RYAN BYRNE WRITES – With the Russian invasion of Ukraine dragging into its eighth month, Russian military forces are growing more and more desperate to bring a resilient Ukraine to its knees. This has forced Moscow to look beyond its borders for new weapons to bolster its beleaguered military. As…
MARISA TORRE WRITES – Despite the flurry of major retailers halting business in Russia, the major Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo, with its 49 stores in Russia, has no plans to follow the trend. Tadashi Yanai, the CEO of Uniqlo’s parent company, Fast Retailing, maintains an anti-war stance but described clothing…
ARYANA KHALILZADEH WRITES-Social media has become a source of information, misinformation, and conspiracy theories on topics such as the pandemic, U.S. elections, and global insurrections. As Russia launched its full-scale military invasion in Ukraine, social media became flooded with various posts in the form of memes, photos, news, and heated…
KIANA KARIMI WRITES – Picture this: All of a sudden, Britney Spears spins around, dodging Russian bomb after Russian bomb. TikTok, a social media app, has entered your learning process. Videos depicting Ukraine’s state of siege cast an ominous shadow over all involved actors. Portentous cyberpunk music blasts as tanks…
TOM PLATE WRITES — The Chinese tilt towards Russia is understandable enough. It is immensely satisfying to be able to tell American leaders that China will do what it wants to do, whether the arrogant West likes it or not. China is the big deal now – or so goes…
TOM PLATE WRITES — Power is not always angelic. When the power to do something exists, it often gathers like a storm, ready to be unleashed. Power is also agnostic; it can be used for evil as well as for good. One thing is for certain. Without concentrations of power, not…
DMITRY KOLESNIKOV WRITES – Russia is getting ready to film the first ever movie in space. On October 5th, 2021 famous Russian actress Yulia Peresild, film producer Klim Shipenko and experienced astronaut Anton Shkaplerov traveled to the International Space Station in pursuit to film the first ever movie in space…
KIANA KARIMI WRITES — A flickering light, screams of famished, sleep-deprived young girls inside tightly-packed crates, armed men ripping victims from each other’s arms, their innocence slowly stripped away in a twisted, torturous cycle of violence… A chilling rendition of Nirvana’s hit 90’s song “Teenage Spirit” creeps through the screen…
TOM PLATE WRITES — Marvellously, sharp streaks of sunshine are starting to break through America’s Covid-19 cloud cover, but the fog over US foreign policy seems heavy. It involves India, China and Russia. Let’s start with India and employ the British poet W.H. Auden’s words – “the gates of hell are…
TOM PLATE WRITES — It is still true, even in this speed-freak era of AI and machine-learning, that international diplomacy needs governments to station quality representatives in foreign capitals, and for international organisations to listen and learn, soak up the ineffable atmosphere, and interact with real people, especially those with “issues”,…
TOM PLATE WRITES — A re-released photo of Joe Biden, then U.S. vice-president, on the North-South Korean border, is being touted by some as evidence of embedded American imperial complacency. Yet it’s almost a required photo stop for American politicians who, as if some mountain-climbing Edmund Hilary, can never be happy…
SARAH ALTUWAIJRI WRITES — This past Saturday, October 20, hundreds took to the streets in Santa Clarita, marching to bring awareness to the plight of Armenians and to raise funds for military purchases, infrastructure and humanitarian aid. One of the protesters, Anna Sarvkian, a 19-year-old student stated, “Armenia is on…
‘VICTOR B’ WRITES — How do clashes in Russia, between police and the public, look right now, when most other nations are struggling to maintain safe and healthy environments? Not good. Orwellian, in fact? The Russian government now requires issuance of a ‘QR’ code to every citizen wanting to walk…
JACQUELINE DILANCHYAN WRITES – Jaws, as well as reputations, dropped after a second athlete from Asia was caught doping at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. After Japanese speed skater Kei Saito was sent home from the Olympic Village after becoming the first athlete at the 2018 Olympic Games to return…
SEBASTIAN SEGURA-ACOSTA WRITES – On September 20th, renowned actor, Morgan Freeman, became the recent victim of Kremlin criticism after making a video calling for an investigation of Russia’s confirmed cyber-meddling in U.S. affairs. Soon after the video went live, social media bots, paid trolls, and the uninformed public ravaged the…
ALEXIS CRUZ WRITES- Immune to accusations of bribery, human rights abuses, and having really hot weather, Qatar intends to host the 2022 World Cup as planned, come what may. Such immunity can make anyone cocky, and at a New York Times art conference in Doha, the Emir’s sister Sheikha Al…
