Louisville

A cyclone’s wake-up call on climate adaptation

A cyclone that struck the southern African countries of Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi earlier this month has left a devastated landscape. It also left questions about how to better prepare for similar powerful storms predicted by climate scientists. Cyclone Idai caused hundreds of casualties, perhaps many more, and widespread flooding.

With Turkey on edge, can architecture bridge divides?

For decades, the Atatürk Cultural Center had been an architectural icon. It stood in one of Turkey’s most dynamic political spaces, Istanbul’s Taksim Square, the scene of countless confrontations, many violent, between protesters and police. A bastion of arts and culture with a bold facade of metal cladding, the Cultural Center, or AKM, was built in the late 1960s to show the modern face of a new, secular nation envisioned by its revered founder, Mustafa Kamal Atatürk.

Points of Progress: Thai social media helps free speech, and more

Social media is enabling a resurgence of free speech in the country. In 2014, Thailand’s military took over the country in a coup, and since then, the junta has tightly controlled the media landscape and prosecuted critics under computer crime laws. A solar business started by Eritrean brothers is holding its own. There’s a booming market for solar power in East Africa, and many companies in the area are connected to foreign investors.

Is there a border crisis? Depends on how you measure it

The crisis on the United States-Mexico border is real, not manufactured, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told a House committee earlier this month. The president has been transparent that the declaration is a way to go around Congress to secure funding for a border wall, a signature campaign promise, that the legislature denied. Congress voted to end the emergency – with some critics claiming there is no crisis by pointing out that apprehensions are near historic lows – but Mr. Trump overruled it with the first veto of his term.