SYDNEY – Since 2018, large antigovernment protests—what some term the Arab Spring 2.0—have reverberated across the Middle East. Protesters decry corruption, sectarianism, and economic stagnation. Like the Arab uprisings a decade ago, these protests have successfully unseated key leaders—prime ministers have resigned in Lebanon, Iraq, and Jordan, and long-term dictators were toppled in Sudan and Algeria.

On January 2, the BBC reported about a study regarding the use of artificial intelligence in making medical diagnosis. The tests carried out during the study showed that the AI based computer system outperformed human doctors in diagnosing breast cancer. The computer algorithm outperformed radiologists in reading mammograms and diagnosing correctly.

In Nepal like in many other countries, you often read about CEOs of big businesses like major banks or corporate groups talking about leadership and management as if only power, money, that often come from privilege, are the only essential determinants of leadership. With media houses in search for the cool guy able to talk leadership and give wise advice, it all smells of entitlement and power.

Nepal is my second home.​This could be surprising for many people. Everyone would aspire to go to developed countries like the United States and the UK and take pride in living in New York, London or Paris, rather than in dusty Kathmandu. I have tried to tell them about snowy mountains, sacred temples, deep beliefs, and kind smiles, but obviously it is difficult to convince others, and not even for myself.

All communication scholars across the globe unanimously agree that human beings cannot NOT communicate. Even silence is strong communication among them. Biologically, communication mechanism lies within us. Mentally, intra-psychological communication incessantly occurs within us. Socially, communication is an essential process of co-existential relations and mutual transactions.

“Change is the only constant in life.” This is what Heraclitus, the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, had once said. Little did he know then that his words of wisdom would be an important life lesson for all generations to come.

TEL AVIV – Nobody should be surprised that US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace proposal is heavily tilted toward the Israelis. What is surprising is that, rather than rejecting Trump’s proposal, the world has left the Palestinians largely on their own.

Let yours truly take you guys back to the 13th century on merchant ships infested with flea-plagued rodents, before bringing you back to the troubling times of today.

“Visiting Canada Senate speaker not scheduled to meet Agni Sapkota,” went the newspaper headline a few days back. This front-page news regarding Canadian Senate Speaker George J Fury who was in Kathmandu recently carried a significant message.

LONDON – Sinn Féin’s success in Ireland’s February 8 general election, where it headed the poll, has come as a shock, owing to the party’s historic ties to the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and that organization’s association with violence. The cause of its success was domestic discontent, not nationalist fervor. Nevertheless, Sinn Féin’s victory will put Irish unity—and thus the future of Northern Ireland’s inclusion in the United Kingdom—firmly on the agenda.