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Top headlines
Lead story
The Trump administration is intent on choking off Venezuela’s oil exports. This will come as an irritant to the Kremlin, which yesterday denounced the seizure of a Russian-flagged tanker traveling in the North Atlantic. Beijing, too, will be less than pleased − the vast majority of Venezuelan crude ends up in China.
For Cuba’s government, however, it could be existential. For years, Havana has relied on subsidized oil from Venezuela to try to keep the lights on. In recent years, it hasn’t always worked − a series of recent blackouts in Cuba has served as a handy visual metaphor for the country’s economic crisis.
When a U.S. special ops team snatched Nicolás Maduro from a compound in Caracas, it didn’t only take away Venezuela’s leader, it took away Cuba’s closest ally and economic lifeline. And speculation that Cuba could be next for U.S. intervention misses the point. As President Donald Trump himself said: “I don’t think we need (to take) any action … Cuba looks like it’s ready to fall.”
Joseph J. Gonzalez, an expert on Cuba-U.S. relations, thinks Trump might be right. In recent years, Cubans have been leaving the country in droves. Those who remain are looking increasingly favorably on the idea of a Cuba without its long-standing communist government. “If the Yankees showed up today, most of us would probably greet them as liberators,” one Cuban-based friend of Gonzalez told him.
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Matt Williams
Senior International Editor
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‘After you, President Maduro?’ A worrying phrase for Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel.
Juan Barreto/AFP via Getty Images
Joseph J. Gonzalez, Appalachian State University
Conditions on the ground in Cuba are so grim that the Trump administration thinks Havana could fall without any US intervention.
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Politics + Society
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SoRelle Wyckoff Gaynor, University of Virginia
Why does health care reform keep failing despite decades of attention and expanding costs? A scholar of Congress has some answers.
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Anna Storti, Duke University
Asian Americans have drawn parallels between today’s attacks on Latinos and a historically exclusive immigration policy that favors some families over others.
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Ethics + Religion
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Kenneth Andrew Andres Leonardo, Hamilton College
Though they lived centuries apart, Aristotle and Tsunetomo both explored what it means to live virtuously, and the risks of wanting praise or recognition.
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Christian Goodwillie, Hamilton College
‘The Testament of Ann Lee,’ Mona Fastvold’s 2025 film, depicts part of the long history of Shaker worship.
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Health + Medicine
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Jennifer Singh, Georgia Institute of Technology
Medical sociology examines how social, cultural, political and economic factors shape health in ways that medicine alone cannot treat.
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Vinaya Gogineni, Vanderbilt University; Anna Barton Bradley, Vanderbilt University
What you do in the years leading up to menopause can help counter the natural hormonal effects of aging, setting you up for a healthier transition.
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Environment + Energy
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Alejandro N. Flores, Boise State University
A major atmospheric river brought record precipitation to the Pacific Northwest, yet the snow and water supply still suffered. It’s a growing problem.
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Science + Technology
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Wayne Unger, Quinnipiac University
Child sexual abuse material on X is clearly illegal. What’s less clear is how to force X to prevent its AI chatbot from making the material.
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Longji Cui, University of Colorado Boulder; Wan Xiong, University of Colorado Boulder
Winter jackets may seem simple, but sophisticated engineering allows them to keep body heat locked in, while staying breathable enough to let out sweat.
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Laura M. MacLatchy, University of Michigan; Lauren Sarringhaus, James Madison University
The youngest chimpanzees are the biggest risk-takers. Would humans show the same pattern if adults weren’t keeping such a close watch on little kids?
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Economy + Business
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Valerie L. Myers, University of Michigan
Centuries of management practice were built on cruelty and exploitation. But history also offers a countercurrent – leaders who chose care, fairness and conscience.
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