It has been one month since Russia invaded Ukraine. As the war wages on continuously, it is becoming more and more dangerous for Ukrainians to continue to inhabit Ukraine. In order to protect themselves and their family, they tried seeking safety from the war by going to neighboring countries. The number of Ukrainian refugees increases daily with the ongoing of war.
In March 2022, the number of Ukrainian refugees skyrocketed. According to Pew Research Center’s findings, over 3.7 million people have fled from Ukraine to neighboring countries in just one month since the war started. With 9.1% of Ukraine’s population gone, this war has been ranked 6th in terms of the number of refugees fled over the last 60 years. Jasmin Chan, a psychology major at UIUC, expresses her surprise by stating, “To my knowledge, refugees in those countries were not very welcome by the public, at least in the United States. For Ukraine, there has been nothing but support. I feel like Russia being seen as a competitor or enemy in the eyes of both American citizens and the government seems to be influencing the type of opinions people have on its refugees.”
In another Pew Research Center poll, the percentage of Americans that considered Russia being an enemy of the United States has risen from 41% to 70% in merely one month. Only 6% of Americans are in favor of Russia leader Vladimir Putin, while over 70% supports Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Andy Liu, an undergraduate studying Business at UIUC, expresses his view on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by saying, “the invasion of Ukraine are that it is am act of terrorism among the innocent people of Ukraine. I think that this war is terrible because it may even set a precedent for other countries to seize former territory back.” He was not surprised by the number of Americans going against Russia and later added on, “as an American citizen myself, I also think that this is a cruel action from Russia.”
Although Ukraine is not a member of NATO, the US had worked with other members of NATO to help Ukrainians face this crisis. According to the Pew Research Center poll, this causes Americans to view NATO more positively as 67% of Americans now view that it is beneficial for the US to be in NATO, rising from 61% in 2021.
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has its influences spread throughout the world. The number of Ukrainians fearing for their lives and abandoning their homes in hopes of not getting caught up in the crossfire of war continues to rise. The United States expresses their dissatisfaction with decisions of Russia and wholeheartedly supports Ukraine.
It has been over 2 years since the COVID-19 pandemic started. Over these two years, many policies have been implemented in the United States to keep its citizen safe and minimize the spread of the virus.
First, it was the quarantine, where people are discouraged from leaving their houses unless it is absolutely necessary. Following that came the mask mandate, where people are required to wear a mask in public areas.
As of February 28, 2022, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker officially declared the end of Illinois masking requirements. With the people in hospital due to COVID-19 being cut in half and a 70% decrease in infection rate, Governor Pritzker deemed it safe for Illinois citizens to not have to wear masks. Following this announcement, many colleges and universities in Illinois also removed their masking requirements.
The Covid States Project surveyed 21,000 individuals across all 50 states to determine the vaccination rate of students of higher education. After receiving responses from over 1,000 universities and colleges, they compiled multiple graphs indicating the percentage of unvaccinated students vs vaccinated students.
These graphs are similar to a color-coded pie graph with a whole is split into various portions with each portion being color-coded and labeled with a percentage. According to The Covid States Project’s analysis, “67% of Americans aged 18-24 have received at least one vaccine.”
The CDC had gathered data regarding the number of hospital admissions, the number of hospitals occupied, and reported cases of COVID-19 and created a map that determines the community level of each community across the country. Community levels are split into 3 levels, each with varying risk of contracting COVID-19.
In low level areas, citizens are only required to wear a mask if they tested positive. In middle level areas, citizens are recommended to consult to their healthcare provider to determine whether or not they should wear a mask. Finally, in high level areas, masking mandates are still in effect and people are required to wear a mask in public.
According to CDC’s analysis on their own map, “more than 90% of the U.S. population is in a location with low or medium COVID-19 Community Level.” Potentially 90% percent of the American population doesn’t have to wear a mask in the public.
With high vaccination rates and a decrease in people contracting COVID-19, universities are becoming less strict with their masking requirements. According to the UIUC Face Coverings Guideline, “Face coverings are required in classrooms during in-person class time. They will not be required in other sections of buildings that have classrooms.” Mask mandates’ effective area has been reduced significantly, only requiring students to wear masks during in-person classes, healthcare facilities, and federally mandated areas. Apart from these few areas, students are free to choose whether or not they want to wear masks.
Just because some universities are ready to drop their mask mandates, that doesn’t mean that students are ready to drop their masks. Andy Liu, a freshman at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, expresses his concern and hesitates to walk around in public without a mask. “I still can’t see myself going outside without a mask,” Andy said. “Since last summer there was a similar number of cases of covid we have right now and later it went back up with the emergence of the omicron variant. so even if cases have gone back down right now, history might repeat itself and another variant may spread and increase cases, so we should not make ourselves too vulnerable right now.”
Despite reports of a significant decline in COVID cases, students are still not confident in the current COVID situation. After hearing that some of their friends and family members tested positive for COVID, they worry that as soon as they take off their masks, they will become infected.
JJax had gathered data from more than 1.5 million samples using PCR test to determine the total count of COVID variants over time. The graph is a bar graph that indicates the total sequence for each variant found each week from March 2021 to January 2022. According to this graph, there was a sudden surge in the number of sequences found for the Omicron variant, the highest number of sequences found of all time, in early January.
Even if the number of cases of COVID-19 is low right now, students fear that their COVID-19 will undergo a mutation and a new variant might show up. If that were to happen, the number of cases of COVID-19 would rise again and students who didn’t wear masks will be at great risk of contracting COVID-19.
With all this uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 across the country, immediately removing masking requirements will only make people worry. UIUC showed us that we should loosen the requirement one step at a time so people can slowly get used to it before changing back to the days before COVID-19 happened.
In a TED speech given to a large crowd in February 2016, Julia Galef, the co-founder of the Center for Applied Rationality, talked about the story of Dreyfus. She explained how different perspectives and beliefs affected how the officers handled the case.
In 1894, French military officer Alfred Dreyfus was found guilty of selling military secrets to Germany. When the treacherous memo was found, they quickly suspected Alfred Dreyfus of being the perpetrator. At that time, France was anti-sematic, and they arrested Dreyfus simply because he was Jewish.
The French government launched an investigation of the history of Dreyfus. When they found nothing, they gave the excuse of a spy being good at covering up their tracks. Despite the lack of evidence, Dreyfus was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Colonel Picquart, a high-ranking officer, began to question Dreyfus’s ruling. Even though Dreyfus has already been imprisoned, evidence of military secrets being sold to Germany did not cease. He even discovered an officer whose handwriting perfectly matches the memos. When Picquart reported his findings, his superior denied that Dreyfus was innocent by giving the excuse that Dreyfus could’ve had an accomplice. Picquart continued to fight for the truth and Dreyfus was released from prison ten years after he was found guilty.
The officers that were incriminating Dreyfus had the mindset of “motivated reasoning.” “Some information or ideas feel like our allies. We want them to win. We want to defend them. And other information or ideas are the enemies, and we want to shoot them down.” The officers only cared about whether their speculations were right or wrong. They ignored all the evidence that proved that Dreyfus was innocent and defended the excuses they made up.
On the other hand, Picquart had a “scout mindset.” “It’s the drive not to make one idea win or another lose, but just to see what’s really there as honestly and accurately as you can, even if it’s not pretty or convenient or pleasant.” Although Picquart was also anti-semantic, his desire for the truth triumphs over his prejudices against Dreyfus. Picquart was imprisoned for trying to defend Dreyfus, but he continued his search for the truth.
To improve ourselves and make the right judgments, we need to use a scout mindset. “If we really want to improve our judgment as individuals and as societies,” she says, “we need to change the way we feel. We need to learn how to feel proud instead of ashamed when we notice we might have been wrong about something.” Only by having the mindset of accepting our mistakes and correcting them, can we improve the way we make judgments.
Jonathan Nie, a freshman at UMichigan, voiced his agreement with Galef after viewing her speech. “I agree that the type of mindset helps dictate what outcome or view one personifies.” He spoke of the importance of breaking out of our prejudices in order to see the truth more clearly. “One must be in the ‘scout mindset’ and change their feelings in order to see the bigger picture.”
Andy Liu, a freshman and business major at UIUC, expresses his thoughts on why we have motivated reasoning. He speculated that “Humans wanting to stay in the comfort zone causes them to try to only look at evidence they would personally agree with.” We only want things that make us feel better while ignoring the things that make us feel uncomfortable.
Galef’s research allows us to recognize and question the way we think. We can change the way we think and allow us to see more of the truth.
As a child of an immigrant family, the food that UIUC student Jasmine Chan ate while growing up is different from those around her. Although she was born in America, the food that she ate and the culture that she experienced as a child still relates back to her root as a Chinese family. I interviewed Jasmine about her experience with the different kinds of food she ate while growing up.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
—
Interviewer: What sort of food did you eat growing up?
Jasmine: I ate the food that my grandmother cooked me. If it is after school, then it would be junk food because my grandmother will be too busy cooking dinner. My dad will be buying us junk food.
Interviewer: What kind of food did your grandmother make?
Jasmine: I would say like very traditional Chinese dishes. Since my grandmother is an immigrant. She was the one that cooked when raising my mother. She didn’t have a job, so she just cooked. The most memorable dish is this cucumber dish because my brother didn’t like it. When she moved out, my brother would ask not to make it anymore.
Interviewer: Did the food you eat now change as compared to then?
Jasmine: Definitely. After my grandmother moved out, my parents had to go to work so they didn’t have time to cook. My dad would try to replicate the dishes, but it wouldn’t be the same as the original. After school, we would usually have pizza and junk food. For lunch, I would eat whatever is served in school. For dinner, we would have congee, noodles, soy sauce chicken, and other Chinese dishes. My dad would only make soy sauce chicken wings since he doesn’t have a lot of time preparing the ingredients. While my grandmother would cook the entire chicken.
Interviewer: What was the food that you missed having the most?
Jasmine: It would be from my grandpa, and it would be the simplest thing ever. It’s raw salmon. My grandmother would be the one that usually makes the dishes. So, when it comes to cooking, my grandpa would be incompetent so the only thing he can make is steamed fish, steamed lobster, and other dishes that are impossible to mess up. He would cut up salmon into bite-size pieces and put it in on ice.
Interviewer: How does the food you eat as a child shape who you are today?
Jasmine: Growing up, I thought we were poor because, after school, my dad will buy us pizza from little Ceasar. Sometimes he wouldn’t buy garlic bread because it would be too expensive. We only had “expensive” pizza twice in my life and it was from Connie’s. He would be digging for changes in the car and asking if they have enough for the pizza. Stuff like this would make me very frugal.
Interviewer: Do you feel the same way today?
Jasmine: Yes and no because I don’t want to spend money on things I don’t really need. If I had a working laptop and a working phone, I wouldn’t buy an upgrade. For other stuff that I would buy before, such as clothes, I realized that some things the quality does come with the money.
Interviewer: What would you say to someone who isn’t familiar or scared to try traditional Chinese food for the first time?
Jean-Luc Brunel was found dead in Prison de la Sante, Paris, on February 19, 2022. Prosecutors disclosed that Brunel was hanged to death, alone in his jail room, but whether the death was a suicide or not hasn’t been determined. [CNN / Martin Goillandeau]
Brunel, the former CEO of Karin Models and MC2 Model Management agency, was arrested in Charles de Gaulle airport for alleged charges of raping minors, sexual harassment, and human trafficking for sexual exploitation. He was considered a key person for the case of Jeffrey Epstein, a late convicted sex offender, for supplying Epstein with girls for sexual exploits. [The Guardian / Kim Willsher]
Former model Virginia Giuffre claims that Brunel sent her to Prince Andrew for sexual abuse when she was only 17 years old. She stated that Brunel would tempt women with model opportunities and send them to Epstein and his circle for sex. [ABC / Ali Dukakis and Aicha El Hammar Castano]
The death of Brunel aroused mixed emotions from his victims. Thysia Huisman, a victim of being drugged and raped by Brunel, claimed that although they were glad that a terrible criminal had been wiped off the face of the earth, they were also disappointed that Brunel and Epstein could not be indicted for their crimes. [CBS News / The Associated Press]
Although the death of Brunel denied a form of closure for his accusers, Huisman encourages others to speak out about their abuse and continue to fight for justice, until Brunel and Epstein’s crimes had been brought to light. This case had also given many women the courage to speak up about their sexual abuse experiences. [NPR / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS]
Headline: Tragic Car Crash Accident on Windsor Road
Lead: Charles R. Lydon crashed into a fire engine on Windsor Road in the early morning.
Story 3:
Headline: Murderer sentenced to two life terms sentences.
Lead: Circuit Court sentenced Thomas C. Ahl 300 years in prison for robbery and the murder of two restaurant employees.
Story 4:
Headline: Medical examiner mixed up bodies for funeral
Lead: Medical examiner mistakenly gave Kristine Belcuore’s family the wrong body, after the funeral had already been done last Saturday.
Story 5:
Headline: Study found that education led to divorce.
Lead: A new study had concluded that the timing of marriage for women aiming for higher education can lead to an increased chance in divorce.
Story 6:
Headline: Parents call for change in school material
Lead: Parents urge superintendent, Gary Hubbard, to remove the reading requirement of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” for junior high school classes.
The NBC Nightly News Broadcast on January 29, 2022, covered the news of a terrifying blizzard hitting the Northeast of America. The news value of timeliness makes this newsworthy. The blizzard is still going strong right now, meaning that it is being reported as it storms through the country. Although the proximity is not newsworthy to me, it is newsworthy to those around the blizzard. They estimated that it would continue to move towards Maine. This is newsworthy to those around Maine, by allowing them to prepare for the upcoming blizzard.
Another piece of news that was broadcast was the new bail reforms. These new reforms made it so that minor offenders were not put in jail until the day of their trial. The news value of conflict makes this newsworthy. There were controversies regarding these new reforms. Some argued that these new bail reforms are causing an increase in the crime rate, while others that had been thrown in jail before argued otherwise. Human interests were shown by exploring a story from each side of the argument. One of the stories was that these bail reforms released a weapons-charged offender, which ended up killing someone later. The other story was of someone that had no criminal records but ended up in jail due to a minor altercation. She stayed in jail for 14 months because she couldn’t afford the bail and when she got out, her life was completely ruined due to being locked away from society for over a year. These stories generate human interest by using personal and emotional stories to make the audience pity those that were affected by it and wonder how they will be affected by these bail reforms as well.
As soon as I opened the door, a strong and piercing scent penetrated my nostrils. It is like the warm and energizing morning sunlight that gently wakes you up and gets you ready for the day. The first thing that I noticed when I entered the Illini Union Bookstore was the whiff of coffee coming from the integrated café.
On the first floor of the Illini Union Bookstore, there is a variety of school materials and school merchandise available for purchase. Ranging from backpacks and calculators to t-shirts and Hydro flasks, students will be able to buy everything they need for their classes in the bookstore. The first floor is the busiest – filled with people bustling around trying to find their school supplies and people just chatting with their friends in the café.
The basement is filled with various textbooks and lab coats for different classes. Compared to the first floor, the basement is comparably quieter. There were fewer people than on the first floor and people – rather than talking – were focused on finding their textbook. Although there were signs indicating the different sections of the textbooks for each subject, it can still be quite difficult to find the exact book that you need.
When I walked up to the third floor, I noticed that it was the quietest floor out of the three. There were barely any people on this floor. The only people on this floor were workers and people picking up their online book orders. This floor was filled with a variety of books and Illini merchandise. Unlike the basement, these weren’t textbooks, but rather, books for casual reading.
After purchasing what I needed, I stepped out of the bookstore feeling confident and ready for a new semester.