Opinion | Column

Column

Around the Corner: Averting the end of truth

By Asher Berlin | March 2

AI has gripped the United States, as technologies like ChatGPT and Midjourney have astonished the nation with their uncanny abilities. Midjourney, an AI art generator, can convert a prompt into an art piece in around a minute, in any style or medium. It has effectively demonstrated that art, a bastion of human creativity, may fall to the machines sooner than was thought. Further, TikTok has seen another form of AI trending: deepfakes.

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Column

MisCONceptions: Introduction

By Trent Bunker, João Ribeiro, Katherine Brown and Nicholas Rishi | February 28

America is dying. Whether you believe it is ill due to climate change, rising bigotry and predatory billionaires, or moral degeneration, family breakdown and a loss of unity may vary depending on your political ideology. However, we fear that in a time of increasing polarization, marked by the demonization of the opposing side in echo chambers found on the right and left, Americans are failing to understand what those with opposing viewpoints truly believe. 

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Column

The Strike Zone: Beijing’s precarious position

By Eli Striker | February 22

By transitioning from a centrally planned, collectivist economy under Mao Zedong to a free market system of “capitalism with Chinese characteristics,” China has undergone an economic explosion since the late 1970s, and many scholars see the nation’s continued rise as inevitable. China’s GDP per capita is quickly rising, and its annual growth has long outpaced the United States’, leading to predictions that China’s GDP will overtake America’s by 2035.

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Column

The End of the World Has Just Begun: The imperial backyard

By Daniel Chung | February 22

Empires are built out of chaos, and when they fall, chaos often replaces them. As we soon may learn, this lesson applies to Russia and its periphery. Ever since the 19th century, Moscow has ruled over the Caucasus mountains, much of Central Asia and its Far East territories, and to this day has remained the regional security guarantor in the post-Cold War era. But now, ever since the Russia-Ukraine war exposed the weaknesses of Russian military force, its authority in the region has significantly deteriorated. Unfortunately, it is likely that this slackening will only lead to intensified geopolitical competition. Besides the Caucasus and potential internal security problems, the Central Asian states are where this is most likely to occur.

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Column

Ukraine at War: What is known about the spring offensive?

By Mariia Kudina | February 21

Kryvyi Rih, a large industrial city in Ukraine where my immediate family lives, is located 43–49 miles from the frontline, so many of the wounded soldiers receive treatment in its hospitals. Both of my parents are doctors, and our conversations about their work often leave me speechless. Recently, my mom was testing new methods of lung ultrasound diagnosis with a group of patients — volunteers, who are mostly military officers. One of them shared with my mom that during the retreat from a small town, Soledar, something small and sharp — likely a bullet or a missile fragment — hit his ribcage. 

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Column

Around the Corner: We cannot abandon nuclear power

By Asher Berlin | February 15

Our efforts to fight global warming, while increasingly significant, have not been enough. The prospect that warming will be halted at 1.5 degrees Celsius, the boundary between the bad and the disastrous, is growing less likely by the year. Indeed, the World Meteorological Organization estimates that there is a 50% chance that temperatures will reach 1.5 degree warming within the next five years. Given the increasing severity of the situation, averting this fate would be a monumental feat. The UN Environment Programme has warned that carbon emissions would need to be slashed by at least 45% by 2030 to accomplish it. If this target is to be met, significant changes will need to be made in nearly every facet of our lives. However, the most important facet is energy: the foundation of the modern world. Nearly three quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions come from the energy sector. Evidently, reducing emissions will require significant changes to how we produce and use energy. In short, clean energy generation methods must replace fossil fuels.

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Column

The End of the World Has Just Begun: From fistfights to more?

By Daniel Chung | February 9

In the waning weeks of 2022, a video circulated online of Chinese and Indian troops stationed in the Himalayas engaging one another with sticks as weapons. The clash happened near the Line of Actual Control in Arunachal Pradesh, part of the disputed territory between the two states. Although this belligerent behavior seems par for the course, combined with other recent foreign policy moves by the Chinese government, the clashes in the Himalayas actually highlight a potential new or refocused strategy for China.

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Column

Ukraine at War: Ukrainian women share their stories of Russian captivity 

By Mariia Kudina | February 6

Within the Oct. 17 war prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia, 108 Ukrainian women returned home, marking the first all-female exchange for Ukraine. After months of Russian captivity, the Ukrainian servicewomen and civilians who came back in both this and other exchanges continue to share horrifying stories about their enemy’s military crimes.

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Column

The End of the World Has Just Begun: Jalisco New Generation Goes International

By Daniel Chung | January 24

In the frenzy of reporting on Joe Biden’s neglect of classified documents​​, the media seemed to forget about the president’s visit to Mexico. However, as recent news indicates, the backdrop of that event may shape up to be the most pressing threat to U.S. national security. 

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Column

It's Happened Before: The battle for America's soul

By Asher Berlin | December 8

In 1892, an immigrant from the Russian Empire stepped off a ship into the bustling city of Boston with nothing but the clothes on his back. He did not come to the country by choice: Indeed, when he was younger, he did not imagine that he would ever leave his village, much less Europe. The situation in Russia had changed, however, and those of his Jewish faith faced increasing violence and attacks by mobs, while the state hardly lifted a finger to stop them. In the United States, he worked hard and brought his family still in Russia over, one by one. It was a good thing too: If they had remained, they would in all likelihood have been murdered by the Germans in the Holocaust. The U.S. saved his life, and the life of his family. It also saved the life of his unborn descendants, who came to prosper in a way inconceivable in the “old country.” That man’s last name was Berlin — he was my great-great-great-grandfather.

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Column

Ukraine at War: Coping with trauma

By Mariia Kudina | December 7

The majority of people, including those whose countries are not affected by wars, are stressed before the holiday season. As everyone is wrapping up a year of work and a semester of studying, let’s explore how Ukrainians cope with psychological tension from the war ahead of the harsh winter. In the past few months, missiles from Russia demolished more than half of Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

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Column

The End of the World Has Just Begun: A new way forward

By Daniel Chung | December 7

The next three decades — at least — in global politics are bound to be a wild ride. Even if my previous columns are incorrect in their predictions — and I do hope that the scale of the global collapse and regional conflicts to come will not be as devastating as I fear — the major trends of depopulation, deglobalization and the result of the regionalization of economics, politics and security remain certain. Another almost-certain constant, though, is the United States’ primacy. What should the United States do with all this remaining power, and its relative position in the international system?

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Column

Ukraine at War: Russia violates international law by kidnapping Ukrainian children

By Mariia Kudina | November 30

Freezing during the first weeks of the war in a village in the western part of Ukraine — I had to flee there from Kyiv on Feb. 24 — I thought about the war stories that are not yet being told. Since the full scale invasion, journalists in Ukraine have revealed a solid amount of reports, helping to see the conflict through human eyes. Due to the scale of the war, however, the international community hears only a fraction of Ukrainian tragedies. The kidnapping of Ukrainian children is one type of the Russian war crimes that is often overlooked.

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Column

The End of the World Has Just Begun: America sheltered from the storm

By Daniel Chung | November 29

As is likely evident from my prior articles, I reject the oft-stated predictions of the decline of American power. In fact, I believe American primacy will remain a fact of international affairs, and not just because many other nations may soon see their gains from globalization wiped out.

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Column

It's Happened Before: With social media, it actually hasn’t

By Asher Berlin | November 22

Public speech has traditionally been, well, public. Before the advent of the internet and social media, if one wished to make their voice heard they merely had to find a printing press or, failing that, climb up onto a soapbox and speak. The great movements of history have often been sparked by public speech. Martin Luther, for instance, kicked off the Protestant Reformation by nailing (or maybe pasting) a pamphlet to a door; likewise, Thomas Paine made a significant contribution to the American Revolution with his pamphlet. Contemporary political campaigns also produce public speech in the form of speeches and posters. The beauty of all of this is that, at least in this country, it is free. Speech does not have to be popular to be heard. We can criticize our leaders and their policies; we can even criticize each other. We might find the speech of others horrendous or untrue. Yet their speech has an opportunity to provoke, challenge and perhaps even sway other minds.

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Science

Let's Talk Numbers: What are vampire numbers?

By Anushka Singh | November 17

Trigger warning for all vampires — look away and avoid the urge to count. Continue reading and be stuck with numbers for a while!

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Column

Ukraine at War: Kherson — the trauma of the liberated City of Sun

By Mariia Kudina | November 16

In a note accompanying her order, a client of a Ukrainian publishing company wrote, “I am now in occupied Kherson. I want to pre-order the book. [I am] attaching my address; if by the publication of the book we are still under occupation, I will find someone from the free region and change the address for the delivery.” After Kherson, a city in the southeast region of Ukraine, was liberated last week, the company posted the screenshot of the anonymous note on Facebook. Someone in the comments offered to pay for the book, but they were informed that the woman had already paid for it. Ukrainian publishers are again able to freely send books to Kherson. 

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Column

The Book Nook: ‘Always the Almost’ is a beautiful story of queer, trans joy

By Layla Noor Landrum | November 10

Edward Underhill’s debut novel, “Always the Almost,” is a heartfelt and emotional young adult contemporary romance releasing next year from Macmillan. Midwestern pianist and high schooler Miles Jacobson has just come out as trans — the result of which is a strain on his relationship with his parents and his boyfriend, Shane, ending things with him. And while his friends are accepting of him, ever since Miles and Shane began dating, he’s felt out of place. It doesn’t help, either, that his new piano teacher keeps telling Miles that he needs to figure out who he is. Desperate for a win, Miles resolves to get back together with his ex and beat his stuck-up rival at an upcoming piano competition. But when Miles meets Eric, a new boy who’s just moved into their small town, everything changes. Asthe two bond over their art — Eric with his cartoons and Miles with his music — and go from friends to more, Miles begins to question who he is, what he truly wants, and why he’s never felt like he’s enough for anyone, especially himself.  

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Column

The End of the World Has Just Begun: The long peace ends

By Daniel Chung | November 10

The security architecture of the world will soon be changed as the United States somewhat recedes from its role as guarantor of global security and challengers seek regional hegemony to take advantage of America’s apparent weakness. The two main trends I have pointed to, the fracturing of critical supply chains and global depopulation, are depleting resources across the globe, and subsequent increasing scarcity enforces the feeling by states of being forced to play their hands before they lose the power to do so.

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Column

Ukraine at War: The siege of Mariupol

By Mariia Kudina | November 9

Will it ever be possible to not freeze from grief and tremble from anger at the mention of Mariupol? The name of the Ukrainian port city decimated by Russian forces triggers shivers all over the body. So do the words Azovstal, a demolished metal plant nearly twice the size of Midtown Manhattan which served as a shelter for civilians and the site of the city’s last stand, and Azov, the group of fighters that protected it, some of whom are still in Russian captivity.

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