Breaking barriers amid hostility: How Azra Jafari defied the odds As a refugee living in Iran, Azra Jafari said she knew little about her home country, where she would come back and one day shatter a glass ceiling. Jafari, the first female mayor in Afghanistan, shared her life experiences in the Middle East in a…
The disappearance and death of Gabby Petito have attracted attention internationally, being broadcast not only on television news but social media as well, where users from across all platforms became invested in finding out what had happened to her over the course of the months while raising awareness for domestic violence. The 22-year-old’s body was…
Students spend stimulus on stocks, savings, self-care The latest round of COVID-19 stimulus checks are hitting bank accounts. Graphic by Elizabeth Wong. From shopping sprees to student loans to car payments, University of Rhode Island students plan to spend their stimulus checks in many different ways. The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, also known as…
URI graduates could have federal student loans partially cancelled Some students are still paying off their four-year degree 20 years or more after they graduated. Photo from kiplinger.com. President Joe Biden campaigned on a platform that included progressive changes for higher education, most notably, federal debt relief for student loan borrowers. Biden campaign officials announced…
The Cigar breaks down the recent GameStop/Reddit drama. Graphic by Alison Carpino. This past month, an underground movement originating on Reddit surprised many by raising GameStop (GME) stock, which had been projected to fall by many hedge funds. Robinhood Markets, a modified investment broker service, launched a mobile app called Robinhood in 2015. Since then,…
According to the Pew Research Center, nearly a quarter of people now get their news from social media, but is it really reliable? Photo by James McIntosh Social media is one the largest and fastest-growing platforms for communication, in the last five years transforming rapidly into a major source for politically-related news. Social media sites…
Joe Biden celebrates his new position as the President of the United States. Photo from nbcnews.com. On Saturday, Nov. 7, the majority of media outlets called the 2020 United States presidential race, naming Joseph Biden president-elect and Kamala Harris vice president-elect. The highly contested and publicized race has been met with mixed reactions from the…
Incumbent President Donald Trump. Photo from Whitehouse.gov. Gone are the days when you’d wake up on the first Wednesday of November every four years and know the victor of the United States presidential election. In a divisive Election Week in American history, the presidential contest of Republican President Donald Trump vs. former Democratic Vice President…
Major social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are attempting to dilute the spread of fake news by implementing independent fact checkers on posts that promote false information about the coronavirus, vaccines, mail-in ballots, QAnon conspiracies or the Holocaust. According to Niko Poulakos, a communications professor at the University of Rhode Island, in a…
While there has been plenty of News You Should Know within our borders, there’s plenty more happening in the world around us. Anti-government protests in Thailand, according to the BBC, started on Aug. 3 and are growing currently. The primary targets of these protests are Thailand’s monarchs and their prime minister Prayut Chan-o-Cha. Chan-o-Cha, a…