| Why North Korea may be a threat to itself Posted: 19 Apr 2017 01:57 PM PDT ![Why North Korea may be a threat to itself]( "Why North Korea may be a threat to itself") As the Trump administration continues to rattle a saber at North Korea, it should take note of a new survey by two economists at South Korea's central bank. In interviews with hundreds of recent North Korean refugees, they found the United States has already invaded the country in one big way: The preferred currency among North Koreans for buying food, goods, and services is the American dollar, not the local currency. This is a sure sign of a thriving underground market despite the official line of a state-run economy.
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| Blue surge in Georgia: What election shows about shifts in suburban values Posted: 19 Apr 2017 12:24 PM PDT ![Blue surge in Georgia: What election shows about shifts in suburban values]( "Blue surge in Georgia: What election shows about shifts in suburban values") While he did not breach the 50 percent threshold to avoid a runoff in June, he did surge to an easy plurality over 17 other candidates in the district – the place where Newt Gingrich catapulted into national politics with a 1979 win. Recommended: Do you really know your Atlanta Braves baseball history? The Sixth has been no-man's land for Democrats ever since.
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| The twin goals behind North Korea's resolve on nuclear weapons Posted: 19 Apr 2017 11:19 AM PDT ![The twin goals behind North Korea's resolve on nuclear weapons]( "The twin goals behind North Korea's resolve on nuclear weapons") The Trump administration has portrayed the US missile strike on a Syrian air field earlier this month as a sign its willingness to make tough decisions. "The logic is pretty simple," says Wenran Jiang, an associate professor of political science at the University of Alberta, in Canada. As a small, impoverished nation focused on its own survival, North Korea is deeply committed to holding on to its nuclear arms.
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| Crisis in Venezuela: Can Trump ‘lead from behind’ in Latin America? Posted: 19 Apr 2017 10:32 AM PDT ![Crisis in Venezuela: Can Trump 'lead from behind' in Latin America?]( "Crisis in Venezuela: Can Trump 'lead from behind' in Latin America?") The Trump administration, which is showing some unexpected glimmers of interest in promoting human rights and democracy, may have an opportunity to do both, right in America's backyard – with increasingly volatile Venezuela. Instead, it will be through cooperation and partnership with Venezuela's steadily more concerned and outspoken neighbors and Latin America's solid democracies – which just might hold sway with a government in Caracas that rejects US pressures as same-old "yanqui" imperialism.
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