Opinion | Column

Column

The Policy Perspective: Designing effective climate policy

By Keshav Srikant | October 16

On Saturday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared thatSeptember 2023 saw the hottest global temperatures for any September everon record. This shift was partly due to El Niño, but also largely due to climate change. This heat negatively affected people across the world. Although July and August were not as hot statistically, record heat alsocaused many deaths and hospitalizations in the U.S. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the effect of human-caused climate change.

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Ukraine at War: The war-torn worlds of Ukraine and Israel in crisis

By Mariia Kudina | October 12

The Ukrainian media has been publishing in-depth coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas, as well as “end-of-the-day” summaries of key events of the last 24 hours. Some Ukrainian newspapers have been doing similar synopses of the main episodes of the war Russia has led against Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion. To state the obvious, observing two deadly wars happening simultaneously is unbelievable and heartbreaking.

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MisCONceptions: Peace in our times?

By Trent Bunker, Nicholas Rishi, João Ribeiro, Katherine Brown and Nicholas Femia | October 11

This past weekend, we saw more violence in the Middle East. Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group that receives support from the Iranian government, fired thousands of missiles over the border of the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory, killing hundreds and injuring thousands. Israel has declared a state of war after the attacks.

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Antisemitism Broken Down: Weaponization of the label ‘antisemitism’ hurts Jews and Palestinians

By Ben Choucroun | October 5

On Sept. 2, 50 neo-Nazis marched through the suburbs of Orlando, Fla., waving flags adorned with swastikas. In recent months, dozens of synagogues have been targeted with bomb threats and “swatting” calls. Canada’s parliament recently gave a standing ovation to a veteran of ...

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Ramaswamy and the young Republican vote

By Trent Bunker, Nicholas Rishi, João Ribeiro and Katherine Brown | October 4

Watching Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy perform Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” (2002) in Iowa was a sight to be seen. Opinions on it varied. To outsiders, it might be seen as a candidate trying to fit in. To Eminem, it was the first and last time he wanted to see Ramaswamy performing his song. To me, Ramaswamy’s “shady” performance was an attempt at capturing a unicorn of sorts — that is, the young vote for the GOP.

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The Policy Perspective: The pathway to affordable housing

By Keshav Srikant | October 2

As sophomores settle in at Tufts, many are already thinking about off-campus housing for next year. This happens for a reason: Housing in the Medford and Somerville area has gotten increasingly expensive, while still being difficult to find. There is no doubt that Tufts University and its students play some role in this, but this trend isn’t just occurring in Medford and Somerville — it’s occurring in many cities across the country.

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Ukraine at War: Navigating daily challenges and massive disasters

By Mariia Kudina | September 28

To better introduce intricate software as a solution tool, one of my professors asked the class to name a problem we encounter in our daily lives. My first thought was, “There is a war in my country.” I stayed silent for that part of the class, as a simple solution for this kind of problem does not exist. We talked about ways to free up space on iPhones and moved on to learning the program further.

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misCONceptions: Which way, conservatives?

By Trent Bunker, Nicholas Rishi, João Ribeiro and Katherine Brown | September 27

The photograph that will live in infamy: equal parts indignant, humiliating, resolute and spray-tanned. In many ways, the recent mugshot taken of former President Donald Trump in the wake of his fourth indictment is a poignant analogy for the future of American politics.

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Ukraine at War: At Boston Marathon, Ukrainian athletes show resilience in midst of war

By Mariia Kudina | May 20

As Ukrainian military forces are preparing for the awaited counteroffensive, Russia continues to shell the country daily. Despite the constant attacks, Ukrainians try to live their lives, coping, in part, by collecting large sums of donations for the army and presenting the strength of the country not only on the battlefield but also in international sports competitions such as the Boston Marathon. 

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The Strike Zone: China’s role in the Russia-Ukraine war

By Eli Striker | May 20

During the first year following the Feb. 24, 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, China maintained a neutral stance, as Beijing attempted to undercut democracy without provoking Western economic sanctions. However, China’s true stance in the war was put on full display in March of this year when President Xi Jinping visited President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, and the two leaders signed an agreement that promised a stronger relationship and condemned American hegemony. Worryingly, Beijing has allegedly considered further expanding its trading repertoire with Moscow by selling weapons — including artillery shells and attack drones — to Russia. Arming Russia would officially end any pretense of Chinese neutrality and undoubtedly provoke a series of Western sanctions against Beijing. Instead, China should work to broker a realistic peace treaty with Russia and Ukraine, asserting itself as the world’s foremost diplomatic leader at a time when geopolitical tides are turning in favor of the developing world and the Global South.

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MisCONceptions: On Millie Bobby Brown and matrimony 

By Trent Bunker, João Ribeiro, Katherine Brown and Nicholas Rishi | April 27

Editor's note: MisCONceptions is a column with four contributors. This article was written by Katherine Brown.

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Around the Corner: The Case for an AI Ban

By Asher Berlin | April 27

2023 is the year of AI. Tools like Chat-GPT, Midjourney and others have become ubiquitous in our society and popular culture; from South Park to Snapchat, AI has captured discourse like never before. The rapid advancement of technology has opened the door to possibilities that were once restricted to science fiction. AI’s recent developments have also suggested that it may overtake us sooner than was previously thought. A survey of 356 AI experts in 2022 found that half of those experts believed that a human-level AI would be developed before 2061. The vast majority — 90% — thought it would be developed within the century. While the same experts also caution against fear-mongering, there is a possibility we will confront artificial life with equivalent or greater intelligence than us within our (for my readers in college) lifetime. 

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The End of the World Has Just Begun: Western Europe goes under

By Daniel Chung | April 25

President Donald Trump’s actions towards the United States’ Western European allies, such as his mocking of German energy policy at the U.N., left relations strained, with a lasting impact even under President Joe Biden, but this may have been because of a structural reason that no one saw. Namely, Western Europe’s place and significance in the international system has declined since the beginning of the 20th century, leaving not only its future relationship with America, but also its future as a whole, ambiguous.

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The Strike Zone: Brasilia — a modernist utopia?

By Eli Striker | April 18

Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, completed its construction in 1960 with the intent of using modernist architecture as a tool to forge a futuristic utopian society. The city was designed around urban planner Lucio Costa’s airplane-shaped “Plano Piloto.” A series of residential “superquadras” along the plane’s wings contained dwellings, hospitals and schools and were connected to government buildings in the airplane’s cockpit through central highways. Brasilia’s designers hoped to create an egalitarian city which could be inhabited by government ministers and blue-collar workers alike. 

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Ukraine at War: Ukrainian women rescued 31 children kidnapped by Russia, many more still cannot return home

By Mariia Kudina | April 14

This spring, a team of Ukrainian women took a dangerous trip to Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea to bring home some of the Ukrainian children who were illegally kidnapped from the other regions occupied by the Kremlin. Although around three dozen rescued kids are now able to reunite with their families, thousands or even hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children and teenagers still cannot return to Ukraine.

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MisCONceptions: Don’t forget about local politics

By Trent Bunker, João Ribeiro, Katherine Brown and Nicholas Rishi | April 11

Editor’s note: MisCONceptions is a column with four contributors. This article was written by Nicholas Rishi.

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Ukraine at War: Russia to station nuclear weapons closer to Europe

By Mariia Kudina | April 7

The discussions around the Kremlin’s threats to utilize nuclear weapons in the war against Ukraine were seemingly fading, as for a few months, Russia limited its mentions of intentions to use them. On Saturday, March 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced an agreement with Belarus to store tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. While Putin justifies the decision by stating that Russia follows the U.S. model of storing nuclear weapons around the world, Russia’s determination to relocate the weapons closer to Europe is concerning.

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The End of the World Has Just Begun: What inflation?

By Daniel Chung | April 6

Since the beginning of the year, the White House has been crowing about progress made against inflation, as recently as a few days ago. Unfortunately, even if the numbers do not lie — and there has certainly been discussion about the extent to which current calculations are truly representative of inflation rates — this story is not likely to remain true for much longer.

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Around the Corner: Things are about to get a lot worse

By Asher Berlin | April 5

The announcement last Thursday that former President Donald Trump had been indicted immediately plunged the United States into wholly uncharted waters. For the first time in our country’s 247-year history, a former commander in chief will face criminal charges after leaving office. I will not debate the merits of the case against Trump or the motivations of the prosecutors pursuing it. Whether or not Trump is guilty does not change the profound consequences of this indictment that will reverberate in our political system forever. Just or not, this indictment opens a new and bloodier chapter in American politics.

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The Strike Zone: China’s hopes for Taiwanese reunification

By Eli Striker | April 4

In recent years, China has performed a series of threatening military exercises around the Taiwan Strait, leading to the United States demonstrating its commitment to defending Taiwan, a disputed island territory which mainland China claims as its own. Taiwan, now a democracy, became the headquarters of the Kuomintang, whom the Chinese Communist Party  defeated at the end of the Chinese civil war (1945–49).

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