| Most Grenadians don’t know how to swim. But one woman is changing that. Posted: 24 Aug 2017 01:48 PM PDT ![Most Grenadians don't know how to swim. But one woman is changing that.]( "Most Grenadians don't know how to swim. But one woman is changing that.") It was a steamy Caribbean day six years ago when Deb Eastwood took a group of local youths on a hike in the hills of Grenada. The organization also trains and pays several dozen local residents to teach at beaches and hotels that offer the use of their pools.
|
| As Trump doubles down on Afghanistan, Russians shake their heads Posted: 24 Aug 2017 01:46 PM PDT ![As Trump doubles down on Afghanistan, Russians shake their heads]( "As Trump doubles down on Afghanistan, Russians shake their heads") When President Trump announced earlier this week that on the advice of his generals, he was expanding operations in Afghanistan despite his repeated promises to end US involvement in the 16-year-old conflict, some Russians couldn't help but think back to February 1989, when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev did just the opposite. On a blustery day back then, the last of over 100,000 Soviet troops rolled across the unhappily-named "Friendship Bridge" into then-Soviet Uzbekistan, bringing an end to the futile nine-year war to keep Afghanistan in the USSR's orbit. The conflict had drained the Soviet economy, killed 15,000 troops, and stirred deep currents of anti-war unrest around the country.
|
| In Saudi diplomatic shift on Iraq, a hand to Sunnis ... and Shiites Posted: 24 Aug 2017 12:32 PM PDT ![In Saudi diplomatic shift on Iraq, a hand to Sunnis ... and Shiites]( "In Saudi diplomatic shift on Iraq, a hand to Sunnis ... and Shiites") With the so-called Islamic State on the brink of defeat in northern Iraq, the government in Baghdad is set to mark another victory: reconciliation with regional hegemon Saudi Arabia. The oil-rich kingdom and dominant Sunni power has effectively been absent from Iraq since Riyadh cut ties with Baghdad after Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Following the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the Saudis distanced themselves from their neighbor further, writing Iraq off as a "lost cause" that was hopelessly under the influence of archrival Iran, and working to effectively freeze Baghdad out of Arab regional politics.
|
| The promise of a new school year Posted: 24 Aug 2017 12:09 PM PDT ![The promise of a new school year]( "The promise of a new school year") Disappointing grades, unambitious curriculum, and grim comparisons with students in other countries signal diminished prospects and not-so-great expectations. When Henry Fowle Durant founded Wellesley College [for women] in 1875, he included an element considered risky at the time: athletics for women. The prevailing view was that too much exertion would threaten a woman's capacity to reproduce. By 1908, organized sports at Wellesley included baseball, basketball, field hockey, tennis, rowing, archery, and running.
|
