Andrew Tate is a controversial figure who has been in the news a lot lately, for a multitude of reasons ranging from the heinous to the hateful. Along with this media attention, many questions follow: Who is he? What does he do? What does he represent? And most importantly, why is he so damn popular? Due to his immense following, we need to understand what he truly represents to a lot of people, those who dislike him and those who idolize him.
Read MoreOn March 14, Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA (TPUSA) visited UC Davis on behalf of the organization's branch on campus. I went to the event with some friends to watch the crowd protest and to be a part of something contentious at Davis. As we watched the crowd of protestors outside the U Center, an apolitical friend of mine commented, "This is scary." "What is?" I asked as we watched a group of police in riot gear rush toward the back of the U Center, where the protest had moved.
Offices trashed, fire alarms blaring, sprinklers set off, stolen artifacts. Congress had become a battlefield of democracy. But this time, it was not Americans attempting to overthrow the government. It was Brazilians. The familiar story took place on the floor of the House of Deputies, the lower House of Congress in Brasilia, Brazil just a week after the inauguration of the new president. This is not common in the history of industrialized states like the U.S. and Brazil, however these two countries took to similar methods after stark electoral losses.
Read MoreCalifornia has not executed a death row inmate since January 2006, yet still has 690 inmates living in fear of execution. In 2012 and 2016, propositions to abolish the death penalty failed. In 2012, the proposition was defeated with 51.95% of the vote, and in 2016, the proposition was defeated with 53.15% of the vote. In comparison, President Obama received 59.3% of the vote in California in 2012 and Hilary Clinton received 61.5% in 2016. The stark contrast between the two results can be explained by the American fear of crime and its importance in elections.
Recent weather events demonstrate a very different narrative to what we’re told: lower-income communities will face dire weather conditions, flooding, and extreme events as climate change unfolds over the next half of the century. The Environmental Protection Agency reported that lower-income communities disproportionately experience and have difficulty rebounding from heat waves, poor air quality, and flooding. The statistics are there, but the narrative that only those of a lower tax bracket experience climate change is off base. Believing in this rhetoric will prompt a rude awakening for the rich. Mother Nature doesn’t discriminate.
Read MoreCalifornia started off the New Year by turning its streets into rivers. At least 22 people were killed.
As 2022 ended, an atmospheric river washed over California causing a mega-storm that lasted almost three weeks. As rivers overflowed and levees failed, cities began to flood and thousands were forced to evacuate their homes. However, this “once in a lifetime” event was just one of many climate disasters that have occurred in this season alone. In December, most of the US and part of Canada experienced a winter storm that swept from coast to coast, and in January a series of off-season tornadoes traveled through the southern states.
Read MoreIt started in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022. As the sun began its ascent into the sky above Moscow, Idaho, a grisly discovery was made: four students at the University of Idaho had been brutally murdered in their home near the campus. With no clear explanations available, the entire affair was steeped in mystery, resulting in a bizarre internet frenzy. Theories ran abound on virtually every social media platform, leaving law enforcement struggling to keep the misinformation under control.
Read MoreIt is hard not to notice how political violence has increased in America these last few years. What was once an infrequent event has now become an almost monthly occurrence, and with threats against high ranking officials like Congresspeople rising almost tenfold, it’s clear that trouble is brewing in our society. There are a multitude of reasons for this change, however, and many of them stem from extreme political divisiveness and distortions of the truth.
Read MoreGavin Newsom has alluded to running for president multiple times in the last few years following a successful recall avoidance and a steamroll reelection win in 2022, but when would he run? And if he runs…could he win?
According to Berkeley professor of politics Dan Schnur, “Yeah, he’s definitely running for president, the only question is where he’s running in 2024 or 2028.”
California has experienced eight of the state’s largest wildfires in the last five years. To combat these fires, California has enlisted firefighters from out-of-state and sometimes other countries to fight these deadly wildfires. Another significant and often overlooked source of manpower against wildfires is the prison population. Since World War Two, California prisons and Cal Fire have run the Conservation Camp Program. The Conservation Camp Program trains eligible prisoners to become firefighters as a source of rehabilitation. The inmates undergo one week of classroom instruction and one week of field training and exercises.
Read MoreWhen expressing an idea or creating content, creators consciously and subconsciously reference artistic works and concepts that they’re familiar with due to our unavoidable encounters with creative content. Literary works run rampant with references to their predecessors, many classical artists were trained by mimicking their master’s work, political speeches often quote influential figures, and musicians often sample other popular songs. Free speech and expression in the modern era is innately referential. However, as of Oct. 2022, this referential nature is being put on trial in the case of Warhol v. Goldsmith;
Read MoreShall we play a game?
No, this is not a 1980s film about Mattew Broderick staving off nuclear disaster, but another age-old game that we have been playing since humanity existed: war. As with the board game with the same name, war involves risks, either taking them or accepting them based on the cards you are dealt. Unlike the board game, however, the fog of war clouds the capabilities of the enemy, and leaders risk either diving headfirst into a body of cool water, or solid concrete.
Read MoreFor decades, the governing system and regime in Iran have limited basic freedoms for women. In 1979, the Iranian Revolution installed a radicalized system of government, leaving the country with a militarized theocracy that controls and oppresses citizens. Due to the corrupt regime, Iranian women face harsh discrimination. Lack of freedom of expression, association, and assembly has left Iran’s citizens powerless. On Sept. 13th, 2022, a 22-year old woman, Mahsa Amini, was prosecuted for disobeying the headscarf regulation. Amini was brutally assaulted in jail, catalyzing thousands of Iranian’s to resist the regime through strikes and protests.
Read MoreCyber attacks are becoming an increasing threat to the international community and United States national security. Such attacks are no longer dominated by solo figures but have been increasingly sponsored by national governments as a new type of weapon in their arsenals. To understand why cyber weapons and cyber defenses are critical to our national security now and in the future, we must answer some key questions. Why are cyber attacks becoming increasingly attractive to governments, and what are their pitfalls?
Read MoreWithin the last week of Fall Quarter, professors have been rolling out updates about the final exams and end-of-quarter assignments in consideration of the UC-wide academic worker strike that has persisted since Nov. 14. In acknowledgment of unfair labor practices and low wages in relation to high cost of living, members of the academic union swept the California campuses, administrators’ homes, and Sacramento streets in the past month. A mass strike halts grading, discussion sections, and all regular functions that allow undergraduate students to receive grades and move on to the next quarter without financial or academic conflict.
Read MoreIt has been said that the sun never sets on the British Empire. Well, it’s beginning to look like dusk. The death of Queen Elizabeth II has sent many questions rippling through the UK and the world. What purpose does the monarchy serve? Why is the United Kingdom so important internationally? What does the future of the Commonwealth and Britain look like? The last question is the most prescient one to the UK and the world. To answer this, we’ll have to figure out what the Commonwealth is, what it does, who’s in it, and what its future looks like. Then, we’ll discuss the past, present and future of the UK, its economy, its politics, and how that will affect the Commonwealth at large.
Read More1917 marks the British announcement of Palestine as a home for the Jews through the Balfour Declaration. Five years later, in 1922, Britain was granted a mandate over much of the Middle East, and partitioned the region between themselves and the French. Britain and France now had chopped up Palestine, a region of the old Ottoman Empire after the first World War when Arabs struggled to find the strength and organization to push back against the British invasion.
Read More“Angry woman.”“A neurotic lady, if she could be called a lady.” “The worst-tempered brat.” “[She] shrieked like a woman in labor.” These gendered remarks are real descriptions of what people think of hurricanes. The language used to describe hurricanes and the gendered names associated with storms have caused a recent spark in activism to address the inherent sexual hierarchy prevalent in modern American society. Most recently, with Hurricane Ian, Floridians and residents of other southeast states were urged to prepare as national and local news sources hyperbolized their coverage of the storm.
Read MoreOn Sept. 28th, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law AB 2011, greenlighting the conversion of derelict commercial spaces into housing, regardless of local government objections. The bill is the latest in a series of moves meant to tackle California’s ballooning cost of housing, limiting the power of cities and counties to micromanage or block new construction. That same day, Newsom gave his signature to AB 2097, eliminating parking mandates for developments near mass transit, and AB 2221, which specifies legal ambiguities surrounding what constitutes a ‘granny flat’, ending the ability of localities to deny their erection on arbitrary grounds.
On Oct. 30th 2022, Brazilians went to the polls for one of the most consequential elections in the country’s modern history. The two choices fittingly represent the troubles of the past decade, including a crippling recession, the impeachments of two sitting presidents, the jailing of another, the continuing destruction of the Amazon rainforest, and executive negligence during a deadly pandemic.
