Earlier today, a massive earthquake hit Mexico rattling the country’s capital and killing dozens of people. Geoff Abers, an expert of earthquake seismology and a professor of geophysics at Cornell University, says current estimates of an 8.2-magnitude makes this among the largest intermediate-depth earthquakes ever recorded.

Physical Sciences & Engineering

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David A. Bateman, an expert in American political development, political parties and ideology and assistant professor of government at Cornell University, says that President Trump has compounded problems for congressional Republicans by agreeing to a bipartisan deal on the debt ceiling with Democratic leaders.

Arts and Sciences

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Sergio Garcia-Rios, an expert on immigration and Latino politics, and assistant professor of government at Cornell University, says that the Trump Administration decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is a purely political decision that carries negative economic, sociological and political consequences.

Arts and Sciences

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Keith Tidball, assistant director for disaster education at Cornell Cooperative Extension and faculty fellow at the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future at Cornell University, says that individual preparedness is vital to the safety of millions of Americans who are in the path of Hurricane Irma. Tidball’s experience includes work in post-Katrina New Orleans, in New York and New Jersey following Hurricane Sandy, and in Joplin, Missouri, following the devastating tornado of 2011.

Energy, Environment & Sustainability

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This weekend, China will be hosting the annual BRICS summit – a meeting of leaders from five developing nations including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Lourdes Casanova, academic director of Cornell University’s Emerging Markets Institute, says that political and economic instability in Brazil and South Africa has solidified China’s lead position at the forum.

Cornell SC Johnson College of Business

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Emergency officials continue to fight fires at an Arkema plant near Houston, that was flooded by Tropical Storm Harvey. Containers of chemicals stored at the plant caught fire today, and company officials expect other containers to do the same. Brett Fors, assistant professor in Cornell University’s Department of Chemical and Chemical Biology, works extensively with organic peroxides in his research.

Arts and Sciences

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Tropical Storm Harvey continues to wreak havoc on southeastern Texas, and made a second landfall in Louisiana early Wednesday morning.  Charles H. Greene is a professor of Earth and Atmospheric sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University, a fellow at the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future and a leading expert in effects of global climate change on ocean ecosystems and extreme weather.

Agriculture and Life Sciences

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Uber Technologies Inc. is expected to announce the end of an app feature that allows the company to track riders for up to five minutes after a trip. Karen Levy, professor of information science at Cornell University, studies how law and technology interact to regulate social life, with a particular focus on social and organizational aspects of surveillance.

Computing & Information Sciences

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The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are holding a historic congress in Bogota this week to determine the political fate of the demobilized guerrilla organization. Gustavo Flores-Macias, a professor of government at Cornell University and author of the book “After Neoliberalism? The Left and Economic Reforms in Latin America”, says that while much is still unclear about the FARC’s ideological identity and popular support as it transitions into a political party, the process itself will strengthen Colombia’s democracy.

Law, Government & Public Policy

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Art DeGaetano, professor of earth and atmospheric sciences and expert on climate data at Cornell University, says that although the meteorological elements in hurricane formation are common in late summer weather patterns, climate change has affected those components and the strength and impacts of Harvey.

Energy, Environment & Sustainability

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