NATO Update

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), created on April 4, 1949, is an intergovernmental military alliance among many countries across the world, primarily North America and Europe. NATO was established in response to the security challenges and geopolitical tensions that emerged in the aftermath of World War II and the growing divide between the Western democracies and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The primary objective behind NATO’s creation was to provide a framework for member countries to deter potential aggression and safeguard their shared values of democracy, individual liberty, and the rule of law. The organization’s founding treaty, the North Atlantic Treaty, established a commitment to collective defense, stating that an attack on one member would be considered an attack on all, and that the alliance would respond accordingly. Throughout its history, NATO has played a vital role in preserving peace and stability in Europe and North America. It has been involved in various military operations and peacekeeping missions, including the conflict in the Balkans, the war in Afghanistan, counterterrorism efforts, and even attempts for the Russia-Ukraine war right now.

NATO has caused many debates on the involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war as any involvement of one country would lead to every other’s involvement, leading to a full blown out war. Or adding Ukraine to NATO would cause every other country to participate in the war.

However, there have been many changed opinions. Many NATO leaders are finally coming close to the decision to adding Ukraine to NATO. There are still a few leaders who oppose, primarily President Biden who feels that Ukraine cannot join until the war is finished.

In addition, NATO has added some other countries to the membership such as Sweden and Finland. This is beneficial to NATO as the addition of both countries could offer the alliance expanded land, sea and air capabilities. Sweden has a strong navy, which would strengthen NATO’s defenses in the Baltic Sea, and builds its own fighter jets. Finland’s well-funded military maintains mandatory conscription for men.

Overall, NATO has changed drastically over the years. From starting as a response to Russia in the Cold War to now adding many new members to create a stronger membership.

Trouble in France

France is currently going through a tough time with an uproar across their biggest cities as riots and protests are breaking out. This is a result of the shooting of 17 year old teenage boy Nahel Merzouk.

Nahel Merzouk was shot by a police officer during a traffic stop on Tuesday in the Paris suburb of Nanterre. Footage of the incident filmed by a bystander showed two officers standing on the driver’s side of the car, one of whom fired his gun at the driver despite not appearing to be in any immediate danger. This is an act of police brutality as although the cops were not in any danger and Nahel was cooperating, the cops openly fired resulting in Nahel’s death. This tragedy has sparked three consecutive nights of destructive unrest and revived a heated debate about discrimination and policing in low-income, multi-ethnic communities.

There has been many violent protests across the nation in response to this incident. A sizable number of people across France remain shocked and angry, especially young men and women of color who have been victims of discrimination by police. This has led to thousands of arrests across cities including Paris and Marseille after huge gatherings took to the streets to make a stand against the French police. Rioters have been torching cars and buildings and looting shops. Full chaos has erupted. Police and firefighters are struggling to contain protesters and extinguish numerous blazes through the night that damaged schools, police stations and town halls or other public buildings.

The French government is facing many challenges right now from the original shooting to the many implications that came forth from it. They are working to restoring order across the country. This incident represents how police brutality and incidents against one person can create unity among people who find these incidents to be wrong.

Affirmative Action Supreme Court Ruling

Whether it be for a job opportunity or admitting someone into a school, Affirmative Action is a practice that is commonly used across the world. Affirmative Action is the practice of taking an individuals’ race, sex, religion, or national origin into account when hiring or admitting them into a school. However, Affirmative Action is more prominently used by universities and colleges when they are during the admission process. This practice has been considered discriminatory among many people as admitting based off race may provide advantages or disadvantages to many groups. There are many arguments against Affirmative Action such as reverse discrimination, meritocracy concerns, and stigmatization.

Reverse Discrimination: Critics argue that affirmative action policies may lead to “reverse discrimination,” where individuals from historically privileged groups might face disadvantages or be excluded from opportunities solely based on their race or ethnicity.

Meritocracy Concerns: Some argue that affirmative action compromises the principle of a meritocracy, where individuals should be rewarded based on their abilities and qualifications. They believe that admitting individuals based on factors other than merit undermines the quality and fairness of the selection process.

Stigmatization: Critics claim that affirmative action can stigmatize the beneficiaries, implying that they are less competent or deserving than others. This can lead to negative perceptions and stereotypes about the abilities of the affected individuals, perpetuating a cycle of inequality.

These are just some of the many arguments against Affirmative Action. This widespread disproval from the people has led this to be brought up to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled it unlawful for colleges and universities to take race into consideration as a specific factor in admissions. This is a major change in the admission process through admitting based on race has been eliminated.

However, there are many arguments still being made that colleges and universities will find a way out of this ruling. Since this case is so new, it is hard to tell what the major effects are going to be and if this ruling is completely effective. This ruling poses the question- is it fair for colleges to try to diversify their student representation by admitting based off race or, is it unethical?

Himalayan Glaciers Melting

The Himalayan Glaciers is a part of the Hindu Kush Himalayan region stretches over 2000 kilometers across the Asian continent and including all and part of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. This region is a mountainous area known for its immense geological, cultural, and ecological significance.

The Himalayan glaciers, including some of the world’s largest and highest glaciers, are a crucial component of the Hindu Kush Himalayan region. These glaciers are a vital source of freshwater for millions of people living downstream, as they feed major river systems such as the Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, and Yangtze.

Currently, as Global Warming has exacerbated over time, this has led to the melting of these glaciers. This melting poses significant challenges for water availability, agriculture, and ecological balance in the region. Already 2,000 years of ice has been lost in just the past 30 years leading towards less and less available fresh water for the millions of people who require it.

Additionally, a study found that 200 glacier lakes across these mountains are deemed dangerous, and the region could see a significant spike in glacial lake outburst floods by the end of the century. These floods could also be extremely dangerous and pose many challenges towards the neighboring communities.

These glaciers melting are a serious concern in the world as there are many dangerous implications that could come. It is important for these issues to be widely recognized among the many world problems so they can make attempts together to mitigate such issues from deteriorating.

Juneteenth Celebration Shootings

Juneteenth, now a national holiday in the United States, celebrated every June 19th, is a commemoration of the emancipation of enslaved people in the US. The Emancipation Proclamation of 1860 marked the end of slavery, a turning point in US history, and has been celebrated every year since.

Juneteenth is widely celebrated among many African Americans across the country with many widespread celebrations. In a city called Willowbrook, which is relatively Southwest Chicago, Illinois, there was a Juneteenth celebration in a strip mall parking lot. As people were just trying to voice their celebrations, this resulted in a shooting with 23 people shot and wounded with another fatality. The strip mall was neighboring an apartment in which the shooter had shot bullets that had reached and broken windows in the apartments as well.

This incident is one of many across Chicago as in total there are more than 75 wounded and 13 fatalities. Many different shooters all had similar motives to bring down the voices of those celebrating this holiday.

These shootings highlight the persistent racial injustices and systemic racism that continue to affect marginalized communities. It underscores the fact that even in a moment of celebration and remembrance, African Americans still face threats to their safety and well-being.

A possible response to many shootings like this are reforms for sensible gun control measures to ensure public safety and prevent such tragic events from occurring. Communities disproportionately affected by gun violence, including minority communities, often experience a sense of insecurity and fear for their lives. Gun control could effectively prevent many hate crimes.

Ugandan High School Killing

On June 17, 2023, an Islamic State affiliated terrorist group killed at least 37 high-school students and three adults in Uganda’s worst attack in more than a decade. This massacre was quite gruesome and brutal with at least twenty of them attacked with machetes and 17 of them burned to death. These numbers are only of the confirmed kills, many of which are still wounded. The rebels had thrown a bomb as well prior to using machetes and other tools. This group which led the massacre is connected to Isis, a radical jihadist group that emerged in the early 2000s. They are an extremist interpretation of Sunni Islam and has shown hostility towards various groups, including Christians. Considering that Uganda is prominently Christian, this group wanted to make a stance against them.

This attack was an act of prejudice against Christians, indicating the social injustice in this area. Practicing a religion of your own choice can have many negative implications. Hate crimes such as this represent the true inequality present in the world. It is hard to balance this as people always find a way to commit heinous actions. This then raises the question- does religion separate the human population for the better or the worse?

Chat GPT and the Questions it Poses

Recently, Artificial Intelligence (AI), has significantly grown across the world. This is seen across many different platforms, one of such, Chat GPT. Chat GPT is a natural language processing tool driven by AI technology that allows you to have human-like conversations and much more with the chatbot. The language model can answer questions and assist you with tasks, such as composing emails, essays, and code. This has led many students across the world to utilize Chat GPT for many assignments.

Many assignments one may use Chat GPT are Advanced Placement courses that are offered in high school to match college level courses. At the end of each year, many of these AP courses have an exam, and in some, students have to submit something for their score. An organization that facilitates this in the United States is College Board. In response to the AI crisis, College Board has now adapted an AI detector to verify if any student work has used AI. This has led to mass cancelation of student’s AP scores.

Chat GPT has become a common tool a part of one’s daily life. Chat GPT seems quite perfect and to some “to perfect.” This “perfection” raises the question of how can AI be developed more and more? Seen in Chat GPT, it is possible that AI will be continuously developed and possibly become more powerful than anything one may have imagined. Ranging from being a part of daily work to taking jobs to even taking over the world, the possibilities are endless. These possibilities then have many implications such as high unemployment rates.

Chat GPT has become a tool that poses many questions on its development and possible implications. It is already commonly used among many such as the younger population and can grow even more. These possibilities may be enjoyed or scared upon, but nobody will know, time will tell.

Philadelphia Chinatown Protests

Chinatown is considered as an ethnic enclave of Chinese people. Many different cities in many countries across the globe have their very own Chinatown. Chinatown is known to be home to some of the best Asian food in the world. Along with delicious restaurants, Chinatown also has exciting shops, family-friendly activities and a handful of historical sites. One of such, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a city in eastern United States. Chinatown is considered a home to many people, and recently, this home has been threatened.

The Philadelphia 76ers is a team a part of the National Basketball Association. With much support from the state of Pennsylvania, they had hoped to expand themselves. This led towards their desire to create another stadium for their games. But this stadium was to be built right in Chinatown. Thus getting rid of Chinatown as a whole. This would have a major impact on the Chinese community by depriving them of their homes and culture.

In response to this, on Saturday June 10, 2023, there were protests in Chinatown. The participants in this event that would last four hours, ranged in age from infants to 96. The crowd was estimated to be 3,000 by organizers, and 500 to 700 by police. There appeared to be sufficiently diverse to qualify as a demographic cross section of Philadelphia. This was a very peaceful protest, but had a much deeper meaning. People were willing to stand up for their home and culture.

This is a social justice problem through the 76ers organization planning towards removing such a significant cultural enclave. There are many possibilities that could occur, whether the new stadium is built or not. This leaves us with the question of- in what ways should or should not a famous rich organization have precedence over smaller communities when it comes to disputing the usage of certain land? Who’s views are more important?

Canada Wildfires

Over the past couple years, there have been 2,214 wildfires across Canada, which have burned more than 8 million acres. These wildfires are extremely severe and have exacerbated over time with currently, many wildfires across Canada, especially in Quebec and Ottawa, causing more than 9.3 million acres charred. These wildfires are severely impacting Canada’s environment and economy through the destruction of timber resources, thus resulting in costly losses. Lightning has the ability to spark wildfires and through its recent prevalence in Canada, the wildfires had started. Lightning can be caused by climate change as with this warmer air holds more moisture which provides the necessary fuel for thunderstorm development.

A result of this was decreased air quality through the massive amount of smoke. Wildfire smoke contains many chemicals such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, etc. This pollution contains fine particles (not visible to the human eye) that get deep into our lungs and bloodstream. These can sometimes lead to serious health effects, including death. It can even impact your health in very small ways.

This decreased air quality has even spread past Canada including the United States. Some of these states Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. These states along with Canada, have been significantly affected with decreased air quality. This decreased air quality has caused the recommendation to stay inside as it is too dangerous.

Overall, these wildfires have been immensely impacting the environment from Canada to the United States. To battle this, efforts have to be continuously pushed to battle climate change.

Central and Southern Plains Drought

In the Central and Southern Plains of the United States, there have been droughts since the Fall of 2021. This is a result of what is known as “La Niña weather” in which precipitation drops significantly. With this drop, water supply deficiency comes as well which therefore causes the drought to occur. This precipitation drop and drought are caused by climate change as warmer temperatures enhance evaporation which draw moisture away from the surface, thus reducing the amount of water available for precipitation. Droughts are significant as they can cause long-term public health problems. These problems consist of impacts on quality of drinking water, air quality, sanitation, hygiene, food, and nutrition. These problems are especially dangerous to the areas of central and southern plains of the US as this area is heavily crop-dependent. These droughts impact crops, thus posing negative effects on the areas that utilize them.

Luckily, this issue has been slowly getting better over time. Although this drought is improving, it is still a significant issue to recognize. Climate change poses many negative effects on the environment and the world, putting people in danger. An 18-month drought demonstrates climate change’s severity and how it and the problems it poses have not yet been resolved.

To battle this, the US government and other international governments need to persistently push efforts to reduce the spread of climate change. This can be seen in many of their current attempts of reducing the use of greenhouse gases.