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This year’s R&D will be topic specific, unlike past year’s where it was a hodgepodge of various articles from a particular day.  The R&D will be presented with small tweets, which will make linking easier.  Each R&D will include seven to ten pertinent articles on a hot domestic or international news topic, with the goal of helping extempers grow their files on that topic.  R&D will be provided on Thursday and Friday, but premium subscribers will have access to another R&D on Tuesday, which will cover the subject of the premium topic brief.  The premium topic briefs also link to articles used in the creation of the topic brief, so extempers or teams that subscribe will have access to 10-15 articles on that topic.  Last week’s brief covered Detroit’s bankruptcy and next week will be about Edward Snowden and it’s impact on U.S.-Russian relations.

Today’s R&D focuses on the controversial outcome of the latest Zimbabwean elections, which were won, unsurprisingly, by Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF (The Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front).