Iran turns the tables on Trump

+campus mental health, decaying paper and tsunamis [Click here to view this message in your web-browser](. Edition: US 6 January 2020 [The Conversation]( [Support The Conversation in 2020 with a monthly gift]( [Naomi Schalit] A note from... Naomi Schalit Senior Editor, Politics + Society President Trump’s policy toward Iran has long been been harsh and unyielding, pressuring the country to give up its nuclear ambitions and drive to control the region’s politics. With the U.S. killing of a high-level Iranian official last Friday, the White House has moved closer to war with Iran. The event also laid bare, writes foreign policy scholar Klaus Larres at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, [the failure of Trump’s approach](. Iran, writes Larres, has turned the tables and has put pressure on a freshly impeached U.S. president whose reelection is not assured and whose international diplomatic isolation and weakness is no secret. Also today: - [The mental health crisis on college campuses]( - [A big decaying paper problem]( - [Tsunami warnings]( Top story Iranian worshippers attend a mourning prayer for slain Iranian Revolutionary Guards Major General Qassem Soleimani in Iran’s capital, Tehran, on Jan. 3, 2020. ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images [With the US and Iran on the brink of war, the dangers of Trump’s policy of going it alone become clear]( Klaus W. Larres, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill President Trump's Iran policy took a dramatic turn when the US killed Iran's top military commander in a drone strike. To avoid war, one foreign policy scholar says Trump has to reverse his stance. Education - [The mental health crisis on campus and how colleges can fix it]( Marty Swanbrow Becker, Ph.D., Florida State University In order to lessen the strain on campus counseling centers, colleges must take a more preventive and 'population' approach to mental health, an expert argues. - [Asians are good at math? Why dressing up racism as a compliment just doesn’t add up]( Niral Shah, University of Washington Overt racism is easy to spot. But more subtle forms based on false narratives can be equally dehumanizing – and it's no joke. Politics + Society - [China can still salvage ‘one country, two systems’ in Hong Kong – here’s how]( David Skidmore, Drake University Fears that Beijing will renege on autonomy promises is only encouraging calls for independence from mainland China. - [Building a digital archive for decaying paper documents]( Daniel Genkins, Vanderbilt University Centuries' worth of important information is stored on paper – which can decay, burn or get eaten by pests. Peek inside the process of making all that data digital. Arts + Culture - [How to write better pet adoption ads]( David Markowitz, University of Oregon A new study analyzes the language in nearly 680,000 pet adoption ads. Science + Technology - [A new way to identify a rare type of earthquake in time to issue lifesaving tsunami warnings]( Valerie Sahakian, University of Oregon A tricky kind of earthquake that happens in the soft rock of the ocean floor causes much larger tsunamis than their magnitude would predict. New research pinpoints a way to identify the danger fast. Most read on site - [Diet soda may be hurting your diet]( Eunice Zhang, University of California, Los Angeles Mounting evidence suggests that artificial sweeteners are linked to chronic health problems like obesity and diabetes. Should there be a tax on these foods? - [Want to know what will happen in 2020? Look to state polls for the answer]( Daniel R. Birdsong, University of Dayton If you want to understand the American public, don't look at national poll numbers. - [Why there’s a separate World Chess Championship for women]( Alexey W. Root, University of Texas at Dallas As the Women’s World Chess Championship takes place in China and Russia this month, Alexey Root, an expert on chess in education, weighs in on the benefits of having a separate championship for women. Today’s quote ["Paper documents are still priceless records of the past, even in a digital world."]( [Building a digital archive for decaying paper documents]( Daniel Genkins Vanderbilt University [Daniel Genkins] [Donate to help elevate the voices of experts through journalism]( [Follow us on Twitter.]( [Join us on Facebook.]( You’re receiving this newsletter from [The Conversation](. Not interested anymore? [Unsubscribe instantly](. We’ll miss you. 89 South Street - Suite 202 Boston, MA 02111