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Let's hope the past seven days aren't a harbinger of how the rest of the 2020s are going to unfold.
The news about Ukranian International Airlines flight PS752 -- first announced as a crash, now likely a casualty of the U.S.-Iran conflict -- kept getting worse as we learned more about what happened. And regardless of the cause, our country has become become part of the story because 63 Canadians were on the downed flight.
Canada was also unexpectedly part of another international story: the surprise announcement that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will be spending more time here as they cut back on their official royal duties. And Justin Bieber's struggles with lyme disease!
For your weekend reading, some good articles about a very bad week -- all from the global network of The Conversation.
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Weekend Reads
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Geoffrey Dell, CQUniversity Australia
Key evidence from the wreckage can show if the plane experienced engine trouble or was hit by a missile. But first, Iran must decide how much outside help it will accept in an investigation.
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Graham Braithwaite, Cranfield University
Crash investigators never give black boxes to aircraft makers but involve them in the process.
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Bryan Peeler, University of Manitoba
Iran's missile strikes on Iraqi bases in response to the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani have raised tensions between the U.S. and Iran. But war seems unlikely at this point.
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Sarah Burns, Rochester Institute of Technology
Both President Trump and President Obama used military force without informing Congress, or getting its approval. But the differences reveal more than the similarities.
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Eve MacDonald, Cardiff University
The Persian Empire – on the site of what is now Iran – set the standard for superpowers of the ancient world and left a cornucopia of treasures and architectural masterpieces.
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Peter Stone, Newcastle University
The destruction of a country's historical and cultural heritage sites is a distressing byproduct of conflict, but there are now strategies in place to prevent it happening.
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Deina Abdelkader, University of Massachusetts Lowell
'Zulm,' an Arabic word meaning extreme injustice, could explain why Iran appears to be so united in anger at the US killing of Gen. Qassam Soleimani.
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Vasileios Karagiannopoulos, University of Portsmouth
After the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, further esclation in the conflict between Iran and the US could come in the form of a cyber-attack.
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Robert Hazell, UCL; Bob Morris, UCL
It's either in or out for a minor royal. A mix and match approach raises too many problems.
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Hany Elsheikha, University of Nottingham
Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease in the West.
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