Podcasts about Brookings Institution

Even before the pandemic, the economy was seeing a shift to automation as companies looked for cheaper, more efficient ways to build their products or serve more customers. Now, the pandemic has led to staffing shortages in multiple industries and has accelerated the trend, which means in the future you may be more likely to order your food with a QR code, interact with a chatbot instead of a person for customer service or use a self-operating kiosk at a business that may never go back to the old way of doing things. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams speaks with Kristen Broady, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, about how the pandemic is speeding up this shift. For many businesses, it’s an economic decision, Broady says.

Even before the pandemic, the economy was seeing a shift to automation as companies looked for cheaper, more efficient ways to build their products or serve more customers. Now, the pandemic has led to staffing shortages in multiple industries and has accelerated the trend, which means in the future you may be more likely to order your food with a QR code, interact with a chatbot instead of a person for customer service or use a self-operating kiosk at a business that may never go back to the old way of doing things. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams speaks with Kristen Broady, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, about how the pandemic is speeding up this shift. For many businesses, it’s an economic decision, Broady says.

In theory, the Fair Housing Act of 1968 outlawed all forms of real estate discrimination. In reality, Black home sellers often see their homes valued much lower than similar homes owned by whites. Andre Perry of the Brookings Instititution joins the show today to talk about the how real estate discrimination has robbed Black Americans billions of dollars in generational wealth, and what can be done to change it.  Guest: Andre Perry, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America's Black Cities Podcast production by Jasmine Ellis and Asha Saluja You can skip all the ads in A Word by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/awordplus for just $1 for your first month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In theory, the Fair Housing Act of 1968 outlawed all forms of real estate discrimination. In reality, Black home sellers often see their homes valued much lower than similar homes owned by whites. Andre Perry of the Brookings Instititution joins the show today to talk about the how real estate discrimination has robbed Black Americans billions of dollars in generational wealth, and what can be done to change it.  Guest: Andre Perry, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America's Black Cities Podcast production by Jasmine Ellis and Asha Saluja You can skip all the ads in A Word by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/awordplus for just $1 for your first month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael O'Hanlon, sr. fellow at the Brookings Institution, discusses the situation in Ukraine, and whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will invade. NBC's Sahil Kapur discusses the Supreme Court decision that the House committee investigating the January 6th insurrection will get access to former President Trump's documents. NBC's Ken Dilanian reports on the New York Attorney General's fraud investigation of the Trump Organization. Sky News Sam Coates reports more conservative members of the British Parliament have submitted letters of no confidence in PM Boris Johnson today. But Johnson has so far refused to step down. Senator Joe Manchin has continued his refusal to change the filibuster, which means voting rights legislation is doomed to fail. Plus, CNBC's Valerie Castro reports on a California driver who's facing felony charges after a car he was running on autopilot allegedly ran a red light and crashed into another car, killing two people in the process.

Play during opening: 0:00-0:10 …and more on today's CrossPolitic Daily News Brief. This is Toby Sumpter. Today is Friday, January 14, 2022. SCOTUS Blocks Biden VAX Mandate & Upholds Healthcare Worker Mandate https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/13/supreme-court-ruling-biden-covid-vaccine-mandates.html The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Biden administration from enforcing its sweeping vaccine-or-test requirements for large private companies, but allowed a vaccine mandate to stand for medical facilities that take Medicare or Medicaid payments. The rulings came three days after the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's emergency measure for businesses started to take effect. The mandate required that workers at businesses with 100 or more employees get vaccinated or submit a negative Covid test weekly to enter the workplace. It also required unvaccinated workers to wear masks indoors at work. “Although Congress has indisputably given OSHA the power to regulate occupational dangers, it has not given that agency the power to regulate public health more broadly,” the court wrote in an unsigned opinion. “Requiring the vaccination of 84 million Americans, selected simply because they work for employers with more than 100 employees, certainly falls in the latter category,” the court wrote. President Joe Biden, in a statement, said the Supreme Court chose to block requirements that are life-saving for workers. Biden called on states and businesses to step up and voluntarily institute vaccination requirements to protect workers, customers and the broader community. “The Court has ruled that my administration cannot use the authority granted to it by Congress to require this measure, but that does not stop me from using my voice as President to advocate for employers to do the right thing to protect Americans' health and economy,” Biden said. In a separate, simultaneously released ruling on the administration's vaccination rules for health-care workers, a 5-4 majority sided with the Biden administration. “We agree with the Government that the [Health and Human Services] Secretary's rule falls within the authorities that Congress has conferred upon him,” said the majority, writing that the rule “fits neatly within the language of the statute.” “After all, ensuring that providers take steps to avoid transmitting a dangerous virus to their patients is consistent with the fundamental principle of the medical profession: first, do no harm,” the majority opinion read. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, four of the six conservatives on the nine-seat bench, dissented. Kavanaugh and Roberts joined the three liberals to enforce this ruling. “I do not think that the Federal Government is likely to be able to show that Congress has authorized the unprecedented step of compelling over 10,000,000 healthcare workers to be vaccinated on pain of being fired,” Alito wrote in his dissent. FDA Issues Racist Triage Rationing for COVID Treatments https://freebeacon.com/coronavirus/food-and-drug-administration-drives-racial-rationing-of-covid-drugs/ Fron the Washington Free Beacon: In New York, racial minorities are automatically eligible for scarce COVID-19 therapeutics, regardless of age or underlying conditions. In Utah, "Latinx ethnicity" counts for more points than "congestive heart failure" in a patient's "COVID-19 risk score"—the state's framework for allocating monoclonal antibodies. And in Minnesota, health officials have devised their own "ethical framework" that prioritizes black 18-year-olds over white 64-year-olds—even though the latter are at much higher risk of severe disease. These schemes have sparked widespread condemnation of the state governments implementing them. But the idea to use race to determine drug eligibility wasn't hatched in local health departments; it came directly from the federal Food and Drug Administration. When the FDA issued its emergency use authorizations for monoclonal antibodies and oral antivirals, it authorized them only for "high risk" patients—and issued guidance on what factors put patients at risk. One of those factors was race. The FDA "fact sheet" for Sotrovimab, the only monoclonal antibody effective against the Omicron variant, states that "race or ethnicity" can "place individual patients at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19." The fact sheet for Paxlovid, Pfizer's new antiviral pill, uses the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's definition of "high risk," which states that "systemic health and social inequities" have put minorities "at increased risk of getting sick and dying from COVID-19." The guidance sheets are nonbinding and do not require clinicians to racially allocate the drugs. But states have nonetheless relied on them to justify race-based triage. "The FDA has acknowledged that in addition to certain underlying health conditions, race and ethnicity ‘may also place individual patients at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19,'" Minnesota's plan reads. "FDA's acknowledgment means that race and ethnicity alone, apart from other underlying health conditions, may be considered in determining eligibility for [monoclonal antibodies]." Utah's plan contains similar language. In a section on the "Ethical Justification for Using Race/Ethnicity in Patient Selection," it notes that the FDA "specifically states that race and ethnicity may be considered when identifying patients most likely to benefit from this lifesaving treatment." The FDA declined to comment on either state's plan, saying only that "there are no limitations on the authorizations that would restrict their use in individuals based on race." The triage plans are part of a broader push to rectify racial health disparities through race-conscious means. In March of last year, for example, two doctors at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston outlined an "antiracist agenda for medicine" that involved "offering preferential care based on race." And last year, Vermont and New Hampshire both gave racial minorities priority access to the COVID-19 vaccine, resulting in at least one formal civil rights complaint against New Hampshire. The trend has alarmed Roger Severino, the former civil rights director at the Department of Health and Human Services, who called racial preferences in medicine a "corrosive and grossly unfair" practice. "Our civil rights laws are not suspended during a public health emergency," Severino said. "We should never deny someone life-saving health care because of the color of their skin." The triage plans show how federal guidelines can encourage this sort of race discrimination. They also suggest that the FDA is making political judgments, not just scientific ones. "They're injecting politics into science," said a former senior HHS official. "That's something the Trump administration was pilloried for allegedly doing." One clear sign of that politicization, several legal and medical experts said, is the guidance's double standard between race and sex. Men in the United States have proven to be about 60 percent more likely than women to die of the disease, according to research from the Brookings Institution, and within some age brackets the mortality gap is even larger. But the FDA doesn't list sex as a risk factor anywhere in its guidance. And while the Utah scheme does take it into account, the New York and Minnesota schemes do not. Nor do they or the FDA give any weight to geography and socioeconomic status, both of which are associated with COVID-19 mortality. Instead, the triage plans give more weight to race than to many comorbidities. In Minnesota's scoring system, "BIPOC status" is worth two points, the same as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, whereas "hypertension in a patient 55 years and older" is worth just one. In Utah's scoring system, "Non-white race or Hispanic/Latinx ethnicity" is worth two points—the same amount as diabetes, obesity, and "severely immunocompromised"—while hypertension, congestive heart failure, chronic pulmonary disease, and "shortness of breath" count for one each. Men do receive one extra point under the Utah scheme, on the grounds that "male gender is associated with increased risk of severe COVID-19." Nonbinary patients, the document says, "may choose to answer" questions about their gender identity "with that background information." Speaking of Woke medicine… Microsoft WORD Will Now Offer Woke Corrections https://notthebee.com/article/microsoft-word-introduces-new-woke-feature-to-monitor-your-language?fbclid=IwAR0sxOqYrccyxxhgAfuKMSuVVCtBFRRQaHfC8qs1PZ3HmOtL4S6PU6Z8DAE From Not the Bee: Microsoft has just introduced a woke, politically correct feature that I don't think anyone ever asked for… Traditionally, Microsoft Word has been used by its 250 million users for things such as spelling, punctuation, and grammar checks. But that wasn't enough for the tech giant. They (probably) thought, "spelling and grammar checks are great and all but what we really want to do is influence and control the masses." Control is the biggest rave these days. Word will now highlight no-no words with a purple line beneath any problematic words or phrases that focus on gender, age, sexual orientation, ethnicity or even "socioeconomic status." Red lines are for spelling errors. Green lines for grammar mistakes. And now, purple lines are politically correct language police alerts. If you type a bigoted word like, let's say... "postman," Word will offer less offensive, gender-neutral alternatives like "mail carrier" or "postal worker." The software also suggests altering astronaut Neil Armstrong's famous quote from "one giant leap for mankind," to "humankind" or "humanity" instead. Who knew Neil Armstrong was such a sexist bigot... Microsoft Word knew. In the lyrics to Barry Manilow's party favourite Copacabana, Microsoft suggests Lola be referred to as a "dancer," "performer" or "performing artist" rather than a "showgirl." Word is not just policing your language (and by default, your thoughts) but it seems as though Microsoft wants us to re-write and re-imagine history by suggesting we change famous quotes. It also proposes changing "maid" to "house cleaner." Other changes include "headmaster" (Word suggests "principal"), "mistress" ("lover"), "master" ("expert"), "manpower" ("workforce") and "heroine" ("hero"). This isn't the first time Microsoft is cracking down on language, and it probably won't be the last! Just last year, Microsoft 365 tried to filter swearing and "bad behavior." Microsoft was also ridiculed in November over a video presentation showing senior execs introducing themselves by citing their race and gender pronouns. Marketing manager Nic Fillingham was filmed saying: "I'm a Caucasian man with glasses and a beard. I go by he/him." The Reformed Sage DNB: Founded in 2018, The Reformed Sage exists to edify Christians with products and services that build the kingdom of God and proclaim the gospel to all. We have created products that are unique, useful, beautiful, and humorous. We have wood art, engraved wall art, apparel, drinkware, decals, stamps, and much more. We also regularly make custom merchandise at wholesale prices for churches, ministries and businesses that want to add or expand their product offerings in turn increasing revenue. Please use promo code FLF22 for 10% off your first order. AND HAPPENING NOW: All apparel is marked down until Super Bowl Sunday! (No promo code necessary) Shirts: $20 Hoodies: $30 and more! They are changing apparel vendors and removing some designs. We do not know at this time what color/sizing options we will have available come March 1. So, if there is an apparel combo you want (design/size/color) better grab it before it is gone for good! This sale ends on February 6th. Next up from a listener – and remember you can send stories that you think we should cover on these Daily News Briefs to news@crosspolitic dot com. A Federal Agency Has Begun Collecting Names & Religious Exemption Records https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/jan/11/biden-administration-planning-lists-employees-seek/ The Washington Times reports: An obscure federal agency has proposed creating a database capturing the names and “personal religious information” of government employees who submit “religious accommodation requests” to be exempted from the Biden administration's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. At least seven other federal agencies, including five Cabinet departments, are apparently setting up similar “personal religious information” databases, according to an analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in the District. The federal Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia, or CSOSA, published a “notice of a new system of records” in the Federal Register on Tuesday. The agency, which supervises defendants awaiting trial as well as parolees, aims to “reduce recidivism” and “integrate offenders into the community by connecting them with resources and interventions.” The federal departments of Treasury, the Interior, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, and Transportation, as well as the General Services Administration and the Securities and Exchange Commission, have each published proposed rule-makings to implement “systems of records” tracking their workers' religious accommodation requests. While there is “some data collection that is likely and legally permissible under Title VII, when an individual at a covered agency requests a religious accommodation,” Sarah Parshall Perry, a legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation's Institute for Constitutional Government, said, “we have not seen it on a broad scale like this ever.” President Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal workers took effect Nov. 22 under an executive order he issued Sept. 9. The executive order said its terms were “subject to such exceptions as required by law.” “We're not clear on what personal religious information is going to be gathered” under the CSOSA proposal, Ms. Perry said, adding that numerous sticky questions will come up. “How does one as a federal agency determine the sincerity or lack thereof of an individual's religious beliefs?” she asked rhetorically. “Normally, information like that goes directly to the [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] and is maintained for internal purposes, just in the case that there is a future dispute about whether or not religious discrimination exists. However, we're not told why or how this information is being used. And that smacks of religious discrimination on a grand scale.” Psalm of the Day: 23 0:20-0:54, 3:33-4:11 The King of Love my shepherd is… Good Shepherd, may I sing thy praise, within thy house forever. Amen. Remember you can always find the links to our news stories and these psalms at crosspolitic dot com – just click on the daily news brief and follow the links. Or find them on our App: just search “Fight Laugh Feast” in your favorite app store and never miss a show. This is Toby Sumpter with Crosspolitic News. A reminder: Support Rowdy Christian media, and share this show or become a Fight Laugh Feast Club Member. What allows us to continuing growing to take on the Big Media Lie Fest is your monthly membership support. If you've already joined, a huge thanks to you, and if you haven't, please consider joining today and have a great weekend.

It has been two years since COVID-19 started hitting the headlines globally. As the new omicron variant is causing surging caseloads across America and around the world, it seems as though the end of this moment is very far away. What mistakes have we made? What should the Biden administration be doing next? How does the pandemic connect to the fight to protect democracy? What does the Supreme Court decision on the vaccine mandate mean for the fight against the virus? To answer these and other pressing questions, DSR Host David Rothkopf spoke with Kavita Patel of the Brookings Institution and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Laurie Garrett. Don't miss this timely conversation.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/deepstateradio. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Valerie Wirtschafter and Chris Meserole, our friends at the Brookings Institution, recently published an analysis of how popular podcasters on the American right used their shows to spread the “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. These are the same issues that led tech platforms to crack down on misinformation in the runup to the election—and yet, the question of whether podcast apps have a responsibility to moderate audio content on their platforms has largely flown under the radar. Why is that? This week on Arbiters of Truth, our series on the online information ecosystem, Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic talked through this puzzle with Valerie and Chris. They discussed their findings about podcasts and the “big lie,” why it's so hard to detect misinformation in podcasting, and what we should expect when it comes to content moderation in podcasts going forward. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today on Boston Public Radio: We begin the show by opening phone lines, talking with listeners about whether they're continuing to be cautious as COVID-19 cases rise. E.J. Dionne previews what's in store for the Democratic Party in 2022, and talks about the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. Dionne is a columnist for The Washington Post and a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution. His latest book is "Code Red: How Progressives And Moderates Can Unite To Save Our Country.” Dr. Renee Crichlow discusses COVID-19 rates across Mass., and the burnout healthcare providers are facing as the world nears its third year of the pandemic. Crichlow is the Chief Medical Officer at Codman Square Health Center and the Vice Chair of Health Equity at the Boston University Department of Family Medicine. Next, we ask listeners for their tips and tricks on finding COVID-19 rapid tests. Dr. Irene Bosch shares her story of creating a COVID-19 rapid test in the early weeks of the pandemic, only to face red-tape from the FDA despite meeting 2021 standards. Bosch is the founder of the diagnostic company E25Bio. She's also a visiting professor at MIT, and adjunct professor of medicine at Mount Sinai University in New York. Revs. Irene Monroe and Emmett G. Price III talk about Pope Francis' letter of support to LGBTQ+ Catholic advocate Sister Jeannine Gramick. They also weigh in on Judge Timothy Walmsley's minute of silence before he sentenced Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael, and William Bryan Jr. to life in prison for the killing of Ahmaud Arbery. Monroe is a syndicated religion columnist and the Boston voice for Detour's African American Heritage Trail. Emmett G. Price III is founding pastor of Community of Love Christian Fellowship in Allston, the Inaugural Dean of Africana Studies at Berklee College of Music. Together, they host GBH's All Rev'd Up podcast. We wrap up the show by asking listeners whether an honor-system approach to store check-outs through Venmo or tip jars could help with retail labor shortages.

From January 3, 2020: The American drone strike last night that killed Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Quds Force, is a seismic event in U.S.-Iranian relations—and for the broader Middle East. We put together an emergency podcast, drawing on the resources of both Lawfare and the Brookings Institution and reflecting the depth of the remarkable collaboration between the two. Iran scholar Suzanne Maloney, terrorism and Middle East scholar Daniel Byman, Middle East scholar and former State Department official Tamara Cofman Wittes and former State Department lawyer and Baghdad embassy official Scott Anderson—who is also a Lawfare senior editor—came together the morning after the strike for a diverse discussion of the reasons for the operation, the vast repercussions of it, the legality of the strike and the role Soleimani played in the Iranian regime.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Fiona Hill is the former Senior Director for Europe and Russia of the National Security Council under President Trump and a key witness in his first impeachment trial. She is Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. In her latest book, There Is Nothing For You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century, she describes her journey from the post-industrial north of England to the world of academia at Harvard and the corridors of power in Washington, D.C. In this week's conversation, Fiona Hill and Yascha Mounk discuss the resonance of populism for working class voters, remaining true to principle in the Trump administration, and the future of Great Power conflict. This transcript has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity. Please do listen and spread the word about The Good Fight. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: podcast@persuasion.community  Website: http://www.persuasion.community Podcast production by John Taylor Williams, and Brendan Ruberry Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Connect with us! Spotify | Apple | Google Twitter: @Yascha_Mounk & @joinpersuasion Youtube: Yascha Mounk LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Combating gender-based violence in the U.S. military Kyleanne Hunter, adjunct senior fellow for the Military, Veterans, and Society Program at the Center for a New American Security, discusses the Defense Department's progress on implementing the Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017 and explains how the legislation helps address sexual harassment and assault in the military Latest on military situation with Russia at Ukraine border Steven Pifer, nonresident senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution, discusses conversations between Biden and Putin and potential sanctions the U.S. would impose on Russia in the event of further military action towards Ukraine Developments in nuclear stockpiles for U.S., allies, adversaries Daryl Kimball, executive director at the Arms Control Association, discusses the possibility of a U.S. shift to a No First Use nuclear policy and considerations Biden will make in the Nuclear Posture Review

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was found guilty on four of eleven charges in her criminal fraud trial; CNBC's Scott Cohn breaks down the jury's verdict and the life that now awaits Holmes. The U.S. reported a record 1 million cases of new Covid infections on Monday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The record single-day total may be due in part to delayed reporting from over the holiday weekend. Dr. Kavita Patel, former White House health policy director and fellow at the Brookings Institution, discusses the latest numbers and testing strategies in the U.S. Plus, BlackBerry is finally retiring its iconic hardware. Once a status symbol in the C-suite, BlackBerry phones are officially a relic after the 20+ year journey from two-way pagers to BBM. In this episode:Dr. Kavita Patel, @kavitapmdScott Cohn, @ScottCohnTVBecky Quick, @BeckyQuickAndrew Ross Sorkin, @andrewrsorkinMike Santoli, @michaelsantoliKatie Kramer, @Kramer_Katie

Today, in our first show of the new year, it's the Midday HealthWatch.  Tom's guest is Dr. Leana Wen, who for years has been so generous sharing her time and expertise with Middaylisteners. Dr. Wen is an emergency physician and former Baltimore City Health Commissioner. She teaches at the George Washington University School of Public Health. She's also a columnist for the Washington Post, a medical analyst for CNN, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of Lifelines: A Doctor's Journey in the Fight for Public Health. This morning, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for 12 to 15-year-olds, and it lowered the time frame for everyone getting a booster from six months to five months after the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will review the FDA panel's ruling. They're expected to make an official recommendation on Wednesday. Over the New Year's weekend, the US was reporting nearly 300,000 new cases of COVID-19 every day. That number has climbed to more than 400,000 daily cases as of today and it's likely much higher, given the number of people who are self-testing for the virus, and not reporting positive results. And it's not all due to the omicron variant. The Delta variant still accounts for more than 41 percent of cases in the United States, as of the week that ended on Christmas Day. The positivity rate in Maryland is nearly 27% and Maryland hospitals are under orders to limit various procedures so that scarce medical personnel can concentrate on patients with severe COVID-related disease. Maryland reported more than 14,000 new cases in the last 24 hours. More than 2,700 people are currently in Maryland hospitals; that's nearly 200 more than on Sunday. As we mentioned, children over the age of 12 will soon be eligible to get a booster. But, first things first: nationally, only 32% of kids above the age of 5 have received their first shot. And, a year into vaccine availability, only about 62% of Americans are fully vaccinated, well behind dozens of other countries. Dr. Leana Wen joins us on Skype for the hour to discuss these and other COVID-related developments... And as always, we welcome your questions and comments. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From April 22, 2017: Over the past year, Lawfare has expended a great deal of ink on the problem of sextortion, a form of online sexual assault in which perpetrators obtain explicit images or video of their victims and use those images to extort further explicit content. We even brought Mona Sedky, a Justice Department prosecutor who focuses on sextortion cases, onto the podcast to discuss her work. Now, we're pleased to feature Mona on the podcast once again with audio of her talk at the George Washington University Law School on prosecuting sextortion.If you're interested in reading our Brookings Institution reports on sextortion, you can find them here and here.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/14/opinion/culture-war-democrats-republicans.html https://www.axios.com/gop-culture-wars-elections-7d8bc5ea-cb8b-4eb1-8de8-c71e52019f76.html Axios: Here's one potential reason why the GOP elevates so-called culture wars in elections: Republicans and white Christians largely think things were better for Americans in the 1950s than now. Driving the news: New data from a wide-ranging report released by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and Brookings Institution gives insight into the country's partisan fault lines around identity and culture. The findings crystallize the "competing visions of America," the report says. 80% of Republicans feel "America is in danger of losing its culture and identity" — compared to just 33% of Democrats. Between the lines: The Virginia governor's race has drawn attention even from former President Obama for the presence of what he called "phony culture wars" and "fake outrage" from the right-wing political and media sphere. Only 29% of Republicans currently think American culture has changed for the better since the 1950s — a noticeable decline from 46% in 2020, but closer to the 31% who felt similarly in 2016 just before Donald Trump was elected president. He ran on the theme, "Make America Great Again." https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/11/democrats-fake-culture-wars-crt-republicans https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/551331-gop-wrestles-with-role-of-culture-wars-in-partys-future https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2021/11/2/22760803/surprising-republican-victories-in-virginia-show-how-the-gop-can-win-youngkin-mcaullife https://washingtonmonthly.com/2021/07/05/conservatives-have-no-plan-to-win-the-culture-war-but-they-intend-to-rule-anyway/ Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSFVD7Xfhn7sJY8LAIQmH8Q/join https://odysee.com/@LukeFordLive, https://lbry.tv/@LukeFord, https://rumble.com/lukeford https://dlive.tv/lukefordlivestreams Listener Call In #: 1-310-997-4596 Superchat: https://entropystream.live/app/lukefordlive Bitchute: https://www.bitchute.com/channel/lukeford/ Soundcloud MP3s: https://soundcloud.com/luke-ford-666431593 Code of Conduct: https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=125692 https://www.patreon.com/lukeford http://lukeford.net Email me: lukeisback@gmail.com or DM me on Twitter.com/lukeford Support the show | https://www.streamlabs.com/lukeford, https://patreon.com/lukeford, https://PayPal.Me/lukeisback Facebook: http://facebook.com/lukecford Feel free to clip my videos. It's nice when you link back to the original.

In this episode of “Keen On”, Andrew is joined by Julian E. Zelizer, the author of “The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: A First Historical Assessment”. Julian E. Zelizer has been among the pioneers in the revival of American political history. He is Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University and a CNN Political Analyst and a regular guest on NPR's "Here and Now." He is the author and editor of 22 books. Zelizer, who has published over 1000 op-eds, has received fellowships from the Brookings Institution, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the New York Historical Society, and New America. He also co-hosts a popular podcast called Politics & Polls. Visit our website: https://lithub.com/story-type/keen-on/ Email Andrew: a.keen@me.com Watch the show live on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ajkeen Watch the show live on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankeen/ Watch the show live on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lithub Watch the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LiteraryHub/videos Subscribe to Andrew's newsletter: https://andrew2ec.substack.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ali Velshi is joined by Dr. Ebony Hilton, Critical Care Anesthesiologist at University of Virginia, Rep. Susan Wild, Democrat of Pennsylvania, Dr. Lipi Roy, Medical Director of COVID Isolation & Quarantine Sites for Housing Works in New York City, Andy Slavitt, Fmr. White House Senior Advisor for COVID Response, Andre Perry, Senior Fellow at Brookings Institution.

In this episode of The Global Exchange, Colin Robertson speaks to Dr. Bruce Jones about his latest book To Rule the Waves Participant's Biography: Bruce Jones is director and a senior fellow in the Project on International Order and Strategy of the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution; he also works with the Center for East Asia Policy Studies. He is also a consulting professor at the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University. Jones previously served as the vice president and director for the Foreign Policy program for the past five years. https://www.brookings.edu/experts/bruce-jones/ Host biography Colin Robertson is a former diplomat, and Vice President of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, https://www.cgai.ca/colin_robertson References: Read To Rule the Waves: How Control of the World's Oceans Shapes the Fate of the Superpowers by Dr. Bruce Jones https://www.brookings.edu/books/to-rule-the-waves-how-control-of-the-worlds-oceans-determines-the-fate-of-the-superpowers/ Recording Date: 10 Dec 2021. Give 'The Global Exchange' a review on Apple Podcast! Follow the Canadian Global Affairs Institute on Facebook, Twitter (@CAGlobalAffairs), or on Linkedin. Head over to our website www.cgai.ca for more commentary. Produced by Charlotte Duval-Lantoine. Music credits to Drew Phillips.

Marcus Casey - The Evolution of Black Neighborhoods Since Kerner Marcus Casey is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution. Author of The Evolution of Black Neighborhoods Since Kerner (with Bradley L. Hardy). [N.B. "Kerner" refers to the Kerner Commission Report on the Causes, Causes, Events, and Aftermaths of the Civil Disorders of 1967, available here.] Leah Brooks Associate Professor of Public Policy and Public Affairs at the George Washington University's Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Affairs, and author of the recent paper The Long-Run Impact of the 1968 Washington, DC Civil Disturbance (with Jonathan Rose, Daniel Shoag, and Stan Veuger). Appendices: Marcus Casey: (1) Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City by St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton and (2) the TV show Flatbush Misdemeanors on Showtime. Greg Shill: Measuring Racism and Discrimination in Economic Data by Marcus Casey and Randall Akee. Jeff Lin: (1) Why Cities Lose: The Deep Roots of the Urban-Rural Political Divide by Jonathan Rodden and (2) The Ecology of a Black Business District by Franklin D. Wilson. [N.B. Check out the Densely Speaking interview with Jonathan Rodden about his book (S1E6, Nov. 5, 2020).] Leah Brooks: Public Citizens: The Attack on Big Government and the Remaking of American Liberalism by Paul Sabin. Follow us on the web or on Twitter: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, @greg_shill, @MarcDCase. Producer: Schuyler Pals. The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

From August 23, 2014: News broke yesterday that the Russian military has moved artillery units inside of Ukraine and that Russian troops are actively using them against Ukranian forces---a move with dramatic escalatory potential. At the same time, Ukraine appears to be closing in on the last Russian-backed rebel strongholds. As the crisis unfolds and the United States seeks to isolate Russia using a network of sanctions, important questions have arisen about Russia's future role in the region and its relationship with the West. What is Russian President Vladimir Putin's ultimate goal? Why, after so much effort to integrate into the global economy, is Putin choosing another path? Is Russia actually attempting to free itself of the Western dominated world order?Earlier this week, the Brookings Institution hosted a panel discussion on the future of Russia's place in the international order in the light of recent more aggressive turns in its foreign policy. Thomas Wright, fellow with the Project on International Order and Strategy (IOS), moderated the conversation with Brookings President Strobe Talbott, Senior Fellow Clifford Gaddy of Brookings's Center on the United States and Europe (CUSE) and Susan Glasser, editor at Politico Magazine. They describe Putin's worldview and subsequent strategy, and lay out the potential consequences of continued tensions for the global economy, coordinated counter-terrorism efforts, and the increasingly stressed non-proliferation regime.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Equity, justice, and transparency are needed to enable meaningful conversations around the the debate on solar radiation modification, because Africa has to be very careful about climate-altering technologies, especially when we do not understand their consequences, says Vera Songwe, executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) during a C2GTalk interview. Africa can only sustainably and justly have the conversation on carbon emissions if it sees that this road leads to a more prosperous life, better livelihoods, and that this road will help the continent meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Vera Songwe is the United Nations under-secretary-general and the ninth serving executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). As executive secretary focusing on "ideas for a prosperous Africa," her organizational reforms have brought to the fore critical issues of macroeconomic stability; development finance, growth and private sector; poverty and inequality; the digital transformation and data; and trade and competitiveness. She is acknowledged for her long-standing track record of providing policy advice on development and her wealth of experience in delivering development results for Africa. A strong advocate of the private sector, Songwe launched a business forum debate at ECA and created, for the first time, a private sector division with a number of significant initiatives. Before joining the ECA, Songwe held a number of leading roles at the World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC). Songwe serves as a non-resident senior Ffllow at the Brookings Institution. She is also a member of the African Union institutional reform team under the direction of the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, and an advisory board member of the African Leadership Network and the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. This interview was recorded on October 19, 2021 and is available with interpretation into 中文, Español, and Français. For an edited transcript, please go to C2G's website.

Show from 12/17/21Wharton Finance Professor Jeremy Siegel and Host Jeremy Schwartz talk to Former Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve Donald Kohn about inflation, the COVID-19 omicron variant, M2, inversion of the yield curve, and more. Professor Siegel notes the lagging labor force participation and its influence on inflation. Plus Donald gives his take on markets and recent fed decisions.Guest:Donald Kohn - Former Vice Chair of the Federal ReserveFor more information on Donald visit the Brookings Institution website: https://www.brookings.edu/experts/donald-kohn/ Follow WisdomTree on Twitter: @WisdomTreeETFsFollow Jeremy Schwartz on Twitter: @JeremyDSchwartz See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode of POFA, we discuss the conflict in Ukraine with Angela Stent.   Angela Stent is Senior Adviser to the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies and Professor Emerita of Government at Georgetown University. An expert on US-Russia relations, she is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. She served … Continue reading Preventing Conflict in Ukraine

Shadi Hamid, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, contributing writer at The Atlantic, editor of Wisdom of Crowds, and author of Islamic Exceptionalism, joins Matt to discuss whether he's still a progressive.

This week, Alan, Quinta and Scott were joined by their fellow Lawfare senior editor and Brookings Institution fellow Molly Reynolds! They sat down to discuss the week's national security news, including:“Winners Use Google Slides.” The January 6 committee has revealed some of the texts and emails handed over by former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, including a notorious powerpoint presentation laying out apparent plans for a coup. What do these revelations tell us about what happened on January 6—and what our expectations should be of the committee?“The Smog of War.” A top secret cell of elite U.S. soldiers is accused of manufacturing ambiguity on the battlefield in order to evade legal and policy limits on the targeting of civilians. What do these allegations mean for the way America fights its wars?“8 Simple Rules for Legislating in an Age of Disorder.” Progressive Democrats have urged their leadership to overrule the Senate parliamentarian's determination that bills passed through the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process can't include certain types of immigration reforms. Do these demands threaten the operation of the Senate? Or is something entirely different at stake?For object lessons, Quinta passed along a fool-proof holiday cookie recipe. Alan noted a list of blockbusters he was looking forward to enjoying over Chinese food this Christmas. Molly recommended a somewhat unlikely legislative procedure-themed holiday movie, "Operation Christmas Drop." And Scott urged listeners to watch the holiday classic, "The Muppet Christmas Carol," which Disney+ has only recently restored to its full glory.Also, Rational Security is hoping to close out the year with a mailbag episode! So if you have any burning questions you want the RatSec crew to answer, wild hypotheticals you want them to suss out, or object lessons you want to share, no matter how serious or how frivolous, be sure to email them to rationalsecurity@lawfareblog.com before December 22.Be sure to visit our show page at www.lawfareblog.com and to follow us on Twitter at @RatlSecurity. And Rational Security listeners can now get a committed ad-free feed (which is now back up and working! we promise!) by becoming a Lawfare material supporter at www.patreon.com/lawfare! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Over the past twenty-five years, I have managed a wide range of research and information projects for government, nonprofit, and commercial clients in the US and internationally. Specialties: Aggregating, sifting, analyzing, and deploying information to provide actionable insights. Incumetrics is a consulting company that works at the intersection of data, economic analysis, and policy. With expertise focused around measuring, and evaluating innovation, we develop strategy and policy for companies, nonprofits, regions, and national governments. Incumetrics is led by Dr. Robin Gaster, who is also author of Behemoth, Amazon Rising: Power and Seduction in the Age of Amazon (March 2021). Clients include major US institutions such as the National Academies of Science and Engineering and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and thinktanks like the Brookings Institution, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, and the Education Development Center, as well as numerous private companies, national and regional government agencies, and foreign governments.

Real estate investors who pay cash could face more scrutiny from the federal government. The Treasury Department is proposing new regulations on shell companies, like LLC's, as a way to crack down on money laundering through real estate deals.Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review.Government's Plan to Stop Money LaunderingDeputy Secretary of the Treasury, Wally Adeyemo, discussed the government's plan to fight corruption at the Brookings Institution. He addressed the issue by saying: “Corruption thrives in the financial shadows--in shell corporations that disguise owners' true identities, in offshore jurisdictions with lax anti-money laundering regulations, and in complex structures that allow the wealthy to hide their income from government authorities.” (1)Adeyemo is proposing that countries around the world join this effort to separate the bad actors from the good ones, because many shell companies are perfectly legitimate. It's a recognized strategy to put your residential rental properties, and other kinds of properties, inside something like an LLC as a way to limit any legal liabilities or potential lawsuits to just one property, and not your whole portfolio.But it's also possible to set up a shell company, and to use that company to purchase expensive properties with dirty money. That's what the Treasury Department is targeting.Three-Pronged ApproachAdeyemo wants to tackle this problem in three different ways:1 - He wants to improve transparency by forcing certain types of U.S. and foreign companies that are registered in the U.S. to disclose their beneficial owners, which are the people who actually run the companies. He's implementing this effort under the Corporate Transparency Act which allows the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to build a central registry for this information. One particular area of concern is the real estate market and all-cash deals that don't require the disclosure of the buyers who may be hiding behind a shell company. Adeyemo is soliciting public comment on the best way to address this problem.2 - He also wants to use the new information to improve the investigation and prosecution of any illegal activity, including money laundering, bribery, embezzlement, and extortion, and tax evasion. He says: “Today, the top 1 percent of earners in the United States underpay their taxes by more than $160 billion each year, depriving every other American of the money we need to invest in things that benefit the whole country, like roads, childcare, and education.” Enforcement might include sanctions, as well as criminal law enforcement.3 - The third leg of his strategy is “partnership.” He wants to expand the effort to allies and partners around the world as well as the private sector, and civil society groups. He says the U.S. can't address corruption without an international effort. As an example, he says “more than 40% of global payments are conducted in euros or pounds.”Impact on Real Estate InvestorsSo what does all this mean for investors who buy and sell residential rental properties inside an LLC? It could mean that the title companies will be required to file reports that identify the beneficial owners of those properties. This is already the law in 12 U.S. cities for transactions over $300,000. That includes Boston; Chicago; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; Honolulu; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Miami; New York City; San Antonio; San Diego; San Francisco; and Seattle.According to realtor.com, the new regulations would expand the disclosure requirement from coast-to-coast. They may also include the purchase of commercial property as well as residential. (2)Some people say the new rules are long overdue. Attorney and anti-money laundering expert, Ross Delston, told Bloomberg: “I'm not sure where the U.S. Treasury has been for the last decade or two, but give them credit for attempting to address a gap that has festered for years and has resulted in the U.S.A. being the money laundering haven of choice for the world's corrupt politicians.” (3)If you'd like to read more about this topic, you'll find links in the show notes at newsforinvestors.com.You can also join RealWealth, for free. As a member, you have access to the Investor Portal where you can view sample property pro-formas and connect with our network of resources. That includes experienced investment counselors, property teams, lenders, 1031 exchange facilitators, attorneys, CPAs and more.And please remember to hit the subscribe button, and leave a review!Thanks for listening. I'm Kathy Fettke.Links:1 -https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy05162 -https://magazine.realtor/daily-news/2021/12/07/white-house-seeks-increased-oversight-on-all-cash-deals3 -https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-06/biden-eyes-shell-company-real-estate-purchases-for-tighter-rules

Today on Boston Public Radio: EJ Dionne talks about Governor Charlie Baker's latest plan to distribute over two million rapid tests to Massachusetts towns in need, and the state of democracy in the U.S. Dionne is a columnist for The Washington Post and a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution. His latest book is "Code Red: How Progressives And Moderates Can Unite To Save Our Country." Then, we ask listeners their outlook on climate change, after tornados sweeping through Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee left dozens dead and scores of buildings demolished. Revs. Irene Monroe and Emmett G. Price III weigh in on Gen Z's relationship with religion and a Black medical illustration going viral. Monroe is a syndicated religion columnist, the Boston voice for Detour's African American Heritage Trail and co-host of the All Rev'd Up podcast. Price is the founding pastor of Community of Love Christian Fellowship in Allston, the inaugural dean of Africana studies at Berklee College of Music and co-host of the All Rev'd Up podcast. Shaleen Title shares takeaways from her recent academic paper on solutions to equity issues in cannabis laws, and the state of legalization and decriminalization of drug use across the country. Shaleen Title is a former Cannabis Control Commissioner who is now the Distinguished Cannabis Policy Practitioner in Residence at the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center at Ohio State University. She is also the CEO and co-founder of the Parabola Center. Charlie Sennott discusses civilian casualties from the War on Terror that the U.S. military hid from the public, and how U.S. democracy compares to other countries. Sennott is a GBH News analyst and the founder and CEO of The GroundTruth Project. Brian O'Donovan previews this year's return to an in-person Christmas Celtic Sojurn, and his inspiration behind the event. Brian O'Donovan is host of Celtic Sojourn on GBH. A Christmas Celtic Sojourn begins its holiday run tomorrow, with a sold out show in Rockport. Tickets are still available for shows at the Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston – www.christmasceltic.com.  We end the show by talking with listeners their experiences with holiday yankee-swap events.

The 2021 National Lawyers Convention took place November 11-13, 2021 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC. The topic of the conference was "Public and Private Power: Preserving Freedom or Preventing Harm?" This panel discussed "The Antitrust Revolution?"The past year has seen an unprecedented number of political and legislative suggestions for altering nearly every aspect of U.S. antitrust law. If adopted, these proposals may redefine the American economy and consumer marketplace. Hear from leading legislators, antitrust luminaries and policy makers about the potential upcoming antitrust revolution.Featuring:Hon. William Baer, Visiting Fellow in Governance Studies, Brookings Institution; Former Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust DivisionMr. François-Henri Briard, Supreme Court Attorney, Cabinet Briard LLPHon. Makan Delrahim, Adjunct Lecturer in Law, University of Pennsylvania; Former Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust DivisionHon. Douglas Ginsburg, Senior Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit; Former Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division Ms. Diana Moss, President, American Antitrust InstituteModerator: Hon. Chad Readler, U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit

Data from the Brookings Institution shows that while the U.S. and Europe are both recovering relatively well from the initial damage of the pandemic, they are heading in nearly opposite directions when it comes to inflation and jobs. A new cybersecurity threat has companies scrambling to patch up holes in their networks. The USDA recently announced a food purchase program to address deficiencies in local and regional food economies. Your first donation to Marketplace goes TWICE as far with a dollar-for-dollar match from the Investors Challenge Fund! Give Now.

Data from the Brookings Institution shows that while the U.S. and Europe are both recovering relatively well from the initial damage of the pandemic, they are heading in nearly opposite directions when it comes to inflation and jobs. A new cybersecurity threat has companies scrambling to patch up holes in their networks. The USDA recently announced a food purchase program to address deficiencies in local and regional food economies. Your first donation to Marketplace goes TWICE as far with a dollar-for-dollar match from the Investors Challenge Fund! Give Now.

In Memphis, as in America, the benefits of homeownership have not accrued equally across race.Housing policy in the United States has leaned heavily on homeownership as a driver of household wealth since the middle of the last century, and, for many white Americans, property ownership has indeed yielded significant wealth. But Black families have largely been left behind, either unable to buy in the first place or hampered by risks that come with owning property.Homeownership's limitations are especially apparent in Black neighborhoods. Owner-occupied homes in predominantly African American neighborhoods are worth, on average, half as much as those in neighborhoods with no Black residents, according to a 2018 Brookings Institution and Gallup report that examined metropolitan areas.For neighborhoods like Orange Mound in southeast Memphis, the solutions cannot come fast enough.This story was recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Inflation accelerated at its fastest pace since 1982, putting pressure on the economic recovery and raising the stakes for the Federal Reserve. CNBC's senior economics reporter, Steve Liesman, breaks down the latest consumer price index data. Dr. Kavita Patel, former White House health policy director and fellow at the Brookings Institution, reports on the latest CDC recommendations around Covid-19 booster shots. Restaurateur Lidia Bastianich discusses the pandemic's impact on the restaurant industry and her new PBS special, ‘Lidia Celebrates America: Overcoming the Odds'. Starbucks employees have voted to join a union at one store in Buffalo, New York, the first unionized company-owned location in the U.S. Workers at a second location in the city voted to reject the drive to organize. Thursday's vote count for a third Starbucks store in upstate New York ended without a definitive result because a number of ballots were still under review. Plus, Rutgers upsets #1 ranked Purdue with buzzer-beater game winner.In this episode:Dr. Kavita Patel, @kavitapmdLidia Bastianich, @LidiaBastianichSteve Liesman, @steveliesmanJoe Kernen, @JoeSquawkBecky Quick, @BeckyQuickAndrew Ross Sorkin, @andrewrsorkinZach Vallese, @zachvallese

"Deregulation will make the economy more efficient and stimulate GDP growth," insist think tanks like the Brookings Institution and American Enterprise Institute. "Fiscal hawks," claiming to be worried about the deficit, demand austerity measures to reign in government spending. When it comes to "entitlement programs," we hear that "there are always tradeoffs."   Time and again, the media and policymakers spew the same tired recitations meant to convey the seemingly natural, immutable laws of economics. The economy, we're told, is thriving when business owners and hedge fund managers are making record profits, yet failing when investments in social programs have gotten too big. And that's just how it is. Terms, phrases, and sentiments like these are part of a lexicon of economic euphemisms, cliches, and other forms of business-school speak designed to blur class lines and convince us all that our current economic system - entirely a result of policy choices largely designed to further enrich the wealthy at the expense of the broader welfare - is merely a function of cold, hard science, with rules and principles no more pliable than those of physics or chemistry. But why should we be expected to accept that a news report that “the economy” is on the upswing means the average worker is doing any better, when all evidence is to the contrary? Why should our media's economic "experts" come from a pool of elite economics departments beholden to corporate donors and right-wing think tanks? And why must "the economy" be defined in terms of whether the Dow is up or down, rather than whether people have food, housing, healthcare, and job security? On this episode - Part II of a two-part series - we'll examine another five of the most popular cliches, jargon, and rhetorical thingamajigs that economists, economic reporters and pundits use to sanitize, obscure, and provide a thin gloss of Science-ism to what is little more than power flattering cruel, racist austerity ideology. Our guest is writer Hadas Thier.

Dr. Bruce Jones, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution, recently gave an address at the Tulsa Committee on Foreign Relations (or TCFR).

Denis F. Simon, senior adviser to the president for China affairs and professor of the practice at Duke University, leads a conversation on the role of joint venture universities in China.   FASKIANOS: Thank you and welcome to CFR's Higher Education Webinar. I am Irina Faskianos, vice president of the National Program and Outreach at CFR. Today's discussion is on the record and the video and transcript will be available on our website, CFR.org/Academic, if you would like to share it with your colleagues. As always, CFR takes no institutional positions on matters of policy. We are delighted to have Denis Simon with us to talk about the role of joint venture universities in China. Dr. Simon is senior advisor to the president for China affairs and professor of the practice at Duke University. From 2015 to 2020, he served as executive vice chancellor at Duke Kunshan University in China. He has more than four decades of experience studying business, competition, innovation, and technology strategy in China, and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese. He served as senior advisor on China and global affairs at Arizona State University, vice provost for international affairs at the University of Oregon, and professor of international affairs at Penn State University. He has extensive leadership experience in management consulting and is the author of several books. Dr. Simon, thanks very much for being with us today. I thought we could begin by having you give us an overview of joint venture universities in China. What has the last two years in U.S.-Sino relations and COVID-19 meant for joint venture universities and their long-term goals? SIMON: Great. Well, thank you, Irina. I really am happy your team was able to arrange this. And I can't think of a more important subject right now. The president of Duke University, Vincent Price, has called our joint venture a beacon of light in the midst of the turbulence in U.S.-China relations. And so, this is a rather appropriate time for us to take stock at where this venture is and where it may be going. So let me just give an overview, talk a little bit about what joint ventures are, how they operate, and some of the challenges of operating them, and some of the effects of the last, as you said, two years, with the tensions growing in U.S.-China relations. Well, I think the first thing to recognize is that while there are over two thousand joint venture projects and initiatives involving foreign schools and universities, there are really only ten joint venture universities. These are campuses authorized to give two degrees—a Chinese degree and a foreign degree. The last one that was approved is Julliard, from the United States. So there are four U.S. joint ventures, two from the U.K., one from Russia, one from Israel involving the Technion, and the rest from Hong Kong. And so they're not growing by leaps and bounds. Everyone is taking stock of how they are working. The one from Duke is a liberal arts or a research-oriented university, and I think the same can be said for NYU Shanghai also in the same category. Joint venture universities are legal Chinese entities. This is very important. So, for example, our campus at Duke is not a branch campus. It is a legal Chinese entity. The chancellor must be a Chinese citizen, because they represent the legal authority of the university within the Chinese law, and also the Chinese education system. We are liberal arts oriented. The one involving Russia and Israel are polytechnic. They're more for engineering. Kean University, which is the State University of New York, has a very big business-oriented program. The U.K. programs also have very big programs. So some are liberal arts, like Duke, but others are also polytechnic. So they span the gamut. And finally, these are in many cases engines for economic development. In the cities in which they occur, these universities are sort of like Stanford in Silicon Valley. They're designed to act as a magnet to attract talent, and also to train young people, some of whom hopefully will stay in the region and act as a kind of entrepreneurial vanguard in the future as they go forward.   Now, the reality is that they've been driven by a number of factors common to both the Chinese side and the foreign side. One is just the whole process of campus internationalization. U.S. universities, for example, over the last five to ten years have wanted to expand their global footprint. And setting up a campus in X country, whether it's been in the Middle East or been in China in this case, has been an important part of the statement about how they build out a global university. A second driver has been government regulation. So in China in 2003, the government set in place a series of regulations that allowed joint venture universities to be established. And I think we need to give kudos to the Ministry of Education in China because they had the vision to allow these kinds of universities to be set up. And I think the impact so far has been very positive. And then finally, they're a vehicle for building out what I would call transnational collaborative research. And that is that they're a vehicle for helping to promote collaboration between, let's say, the United States and China in areas involving science and technology, and their very, very important role in that. That's why I said we're not just a liberal arts university, but we are a research-oriented liberal arts university. And I think that NYU Shanghai, Nigbo and Nottingham, et cetera, they all would claim the same space in that regard. Now, why would a city like Kunshan want to have a joint venture university? After all, Kunshan is rather unique. It's one of the wealthiest cities in China, the largest site of Taiwan foreign investment, but it never has had its own university. So somebody in the leadership did, in fact, read the book about Silicon Valley and Stanford. And they decided, I think it was a McKinsey study that helped them make that decision, that they needed to have a university. And the opportunity to work with Duke was there. And it's a little bit a long, complicated story, but we've ended up where we are today with a university which now will embark on the second phase of having a new campus. But this clearly, for Kunshan, has been a magnet for talent, and an effort to help Kunshan transition from a factory to the world economy to a new knowledge economy, consistent where—with where Xi Jinping and the Chinese leadership wants to take China during the current period, and into the future. It also provides a great bridge for connectivity between the high-tech knowledge communities in North Carolina, and particularly around Research Triangle, and the companies in the Kunshan area. And that bridge at some times or others can be very vibrant, and there are people and activity moving across it. And it's also a place where internationalization of Kunshan gets promoted through the visibility of Duke. Every year during my five years, we had 2,000-plus visitors come to our university, both from abroad and from within China, to understand: What do these universities mean and what's going to happen to them? Now, for Duke, a lot of people think it's about the money. They think that these joint venture campuses make a lot of money. And I can tell you, nothing could be further from the truth. This is not about money. This is about, as I mentioned before, internationalization. But it's also about the opportunity for pedagogical innovation. You can imagine that in existing universities there's a lot of baggage, lots of legacy systems. You don't get virgin territory to do curricular reform and to introduce a lot of edgy ideas. Too many vested interests. But within an opportunity like DKU or NYU Shanghai, you get a white piece of paper and you can develop a very innovative, cutting-edge kind of curriculum. And that's exactly what has been done. And so you get a kind of two-way technology transfer, obviously from Duke to DKU, but also interestingly from DKU back to Duke. And the same thing again happens with these other universities as well. And I think that's important. So there's a great deal of benefit that can accrue to Duke simply by having this campus and watching it go through this kind of evolving development of a new curriculum. Now, we must not forget, these ten joint ventures, and particularly in the context of Sino-U.S. relations, are not all that's there. Starting with Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and its relationship with Nanjing University, the United States has had projects like this going on in China. There are joint colleges. So, for example, the University of Pittsburgh and Sichuan University have one in engineering. And similarly, Michigan and Jiao Tong University also have similar kinds of ventures. And these all seem to be working very nicely. And then there's a whole array of two-plus-two programs, three-plus-two programs. All of these are part of a broad landscape of educational engagement that exists between the two countries. It is much more extensive than anyone could have imagined in the late 1970s, when the two countries signed the bilateral agreement. Now, what are some of the things that happen when you manage these joint venture universities? First, let me mention the operational issues that come across. So you probably, you know, ask: How do you find your partner? Well, in a joint venture university, you must have an educational partner. So for Duke, it's Wuhan University. For NYU Shanghai, it's East China Normal University. And for Kean University it's Wenzhou University. And you go through these—finding these partners, and the partners hopefully form a collaborative relationship. But I can tell you one of the problems, just like in all joint ventures in China, is the sleeping in the same bed but with two different dreams phenomenon. Duke came to China to bring a liberal arts education and to serve as a platform for knowledge transfer across the Chinese higher education landscape. Kunshan wanted a Stanford that can provide commercializable knowledge that can turn into new products, new services, and hopefully new businesses. And so they kind of exist in parallel with one another, with the hope that somewhere along the future they will—they will come together. Another issue area is the issue of student recruitment. Student recruitment is very complex in China because of the reliance on the gaokao system. And the gaokao system introduces an element of rigidity. And the idea of crafting a class, which is very common in liberal arts colleges, is almost impossible to do because of the rather rigid and almost inflexible approach one must take to evaluating students, scoring them, and dealing with a whole array of provincial quotas that make X numbers of students available to attend your university versus other universities. And don't forget, these joint venture universities exist in the context of over 2,000 Chinese universities, all of whom are trying to recruit the students. So you get intense involvement not only from the officials in the province level, but also Chinese parents. And the idea of Chinese parents make helicopter parents in the U.S. look like amateur hour. They are very, very involved and very, very active. A third area are home campus issues that we have to think about. And that is that a lot of people have always said to me: Wow, you know, the Chinese side must give you a big headache. And with all due respect to all my dear colleagues and friends, I can say also sometimes I got a headache from the Duke side as well. And I think anyone who sits in these kind of leadership positions must figure out how to balance the interests and the perspectives of the home country campus and the host country campus, and their ability to work together. And there are a lot of issues that come up along the way that make it very, very complex. And in particular, the idea of attracting faculty. Seventy-five percent of our faculty are hired locally. That is, they are in tenure or tenure-track jobs by Duke-Kunshan University. Twenty-five percent must be supplied by Duke. The reason is very simple: The Chinese authorities want to make sure that the quality of the education is no different than what's offered at Duke. And because we have to give two degrees, a Chinese degree and a Duke degree, that Duke degree is not a Duke-B degree, or a Duke-lite degree. It is the same degree that you get at Duke University, signed by the head of the board of trustees, the president, the provost, et cetera, et cetera. So this is a real Duke degree. It's not Duke-lite. The fourth thing I want to mention, which I mentioned before slightly, which is money. These are not inexpensive ventures. And they also are a kind of elite education. And the degree to which they can be replicated over and over again in China is something that remains to be—remains to be seen. We've had a lot of people coming from Congress who have looked at these joint venture universities and said, ah, you're selling out American values and academic freedom or religious freedom, in return for a big payday. And as I said, that's simply just not the case. These joint venture universities are very difficult to run. You must pay faculty according to the global faculty prices. And plus, there are lots of expat benefits that you have to pay to them. The tuition rates that you can charge to Chinese students are set by the provincial authorities. And therefore, in our case, they're about 50 percent less than what international students have to pay. And so already you're in a deficit, technically speaking, because Chinese students are getting a, you know, preferential price. Also, the idea of building up a research capability is not inexpensive, particularly if you're looking at developing a capability in science and engineering. These are, again, very expensive propositions. Now, I don't want to make it seem like it's all hardship. There are lots of rewarding moments. I think, as I said, the pedagogical side is one of those. And also the opportunity to really build true cross-cultural understanding among young people has been very important. Now, let me just make a couple of comments about where we are in terms of the last two years in particular. No one—you know, when our joint venture was formed, and similarly for the other ones which were formed before ours—could have envisioned what was going to happen, particularly in terms of the U.S.-China trade war, the onset of the protests in Hong Kong, and the issues—human rights issues that have to do with Xinjiang, Tibet, et cetera. And also, as everyone knows, COVID also presented some amazing challenges to the campus. We had to, by late January/early February 2020, we evacuated the whole campus when COVID came. And for the last two years, all of the international students have been studying either in their home country or if they've been able to come to the United States, they've been able to study at Duke during this period. And the big question is, when are these international students going to be able to go back? Which of course, that raises the big question about what is the campus like without international students? Our campus has somewhere between 35 to 40 percent international students. NYU Shanghai has 50 percent international students. Those make for very interesting pedagogical challenges, particularly given the fact that the high school experiences of these young people from China versus all countries—you know, we have forty-one different countries represented at DKU—make for a very challenging learning environment and teaching environment. Now, a couple of the issues that really have been exacerbated over the last two years, first of all are visa issues. Delays in being able to get visas or sometimes denial of visas. Another one are the uncertainties about the campus. Many people think that as Sino-U.S. tensions have risen, OK, the Chinese side is going to shut the campus. No, no, no, the U.S. side is going to shut the campus. And there's been the lack of clarity. And this also not only hurts student recruitment sometimes, but it also can hurt faculty recruitment as well—who are also wondering, you know, what's going to happen in the future and what kind of security of their jobs. Most recently we've also had—particularly because some of the policies adopted during the Trump administration—national security issues. So we want to build a research capability. Let's say the city of Kunshan says: We'll support the building of a semiconductor research capability. Duke University has to say no. That technology now is a more tightly controlled technology and it's not clear what we can and can't do. And so some of these kind of initiatives get interrupted, can't go forward. And everyone is very vigilant to make sure that nobody crosses the line in terms of U.S. law. And, of course, watching out for Chinese law as well. So where is this all going? I think these difficulties are going to continue. The most obvious one that everyone talks about is academic freedom, the ability to deal with these complex, controversial issues. I can say very proudly that up until this point, and at least until when I left in June of 2020, we had not had any kind of explicit intervention that stopped us from doing something, per se. We've had the national committee for U.S.-China relations, China town halls for several years. They didn't have one this past year, but we've had it for several years. We have courses on China politics. We have courses on U.S.-China relations, et cetera. So we haven't had that. But we've had to be flexible. Instead of having an open forum about Hong Kong, we created a minicourse to talk about Hong Kong. So those issues are out there. Academic freedom is a real issue that is one of those redline issues. And everyone is a little bit nervous all the time about getting into that. The other thing, of course, is the fluidity in the Chinese environment itself. We know that China continues to witness political changes, further economic reforms. And a lot of the commitments that were made, you know, five years ago, ten years ago, the ability to see them through. DKU is covered by a CEA, a cooperative educational accord, that promises academic freedom in the engagement of the university's work on campus. Now, if you go out and throw a brick through the mayor's window, well, all bets are off. But while you're on campus, you should be able to have, you know, academic freedom. And this is not a political issue. This is an accreditation issue. If the pedagogy and the learning environment were to become distinctly different, the Southern States Accreditation, which accredits the Duke degrees, could not accredit the degree that's coming out of DKU. And so there must not be any kind of significant gap or significant differentiation in order to preserve that issue of academic integrity. Now, finally, I would say—you know, looking now retrospectively, looking back at all of this, I think there's no more important kind of initiative than these universities. Getting young people from all around the world to sit in the same classroom, engage with one another, even become uncomfortable. It's great if they can do that when they're eighteen to twenty-four so hopefully when they're forty-five to fifty, they sit down and deal with these real issues, they can have some degree of understanding and some perspective of why the other side is thinking the way it does. This doesn't happen automatically on these campuses. There's a lot of orchestration and a lot of fostering of activity. But I would just say that he ability and the opportunity to do this makes this, and makes all of these joint ventures, really exciting opportunities that have larger impact than just the campus on which they sit. And let me stop here. Thank you. FASKIANOS: Thank you very much. That was really a terrific overview. And you really brought your experience to the table. Thank you. So let's go to all of you now for your questions, comments. You can either raise your hand by clicking on the “raise hand” icon, or you can type your question in the Q&A box. Please include your affiliation so I can read it. And when I call on you, please unmute yourself and also say who you are and your academic affiliation, so to put it in context. I'm going to go first, raised hand, to James Cousins. There we go. Q: Hi. Yeah, this is Morton Holbrook at Kentucky Wesleyan College, along with James Cousins. FASKIANOS: Great. (Laughs.) Q: And thanks very much, Dr. Simon. A great explanation. Happy to hear about academic freedom. Could I hear a little bit more about, for example, textbook choice? Do you have to submit—do professors have to submit textbook choices to the party secretary, for example? I assume there's a party secretary there. Is there self-censorship by professors who would want to skip over Tiananmen massacre or the Taiwan issue or the South China Sea issue? Thank you. SIMON: OK. Great question. So I'm happy to say that each professor creates their own syllabus, as they would in the United States. We have three big required courses, one of which is China in the world. And it is to look at the impact of the West on China, and China's impact on the West. And in that course, which every student has to take, we discuss very, very sensitive issues, including the Taiwan issue, including Chinese security policy, including South China Sea, et cetera, et cetera. There are some limitations on books that can be imported through the Chinese customs, because those will be controlled at the customs port. But because we have unlimited access through the internet right directly into the Duke library, any book that any instructor would like to have on their syllabus, that book is available to the students. So we do not have to report any of these teaching intentions to the party secretary. In the case of DKU, the party secretary is the chancellor. That just happened when we got a new chancellor a couple years ago. And we also have a deputy party secretary. But for the most part, they do not intervene at all in the academic affairs of the university. And the main reason for this is that the university must remain accredited for giving out both the Duke degree and the Chinese degree. FASKIANOS: Great. I'm going to go next to a written question from Michael Raisinghani, who is an associate professor at Texas Women's University. And two parts. What are some things you would have done differently going forward based on your experience over the last five years? And this is also—camps onto what the prior question was—does China censor the minicourse on Hong Kong? SIMON: So let me take the second one first. The minicourse on Hong Kong was a sort of an in-place innovation. We got a directive from the government indicating that we were to have no public forum to discuss the events in Hong Kong. And we had had two students who were in Hong Kong during the summer, witness to the events that were going on. And they came back to the campus after the summer wanting to basically expose everything that went on in Hong Kong. Now, obviously we wanted this to be a learning opportunity. And so we didn't mind, you know, talking about the media, the press, you know, who's vantage point, et cetera. So we felt that that could be best done within a minicourse. And so we literally, in real time, created an eight-hour minicourse. We had four of our faculty put together teaching about the society and the issues in contemporary Hong Kong. And each of those classes, you know, they discussed, you know, ongoing issues. I can tell you that there were lots of PRC students attending at the beginning of the session. There were fewer by the end. And we can, you know, extrapolate why they may have pulled out. But nobody pulled out because somehow someone was holding a gun to their head and said: You ought not to be here. So, you know, there's a lot of peer pressure about academic freedom issues. And there also is some issues about self-censorship that exist. And we try to deal with them. We try to make the academic environment extremely comfortable for everybody. But I can tell you, look, there's parental pressure. We don't know who the parents are of some of these kids. They may be even party officials. And so we basically, you know, let the kids determine. But we let the kids say: Look, in the classroom, all—everything goes. And I instituted a policy which I would not have changed, and that is that no cellphones in the classroom. No cellphones at major events, without explicit permission of the participants. And that means that in the class you cannot record by video or by audio what's going on in the classroom without special permission of the—of the instructor when that's happening. During my five years, you know, that worked very well. It raised the level of engagement by all students. And I would say people felt much more comfortable. A hundred percent comfortable? No. That wasn't the case. There is still some uneasiness. What would I have done differently? That's kind of a very interesting question. It kind of comes up because I'm writing a book about my experiences. I think maybe, you know, I would have tried to build more bridges with Duke earlier on. I think that Duke's involvement in this was really what the Chinese side bought. And I think that we needed to get more Duke involvement in terms of trying to sell the DKU opportunity to the faculty. I would have become a little bit more proactive in getting them to understand the benefits of spending a semester or two semesters at DKU. I think we—that would have helped to build more political support for the DKU project back on the DKU—back on the Duke campus in the United States. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to go next to raised hand, to Maryalice Mazzara. Q: Hi. Hello to both of you. And, Dr. Simon, great to see you. I'm here at SUNY Office of Global Affairs at SUNY Global Center. And I must say, disclaimer, I had Dr. Simon as a boss, my first boss at SUNY. And he was wonderful. So and I've worked a lot with China, as you know, Denis, from when we started, and continuing on. What would you say you would recommend going forward? So you just had a question about, you know, what would you have done differently in the last five years. For those of us, and all of us on the call, who are interested—very interested in U.S.-China positive relations, what would you recommend that we can do at the academic level? SIMON: So one of the things I think we need to realize is that China's Ministry of Education is extremely committed to not only these joint venture projects, but to international engagement as a whole. During my five years, I had an extensive opportunity to interact with a number of officials from the ministry, not only at the central government level but also at the provincial government level. And despite some of the noise that we hear about China regarding self-reliance and closing the door, I think that understanding that China is open for business. It wants to see more international students come into the country. There are now about close to 500,000 international students. China wants to grow that number. You know, there are about 700,000-plus Chinese students studying abroad, 370,000 of them, or so, in the United States. The ministry is very interested. And I think that we need to basically build bridges that continue to be sustainable over time, so that we continue to engage in the educational sphere with China. And that means that perhaps it's time for the two countries to sit down and revise, update, and reconfigure the education cooperation agreement that was signed back when Deng Xiaoping visited the United States in '78, and then formalized in '79. I think that we need to think about altering the rules of the road going forward so it takes into account that China is no longer a backward, or a higher-education laggard. China how has world-class universities, offering world-class curriculum. Collaboration and research between faculty in the U.S. and faculty in China is extensive. We need to make sure that initiatives, like the China initiative through the Justice Department, doesn't take hold and basically lead to the demise or the decoupling of the two countries. Basically, the bottom line is: Keep going forward. Keep being honest with your Chinese partners and your Chinese colleagues. Let them know some of the challenges that you face. And make them feel committed to playing by the rules of the game. And we have to do the same on our side. And if we can do that, I think that the basis for collaboration is not only there, but the basis for expanded collaboration is very real and can help, hopefully, over the long term overcome some of the difficulties and the tensions that we face because of lack of understanding and lack of trust that currently plagues the relationship. FASKIANOS: Great. The next question is from Emily Weinstein, who is a research fellow at Georgetown University. Curious about issues associated with intellectual property. Since JV universities are Chinese legal entities, in the case of DKU does Duke maintain the IP or is it the independent DKU entity? SIMON: Well, right now let's assume that the faculty member is a permanent member of the DKU faculty. Then that faculty member, in conjunction with the Chinese regulatory environment, would own a piece of that IP. The university doesn't have a technology transfer office, like you would see at Duke in the United States, or Stanford, or NYU, et cetera. And I think that probably no one really can see that there would be, you know, just a lot of new IP coming out of this. But I think that now, given the momentum that's been built up in some of these areas, I think that that is an issue. And I think that that's something that will get decided. But right now, it's a local issue. The only way that would be different is if a faculty member from Duke came over, participated in a research project, and then laid claim. China has a—(inaudible)—kind of law in place. And of course, we know the United States does. That would tend to be the basis for a sharing of the IP. And I think that was the basic notion going forward, that as a joint venture whatever came out of these collaborative research engagements, they would be on a shared IP basis. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to take the next question from Wenchi Yu, who has raised a raised hand. Q: Hi. Thank you. Hi, Denis, good to see you again. A question about—first of all, just a small comment about China still welcoming collaboration internationally at higher ed. I think that's been the case for a couple years. The question now is not so much about their will, but more how, right? So in order to collaborate in a way that neither side compromises our own values and principles, I think that's more of the key question. So I think moving forward if you can just maybe go deeper on this point. How can we really collaborate without, you know, feeling that we're making too much of a compromise? And the second related is, I think what we're seeing in terms of the change of attitude is not just at higher ed level. You and I have talked about K-12 as well. It's also been extremely difficult for international schools as well as online education to even, you know, try to connect students with anything international, whether it's curriculum or, you know, international foreign tutors, educators. So, I mean, do you think, you know, this will impact higher ed? You know, and what is your interpretation of Ministry of Education's attitude? And, you know, how much is what local officials can actually be flexible when it comes to implementation of those bigger policies? SIMON: So I think one of the—one of the challenges I didn't get to mention, but I'll talk about it now, is this issue of homogenization. I think that the Ministry of Education, because of its general approach to curriculum and things of that sort, would like all universities basically to operate very similarly and that there's not a whole bunch of outliers in the system. The special provisions for these joint venture universities are indeed just that, they're very special, they're very unique. And in fact, just like lots of regulation in China, they couldn't cover the entire waterfront of all the operating, all the administrative, and even all the political issues that might come across. And so many of these, the CEA agreement, or the equivalent of that, was signed, you know, are very unique to those nine or ten joint venture universities. And they—as you know, in China just because you sided with Duke doesn't mean that if you're up next you're going to get the same terms and conditions. And I think that right now because of the tensions in the relationship, it would be difficult to actually replicate exactly what Duke, and NYU, and some of the other universities had, particularly because of the very pronounced way academic freedom issues had been—had been dealt with. But I think that each of our universities is very clear about the red lines that exist regarding issues as sensitive, like academic freedom. In other words, there are very few issues that would invite the kind of deliberation about potential withdrawal, but academic freedom is one of those. Religious freedom, in terms of what goes on on the campus is another issue. Again, the campus is sort of like a protected territory in the way an embassy would be, in many ways. And it's not exactly the same. It doesn't have that legal status. But what I'm suggesting here in terms of the operating environment is sort of like that. So up till now, we've been very fortunate that we haven't felt the full brunt, you know, of some of the political tightening that some Chinese universities have experienced. And so we've been pretty—the situation has been pretty good for all of us. But I think that part of the problem is that we were dealing with China in a very asymmetrical, hierarchical kind of manner in the past. And that is that the gap between the two countries was very large in capability, particularly in education and higher education. And therefore, it was from the haves—Europe, the United States, et cetera—to the have-no country. That's no longer the case. And so therefore, that's why I think that in order to get more accommodation from the Chinese side, we have to bring China much more to the table as a co-equal. And as China sits at that table, then we have to secure commitments to say: Look, we commit to doing this when we're in China. You have to commit to doing this, whether it's regarding IP theft, whether it's regarding the censorship of Chinese students in the United States, whether it's all other kinds of things that we know are problems. And at the same time, as many U.S. university leaders have done, we promised to protect our Chinese students, that they don't become the object of attack because we have a kind of anti-China, you know, fervor going through the country, and somehow these students are going to be, you know, experiencing some problems. This is a very difficult period. But I don't see how we can continue to go forward based on a document, or set of documents, that were signed forty-plus years ago. I think we need to begin to consider, both in education and in science and technology, to sign a new agreement that looks at new rules of the game, reflecting the different status of the countries now versus what it was forty years ago. FASKIANOS: I'm going to ask the next question from Qiang Zha from York University in Toronto, Canada. Two questions: A rise in nationalism and patriotism can be observed among Chinese young generations. How is it going to impact the JVs in China? And whether and now the JVs in China impact the country's innovation capacity and performance. SIMON: So it seems that there's two questions there. Let me respond. Professor Cheng Li, who's at Brookings Institution, has just written a very interesting article about this growing patriotism and even anti-Americanism among young Chinese, that I would recommend. And it's a very important article, because I think we had assumed in the past that young Chinese are very global, they're cosmopolitan, they dress the dress, they walk the talk, they listen to the same music. But I think that what's going on in the country especially over the last ten years is an effort to say, look, you know, stop worshiping Western things and start attaching greater value to things Chinese. And I think that that's sort of had an impact. And I think when you go and look at a classroom discussion at a place like DKU, where you have students from forty different countries talking about a common issue, Chinese students tend to band together and be very protective of China. I think that's just a common reaction that they have. Now, in a—as a semester goes on, a few of them will break away a bit from those kind of—you know, that rigidity, and open their minds to alternative ways to thinking about problems and issues, and particularly in terms of Chinese behavior. And I know that I've advised a number of students on projects, papers, et cetera. And I'm almost in awe of the fact of the degree to which they in fact have broken away from the old molds and old stereotypes that they had when they entered the program back in 2018. So this is part of a process that occurs over time. And I think it's something that we have to have some patience about. But I am worried. And I'll just give you an example. You know, a young Chinese student comes to the United States, has their visa. They get to immigration in the United States, and they're turned back all of a sudden and they're forced to go home. No apparent reason, but somebody thinks they're up to no good, or they don't—they weren't from the right, you know, high school, or whatever is the case. We've got to really be careful that we don't start to alienate not only young Chinese—which I think that's a big problem—but also Chinese American faculty and staff who are at our universities, who now feel that they're not trusted or they're under suspicion for doing something wrong. And I know in conversations that I have had with numerous of these people who have talked about should I go back, should I go to a third country? If I'm not in the U.S., should I be in—you know, in Europe? What's a good place for me to go, because I don't feel good—nor does my family feel good—now in the United States. We have created a big problem that's going to have a very negative effect on our talent needs in the 21st century. And that includes young Chinese who would come to the United States for advanced education and hopefully stay here when they get their doctorates, or whatever degree they came for, and Chinese Americans who are here who have been loyal, who have been hardworking, who now feel that somehow they are not trusted any longer. And we're in a big dilemma right now at this point in time. And I think that my experience at this JV university says, look, as I said, it doesn't happen naturally that there's a kumbaya moment that everyone gets together and hugs and is on the same wavelength. There's a lot of intense discussion among these young people that we must recognize. But hopefully, through the process of being put together and making friends and building trust, they can begin to open their minds for different perspectives and different ideas. And I think that if DKU, or NYU Shanghai, or these other campuses are going to be successful, they must continue to push in that direction. Not to close the door, pull the shades down, and simply hide. But they must be open. And one of the things at DKU, all of our events, open—are open. Our China town halls, we invited officials from Suzhou and Kunshan to come and listen to whether it was Henry Kissinger or somebody else who was—Ray Dalio, who was on, or Fareed Zakaria. They're all the same thing, we invited people to come to listen and to have an open mind to these kind of events. So I think that we are a beacon of light in the midst of a turbulence. I think President Price's comment is very apropos to what this represents. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to take two written questions. The first is from Peggy Blumenthal, who is senior counselor to the president at the Institute of International Education. Do you see a difference in the kinds of Chinese students who enroll in Duke-Kushan versus those who applied to study in Duke in North Carolina? Are they less from elite political families and less wealthy families? And do you have any students from Taiwan or Hong Kong? And then a second question from GianMario Besana, who's at DePaul University, the associate provost for global engagement. How is faculty governance handled? Are faculty teaching at the JV tenured as Duke faculty? SIMON: OK. So, yes, we have students from Taiwan. And we don't always get students from Hong Kong, but we're open to having students from Hong Kong. So there is no limit. The only thing is, and I'll mention this, that all Chinese students, PRC students, must have a quote/unquote “political” course. And that course has been revised sharply by our partner at Wuhan University to make it much more of a Chinese history and culture course. The students from Taiwan must take that course. Now, they don't want to take it and they reject the idea of taking it, but that's a requirement. And so they do take it. But I can assure you, the one that we have is much softer than some of the things that go on at other Chinese Universities. In terms of the caliber of the students, one thing is very clear. As the reputation of places like DKU and NYU Shanghai, et cetera, have grown, the differentiation between who applies to the U.S. campus and who applies to the DKU campus, that differentiation is getting smaller and smaller. And the reason is very simple: we cannot have a two-track system if we're giving a Duke degree to the students graduating at DKU, and the same thing for NYU Shanghai. We must have near equivalency. And we have a very strong requirement in terms of English language capability. We don't trust, frankly, TOEFL. And we don't trust, you know, some of the other mechanism. We now deploy specialized versions of language testing so we can ensure that the quality of the language is strong enough so at the beginning of the engagement on campus, when they matriculate, they are able to hit the ground running. And that helps a great deal. In terms of faculty governance, the faculty in place, you know, at DKU, as far as I know, are able to—in effect, they meet as a faculty. There's an academic affairs committee. We have a vice chancellor for academic affairs who oversees the faculty engagement, in effect. And the faculty do have a fairly loud voice when there are certain things that they don't like. There's a Chinese tax policy is changing. That's going to have a big impact on their compensation. They've made their concerns well known to the leadership. If they don't like a curriculum that is being, you know, put in place and they want to change it, they will advocate, you know, to redo some of the curriculum that has been done, and also alter the requirements. So their voice is heard loudly and strongly. But it's through the vice chancellor for academic affairs to the executive vice chancellor of the campus. It doesn't necessarily go through the chancellor. And I don't mean to suggest that there's full compartmentation of the Chinese side. But there are certain things in which we closely operate together and joint decision making. And then there are things in which basically, at least up to my time, the engagement was a little lighter on the academic side and more intense on the operational side. And I think that that was the model that we had hoped to sustain from the beginning. FASKIANOS: Great. I'm going to take the next question from David Moore from Broward College in Florida. Do you know of any issues the Chinese have with required courses at Duke in U.S. history or U.S. government/political science? And just to give context, he writes, Florida has recently imposed a new required test in civic literacy, which has questions related to the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, and major Supreme Court cases. Next year students in China will need to take this test in order to graduate. Are you aware of any such requirements imposed by other states? SIMON: So I'm not aware right now that North Carolina, for example, has this kind of requirement. But I can tell you that we do teach courses about American government, American society, American culture. In other words, American studies gets a full, you know, treatment, if that's what your major is or that's something that you choose to study. Now, like many places, even on a U.S. campus, except from what you've just told me, I mean, you could go through an entire university education without doing American studies whatsoever. But I think from what I'm hearing from you, that's not going to be the case in Florida now. (Laughs.) We don't—we haven't had that problem. The only requirement, as I said, is on the Chinese side, that Chinese students must have this one course on Chinese history and culture, and they also must have military service. They do this short-term summer military training that they must go through. And I've gone to the graduation. It's a—it's kind of fascinating to watch it. But, you know, it's something that's for bonding purposes. And, you know, that makes China different. Remember, this is not an island existing, you know, in the middle of in the entire China. In some ways, the campus and the fact that we're in China become part of the same reality. It is not the case—you know, we can't be an island unto ourselves. That's when I think real problems would occur. I think the more that we can integrate and understand what's going on in the larger societal context, it's important for our students, particularly the international students who come. And the international students are such a critical element because they represent an alternative perspective on the world that they bring into the classroom, as does our international faculty bring new ideas into the classroom. And those are what basically can open up the minds of our Chinese students. We're not here to make Chinese students think like Americans. We're here to raise global awareness. That's all we want to do. We want to give them alternatives and options and different perspectives on the world, and then let them make up their mind. Let them decide what's the right, or wrong, or comfortable way to think about an issue, and then feel that on this campus and then, you know, further on in their lives, they have the power and they have the capacity to think for themselves. And that's why—just one point I want to make—critical thinking is such an important part of our pedagogy. How to think critically and independently about issues and express yourself in a lucid fashion are part of what we call seven animating features that we want with each of our graduates. And another one is something called rooted globalism. And that is the ability to understand your own roots, but also the ability to understand the roots of others, and bring that to bear as you begin to look at a problem like: Why do these two countries have different views on climate change? Or why do they think different—so differently about handling pandemics, or handling even things like facial recognition and video surveillance? We have one professor who studies this, and he and I have had many numerous conversations about how to involve Chinese students in these discussions, so they don't feel intimidated, but get exposed to these kinds of debates that are going on. Now issues like what's the future of AI, in which we're looking at moral, ethical issues that face societies—all societies, not just American or Chinese society—and how do these get worked out? These are what the opportunities are that we can accomplish in these kind of joint venture environments. FASKIANOS: A next question from Lauren Sinclair. I'm administrator and faculty at NYU Shanghai. I'm very interested in the notion of pedagogical reciprocity and cross-cultural exchange. Do you see any evidence that this is occurring? Do you have qualitative or quantitative measures through institutional or student-level surveys? SIMON: So this occurs—this kind of what I call knowledge transfer occurs because we do have, as I mentioned, 25 percent of the faculty on the campus at any time are Duke or Duke-affiliated faculty. So when we are doing things on the campus at DKU, there are Duke faculty who are exposed to these experiences, they get to hear the students' presentations, et cetera, et cetera. They're part of the discussions about the curriculum. And I can tell you that the Duke curriculum and the DKU curriculum are different in many respects, ours being much more highly interdisciplinary, for example. And we have a project called Signature Work. When our students do this, they get a chance to spend—under normal situation, not COVID—but a semester at Duke. And during that semester at Duke, that also serves as a vehicle for the students to bring with them the things that they've learned, and the way that they've learned them. And we also have vehicles for our faculty in certain cases to spend time at Duke as well. And one best example I have to give you is the COVID experience. DKU was online by March of 2020. With the help of Duke's educational technology people we started delivering curriculum to our students in March, April, May, so that they could finish their semester. Quickly, by time June rolled around, Duke, as well as all sorts of U.S. universities, were faced with the dilemma of how to go online. The experience of DKU in handling the online delivery to students who were located all over the world, and the Duke need to be prepared to do that, had great benefit to Duke when it tried to implement its own online programs. That experience was very positive. The synergies captured from that were very positive. And I think that this serves as a reminder that knowledge and information can go in both directions. You mentioned cross-cultural. And again, I think the more faculty we can get to come and have an experience in China, and that they bring back with them the learning that's occurred, we've seen that now get transported back to Duke, and delivered in Duke classrooms based on the experience that they've had in China. FASKIANOS: Well, this has been a fantastic hour. Thank you very much. We are at the end of our time. It came, alas, too quickly, and I could not get to all the questions. So my apologies. But we will send around the link to this webinar, the transcript, and other resources that Dr. Simon has mentioned. So, Denis, thank you very much for doing this. We really appreciate it. SIMON: My pleasure. And thank you for having me. FASKIANOS: And we will be having our next Higher Education webinar in January 2022. So this is the last one for this year. And we will send an invitation under separate cover. As always, I encourage you to follow @CFR_Academic on Twitter and visit CFR.org, ForeignAffairs.com, and ThinkGlobalHealth.org for more resources. I'm wishing you all luck with your finals, grading, all of that, wonderful things that you have to do as faulty and as academics. And hope you enjoy the holidays. And of course, stay well and stay safe. And we look forward to reconvening in the new year. (END)

On December 6, the Brookings Institution, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the Center for European Policy Analysis, the Transatlantic Democracy Working Group, the FACT Coalition, and the Leveraging Transparency to Reduce Corruption initiative will co-host a seminar on the fight against corruption and its relationship to advancing democracy and addressing democratic backsliding globally.    The event began with a keynote address from Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Treasury Wally Adeyemo, who will focus on the Biden administration's domestic and international anti-corruption agenda. He then joined Brookings President John R. Allen in conversation to further address anti-corruption priorities such as advancing economic fairness, combating money laundering, stemming illicit financial flows, and implementing beneficial ownership transparency as well as opportunities for cross-sector collaboration to address these challenges.   A panel discussion then looked at anti-corruption issues through the lens of the upcoming U.S.-led Summit for Democracy and the release of the “Democracy Playbook 2021: 10 Commitments for Advancing Democracy.” This new report grounds possible commitments and deliverables to be made by governments and other participants in the summit. Expert panelists unpacked those commitments using the example of anti-corruption, but also discussed more broadly how the Summit for Democracy and the “year of action” to follow can renew and strengthen democracy, fight growing authoritarianism, and usher in an era of improved governance.   After the session, panelists took audience questions. Viewers submitted questions for speakers by emailing events@brookings.edu or via Twitter at @BrookingsGov by using #DemocracyPlaybook.    Subscribe to Brookings Events on iTunes, send feedback email to events@brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. To learn more about upcoming events, visit our website. Brookings Events is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

Hiring a lawyer is expensive—way too expensive, according to Clifford Winston. The Brookings Institution economist and former MIT professor says the legal profession's excessive licensure requirements are the cause of this, leading to an industry where demand far exceeds supply. Winston has written several books about the problem and about why he thinks basic legal tasks should be opened up to people who haven't necessarily passed the bar, or even possess a law degree. Winston spoke with Adam Allington, a Bloomberg Law audio producer and host of the investigative podcast series, [Un]Common Law, for Adam's recent three-part series on the bar exam. In this interview, Winston lays out his argument for why lawyers are harming the public good, while also lining their own pockets, by making it so difficult to join their ranks. Have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

The trends in the coronavirus pandemic are heading up again, and this is before any possible uptick that may or may not happen with the new omicron variant. The positivity rate here in Maryland has been above 5% for about a week, and the number of daily new cases in our state has hovered around 17 or 18 hundred each day, many more than in the past several months. Children over the age of five are now eligible to get a jab, and everybody over the age of 18 qualifies for a booster. Nationally, nearly a year into vaccine availability, only about 60% of Americans are fully vaccinated, well behind 60 other countries. Places like Portugal, Cuba, Cambodia, Iceland, and Australia all have much higher rates of fully vaccinated people. And of course, now, with booster shots recommended for those who have received the original dose, the definition of what “fully vaccinated” is may have to change. Today on Midday, it's the Midday HealthWatchwith Dr. Leana Wen, who is always so generous with her time and willingness to answer our questions about COVID-19. Dr. Wen is an emergency physician and former Baltimore City Health Commissioner.  She teaches at the George Washington University School of Public Health. She's also a columnist for the Washington Post, a medical analyst for CNN, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of Lifelines: A Doctor's Journey in the Fight for Public Health. Dr. Leana Wen joins us on Skype… And, as always, we welcome your questions and comments… See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A new Brookings Institution report argues that the era of deepening ties between the United States and China ushered in by the 1972 Nixon visit to China is over, and suggests that frictions may be mitigated by a bipartisan approach to China that appeals to allies in Europe and Asia and tempers the reality of competition with cooperation on global public goods. In an interview conducted on November 22, 2021, two of the report's co-authors Ryan Hass and Bruce Jones introduce the key findings of the report, “Rising to the Challenge: Navigating Competition, Avoiding Crisis, and Advancing US Interests in Relations with China,” and discuss how many Americans now view China as their country's most formidable challenger and potential adversary.

Emma hosts David Wessel, senior fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution, to discuss his recent book Only the Rich Can Play: How Washington Works in the New Gilded Age., and how bipartisan legislation on Opportunity Zones has created a tax haven for the ultra-wealthy under the guise of investing in low-income communities. They begin by covering what Opportunity Zones are, and how they work, looking at tech mogul Sean Parker's ingenious idea to promote investment in low-income neighborhoods to combat geographic inequality by giving massive tax cuts on capital gains as a reward, and how it made its way into Trump's 2017 tax cuts, with help from Tim Scott and Cory Booker. After exploring the actual tax breaks and tax deferrals in the policy, they dive into the actual impact of the legislation, exploring how investment opportunities for the wealthy, unsurprisingly, has resulted in a focus on making capital gains on your capital gains rather than actually putting the tax break back into low-income communities. Next, David Wessel walks through concrete examples, looking at the massive investments in “Opportunity Zones” that include a Ritz Carlton condo complex and hotel in Portland, and a Goldman Sachs-backed complex in Baltimore, and the effective impact of federally-backed gentrification that the policy has created. This brings him and Emma to the real estate industry and its focus on the exploitation of legislation, exploring the Mandalay Bay Opportunity Zone convention that saw wealthy investors come together and explore their new opportunities for tax avoidance, before they wrap up the interview by looking at the future of Opportunity Zones, including the billions of tax dollars it will lose in the coming decade, and whether or not it will meet any practical pushback. Emma also covers the nation waiting on SCOTUS' upcoming decision on Mississippi's abortion ban, the horrifying ramifications it could lead to, and Fox's anticipatory threats ahead of the conservative Court's vote. And in the Fun Half: Brandon and Matt join Emma to take on the role of musicals in this cultural moment, cover Brian Kilmeade continuing the whitewashing of the 80s with a discussion of the “overhyped” reaction to the AIDS epidemic, and BJ from Montana calls in on Governor Gianforte leaving Montana residents in ashes. They also cover puritan influencer Eric Metaxas' impure experience with COVID, Greenwald's poor pattern recognition as he goes after a Brazilian Petroleum Workers Union for their “privilege” in understanding the inefficiencies and exploitation in the philanthropy model, and Matt and Matt rant on cryptocurrency's scams, plus your calls and IMs! Purchase tickets for the live show in Boston on January 16th HERE! https://thewilbur.com/artist/majority-report/ Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here. Join the Majority Report Discord! http://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ (Merch issues and concerns can be addressed here: majorityreportstore@mirrorimage.com) You can now watch the livestream on Twitch Support the St. Vincent Nurses today as they continue to strike for a fair contract! https://action.massnurses.org/we-stand-with-st-vincents-nurses/ Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/ Subscribe to AM Quickie writer Corey Pein's podcast News from Nowhere, at https://www.patreon.com/newsfromnowhere Check out Matt's show, Left Reckoning, on Youtube, and subscribe on Patreon! Subscribe to Matt's other show Literary Hangover on Patreon! Check out The Letterhack's upcoming Kickstarter project for his new graphic novel! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/milagrocomic/milagro-heroe-de-las-calles Check out Matt Binder's YouTube channel! Subscribe to Brandon's show The Discourse on Patreon! Check out The Nomiki Show live at 3 pm ET on YouTube at patreon.com/thenomikishow Check out Jamie's podcast, The Antifada, at patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!) Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattBinder @MattLech @BF1nn @BradKAlsop Check out Paul Prescod's campaign for State Senate in Pennsylvania here!

David Sandalow is the Inaugural Fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy and co-Director of the Energy and Environment Concentration at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He founded and directs the Center's U.S.-China Program.David is as a director at Fermata Energy and senior advisor to APL. He is a member of the Zayed Future Energy Prize Selection Committee, Global CO2 Initiative Advisory Board, Electric Drive Transport Association's “Hall of Fame” and Council on Foreign Relations.David held senior positions at the White House, State Department and U.S. Department of Energy. At DOE he served as Under Secretary of Energy (acting) and Assistant Secretary for Policy & International Affairs. Before joining DOE, David was a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and Executive Vice President at WWF.David holds a B.A. from Yale University and J.D. from University of Michigan Law School.Official bio:https://www.sipa.columbia.edu/faculty-research/faculty-directory/david-sandalowGuide to Chinese Climate Policy (2019)https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Chinese-Climate-Policy-Sandalow/dp/1691490245/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=guide%20to%20chinese%20climate%20policy&qid=1568665817&sr=8-3Carbon Mineralization Roadmap (November 2021)https://www.icef.go.jp/pdf/summary/roadmap/icef2021_roadmap.pdf

More sub-Saharan Africans live under fully or partially authoritarian states today than at most points in the last two decades. In its 2021 report, Freedom House rated only eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa as free. Of these eight, half are small island states. The number of African countries that Freedom House rated "not free" grew from a low of 14 in 2006 and 2008 to 20 in 2021. Among sub-Saharan countries considered "partially free," increasingly populist governments are suppressing opposition groups, postponing elections, eliminating term limits, and abusing human rights to maintain power. In this episode, Tamara White, a research and project assistant in the Africa Growth Initiative at the Brookings Institution, joins us to discuss the state of democracy in Africa. See the show notes with links mentioned in this episode at https://j.mu/news/civic/2021/12-01-democracy-matters-episode-93.shtml

In this episode, I am joined by Jonathan Rauch, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of the recent book, The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth. Today, we talk about the rise and spread of misinformation and falsehood.Meet Jonathan: Jonathan Rauch is a senior fellow in the Governance Studies program at the Brookings and the author of eight books and numerous articles on public policy, culture, and government. He is a contributing writer of The Atlantic and recipient of the 2005 National Magazine Award, the magazine industry's equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize.Resources:The Constitution of Knowledge by Jonathan RauchA Lot of People Are Saying by Russell Muirhead and Nancy RosenblumTruth Decay by Jennifer Kavanagh and Michael D. RichPost-Truth by Lee McIntyreOn Liberty by John Stuart MillBraver Angels

The World Health Organization will meet today to discuss a new heavily-mutated variant of Covid-19. The variant has been detected in small numbers in South Africa, with reports of cases in Israel and Hong Kong. CNBC's Meg Tirrell reports on how Covid-19 drugmakers like Moderna and Pfizer are responding to the variant. Dr. Kavita Patel, former White House health policy director and fellow at the Brookings Institution, also reacts to the new variant but says we shouldn't “get ahead of ourselves” just yet. NBC's Raf Sanchez reports from Tel Aviv that Israel has barred travel to several southern African nations over the new variant, as well as Singapore and several other nations. The U.K. immediately moved to ban flights from South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia, Eswatini and Zimbabwe. Plus, Priceline CEO Brett Keller discusses holiday travel demand, and how the coronavirus variant could impact bookings. In this episode:Kavita Patel, @kavitapmdMeg Tirrell, @megtirrellBrett Keller, @pricelineRaf Sanchez, @rafsanchezBecky Quick, @BeckyQuickAndrew Ross Sorkin, @andrewrsorkinCameron Costa, @CameronCostaNY

Fiona Hill is the Robert Bosch senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. She was the senior director for European and Russian Affairs for the National Security Council from 2017-2019. From 2006-2009, she was an intelligence officer for at the National Intelligence Council. In 2020, In November 2019, Dr. Hill testified at impeachment hearings being held by the House Intelligence Committee as it investigated allegations of abuse of office by President Trump. Dr. Hill told the committee that President Trump and his aides were thwarting U.S. foreign policy in an effort to help President Trump.During this podcast, Dr. Hill takes us inside the tense process and recounts her testimony and reveals how she believes the Trump team's actions played into Russia's hands. She also discusses her new book "There's Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the 21st Century," which tells the story of how an immigrant from the UK who grew up in a working class coal mining community, ended up testifying before a congressional committee considering impeachment of the President of the United States.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We are nearly done with our sixth season of Grand Tamasha and we have been shamefully overdue in scheduling a news round-up for the Fall.To set things straight and to discuss the latest news coming out of India, Milan is joined on the podcast this week by Grand Tamasha regulars Sadanand Dhume of AEI and the Wall Street Journal and Tanvi Madan of the Brookings Institution. The three discuss the Modi government's abrupt about-turn on the farm law bills, the perilous state of China-India relations, and new murmurs out of Delhi on the trade policy front. Plus, Tanvi, Sadanand, and Milan discuss three stories coming out of India that podcast regulars should be following. Sadanand Dhume, “Farmers Will Reap the Benefits of Modi's Reforms,” Wall Street Journal, October 1, 2020.Sadanand Dhume, “What New Delhi Needs to Stand Up to Beijing,” Wall Street Journal, November 11, 2021.Tanvi Madan, “Major Power Rivalry in South Asia,” Council on Foreign Relations, October 2021.  

President Joe Biden nominated Jay Powell for a second term as Federal Reserve chairman Monday. While U.S. job growth has been better than expected, inflation is at its highest in decades. Both are concerns Powell, and Lael Brainard as vice chair, will have to balance if confirmed. David Wessel of the Brookings Institution joins Judy Woodruff with more details. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

The annual inflation rate in the United States is running at a three decade high. Wendy Edelberg, director of The Hamilton Project and senior fellow, economic studies at The Brookings Institution, discusses the underpinning factors mostly related to the pandemic and weighs in on concern over long-term impact.