Earlier this month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Trump administration announced that degree-seeking international students must attend in-person classes in the fall or they may face deportation from the U.S. In these unprecedented times of uncertainty, many colleges and universities have resorted to online classes for the fall semester, leaving many students in limbo. However, recent developments indicate a reversal in this policy. To recap the situation, on Monday, July 7, 2020, the Trump administration declared a policy barring international students with certain visas from receiving classes in a completely online format while residing in the U.S. As a result, these students would have to enroll in an…
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J.K. Rowling’s Transphobic Tweets and Trump’s Transphobia
The author of the famous Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling, has been labeled “transphobic,” “cruel,” and a “bigot” after tweeting in support of her friend, Maya Forstater. Forstater lost her job as a tax expert at the Center for Global development after suggesting that transgender people cannot change the biological sex they were born with. Maya Forstater is a researcher who claimed online that there are only two biological sexes. As a result, she was fired by the U.K. think tank for questioning the government’s plans to allow people to self-identify as another gender. The tweet said: “People who menstruate. I’m sure there used to be a word for those…
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Whistle-Blower Blows the Whistle on Trump, Ukraine Controversy
On Aug. 12, an anonymous whistle-blower who is an officer at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), sent a complaint to the chairmen of the U.S. House and Senate Intelligence Committees, Richard Burr (R–NC) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) respectively. Detailing in this complaint was that he had “received information from multiple U.S. Government officials that the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election.” The whistleblower was referring to the July 25 phone call where, he believes, President Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe and son Hunter Biden. Hunter…
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State of the Union Address: To the American People
On Tuesday, Feb. 5th, after a 35-day government shutdown – the longest in U.S. history – President Donald Trump gave his second State of the Union address. With Vice-President Mike Pence and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seated behind him, President Trump started off with a message of solidarity, stating, “The agenda I will lay out this evening is not a Republican agenda or a Democrat agenda. It is the agenda of the American people.” Trump emphasized unity between the two parties; about the importance of compromise and the similarities both parties share. He reminded Congress that people on both sides want the same things: jobs, fair trade, better infrastructure,…
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Kanye vs. America: The Rapper’s Continuous Political Outbursts
“My music isn’t just music — it’s medicine.” This quote was said by none other than the titular rapper and fashionista, Kanye West. He was once known as “Yeezy” and revered for his music. In the current day, most people are familiar with “Ye” the rapper who proudly boasts his love and support for President Donald Trump. It leads one to wonder, how on earth did this come to be? West has always been political. The beginning of some of his bold statements can be dated back to 2005, during a televised celebrity fundraiser for Hurricane Katrina when Kanye West said on live television beside Mike Myers, “Bush doesn’t…
