By Susanne Sternthal, Texas State University | – Shortly after footage emerged of the carnage Russian troops left behind in the town of Bucha, Ukraine, an article was published April 4, 2022, in one of the largest Russian state-run media companies. The article called for even more bloodshed in Ukraine. Written by journalist and Kremlin-aligned […]
Vladimir Putin, the Czar of macho Politics, is threatened by Gender and Sexuality Rights
By Valerie Sperling, Alexandra Novitskaya, Janet Elise Johnson, and Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom | – Vladimir Putin has mentioned “gender freedoms” more than once to justify Russia’s war against Ukraine and simultaneously crack down on its own citizens. Most directly, he alleged that Russian citizens who seek “gender freedoms” (alongside foie gras and oysters) are part […]
Thawing permafrost is Massively reshaping the Arctic landscape, as We heat up the Climate
By Mark J. Lara, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | – Across the Arctic, strange things are happening to the landscape. Massive lakes, several square miles in size, have disappeared in the span of a few days. Hillsides slump. Ice-rich ground collapses, leaving the landscape wavy where it once was flat, and in some locations […]
The Climate Emergency is Stressing Plants, Making them Less Productive
By Souleïmen Jmii, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) | – Plants that inhabit the Earth have the incredible ability to grow continually for hundreds of years, and always towards the light of the sun, which provides them with the necessary energy to sprout. At the source of this growth are changes in their environment, […]
Timbuktu Manuscripts Online promise to re-balance the African Continent’s place in World intellectual History
By Charles C. Stewart, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | – The ancient Timbuktu manuscripts of Mali were back in the headlines following internet giant Google’s initiative to host a collection of them at an online gallery. The images of the documents, text in Arabic, can be found at a page called Mali Magic. No […]
IPCC report: We can’t Meet Climate Goals, without Deeply Slashing our CO2 Emissions
Jack Marley | – The world has the means to avert the greatest ravages of global heating – but we must deploy them immediately, while eliminating the fuels and activities that threaten to warm Earth beyond safe levels. This is the conclusion of a new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a […]
War in Ukraine is testing some American evangelicals’ support for Putin as a leader of conservative values
By Melani McAlister, George Washington University | – In February 2022, evangelical leader Franklin Graham called on his followers to pray for Vladimir Putin. His tweet acknowledged that it might seem a “strange request” given that Russia was clearly about to invade Ukraine. But Graham asked that believers “pray that God would work in his […]
What are War Crimes? Ukraine Atrocities and the Likelihood of Prosecuting Putin
By Amy Lieberman, The Conversation, interviewing Abel Escribà-Folch, Alexander Hinton, Joseph Wright and Shelley Inglis | – Russian troops retreated from Kyiv and the nearby town of Bucha in early April 2022, and new horrors of their occupation were revealed. Ukrainian forces found the bodies of at least 410 civilians – among them people who […]
Ukraine: are reports of Russian troops mutinying and deserting true? It’s happened before
By Natasha Lindstaedt, University of Essex | – Reports have emerged in recent days that Russian troops in Ukraine, stalled in their advance and suffering numerous military setbacks, have sabotaged their own equipment, refused to fight and carry out orders, and even, in one report, run over their own commander. Nato estimates that as many […]