General World News

The director of the FBI says the whole of Chinese society is a threat to the US — and Americans must step up as a society to defend themselves

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FBI director Christopher Wray issued a dire warning against China’s growing influence during a Senate intelligence hearing on Tuesday. He cited the variety of ways that China is implementing its plan to replace the US as the foremost global power, including infiltrating American academia. China’s Confucius Institutes are ostensibly language learning centers, but often serve […]

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Bill and Melinda Gates have spent billions on US education — but they are not yet satisfied with the results

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The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has funneled billions in funding toward improving US education and raising public high school graduation rates. In Bill and Melinda’s annual letter, Bill writes that schools around the country are still “falling short on important metrics.” The foundation’s new strategy focuses on listening to teacher feedback, and funding programs […]

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A student tried to sue Oxford for £1 million for not giving him a good enough grade — but the judge told him it was his own fault

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Faiz Siddiqui, 39, said that his failure to get a first-class Oxford degree held him back. He attempted to sue the university for damages over his missed career opportunities. The judge said his lacklustre career was his own fault, and suggested that he “lower his expectations.” An Oxford graduate, who tried to sue the university […]

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3 of the 6 ‘Shark Tank’ investors are dyslexic — and they credit it for their success as entrepreneurs

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Half of the “Shark Tank” investors — Daymond John, Barbara Corcoran, and Kevin O’Leary — are dyslexic. Guest Shark Richard Branson is, as well. Dyslexia is a lifelong learning disability that makes reading difficult, but does not affect intelligence. Research suggests that anywhere from 5-20% of the global population has dyslexia, but that as many […]

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Frat brothers at Yale are adding water stations and bouncers to parties after multiple women say members sexually assaulted them

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Yale’s Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity released proposed reforms to improve an environment some students describe as sexually unsafe. The proposed reforms were created by fraternity members. Yale University has indicated that it doesn’t plan to sanction DKE related to allegations of misconduct within the organization. Following allegations of sexual misconduct at Yale’s Delta Kappa Epsilon […]

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5 tech industry moguls who raise their kids nearly tech-free

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Just because someone works in Silicon Valley doesn’t mean they’ll be a techie parent. In fact, some of the highest-profile executives in the tech world, including former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates and current Apple CEO Tim Cook, take surprisingly low-tech approaches to raising their kids. The approach stems partly from tech parents realizing the power […]

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Inside the $28,000-a-year private school where children of tech workers learn to become the next Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk

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In a San Jose, California, school located inside a former IBM office building, students grades five through 12 take on some of the most rigorous classes offered at any American grade school. Each student at Basis Independent Silicon Valley takes a minimum of seven AP courses and complete their graduation requirements before senior year, when […]

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A Yale student who was suspended after he allegedly groped two women is suing the school, claiming he lost an investment banking job as a result

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A male junior at Yale is suing the university after he was suspended for allegations of sexual misconduct. The unnamed male student says in his lawsuit that he lost a summer internship at a “highly respected” Wall Street investment bank after Yale suspended him. The internship would have been his “second consecutive summer position with […]

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Most sororities have to follow a sexist and potentially dangerous rule that gives men on college campuses power

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A rule within the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) — an umbrella organization of 26 autonomous sororities — bans alcohol in sorority houses. Since these sororities can’t throw parties themselves, they throw a number of joint parties, or “mixers,” with fraternities throughout the year. At Yale University, some students note the inequity in the arrangement. On […]

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Yale has been sued by 3 men claiming gender discrimination — and it could change the way universities address sexual assault

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Yale has been sued by three men who claim Yale’s sexual-misconduct committee discriminated against them based on their gender or denied them their due-process rights. The university has also been the subject of two Department of Education investigations since 2011. The threat of lawsuits may contribute to the severity of punishments Yale issues for sexual […]

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Women at Yale say they developed a secret way to protect themselves from dangerous men because the school keeps failing them

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Women at Yale use “whisper networks” and Google Docs to share information about men they say engaged in sexual harassment or assault. Sororities collect the names of these men and bar them from social events. Women point to fears of social exclusion and a lack of faith in Yale as some reasons these information-sharing networks […]

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An education startup you’ve never heard of is now in 70% of US school districts

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A startup called Kiddom is in 70% of US school districts, and it’s quickly enticing teachers with the “personalized learning” model. Personalized learning uses technology to tailor lesson plans to individual kids’ abilities and learning styles. It’s been endorsed by tech giants like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. If 2017 had any standout education movements, […]

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Google has conquered American classrooms — now Microsoft is striking back with cheap PCs and a Minecraft upgrade (MSFT, GOOGL, GOOG)

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While Microsoft dominates the global market for classroom PCs, Google Chrome OS rules the roost in the United States. Microsoft is teaming up with partners including Lenovo to bring a new line of cheap, sub-$300 PCs to market, to take on Google’s low-cost Chromebooks. Microsoft says that a Windows PC is more capable than a […]

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Homeschooling could be the smartest way to teach kids in the 21st century — here are 5 reasons why

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Homeschooling isn’t what it used to be. What largely started in the 1980s and ’90s as a way for Catholic parents to infuse religion into their kids’ education now has more mainstream appeal. Homeschooled kids have the same access to online learning, friendships, and extracurricular activities as the typical public school student — but without […]

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Here’s where Trump’s cabinet went to college

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President Donald Trump’s cabinet has already gone through a couple of changes since Trump took office. Gen. John Kelly has stepped out of his role as Homeland Security secretary in order to become White House chief of staff, and Tom Price resigned from the Department of Health and Human services after using taxpayer money to […]

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9 phrases only MBAs understand

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Every industry has its own lingo. Business-school jargon may be especially perplexing to outsiders. To help clear up some of the confusion, we asked two MBA grads about the most unusual terms and phrases they picked up in business school. Paul Ollinger graduated from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth in 1997 and was […]

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The UPenn student who was found dead last week was stabbed more than 20 times

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Blaze Bernstein, the University of Pennsylvania sophomore who was found dead in California last week, was stabbed more than 20 times, police said. Bernstein’s former high school classmate Samuel Woodward was arrested on suspicion of homicide. More details are emerging about what happened between the two the night of Bernstein’s death. Authorities have revealed that […]

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The world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos, just donated $33 million to educate Dreamers in honor of his immigrant father

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Jeff Bezos donated $33 million to provide college scholarships to illegal immigrants brought to the US as children by their parents, known as ‘Dreamers.’ Bezos has been vocal in pressuring the Trump administration and Congress to bring back protections to Dreamers. Bezos made the donation in honor of his father, who fled Cuba to the […]

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The Trump administration has relaxed school lunch nutrition rules — here’s what kids can now eat

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More sugary chocolate milk, fewer whole grains, and around 300 extra milligrams of salt — these are just some of the ways the Trump Administration has relaxed school-lunch nutrition rules put in place during the Obama Administration. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, who heads the US Department of Agriculture (the agency that sets school meal rules), […]

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7 young adults went undercover as high-school students and found that life as a teenager today is nothing like they remember

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Seven young adults went undercover as students at a Kansas high school for the documentary series “Undercover High.” The volunteers, ages 21 to 26, made themselves look younger, and one of them even got braces to look the part. They discovered issues students were going through that even the administration didn’t know about. You couldn’t […]

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A Stanford study of 45 million students found something startling about which kids succeed

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A major study from Stanford University recently found socioeconomic status was no indication of a given school’s quality. The truly important measure for school effectiveness was the rate at which students were making improvements on test scores. The findings defy the typical assumptions about what makes a great public school. For many parents, judging a […]

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San Francisco’s housing market is so dire that renters are paying $1,100 a month to live in converted living rooms

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HomeShare, a startup based in San Francisco, converts living rooms in above-market-rate buildings into bedrooms so tenants can save on rent. The company pockets a cut of the rent, like a finder’s fee. Each of HomeShare’s customers gets their own bedroom, a closet, and a private or shared bathroom. Prices start at $1,125 a month. […]

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Here’s how technology is shaping the future of education

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With 2018 just around the corner, technology is already sweeping through classrooms as educators and developers create more and more products designed to enhance education. New technologies like AI, machine learning, and educational software aren’t just changing the field for students, they’re shaking up the role of educators, creating philosophical shifts in approaches to teaching, […]

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Winter acceptance rates at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are higher than in the spring — here’s why it seems easier to get in when you apply early

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Early admissions decisions in the Ivy League are announced in December. The acceptance rate is far higher during the early admissions round in the winter than the regular decision announcements in the spring. College admissions offices say this is due to the strength of the applicant pool rather than an ease of acceptance. There’s a […]

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The Ivy League has released early-application acceptance rates — here’s where they all stand

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Another year of early acceptance notifications, another year where the acceptance rates declined. That’s the story for the Ivy League classes of 2022, who received their acceptance, rejection, or deferral notes over the past week. Almost all eight schools in the competitive Ivy League reported declines in acceptance rates, meaning it’s the hardest year on […]

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The 9 words that defined 2017

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From fidget spinners to feminism, 2017 was a year unlike any other. And although it’s hard to find a single word to sum up the entire year, there are certain words that popped up time and time again, shaping the way we talk about current events and enriching our conversations. Several dictionaries have crunched the […]