April 17, 2020
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 […]
April 6, 2020
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 […]
April 2, 2020
The Coronaviru s which is currently infecting hundreds of thousands of humans may to be able to target other animals as well such as one of our closest relatives’ gorillas (Washington Post). While there is currently no evidence that states other great apes can be infected they can be susceptible to other human respiratory diseases […]
March 31, 2020
On March 24, 2020Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered India’s 1.3 billion people to stay inside of their homes for 21 days (NY Times 1). Prime Minister Modi stated, “To save India and every Indian, there will be a total ban on venturing out” (AP). This is the largest and most severe action taken […]
March 31, 2020
Economists warn that Britain’s economy is facing a coronavirus-induced recession that could mirror the 2008 financial crisis (FT 1). There is vast uncertainty over the depth and timeline of the forecasted recession, but with unemployment surging most economists agree it is unavoidable (FT 1). Britain faced criticism from Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health […]
March 25, 2020
As of 25 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed well over 400,000 global cases of the novel coronavirus—COVID-19. The real case numbers, of course, are likely far higher. As this pandemic continues to claim lives, dominate media, and damage economies, many observers are trying to understand the patterns of this contagion to […]
March 20, 2020
Coronavirus in the U.S. created volatile stock markets with analysts warning that more than half of American jobs are at risk to be lost. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 2,997 points on Monday, marking its largest single-day point drop in history (WP 1). Following the plunge, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced a […]
March 20, 2020
Following 475 reported deaths in a day in Italy, the Mediterranean country has the highest death toll from COVID-19 with 3,453 deaths (AP). Aside from holding the second oldest population in the world, the volume of cases is contributing to a potential breakdown of the health system (AP). Of the dead, 87% were over 70. […]
March 20, 2020
On Wednesday, the United States and Canada agreed to close its 5,500-mile border to nonessential travel in response to the rapid spread of the coronavirus (WP). The border closure will effectively halt tourism and family visits but will remain open for trade and trucking (AP).The two countries rely heavily on each other, with nearly 200,000 […]
February 17, 2020
Despite not having any confirmed cases on the continent many fear Coronavirus is coming to the shores of Africa. With between 200,000-2,000,000 Chinese currently living in Africa and still many others entering the continent, global health officials feel the virus may be coming soon (Washington Post). In preparation for this, many countries have begun increasing […]
