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Weekly Digest: August 12th to the 18th

 

Welcome to the Digest for the week of August 12th. I’m James Adams, moderator of Global News Watch on Discord. On our server we offer news content, including sharing open intelligence information, we have conversations about it, and we even have fun along the way.

 

But our main goal at GNW is to provide every piece of accurate information that’s not available anywhere else. So if you want to join GNW on Discord, click on our invite link. 

 

Now to the news of the week.

We start with Asia and Afghanistan 

BBC News: Burials are taking place in the Afghan capital, Kabul after a bomb exploded at a wedding hall killing 63 people and wounding more than 180. The Islamic State (IS) group said it was behind for the attack. The blast happened on Saturday during a wedding ceremony at around 22:40 local time (18.10 GMT). President Ashraf Ghani has condemned the attack, describing it as “barbaric”. He blamed the Taliban for “providing a platform to terrorists.” The Taliban has denied involvement and condemned the attack. 

What happened? 

An IS statement said that one of its fighters blew himself up at a “large gathering” while others “detonated a parked explosives-laden vehicle” when emergency services arrived. The Afghan interior ministry confirmed the death toll hours later. Pictures on social media showed bodies strewn across the wedding hall amid overturned chairs and tables. Afghan weddings often include hundreds of guests who gather in large halls where the men are usually segregated from the women and children. 

What’s the background? 

The latest blast comes just 10 days after a huge bomb outside a Kabul police station killed at least 14 people and injured nearly 150. The Taliban said they carried out that attack. On Friday a brother of Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada was killed by a bomb planted in a mosque near the Pakistani city of Quetta. No group has so far claimed that attack.

 

Now we move to the U.S.

 

A New State?

 
On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that President Trump had an idea of buying Greenland, the world’s biggest island, from Denmark. Now there might be just reasons for this.
 

For example, it could be because Greenland is a continent of North America, or it could be for historic reasons like how the U.S. worked with Denmark’s ambassador to Washington to established a temporary protectorate over Greenland. Does this matter for the U.S. buying Greenland? Maybe not. But you never know.

 

Here’s how people reacted to the President’s thought of buying Greenland:

 

“I hope it’s a joke, because it’s a terrible and grotesque thought,” said Martin Lidegaard, chairman of Denmark’s Foreign Policy Committee.

 

“It must be an April Fool’s Day joke … but totally out of season,” Lars Lokke Rasmussen, a former prime minister of Denmark and the leader of the opposition, posted on Twitter.

 

The New York Times: The idea first sprang up last year, when Mr. Trump was said to have joked about buying Greenland for its natural wealth during a meeting in the Oval Office.

 

He is said to have repeatedly returned to the possibility, since the country, which is part of the kingdom of Denmark, appeals to him because its location in the North Atlantic has security value, according to people familiar with his thinking.

 

James Adams: But Greenland wanted to make clear that the President’s idea of buying the biggest island would never come to past.

 

“Greenland is not for sale and cannot be sold, but Greenland is open for trade and cooperation with other countries — including the United States,” Kim Kielsen, Greenland’s premier, said in a statement, according to the Ritzau news agency.

 

We’ll find out if the President wants to push through with his idea or accept Greenland’s message very soon.

 

 

A Plaque Of Shootings

 

 Mass shootings keeps occurring in our country. The latest example of that is in Pennsylvania with two shootings in two days, at the same time, and at the same neighborhood. The good thing about both situations is that no one died. 

This fiasco started Wednesday when police tried to serve an arrest warrant when gunshots were heard. The armed suspect wounded six officers causing chaos and panic in the area. And even as police protected the public, some people threw anything they could throw at the officers. 

A witness who lives close to the shooting told NBC Philadelphia that she heard a series of shots, what she said felt like 100, and could smell what seemed to be gunpowder as the shootout unfolded. The unidentified woman told NBC Philadelphia that it felt “like a war.”

Then after nearly eight hours, shortly after midnight, police spokesman Sergeant Eric Gripp tweeted that a suspect was in custody and that SWAT officers were clearing the house.

“It’s nothing short of a miracle that we don’t have multiple officers killed today,” Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross Jr. said Wednesday night.

The suspect “should never have been allowed to be on the streets” because of his “very dangerous criminal record,” President Donald Trump said in a tweet Thursday morning. 
“Looked like he was having a good time after his capture, and after wounding so many police.” “Long sentence — must get much tougher on street crime!” the president wrote.

 
Then Thursday, police say five people were shot Thursday afternoon in the city’s Ogontz section.
 
Ross was on scene and says five people between the ages of 17 and 30 years old were targeted and followed then shot while sitting near the intersection.
 
He says curbing the violence is everyone’s responsibility.
 
“These problems are going to persist unless we collectively get our arms around it and stop pointing the finger at each other. That’s never going to solve any problem,” said Commissioner Ross.
 
 

It’s official: Epstein killed himself

NBC News: Jeffrey Epstein’s death has been ruled a suicide by hanging, the medical examiner’s office said Friday.

The determination capped days of speculation and conspiracy theories after the wealthy financier and accused sex trafficker was found unresponsive in his federal jail cell in lower Manhattan last Saturday.

The ruling wasn’t unexpected: multiple law enforcement officials had previously told NBC News that Epstein’s death was presumed to be a suicide.

The medical examiner’s office completed an autopsy on Sunday but indicated it was waiting for more information from investigators before releasing its final determination. The autopsy revealed that Epstein had broken a bone in his neck, a source told NBC News Thursday, an injury that can occur in a suicide by hanging.

The death sparked harsh criticism of the federal prison system and led former wardens and U.S. lawmakers to question how a high-profile inmate could get the opportunity to take his own life, especially after carrying out what was believed to be a previous attempt.

“We are not satisfied with the conclusions of the medical examiner’s office,” Epstein’s attorneys said Friday in a statement. “We will have a more complete response in the coming days.”

 

Finally from the U.S., A stock market dance

This week, Wall Street was dancing around with the Dow Jones with daring movements of Jives. For four days, they danced their way up and down with more than 300 points.

On one day, the Dow made a big belly dance by dropping more than 800 points. Sadly, I give that dance score a 3.1. Who was the Dow Jones’ partner? President Trump and his trade war.

On Friday, the S&P 500 rose 1.4%. The Dow climbed 1.2% and the Nasdaq picked up 1.7%. But each index still finished with a third-straight weekly decline.

Now to North Korea and their missile testing

 

In what appears to be a weekly thing for the North, they have yet again launched two more projectiles in its east coast, as South Korean analysts said President Trump’s repeated downplaying of the North’s weapons tests had given it a free hand to conduct them.

NY Times: The two projectiles, launched from Tongchon in the southeast of North Korea, flew 143 miles, the South Korean military said in a statement. The launching on Friday was the sixth time North Korea has tested short-range ballistic missiles or other projectiles since late last month.

James: I’m just very curious why North Korea is still doing projectile test every week now. Is it because they’re playing President Trump for a sucker? Are they trying to tease him so he can do nuclear talks with Jong-Un again? Are they just trying to protect themselves from harms way? We’ll never know, for now.

“Rather than denouncing these tests as violations of U.N. resolutions and as a threat to the American allies, President Trump has sounded as if he didn’t care, describing them as not a threat to the mainland United States,” said Kim Sung-han, a former vice foreign minister of South Korea who teaches at Korea University in Seoul. “His comments make the allies and American troops in the region more vulnerable to North Korean missile threats.”

 
This story is to be continued.

 

 

Finally from Asia we go to Hong Kong and their continuous protesting

BBC News: More than 100,000 people are holding another day of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, amid increasingly severe warnings from the Beijing authorities.

The protests were sparked by an extradition bill, which has since been suspended by the Hong Kong government.

China, which has built up security forces in nearby Shenzhen, has likened the protests to terrorist activity.

The protest organisers, the Civil Rights Human Front, were denied authorisation for a march through the city, but police allowed Sunday’s demonstration in Victoria Park.

The South China Morning Post newspaper tweeted a time lapse video of the park filling up.

One of the marchers, named as Mr Wong, told the BBC’s Lam Cho Wai at the scene: “We have been fighting for more than two months, but our government has no response at all. We could just come out again and again.”

Large crowds also marched in the nearby areas of Admiralty, Causeway Bay and Wan Chai in defiance of the police ban.

 

We don’t want to end this edition of the Digest without recommending great articles that’s out there online.

If you’re continuing to be fascinated with the death of Jeffrey Epstein, the New York Times has some gold for you. They highlight the last days of Epstein’s life and what happened the day he died.

China’s trade war with the United States is causing an economic collapse. How this could be a warning sign to Europe from Bloomberg.

I don’t know why but, lately, Frontline has been fascinating me with some great articles. So here another one, this time it’s, about how migrant children are suffering at the border, including about how a little girl was touched inappropriately by a boy.

Finally, a little bit of history. It’s about how enslaved Africans arrived in the U.S. 400 years ago by VOA

 

That’s it for the Digest! Thanks for joining us!

One Comment

  1. Lonniecwf Lonniecwf April 28, 2023

    Compare Canada in addition to other key nations

    COVID 19 already ranks the actual best worst pandemics in modern history, With millions dead and hundreds of millions more infected. It has also brought on remarkable achievements in science and medicine, And the best global vaccination campaign in history. all the same, A significant portion of the world remains unvaccinated and many experts believe the pandemic will eventually become endemic in many parts of the world. from the beginning, Countries responded differently in some circumstances, Quite significantly and each new wave brought new variables and shifting strategies that altered outcomes in negative and positive ways.

    Explore how countries from around the world have fared throughout the pandemic by case number, death, Per capita, In raw statistics, but more. Scroll a little further down for more active features.

    The COVID 19 pandemic is arguably the most devastating and devastating global event since the Second World War, Impacting huge amounts of people across at least 185 countries. The significant speed with which vaccines were developed and approved offered hope that an end to the pandemic was in sight, But the rise and spread of a number of variants in combination with other factors belied those hopes.

    The WHO was informed of countless unusual cases of pneumonia in Wuhan on Dec. 31, 2019 and began requesting concept from China on the cases. The business sent a tweet on Jan. 4 and issued an announcement on Jan. 5, 2020 regarding 44 cases of pneumonia with a mysterious cause in China. By january. 30, The foreign health agency declared the outbreak a “Public health event of global concern, Amid 18 countries confirming a combined total of 83 cases, With seven involving no travel history to China and three countries reporting human to human transmission. in a WHO spokeswoman, This assertion was meant to prevent a pandemic from happening. The WHO advised all countries to prepare for containment, as well as early detection, seclusion, Contact tracing and to share their data along with the WHO, But did not make tips about travel or trade restrictions at the time.

    The novel coronavirus 2019 nCoV was technically named COVID 19 on Feb. 11 as the WHO warned against actions that promoted stigma or splendour. By february. 21, The health agency was warning the world-wide community that the window to contain the COVID 19 outbreak was narrowing, But did not previously start calling it a global pandemic until March 11, 2020.

    Six months after the fact, Data compiled by the AFP news agency found that roughly half of the population some 3.9 billion had seen some level of lockdown measure. At the official pandemic half year point, There were nearly 30 million reported cases throughout the globe, and most 910,000 divulged deaths.

    Following a drop in cases in many parts of the world over the summer in 2020, A number of regions began taking in second and third waves that were dramatically worse than the first. The 2020 to 2021 winter was mostly devastating, With worldwide cases roughly tripling between the start of October 2020 and the start of February 2021 alone. Infections peaked in spring 2021 however in late summer, Driven primarily by the spread of variants of concern that appear now more transmissible, in addition to pandemic fatigue.

    don’t mind the occasional grim overall picture, Some parts worldwide managed to keep the virus at bay for months at a time through aggressive and strict border and containment policies. This resulted in extremely low to zero infections allowing millions of people to lead normal or nearly normal lives with few restrictions. But even the most popular places could not keep COVID 19 away forever, Especially when the more easily transmissible Delta variant began making its way globally.

    Even with COVID 19’s unarguable endurance and the devastating impact of variants, 2021 was also dominated by the arrival asiame.com of vaccines and the hope it brought for potentially ending the global pandemic. A slow and inequitable roll not in vaccines, but nevertheless, Meant accomplished, Western countries were vaccinated appreciably sooner and faster, Leaving some parts around the globe, more than ever developing countries, Completely unprotected.

    even with vaccines, Public health policies continued to play an essential role in curbing the virus’ spread. Regions with vaccine access but low vaccination rates or few public health rules in place were still generally hit harder by COVID 19. In demise, Hitting a grim milestone greater than 600,000 dead by end up 2021. In Brazil’s first four months throughout the pandemic alone, Confirmed cases surpass one million, With even close to 49,000 females dying. By autumn season 2020, Cases were soaring by roughly million a month; The rate doubled to about two million new infections a month for nearly a year in the first half of 2021, Driven mostly by the P.1 or Gamma variant.

    Scientists were alarmed by the variant in part because it triggered an outbreak in Manaus even more deadly than the city’s first negative outbreak a year earlier. The unchecked spring 2020 outbreak in the city of 2.2 million eventually infected some 76 per cent of the populace. But a study in January 2021 found the Gamma variant was chosen in 42 per cent of the samples sequenced from late December raising doubts about natural herd immunity.

    Soaring cases drove its health care system to a “emptying point, With one medical expert explaining it as a “neurological Fukushima” that will help Reuters. At its not-so-good point, Daily new microbial infection peaked at more than 100,000 and fatalities peaked at more than 4,200 in one day.

    during the entire pandemic, Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro emphasized keeping the country’s economy running most importantly and opposed not only lockdown measures but also mask wearing. During one of its worst moments, Health care experts described things as a “catastrophe, Bolsonaro and his allies described it as not “All that fundamental” in addition,yet “Quite cozy” Compared to other countries. The country finally turned the corner in late June 2021 as shots climbed.

    As Canada typed in 2022, It brought with it soaring case counts with thanks to the Omicron variant. December saw the country’s seven day average reach records unseen in the two year long pandemic, And Canada’s chief public health specialist Dr. Theresa Tam believed Omicron has “very easily” Been displacing Delta as the dominant variant. It resulted in new boundaries in several provinces, Impacted the return to school after the break break and businesses were forced to drastically reduce capacity or close entirely once again.

    right before Omicron, Canada’s fourth wave was its worst with the spread of Delta, Which peaked in economy is shown 2021 and again in mid April 2021, When it recorded more than a million cases a little more than a year after the WHO formally declared a pandemic. Canada also overtaken 25,000 expended by mid May, 2021.

    But it was in the pandemic’s first wave when long term care homes, particularly in Ontario and Quebec, Were ill very well prepared and disproportionately hit. More than 80 per cent of the total deaths were due to outbreaks at hundreds of these facilities during the first wave.

    from the beginning, a combination of lax border screening, Poor management at long term care homes, too as other missteps hampered containment efforts. For quite a long time, The messaging in Canada could be that the novel coronavirus outbreak risk for Canadians was low. Public health officials were guided by advice from the WHO, Which had initially discouraged travel constraints, Border closures and the arriving in of masks, Positions that were later criticized and reversed as the spread became much more often dire in many countries.

    The first case in Canada was revealed on Jan. 25, 2020 in a patient coming from Wuhan, india, While the first case of community indication was confirmed in early March. Repatriation efforts for Canadians in China began in late January to early February amid frustration among expats over the no communication and help for citizens abroad. Provinces and territories enacted states of emergencies across Canada and various regions implementing various levels of restrictions on public gathering sizes when the global pandemic was formally declared in mid March. Schools closed a fair distance, by using daycares, And non essential organisations.

    As the tally of cases grew in europe, It became increasingly clear many of the cases were linked to us. the condition of movement between the two countries made containment impossible without drastic measures. The Quarantine Act was already invoked on March 25, With all in bound travellers should self isolate for two weeks.

    some sort of jurisdictions, Like Atlantic Canada and the territories, Managed to keep cases quite low through strict regional public health and travel protocols. But outbreaks in places like Nunavut which had managed to evade infections for most of 2020 illustrate how quickly circumstances can change just by a single case.

    The country ranks among the top 15 in terms of total number of instances and deaths, But falls well below best search engine optimization 50 on a per capita scale. For much of the pandemic, It has followed a similar wave pattern as Canada for attacks on a per capita basis.

    It received attention early in the pandemic due to its dramatically lower mortality rate compared to other the european countries at the time. This was attributed in part to Germany’s greater testing rate, being able to ramp testing up more quickly and earlier than many of its EU counterparts, organizing more ICU beds, And younger people being infected with the virus. All that changed during the second wave that hit europe in the fall and stretched through the winter. The German government imposed a hard lockdown in mid December 2020 that was extended several times. At its worst peak in jan 2021, well over 1,700 deaths were recorded within a day, With ongoing care homes hit hardest. whole, Cases soared from about 300,000 in march 2020 to 4.3 million a year after on, While deaths attacked from about 9,600 to a number exceeding 94,000 over an equivalent one year period.

    Early your pandemic, the us government considered the new disease a “extremely low threat” And far risk less than SARS, Making travel warnings unnecessary. But things shifted quickly after the first case was revealed near the end of January, and Lufthansa, Germany’s main airline, Suspending all routes to China. Face masks quickly sold out in media reports, Schools and public spaces began closing in some areas of Germany by late February, And tougher screening measures and contact tracing protocols were in place by the end of that month for both inbound land and air people going abroad. In the days to come the pandemic declaration, Parts of Germany launched drive-thru COVID 19 testing and a national curfew was enacted on March 22, Which allowed people to leave their residence only for essential purposes like work and groceries.

    Despite its early achievements, The Alpha alternative, Previously the B.1.1.7 alternative, Spreadrapidly, running the second and third waves, even though Delta variant fueled the fourth wave. Like nova scotia, A slow vaccine rollout originally hampered early efforts to mitigate the pandemic. with more than 65 per cent of the population fully vaccinated by fall 2021, Parts of Germany began easing much of the remainder of the public health measures and large public venues began accommodating full seating capacity for those who had been tested, Vaccinated, Or saved from COVID 19.

    During India’s second wave at a virtual event around the globe Economic Forum at Davos in late January 2021, India’s pm, Narendra Modi, said that India “Saved humanity from a big disaster by containing corona fully.

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