Ours to Solve, Once—and for All: Securing the Outcomes Our Students Need (A New Report from the Education Futures Council)

Introduction: In 2023 the Hoover Institution at Stanford University convened a group of innovation leaders to take stock of K–12 public education in the United States. The Education Futures Council quickly focused on designing a new approach for America’s traditional public school system. Schools operated and overseen by local school boards―often called “traditional” or “district” …

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Economic Anxiety or Cultural Backlash: Which Is Key to Trump’s Support? (Morris P. Fiorina)

Given that 85–90 percent of Trump’s (and Clinton’s) vote came from partisans—people who nearly always vote Republican or Democrat—claims like these applied to the behavior of a relatively small proportion of the electorate, although one residing disproportionately in states critical for the outcome.7 In particular, among other factors, the 2016 outcome hinged on support for …

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THE INDIVIDUAL SOVEREIGNTY: CONCEPTUALIZATION AND MANIFESTATION (Nikola Lj. Ilievski, MA)

This paper is qualitative and theoretical research of the concept of sovereignty and the libertarian theory, particularly the concept of individual liberty. It represents a concept developing study, with a specific accent laid on the individual liberty, and the theoretically established concept of sovereignty. The research focus could be identified with the conceptualization and manifestation …

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Individual Sovereignty in Pandemic Times–A Contradiction in Terms? (Luiza Bialasiewicz, Christina Eckes)

Over the past months, appeals to ‘individual sovereignty’ have brought together a wide range of political actors across Europe, united in their rejection of face masks, ‘social distancing’, and other forms of stateimposed regulation of behavior and mobility. Opposition to state efforts to govern the spread of the pandemic has created, indeed, the most unlikely …

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Elon Musk’s daily $1 million giveaway to registered voters could be illegal, experts say (Marshall Cohen, CNN)

WashingtonCNN —  While stumping for former President Donald Trump on Saturday, tech billionaire Elon Musk announced that he will give away $1 million each day to registered voters in battleground states, immediately drawing scrutiny from election law experts who said the sweepstakes could violate laws against paying people to register. “We want to try to get over a million, maybe 2 …

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Musk offers voters $1 million a day to sign PAC petition backing the Constitution. Is that legal? (Mike Catalini)

Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla and Space X and owner of X who’s gone all-in on Republican Donald Trump’s candidacy for the White House, has already committed at least $70 million to help the former president. Now he’s pledging to give away $1 million a day to voters for signing his political action committee’s petition backing …

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Sudan conflict and refugee crisis (World Health Organizations)

Highlights: Over 500 days have passed since the escalation of conflict in Sudan in April 2023. Healthcare should never be a target. However, since April 2023, 106 attacks on healthcare have been verified, resulting in 183 deaths and 125 injuries. Many more undocumented attacks are likely to have occurred. There is an ongoing cholera outbreak …

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ICM Annual Crisis Report 2023

Crisis news story statistics continued their postpandemic shuffle with some surprises revealed in the 2023 numbers. The Institute for Crisis Management® (ICM) tallied 1,977,722 crisis news stories in 2023, a decrease of about nine percent over 2022 in a retreat towards pre-pandemic story numbers. COVID-19 stories continued to make some headlines, but not nearly to …

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When is a Crisis a “Crisis” and Why Does It Matter? (The Chicago Council on Global Affairs)

One of the defining features of 2020 has been the declaration of seemly one crisis after another. As COVID-19 cases surge, most Americans are focused on the pandemic as the predominant crisis facing our country. However, the coronavirus is not the only crisis we face. The pandemic has catalyzed an economic crisis, with the head of the International Monetary …

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Ethiopia’s Ominous New War in Amhara (Crisis Watch)

What’s new? Ethiopia’s federal government is battling yet another revolt. This time, militants are engaged in hostilities with federal forces in Amhara, the country’s second-most populous region. After tensions escalated all year, insurgents briefly seized control of major towns in August. They remain active in much of the countryside. Why did it happen? Amhara militias fought alongside federal …

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