The flightless emu birds are widely recognized as one of Australia’s national animals. However, Australia did not always show such respect to these animals. As a matter of fact, in 1932 they waged war against emus, and somehow lost. The Emu War, or the Great Emu War, would go down as one of the strangest wars in world history.

The story begins after World War 1. In order to provide jobs to soldiers returning from the war, the Australian government offered over 5000 veterans money and land in the western part of the continent to start farms. These new farmers went to work growing wheat undisturbed for the time. However, Australia soon suffered the effects of the Great Depression as well as a drought. During this time, 20,000 emus migrated west in search of water, and found a new source of food in the form of the wheat being grown. Very soon, the emus began to devastate the wheat crops, harming the livelihood of the farmers.

To try to stop this nuisance, farmers sought help from the Ministry of Defense, with Defense Minister George Pearce agreeing to send soldiers commanded by Major G.P.W. Meredith and armed with two Lewis machine guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition to deal with the emus. This plan for massive hunts failed miserably, with attempts to ambush the emus resulting in minimal successful emu casualties. Even when attacking at close range, the soldiers were unable to kill more than a dozen emus before they fled to safety. Eventually after only 986 confirmed emu kills yet 9860 rounds spent, the federal government called off the “war”.

I think that essentially waging war against emus was a ridiculous way to deal with them. Using soldiers to deal with the pest is simply a waste of resources for what could be solved by simply allowing for the hunting of emus, which would eventually be done to deal with them. I also find it hard to believe that well-armed soldiers were not able to efficiently hunt emus.

The nationwide power outage in Venezuela that started last Thursday continues into this week. This blackout is the latest crisis to affect Venezuela amid massive inflation and a failing economy. Currently there has been no date set to restart the San Geronimo B substation that provides electricity to the country, with most workers being instructed to stay home. The only sources of power in Venezuela have been the San Geronimo A backup substation and a few thermoelectric and hydroelectric power plants, none of which reliably provide power. The death toll is now at 17 as hospitals are unable to provide proper care without power. As the power outage continues, desperate citizens have resorted to looting to try to survive during this crisis.

I think that this blackout is a result of Venezuela’s neglectful government. I believe that Venezuela’s president must stop trying to shift the blame for the blackout to the U.S. and make reforms to serve his country. By repeatedly failing to provide for his people, President Maduro is only showing the failure and corruption of his government and the undeniable need for massive change in Venezuela’s politics.

For almost as long as civilization has existed, execution has been used as the capital punishment for the worst crimes, such as mass murder. However, in the modern world, the death penalty has raised many ethical concerns about taking a life as a punishment and whether countries such as the U.S. should stop using the death penalty. Many argue that the death penalty is a fitting punishment for the worst of criminals, while others believe that this kind of killing is simply immoral.

I believe that use of the death penalty should be stopped. As a Catholic, I believe that all human life has some type of value. I think that it is wrong to take somebody’s life as a punishment for a crime, as this kind of killing violates the Fifth Commandment. I also think that holding somebody on death row is simply torturing them with the knowledge that they will soon die. I believe that the capital punishment for criminals should be life in prison with no chance for parole. By spending the rest of their life in prison, there is a chance that the criminal will come to learn the true evil of their crime and learn some sense of remorse.

As the 2020 presidential elections come closer, the Democratic Party has had a large quantity of candidates hoping to get the Democratic nomination. The 12 official candidates are former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, Washington Governor Jay Inslee, Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Cory Booker, Senator Kamala Harris, former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, Representative Tulsi Gabbard, former Representative John Delaney, Marianne Williamson, and Andrew Yang. John Hickenlooper is the newest candidate, announcing his campaign today on March 4.

In my opinion, I doubt that any of these candidates, for all of the ambition that they show, have a chance of winning against Donald Trump. President Trump has brought too many undeniable improvements to the U.S. for a new candidate to be able to easily win against him. Considering all of the momentum that President Trump has built in his presidential term, I believe that it is very likely that he will be reelected.