Walid Phares

Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his cell at the Manhattan Correctional Center on Saturday, as he awaited trial. What happens next in the investigation?

Lots of people lie to federal investigators. Very few are indicted for it.

The communities of Gilroy, El Paso and Dayton are recovering after attackers shot and killed at least 34 people and injured dozens more.  Erroll Southers, Director of Homegrown…

The Trump administration tried to bury a report showing that it's water use plans for California would decimate a unique species of salmon.

The mysterious arrest of a Swedish data privacy activist with links to the WikiLeaks founder raises important questions about government surveillance.

Climate change is an existential crisis. If Americans cut just one hamburger from their diet every week, it would be like taking 10 million cars off the road every year. After cutting energy use, less meat and more plant-based food add up to the easiest--and healthiest--way to reduce your carbon footprint. From the land and water needed to raise feed and the methane produced at the end of digestion, “Cattle are actually mini fossil-fuel, greenhouse gas producers.” So says Sujatha Bergen, head of health campaigns at the NRDC. As her title suggests, eliminating beef from your diet--in addition to pork and lamb-- is also better for you. She explains the trade-offs for helping to reduce climate change and says, “Starting with your fork is much less daunting for many people.”

In 1950, America had the richest middle class in the world, but now U.S. workers face wage stagnation and historic wealth inequality.

“We can’t recycle our way out of this crisis.” That’s according to California’s Democratic State Senator Ben Allen-- just one of many politicians around the country proposing to ban all straws, bags and other single-use plastics. At the overwhelmed Recycling Center in Burbank, California, Kreigh Hample says, “Our packaging has gone up exponentially in just the last few decades… it’s a sad story in the way we eat, the way we dispose of things and the way that we’re living.” A throwaway culture may be convenient, but the costs include cleaning it up with taxpayer money--not to mention worldwide pollution. China now requires recycled products so pure that the bottom’s gone out of the market, but the plastics industry is bigger than ever. Former EPA official Judith Judith Enck says half the world’s plastics have been produced in the past 13 years. One new process has developed from coal fracking, and development is being encouraged by President Trump with support from the fossil fuel industry. But just 9% of the plastic produced is getting recycled. Some goes to landfills, but the rest turns into worldwide pollution. Images of plastic waste floating by the acre in the Pacific Ocean are all too familiar; microplastics are turning up from the depths of the seas to the remotest parts of the Arctic. In Texas and other states, it’s illegal to ban plastic products. But, in Sacramento, Allen says it’s time to hold the plastics industry accountable. California is big enough to influence the nation’s economy, so his efforts are being scrutinized by politicians and advocates around the country.

The two international giants are linked in inextricable ways, and yet Americans’ understanding of China consistently lacks nuance.