In India, a Christian family was beaten and harassed by their neighbors and the Hindu nationalist group RSS. Ritesh, his wife Vanya, and their children became Christian in 2016. Despite their cautious and secretive practice of the faith, they could not avoid the omnipresent eyes of their Hindu village. Following intimidation and coercion by a group deployed by the RSS, the family was brought before Hindu leaders. They were interrogated, beaten, and later arrested.
Read MoreSkyrocketing housing prices, exorbitant monthly rents, and tent cities popping up throughout California cities. We’ve all heard the statistics - California is in a severe housing crisis. In response to this, our leaders have set aggressive housing production goals, with Governor Newsom notably promising to develop a whopping 3.5 million new homes by 2025. Yet we are continually disappointed. In the four years since Newsom took office, less than half a million homes have been built within the state.
Read MoreFrance is no stranger to laws and acts that can be seen as anti-Islamic by the public. This year has proved no different for French organizations. With a French soccer league ban on stoppage in a professional match during Ramadan, morals for French organizations and the government are once again taken into question.
Read MoreFollowing the leak of the draft opinion of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in May 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom tweeted that, “California will not sit back. We are going to fight like hell.” The decision, officially released later that year in June, overturned the 50-year precedent of Roe v. Wade and removed federal protection of abortion services in the United States. This decision turned abortion rights over to the states, which has resulted in 13 states banning abortion.
Read MoreThe introduction of anti-trans bills are on the rise in state legislatures across America right now. This year alone, there have been 528 anti-trans bills proposed in nearly all 50 states, which is a devastating record for the United States that is only increasing as the year goes on. This extreme increase in anti-trans legislation at the state level is a result of the damage the Trump administration was able to cause in its four years of holding power.
Read MoreThe mainstream narrative that we are sold by the media about migration into the United States is simple: the poor come to this country to escape the plights of their home countries and follow the American dream to become rich and prosperous. While this idea sounds star-spangled awesome, there is a dark side to why people have moved to the US in the past century. While there are clear and present dangers to people in lower-income countries, such as natural disasters, the main culprit is social immobility. In the United States, there is a vague belief that anyone can be anything: The American Dream.
Read MoreThe President of the United States is not the most powerful man in America. The leaders of the House and Senate, whose whips may set the leviathan Federal government barreling in whichever direction they please, do not top the rank. The nine Justices of the Supreme Court, a half dozen of whom can permanently alter the very meaning of the Constitution, are far from the most commanding figures in Washington. Rather, the true heart of American power lies not on Capitol Hill, but two miles westward, nestled between the Vietnam War Memorial and a Dunkin’ Donuts.
Read MoreThe proposed California Senate Bill 31 would make living on streets, sidewalks, or public property 1000 feet from schools, daycare centers, parks, or libraries a misdemeanor. In New York City, the administration has begun heavily enforcing rules that prevent people from using the subway system to sleep at night. At the beginning of 2023, a Missouri law went into effect, banning people from sleeping on state-owned land, like under bridges. St. Petersburg, Florida has a combination of ordinances that prevent people from lying and sleeping on sidewalks, as well as banning the unpermitted placement of “any object that is used as the functional equivalent of a table.”
Read MoreThe trope of the creepy crossdresser is nothing new. From serial killers in movies to flashers in the park to weird neighbors on Disney channel shows- growing up it was everywhere, and now it’s back. And this time, drag is being dragged through the mud.
The most recent wave of anti-drag sentiment has been driven by talk shows, protests, and most importantly an influx in anti-drag legislation. Alongside a greater trend of anti-trans bills, Tennessee recently passed one of its harshest anti-drag bills yet, criminalizing participation in “adult cabaret performances” in public spaces or in the presence of children. This bill lumps drag performers with exotic dancers and strippers, labeling these performances as shows with “prurient interest.”
Unions are one of the most important parts of our workforce today and they are under attack. Union membership has been steadily decreasing since the 1980s, but why? There are many answers to that question but the most obvious and the most relevant answer is corporate union busting and the deregulation that allows it. Corporations and their political lackeys put up a big fight, but are unions worth the effort?
Totally and completely.
Read MoreA Texas federal judge has invalidated the FDA ruling on mifepristone. Mifepristone is a common medical abortion drug used widely throughout the United States. This controversial decision has sparked a national, and now international conversation about the importance of protecting abortion.
The US judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk, ruled in favor of the plaintiffs who argued that mifepristone was incorrectly advertised as a drug marketed to address serious illnesses and providing therapeutic effects to those with hormonal impairments. The judge further explained that when the FDA originally approved the drug as a safe and effective method to conduct medical abortions it was due to political pressure.
In recent years, the government of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Prime Minister Narendra Modi has attracted criticism from internal and international actors alike for its majoritarian policies. These include the repeal of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution providing autonomy to the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir along with the introduction of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The CAA expands the provision of citizenship for refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh exclusively to non-Muslim minorities, while the implementation of the NRC in the state of Assam may disproportionately target Muslim citizens through its efforts to identify and deport illegal immigrants. Clearly, at least from the perspective of Western media outlets like the New York Times, the Bharatiya Janata Party has engaged in an assault on the secular principles of the Republic of India.
Read MoreFor the LSU Tigers, Louisiana State University’s women’s basketball team, April 2nd should have been a truly triumphant day. It was the day they won the NCAA national championship, wowing spectators and making history. A record-breaking event, the match saw the majority-Black team score the most points ever in a women’s championship game as well as the most points scored at halftime, accomplishments that secured them their first ever championship victory.
The excitement quickly soured, however, when First Lady Jill Biden, who had been attending the game, invited the Iowa Hawkeyes, the runners-up, to the White House to celebrate alongside the Tigers. LSU’s star forward, Angel Reese, was quick to call this “a joke.”
Read MoreThe morning of February 6th was peaceful. The twilight sky was still dark, but stars were slowly becoming less visible. Residents were waking up little by little to get ready for work and start their day. But at around six o’clock in the morning, the ground shook and everyone who was sleeping in northern Syria and southern Turkey were awoken by an massive earthquake that would record a 7.8 on the Richter Scale. It would be felt in Lebanon, Israel and even parts of Iran. Around 60 aftershocks would occur with the biggest one having a magnitude of 7.5 following the initial quake.
Read MoreLess eggs, less meat, and more chicken feet. While at first glance this may sound like a bizarre nursery rhyme for some, Egyptians know all too well that this is what state-run media in Egypt considers a good alternative to the crippling inflation that has become impossible for anyone in the country to ignore. When speaking to Egyptians today, it is clear that many are starting to lose patience with the consistently ailing economic situation. “We legitimately don’t know where the country is headed.
Read MoreThree Mile Island. Fukushima. Chernobyl. The three worst nuclear disasters in human history, and yet they barely account for a few hundred deaths, as opposed to millions of deaths caused by the fossil fuel industry. Nuclear energy has a stigma of being inherently bad for the environment, toxifying whole cities, and spreading radioactive material. That is exactly what fossil fuels do, yet the lobbying efforts against nuclear power center the danger of nuclear power and brush off the harmful impacts of fossil fuels to scare the public against clean energy.
Read MoreAndrew 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.
