The Belt and Road Initiative: Why China’s ambitious global development plan will chiefly benefit China
By Amitrajeet A. Batabyal, Distinguished Professor and Arthur J. Gosnell Professor of Economics, Rochester Institute of Technology China’s well-publicized Belt and Road Initiative to invest in infrastructure projects in other countries has helped it expand its...
The concept of Han: Understanding how the ancestral heart of Korea’s spirit can teach us solidarity
At the heart of the Korean spirit is a concept called “Han.” It is central to Korean-ness in the same way “aloha” is to Hawaiian-ness. Oddly, however, it is rarely mentioned in conversation or in the media. Its English translation is nonexistent. But I will try to...
Paid for by Big Pharma: Mandela Barnes hits at Ron Johnson for selling out to big corporate donors
The campaign of Wisconsin Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes, who is running to unseat U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, declared on August 16 that the Republican incumbent “is bought and paid for by Big Pharma.” That charge came in response to Johnson’s comments...
Economic impact: Experts doubt that Milwaukee could actually see $200M in revenue from the RNC in 2024
Fifty thousand visitors and $200 million in economic impact — these are the estimates two years before the 2024 Republican National Convention is set to take place in downtown Milwaukee. The estimates were widely cited during the city’s push for the convention...
Photography of imaginary things: Who takes credit for AI-generated artwork using a neural network?
By Aaron Hertzmann, Affiliate Faculty of Computer Science, University of Washington Over the past few years, many artists have started to use what is called “neural network software” to create works of art. Users input existing images into the software, which has been...
A rising death toll: Why crossing the U.S. border from Mexico has become more tragic for migrants
By Joseph Nevins, Professor of Geography, Vassar College The June 2022 deaths of 53 people, victims of heat stroke, in the back of a tractor-trailer in San Antonio, Texas, show the dangers of crossing the U.S. southern border without authorization. All of the dead...
Biden administration to end cruel Trump-era policy requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that it has ended a Trump-era policy requiring asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court, hours after a judge lifted an order, in effect since December, that the so-called Remain in Mexico...
Zaporizhzhia could be Chernobyl 2.0: The Russians are again orchestrating an atomic disaster for the world
By Najmedin Meshkati, Professor of Engineering and International Relations, University of Southern California Russian forces occupy Europe’s largest atomic energy plant, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar. Russian and Ukrainian...
An enduring resilience: Remembering Ukraine’s 1991 vote for independence and its continued courage
By Marta Dyczok, Associate Professor of History and Political Science, Specializing in Ukraine, Western University On August 24, 1991, I was one of a handful of foreign journalists working for a British newspaper and in the Ukrainian parliament when legislators...
The Dream of Democracy: Why Ukrainians have never treated their country’s sovereignty as a given
By Emily Channell-Justice, Director of the Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program, Harvard University I stood on Kyiv’s main boulevard, Khreshchatyk, one year ago, on August 24, 2021, celebrating along with thousands of Ukrainians who were watching the Independence Day...
The Cure: Why Universal healthcare would enable a healthier population to withstand the next pandemic
More than 330,000 people in the United States died during the pandemic because they were uninsured or underinsured. That grim statistic was reported recently by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health. In addition to that staggering, preventable death toll, in...
Signs of hope: Wisconsin medical advisors urge caution as COVID-19 hospitalizations fluctuate
One-third of Wisconsin counties have high community levels of COVID-19, a federal designation that carries a recommendation for universal masking indoors away from home. Those counties are home to more than half of Wisconsin residents and range from major metropolitan...
