The coronavirus that hit the Chinese city Wuhan in late December has taken the lives of 490 and infected 24,324 throughout the nation. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that outside of China there are 191 cases in 25 countries. In response, all Chinese cities with over 57 million residents in the surrounding province have...
Tag: Feb52020
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AFGHANISTAN: BOMBS AWAY
On 27 January, a Taliban spokesperson reported that the group had shot down a U.S. military aircraft. Later that day, General David L. Goldfein, the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, identified the plane as an E-11 military plane, one of the Pentagon’s most advanced communications aircrafts. The crash site, about 70 miles...
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IRAQ: MORE WAR, MORE CASUALITES
In response to the U.S. assassination of General Qasem Soleimani on 3 January, Iran responded with a missile attack at the Ayn al Asad Air Base in Iraq, which housed U.S troops. Following the 8 January missile strike, President Trump boasted that Iran appears “to be standing down… and the American people should be extremely...
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STUDY PREDICTS OCEAN-DRIVEN U.S. MIGRATIONS
A University of California study using artificial intelligence has predicted mass migration patterns away from U.S. coasts as ocean levels rise in the years ahead. If forecasts of sea-level rise, based on current rates, are accurate, 13 million people will need to evacuate U.S. coastal areas by 2100. The study combined those forecasts with population-change...
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2020 RETAIL TREND: FACIAL RECOGNITION
Retailers and shoppers believe that facial recognition will dominate retail innovations this year, according to a survey by CB Insights. Asia is the testbed. In Japan, the FamilyMart convenience store chain has opened a Yokohama store that uses cameras to log a customer’s purchases and then uses facial recognition software to identify the customer and...
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TURNING GARBAGE INTO GRAPHENE
Graphene – a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern – is a miracle material. It’s the best known conductor of heat and electricity; its strength for its size and thickness is unrivaled; and it has the potential to revolutionize everything from tennis racquets to medical devices. Adding a dash of graphene...
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INDIA PROTEST MOVEMENT: WORST IS YET TO COME
Now in its sixth week, millions of Indian protesters continue taking to the streets despite harsh police retaliation and repression by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The key target of the demonstration is the anti-Muslim Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which cites religion as a basis for citizenship...
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U.S: “WATCH OUT FOR CHINA”
Last Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that the Chinese Communist Party is “the central threat of our times.” Pompeo’s statement comes in the wake of Washington exerting pressure on European governments to ban the 5G networks of Huawei, China’s most powerful telecommunications company. Recently, the British government permitted Huawei to be among the...
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FRANCE: PROTESTS PETERING OUT?
Since 5 December, millions of French union workers and citizens have been protesting President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to revise the popular pension system, creating the largest strikes and protests since 1968. As reported last week, union members are feeling the financial pressure of being off the job for months, and, among them, those from the...
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LIBYA: NATO POWERS GET OUT THEIR CARVING KNIVES
As reported in last week’s Trends Journal, on 19 January, nations including the U.S., Russia, UK, France, China, the United Arab Republic, Turkey, Italy, Egypt, and Algeria met in Berlin in an effort to negotiate a truce in the escalating Libyan civil war. The Government of National Accord (GNA), Libya’s current, interim government headed by...