The Observer is a student-run, daily print & online newspaper serving Notre Dame, Saint Mary's & Holy Cross. Learn about us.
-Andrew Sveda | Monday, April 27, 2020
Last Wednesday, as many of you know, was the 50th Earth Day. Breathtaking snapshots of all that nature has to offer abounded on social media in celebration of the occasion. If we take the time to stop and look at them, photos like these are truly quite spectacular. They give us pause and make us
Andrew Sveda | Monday, April 6, 2020
These past few weeks have been, well, hard, to say the least. All of us have had something important to us taken away by COVID-19. But with all of us (hopefully) at home, we’ve gained something we’re always asking for: time. Yet now that we have it, we have absolutely no clue what to do
Andrew Sveda | Monday, March 23, 2020
Well, we’ve officially lost it. No doubt about that. Make no mistake, containing the coronavirus, let alone actually curing it, will be anything but an easy fight. But the media has spun the American public into an absolute frenzy. Grocery aisles once filled with nonperishables (and toilet paper) now lay absolutely bare. As everything flies
Andrew Sveda | Monday, February 24, 2020
Ah, the administration — that thing everyone loves to hate. It’s no secret. Go into Duncan or LaFun, start namedropping “Father Jenkins” or “Erin Hoffmann Harding” and you’re bound to hear some pretty impassioned rants. So when it came time to vote in the student body election over the past two weeks, I just assumed
Andrew Sveda | Monday, February 10, 2020
With the Iowa caucus under our belts (maybe?) and New Hampshire coming up tomorrow, election season is finally here. After a year or so of jabs, one-liners, polls and drama, we’ve made it to the good stuff. Buckle up. It’s going to be a bumpy ride. And as we kick off the primaries, everyone’s asking
Andrew Sveda | Monday, January 27, 2020
“So, do you like Trump?” It’s an innocent question (hopefully). A fair one, too. But for years, it’s bothered me. And it’s not that I don’t like politics or think we should ignore the elephant in the room. Quite the opposite. It’s because it’s — obviously — a tremendously loaded question. Answer wrong and pay
Andrew Sveda | Monday, December 9, 2019
Being a religious none is certainly back in style. Not a nun, a “none” — an atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.” Amidst the unprecedented decline of American Christianity, this demographic is swiftly ascending in the U.S., adding a whopping 29 million to its numbers in just 10 years. Twenty-nine million in 10 years. There’s
Andrew Sveda | Monday, November 25, 2019
When a close friend says they “don’t know” if they can trust you anymore, it’s obvious something’s wrong. Obvious, that is, to everyone except Donald Trump. This happened earlier this month when French President Emmanuel Macron, reeling from Trump’s reckless maneuvers in Syria, diagnosed NATO with “brain death” and stressed the need for European “[autonomy]
Andrew Sveda | Monday, November 11, 2019
Just two weeks ago, the U.S. celebrated its biggest victory in the battle against ISIS since the organization’s loss of a territorial caliphate this March. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the brutal and barbaric caliph of the supposed Islamic State, committed suicide during a raid by U.S. special forces. This comes on the heels of one of
Andrew Sveda | Monday, October 7, 2019
As explained in my last column, America’s greatest military and civilian asset — its satellite and space capabilities — is becoming increasingly vulnerable to an attack that would inflict disastrous consequences both at home and abroad. Recognizing our acute dependence on space, America’s enemies are rushing to craft cheap asymmetric responses to our space technology