“Last week, a damning set of emails and a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden were released into the public sphere. This discovery could prove harmful to the prospect of Joe Biden’s election. However, with the recent confirmation from the United States intelligence community that Russia and Iran have been actively meddling in the 2020 election, the validity of the Hunter Biden hard drive has come into question.”
Read More“The world’s most powerful and successful banks moving large networks of dirty money from the likes of drugs cartels and organized crime rings affiliates sounds like a plot taken straight from a Netflix original series. While such an idea might seem a little hard to conceptualize in real life, a recent Buzzfeed News investigation uncovered that many big name U.S. and international banks have been moving trillions of dollars for two decades in suspicious transactions, and in the process enriching themselves off the dirty money.”
Read More“While it may not be as attention grabbing as the tight race in Florida, with its history of hanging chads, or as intriguing as the races in Rust Belt Democratic strongholds that flipped for Trump last election cycle, North Carolina, with its 15 electoral votes, stands out as one of the most important battleground states of this election. The race in North Carolina is exceptionally close—within a polling error—and it could prove to be the consequential state that tips the election one way or the other. Given that, it’s no wonder that the Trump and Biden campaigns have spent so much time here in recent weeks attempting to turnout the vote.”
Read More“Last week’s Senate hearings for the Supreme Court appointment of Judge Amy Coney Barrett have re-ignited the contentious debate on the role of the Supreme Court in contemporary American politics. The nominee has tried to cement herself as an impartial figure throughout the hearings. When pressed by Senator Dian Feinstein about her views on abortion, for example, Barret responded “if I express a view on a precedent one way or another, whether I say I love it or I hate it, it signals to litigants that I might tilt one way or another on a pending case.” This interaction highlights a pair of key questions when it comes to the Supreme Court: how much does individual political ideology influence Supreme Court justices and is the Supreme Court actually nonpartisan?”
Read More“Steeped in a bedlam of uncertainty and fear over how intensely a hard exit from the European Union (EU) will crater the UK’s economy, the center of the world’s financial services industry stares at a recession that could dramatically shrink the might of one of the most powerful nations in the world.”
Read More“The International Monetary Fund’s newest estimate is that the global economy will shrink 4.4% in 2020: the worst annual drop since the Great Depression. Policy interventions such as unemployment benefits and paid-parental leave must be undertaken by countries around the world in order to help vulnerable populations. This will help ensure that this crisis does not contribute to a widening gender and intergenerational economic inequality.”
Read More“That our President is not firmly standing against white supremacy should be a watershed moment for this country. The fact that there are enough people who buy into white supremacy and enough people willing to ignore it reveals that there is something fundamentally wrong with the people and political system of this country. Yet amid the profound confusion of the Trump presidency, it passed the news cycle as just another aberration”
Read More“While the race has been largely uneventful, the candidates have made strong statements about each other and have fought over false information. There is no clear leader in the race, but both men are more than qualified for the position.”
Read More“The recent conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region between Armenia and Azerbaijan appeared to be de-escalating after a Russian-brokered ceasefire on October 10th. However, armed conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia has continued, with both sides accusing the other of breaking the ceasefire. To further complicate matters, the tangled web of competing geopolitical interests by major powers threatens to further escalate the situation into a regional conflict.”
Read More“The strike is set to begin this upcoming Sunday, but it is currently unclear if Tsikhanouskaya’s supporters are capable of the organization required to shut down the country at the scale Tsikhanouskaya is hoping for”
Read More“One factor that makes the North Carolina senate election so important is its competitiveness. North Carolina has become a hotly contested “purple state,” as Democrats have made significant gains in cities and suburban areas and are hoping to translate those gains into success in federal elections. At the Presidential level, North Carolina is one of the tightest swing states—recent polling shows only a 4% gap between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. The senate race is similarly competitive—Cal Cunningham and Thom Tillis have polled neck and neck throughout the campaign.”
Read More“Violations from all parties to the R-ARCSS make it clear that an international organization must step in and introduce mechanisms to establish harmony, promote justice, and provide humanitarian aid to areas of South Sudan decimated by conflict and natural disasters.”
Read More“The lack of racial diversity on the administration board is increasingly problematic, especially among the heightened racial conflict and consciousness in the United States - and right here in North Carolina - at this moment in history. UNC needs to recognize this and change their policies and the demographics of its leadership to better represent their students. Following Allison’s departure as one of the few nonwhite members of the Board, and an active advocate for nonwhite UNC students, the Board of Governors needs to elect a member with a similar commitment to increasing the inclusion and equity of students of color.”
Read More“In 1978, China was a struggling country with a low GDP of only $150 billion. In 2020, China is a rising superpower with a GDP of $14.3 trillion. With its growing power, China has been attempting to change the previous world order with its strategies. Now, China’s rivals believe it is time to retaliate.”
Read More“Currently, voters will be notified of any mistakes that would invalidate their ballots and be given the opportunity to ‘cure’ those errors, either by signing an affidavit, in cases where the voter’s signature is missing, or, in most other cases, by returning a new ballot… While both sides expressed a belief that they were vindicated by Judge Osteen’s ruling, the court battle is not yet over. The case was appealed, and the State Board of Elections has been unable to implement any changes due to a stay, leaving thousands of deficient ballots yet again in limbo. As court battles drag on, there is growing anxiety that time is running out for deficient ballots to be cured.”
Read More“With the contentious 2020 election season coming to a close, polls and simulations predict Democrats are poised to secure the White House and the House of Representatives, and at least hold a competitive edge in securing the Senate. As of October 12th, Joe Biden claimed a 12% lead over incumbent President Donald Trump, according to a poll of likely voters conducted by The Washington Post and ABC. Ultimately, with the statistics of the race and the lackluster Republican counter efforts failing to make a dent in the polls, Democrats gaining control of both chambers of Congress and the Executive branch is probable. If the Democrats accomplish such a daunting task, it is likely American institutional norms that have been established for decades will likely face some serious reflection and reform.”
Read More“Throughout decades of growing mistrust in institutions and increasing choices of where to get your information, it seems that the notion that ignorance is a choice may be an idea of the past.”
Read MoreSPECIAL ESSAY - “Maybe you have seen Instagram posts highlighting the oppression of Uyghur Muslims or headlines criticizing Disney for shooting Mulan in Xinjiang. But who exactly are the Uyghurs, and why has their oppression led to calls for a United Nations crimes against humanity investigation?”
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