Tag: XXVII69

Week 19: Massive anti-government protests continue to escalate and turn more violent. Stores, banks, and properties perceived to be connected with Beijing were vandalized, and a subway station was hit with gas bombs, shutting down service. Reacting to the anti-mask law, which the city government imposed to help identify protestors, demonstrators continued taking to the...

The UN World Food Program has issued a warning that Zimbabwe is “marching towards starvation.”  Decades of dictatorial rule and government mismanagement, and now faced with severe drought conditions, have created a serious national health emergency. This comes on top of the worst economic crisis in the country since the military takeover occurred in 2017. ...

As reported in the 8 October Trends Journal, thousands of Ecuadorian workers, indigenous people, and students took to the streets to protest rampant government corruption and lack of employment.   Last February, Ecuador’s President, Lenín Moreno, made a deal with the IMF for a $4.2 billion loan. As part of the deal, he issued some...

The ruling Social Democratic Party of Romania suffered a no-confidence motion by opposition parties, who have claimed rampant corruption and attacks the rule of law.  The party has faced accusations of graft since taking over the reins of government in December of 2016. Last year, the government fired the head of Romania’s anti-corruption agency and,...

A U.S. first but not the last: a gas station in Takoma Park, MD, has taken out its gas pumps, ripped up its underground fuel tanks, and replaced that infrastructure with electric car chargers. The station’s owner was motivated only partly by his teenage daughter’s environmental concerns. The rest of the decision was purely business....

In September, more than 150 geneticists from 19 countries convened – in Cambridge, MA and on-line – to strategize about speeding research from spotting genes associated with specific common illnesses to figuring out how those genetic triggers work and on to cures. Dubbed the International Common Disease Alliance, or ICDA, the group is modeled after...

Scientists at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania have used data science, also known as informatics, to create a new class of super-hard alloys that could lead to crash-resistant vehicles and better protection for soldiers in combat.  The researchers used a variety of sophisticated computer algorithms that compared and correlated the properties of different materials and then...