In The News

A Link Between Climate Change and Joplin Tornadoes? Never!

Bill McKibben May 25, 2011
The US government and media are like children who have joined a strange cult, and environmentalists take on the role of frustrated parents trying to show connections between behavior and consequences. Many in the US stubbornly resist connecting extreme weather events with climate change. News anchors, reporters, government weather officials studiously avoid mentioning climate change, carbon...

US Sours on Globalization

Nayan Chanda May 25, 2011
One concern trumps all others for Americans: a lack of jobs. Resentment is high about the high unemployment rate, ongoing layoffs, declining wages and rising costs even as multinational corporations earn record profits and hire low-cost labor in emerging markets. More US job openings are in retail and the service sector than manufacturing. Americans target their ire at globalization and market...

Obama Europe Trip

May 23, 2011
The US and partners in Europe face many challenges – growing unrest in North Africa, winding down war in Afghanistan as well as leadership of the International Monetary Fund – all to be discussed during the G8 meeting and Barack Obama’s weeklong visit to the continent. Elections are scheduled in Tunisia and Egypt later this year, but for the West to exercise influence requires funds, and debt...

513 Migrants in Two Tractor-Trailers

Ioan Grillo May 20, 2011
Mexican police, screening tractor-trailers for illegal cargo with X-rays, detected more than 500 people crammed inside two trucks. US border controls and kidnapping dangers in Mexico force immigrants to turn to smuggling cartels. Each immigrant reportedly paid smugglers $7000 for passage to the US – more than $3.5 million in all. “[A]mid the drug war, Mexico's southern border has become...

Desperate Americans Buy Kidneys From Peru Poor in Fatal Trade

Michael Smith May 17, 2011
With organ transplants, technological capability outpaces supply. Selling organs is illegal in virtually all nations, but the laws do not deter desperate parties. “In the illegal organ trade, brokers scour the world’s slums, preying on the poor with promises of easy money and little risk in exchange for a kidney,” writes Michael Smith for Bloomberg. Kidney donors sign documents that no payment is...

The War Over Lipitor

Katherine Eban May 16, 2011
A generic version of the world’s top-selling prescription drug – Lipitor – was anticipated this fall, and Katherine Eban, writing for Fortune, suggests that “Generic-drug companies are now feuding like greedy relatives at Lipitor's graveside.” Exclusive rights to sell drugs end 20 years after the patent application is filed. The first generic maker to file patent for a viable substitute – in...

Libyan Fallout: Does NATO Divide the Atlantic Partners? Part II

Tomas Valasek May 12, 2011
Despite internal divisions, Europe handily leads the military campaign in Libya, taking on global-policing duties long shouldered by the US. NATO’s objectives have shifted and expanded since 1949, with members divided about threats and strategy. This YaleGlobal series analyzes the transformation in the NATO alliance resulting from the Libyan crisis. Members share common goals, and thus the...