In The News

AFP: Chemical Inspectors Enter Syria’s Douma

April 17, 2018
A team of investigators with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons landed in Syria to examine the reported April 7 gas attack near Damascus, but delays block them from entering the neighborhood. The United States, France and Britain had already launched missile strikes on military sites. French President Emmanuel Macron admitted that missile strikes will do little in protecting...

Politico: US Foreign Visas Plunge Under Trump

Nahal Toosi, Ted Hesson and Sarah Frostenson April 16, 2018
The United States is granting visitor visas at a lower rate to applicants from around the world, according to Politico’s analysis of State Department data – a trend suggesting that government officials have adopted President Donald Trump’s hardline attitude toward immigration, legal or otherwise. Due to limited information, the writers could not determine how much of the downward turn is due to...

Asian Age: EU to Ban Palm Oil in Biodiesel

Sudheer Mopperthy April 16, 2018
Palm oil transformed from an alternative energy that could reduce carbon emissions to an eco-nightmare and mass burning of rainforest habitat to make room for more plantations: “One of the biggest issues raised was that using palm oil for biodiesel is an inefficient use of agricultural land,” notes Sudheer Mopperthy for the Asian Age. Likewise the European Union went form a pledge that 10 percent...

New York Times: Attack in Syria, a World of Potential Risks

Ben Hubbard April 14, 2018
The United States, France and British launched airstrikes outside Damascus with the goal of reducing the Syria’s chemical weapons capacity. The strikes pose a “risk of drawing the United States even more deeply into a conflict in which Russia and Iran… have more invested than ever in keeping President Bashar al-Assad in power.” Russia called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting. Syria...

Times of India: Can Trump Charm Kim?

Nayan Chanda April 13, 2018
US President Donald Trump relies on global crises and foreign policy disruptions to distract from an ongoing investigation into Russian meddling with the 2016 US presidential election: tariff threats, US troop withdrawal from Syria and missile threats, dispatch of US troops to the Mexican border and notably a snap decision to meet with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. “All of these moves threaten to...

Reuters: US to Take Another Look at TPP

April 13, 2018
One of President Donald Trump’s early acts in office was to withdraw the United States from Trans Pacific Partnership – a trade pact for Pacific Rim nations. The other 11 nations, led by Japan, concluded the negotiation without the United States and with some US-supported terms on investment and intellectual property. “Republican senators met with Trump on Thursday and he told them that he has...

Nature: Ocean Circulation Is Changing

April 12, 2018
Rising temperatures and melting polar ice influence the system of ocean currents that shift cold water from Greenland. “Since the 1950s, geologists and oceanographers have been gathering convincing evidence that alterations in ocean circulation are a key determinant of climate change,” notes an editorial from Nature, warning that abrupt shifts in the past have resulted in dramatic temperature...