In The News

Globe and Mail: Changes in Global Water Supply Hint at Future Crises

Ivan Semeniuk May 17, 2018
Satellite data suggest that world global water supplies are dispersing in some regions as glaciers and polar ice melts and consolidating in others – due to population growth, dams, rising demand for water and climate change. The analysis, based on 14 years of satellite data produced by the NASA-led satellite mission GRACE, provides “a comprehensive map of water trends around the world,” reports...

New York Times: Summary of US Russia Investigation

Mikayla Bouchard May 17, 2018
US special counsel Robert Mueller and a team of investigators have been at work for a year examining Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. A US Senate committee, also investigating, has released multiple documents. The New York Times presents a timeline summarizing themes of the investigation along with key dates, participants and targets. The investigation focuses on...

The Economist: Syria Is Erasing the Palestinians’ Largest Refugee Camp

May 14, 2018
Recent bombing by Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria and its Russian allies devastated Yarmouk camp, located on the southern edge of Damascus. The camp was once the Palestinians’ “largest and liveliest refugee camp, sheltering displaced Iraqis and Syrians too.” However, war, attacks by extremists and bombing have resulted in the violent displacement of 350,000 people who once called Yarmouk home....

Center for Public Integrity: TPS Cancellations in the US

Susan Ferriss May 8, 2018
Since 1990, the United States could grant temporary protected status for citizens of select countries with challenging conditions including conflict or disasters that prevented safe return. The Trump administration has announced an end of this protected status for citizens of Honduras as of January 2020 and Nepal as of June 2019. The limited status was granted to Hondurans after a 1998 hurricane...

Times of India: The Wuhan Puzzle

Nayan Chanda May 7, 2018
China and India, the world’s two most populous nations, are rivals for trade and regional influence. A two-day summit between Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi may have been a quest for cooperation and Nayan Chanda, writing for the Times of India, refers to a Mao Zedong theory on setting priorities: “In his famous work ‘On Contradiction,’ Mao stated successful policy depends on identifying the...

Project Syndicate: Why We Need Globalization

Koichi Hamada May 2, 2018
Open economies with active trade, immigration and foreign investment have historically enjoyed prosperity, and “globalization does not deserve voters’ ire,” argues Koichi Hamada for Project Syndicate. Competition does harm some communities and individuals, but governments can target policies that encourage economic security, job training and adaptation. “Yet such countervailing policies are...

Foreign Affairs: Reflexive Hostility to Russia Harms US Interests

Emma Ashford April 25, 2018
Many US leaders automatically adopt a tough stance on Russia to counter the US president’s reticence: “bipartisan enmity toward Russia has pushed even Trump, whose rhetoric on the country often vacillates between open hostility and admiration, to adopt reflexively hawkish policies, from purposeless sanctions to nuclear saber rattling,” notes Emma Ashford for Foreign Affairs. She encourages...