Is real change ahead for Mexico?

For the first time in decades, Mexico’s left has the potential to shake up the country with its recent presidential election and the victory of Andrés Manuel López Obrado. The new leadership could challenge the status quo ruling elite, and end the corruption and violence that has become commonplace in the country. Today in The Conversation Canada, Jordi Diez, political scientist at the University of Guelph, looks at four of the main issues López Obrado will have to deal with, including NAFTA, and how he might begin to tackle them.

Unplayful toys, namely fire kites and balloon bombs, are the subject of Michael Armstrong’s article on recent events in Israel and Gaza. The ongoing conflict is a reminder that the two states are only “one incident away from war,” writes Armstrong, an operations research scholar from the Goodman School of Business at Brock University. The “toys” have not caused any reported injuries in Israel but more than 32 square kilometres of farmland and forests have burned as they float across the border.

Finally, Tony Robert Walker, assistant professor at Dalhousie University and an expert at remediation of contaminated sites, writes about the urgent need to eliminate single-use plastics globally. There is currently so much plastic waste, he writes, “that we are now literally drowning in it.”

Vinita Srivastava

Culture, Arts, Critical Race Editor

Top story

Andrés Manuel López Obrador acknowledges his supporters as he arrives to Mexico City’s main square, the Zócalo, on July 1, 2018. The leftist López Obrador won the election and is calling for reconciliation. (AP Photo/Anthony Vazquez)

Why Mexico's historic elections may bring about big change

Jordi Díez, University of Guelph

The election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico could bring about stable change in a country marked by violence and social polarization.

In this June 2018 photo, an Israeli tractor works to extinguish a fire started by a kite with an incendiary device launched from Gaza in a wheat field near the Israel/Gaza border. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

Gaza’s fire kites and balloon bombs ignite tensions

Michael J. Armstrong, Brock University

Incendiary kites and balloons have joined artillery rockets in Gaza’s arsenal. They bleed Israel’s finances more than its people.

Plastic debris strewn across a beach. (USFWS)

How to clean up our universal plastic tragedy

Tony Robert Walker, Dalhousie University

We're drowning in plastics. With governments setting un-ambitious targets, corporations are now listening to consumers who are demanding less plastic packaging and food containers.

Politics

Arts

  • Hollywood's mega-monsters head back east

    Steve Rawle, York St John University

    Monster movies are currently rampaging across the globe. Their popularity shows us how Hollywood's place in world cinema is changing.

Health + Medicine

  • Why do kids lie, and is it normal?

    Penny Van Bergen, Macquarie University; Carol Newall, Macquarie University

    Children lying is rarely cause for concern and actually means your child is developmentally normal.