Four Key Takeaways From The Iowa Caucuses

Bernie Sanders at his caucus night rally in Des Moines, Iowa. Reuters/Rick Wilking

By Anthony J. Gaughan, Drake University

The Iowa caucuses have a long history of upending the conventional wisdom and Monday night was no exception.

The biggest surprises came on the Republican side. The final polls over the weekend predicted victory for Donald Trump and showed Ted Cruz losing support in Iowa.

But that’s not what happened. Cruz won the GOP caucuses with 28% of the vote, followed by Trump with 24%, Marco Rubio with 23%, and Ben Carson with 9%.

Meanwhile, in the Democratic caucuses, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders finished in what was essentially a tie.

So what does it all mean?

The Next Chapter: Seeking the Stories of Refugees in Europe

Syrian and Libyan refugees crowd on a boat off the Libyan coast, prior to being rescued by an Italian naval frigate. (PRNewsFoto/InterAction)

InterAction Interviews Photographer Behind the "Where Are You?" Project

When Italian photographer Massimo Sestini captured an image during the Mare Nostrum rescue operation in 2014, he didn't know it would go viral. After realizing the impact the photo had on viewers, Sestini began the "Where Are You?" project to raise awareness and find out what became of the hopeful faces captured in the image.

Sestini agreed to a Q&A with InterAction Blog Editor Sarah Siguenza to explain how he captured the photo and what he has learned in the time since. In advance of the "Supporting Syria and the Region" conference convening in London, InterAction has released an excerpt of the conversation:

Why Would Anyone Believe The Earth Is Flat?

The Earth as seen from space – looks curved from up there. 
Flickr/NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, CC BY-NC

By Peter Ellerton, The University of Queensland

Belief in a flat Earth seems a bit like the attempt to eradicate polio – just when you think it’s gone, a pocket of resistance appears. But the “flat Earthers” have always been with us; it’s just that they usually operate under the radar of public awareness.

Now the rapper B.o.B has given the idea prominence through his tweets and the release of his single Flatline, in which he not only says the Earth is flat, but mixes in a slew of other weird and wonderful ideas.

These include the notions that the world is controlled by lizard people, that certain celebrities are cloned, that Freemasons manipulate our lives, that the sun revolves around the Earth and that the Illuminati control the new world order. Not bad for one song.

Even ignoring that these ideas are inconsistent (are we run by lizards, the Freemansons or the Illuminati?), what would inspire such a plethora of delusions? The answer is both straightforward, in that it is reasonably clear in psychological terms, and problematic, in that it can be hard to fix.

Nuclear Experts Are Scared -- 48 Hours To Act

"Doel Kerncentrale 2" by Torsade de Pointes - Own work. Licensed under CC0 via Commons 

Nuclear experts are scared:

Belgium has just restarted two ancient and cracked nuclear power plants that threaten to unleash another Chernobyl disaster right in the heart of Europe!

Treading Water: Flint's Water Crisis and What It Says About America Today

The complicated story how Flint, Mich. is a striking example of American inequity today.
Photo: Flickr user Ken Lund (PRNewsFoto/American Federation of Governme)

AFGE tells the complicated story of how one city is a striking example of a nationwide problem

You get what you pay for. So when officials cut corners to find a cheaper source of water for the financially-strapped community of Flint, Mich., half of its children tested positive for elevated lead levels. Images of brown, rancid water dominated headlines and social media nationwide. Residents are now forced to survive on bottled water with little hope for relief in sight.

 

What you may not know is that it's not just Flint that is suffering.