When I arrived on campus for the first time in September, many things surprised me: How beautiful the trees on President’s Lawn are, how intensely the early 2000s have come back into fashion and, unfortunately, how many people I saw smoking cigarettes.
In the 10th inning of a scoreless game, Freddie Freeman bloops a single into short center field at Petco Park to give the Los Angeles Dodgers a 1–0 lead. The Dodgers won the game and set a new franchise win record with 107 wins.
Where can you find an opening ceremony led by the Boston Police Gaelic Column of Pipes and Drums, a speech by Seinfeld star John O’Hurley, and a 5K run that donates 20% of its earnings to Comfort Zone Camp? You guessed it — PestWorld Boston 2022! It was love at first sight; I knew this was the perfect convention for a casual pesticide enjoyer like myself. However, apart from the $600 entrance fee, there is one condition holding me back: Is it ethical to attend PestWorld Boston 2022?
We all remember the infamous Edward Joseph Snowden: National Security Agency contractor, Rubik’s Cube holder, and the person responsible for leaking the highly classified online surveillance program PRISM in 2013, which revealed that the NSA was spying on American citizens through SMS messages, tracking phone calls, contact information and a slew of other personal records.
Of the points raised in my last piece concerning the origins of the globalized system, the most relevant to today’s affairs may be the fact that free trade has sprung up under American auspices — particularly the exertion of naval supremacy as the U.S. Navy underpins 90% of global commerce, or over $4.6 trillion worth of trade. However, the lack of a navy with true supremacy in our global system furthers the argument that our experiment in globalization is doomed to fall apart. This article will, consequently, serve as a review of global navies and their ability to protect the sea lanes of trade and communication.
On Sunday, Sept. 25, Italy joined the growing list of democracies led by right-wing governments when it voted the Brothers of Italy leader Giorgia Meloni into office. The 45-year-old politician and journalist who now serves as prime minister has gone viral for a speech in Rome where she proclaimed she is a “woman, mother, Italian and Christian.” This slogan holds a mirror to the veiling of xenophobia under the guise of protection of family values by directly emphasizing Meloni’s nationality, religion and duty as a mother stemming from her sex. The mere fact of Meloni’s gender should not be a reason to celebrate her election. Italy joins Iceland, Denmark and New Zealand as a developed country with a female leader; however, unlike the latter three countries, Italy is headed in a direction that is clearly not feminist. Meloni has stated that she does not intend to abolish Italy’s abortion law, but the law provides inadequate support and resources for women wanting an abolition, which results in limited abortion access in Italy. By not amending this law, Meloni ensures that abortion will remain difficult to access in Italy.
Content Warning: This article includes mentions of suicide and drug abuse. Find on- and off-campus resources for substance abuse recovery here.
As the United States prepares for its elections in about a month, so too does one of its closest South American allies, Brazil. Amid the tension of the United States’ midterm election season, few are thinking of the past presidential election. Yet, Brazil’s current presidential election cycle is eerily reminiscent of the 2020 election in the U.S. Like the United States, Brazil’s election will feature a closely contested race between two major political players, with one seeking to oust an incumbent. Perhaps more importantly, there’s just as much political leverage at stake.
Have you ever looked at a painting in a museum of modern art and felt extremely confused attempting to understand the artist’s message? When and why did American creators ‘decide’ that realism is too limited for expressing ideas? What caused the transformation of traditional art to a conceptual one? The phenomena of abstract expressionism and the movements that followed it have blossomed in the United States after 1945, the year U.S. bombers dropped the world's first deployed atomic bombs over two peaceful Japanese cities.
When the coronavirus first began to spread across the world, countries were gripped by fear and uncertainty. At the initial stages of the pandemic, China and the United States demonstrated two starkly different approaches to handling the virus. China immediately implemented strict centralized efforts: Lockdowns were put into place and new hospitals were built within weeks. The U.S. however was sorely lacking in efficient and organized efforts. The country faced mass shortages of medical resources and was led by a president who downplayed the severity of the situation and exacerbated many Americans’ distrust of scientific guidelines.
While brave Ukrainians continue to relentlessly defend their right to existence, freedom and democracy, Moscow’s restaurants are filled with glamorous Instagram influencers indulging in their Sunday brunch. If you were to visit the largest and richest Russian cities, you would not believe that you are located in a country that is currently perpetrating a full-scale war. It’s all business and entertainment as usual.
For decades, the United States has been the most popular destination to go to college internationally. Known to be the ‘land of opportunity,’ students from all around the world choose to go to the world’s top colleges in the United States for the education quality, infinite opportunities and study abroad experience. In fact, according to research from the Institute on International Education, over one million foreign-born students were enrolled in colleges in the U.S. for the 2019–20 academic year, though that number has dipped since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Coming from over 200 countries, millions of international students share the same goal: finding an opportunity to succeed.
With President Anthony Monaco stepping down in the summer of 2023, Tufts is getting prepared to lose a leader who “strengthened the university by every possible metric,” as Board of Trustees Chair Peter Dolan stated in an email to the Tufts community in February. It’s inarguable that Monaco's contributions to Tufts have been tremendous in their efforts to rebuild and strengthen the Tufts community. Yet, while many have expressed their disappointment in Monaco’s farewell, his departure has also been met with great anticipation.
In a recessionary economy, there is one group whose future looks very bright: Trump’s lawyers. Now fighting battles on three legal fronts, former President Trump is spending millions to hold off a growing cast of opponents. Initially only dealing with a House of Representatives investigation into his involvement in the Jan. 6 debacle, Trump now has to contend with a New York state investigation into financial impropriety and, since early August, an FBI investigation into illegal removal of classified material from the White House. Out of this staggering litany of incredible misconduct, the most dangerous to Trump is his potential breach of federal laws relating to classified material. On a memorable day in American history, the FBI searched Trump’s property at Mar-a-Lago and recovered, among other things, top-secret material, which, were it to fall into the wrong hands, might devastate American national security. While Trump has faced legal problems before, it seems that in this investigation he might finally face real consequences, which could include a 10-year sentence.
All of us know that texting during a class is a strategy for failure and is to be avoided unless something urgent comes up, which happens quite rarely. Or does it? For every Ukrainian student, any text message or phone call can be critical.
Who is Roger Federer? A legend in the tennis world? A humble Swiss ball boy? When asked by Joe Sabia in the “73 Questions” series for Vogue, he said he wanted to be remembered as “philanthropic” and “a good tennis player.” I am here to tell you that both descriptions are understatements of who he is, both as a tennis player and a philanthropic foundation president.
On Sept. 21, famed conservative talk show host Sean Hannity televised an exclusive interview with former President Trump. With mounting pressure on Trump and his legal team, discussion of the search warrant that found classified documents on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property was inevitable. However, an attempt by Hannity to lob softball questions at Trump and allow him to continue his talking points about the politicization of the Department of Justice quickly made for a revealing interview.
The China-Taiwan conflict has lasted for decades, from the establishment of the People's Republic of China to the present. When the PRC was established in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party’s adversary, the Kuomintang, retreated to the island of Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War. Since then, China has always claimed to hold sovereignty over Taiwan, an “inalienable” part of China.
Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, died in police custody after having a “heart attack” and falling into a coma. She was arrested by the Iranian morality police for wearing her hijab “improperly” and violating the “dress code.” Although the police denied the allegations, witnesses have reported that Amini was beaten in the police van. Iranian authorities stated “heart attack” as the cause for her “unfortunate death;” however, her family mentioned that she had no preexisting heart condition.
To understand the end of globalization, we need to go back to its beginnings. Shockingly, our current global system is less than 80 years old, and an aberration rather than the norm.
Op-ed submissions are an integral part of our connection with you, our readers. As such, we would like to clarify our guidelines for submitting op-eds and what you can expect from the process.
Read More
