'Lowering the voting age is a call to trust young people with democracy'
'We need bold, proven interventions to restore civic faith'
LaJuan Allen at USA Today
A "powerful act of democratic innovation is hiding in plain sight," says LaJuan Allen. "We need to lower the voting age to 16," like the UK recently did. 16-year-olds "work jobs, pay taxes and, in many cases, help support their families." Further, "at this stage in life," many "live in stable home environments, attend school and are surrounded by supportive adults," which makes them "more likely to adopt voting as a habit."
'Palestinians are starving to death amid the deafening silence of the world'
Moncef Khane at Al Jazeera
Many experts have concluded that famine is "present in the besieged Gaza Strip," so it is "hard to understand why the competent UN entities" have "not yet reached the conclusion," says Moncef Khane. "Images of emaciated bodies reminiscent of those taken in Nazi concentration camps tell the macabre tale of the reality in Gaza, blockaded by the uncompromising Israeli occupation forces." And yet, though "one million children in Gaza are facing the risk of starvation, 'famine' is not yet declared."
'Less-reliable forecasting means more surprise losses, which will impact how insurers model risk'
Mark Gongloff at Bloomberg
The Trump administration has decided to "stop sharing military satellite data with weather forecasters just ahead of what will be a busy hurricane season," says Mark Gongloff. The effects of this will threaten lives and accelerate the "nation's growing home-insurance crisis." If "houses and stores aren't boarded up in time, then they suffer more damage," and if "disaster-relief services aren't in the right place when a storm hits, then damage could increase as properties sit in water."
'Poor students continue to enroll in lower-value institutions than their rich peers'
Julien Berman at The Washington Post
"Higher education has become regressive, widening class divisions by delivering far greater returns to wealthy students than to their low-income peers," says Julien Berman. "Most students who enroll in college graduate, and over a lifetime that degree tends to translate into better job opportunities." But "wealthy college-goers" largely outearn "low-income students." The "primary reason for the shift: a decades-long policy failure that funneled poor students away from four-year research universities and into two-year community colleges and for-profit institutions."