Embedded Files
Russo-Ukrainian War
By Mitchell King
In February 2014, Russia sparked a war by annexing Crimea and assisted Russian separatists fighting Ukraine’s military in the Donbas War, which was a small part of the Russo and Ukrainian war, in the Donbas region of Ukraine. This triggered a cyberwar with Russia and Ukraine going strike for strike, doing more and more damage.
Russia’s first attack on the Ukrainian power grid was against Ukrainian government and banking websites getting booted offline. Russia resorted to using Trojan viruses aimed at Ukrainian energy which provides power to major regions such as Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi.
Ukraine responded to these attacks by breaching into databases and grabbing various emails, and even the plans for the annexation of Crimea. Mykhailo Fedorov, a Ukrainian businessman and politician, founded the Ukrainian IT Army, whose main goal was to control the cyberwar with Russia. The IT Army is volunteer based and look for people who specialize in the cyberwar field
A Massive Death Toll
The death toll of Russian soldiers only is high on its own, but when combined with the deaths of civilians, and Russian soldiers the total death count is astonishing. According to DW, a German broadcasting and news network, the total death count is approximately 241,000 Russian and Ukrainian people. Since the Russian military has started to target civilian buildings such as hospitals or apartment buildings, there have been 2,000 or more instances of damage to civilian structures caused by Russia, which have caused many civialian deaths. The graphs from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), show that around 162 563 lives have been lost on or around the Russian/Ukrainian border. Many news stations and researchers agree that there is no civilian death count, but according to DW, The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human RIghts(OHCHR) has been able to verify around 12,500 civilians killed in Ukraine only since the beginning of the conflict.
Trump’s Push For an End
Trump has begun pushing for an end to the conflict, as he sees it as a possibility for the war to expand into a full World War, which would be devastating to not just the U.S, but also the rest of the world, as a full nuclear war would be quite possible. A full nuclear world war, if all major countries use all their weapons, could very well end the world as we know it. According to Reuters, Trump has had his first meeting with Valdimir Putin on February 20, 2025. In this meeting, the articles state that a possible deal could be made between the U.S and Russia, but the current details are unknown as of now.
Ukrainian Drone Strikes
Ukrainian drones have been targeting Russian oil refineries, with the intention to destroy Russia’s fuel supply. This would give Ukrainian soldiers a huge advantage and could easily win the battles on the front lines. However, Russians are fighting back with drones of their own, repelling the Ukrainian drones after receiving major damage to its fuel capacity.
North Korean Losses
In the war over 14 thousand civilians and soldiers have tragically lost their lives. North Korea pulled their troops from the front lines of battle due to the heavy losses. Some Ukrainian soldiers have said, “They (North Korean soldiers) are fierce fighters, but they are very disorganized with the Russians, which left many weaknesses and holes in attacks and were easy to counter.”
Controversial South African land seizure law passed
By: Jacob McCrory
What if the government stole your land without compensating you at all? Starting this year off, South African President Ramaphosa passed a controversial land seizure law. This law allows the government to seize the land of anyone under the right conditions.
This sounds okay because you would imagine these conditions to be “exigent circumstances,” but interestingly enough, this is not the case, as the president’s spokesperson said, "may not expropriate property arbitrarily or for a purpose other than... in the public interest." It was further clarified that "expropriation may not be exercised unless the expropriating authority has without success attempted to reach an agreement with the owner," but ask yourself, what exactly does an “attempt to reach an agreement" mean?
Creator: THEGIFT777 | Credit: Getty Images
Could it perhaps mean, sending a single letter that is unmarked, so that it can be considered junk mail, or an email from a non-government email? This was not specified by the President or his spokesperson, so for now, we can only assume that we will not know what they mean. Both FFP (Freedom Front Plus, a movement for the white minority in South Africa) and the PBDA( Pro-Business Democratic Alliance, the opposing political party) issued statements largely condemning the Expropriation Act as step towards a tyrannical rule that would end democracy in South Africa, but the Ramaphosa supporting ANC hailed the law as new step towards completely making South Africa a nation considered a haven for all people, where all people are equal in all walks of life.
Section 12 of the act creates a clause of the law that states “nil compensation will be given if you were difficult, which is at the discretion of the government official. Section 25 does limit the law by allowing it to only seize land, not property from people. What do you think? Maybe a step toward an autocratic regime or one toward total equality of all South African peoples, but only time will tell.
The Struggles Women Face for Basic Rights
By: Yaritza Puga
Around the world, women face a lot of challenges just to access basic rights and opportunities. From education to financial independence, these challenges have increased in the past years and make them difficult for millions of lives. Even if people make programs to stop this, inequality will always remain.
Education
Access to education is one of the most significant factors, yet millions of girls don’t have this right to have an education. An example of this is Pakistan. According to the Education for All Global Monitoring Report, where 62% of the poorest girls aged 7-16 have never been to school.
Another example is Afghanistan, almost 2.5 million girls are unable to attend school, representing 80% of Afghan school-age girls. The Taliban’s restrictive policies have denied 1.4 million girls access to education since 2021.
Money Gap
Women across the United States continue to earn less than men, with the national average showing women earn just 80.2% of what men make. In New York State, this gap remains, and shockingly, it has not changed since 2005. The situation is even more alarming in specific regions like Central Texas, where women earn 40% less than men.
According to a report by the Austin Community Foundation, this inequality severely impacts women’s ability to achieve financial independence. For many women in Travis County, where the livable income for a family of four is $75,000, the gap is even more pronounced. Data reveals that 50% of white women, 72% of Latina women, and 77% of Black women earn less than the minimum threshold to provide for their families. These statistics show how achieving financial stability makes it harder for women to break the cycle of poverty.
The challenges that women face today are not just women's issues, they are societal issues too. As long as barriers to education, economic equality, reproductive freedom, and respect persist, true progress cannot be achieved.
Conflicts being faced in the DRC
By: Henry Ware
Innocent kids and citizens of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are being forced out of their homes and into starvation.
On January 27, 2012, to the present day, the M23 rebel group and soldiers from Rwanda seized control of Goma, the largest city in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The M23 rebel group is an armed force group made up primarily of Tutsis, a Rwandan ethnic group, and opposes the Democratic Forces on Rwanda’s behalf. This event caused protests in the attacked area(s) to attack the Belgian, Dutch, Kenyan, Ugandan, and U.S. embassies, demanding the International community pressure Rwanda over its alleged involvement.
Ever since the first invasion, citizens of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are facing issues of mass displacement, with an estimated 7.2M displaced individuals, rapid spread of the deadly monkeypox virus along with other illnesses, and a major food crisis.
Due to this unprecedented attack, an estimated 400,000 people have fled violence in eastern DRC in 2025 alone. In only 1.5 months, 400,000 people in the DRC have done nothing but flee, without a sustainable food or clean water source. In fact, 25.4M individuals (23% of the DRC population) in North Kivu and Ituri provinces are majorly affected by the severe food insecurity.
One citizen of the DRC, Mwahami, said, “We have no place to sleep. Food is becoming scarce. The things we were most worried about was the lack of clean water, latrines, and showers. We were receiving food aid, but we couldn't wash our hands, we were drawing water from Lake Kivu. The children were starting to get sick,” from the Save the Children foundation.. Mwahami’s conditions aren’t good, as he doesn’t have a potable water supply. Soldiers have moved calm, kind, peaceful, innocent citizens away from their homes, even in night-time incursions by armed groups. These soldiers have taken not only their jobs, but their family, friends, food, water, and their land.
Officials at World Vision have sent assistance to those in need who are in reach, getting more and more people involved and aware of the situation. From David Munkley, World Vision’s head of operations for Eastern DRC, “The situation is terrible. There are not only thousands of people caught in the middle or fleeing this violent conflict, but now we can’t reach the tens of thousands of people who were previously relying on us for food and other vital support.” Even when other people who are completely uninvolved try to help, the citizens are still pushed away. This is not something that can just be heard and ignored. Innocent people and children are being displaced from their homes and starved.
Photo from World Vision Site
To add on to the ever-growing bad situation, children under 15 are 4 times more likely to die from circulating viruses such as COVID-19, Ebola, and Monkeypox. Without properly sanitized equipment and the treatment they need, the same citizens and children who are suffering through the pain of unrightful and forced war, are also having to worry about catching viruses that have been around since 1976. Monkeypox in the DRC is spreading at a rapid pace, and has been declared as a public health emergency by the World Health Organization.
Take action now. The people of the DRC are facing an unimaginable crisis; help now by raising awareness and gaining more supporters. Anything helps. We can also demand action, which can lead to pressure on Rwanda and other involved parties to end the violence and stop the suffering.
Page updated
Report abuse