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US-China trade talks: Will the Chinese keep promises to stop bad behavior?

  • Written by Amitrajeet A. Batabyal, Arthur J. Gosnell Professor of Economics, Rochester Institute of Technology

Talks between the U.S. and China to end the trade war appear to be in trouble with the March 2 deadline for a deal fast approaching.

In the ongoing trade talks between the U.S. and China, a lack of trust – key to any successful negotiation – appears to be hobbling the ability to reach a deal. Hence it is not clear negotiators will be...

Read more: US-China trade talks: Will the Chinese keep promises to stop bad behavior?

Why a centuries-old religious dispute over Ukraine's Orthodox Church matters today

  • Written by Victoria Smolkin, Associate Professor of History, Wesleyan University
Metropolitan Epiphanius, head of the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which is newly independent of the Russian Orthodox Church.AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky

A new Orthodox Church was recently established in Ukraine.

Shortly after, Bartholomew I, the Patriarch of Constantinople and the spiritual head of global Orthodox Christianity, granted independence...

Read more: Why a centuries-old religious dispute over Ukraine's Orthodox Church matters today

The death penalty, an American tradition on the decline

  • Written by James Acker, Distinguished Teaching Professor of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, State University of New York
George Stinney, a 14-year old wrongfully executed for murder in 1944.M. Watt Espy Papers, University at Albany, CC BY-ND

Capital punishment has been practiced on American soil for more than 400 years. Historians have documented nearly 16,000 executions, accomplished by burning, hanging, firing squad, electrocution, lethal gas and lethal injection....

Read more: The death penalty, an American tradition on the decline

How smallpox devastated the Aztecs – and helped Spain conquer an American civilization 500 years ago

  • Written by Richard Gunderman, Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana University
A 16th-century Aztec drawing of smallpox victims.

Recent outbreaks in the U.S. have drawn attention to the dangers of measles. The Democratic Republic of Congo is fighting a deadly outbreak of Ebola that has killed hundreds.

Epidemics are nothing new, of course. And some widespread infectious dieseases have profoundly changed the course of human...

Read more: How smallpox devastated the Aztecs – and helped Spain conquer an American civilization 500 years ago

Charter schools exploit lucrative loophole that would be easy to close

  • Written by Derek W. Black, Professor of Law, University of South Carolina
Some charter school operators make profits by leasing space to themselves at unusually high rates. By Ilya Andriyanov from www.shutterstock.com

While critics charge that charter schools are siphoning money away from public schools, a more fundamental issue frequently flies under the radar: the questionable business practices that allow people who...

Read more: Charter schools exploit lucrative loophole that would be easy to close

Trump may seek more punishment of Cuba

  • Written by William M. LeoGrande, Professor of Government, American University School of Public Affairs
If Cuban exiles can sue businesses operating in Cuba, it could affect flights to the country, like this JetBlue landing in Havana.AP/Desmond Boylan

President Donald Trump may soon do a huge favor for Cuba’s wealthy, upper-class exiles, many of whom are now U.S. citizens living in Miami.

Some of them still dream of recouping their lost...

Read more: Trump may seek more punishment of Cuba

Indict or shut up: The public may never see a report from Mueller's investigation

  • Written by Stanley M. Brand, Distinguished Fellow in Law and Government, Pennsylvania State University
Will the public ever see a report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller?Shutterstock

Almost from the day of Robert Mueller’s appointment as special counsel, the media and the public have expected that his investigation will end with a report to either the Congress or the public or both.

I’m a law school professor who teaches a course on...

Read more: Indict or shut up: The public may never see a report from Mueller's investigation

The survivors of clergy sexual abuse who finally pushed the Vatican to recognize the problem

  • Written by Brian Clites, Instructor and Associate Director, Case Western Reserve University
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests protest against clergy sex abuse in Los Angeles in 2010.AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes

The Vatican’s decision to defrock Cardinal Theodore McCarrick comes just days before the world’s leading bishops gather in Rome for a summit on the clergy sexual abuse crisis.

The bishops were instructed to...

Read more: The survivors of clergy sexual abuse who finally pushed the Vatican to recognize the problem

Virginia politics: The uneasy marriage of new liberalism and historic racism

  • Written by Julian Maxwell Hayter, Associate Professor of Leadership Studies, University of Richmond

Virginia is home to America’s original contradiction – the peculiar juxtaposition of slavery and freedom.

The recent “blue-ing” of Virginia has obscured a sobering political reality: Racial progress and racial bigotry can exist at the same time.

Those contradictions were on display when Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph...

Read more: Virginia politics: The uneasy marriage of new liberalism and historic racism

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  4. Senate vote could end US complicity in the Saudi-led genocide in Yemen
  5. Can Congress or the courts reverse Trump's national emergency?
  6. Why Maduro is blocking Venezuela-bound humanitarian aid when so many people in his country need it
  7. What Green New Deal advocates can learn from the 2009 economic stimulus act
  8. Striking teachers in Denver shut down performance bonuses – here's how that will impact education
  9. Protecting human heritage on the moon: Don't let 'one small step' become one giant mistake
  10. How white became the color of suffrage
  11. An editor and his newspaper helped build white supremacy in Georgia
  12. How far should organizations be able to go to defend against cyberattacks?
  13. Adolescents have a fundamental need to contribute
  14. How slavery's lingering stain on the US Constitution spoils Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax proposal – for now
  15. Why the $22 trillion national debt doesn't matter – here's what you should worry about instead
  16. Just what are 'zero tolerance' policies – and are they still common in America's schools?
  17. How energy efficiency delivers green dividends in red and blue states
  18. Why blackface?
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  20. To end the HIV epidemic, addressing poverty and inequities one of most important treatments
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  24. Think you love your Valentine? What's beneath the surface may be more complicated
  25. Parkland shooting: One year later, Congress still avoids action on gun control
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  27. Why Trump failed to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, and how he can do better at the next summit
  28. Satellites reveal a new view of Earth’s water from space
  29. Why the pope's upcoming summit needs to do a full accounting of the cover-up of sexual abuse
  30. How urban agriculture can improve food security in US cities
  31. Ivanka and her tower of crumbs
  32. Immigration: How ancient Rome dealt with the Barbarians at the gate
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  34. New diagnostic test for malaria uses spit, not blood
  35. Time for a Manhattan Project on Alzheimer’s
  36. Drinkers prefer Big Beer keeps its hands off their local craft brews
  37. Russian influence operations extend into Egypt
  38. Sex robots are here, but laws aren't keeping up with the ethical and privacy issues they raise
  39. The shutdown: Drowning government in the bathtub
  40. When newspapers close, voters become more partisan
  41. Latest allegations of sexual assault show how the legal system discourages victims from coming forward
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