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Last November, a strange silent attack injured several American diplomats in Cuba, causing hearing loss, dizziness and mild cognitive impairment. Nearly a year later, this baffling incident is stoking a diplomatic standoff, with Washington pulling 22 envoys from Havana in September and, on Oct. 3, expelling their Cuban counterparts from the U.S. American University’s William M. LeoGrande, a 40-year veteran of turbulent U.S.-Cuba relations, argues that this punitive decision from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is more driven by domestic politics than by foreign
policy.
Just catching up on the opioid epidemic and don’t know where to start? Andrew Kolodny, co-director of Opioid Policy Research at Brandeis University offers a brief overview of the crisis – what opioids are, who’s taking them and how the situation in the U.S. spun out of control.
While Hugh Hefner’s recent death sparked a debate over his legacy, historian Elizabeth Heinemen thinks it should be viewed through the lens of Beate Uhse’s life and career. Just as Hefner’s masculine Playboy brand was rising to prominence in the United States, Uhse was creating a sex empire of her own in Germany. Unlike Hefner, Uhse marketed sex toys and literature as a way to promote harmonious relationships and pleasure for women.
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The US Embassy in Havana is now more crime scene than diplomatic center as both countries look into the mysterious illnesses suffered by Foreign Service officers there.
AP Photo/Desmond Boylan
William M. LeoGrande, American University
After a baffling, silent attack on US Embassy staff in Havana, the Trump administration is using concern over its diplomats' health as an excuse to reverse Obama's rapprochement with Cuba.
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Science + Technology
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Melanie Ohi, University of Michigan; Michael Cianfrocco, University of Michigan
The 2017 Nobel Prize in chemistry goes to three scientists who revolutionized biochemistry by inventing a technology that can image the molecules of life without destroying them.
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Dorothy Denning, Naval Postgraduate School
The cyberthreat from China is one more of espionage than destruction. And it's changing – perhaps even lessening.
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Politics + Society
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Monica Clua Losada, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Why did the Spanish state forcefully quash Catalonia’s referendum for independence? It is rooted in the country’s nearly 40-year dictatorship and its transition to democracy.
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John J Stremlau, University of the Witwatersrand
US President Donald Trump hasn't proposed new initiatives for Africa but didn't end those launched by his predecessors either.
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Trending on site
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Frederic Lemieux, Georgetown University
In the wake of the tragedy in Las Vegas, a criminologist reviews recent research to dispel common misconceptions about mass shootings.
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Christopher H. Hendon, University of Oregon
The science behind why what your barista achieves at the cafe tastes better than what you can come up with at home.
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Mike Robinson, Wesleyan University
Drug addiction isn't about bad habits, fear of withdrawal or a selfish search for pleasure. It's about the brain.
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Today’s chart
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Andrew Kolodny
Brandeis University
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