Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
Image description: protestor speaking into megaphone “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” (Howard Beale, Network, 1975) Do not underestimate the power of events. What might look like a mere swell, may suddenly turn into a crashing wave. The protests in the United States are worse than any seen since […]
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Image Description: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and officials descending stairs. It’s easy to see a turning point in the coronavirus pandemic. We clap for our carers every week, upbraiding neighbours who fail to appear on their doorsteps at the required hour on a Thursday evening. The government is paying 80 percent of laid-off workers’ […]
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Image Description: soldiers standing in formation wearing medical face masks. From the terrifying images of packed intensive care units in Italy and Spain, or mass graves in the United States, it is clear that coronavirus has dealt a heavy blow to the world. In China, where people were already celebrating an apparent return to their […]
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Image description: an activist holding an LGBT rights placard at a rally in the US In February, Pete Buttigieg became the first openly gay man to win a delegate at a US presidential caucus, with the former mayor for South Bend, Indiana polling ahead of Senator Bernie Sanders by two percent. It seems a simple […]
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Image description: Pete Buttigieg, candidate for the Democratic nominee for President. The state of Iowa is home to little over 3 million (of America’s 330 million) citizens. It is over 90% white (compared to around 60% nationally), significantly older and about 15% more rural than the country as a whole. Despite this, Obama described winning […]
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Image Description: Democratic Candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden Regardless of one’s political opinion, this year’s Iowa Caucuses were an unmitigated disaster, symptomatic of an outdated, and antiquated system of voting. Caucuses are quite frankly undemocratic, and were the main reason for the grotesque chaos of the past few days, with the Iowa Democratic […]
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The United Kingdom must lead mediation Qasem Soleimani is no martyr. To lament his death would be to turn a blind eye on the fact that, as highlighted by PM Boris Johnson, he had ‘British blood on his hands’. Mr. Johnson, however, fails at accurately displaying the sheer barbarity of Mr. Soleimani’s actions while serving […]
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Image description: Qasem Soleimani International co-operation is the only solution Boris Johnson’s government is right to offer cautious support to the U.S. over the Iran issue, but moving forward we must seek an international solution to promote peace across the wider region of the Middle East. It is, of course, important to recognise that the […]
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Image description: Pete Buttigieg on a rainbow background. In current polling for the democratic presidential primary, three names stand at the top. The first two, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, have a natural advantage in this crowded race, having pre-established national profiles and near universal name recognition. The third, however, is a surprise. Unlike most of […]
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In the UK, we’ve come to accept that American culture is dominating our lives. From our cuisine and to our literature, to our fashion and our music, there is no escape from the beast that is the United States of America. As a result, it’s not strange to think that we’re similar to those people […]
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The current situation in North Korea is, perhaps especially for me here with my family residing in Japan, a severely concerning one (enough so that, yes, I have produced yet another article on the topic). Much of my apprehension originates from an inability to ‘know’ what is being carried out or planned by other the […]
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With most of my family residing in Japan, I am monitoring the increasingly tense political situation surrounding North Korea with anxiety; with North Korea’s deployment of missiles into the Sea of Japan, Obama’s apprehensions that North Korea would most likely prove the greatest threat encountered by his successor are being realised. The unpredictable politics of […]
Continue ReadingI’m an American citizen, and several times during my annual visits to my home state of Texas I’ve been shocked by the cost of both money and time that a simple visit to the doctor entails. A broken leg without health insurance would cost up to $2,500 for non-surgical treatment. Obama’s Affordable Care Act in […]
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In politics, human life ironically seems to be of little interest; the response of the USA and Japan to the UN resolution outlawing nuclear weapons last week served as a painful confirmation of what years of raging against Western history textbooks, with their shockingly brief allusions to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, had made me suspect. The […]
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I bought my friend, a diehard Leicester City fan, a beer a few months ago. You can probably guess why. I hadn’t seen him in a while and wanted to congratulate him on seeing his childhood team win the Premier League. Before he left, I asked him what he thought the future held for Leicester. […]
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As an American studying abroad this term, following the past month of presidential primaries has felt like watching the culmination of a long, slow-burning dumpster fire. Despite months of polls and pundits claiming Donald Trump could not and would not win the Republican nominations, the recent concessions of the two remaining candidates – Senator Ted […]
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On Wednesday, 11 May, American diplomat and Secretary of State John Kerry appeared at the Oxford Union to speak to students in an unprecedented event. The Secretary’s visit, which had gone unannounced in this spring’s Union termcard, was announced to members via email on 5 May. Following the announcement, the event garnered enormous popularity, resulting […]
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In a post-Citizens United America, the amount of money spent on U.S. elections is staggering, making many Americans feel disillusioned with the electoral process. Though the perception of corruption and unfair influence from large campaign donations is rampant, this election cycle has proved that campaign contributions can only get a candidate so far. The fall […]
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In the three years since the premiere of House of Cards, television has changed dramatically. Rather than being forced to limit ourselves to one morsel of a story every week, we are increasingly given whole seasons of our favourite shows on a single day, and ‘binge-watching’ has become an acceptable pastime. Given the precedent set […]
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