Tag: Facebook

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Weekly Summaries

25th of October – 31st of October

Coup in Sudan

Last Monday, the top generals of Sudan seized power from the government in a coup. The prime minister and other civilian leaders, which had previously shared power with the military under a tense agreement, were arrested. The military proceeded to impose a state of emergency, opening fire on protestors. President Biden condemned the coup and offered economic assistance worth $700 million in the hopes of aiding the protests for democracy.

G20 Summit in Glasgow

Presidents and Prime Ministers from around the world gathered in Glasgow, Scotland this past week for the 12-day long global warming conference hosted by the U.N. to discuss global climate policies. How successful the summit will be is very uncertain as many countries are currently more focused on battling COVID and getting their economies back on track after lockdown.

Other News

  • A very severe fuel shortage is pushing Haiti, a country already struggling, to the brink of collapse
  • Facebook changed its name to Meta as part of its rebranding scheme
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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
Categories
Weekly Summaries

27th of September – 3rd of October

Lithuania enrages China

Recently, Lithuania has been trying to get closer to Taiwan, enraging China by taking actions such as quitting a Chinese-led diplomatic forum. In response, China recalled its ambassador to Lithuania, made it basically impossible for Lithuanian businesses to sell their goods in China, and paused trips by a Chinese cargo train into Lithuania. While Lithuania is a lot smaller than China — China has 1.4 billion people while Lithuania has fewer than 3 million — the country is important as a “transit corridor” for goods heading to Europe from Asia.

Other News

  • Shortages are restraining the recovery of many parts of the economy worldwide
  • In a tweet last week, the Taliban announced that women would be barred from teaching and studying at Kabul University, Afghanistan’s most prestigious university
  • Facebook has “paused development of an Instagram app for children under 13,” according to the New York Time
  • Japan’s governing party elected its choice for the next prime minister: Fumio Kishida

Categories
Weekly Summaries

8th of February – 14th of February

Protests in Myanmar

After the military re-claimed power during a coup last weekend, hundreds of thousands of people in Myanmar responded by going out on the streets to protest. They called for the release of the civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi who was detained during the coup. In the hopes of gaining international attention, the protestors posted videos on Facebook meanwhile the military has taken a firmer grip. Some of the tactics the military has already implemented are telecommunications outages and banning social media platforms such as Facebook during the process of cementing their power.

Trump’s impeachment trial will go ahead

On Monday, the U.S. Senate voted to go ahead with the impeachment trial. The defending team of the former U.S. President Donald Trump argued that it would be unconstitutional to go ahead with the impeachment as Donald Trump is no longer in office at this point. If Trump were to be found guilty, the Senators could prevent him from running for federal office again.

Other News

  • In India, a Himalayan glacier crumbled, killing 7 people, wounding 125 more, and destroying two dam projects.
  • The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, pleaded not guilty. He is accused of several corruption charges, and the general election for which he is running for re-election is only a few weeks away. 
  • The Netherlands has suspended international adoptions for the time being. Recent investigations have shown that there were abuse cases between 1967 and 1998 on which the government had failed to act.
  • China has banned BBC programs
Categories
Weekly Summaries

1st of February – 7th of February

Military Coup in Myanmar

After Myanmar’s civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her top lieutenants were detained during raids in the early Monday morning hours, a one-year long state of emergency was announced on a military television network. The army chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing is now in power. Later on, a statement was also issued through television, which was supposed to justify the power takeover by the military, claiming that there had been frauds in the November elections. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s party — the National League for Democracy — had won the election with a landslide victory. Some say that the coup now marks the country’s return to full military rule. She now faces up to three years in prison, being charged with the illegal import of at least 10 walkie-talkies. Since then, the new military government has blocked access to Facebook as Myanmar slowly begins to isolate itself from the rest of the world again.

Navalny sentenced to two years in prison

Aleksei Navalny was sentenced to more than two years in prison by a Moscow court. He is charged with violating a parole from 2014 about regularly checking in with the Russian authorities. Navalny did not do this while he was recovering in Germany. There have been continued protests in Russia, but Russian authorities have signalled that they will remain firm.

Other News:

After the British government announced that they would make it easier for Hong Kong residents to move to Britain, the Chinese government responded by declaring that it would no longer accept the special passports issued by Britain to Hong Kong residents.

Categories
Weekly Summaries

4th of January – 10th of January

Storm on U.S. Capitol

Pro-Trump rioters overwhelmed the security forces present on Wednesday. The aim was to interrupt the counting of electoral votes to confirm Joe Biden as the 46th U.S. President. Chaos and violence followed, with one person shot and more dying later from their injuries. After more than three hours, the police, with support from the F.B.I. and National Guard members were able to regain control. Since, several social media platforms have banned President Trump’s accounts, including Twitter and Facebook. 

Other news

  • 100 civilians were reported dead in Niger on Monday after gunmen carried out a revenge attack in an area controlled by militants.
  • Saudi Arabia agreed to reopen its border and airspace to Qatar, after a boycott was first put in place in 2017.
  • In Hong Kong, the police arrested 53 pro-democracy officials and activists. It was the largest roundup since the introduction of the new national security law by Peking.
  • Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla replaced Jeff Bezos as the richest man in the world on Thursday.
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Weekly Summaries

27th of July – 2nd of August

Chief Executives appear before Congress

Last year, Cicilline, the chairman of the antitrust panel, opened a congressional investigation of Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon. This Wednesday the executives of these tech giants were questioned for almost 6 hours about the strategies their respective company used to get to their supreme position of dominance over the technology market. All chief executives denied the claims of harming the economy, oppressing competitors, and purposefully limiting the choices consumers have.