The suicides this week of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain saddened and shocked people to their core. How could someone who is so successful and deeply loved feel so despondent? Florida State University scholar Joseph Franklin explains why “we can only predict who is going to die by suicide slightly more accurately than random guessing.”

Last month, the boy band BTS became the first Korean pop group to have an album top the Billboard charts. So how did BTS succeed in the U.S., a country where other K-pop groups have historically struggled to attract a following? The University of Oregon’s Susanna Lim argues this says as much about their talent as it does about Korea’s expanding role in global affairs.

President Trump has been briefly in Quebec this weekend, attending the most controversial G-7 summit in years. That’s mostly because his recent foreign policy decisions, particularly on trade, have been inconsistent and alarming to allies, argues Georgia State’s Charles Hankla. The political scientist explores whether there’s a method to the madness – or whether it’s just madness.

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