Photo: Reuters
By: Inez Jaime Everyone knows the basic history of World War 2, when Germany’s chancellor Adolf Hitler created 20 concentration camps to commit mass genocide against the Jews. After winning, the U.S liberated the survivors of these camps. Unfortunately, 6 million Jews died, but around 3.5 million Jews survived. This year, 2020, will be known as the 75th anniversary of the Holocaust. According to thefff.org, we know today that there are some survivors living in Europe, mainly Israel. The survivors are happy being in Israel, but unfortunately, some are still impoverished, even though the government is still giving them money. Why is it that half of the survivors are doing just fine, but half of them still live in poverty in today’s era? The government should have taken care of that a long time ago. According to Israel’s government, they donated 5.5 million shekels, which is 1.6 billion U.S dollars, to a charity that helps survivors of the Holocaust.According to Reuters.com, some of the survivors are still in poverty. 25% of the survivors that had arrived to Israel in the 80s and 90s are not doing well still. The saddest thing is that they are not able to get full profit from the government because of the time that they had arrived to Israel. Reuter’s.com Thefff.org
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Photo: CNN
By: Brianna Quinonez Floods, no matter the country or region, can have an effect on all citizens regardless of social class or background. Severe rain and unpredictable terrain caused much destruction in the Southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais this past weekend. Homes are being destroyed and shelters are filling up with thousands of hopeless Brazilians. The death tolls are slowly but surely on the rise since missing persons have been reported. According to CNN, as of January 27th at about 1:44pm, the floods have killed a confirmed 44 people. Those who were living in poverty and in homes not designed for or prepared for unfortunate events like these were affected the most. In addition to that, homes that were built along the Rio das Velhas river were hit directly after the river overflowed from the heavy rains. This later led to alerts to be issued throughout the state. According to France 24, about 15,000 people had to urgently leave their homes across the Brazilian state where more than 100 towns were alerted to be cautious and flee homes. Majority of the victims couldn’t save anything more than their lives and their families. One could only think of how it would feel to have everything, including memories and family heirlooms, to be destroyed by natural causes only to be left in one’s mind. Brazil is not new to this pattern of severe rain and heavy weather conditions. According to Climates to Travel, Brazil has a rainy season that consumes more than half a year there. Within the months of December and February, Brazil has its rain peak in severity which is what the country is dealing with currently. With these conditions seen as “usual” patterns in the country, it’s still a surprise when victims are buried under rubble or taken with the landslides along with being washed away by newly formed currents. With this currently unfolding in Brazil, it should be known that this isn’t the first time a tragedy has reached numbers like this, and it definitely won’t be the last. Hopefully in the near future, precautions will be established to prevent future natural disasters from taking a toll on citizens this hard like this one. Photo: Wbal-TV
By: Saira Canales The Coronavirus made its first appearance in 2012 in Jordan and, according to “The Telegraph,” there have been over 2,500 cases and 850 lives lost to this virus. This is a mix of viruses and the symptoms can range from it feeling as if you have a cold or a fever. These types of viruses typically come from animals, whether it be because people ingested them or came in blood to blood contact. There’s still not a specific animal that has been identified to have carried the virus, but it is believed to be either bats or snakes. The outbreak began sometime in December, in the central Chinese city called Wuhan. Some of their first patients came from the market, which was known as a “wet” market because most people in China prefer to eat their food soon after it was killed. They tend to trade many types of animals, such as snakes, bats, pigs, and marmots. The Coronavirus was originally a virus that was contained into animals. However, ingesting or making blood-to-blood contact with it can cause a mutation of the virus that would be latchable to humans. From there the virus would spread through the respiratory tract, which can cause cold like symptoms (coughing, wheezing, feverish, shortness of breath, runny nose, etc). So far it’s fairly easily to eat the virus, that’s why it’s spreading so quickly. Canada has gotten their first case and it’s already in the United States, France, Australia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, Macau, Japan and the Philippines. There are ways to avoid this: wash your hands, cover your mouth when you cough, and don’t share food or drinks. Do the same things you would to protect yourself from a cold. We are still waiting for the World Health Organisation (WHO) to call for a global health crisis, but word is that it is way too early to call for this, since it’s been only a month or two. So most people are being urged to maintain anti germ tactics in the meantime. Since there is still no vaccine, we just have to play defense. Researchers in both the US and China have already started working on a vaccine, but there likely won’t be one until about a year or so. ![]() Photo: Getty Images By: Inez Jaime On January 21, 2020, a Brazilian Dam collapsed. The mining damn had broken around 10:45 am and nearly killed almost 270 people. The cost of the damages had been around 2.5 billion dollars. This mine had bursted last Friday and they had noticed nothing about it, but unfortunately this Tuesday is had collapsed. This had caused so much damage which had lead to Brazilian prosecutors charging the miner Vale who had been in charge, for the dam but unfortunately this incident had happened. This same incident happened in November of 2015, where the mine that they had been building during that time period collapsed, which sent a mudslide in the southeastern part of Brazil. Unfortunately, this incident killed 19 people in that mudslide. This taught the miners to be more cautious of what they were doing, but again, nothing happened to keep this from happening again. The chief executive Fabio Schvartsman states that the southeastern town in Brazil will never let this incident happen again. Unfortunately, this year’s dam incident had not had any precautions, leading to that fatality. After the accident that occurred this year that led Brazil's state prosecutors to charge Vale and the chief executive. According to the workers and contractors, they didn’t want to take any safety measures due to budget constraints. When the investigators studied the collapsed dam, they had noticed that there were no safety precautions in the mine. This is called cavalier neglect, where they have an arrogant attitude and they are so prideful that they think nothing bad could happen. In this situation, they were wrong. The CEO of this mining operation, who had no mining experience whatsoever, was the one who cut their budget. Brazil had no choice but to put state charges for the mining incident on them. Photo: Wall Street Journal
By: Brianna Quinonez The discussion about controlling the flow of migrants has been a mainstream topic for years now. While the United States is often called out by many for its procedures at the Southern Border, it isn’t the only country in North America that has an issue at its borders. Mexico, always addressed as the victim in this issue, now has to take and instruct procedures of its own, as Central Americans are illegally coming through its lands to reach the United States of America. According to U.S. News, the fairly new Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador addressed that precautions taken at its border were meant to protect migrants. That claim came after Mexican forces stopped about 2,000 migrants trying to step onto Mexican soil illegally— that is, without proper papers and visas. According to the Wall Street Journal, Mexican officers had to use tear gas to tear the group apart as the group of 2,000 were denied access to the country on Saturday, January 18th and once again on Monday, January 20th. The group was coming up from Guatemala. The majority of the group were Honduran. The country of Honduras sits on Guatemala's Southeastern border and shares Guatemala's southern border with El Salvador. Ironically, the Central Americans were attempting to cross Suchiate River to enter Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, which does resemble the situation with Mexicans as well as other migrants crossing the Rio Grande into the United States. According to the Washington Office on Latina America, Mexico does receive monetary assistance from the United States. In 2019, Mexico received $166.66 million US dollars to use for security and economic functions. From that, USD$110 million is operated by the “State Department’s International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement (INCLE) account,”. While many of those migrants crossing illegally into countries in Central and Latin America are escaping from their lives in their native countries, it should never be forgotten that they aren’t being denied access just for being a foreigner, but because countries, whether it’s the U.S. or Mexico, have to take care of their people first before letting migrants in to begin their new lives. Photo: Aljazeera
By: Saira Canales Tuesday morning, three rockets have fallen in Baghdad’s Green Zone. It was so close that the embassy began to sound alarms and tell people at and around the area to take shelter. The rockets were released by Zafaraniyah, which is a neighbourhood in the north of Tehran, Iran. But the rockets were detected just outside of Baghdad, which is the capital of Iraq and the second largest city there. The police of Iraq told Reuters that there were an extra three rockets that landed near the embassy that were also landed in the Green Zone. Though, the houses near there were of foreign government building and missions. The amount of rockets that were launched had to be well around a dozen rockets, aimed at two Iraqi military bases that were housing US troops. This was also taken into serious matter because of this strike. It could have been a retaliation for what happened on January 3rd, when Iranian general Qassem Suleiamnai was killed. Ever since then, tensions have been on the rise in this region. Even though there had been suspicions that it could have been military activists, there is responsibility yet to be claimed. While reforms on the Iraqi government were taking place on Monday, at least three protesters were killed in three different cities. The United Nations urged for them to keep pushing political reforms to help the government, though if there were to be protests, it would be better to keep it peaceful. This was highly urged because of a statement made by Jeanine Hennis: “Any steps taken so far to address the people's concerns will remain hollow if they are not completed.” Jeanine Hennis is a Dutch politician and diplomat. She serves as a Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations. She has been a part of the Assistant Mission for Iraq since November 2018. She even stated, "Violent suppression of peaceful protesters is intolerable and must be avoided at all costs." Many people have been putting their best efforts to help the Iraqi government and many representatives have come together together to help with what can be done but diligent their best efforts there is still so much to do. Photo: Kcur
By: Brianna Quinonez The Catholic Church has been critiqued and questioned for its teachings for centuries. One topic that is almost always brought up is celibacy — specifically for those in the priesthood. While this is a longstanding tradition in the Church, Pope Francis hinted about letting married men enter the priesthood. However, ex-Pope Benedict XVI was clearly not on the same page. According to CNN, Pope Francis’ idea about letting married men into the priesthood, specifically those in the Amazon region, was first proposed in October 2019 in a three-week long summit in the Vatican. To give perspective, the Amazon region includes Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. The main issues that were discussed in the meeting were uplifting the celibacy rule for married men in the region, as there was a lack of unmarried men entering the seminary, and whether females should be allowed to be ordained deacons. [According to the National Catholic Reporter, as priestly celibacy was highlighted in the mainstream media it should not be forgotten that the documents following the meeting addressed the largest part happening in society which was addressing social sin, a sin that affects the community.] The retired Pope, Pope Benedict XVI, had recently wrote a book called, “From the Depths of our Hearts”. In the book, Pope Benedict addressed the issue of priestly celibacy. According to the Daily Caller, Mark Brumly, the president of Ignatius Press, said, “The book is about the priesthood, but also about the wider values of discipleship, obedience and sacrificial Christian love.” To the modern community, celibacy is often seen as a bit extreme, as it is a requirement for life for those who enter the priesthood. But the Catholic Church and those apart of the Christian community hold a different perspective. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “Celibacy is a sign of this new life to the service of which the Church’s minister is consecrated; accepted with a joyous heart celibacy radiantly proclaims the Reign Of God” (CCC 1579). While celibacy was hinted about being eased up in the Amazon region by Pope Francis, for now we can only be certain that former Pope Benedict XVI doesn’t approve. In the end, however, Pope Francis has the final word. Photo: World News International
By: Saira Canales An incident took place around 2am in a primary school in Kenya. There was an attack towards the school and it’s suspected to be Al- Shabaab terrorists. This attack took the lives of 4 children who tried to find refuge near police officers’ posts. Unfortunately, the people that are a part of this seemingly terrorist group sent their men to cut off telecommunications and other ways of contacting the police. This meant that the civilians at the school were essentially on their own, with no way to contact the authorities. National Kenya Communications Police did tweet about the incident. They acknowledged what happened and they are already in pursuit to find the people who caused this. It was a very sad moment. We also lost 3 Americans who tried to defend along the Kenya Defense Force in Manda Bay Area. It was about two American contractors and one soldier who passed. They went down, but they went down fighting. Kenya did state that its officers killed at least four terrorists in the attack on the airfield. This isn’t the first attack and chances are, it’s not the last. So many attacks happened in Kenya and nearby cities because of this terrorist group. The attack on the school devastated many who were around or in nearby neighborhoods. Many people were witnesses to this attack, even Mr. Robert Kibutu, a teacher of the school who lives close by, said, “My fellow teachers were fatally shot by an unknown number of suspected al-Shabaab militia who stormed Kamuthe primary school early this morning and leaving one severely injured by two gunshots. We are sad and at the same time scared because we are targeted for being non-local government workers that belong to the Christian faith.” Even the head of security at the time was witness to the attack. He did see a nurse spared, but it was likely just because she was a woman. Many intelligence agencies are notifying people that are nearby to stay alert and stay safe. Photo: Getty Images
By: Brianna Quinonez A 5.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the Southern part of Puerto Rico on Monday, January 6, before sunrise as its occurrence was at “6:32 in the morning”, according to BBC.com. Minor earthquakes have been hitting the territory since December 28, 2019, but no one thought that it would later have an affect on the festival that many Latinos wait for every year, Three Kings Day. For those who do not participate in or know of the culture from Latin America, Three Kings Day is heavily celebrated. The 6th of every year is the mark of the twelfth and last day of the Christmas season. The three kings or wise men are celebrated because they are the ones who presented gifts to Jesus, who is known as the Savior and the Messiah to those who belong to the Christian faith. Many come together to celebrate happily in a festiva, but in Puerto Rico the festivities were met with fear and worry. Not only were Puerto Ricans and those involved with the Three Kings festival frightened, the territory also lost a well known Wonder that fascinated many tourists and locals that visited it— Punta Ventana. Punta Ventana is a naturally assembled rock structure with trees and grass covering the top layer of the rocks with the bottom meeting with the ocean. The center is an almost perfectly carved circle that drew many to its location in a southern town named Guayanilla. While nothing natural stays forever, a foreshadow of the destruction of Punta Ventana was seen in the prior week before the 5.8 earthquake as it was noted by locals that the rocks were beginning to erode away from several minor earthquakes. According to the Miami Herald, the U.S. Geographical Survey, reported a “series of more than 15 smaller earthquakes and aftershocks in the waters off southeastern Puerto Rico Monday.” While the people of Puerto Rico are still processing this drastic event, it’s safe to say that not as many tourists will continue to travel to Guayanilla to visit the area of the deceased iconic rock but will have to only see the golden sand and shimmering waters of Southern Puerto Rico. ![]() Photo: CNBC By: Saira Canales On Sunday, in Nairobi, Kenya, a military base had a hit taken by Al- Shabbat extremists. Several aircrafts, vehicles, and supplies were destroyed before the extremists backed away. At least 3 US Army personnel were killed during this attack. Al- Shabbat extremists are a youth group that is originally based in East Africa but does have an alliance with the Islamic organization Al-Qaeda. So the attack that took place was supposed to be represented for Qaeda. There was another attack that took place in the Amanda Bay Airfield, which was an actual attack from al-Qaeda. This was a very devastating attack, largely because the security there wasn’t defending as much as they should be, with everything going on at the moment. Although that was the case, they were able to kill about 5 attackers. While a very close second, Al- Shabaab came forward and said they were responsible for the attack. Which would be understandable in a sense because they were just in the neighboring city, Somalia, so they were close enough to cause enough damage but be able to leave fast enough to where not many fatalities would’ve happened. Sadly, we did take a hit, a US serviceman and 2 contractors for the US department of defense were killed late Sunday, but they did die fighting. When the attacks did take place the US Army base took into initiative on what was going on and focused on them and the surrounding bases, so they upped security and took protected the US interests on the surrounding areas. Al- Shabaab claimed multiple casualties and multiple air crafts and supplies being destroyed but the US dismissed these claimed believing they are just claiming this so they can bring the US army forces back. They are very resilient and active because a car exploded and residents/ civilians in the area saw what had happened. Suspects had been taken in for questioning to see if they are responsible for the attacks on the base and on civilian territory. Reports were made and for the time being the air strips were closed for all operations just until it was confirmed that it would be safe. This base has been around for almost a decade now, with multiple air forces joining together to take care of one another. It seemed almost impossible for the attacks, but sadly they did. The US Army is finding ways to better surround their bases and up their security. |
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