Conducted by Rafael Santa Maria (PO ’20). Maria Leonor “Leni” Gerona Robredo has served as the 14th Vice President of the Philippines since June 2016. As per the Constitution of the Philippines, she ran for the Office of the Vice President separately from the main presidential election and therefore did not run with now-President Rodrigo Duterte. In defeating Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr., the...
Maggie Bynum (SC ‘20) On March 3rd, 2019 the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) submitted a final rule to the National Register that will have a detrimental effect on reproductive health services in the United States. The rule outlines several changes to Title X, also known as the Family Planning Program. Since its establishment in 1970, Title X has been the only source of...
By Christopher Tan (PZ ‘21) Three years after it voted to leave the European Union, the United Kingdom continues to face more questions than answers over its uncertain future. Since 2016, Britain has dumped two prime ministers, limped through two bruising election campaigns (with a third on the horizon), and seen a rapid decline in the pound’s value. If anything in the U.K. is clear, it is that...
By Rowan McGarry-Williams (PO ’21) Since the 2016 election, California has positioned itself as a site of resistance against the Trump administration. Trump’s recent revocation of California’s authority to set strict auto emissions standards is only the latest escalation in a lengthy conflict, as state Attorney General Xavier Becerra has filed over 50 lawsuits against the administration...
By Christopher Tan (PZ ’21) Hong Kong summers are unforgiving. Crowds of people clog narrow streets alongside buses and trams. Dense heat, amplified by the region’s notorious humidity, is trapped between canyons of skyscrapers, leaving citizens to seek respite in tiny apartments. If the sun is not out, typhoons and heavy rain showers batter the territory, swaying buildings and flooding...
Dear Readers, Welcome to the last print edition of this school year, Vol. 6 No. 3! We are proud to present an edition that features rigorous research on topics ranging from analysis of the Green New Deal’s feasibility to questions of liability in outer space (you read that right!). This edition also includes interviews of Ben Rhodes, President Obama’s former speech writer and foreign policy...
By Musa Kamara (PO’22) In a typical court proceeding, several different types of witnesses can be called upon to testify on behalf of the defense, plaintiff, or prosecution. When these witnesses are called to the stand to testify, their testimony can be regarded as evidence, defined as anything that can help a judge or jury better ascertain the truth in a certain case and thus the outcome...
By Ethan Widlansky (PO’22) The Senate Small Business Committee, chaired by Marco Rubio, convened a hearing in late February to discuss its latest report “‘The Made in China 2025’ industrial plan.” Spurned by many free-market Republicans, the report considers “not whether states should organize their economies, but how they should organize them.” A self-avowed free-market apostle as a...
By Kimberly Tuttle (CMC’19) Starting in the 1960s, the American government began to implement policies to deinstitutionalize the mentally ill. The deinstitutionalization movement was spurred by public outcry as a result of the exposure of the shortcomings of state-run “insane asylums” at the time. In 1955, the number of institutionalized mentally ill patients peaked at 558,000, or 0.03...
By Rafael Santa Maria (PO ’20) On April 11, Spanish police detained an 18-year-old Italian man accused of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old British national on a Mediterranean cruise ship. However, the suspect was promptly released by a Spanish judge who claimed that Spain had no jurisdiction over the case. Specifically, the judge argued that Spain could not prosecute the suspect because...
