Qatar prioritized business over human rights in World Cup

Share: Qatar’s national team only played three matches in this year’s FIFA World Cup, making them the first host to be eliminated in the initial group stage. But with all the controversies in Qatar, their team being eliminated early on in the tournament has to be the least of their worries. From bribing FIFA officials back in 2010 to poor human rights, the host nation has continued to disappoint soccer fans everywhere since the start of the World Cup.  According to an article by the …

China’s punishing COVID policies spark rare protests

Share: China’s zero policy COVID restrictions are a travesty illuminating the abuses perpetuated by The Communist Party of China. Measures imposed by the policy are severe and prevent businesses from operating and residents from leaving their homes. According to a BBC report, these lockdowns are mandated even in cases where the spread of the virus has been local. It is gravely unfortunate that freedom is not an inherent right to the people of China as it might seem to other countries. These rights are easily …

Young voters matter now more than ever

Share: Historically, the voting effort has been led by the oldest generation. The retired or 65+ generation has more time to research candidates, and don’t have to rearrange their entire schedule to make sure they can go to the polls.  This isn’t just the generation that has historically voted, this is also the generation that has long held the power in the U.S. government. As of last year, baby boomers made up 53% of the House and 68% of the Senate, while the silent generation …

Op/Ed: PCC must sustain the climate and end the dry-spell of inaction

Share: Is a single college really going to make a difference in changing their ways to become more climatically conscious? How about a college that waited until 2022, to do anything? That’s what PCC did, only recently adopting plans to change, but because the costs of their ambitions are so large,  it faces significant bureaucratic roadblocks even though Measure PCC passed and the money is now available. Passing the measure and mapping out sustainability efforts is a step in the right direction, but it is …

Free speech or freefalling? The dark days of Twitter are here

Share: After months of tantrums and tirades, America’s crybaby Elon Musk’s buyout of Twitter is finally complete. If it wasn’t an appealing time to join before, now is an even worse time. Musk shared a manifesto to the platform on Oct. 27 which highlighted his main interests in buying the company, citing mainly an upkeep of freedom of speech on the site. Despite Twitter being a privately owned company with no real need to honor the first amendment, Musk fails to realize what exactly he …

Voter Guide: The Courier’s endorsements for the 2022 midterms

Share: Measure PCC  YES: The measure would increase property taxes in Pasadena to compensate for the funds PCC needs for projects, operational costs, upgrading classrooms, building maintenance and expansion for satellite campuses. The Courier has a 100% full endorsement for this measure. Prop 1 YES: Prop 1 sets out to codify a woman’s right to abortion to the California state consitution. This would ensure that women across the state would have the right to choose for themselves. The Courier staff fully endorses Prop 1. Prop …

Yes on 30: For clean air in California, the time to act was yesterday

Share: California is in its megadrought era and it’s not a great look. 2000-2021 have been the driest years on record in California for the last 1,000 years. This megadrought has also been accompanied by some other alarming record-breaking incidences like the highest rate of tree die offs in the last 100 years, the hottest years on record, and 2020’s astounding August Complex gigafire, that ravaged a million acres of land.  It is more obvious than ever that the time to act was yesterday, but …

Monster spends millions to be mayor

Share: Rick Caruso is a piece of shit. You won’t find these words blasted on the bills and banners that have littered Los Angeles for the past year, but that does not make the sentiment any less true. By the time this article will be published, the billionaire property developer will have spent more than $100 million dollars of his own fortune on his mayoral campaign. While that figure is a drop in the bucket relative to the $5.3 billion he has acquired by building …

Amateur activist group behind Van Gogh vandalism lacks vision

Share: 2 people throw tomato soup onto a priceless Van Gogh painting, use glue sticks to attach their hands to the wall under it, shouting at passersby, “What is worth more, art or life?”. Seeing this immediately brings into question their intentions. Attention is an obvious, almost intrinsic one, but the real reason—environmentalism—is not.  The pair involved in the Oct. 14 Van Gogh vandalism, 20-year-old Anna Holland and 21-year-old Phoebe Plummer are a part of Just Stop Oil, a youth-led UK environmental coalition that is …

Sisterhood is global: American feminists need to stand with Iranian women

Share: The death of Mahsa Amini highlights global issues that many women endure:violence and oppression. Iran’s gasht-e ershad, otherwise known as the morality police that enforces modesty and dress code, had brutally beaten Amini until she collapsed while in their custody and later died in a hospital. Amini was considered to be improperly wearing her hijab. The violence enacted on Amini should not only be an outcry for radical change for the Iranian people but for the plight of women around the world.  The hijab …