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Where you read it first | Saturday, September 23, 2023
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Opinion

The Setonian
Viewpoint

Let’s be smart about regulating AI

By Justin Hong | February 9

Massachusetts is a leader in higher education and scientific discovery, as some of the world’s most prestigious universities and research labs are located in Greater Boston. Companies like Boston Dynamics have been on the forefront of artificial intelligence development since its inception and have been continuously pushing the boundaries of science. Boston’s dominance in the technology world must be coupled with a leading role in responsible use and growth of AI.

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Opinion

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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Viewpoint

Toward a brighter economic future

By Rohan Vora | February 8

As India’s economy remains resilient in spite of a challenging global environment, it has been called a “bright spot” against a global recession. The country’s large domestic market, young demographics, and relatively low levels of exposure to international markets are some of the reasons why it is partially insulated from global economic headwinds. However, the country’s cumbersome red tape and inadequate infrastructure are significant economic drawbacks. 

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Viewpoint

Culture war takes prisoners in the classroom

By Maxwell Shoustal | February 7

Despite the conservative critique that the liberal agenda is negatively affecting the way that young students are taught history, conservatives now seem to be refusing to teach a paramount part of American and world history. The state of Florida, led by conservative Gov. Ron DeSantis, threatened to ban a new Advanced Placement African American Studies course over concerns that it was pushing a liberal agenda and lacked educational value by including topics such as the Black Lives Matter movement and black queer studies. He threatened to do so under the authority of the state’s anti-critical race theory law called the Stop W.O.K.E Act. 

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Viewpoint

Classified documents: An unnecessary scandal

By Julieta Grané | February 7

On Nov. 2 2022, President Joe Biden’s legal team found classified documents at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. The approximately 10 documents contained material marked as sensitive from the president’s tenure as Obama’s vice president and prompted Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate the president’s handling of the classified documents. Biden and his personal lawyers have been “cooperating fully” with the Department of Justice’s investigation. On Jan. 16, about a week after the appointment of the special counsel, another series of classified documents were discovered at former Vice President Mike Pence’s home in Carmel, Ind. As of the writing of this article, a special counsel has not been assigned to investigate Pence’s classified materials; however, he publicly claimed “full responsibility” for the misplacing of the documents. A third investigation of classified documents in a public official’s personal residence predates the former two and involves former President Donald Trump. This situation is unique in that the response from Trump’s legal time was hostile and uncooperative: Trump spent 18 months obstructing and hindering the DOJ’s investigation. 

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Viewpoint

Jacinda Ardern resigns: She had it all

By Esma Erdem | February 6

On Jan. 18, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced her resignation ahead of a general election later this year. She explained her decision in a speech, stating, “I believe that leading a country is the most privileged job anyone could ever have but also one of the more challenging. … I am leaving because with such a privileged role comes responsibility. The responsibility is to know when you are the right person to lead and when you are not.” She also added, “I know what this job takes, and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It is that simple.”

The Setonian
Viewpoint

The fall off: Causes and implications of China’s declining population

By Toby Winick | January 26

For the last few decades, China has been not just one of the world’s strongest economies, but its most populated country. However, recent news suggests that it may have already fallen to second in the race that it has spent decades dominating. The Chinese National Bureau of Statistics announced that in 2022, the country’s population fell by 850,000 to 1.411 billion people, marking the first time the population has decreased since 1961. It is hard to say that this news was unpredictable, considering China’s population structure. Still, this crisis and China’s response will certainly have a large impact on China, its trading partners and its rivals.

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Viewpoint

Tufts’ gym isn’t working out

By Maxwell Shoustal | January 26

Anyone who has recently been in the Tufts gym has likely noticed and been irked by the crowding. In some ways, this is not Tufts’ fault. It is not a surprise that gym attendance is heightened in the period following New Year’s Day as New Year’s resolutions are meant to be based on the idea of self-improvement. Logically, going to the gym fulfills this natural desire. However, given the unpleasantries of the current state of the Tufts gym, the administration ought to concoct and implement a more responsible plan for the future.

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Viewpoint

ChatGPT: Exciting or terrifying?

By Esma Erdem | January 26

On Nov. 30, 2022, OpenAI, an independent artificial intelligence foundation co-founded by Elon Musk in 2015, launched ChatGPT, a new chatbot built through OpenAI’s GPT-3 language model system, which quickly gathered attention from different industries worldwide. The model is trained through supervised and reinforcement learning on a vast dataset of text. Although the model and the technology behind it have been around for a while, OpenAI is estimated to have 1 million users already in the same week they made this technology public.

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Viewpoint

The importance of the new disability community senator

By Julieta Grané | January 24

The Tufts Community Union Senate announced on Jan. 19 that a special election will be held to fill six vacant positions, among them a new disability community senator. An announcement from the disability justice club ABLE encourages “a member of the disability community … [who] want[s] to change the lack of accessibility, education and representation on campus” to apply. 

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Opinion

Op-ed: Political unrest in Peru and lack of global coverage in media

By Andres F Arevalo Zea | January 20

On Dec. 7, 2022, the people of Peru were shocked to watch a presidential announcement on their televisions declaring the dissolution of Congress and the establishment of an “emergency government.” In an effort to remain in power, President Pedro Castillo resolved what could be deemed as a ‘self coup d’etat,’ hindering the legislature’s rumored plans of impeachment due to irregularities in his mandate.

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Opinion

Ukraine at War: Reflections on my time in Ukraine

By Mariia Kudina | January 20

Kyiv was just a flight away from Boston before the war. The Ukrainian sky has been closed for all planes except the military ones since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, 2022. Getting to Ukraine from the U.S. now requires approximately two flights and two train or bus rides. The latter typically includes a long wait: between four and six hours if it is a lucky day, or about a day on other occasions, in my case on the Polish-Ukrainian border.

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Soccer

The death of The Beautiful Game

By Justin Solis | January 18

After a surprise exit by Brazil (ranked as the best international team by FIFA in October before the World Cup commenced) and the appearance of two underdog teams in the third place match, Croatia (ranked No. 12) and Morocco (ranked No. 22), one could almost feel the entire culture of soccer shift. Analysts and casual viewers alike were left scrambling for answers. How were these teams, who were not even considered likely to make a late run in the tournament, much less compete for the third place trophy, able to perform at such a high level against all odds? The answer is less exciting than one would expect, and it involves the death of the most engaging parts of soccer. 

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Opinion

Op-ed: 3 bullet points for incoming President Kumar’s agenda

By Kevin Golub | January 18

The departure of University President Anthony Monaco following this academic year will certainly be emotional for the Tufts student body. Serving as president for over a decade, President Monaco demonstrated his resolute leadership while navigating the university through a challenging pandemic and the subsequent rebound to in-person learning. Although he has received backlash from students on certain issues, he nevertheless remained an open book and did his best to respect and address their concerns.

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