La Oroya, Peru. Wikicommons/Maurice Chedel. Some rights reserved.Here in the United States, debate over whether to grant the President Fast Track authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership is currently causing much inner-party strife, and fortunately, it is an uphill battle for TPP advocates. Strangely enough, President Obama has teamed up with the Republican establishment for this massive…
Category: News
Here's Why Even Teachers Want to Get Rid of Homework
It’s the kind of news that generations of kids have been waiting for: At long last, homework might be on the way out. We’ll probably never get rid of it completely, but the news is undeniable. After years of murmurs, rumors, research, and complaints, more schools and teachers are dialing back the take-home burden—and in…
Macri and the Latin American pendulum
Mauricio Macri. President of Argentina. Flickr. Some rights reserved. Latin America has been showing in recent years a growing progressive government fatigue. Not so much with the policies of these governments, but with their way of doing politics. Mauricio Marci’s victory in Argentina seems to confirm the change of direction of the Latin American pendulum….
The Most Popular Reasons We Borrow Money From Friends Might Surprise You
If you’ve fully adjusted to the app-centric, mobile-obsessed 21st century, then you’ve likely used the mobile payment app Venmo at one point or another. For many, it’s an indispensable debt-settling tool among friends and a godsend for divvying up the check at large birthday dinners. “I’ll just Venmo you” has become the new “Do you…
Aren't we all Guatemala?
Thousands demand the resignation of Otto Pérez Molina. La Opinión. All rights reserved As part of the peace agreements in Guatemala, a United Nations commission was set up on December 12, 2006: the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). Its mission was to assist the Guatemalan government in carrying out criminal investigations and proceeding…
Insight Into Trump’s Dangerous Nuclear Arms Race
With a few notable exceptions, Democratic and Republican presidents alike have generally tried to restrain if not reverse nuclear proliferation since atomic weapons came into existence. But in the era of Donald Trump, that history may count for nothing. President-elect Trump apparently has little time for his country’s fragile nuclear weapons deal with Iran, and…
The OED’s Word Of The Year Won’t Surprise You, But It May Depress You
You probably saw this coming, but here it is. “Post-truth” is the word of the year, according to editors of the Oxford English Dictionary. The term, which is defined as “an adjective relating to circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than emotional appeals,” popped up during the campaign for Britain to leave the…
Postconflict in Colombia (12). Public endorsement and legal certainty
Women hold anti-weapon signs during a peace march in Bogotá in 2002. AP Photo/Arima cubillos/All rights reserved The General Agreement signed on August, 26, 2012 between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) – i.e., the roadmap for the current talks in Havana – expressly provides for an unnamed procedure of public…
Here’s How The Media Projects A Presidential Winner
So here we are. Our electoral maps are filled out. Our ballots have been cast. The drinks are poured, the snacks are in place, and the TV’s on. In come the state-by-state projections. And one by one, none of them are retracted. The candidate the media says is going to win actually wins. How do…
How to support Syria
Flickr/Anthony Gale. Some rights reserved.The international ‘Supporting Syria’ conference in London today will serve to burnish yet further Britain’s reputation as an aid-giver. The £1.1 billion spent over the five years of the crisis makes us easily the biggest donor after the United States – more than the European Union and, as British officials like…