China's leverage over 'Rocket Man' is key to avoiding nuclear war in East Asia
U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un are playing a dangerous game of brinkmanship while also trading personal insults.Most recently, Trump blasted the “Rocket Man” in his inaugural speech to the United Nations, promising to “totally destroy” North K...
Clock running out on health program for 9 million kids
Close to 9 million children could be affected if funding for health insurance for them expires. Billion Photos/www.shutterstock.comSince the inauguration of President Trump, health care has been front and center in American politics. Yet, attention has almost exclusively been focused on the Affordab...
Equifax breach is a reminder of society's larger cybersecurity problems
There are a lot more holes in cybersecurity fences.iomis/Shutterstock.comThe Equifax data breach was yet another cybersecurity incident involving the theft of significant personal data from a large company. Moreover, it is another reminder that the modern world depends on critical systems, networks ...
In Trump's America, is the Supreme Court still seen as legitimate?
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.AP Photo/Charles Rex ArbogastOn Oct. 10, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments about the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s travel ban. The justices may rule that Trump has exceeded his constitutional authority, or they ...
How an economic theory helped mire the United States in Vietnam
Rostow, front right, visited Vietnam in 1961.AP Photo/Fred WatersQuestions of how the U.S. got mired in the Vietnam War and whether it was ultimately winnable have fascinated historians for half a century – most recently in Ken Burns’ new 18-hour documentary. A little-remembered aspect ...
Every year, millions try to navigate US courts without a lawyer
Going to court? You're on your own.tlegend/shutterstock.comJudge Richard A. Posner, a legendary judicial figure, retired abruptly earlier this month to make a point: People without lawyers are mistreated in the American legal system.In one of his final opinions as a judge on the United States Court ...
Vital Signs: don't count your economic chickens before they hatch
Vital Signs is a weekly economic wrap from UNSW economics professor and Harvard PhD Richard Holden (@profholden). Vital Signs aims to contextualise weekly economic events and cut through the noise of the data affecting global economies.This week: big news from the US Federal Reserve and the Reserve ...
Babies can learn the value of persistence by watching grownups stick with a challenge
When you quit in frustration, little eyes are watching and learning.Victor Maschek/Shutterstock.comYou’re at home trying to make fresh tomato sauce, but can’t seem to get the tomatoes out of their plastic container from the grocery store. The bottom latch is not opening, so you pull hard...
Here's 49 small communities innovating as well as the big cities
Innovation is the highest in regional centres that have research and development institutions and there are only 26 of these in regional Australia. But more than 150 regional areas have potential to match this innovation, a new index finds.In conjunction with the Regional Australia Institute we&rsqu...
Why Trump's tirades are losing their potency
World leaders listen to President Trump speak at the General Assembly. AP Photo/Seth WenigPresident Trump on September 19 gave his inaugural speech to the United Nations General Assembly, where he characterized North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un as a “rocket man on a suicide mission.” He...
The history of the persecution of Myanmar's Rohingya
Some 420,000 Rohingya Muslims, a religious and ethnic minority community in Myanmar, have fled to neighboring Bangladesh since August this year. The United Nations has called the Rohingya the world’s most persecuted minority group and described the atrocities by Myanmar’s authorities as ...
Chasing the flame: Does media coverage of wildfires probe deeply enough?
Trees burn in the High Park wildfire near Fort Collins, Colorado, June 17, 2012.USFS, CC BYIt is the dry season in western states, which means that large swaths of land are burning or smoldering and are likely to remain that way until the snows arrive. The 2017 wildfire year started earlier and has ...
How Trump could undermine the US solar boom
Tumbling prices for solar energy have helped stoke demand among U.S. homeowners, businesses and utilities for electricity powered by the sun. But that could soon change.President Donald Trump – whose proposed 2018 budget would slash support for alternative energy – may get a new opportun...
Study: More, and more diverse, US college students voted in 2016
APWhether motivated by support for particular policies or enthusiasm – or ire – toward the candidates, the 2016 election captured the attention of U.S. college and university students nationwide. That’s the finding of a new study of students at more than 1,000 U.S. institutions rel…
What we can do once the banks give us back our data
Macquarie Bank has started a trial, giving customers access to the data the bank has collected on them. These might include the number and types of account held, average balances, regular payments and income and credit score information. This information helps to determine both the need for products…
Comics captured America's growing ambivalence about the Vietnam War
A Panel from the Marvel Comics series 'The 'Nam.'Marvel ComicsIn America’s imagination, the Vietnam War is not so much celebrated as it is assiduously contemplated. This inward-looking approach is reflected in films like “The Deer Hunter” and “Apocalypse Now,” best-sell…
China’s crackdown on cryptocurrency trading – a sign of things to come
An illustration photo of Bitcoin (virtual currency) coins ReutersThe Chinese government’s decision to order several Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies exchanges to close shows how much of a threat they are perceived to be to financial stability and social order in China. The decision to also b…
'Medicare for all' could be cheaper than you think
Some of the original advocates for Medicare in the 1960s hoped to eventually extend it to everyone.AP PhotoPublic support for single-payer health care has been rising in recent months amid failed Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. That’s perhaps why Sen. Bernie S…
The South Vietnamese who fled the fall of Saigon -- and those who returned
Vietnamese at a camp in Guam seeking repatriation, September 1975.National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 319, Box 19, declassification number 984082, CC BYMore than 120,000 people fled Vietnam after the North Vietnamese captured Saigon on April 30, 1975.This chaotic evacuation ha…
Why it's offensive to offer a lamb dinner to the Hindu god Ganesha
The Hindu god Ganesha.Anant Nath Sharma, CC BY-NC-NDA recent ad from the meat industry in Australia, seeking to promote lamb as a food that people from a wide range of religious backgrounds can consume, has given offenseto many Hindus in Australia and internationally.In Australia, the ad prompted a …
Saving amphibians from a deadly fungus means acting without knowing all the answers
A male boreal toad waits for opportunities to mate near a Colorado mountain lake. Brittany Mosher, CC BY-NDThe calls of frogs on warm nights in the spring are a welcome sound, telling listeners that the seasons are changing and summer is coming. Today, however, ponds that once echoed with the chirps…
