All posts tagged: collective

As France battles unprecedented wildfires, Caroit urges collective global action on climate change

As France battles unprecedented wildfires, Caroit urges collective global action on climate change

Published by Sam Flores

Delano D’Souza is pleased to welcome French Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Éléonore Caroit (France’s Minister Delegate for Francophonie, International Partnerships and French Nationals Abroad). She discusses France’s response to an unprecedented heatwave and wildfire season through three interconnected lenses: operational crisis management, international solidarity, and climate governance. Caroit distinguishes between the immediate demands of emergency response and the longer term structural challenges posed by climate change, including adaptation, infrastructure resilience, and urban planning. While arguing that governments must continually strengthen preparedness and invest in adaptation, she maintains that no level of national capacity alone can adequately confront a crisis driven by global greenhouse gas emissions. In her view, effective domestic action must be matched by sustained international climate cooperation, making collective global engagement an essential component of both disaster response and long term climate resilience.  Keywords for this article Source link

‘As Light as Air’ Doc Film Trailer: Collective Ecstasy in Pakistan

‘As Light as Air’ Doc Film Trailer: Collective Ecstasy in Pakistan

Published by Daniella Wilson

As Light as Air is the title of Pakistani filmmaker Umair Bilal’s feature debut, which will world premiere on Aug. 11 in the Critics’ Weeks lineup of the 79th edition of the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. But things are not only light but also hypnotic in the cinematic world that the experimental documentary invites people into. After all, it dives into spiritual life in Sehwan, Pakistan, a Sufi city “shaped by pilgrimage, folklore and collective ecstasy,” as the press notes highlight. Sufism is the major expression of mysticism in Islam. “Every day, pilgrims, wanderers, and seekers arrive in a Sufi town carrying grief, hope, and longing,” reads a synopsis on the festival’s website. “Drawn together by music and devotion, they surrender themselves to a shared state of trance.” Bilai also produced the film and handled cinematography together with Konstantin Stell. The editor is Siddhant Sarin, while Sui Sofie Heinz and YANT are responsible for the music. “My connection to the city of Sehwan is personal. My mother followed Sufism and took me to shrines when I …

Ezra Collective ‘wouldn’t exist’ without festivals like Montreux, band say

Ezra Collective ‘wouldn’t exist’ without festivals like Montreux, band say

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the inside track from Roisin O’Connor with our free weekly music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Music festivals have a responsibility to help “tell the stories” of artists who perform on their lineup, the CEO of Montreux Jazz Festival has said, as Ezra Collective declared they “wouldn’t exist” without festivals such as Montreux “giving us a chance”. As the historic festival concludes the first of its two-week programme, while celebrating its landmark 60th edition, CEO Mathieu Jaton told The Independent about their approach to curating an extraordinary lineup of both legends and newcomers each year. “We need to create bridges between the two,” he said. “When we had RAYE at the festival in 2024, the first thing she told the audience was how her heroes had played there decades before – Nina Simone, Etta James – so it becomes about that lineage.” RAYE opened this year’s Montreux Jazz Festival with a special performance the British star curated herself, featuring …

How America’s 250th birthday became a test of AI-powered collective intelligence

How America’s 250th birthday became a test of AI-powered collective intelligence

Published by skeptic

Imagine if you could bring 250 people together in a massive room and have them discuss and debate an important issue, arguing the points and counterpoints, and converging on answers that accurately reflect their collective knowledge, wisdom, values, and sensibilities. Now imagine that you convened this debate on America’s 250th birthday and asked 250 randomly selected Americans to come up with the top three innovations that America has contributed to the world over the last 250 years. What would they come up with? I know – this all sounds impossible.  After all, you can’t get more than a dozen people to have a productive conversation on anything. At large scale, nobody would get enough airtime to express their views or respond to others. This is why typical business meetings or focus groups never have more than 8 to 10 people. Thoughtful real-time conversations just don’t scale. To solve this, a new category of AI technology called “hyper-communication” is greatly expanding the size, scope, and efficiency of large-scale deliberations. It uses specialized AI agents to connect …

NATO Leaders Including Trump to Affirm ‘Ironclad Commitment’ to Collective Defence in Ankara, Summit Text Says

NATO Leaders Including Trump to Affirm ‘Ironclad Commitment’ to Collective Defence in Ankara, Summit Text Says

Published by Sam Flores

By Andrew Gray and Lili Bayer BRUSSELS, July 3 (Reuters) – ⁠NATO ⁠leaders including U.S. President ⁠Donald Trump are set to affirm an “ironclad commitment” to collective defence ​under the alliance’s Article 5 pact at a summit in Ankara next week, according to ‌a text approved by NATO ‌ambassadors on Friday and reviewed by Reuters. NATO members are also set to pledge €70 billion ($80 ⁠billion) in ⁠military assistance to Ukraine for 2026 and “at least equivalent levels” of ​support in 2027, according to the declaration, which still needs final approval from the leaders at the summit. “We … have gathered in Ankara to reaffirm our ironclad commitment to our collective ​defence under Article 5 of the Washington Treaty and to the transatlantic bond. An ⁠attack ⁠on one is an attack ⁠on all,” ​says the declaration for the summit, which takes place on July 7 and 8. Trump ​has frequently railed against ⁠NATO and its members, accusing them of not spending enough on defence and relying on the United States to protect Europe. After clashing …

The Contagion of Worry: A Tale of Collective Anxiety

The Contagion of Worry: A Tale of Collective Anxiety

Published by Jenni Sidey

Several days ago, a disturbing headline sent me into an anxious spin. From a single news story, my mind spun a dozen scary versions of what might happen next. Flooded with the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol, my brain went into overdrive, worries popping off like firecrackers, my anxious mind preparing for every “what if.” Our rational mind tells us worry is wasted psychic energy, but worry is a difficult habit to break. Psychologist Albert Ellis, creator of Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT), first used the word “catastrophe” as a verb—to catastrophize—in his 1962 book Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy. Catastrophizing is a habit of mind. Catastrophic worriers turn minor dilemmas into worst-case scenarios. Imagining the worst arises from a protective instinct that aims to prepare us for future threats. Worry and fear are bedmates. Fear is a physiological reaction focused on a perceived immediate threat; worry is a thought process; worry is our brain thinking about what it fears.1 In this era of major rapid upheavals, we have our personal fears — worries about …

Tesla HW3 claim grows to 7,000 owners, gets law firm backing for collective action

Tesla HW3 claim grows to 7,000 owners, gets law firm backing for collective action

Published by skeptic

The Dutch collective claim against Tesla over broken “Full Self-Driving” promises on Hardware 3 vehicles has reached nearly 7,000 verified participants and secured backing from law firm Kennedy Van der Laan for a formal legal action. The initiative, which launched in April with 3,000 signups in its first week, is now preparing to transfer the case to a foundation that will pursue the claim on behalf of all participants under Dutch collective action law. What the claim covers The organizer behind HW3 Claim, Dutch Tesla owner Mischa Sigtermans, published a detailed update today laying out the full scope of the legal action. The claim targets two components of what Tesla owners paid for: First, a portion of every pre-HW4 Tesla’s catalogue value is attributable to the promise that the hardware was “suitable for full self-driving.” This applies to every HW3 owner regardless of whether they purchased a separate FSD package. Second, owners who paid separately for the Full Self-Driving package — which cost up to €6,400 in the Netherlands — can claim a refund of …

End collective worship laws, NSS urges Welsh Government

End collective worship laws, NSS urges Welsh Government

Published by Sam Flores

The National Secular Society has urged the Welsh Government to abolish laws requiring daily acts of collective worship in schools. The law in England and Wales requires children at all state-funded schools to “each school day take part in an act of collective worship”. Even in schools with no religious character, the worship must be “wholly or mainly of a Christian character”. Writing to Cabinet Minister for Education and the Welsh Language Anna Brychan MS, the NSS said repealing the laws would be a “welcome step towards inclusion for Welsh people of all backgrounds and beliefs, and a recognition of the demographic reality of Wales today”. The 2021 Census revealed the nonreligious to be the largest religion or belief group in Wales at 47% of the population – a 15 percentage point increase since 2011. Christians are now a minority at 44% of the country – a 14 percentage point decrease in the same time period. The NSS said that, with these trends towards increasing irreligiosity and religious diversity set to continue, imposing Christian prayer …

Why personal and collective risk-taking need completely different rules

Why personal and collective risk-taking need completely different rules

Published by Jenni Sidey

Human beings are transformed by parenthood, grief, war, love, technology, and new ways of thinking. But the experiences that reshape us most are also the hardest to measure, predict, or govern. Yale professor of philosophy L.A. Paul argues that the future demands curiosity, humility, and a better understanding of how change remakes the people living through it. This video Why personal and collective risk-taking need completely different rules is featured on Big Think. Source link

How the Gulf will manage collective security after the Iran war ends | US-Israel war on Iran News

How the Gulf will manage collective security after the Iran war ends | US-Israel war on Iran News

Published by Sam Flores

As Washington and Tehran move towards a long-term ceasefire agreement, Gulf states will likely look for new long-term security solutions when a war in their region – which they did not start – finally ends. It comes as United States President Donald Trump cancelled new strikes on Iran saying that a deal with Tehran was imminent, and that a “time” and “place” for signing would soon be announced. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list In Tehran, officials appeared more cautious with one senior Iranian official telling Al Jazeera that the government was still reviewing a proposed Memorandum of Understanding with Washington. Subsequent comments by Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif point to a deal being made, and what follows in the coming days could have important implications for collective regional security. Attacks on the Gulf The United States operates military facilities in at least 19 locations across the MENA region, including permanent bases in Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. …