Tag: Austria

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Weekly Summaries

29th of November – 5th of December

Turkish Lira further loses value

After the Lira crashed last week, protests broke out across Turkey. The crash comes after months of worsening economic problems that already caused the currency to lose more than 45 percent of its value from the start of 2021. Last week alone, the currency devalued by around 20 percent. The police have responded by detaining protestors: last Wednesday the police detained at least 70 people in districts of Istanbul who were protesting the “government’s management of the economy,” according to the New York Times.

American delegates to boycott 2022 Winter Olympics

This weekend the Biden administration announced that no American delegates would be attending the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. American athletes, however, are not affected by the boycott and will be allowed to compete in the Olympics. Since the announcement, New Zealand and Australia have joined the U.S. in the diplomatic boycott.

Other News

  • Four students died at the most recent school shooting at a high school in Michigan, United States. The suspect is a 15-year old who now faces murder and terrorirsm charges
  • Austria’s former chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, who is currently under investigation for accusations that include corruption, announced last week that he was quitting politics
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Weekly Summaries

4th of October – 10th of October

A long week for Facebook

Facebook and other apps owned by Facebook like WhatsApp and Instagram were down for over five hours last Monday. The shutdown showed just how dependent people around the world have become on Facebook. Just one day later, last Tuesday, a former product manager at Facebook turned-whistleblower, Frances Haugen, explained to a Senate subcommittee how Facebook “deliberately kept people — including children — hooked on its services,” according to the New York Times. Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, immediately rebutted the claims.

Other News

  • Kurz, Austria’s chancellor announced on Saturday that he would resign
  • The WHO approved the first-ever malaria vaccine. The vaccine was developed by GlaxoSmithKline and could potentially save the lives of tens of thousands of children in sub-Saharan Africa.
  • The city of Venice in Italy is using hundreds of surveillance cameras and buying the cellphone data of tourists in an effort to establish more crowd control, according to the New York Times
  • The cost of oil, natural gas, and coal has increased drastically the past few months. The rise is caused in part by oil companies refusing to produce more to prevent the prices from dropping.
  • In an order last week, the Indian Supreme Court ruled that the government should pay families who have lost family members to COVID-19 50,000 rupees (around 671 U.S. dollars)
  • The world has lost around 14% of its coral reefs since 2009, a new study revealed
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Weekly Summaries

9th of November – 15th of November

Border conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan possibly resolved

On Monday, Armenia’s prime minister Nikol Pashinyan signed an agreement which is supposed to end the border conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Armenia will have to surrender the disputed territories. Armenian forces in these areas are supposed to pull out. They will be replaced by Russian peacekeepers. Russia was also the country which helped to negotiate the deal to end the war. However, only a few hours after the announcement was made public, people started protesting in Armenia’s capital city, Yerevan.

France and Austria meet to discuss antiterrorism measures

This Tuesday the French President Emmanuel Macron and the Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz met in Paris. In recent weeks there have been terror attacks in both France and Austria.

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Weekly Summaries

2nd of November – 8th of November

Joe Biden named President-Elect

After multiple days of anticipation, the result was finally announced. Biden was named President-Elect, receiving 290 electoral votes. Our writer Liam wrote about the US elections in more detail on our updates section. You can read his post here: https://econir-web.com/2020/11/08/the-us-election-of-2020/

Terror attack in Vienna

On Monday night, four people were killed and at least 22 other people were wounded in the capital city of Austria: Vienna. Multiple gunmen shot people at 6 different locations in central Vienna. Sebastian Kurz, Austria’s chancellor, announced that the police killed one of the gunmen. Austrian officials later described the shooting as a “terror attack.”

Kabul University stormed

On Monday, gunmen in Afghanistan stormed Kabul University, killing at least 19 people and wounding many more. An Afghan branch of the Islamic State later claimed responsibility.