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The Agency

Adrian Chen June 5, 2015
US companies, journalists and communities are being targeted with hoaxes about false disasters including fake videos and photographs over email and Twitter. Adrian Chen details a fake report of an explosion at a chemicals plant in Louisiana and describes a It was “a highly coordinated disinformation campaign, involving dozens of fake accounts that posted hundreds of tweets “fake screenshots from...

American Universities "Addicted to Chinese Students”

Matt Schiavenza June 1, 2015
About 3 percent of Chinese students attending US colleges and universities may have been expelled during the 2013-2014 academic year, most for failing classes or cheating; more than 270,000 students from China enrolled in US institutions that year. “Over 60 percent of Chinese students cover the full cost of an American university education themselves, effectively subsidizing the education of...

China's Unprecedented Investment Offensive in Latin America

Juan de Onis May 29, 2015
The United States is paralyzed by partisan divide, particularly over the Trans-Pacific Partnership that could boost trade with Asia. Meanwhile, China continues to build trade ties, including “an unprecedented investment offensive in South America,” as described by Juan de Onis for World Affairs Journal. Li Keqiang, China’s premier, signed 35 bilateral agreements with Brazil totaling $53 billion...

Headwinds as the US Moves Toward Secretive Trade Agreement

David Dapice May 19, 2015
The very notion of global trade would suggest openness – and certainly a lack of secrets. But the Trans-Pacific Partnership is a new kind of agreement, one that pushes deep integration and focuses on regulations for corporations as well as lower tariffs, explains economist David Dapice. Twelve nations including the United States, Japan, Australia, Canada, Mexico – but not China – are...

Muslims in Texas Walk a Fine Line After Garland Shooting

Manny Fernandez and Laurie Goodstein May 18, 2015
Muslim leaders in Texas pointedly ignored plans for a Dallas exhibition of Prophet Mohammed cartoons, but worried how free speech could devolve into hate speech that incites violence. Sure enough, two men storming the event with guns were shot and killed. An article in the New York Times describes how one leader pondered a “response that would walk a fine line: clearly condemning the extremists...

California Drought: Almond Growers Fight Back Over Reports They Are Causing Chronic Water Shortages

Tim Walker May 15, 2015
The almond – and popular products like almond milk and almond butter – have become a target of austerity measure as California officials scramble for ways to conserve water and ease the state’s severe drought. Tim Walker reports for the Independent: “California grows 80 per cent of the world’s almonds, but it is two other widely reported statistics that have caused controversy: cultivating a...

Calls to Punish China Grow

Josh Rogin May 13, 2015
Some in US Congress and the military expect President Barack Obama to rescind an invitation to China on participating in the 2016 Rim of the Pacific military exercises, known as RIMPAC. China’s critics warn “about its military buildup in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, which includes a rapid plan to build military-friendly infrastructure on new islands in waters where at least six...