In The News

Wired: The Hard Consequences of Google’s Soft Power

Nitasha Tiku September 4, 2017
Google and parent company Alphabet resist being perceived as a global monopoly in need of additional regulation. Regulators around the globe struggle to keep up with the many high-tech firms that both provide an array of information and collect data on user behavior. The European Union fined Google €2.5 billion for prioritizing its comparison-shopping service in search engine results and expects...

EOS: USGS Library Cuts Would Harm Research, Education

Kimberly M. S. Cartier September 3, 2017
An austere US budget proposal targets education, research and programs that analyze climate change. “The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Library, home to one of the largest Earth and natural science collections in the world, faces a 52% funding decrease in the fiscal year (FY) 2018 federal budget proposed by President Donald Trump,” reports Kimberly M. S. Cartier for EOS Earth & Space Science...

The New York Times: Hurricane Harvey Was No Surprise

Noah S. Diffenbaugh August 29, 2017
The slow-moving disaster of Hurricane Harvey for the Houston area shouldn’t have surprised anyone. The US National Weather Service was accurate in forecasting the slow-moving storm with heavy rain, and researchers around the globe have long warned about the risks of climate change, including increased precipitation. But many in the United States, especially those living in fossil-fuel production...

Economics Wire: 3 Trends Shaping Global Labor Market

August 25, 2017
Technology, culture and globalization are influencing the global labor market, and Economics Wire identifies three trends. First, the internet is connecting more work equipment. More people work from home and other remote locations. Researchers are quickly developing robots and artificial intelligence, putting any task performed by humans under threat. Second, the workday is shrinking – which...

Reuters: Globalization's Castaways Haunt Central Bankers

Jonathan Spicer and Howard Schneider August 24, 2017
Central bankers insist that open borders and free trade contribute to national and individual prosperity. Yet at the US Federal Reserve research conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, bankers and economists acknowledge a challenge for the elderly, the poor, the uneducated, and the workers who lose their jobs due to technological advances and competition within their own country or beyond – anyone...

The Seattle Times: Live With a Nuclear North Korea and Help It Feel Less Cornered

Walter Hatch August 23, 2017
The United States should not over-react to news that North Korea is a nuclear power. “While Kim [Jong Un] is clearly cruel, he is not crazy,” writes Walter Hatch for the Seattle Times. “What we often forget is that North Korea is also a cornered state, one without any real allies in the world. This is largely a function of juche, the complex policy of ‘self-reliance.’” The regime’s goal is...

CBC News: US Opens NAFTA Talks With Focus on Trade Balance and Deficit of Facts

Chris Hall August 18, 2017
In opening talks with representatives from Canada and Mexico to renegotiate the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement, the US representative argued for a complete overhaul of the 23-year-old trade deal. “NAFTA has fundamentally failed many, many Americans,” insists Robert Lighthizer in an article by Chris Hall for CBC News. The United States has trade deficits with Canada and Mexico, but overall,...