Redwater is a high-crime city with a major gang presence. This morning, Redwater’s mayor was found dead, stabbed repeatedly inside the house he’d lived in for years. For this debate, the mayor’s murderer is one of these two suspects:

Suspect 1: A member of the city’s largest, most notorious gang. The mayor campaigned on aggressively cracking down on the gang. During the mayor’s two months in office, Redwater’s police department arrested hundreds of gang members and seized millions of dollars' worth of illegal drugs from the gang.

Suspect 2: The chief executive of a midsize computer software company that’s headquartered in the city. The computer software executive and the mayor were friends for many years, but their friendship became increasingly fraught after the mayor took office. Two days before the murder, the mayor told the executive he'd cancel the city’s multi-million-dollar contract with the software company and strongly recommend that the city's chief prosecutor open a criminal investigation into the executive for felony tax evasion. The day before the murder, the mayor publicly condemned the executive as “greedy and corrupt,” but at the time of the murder, he hadn't yet canceled the contract or recommended the criminal investigation to the chief prosecutor.

Details about the crime:
- The mayor’s body was stabbed several times in the chest and neck. The coroner estimates that the mayor, who bled to death in minutes, likely died between 12:15 a.m. and 12:30 a.m.
- CCTV footage from across the street shows a car pulling into the house’s driveway at 12:02 a.m. and leaving at 12:14 a.m. The footage shows one unidentifiable person exiting the vehicle and entering the house.
- The house’s on-duty bodyguard was found dead with a single gunshot to the back of the head.
- The computer software executive did not pay the gang member, or any other criminal, to kill the mayor.

Alibis:
- The gang member claims he was at a local restaurant from around 11 p.m. to around 1 a.m. the night of the murder. Although the restaurant's cameras were off the whole night, several other gang members at the restaurant confirmed his alibi to the police, as did the restaurant’s head chef.
- The computer software executive first told police he was asleep, at home, the night of the murder. He later told police he was stressed out preparing for an upcoming business meeting for most of the night.

Before 1981, Chile primarily used a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) pension system. Under this system, workers did not have personal accounts. Instead, employers and active workers paid into occupational social-insurance funds (cajas), which used mandatory current contributions to pay current retirees in that fund. Each caja had different rules for exact worker payouts, often based on their wage history and years of contributions to the fund. PAYG was public and pooled by occupational fund, with some exceptions (e.g., predominantly state-financed pensions for the police and armed forces). 

In 1980–1981, under the military government, Chile replaced most civilian PAYG coverage with the Administradoras de Fondos de Pensiones (AFP) system. Under this system, each worker’s mandatory contributions went into their own investment account managed by a private pension fund (an AFP). A worker's retirement income depended on what they put in, investment returns (after fees), and payout choice (e.g., programmed withdrawals or purchasing a life annuity from an insurance company). Upon adoption of the AFP system, new civilian workers had to join, while existing workers could choose to switch to an AFP or remain in PAYG. Those already retired stayed in PAYG with state financing.

Both “The Collar” by George Herbert and “Vespers” by Louise Glück are poems that explore their narrators’ frustrations with religion and God.

[For those curious, we gave everyone a link to the two poems alongside glossaries for specific terms. Everyone had 10 minutes to read them before we released the motion.]

For this debate, “wildlife antinatalism” is the view that human activities that significantly reduce wild animal populations (e.g., deforestation, urbanization, water pollution) are likely to improve wild animals’ overall wellbeing, including those that die.

In her memoir “Just Kids,” Patti Smith recounts her relationship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe. For this debate, it is 1970 as depicted in her memoir: the two artists, both in their early twenties, share money, cramped New York City rooms, and creative inspiration for their work, and have begun to gain traction in the art world (e.g., befriending prominent artists, performing in downtown venues). Deeply in love, they reach a turning point when Robert confides in Patti that he is strongly attracted to men and feels intense Catholic guilt for it. He tells her he wants to explore his sexuality, believing it will sharpen his artwork, while keeping their romantic bond.

NVIDIA is an American multinational technology company known for designing graphics and artificial intelligence chips. NVIDIA’s current market capitalization is around USD 4.34 trillion. NVIDIA’s stock price, which has risen 43.84% in the last twelve months, is currently trading at USD 177.99 per share.

For this debate, you are a mutual fund with several billion dollars in assets under management. When an investor takes a “long position” in a stock, they buy and hold the stock. When an investor “remains flat,” they maintain zero net exposure to that stock.

In the novel “Ignorance” by Milan Kundera, Josef emigrates from Czechoslovakia to Denmark while fleeing Soviet occupation. In Denmark, he marries the love of his life. When his wife eventually passes away, Josef begins honoring her memory by maintaining habits as if she were still with him (e.g., having everyday “conversations” with her grave, maintaining their shared house the way she would want it, visiting her favorite restaurants on their anniversaries). Josef visits Prague after the collapse of the USSR, only to discover that his homeland has been transformed by tourism and resentment toward returnees. During this time, he meets Irena, a fellow returnee who shares his frustrations with his homeland, and the two sleep together. The two are growing romantically interested in one another. For this debate, Josef, now in his 40s and on vacation from his low-paying job in Denmark, is considering accepting a higher-paying job offer in Prague.

Factory farming is an industrial approach to the production of meat, fish, eggs, and dairy that confines large numbers of animals in tightly-packed, controlled, often-indoor environments. Globally, over 90% of farmed animals live in factory farms, including an estimated 74% of farmed land animals and virtually all farmed fish.