In The News

Los Angeles Times: Muslim and Latino Groups Unite During Ramadan

Anh Do June 6, 2017
Activists are seeking to unite Muslim and Latino communities in Orange County, California, and joined in organizing an event to celebrate the Islamic holy month of Ramadan with Taco Trucks at Every Mosque. “Organizers said the idea is to demystify Islam through the sharing of food and to unite two groups, Muslims and Latinos, facing increasing discrimination in the Trump era,” reports Anh Do for...

Bloomberg: Trump's Big Paris Mistake

June 6, 2017
By refusing to confront the growing and many risks associated with climate change, Donald Trump is breaking a vow to run the country like a business. “Any rational, responsible business leader, faced with an existential threat to his enterprise, would take steps to manage the risk,” argues a Bloomberg editorial. Rising seas threaten the tourism industry, high temperatures and droughts threaten...

BBC: Why Citizenship Is Now a Commodity

Katie Beck June 5, 2017
For more than two decades, governments have dangled citizenship in exchange for investments. “As more countries tighten their borders and paths to immigration, a new industry is working to bypass those restrictions – for a hefty fee,” reports BBC News. “The specifics of different investment citizenship programmes vary by country. They allow foreigners to invest in real-estate projects and...

Al-Ahram Weekly: Failure in Geneva

Bassel Oudat June 4, 2017
The Syrian opposition and Assad regime attended a sixth round of talks in Geneva to end the civil war, just before Donald Trump’s trip to the Middle East. Little progress was reported, and there is a sense that the talks in Geneva compete with Russian-led talks in Astana to end the war. UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura proposed “formation of a precarious human rights and constitutional...

The New York Times: As Trump Exits Paris Agreement, Other Nations Are Defiant

Somini Sengupta, Melissa Eddy and Chris Buckley June 3, 2017
By withdrawing the United States from a non-binding treaty, Donald Trump rejects that climate change is a crisis. He rejects the opinion of a majority of US citizens and virtually the entire global science community. He rejects notions that cities like Pittsburgh and Paris might have common interests or that the US as biggest carbon polluter in history should contribute to a fund helping poor...

The Conversation: Big Alcohol Is Poised to Expand Into Africa

Karen Hofman and Charles Parry June 2, 2017
The alcohol industry confronts low population growth rates and regulatory barriers in the developed world, its traditional source of profits. So the industry is focusing on Africa with its increasing affluence and what is described as a “high-intensity consumption of beer,” according to Karen Hofman and Charles Parry in the Conversation. AB Inbev, maker of Budweiser, Corona and Stella Artois...

The Atlantic: Is Trump's Climate-Change Agenda Politically Sustainable?

Ronald Brownstein June 2, 2017
After long raising doubts about climate change, the US president decided to withdraw from the global treaty on climate change. He claims his decision will create jobs and questions if the agreement will truly stem climate change. He says he will try to renegotiate a deal already agreed by more than 190 countries, and expressed little concern that reopening the treaty could be difficult. The...