The first three weeks of the Spring semester have vanished like the snow in Middelburg. Stats exams, election GA’s and regular UCR life might get in the way of keeping up to date with current affairs. Luckily, section editor Annick is there to provide you with some of the most important news stories of the week.
Yale renames Calhoun College
Calhoun college was named after vice president Calhoun (1825-1832), who was a strong supporter of slavery. Over the past year, the unrest has grown, with numerous protests and multiple arrests. Last year, the university refused to rename the college. President Peter Salovey said on Saturday that “We have a strong presumption against renaming buildings on this campus, I have been concerned all along and remain concerned that we do not do things that erase history.” The college will now be named after Grace Murray Hopper, a Navy rear admiral who invented the first computer compiler. Read more here.
Michelle Obama should’ve been President
Charles Ogletree, a Harvard law professor who taught both Michelle and Barack Obama said that Michelle “could easily be President but I don’t think she will.” Crushing my dreams right there… Click here to read more.
Commonwealth + Gambia
Boris Johnson, British foreign secretary, said that Gambia should be readmitted to the commonwealth as soon as possible. Gambia is coming out of an authoritarian rule and left the commonwealth in 2013, as the then president, Yahya Jammeh called it a “neo-colonial institution.” Want to read more? Click right here.
Coming out of the smog
China is battling its bad air pollution, but in doing so, is terrified of creating public unrest. Over the years, china has consistently downscaled the problem, and under new leadership, the Ministry of Environmental Protection is trying to modernise the smog measuring system. Read more here.
Coming home
Whilst ISIS and the Iraqi military are still fighting in the east of Mosul, over 46,000 people are heading back to their homes in the city. People want to go home, and would rather take the risk than staying in the camps. People have started retaking their city. Cleaning campaigns have started in order to make their city liveable again. In the meantime, 140,000 people are still displaced, with hundreds of thousands people trapped in the fight zone. Find out more here.
The deadliest U.N. Mission
The U.N Mission in Mali has become the deadliest ever. In the past four years, 118 peacekeepers died. Questions have been raised what the role of the UN peacekeepers will be in a world where they have to deal with IS, Al-Qaeda, etc. Commander of the U.N. intelligence unit in Mali, Mike Kerkhove said that they “are trying to learn these lessons here, rather than in Iraq, Libya or Syria.” Click here for the full article.
NATO wobbles
Vice president Pence failed to get rid of concerns about the US’s commitment to NATO. After Trump’s election there were some pointed remarks aimed at NATO. Pence, in Munich, added some more. He reiterated Trump’s statement that he wouldn’t be bound to Article five, which states that every member should come to the defence of any NATO state under attack. The military support will depend on the contribution to NATO. Germany came out and said that it is refusing to be bullied by the Trump administration into more money spending on the military: “I don’t know where Germany can find billions of euros to boost defence spending if politicians also want to lower taxes” foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel said. Find out more here.
Annick Wijnstra, Class of 2017, is a literature and history major from the Netherlands.
