Blogs

Before Turkey’s executive presidency was inaugurated in 2018, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeated a pledge he had made on the campaign trail to rally support behind his long-term vision of changing the country’s parliamentary system to a presidential one. He promised to speed up the functioning of the state and make it more efficient. The […]

As the countries of the world, each in their own way, seek to combat the Coronavirus (COVID-19), violent extremists like Islamic State (IS) and Al-Qaeda (AQ) see the virus as an opportunity. It is an opportunity to take advantage of the confusion and weakness created by the widespread virus, which the Jihadists view as a […]

Since we do not have direct flights to China, the Puerto Rican Secretary of Health, who has since resigned, maintained in early March that the Island was free of COVID-19. The recently dismissed state epidemiologist affirmed at the time that while there were cases in Italy, it was only because “they were nearby” China, not […]

Naason Joaquin Garcia, the self-proclaimed apostle of the Guadalajara-based evangelical church, La Luz del Mundo, was arrested last June for 26 felony crimes in Southern California (REUTERS). On Tuesday, a California appeals court ordered the dismissal of the criminal case and charges of child rape and human trafficking against Garcia on procedural grounds (AP). The […]

In light of the COVID-19 epidemic, the Republic of Ireland’s prime minister Leo Varadkar re-registered as a medical practitioner. Last Sunday Varadkar announced he will work one shift a week (Reuters). He offered his services to the Ireland Health Service Executive (HSE) after registering in March (Reuters). Varadkar previously worked as a doctor for seven […]

The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen announced it will implement a two-week ceasefire in support of the UN’s efforts to end the five-year war (Reuters). In addition, the ceasefire aimed to alleviate the threat of coronavirus in impoverished Yemen (Reuters). Although there have been no reported cases, Yemen’s “barely functioning” health system would leave millions vulnerable […]

The Chinese government has reopened the city of Wuhan – where it’s believed the novel coronavirus originated – after more than two months of complete lockdown (The Hill). As of just after midnight Wednesday, the city’s 11 million residents are now permitted to leave without special authorization (Washington Post). More non-essential businesses will open their […]

Five rockets struck Bagram airfield in Afghanistan on Thursday with no casualties reported, according to the NATO-led force in Afghanistan (Reuters). ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes weeks after a deal between the Taliban and the United States (Al Jazeera). The Afghan affiliate of ISIS, the Islamic State Khorasan, was not included […]

A climate summit that had been due to take place in Glasgow in November has been postponed to 2021 because of the coronavirus outbreak (Reuters). The decision was taken by UN officials, including UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa and UK Business Secretary Alok Sharma, who is president-designate of the meeting (BBC). Officials decided to push […]

WEF Nexus as a Framework to Evaluate Societal Responses to Disturbance The WEF Nexus is a convenient means to assess interactions among the three resources controlling the structure and function of human communities and natural ecosystems: water, energy and food. System sustainability depends on maximizing resilience in the interactions among the resources comprising the three-legged […]