- Is Carney calling Canadian elections at the right time?
- How should Taiwan counter Chinese diplomatic pressure on nation’s that recognize it?
- Is Rwanda seeking to be the hegemon of East Africa?
- Are globalization’s “discontents” winning?
- Will Syria’s news constitution aid in the stabilization of the country?
- How will the recent earthquake affect Myanmar’s civil war?
- What does a world without U.S. foreign aid look like?
- Will Mexico’s new regulations on junk food in schools reduce the nation’s obesity rate?
- Is a coup brewing in Zimbabwe?
- Will Bolsonaro’s coup trial further polarize Brazilian politics?
- How can public schools regain the confidence of parents and community leaders?
- Should the Houthi military plan leak be the end of Pete Hegseth’s tenure at the Department of Defense?
- If Chuck Schumer is not meant to lead Senate Democrats, then who should?
- Did Columbia make a mistake in caving to President Trump’s demands?
- Are Senate retirements making it impossible for Democrats to regain control of the chamber in 2026?
- Is the Trump administration trying to engineer a U.S. recession?
- Can Mike Duggan win Michigan’s governorship as an independent candidate?
- Should American liberals embrace abundance politics?
- Does Illinois have a bad business climate?
- Is President Trump’s executive order on American elections constitutional?
Here is this week’s news quiz! Good luck!
- Should legal challenges to a president’s executive orders go immediately to the U.S. Supreme Court?
- Is AOC the next Obama?
- Should Social Security be privatized?
- Will the U.S. unemployment rate get worse before the end of 2025?
- Should the Tesla attacks be treated as acts of domestic terrorism?
- What is the best way for Democrats to “resist” the Trump administration?
- Is the U.S. on the road to a constitutional crisis?
- Are releases of Epstein and Kennedy files exposing conspiracy theories as being full of hot air?
- Should the U.S. provide military assistance to the Democratic Republic of the Congo against M23 rebels?
- Is the possible deportation of American criminals to El Salvador a violation of the Eighth Amendment?
- Is Netanyahu allowing political consideration to cloud his judgment on how to deal with Hamas?
- Are EU sanctions making it harder to reach a peace deal with M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo?
- Is the Sudanese civil war turning in favor of the SAF?
- What killed global enthusiasm for free trade?
- Should NATO expel Turkey after the jailing of Ekrem Imamoglu?
- How will higher levels of military spending affect European economies?
- Should Israel step up attacks on the Houthis like they have Hamas and Hezbollah?
- Is Great Britain becoming the “sick man of Europe”?
- Should Poland pursue nuclear weapons?
- Is the elevation of Kirsty Coventry to the IOC presidency a blow for transgender rights?
Here is this week’s news quiz! Good luck!
- Should Calin Georgescu be allowed to participate in Romania’s presidential election?
- Will Syria’s new constitution aid in the stabilization of the country?
- What is the biggest impediment to implementing Egypt’s Gaza reconstruction plan?
- How significant will the prosecution of Rodrigo Duterte be for the ICC’s credibility?
- Is the British Conservative Party in a state of total collapse?
- How can Mark Carney guide Canada’s Liberals to another election victory?
- Which nation becomes the leader of the free world if the United States is no longer willing to take on that challenge?
- Do human rights have a future?
- Can Europe afford its own nuclear deterrent?
- What pivot should left-wing parties around the world take on immigration policy?
A good number of our questions this week come from my old coach, Steve Meadows of the Kentucky High School Speech League (KHSSL), and were used at the KHSSL State Championship on March 7-8.
- Will Greenland be the next Hawaii, annexed by the U.S.?
- How is DOGE affecting the Social Security administration?
- Is it time to dump the penny? What’s your two cents?
- Daylight Savings Time: Keep or kill?
- Why are fewer students attending American colleges?
- Do Senate Democrats need a more combative leader?
- Are U.S. strikes against Yemen’s Houthis laying the groundwork for an attack on Iran?
- Is President Trump losing his tariff war against Canada?
- Should Democrats have pushed for a government shutdown?
- Is it fair to call the Trump administration’s push for a Ukrainian solution “peace at any price”?
New standings for the 2024-2025 Extemp Central National Points Race are have been posted! These reflects the results of the Harvard National Speech & Debate Tournament and the California Invitational. Check them out by clicking here or the “Natl Points Race” tab above.
Robert Zhang of Elkins High School (TX) is still leading after his win at Harvard, the last regular season tournament for this year’s competition. The National Points Race now shifts to the post-season which will feature five tournaments: the University of Kentucky Tournament of Champions (TOC), the Extemp TOC, the National Individual Events TOC, the National Catholic Forensic League (NCFL) Grand National Tournament, and the National Speech & Debate Association (NSDA) National Tournament.
The UK TOC is the next National Points Race competition and will take place in late April in Lexington, Kentucky. It will be a third tier event and will be the second major championship on the calendar. #11 Charlotte Reitman of NSU University School (FL) will be defending champion.
An eye-popping 281 extempers traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts last month for the Harvard Speech and Debate Tournament, which once again lived up to its billing as the largest national circuit tournament of the season. The crowded field gave way to a star-studded final round where all of the extempers are ranked in the National Points Race and four of them had won National Points Race tournaments this season.
#1 Robert Zhang, who had seen his National Points Race lead shrink going into the tournament, made a strong statement to end the regular season, winning the championship by three ranks over #4 Daphne Kalir-Starr of the College Preparatory School (CA). Zhang was the only extemper to take multiple first place ranks in the final round, enabling him to win his fourth National Points Race event of the season in five final round appearances.
Kalir-Starr maintained a strong second semester run, making her sixth National Points Race final round. It is her third top three finish of the season as well.
#2 Waleed Haider of Hendrickson High School (TX) had a chance to become the new National Points Race leader in the final round but fell short of that mark. He took one first place rank in finals but a sixth place rank left him two ranks behind Kalir-Starr for second place. That is where Haider finished at the tournament last season. It is his fifth top three finish at a National Points Race event this season.
#5 Anthony Babu of Concord-Carlisle High School (MA) reached his fourth National Points Race final round. The reigning NSDA International Extemp national champion finished fourth, a mere rank ahead of #17 Charlotte Reitman of NSU University School (FL). Like the other extempers in the final round, Reitman is also a multi-time finalist this season with Harvard marking the third time that she has reached that point of a tournament. Reitman’s fifth place finish was two ranks clear of #11 Anushka Gupta of Westwood High School (TX), who entered Harvard after a win at Stanford in United States Extemp.
The elimination rounds were littered with other ranked extempers. #6 Al Zaidi of Holy Trinity Episcopal School (FL) reached semi-finals; #8 Kate Liu of Plano West Senior High School (TX), #9 Sahana Srikanth of Mason High School (OH), and #17 Lindsey Zhao of Plano Senior High School (TX) made it to quarter-finals; and #15 Alexandre Morel of Plano West, #16 Pranav Gorty of Plano Senior, #19 Kajal Parmar of Cary Academy (NC), and #22 Ishika Kothari of Plano East were eliminated in octa-finals.
Harvard is the only regular season contest that is a second tier tournament. As a result, all of the extempers who broke into elimination rounds will earn points. Zhang will receive 150 points for his win.
Here are the results of the 2025 Harvard National Speech and Debate Tournament (Click here for tab sheet):
Here is this week’s news quiz! Good luck!
- How is President Trump’s one-term status affecting his decision making?
- Are protests at GOP town halls a canary in the coal mine for 2026?
- What tools can sanctuary cities use to defend their status from the U.S. federal government?
- Will BlackRock’s deal with CK Hutchinson Holding end President Trump’s bluster about the Panama Canal?
- When there is the next Supreme Court vacancy, should someone without a legal background be appointed?
- Will the Trump administration be bad for global non-proliferation efforts?
- Is the U.S. currently experiencing a white collar recession?
- Will Tesla’s losses cause Elon Musk to reduce his level of political engagement?
- Should SNAP ban the purchase of sugar and sweetened beverages?
- Will an “economic blackout” cause Amazon to reverse its DEI stance?
- Would a global trade war spark a global recession?
- Can Orsi reverse Uruguay’s economic stagnation?
- What would a post-NATO world look like?
- Should Peru halt oil and gas projects on indigenous lands?
- Is China truly ready for war with the United States?
- Are nuclear weapons losing their deterrence power?
- Should Pope Francis step down?
- Is the recent outbreak of violence in Syria a sign of things to come?
- What conditions would make Hamas agree to disarm?
- Based on the recent surge of Canadian nationalism over U.S. tariffs, does Trudeau regret his decision to step aside?
A strong contingent of 149 extempers from across the West Coast, Texas, and Louisiana attended this year’s California Invitational, hosted by the University of California-Berkeley. The tournament was the culmination of the National Points Race West Coast swing and counted as a third tier tournament.
Ali Malik of Monta Vista High School (CA) was making his second National Points Race final round appearance of the season and won by a comfortable nine-rank margin over Lexie Toshav of Isidore Newman School (LA). Toshav was the only non-Californian in the final round.
The tournament was tabulated from prelims to finals, a quirk that did not affect the final tabulation of the tournament as the top six finished as they placed in the last round. Malik won the final by four ranks, winning three of the five available first place ranks. He is the first Monta Vista extemper to win the California Invitational according to our records of the tournament, which go back to 2004.
#24 Andrew Zheng of Acalanes High School (CA) wrapped up a successful West Coast swing with a third place finish. In recent months Zheng notched a runner-up finish at the James Logan MLK Invitational in United States Extemp and a semi-finalist performance at Stanford. Zheng was one cumulative rank behind Toshav and two clear of Samuel Ma of Bellarmine College Preparatory (CA).
Ravi Bhat of Carlsbad High School (CA) made his second National Points Race final round of the season too, finishing in fifth place. In January, Bhat finished sixth in International Extemp at the MLK.
Sixth place in the crowded tournament went to Robert Fields of the Harker School (CA).
#12 Maximilian Guo of BASIS Silicon Valley had his hopes of two West Coast victories dashed in semi-finals. The quarter-finals was the end of the line of other ranked competitors in the field like #20 Abhijay Rana of Bellarmine and #25 Ellie Sohn of Flintridge Preparatory School (CA).
Defending champion Austin Bauman of Bellarmine made it to quarter-finals before he was eliminated.
Since the California Invitational was a third tier tournament, all of the extempers who reached the quarter-final round will earn points for the 2024-2025 National Points Race. As the champion, Malik earned 100 points.
Here are the results of the 2024 California Invitational (Click here for tab sheet):
Here is this week’s news quiz! Good luck!