In The News

New York Times: Globalization’s Backlash Comes at Wrong Time

Neil Irwin March 28, 2018
US voters responded to promises of tariffs, jobs and protectionism during the 2016 presidential campaign and spurred a backlash to globalization: “It is coming after the major costs of globalization have already been borne,” explains Neil Irwin for the New York Times. “And it comes just as billions of people who have become integrated into the global economy over the last three decades are...

Guardian: Indigenous Women Confront Ecuador's President

Dan Collyns March 28, 2018
Amazon indigenous women are protesting oil drilling and mining in their territories, urging Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno to combat not only environmental exploitation but also the sexual and psychic violence “they claim accompany the industries.” A delegation of indigenous women met with Moreno after 100 protested by camping in Quito’s plaza near the Carondelet government palace for five days...

Washington Post: US Retreats From UN Leadership

Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León March 27, 2018
Migration is part of human history and human nature, sometimes the only means of surviving war, natural disaster or economic despair. In 2016, UN member states committed to negotiating the Global Compact on Migration. The United States, under the Trump administration, announced plans to withdraw from negotiations. The goal of the compact, not legally binding, is agreement on a “set of general...

The Economist: Egypt’s Election Offers No Choice

March 27, 2018
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi will win what the Economist is describing as a sham of an election. Opponent Moussa Mustafa Moussa “has lived up to a promise not to challenge the president,” notes the Economist. The election, March 26 to 28, is Egypt’s ninth national ballot since the 2011 revolution that ousted authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak. The first election in 2012 resulted in...

60 Minutes: The NBA’s Giannis Antetokounmpo

Steve Kroft March 26, 2018
The parents of Giannis Antetokounmpo, from Nigeria, landed in Greece as undocumented immigrants, living in poverty and teaching their children to embrace integration. The father gave his children Greek names and encouraged them to play basketball to fit in. At times, the brothers shared one pair of sneakers to play basketball. “They subsisted in the shadows of the economy, peddling goods on the...

CNN: Worldwide March for Our Lives and Gun Reform

Dakin Andone, Amanda Jackson and Isabella Gomez March 25, 2018
A tipping point was reached after 17 students and staff were gunned down in an affluent high school in Parkland, Florida. Survivors swiftly and articulately pointed to the US leading in gun violence and the need for controls like background checks and limits on assault weapons. They criticized politicians who instead do the bidding of industry associations like the National Rifle Association and...

New York Times: Bolton Used Cambridge Analytica’s Data

Matthew Rosenberg March 24, 2018
The Guardian and the New York Times recently reported that the London-based consulting firm Cambridge Analytica harvested more than 50 million Facebook profiles and assessed them for targeting with political advertising. Days later, Donald Trump fired his national security adviser and selected John Bolton, 69. In 2014, Bolton created a political action committee that paid more than $1 million to...