Photo: CNN
By: Inez Jaime Argentina’s presidential candidate Mauricio Marco lost the presidential election to his center- left rival Alberto Fernandez on October 27, late Sunday afternoon after the first round of voting in the country’s closely fought election. The voters turned out in large numbers to reject the measures introduced by Macri as the country made an attempt to dig itself out of a deep economic crisis. The inflation had ballooned to more than 50% year to year and the country’s GDP is forecasted to shrink by 1.2% by the end of the year. Macri had stated that he had congratulated Fernandez and invited him to talk so that they could have an organized transition. He also said that the important thing is the future of all the Argentinians and their right to live in a fair country. Fernandez had needed 45% of the votes or a 10% lead to beat his rival and win the election. The voter turnout was approximately 80.8% according to the National Electoral Directorate. Fernandez, who had ran on a ticket with the former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, will replace the center right Mauricio Macri in December of this year. Fernandez stated that late Sunday that he will meet with Macri on Monday and talk about the time remaining time that they have in their original positions. He also stated that they collaborate in everything that they can because the only thing that they will focus on is to stop the suffering of all Argentinians. Another thing that he stated was that they are “going to make the Argentina we deserve.” Macri had introduced a widespread of measures, including raising taxes, and cut government cost. Last year, he was forced to seek a $50 billion bailout package from the IMF. Shortly after his victory had been announced Sunday, the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA) had announced the decision to tighten currency controls. The dollar purchases will be restricted to $200 per month, down from $10,000 per month. The BCRA said that the individuals can take out $200 from their bank accounts and $100 in cash. These measures had been implemented to preserve the reserves of the central bank. This will remain in place until December until any further changes will be made.
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![]() Photo: BBC News By: Saira Canales Public broadcaster NRK recorded shots being fired in Oslo, Norway on Tuesday, October 22nd. Though the shots being fired were alarming, the more alarming thing is that the shots were coming from inside an ambulance. Police are still investigating this case; however, they cannot find any motives. A man, aged 32, and a woman, aged 25, were the ones that were reported who took over the ambulance. The police posted on Twitter referring to the accident. They still haven’t found any connections but they do believe that it is possible that it could’ve been related to a far-right extremists. No concrete connections have been made as of yet. Another ambulance was dispatched during this time to recover the stolen ambulance. The man and woman were reported to have a firearm when they took control of the ambulance, but when they were found, the firearm in their possession wasn’t even registered. While the couple were taking shots from the ambulance they both were shot by police. No police were severely injured. The witnesses who suffered most injuries were a family caught in crossfire. An elderly couple was walking down the street with their two grandchildren. As the speeding ambulance passed them, they threw themselves out of the way. The grandchildren were two seventh month old twins. They were harmed in the accident, as were the grandparents. They should make a full recovery soon, the hospital reports. The people driving the ambulance were arrested. The woman who was driving the ambulance was found at a shopping center nearby, unlike than her boyfriend, who was caught on the spot. The police have also tweeted, “We do not yet have information that the incident is terror-related, but we are investigating widely and taking this very seriously.” The investigation is ongoing and hopefully we will have answers soon. ![]() Photo: Nextshark By: Brianna Quinonez The royal consort of the king of Thailand, Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi, was ripped of her honors that she had just received back in July. Her “crime” for having her rank and her honors stripped from her: striving to be on the same level as the Queen of Thailand. This along with other issues led to her having her title taken away and will probably never be returned. First of all, what does it mean when one is the royal consort to the King of Thailand? According to BBC News, having the title of royal consort generally refers to being the wife or husband of the reigning monarch. But in the special case of Thailand, the royal consort is in addition to the king’s wife, the Queen. This means that not only does Maha Vajiralongkorn, the King of Thailand, have a wife, but also a mistress to his beck and call. King Maha Vajiralongkorn of Thailand has had many relationships and has been known to be involved with many women. The current Queen of Thailand is the King’s fourth wife. The main reason why this “stripping of rank and honors” is considered a bit of a controversy is because along with her title of consort, she is mainly known as the official concubine of the Thai King. According to Fox News, when the King had Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi his official concubine it “made her the first official mistress of the king since the end of Thailand's absolute monarchy in 1932.” While a bit of information about the case has surfaced, not much can be said since it is a legal crime of 15 years if one decided to speak ill of the Royal Thai family. But with what is known, it is still unsure if Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi will face punishment for wishing to be on the same level as the Queen of Thailand and for refusing to listen to the King and Queen’s orders in the past. According to Insider, Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi has had tensions with the Queen before, which led to her formal title being taken away from her. It has also resurfaced that Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi has wanted to marry the King himself and tried to stop the marriage between the King and his current wife. Unfortunately, that did not work in her favor. What happens inside the royal palace walls now with the issue likely will not be addressed in the media for sometime. ![]() Photo: YouTube By: Inez Jaime An anchor for CNN was shut down for asking a question about the NBA’s standoff with China. Christina Macfarlane, an anchor for CNN News was attending a post-match media conference in Tokyo on Thursday with NBA stars James Harden and Russel Westbrook. She asked a question that stunned the PRs and gave the athletes no chance to answer. The question was whether they would be comfortable speaking out on political and social issues in the future. They had no response. The League is currently facing backlash from China after the Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted that he is pro-democracy in the demonstrations in Hong Kong. The manager had deleted the post, but all of the NBA’s official Chinese partners were not amused. They have suspended ties with the League. The athlete James Harden seemed happy to answer the question, but was prevented from doing so by the media officer off-screen, despite Macfarlane’s follow up question. After the incident, the NBA spokesperson Mike Bass later apologized for the incident. The spokesperson had later stated this: “During today’s Houston Rockets media availability, a team representative inappropriately interjected to prevent CNN’s Christina Macfarlane from receiving an answer to her question.” He also said that they have formally apologized to Christina for the inconsistency with how the NBA conducts media events. Earlier in the conference, Macfarlane was able to ask Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni if he had any message for the Chinese fans who might have felt let down by the NBA over the spat. D'Antoni stated that it was a tough and very difficult situation. He said that Adam Silver speaks for the NBA, whom D’Antoni works for, and that he goes to Adam and he knows that he will do the right thing. Tim Frank, the NBA Senior Vice President, later called Macfarlane to personally apologize for the incident that had taken place. ![]() Photo: Washington Post By: Brianna Quinonez A major milestone for women in Iran is about be marked. For the first time in over 40 years, women will be allowed to enter a soccer stadium in Tehran, Iran to attend a soccer match. According to Reuters, this comes after an Irianian woman, named Sahar Khodayari, nicknamed Blue Girl, set herself on fire in protest that women should be allowed entry to all soccer matches. She later died, as the majority of her body underwent major burns. It is now known that her death was not in vain, but for a cause that she and many other women in Iran strongly believe: being able to attend public functions and being able to take part in society. According to Reuters, “Around 3,000 women’s’ tickets for the World Cup qualifier were snapped up when they went on sale last week”. Many women in the country didn’t want to miss an opportunity of them being able to take part in a public function in a public setting. Officially, women are not banned or considered criminals from going to men-only stadiums but they are refused entry. According to BBC, this unspoken rule of entry came after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, also known as the Islamic revolution, along with a stricter dress code for women. Although there was a basketball game in the past year that allowed women entry, they were separated from their male counterparts. This rule has been protested numerous times before. There have been several cases of women sneaking into soccer matches dressed up as men, employing fake beards and makeup to look like men when entering the stadium gates. There is also a movement called Open Stadiums. According to Twitter, Open Stadiums is “a movement of Iranian women seeking to end discrimination & let women attend stadiums.” This movement has been active for about 15 years now. Another quote from the Twitter account is, “And now, with the stadiums, it’s some sort of a symbol for women—if they can go to the stadiums, it means they break one of the walls in front of them. It will happen. You cannot stop us.” Photo: BBC News
By: Saira Canales On September 1st, 2019, a Japanese pop star was followed from the train station and was taken advantage of in her own home. A man the news named Hibiki Sato was able to find the location of a local pop star in Japan. The name of this young pop star and the actual name of the predator were not revealed, mainly for safety reasons. He was able to find her exact location through the reflection of her eyes. Just by seeing the train station through the eyes of the young pop star, he was able to go onto the Street View on Google Maps and see the actual train station she was at. He was able to find the best way to break into her home by what she posted on social media, including where the windows, doors, and furniture were located so he could find his way in and out. Now that phone cameras are becoming more and more precise, it is becoming increasingly easier to find where a person is at using just a selfie. Even videos of her in front of a curation showed which way the natural lighting was pointing, allowing him to determine which floor she was on. Elliot Higgins, the founder of the investigations site Bellingcat, has stated, "Higher quality images allow for more details to be identified that can help with geolocation, and the more reference imagery there is from services like Google Street View, the higher chance there is of finding a location”. Putting aside the fact the camera quality on phones are getting better, we have to acknowledge the fact that there are multiple resources online that can help track down a person. Just by typing in a name you can have multiple images of that person, or putting a picture in Google Recognition can give you all the information online about the person. When you post a picture online you can disable the location so none of your followers know where you are, but even then you can still be tracked down. Digital pictures have something called “metadata”. This is very useful to photographers so they can know the focal length and the photo exposure itself. But what is also included is the time and place where the photo was taken. Regardless of what photo is taken, when, where, or what setting you put it on, you can still be found with the technologies we have today, especially because of the insane speed at which technology is growing. Photo: Reuters
By: Inez Jamie On October 1, 2019, Taiwan's government condemned China's dictatorship over them. It was during the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic. The Chinese nationalist forces had fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing the war to the communists. China had stated that they claim the now democratic Taiwan as its sacred territory and never renounced the use of force to bring it under Beijing’s control. The president addressed a massive military parade in Beijing to mark seven decades of the Communist party rule in China, in the hopes of promoting peaceful development of relations with Taiwan. They had stated they will continue to continue to strive for the motherland’s complete reunification. The Tawainese Mainland Affairs Council had made a response about the parade, and the president's comments, stating that Taiwan would never accept one country with two systems. After this statement was made Beijing saw it fit to win over Taiwan over. The Chinese communist party were the people who agreed to dictatorship for 70 years. It is considered a concept of governance that had violated the values of democracy, freedom, and human rights. Communism poses risks and challenges for the development of China. It was largely an excuse by the military to call communism a struggle for unity and rejuvenation, the real motive being military expansion. This threatens regional peace, world democracy, and civilization. The council stated, “Taiwan was democratic for 30 years. China should’ve had not one person tied to a party.” They added that Taiwan will not be bullied into accepting China's position. China pressured Taiwan's president to push for the island’s formal independence, as well as a borderline for Beijing. China was angered from the support that Taiwan received during the anti-government protest in Hong Kong. They had stated that they are a country of democracy and freedom, and that they will show support for anyone in the world that is for these beliefs. They also stated that any ruler should listen carefully to the people’s pursuit of freedom and democracy and respects the people’s wishes. ![]() Photo: Mandal-AP By: Saira Canales Jamal Khashoggi was a journalist for the Washington Post but also worked as general manager and editor in chief for the Al-Arab News Channel. He used his platform on social media and on other news channels to help Saudi progressives to share their voice through him. Khashoggi had been very critical of Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman, and the country's king, Salman of Saudi Arabia. He also opposed the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen. On October 2, 2018, Khashoggi went to the Saudi consultant to pick up some paperwork for his arranged marriage. After this, he was never seen to leave the building. Rumors spread on how he was probably kidnapped and tortured by the Saudi government, but they denied all allegations. Recently in an interview, he stated he takes “full responsibility” for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. However, he denies to being the one to order it. He takes responsibility for the fact that Saudi officials were the ones who did it, but he was not the one who ordered the asassination. He continued, “But I take full responsibility as a leader in Saudi Arabia, especially since it was committed by individuals working for the Saudi government.” He defends himself and his statement by explaining that being second in highest command, people need to send him reports daily. This is difficult when you have 3 million people working under you and you have to review their reports daily. As he says himself, “It’s impossible that the 3 million would send their daily reports to the leader or the second-highest person in the Saudi government.” He expresses his remorse to his family. He does acknowledge that better control needs to be taken over his officials, but as of yet, no one is being tried or convicted of anything. He also explained that the body was never found because he was dismembered and disposed of. He also expressed he knew nothing at the time until later on, which is why he is only now commenting on the incident. ![]() Photo: Google Earth By: Brianna Quinonez After many destroyed homes, missing people, and possibly hurt economies, there is finally a dull moment in the hurricane season in the Atlantic. According to the National Hurricane Center, “The official hurricane season for the Atlantic Basin (the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico) is from June first to the thirtieth of November.” But this doesn’t mean more hurricanes aren’t bound to form. The Hurricane Center also commented on how, in the Caribbean, there is a tropical storm that had the chance of developing 20% in the next five days after it was reported which would land on or around October eighth. The countries that the hurricane has a possibility of hitting is Ireland and the UK. Though it may not hold its strongest form when it hits land, a BBC meteorologist stated, “Lorenzo is expected to diminish the 90mph winds by the time it reaches the islands, but would still be impactful for those islands". The last time it was recorded, it was a Category 5, which is a 157 mph winds, but since then it has relieved many Europeans since it has been downgraded to a Category 2, which is a about 96-110 mph. Although there is a decrease in wind power, this does not mean there is no risk for flooding and destroyed homes along or evacuation calls. According to USA Today, “Rainfall from Storm Lorenzo (as it's now known in Ireland), on top of recent heavy rain, also will bring a high risk for flooding across the British Isles”. This could possibly mimic what the citizens of the Bahamas just went through with Hurricane Dorian, which just destroyed their infrastructure and maybe created a tear with their economy that mainly consists of tourism. Hopefully, this is not a recurring case and would not hurt the countries involved. Ireland and the UK may be naturally involved, but the regions that are mostly likely to be affected are Northern Ireland and Southern Britain. Warnings have already been issued to those in Northern Ireland reminding citizens that as for transportation, “some delays to road, rail, air and ferry transport are likely,” according to the British Met Office. Overall, Hurricane Lorenzo will be one of the weakest hurricanes to hit this season. ![]() Source: Reuter By: Inez Jamie Jean- Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the main opposition for France, was seen in Paris on Thursday for his trial for charges of intimidating officials who had been investigating him because of funding irregularities. Politician France Ubowe, head of La France Insoumise (France’s judicial court), is a famous prosecutor in the court system of France. He was famous for his emotional style in court. He has stated that he would cast the trial to be as political as possible and is seeking to destroy him politically. When Mélenchon arrived to court, he said nothing. He simply waved to his supporters who had gathered outside the courthouse to see him. Mélenchon was known to dislike the French President Emmanuel Macron due to the economic policies that he had and the anti government protests. Unfortunately for Mélenchon, Macron had ended up winning the 2017 presidential election. This trial took place in 2018. It had been stated that the police officers had raided his parliament parties offices and homes. The search was conducted by the prosecutor. There is footage of Mélenchon and his group yelling at the prosecutor and officers, while his supporters tried to break into premises that was closed off for the search. He was later put on trial with seven other people, including two other members from Parliament. The prosecutors had stated that they had launched two preliminary investigations: one for the European Parliament funds and one for the irregularities that were in his presidential campaign. Other political parties were further investigated due to the misuse of European funds. This includes the national rally, the modem party, and a Macron ally. In this kind of circumstance Mélenchon must have felt awful for not paying the funds that were supposed to go to Europe's economy. Also his funding irregularities for his presidential campaign that had went on in 2017. Through the trial process is ongoing, we will eventually see what will become of Mélenchon. Will he end up getting kicked out of the political system? Or will he be granted mercy and continue on as being part of the political party of France? |
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