(By Piper Coes, a second-year student and research intern in the Eurasia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute) After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Belarus was the rare former Soviet state that remained strategically aligned with the Russian Federation. In 1999, Russia and Belarus reached an agreement to become a “union state,” which aimed to create a USSR-like federation with a similar government, currency, flag, and army. Over the past two decades, the union state has primarily aimed at economic integration, with efforts in the defense and intelligence sectors as well. This...
The Indy Autonomous Challenge Powered by Cisco, the first autonomous racecar competition at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway, is preparing for thousands of fans to attend. On Oct. 23, 21 universities from nine countries forming nine teams – including Cavalier Autonomous Racing from UVA – will compete in this first-of-its kind competition. The teams will be competing for $1 million in prize money, which will be used to advance the education and research missions of the winning universities.
An annual fundraising event is returning to the University of Virginia’s Lawn this weekend. Pancakes for Parkinson’s is an outdoor pancake breakfast that raises money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
When now-retired University of Virginia geology professor Ernest H. Ern was looking for a place to spend his summers, he picked the rocky coast of Maine — not only for its natural beauty but, more importantly, for its geology.
Youngkin has visited the deep-red Valley to publicly meet voters more often than the Democratic nominee, Terry McAuliffe, but that is not surprising when a race is as close as this year’s, said J. Miles Coleman, of UVA Center for Politics. “Youngkin probably thinks, on a very basic mathematical level, he can get more votes out of the Valley,” Coleman said. “And in an election like this where it’s so close, where both sides feel like they maybe have their backs up against the wall, they’re going to turn out their base voters as much as they can.”
UVA political analyst Larry Sabato says this is likely a ticket election, meaning, as goes the governor’s race, so shall the rest down-ballot including the race for lieutenant governor.
J. Miles Coleman of UVA’s Center for Politics cited a 2009 campaign appearance by Mr. Obama for former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, who eventually lost to Republican Chris Christie. “They wouldn’t be bringing out the heavy hitters unless they needed to,” Coleman said. “I’ve seen many struggling campaigns go this route.”
“It’s still close enough that it won’t take a large shift for Youngkin to pull off an upset, and that will have national implications,” says longtime Virginia politics watcher Larry Sabato, director of UVA’s Center for Politics. “The perception is that [Virginia] is bluer than it is – and that’s why a Youngkin upset would be devastating” for Democrats, he adds.
Kyle Kondik, election analyst at UVA’s Center for Politics, said the state’s gubernatorial race has a long history of breaking against whichever party controls the White House. “There’s a bit of a handicap for being the White House party candidate in this race,” he said. Pundits shouldn’t put too much focus on the Virginia race as a harbinger for next year, Kondik said.
It’s not altogether uncommon for a local government to experience this type of instability, said Charles Hartgrove, the director of the Virginia Institute of Government at UVA’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. And when it does, the first major issue a government will experience is an inability to execute long term plans. “When you’re looking at strategic planning in the organization, the long term goals that the elected body has set out, someone sitting in the chair as the chief administrative officer can carry out the vision for council,” Hartgrove said. “Most communities that have a...
Ruth Mason, a UVA tax law professor, said Ireland would avoid a state aid claim by making sure that its planned two-tiered tax system is clearly linked to whatever EU directive the commission proposes for implementing the international tax deal. “There’s an interpretation of EU law that regards directives as not being an action by a member state. So essentially directives are exempt from state aid review,” Mason said. If the country’s tax plans match the directive, then Ireland is “going to be fine on state aid,” she said.
(Subscription may be required) Traditionalists are sniffing disapprovingly at the bifurcated view, saying the statue should be viewed in its entirety. “The decision to display the copy of the David from the top is utterly ridiculous,” said Paul Barolsky, a retired UVA art professor, who has studied the sculpture’s history. “It has nothing to do with how the statue was meant to be seen originally….Why not show the work upside down?”
Douglas Laycock is the Robert E. Scott Distinguished Professor at the University of Virginia School of Law and is a staunch supporter of religious exemptions. However, he does not support a religious exemption to COVID vaccine mandates for many reasons and he thinks the courts would agree.
A committee of scientific advisers to the Food and Drug Administration is meeting on Thursday and Friday to examine the available data on using additional doses of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines to boost immunity. The panel includes Dr. Michael Nelson, a professor of medicine at UVA and president of the American Board of Allergy and Immunology.
Landscape architecture has never quite gotten the adulation of capital-A architecture, but perhaps a new prize can help change that – especially since it’s being given to an innovative designer who’s been respectfully referred to as “the toxic beauty queen of brownfield remediation.” The inaugural winner of the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize is Julie Bargmann, a professor at the University of Virginia and founder of a studio called D.I.R.T – Dump It Right There. The award, announced today by the Cultural Landscape Foundation, is intended to confer the statu...