligence’ and the ‘intelligence explosion’ are both entirely meaningless and demagogue-like phrases, the debate topic (which should

After fourteen years of war and the toppling of the Assad regime on December, 8th 2024, Syria faces an unparalleled reconstruction task. One third of the country’s capital stock is damaged or destroyed, and the estimated rebuilding bill accumulated to hundreds of billions of dollars. The World Bank’s “best estimate” is about $216 billion   (roughly ten times of Syria’s 2024 GDP), while other assessments put it as high as $250–400 billion. Syria’s economy has contracted sharpl

Friedrich Merz,   German Chancellor (Christian Democratic Union), has once again stirred up a public outcry following his recent speech on large-scale deportations of migrants in Germany. Recently, Merz preached about the necessity of changing the "cityscape" in Germany - a term describing the appearance of a city in order to legitimize his planned mass deportations of immigrants. His statement has caused major reputational backlash within German society and represents once