Sir Keir Starmer, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, came to power on the back of a single-word election slogan: ‘Change’. At its core, his Labour government committed itself to transforming Britain from an economically stagnant country with poor public services to a clean energy ‘superpower’ abundant with economic growth. And yet, he has […]
Tag: US
An Argument Against Reparations is An Argument Against Equality
The recent repeal of affirmative action has catalyzed national discussion about what policies most effectively advance racial equality for Black Americans. Affirmative action, while not reparations, was a social inclusion policy that sought to increase minority representation in universities where students of color may not have been accepted due to systemic discrimination. While affirmative action […]
Data Collection in a Post-Roe World: A Need for National Security
Since the repeal of Roe v Wade in June of 2022, women seeking to maintain their bodily autonomy have had targets placed on their backs by regional and federal governments. As of September 2023, twenty-four states have banned and/or plan to ban abortion. These states have begun a witch-hunt persecution, incentivizing individuals to report women […]
Israeli Election: Netanyahu’s Comeback Attempt, Plus Far-Right Revival
“Elections have consequences:” Israelis will pick winners today in a contest with the potential to dramatically alter long-standing norms. Today, Ehud, an Israeli construction worker from the small city of Hadera, will vote on his country’s future. What kind of future? He hasn’t decided yet. With over 30 parties vying for parliament, Ehud likely won’t […]
Vietnam: Potential Ally or Headache?
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam: once a major battleground of the Cold War, it is now better known as a vacation destination for Westerners with cash to burn. In the new era of tension between China and the West, however, Vietnam has become an increasingly important player in the conflict. As one of the few […]
The Alarming Violence Facing Bisexual Women
Throughout the past six months, I have watched five loved ones come out as bisexual and open up to the world in a confident, breathtaking way. In fact, more and more people of Generation Z than ever before are coming out, with 11.5 percent of them identifying as bisexual, according to Gallup. With heightened visibility […]
Algorithmic Injustice
Algorithms in the justice system started off as a noble solution to a serious problem: the bias of judges. There are two distinct ways that judges can be biased — targeted bias, such as sexist and racist beliefs, and cognitive bias, ways in which our mental circuitry fails to work logically (such as how judges […]
40 Years of U.S.-China Relations: Collaboration, Competition, and Engagement
The long-awaited “phase one” deal is finally done. On January 15, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, Xi Jinping’s confidant and chief economist educated in the U.S., signed with President Trump the first-stage trade agreement in the White House, ushering in a temporary de-escalation of the conflict that broke out in March 2018. When Dr. Henry […]
The last stronghold of resistance: Idlib in War
Buried under the very important and drastic news of the ‘stock market crash’ and concerns over Bernie Sanders’ health lies the “insignificant” story of bloodshed and misery: the War for Idlib. In March 2011, when the Arab Spring spilled over into Syria, the Syrian people and the international community thought that change was underway. However, […]
Tampons Are a Necessity Yet Are Being Taxed Unconstitutionally
This June, California state legislators and Governor Gavin Newsom agreed on a new budget that included provisions to exempt menstrual products from being taxed. Surely, this is a death blow to the “tampon tax” in California? Not quite — in reality, it’s more like a tranquilizer dart. This is because the exemption is only good […]
Why the 2020 Census Will be Fundamentally Undemocratic (and we cannot fix it in time)
Did you know that the 2010 United States census missed upwards of 400,000 Latino children? Doing so rendered them effectively invisible in the eyes of the government. As a result, 400,000 children were denied much-needed school and community funds. This census occurs each decade in an attempt to precisely apportion congressional districts and distribute federal […]
Recipe for a Successful Public School System
How properly implemented charter schools could aid students in historically poor areas Charter schools do not represent a desire to force capitalism further into the public school equation or a lack of desire to reform public schools that already exist. They represent the very real need to educate and do justice to the students that […]
Anti-Semitism & the Left
A common thread in left-wing politics is egalitarianism. Across the West today, liberal and socialist parties and activists fight for various progressive causes, from anti-racism to increased welfare to gay rights. One of the oldest forms of prejudice, however, one with deep roots in European history, remains embedded in the political left. Anti-Semitism has not […]
Wanted: Young, White, and Angry
My friend was killed by a neo-nazi. It’s a strange thing to type out, but it’s true. Even stranger, though, are the details: killed by a former classmate of ours. He picked my friend up in his car, drove to a local park, and then stabbed him. This is a boy who was once my […]
Knock Knock, It’s Your Old Neighbor, White Supremacy
It’s hard to start an article that talks about Nazis. Nazis. In my short lifetime, I would hear “Nazi” in a history or government class. When I entered college, I heard it from freshmen in political science courses who decided that by asking the age-old question, “but what about the Nazis?” would show how smart […]
The Danger of Land-Based Nuclear Weapons
“I am become death destroyer of worlds” said J. Robert Oppenheimer, quoting the Hindu scripture The Bhagavad Gita, as he watched the first nuclear weapon explode before his eyes. Since then, the US nuclear arsenal has changed dramatically to confront evolving adversaries, but our overreliance on land-based missiles may make Oppenheimer’s apocalyptic rhetoric a reality. […]
Will the Party Go On?
The Election of Tom Perez Tensions were high as delegates cast their ballots for the DNC chair. It had been the only contested DNC election since 2005, and is the first major election the Democratic Party has had since losing the 2016 election, bringing it to the national spotlight. After the recent Republican victories, all […]
The Reformation Conundrum
Why Ayaan Hirsi Ali is wrong. Islam does not need a reformation. The rise of ISIS has created a number of question about the nature of Islam, ranging from the state of the religion today to fundamental theological questions that arise from the justification given by individuals or groups who use the religion of Islam to […]
Cyberwar with China
The U.S. has been hacked on over 700 occasions in just five years on fronts ranging from corporate to private to governmental. Over the past two years, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) was hacked on two separate occasions; the hack this year was deemed the largest in U.S. history, with 5.6 million fingerprints and […]
The Crack in Voting Equality
“Freeway” Rick Ross, the first distributor of crack cocaine in the US “We never called it crack, that was what the government named it,” says “Freeway” Rick Ross, the man largely credited with the introduction of crack cocaine to the US, “I think that they gave it the name crack to sensationalize the danger of […]
The High Cost of Threats: Sino-Israeli Relations
Say “economic sanctions” and three countries come to mind: Russia, Iran, and North Korea. Sanctions are usually reserved for historically hostile regimes, not long-time allies. Yet Obama administration and other Western European nations are threatening to impose sanctions on Israel, with the assumption that Israel is so dependent on Western markets that it will have […]
An Agri-Culture of Settlement
Increasingly serious labor shortages are putting America’s conveniently low food prices at risk. Yet, Obama’s recent executive action on immigration does little to assuage the agricultural labor crisis and could possibly exacerbate the shortage. The shortage problem is challenging the agriculture industry to adapt and may lead to the establishment of a more efficient food […]
Three Decades Late: U.S.-Cuba Relations
Fifty-four years after diplomatic fallout, the United States and Cuba are finally ready to let bygones be bygones. In his State of the Union address on January 20, 2015, U.S. President Barack Obama called for Congress to reestablish diplomatic relations and to end the trade embargo with Cuba, “ending a policy that was long past its […]
The Great Game
Part 3 of a series on U.S. cybersecurity. Part1. Part2. Part 4. By 2010, the Iranian nuclear program was clearly behind schedule. Despite dire predictions from the world powers, Iran seemed little closer to acquiring the bomb. The reasons for the delay were somewhat puzzling: perhaps the IR-1 centrifuges used at the nuclear facility at […]
America “Incorporated”
As of today, more than 3000 private companies have been assigned to do the job Americans believe are exclusive to U.S. agents and James Bond lookalikes: clandestine, special operations. The recently released “Remote Control Project” report reveals how the American government is now using private corporations for special operations like surveillance, “psychological operations,” and interrogation. […]