Week #1 {All of this Week's News Under One Blog} 9th to 16th November '20

List of News articles of this week

• US Presidential Election

• COVID Vaccine

• COVID in Europe

• Current Affairs in India

• Poland Abortion Laws

• Armenia Conflict

• Ethiopia Crisis

• Sri Lankan Beached Whales

US Presidential Election

Article written and Website edited by Misaki Tomiyama, Article edited by Ananya Nayar

Image by Liberty University is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 On Saturday, 7th November 2020, it was announced that Joe Biden had won the elections and had become the 46th president of the United States. The elections started on Tuesday, November 3rd 2020, and it was different from every other year because of the pandemic; many people voted early, by posting ballots or in person. However, because of the voting done by posts, the voting process took more time compared to every other year. Before running for presidency, Trump had been a businessman and a television personality, appearing on shows and in movies, he also owned and founded ‘Trump Towers,’ luxury apartments and hotels all over the world. Joe Biden had been a senator from 1993-2009, they have a say in the decisions being made, Biden was also Barack Obama’s vice-president from 2008-2006. The American government is divided into 2 parties- The Republican and the Democratic. Donald Trump was the candidate from the Republican party, and Joe Biden from the democratic. In order for a president to get elected in the United states, the candidates have to win at least 270 electoral college votes. Electoral votes are dependent on states and who takes which states, whoever wins a state will get all the electoral votes there. The number of electoral votes in a state are based on the density of the population. A sparsely populated state will have less electoral votes, and a densely populated state will have more electoral votes. A lot has happened in the United states over these election dates, starting with Joe Biden leading in Pennsylvania (the state that went for Trump in ‘16), Arizona and Georgia. Throughout the campaign and voting, Biden has encouraged that all votes of the citizens should be counted, however, Trump had tweeted several times that there were many voter frauds. Donald Trump had posted a tweet mentioning “STOP THE COUNT!” on 5th November, when Biden was leading with 264 electoral votes, and Trump 214. Trump’s tweet had instantly gone viral on social media, with many celebrities and popular creators sharing and tweeting it and calling it hilarious. Furthermore, Trump has filed several lawsuits in different states, with many judges dismissing them. These lawsuits claimed that the problems regarding the elections still remain unresolved, however, many legal experts claim that even if these lawsuits were successful, it would be less likely that they change the election results.There have been several quarrels and protests amongst the people of the opposing parties, and many Trump supporters, protested about the voter frauds. Despite all of the protestations made by Donald Trump, Joe Biden had been elected with 279 electoral votes, and Trump with 214. Donald Trump refuses to believe the outcome of the election and is still living in a denial for the results, most states are recounting the ballots and they are rectifying it to make sure there are no errors included that may change the outcome of the election. If the outcome of the recounted votes remain the same, then Biden and Harris will be inaugurated on the 20th of January. Republican party voters do not accept the results of the election either, some of the 72 million Trump voters still say they are unable to move on. Despite the electoral defeat, Republicans insist Trump won the ‘legal’ votes. Some began using social media platforms and their voices on streets to spread the ideology that Trump had actually won the election. However, the new president and the election ballots is not the only thing that has been in the limelight for this past week. Kamala Harris has been elected as the vice president of the United States, and is the first woman, and first black and Asian American to have won the vice president election. After the elections, she tweeted “We did it, @JoeBiden”.

COVID Vaccine

Article Written by Ananya Nayar, Website edited By Misaki Tomiyama German company BioNTech and American pharmaceutical company Pfizer have reached a breakthrough and developed a potential CoronaVirus-19 vaccine. It has been the biggest scientific advance against Covid so far and the vaccine has treated cases in adults and children.

Image Credits to Wix The vaccine has been more than 90% effective in those who have not had a prior infection (respiratory disease). Pfizer has said that "based on current projections we expect to produce globally up to 50 million vaccine doses in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021."

How the mRNA vaccine works

Germany announced that the vaccine may not be ready until March-April 2021, however there are 7 other vaccines to be tested soon which will be given to the priority groups who are at risk from Covid. These 7 vaccines to be tested come from Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, CureVa, Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Novovax. The German government stated that they will cover the value of the vaccines, while the price of setting up vaccination centres will be supported by the state’s public and private health insurers. The World Health Organisation (WHO) have approved this vaccine and estimated 70% or more of the population will have to be immunized to stop circulation of the virus. Doctors are optimistic on the results of the vaccine, however, once the vaccine is developed it is unlikely that the production will start immediately and will be available in mass quantity for a few months and medical workers must be aware about this idea. Currently, there are more than 200 vaccine candidates attempting to produce a perfect vaccine, there are many in trial but most have not been able to check off all the measures required, this vaccine by BioNTech and Pfizer seems to be on track for public consumption.

COVID in Europe

Article written, and website edited by Misaki Tomiyama, Article edited by Ananya Nayar With around 14,488,000 confirmed cases (as of November 14th) in Europe, the European countries are taking several actions to slow down the spread of the pandemic, by reinforcing medical facilities, and many countries (such as England, France, Portugal) going into a second lockdown.

Image by Ana Dascalescu is licensed under CC BY-NC 3.0. UK alone has recorded 1,317,500(as of November 14th), and has enforced a lockdown, preventing foreign travel- travelling is only permitted for work, educational, or any other valid reason. Airports in Europe are testing passengers before they go on board, to ensure that no passengers who are positive aboard on the plane.Passengers entering the UK (from Germany and Denmark) have to self isolate for 14 days. The UK went into a second lockdown on the 5th of November to prevent “medical and moral disaster,” however, schools remain open, despite the National Education Union’s idea to close them. Playground’s remain open, youth groups will stay closed, places of entertainment and leisure centres will also be shut and the lockdown is scheduled to end on a month, 2nd November.

In Italy, most of the regions are under lockdown, and people can only go outside if they are going for work, hospitals or medical facilities, essential shopping or any other emergency region. Many countries have done the same, and efforts have been made to control the cases. Credits- who.int bbc.com

Current Affairs in India

Article written by Ananya Nayar, Website edited by Misaki Tomiyama India currently has more than 8.5 million Covid cases, and due to this there are less Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds for the number of patients testing positive and requiring hospital attention. More than 80% of the ICU beds in Delhi are now occupied, putting a strain on patients' health. The Government is adding more beds to 22 more hospitals, but they are afraid that won’t help since it is predicted there will be 15,000 new cases a day in India in the winter, rather than 7,000 new cases per day that India was experiencing in the summer. Cases are rising steadily after Diwali, a national festival in India, where people met up to enjoy festivities and there were more social gatherings.

Image by Mohsen Atayi is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Many cities in India have been enveloped in pollution for the past week, crop burning, fireworks, vehicles and factory pollution are all contributors. Pollution levels in the summer were 40 pm 2.5 average, compared to winter levels being up to 600 pm 2.5. Earlier this week, Joe Biden was elected President of the United States. Biden will be good for India since he looked forward to strengthening the relationship between India and the US since 2006. When he was Vice President, Biden signed an agreement to support the Indo-US Nuclear Deal. Earlier, when Biden was VP, the US made it easier for the India defence system, and they partnered up to share information and devices, and they became part of the US alliance system. During Biden’s presidency, India will see strong ties with the United States for many things; against terrorism and more. Unlike Trump’s administration immigration laws, Biden will support Indian Citizens who seek the US for jobs, education, living and retirement. However, Donald Trump’s tight laws may not be as easy as expected to reverse, so there still will be a setback on immigration from India. India, being a developing country has a ‘Minimum Support Price’ or MSP protocol. It is set to give a farmer a minimum wage for harvest if the market prices aren’t matching to set prices placed earlier. There have also been acute shortages of crops, so MSP applies there too. Twenty-two crops fall under MSP in India. Farmers are worried about the MSP and profit they will receive since 67% of India’s population falls under the Public Distribution System (PDS) for food grains. The MSP price is declared after sowing, whilst the PDS price is declared after harvest. In Ladakh, China and India remain in a deadlock. After 8 meetings, both senior military commanders have not faced a conclusion, it has been reported that there will be another meeting soon. Previously, China pushed that India vacate the Chushul sector and areas of Pangong Tso. Meanwhile, India was resolute that all troops on both sides go back to previous positions from April.

Poland Abortion Laws

Article Written By Ananya Nayar, Website edited by Misaki Tomiyama Over the past two weeks, Polish women have protested the streets of Poland against a new law proposed on the 30th October that bans the right of safe abortions. Law enforcement was seen with pepper spray to disperse crowds. Poland is a largely conservative country where nationalism is seen in society.

Image by Zorro2212 and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Poland is one of the small number of countries in the world to proscribe abortion after many years of permissive legislation during the Communist rule. The abortion ban was a pro-life decision, and it went with Poland’s ‘right to life’ constitution. However, there were two conditions against the abortion outlaw, being that abortions should be permitted if the pregnancy puts pressure or risks a women’s health, and if the pregnancy was due to incest or sexual assault. Even earlier, Polish abortion laws were considered the strictest in Europe and less than 2,000 abortion cases would be carried out each year, before the ban there were up to 120,000 estimated women Poles who would seek abortion overseas or illegally. People have been protesting pro-choice for decades, even in 2016 women protested against the decision that illegal abortion in Poland would result in a 5 years jail penalty. Many protesters are worried that women will forcibly have to go into labour, leading to health issues or child abandonment. Many also feel this is going against the UN’s ‘Convention on the rights of a Child’ law which declares a child should be protected before and after birth. The pro-choice protests are also objecting that this is against Human Rights. The protests have also been quite violent, with vandalism, pepper spray and water used to disperse the hundreds fulminating.

Armenia Conflict

Article Written by Ananya nayar, Website edited by Misaki Tomiyama Armenia is a small nation, former Soviet Republic in Asia-Europe. It borders Iran and Turkey and is a landlocked country.

Image credits to Google Maps Earlier this year, Armenia broke out in armed fighting against Azerbaijan, another former Soviet Republic nation (militarily supported by Turkey). Azerbaijan is a country in Western Asia- Europe. It is surrounded by the Caspian Sea and Caucasus Mountains, bordered by Russia, Georgia to the North, Iran to the South and Armenia. The clashes broke out after tension between the two nations that has been there for a few decades, yet this is the most harsh encounter since the early 1990’s. In 1994, Armenia and Azerbaijan were at war for the Nagorno-Karabakh land, the war ended without an Armistice or a peace treaty, Azerbaijan took the Karabakh land as their own, although a majority of the population was Armenian. Before the 1990’s war, when the Soviet Union was falling apart, the Armenian parliament had voted if they wanted Nagorno-Karabakh to be part of Armenia or Azerbaijan, they voted Armenia, and the fighting broke out. On the 27th September 2020, Azerbaijan reported a missile from Armenia struck homes, killing 7 people. Azerbaijan announced they only attacked in response to the Armenian shelling. The conflict has been getting worldwide attention because rivals Turkey and Russia are playing a role too, Russia has been giving support to Armenia to help take land, and Turkey has been providing military support to Azerbaijan since they have strong relations. Russia and Turkey have had problems of their own, they have been on opposing sides of the Syrian civil war and the Libyan civil war. Earlier this week on Tuesday the 10th of November, Armenia signed a peace treaty with Azerbaijan stating they would end the conflict for Nagorno-Karabakh land after 6 weeks of fighting. The Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called the truce "incredibly painful both for me and both for our people". It was agreed that Armenia shall be allowed to keep whatever Karabakh land they conquered during the dispute, but they will also give up other pieces of land over the next few weeks. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin stated that almost 2,000 Russian Soldiers will patrol the border peacefully. Pashinyan announced that this conclusion was based on "deep analyses of the combat situation and in discussion with best experts of the field". The Armenian leader of Nagorno-Karabakh, Arayak Harutyunyan declared that he agreed that the war must end as soon as possible. During the battle, Armenia lost its second biggest town Shusha. "This is not a victory but there is no defeat until you consider yourself defeated," the Armenian Prime Minister said.

Ethiopian air strikes

Article written, website edited by Misaki Tomiyama

Credits to Google maps, Edits made On 6th November, Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed claimed that his government had dropped an airstrike targeting the Tigray People's Liberation Front’s (TPLF- a military party in the northern Tigray state) military base- “completely destroyed rockets and other heavy weapons''. Many people feared that this attack might have negative effects on the neighbouring countries and states, but Prime Minister Abuy Ahmed says that the operation has a clear, limited and achievable goal. The airstrikes on Tigray prevented any retaliation attack from them. According to the local media, the targets of the airstrike were the rocket weapons in and around Mekelle (the state capital), furthermore, this made it impossible for the Tigray states to carry out a retaliatory attack. In 2018, Abiy Ahmed was appointed as prime minister to help calm the anti-government protest that has been going on for months. He later won the Nobel Prize, for his efforts to achieve peace, and his ability to resolve the border conflict with Eritrea. However, the TPLF felt as if they were marginalised, and withdrew from the government coalition- a body that is formed when different political parties choose to work together to regulate the country. The two sides further clashed in September, when the central government made a decision to ban the elections due to the spread of the coronavirus. TPLF thinks that prime minister Abiy Ahmed hadn’t postponed the election because of the coronavirus, but for his own benefit, so he can stay in the office longer. They have been greatly defying the central government, and despite their ban, the leaders of the Tigray state, carried out an election. The central government stopped funding the TPLF executive, and started funding the local government instead as a result. This piqued a lot of the leaders in the TPLF, and many argue that this conflict might spread to other parts of Ethiopia, and lead to a civil war outbreak. Credits- Youtube Guardian.com Nobel prize.org Britannica.com Aljazeera.com

Sri Lankan Beached Whales

Article Written by Ananya Nayar, Website edited by Misaki Tomiyama

Image by Peter van der Sluijs, is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. On the 3rd-9th November Sri Lanka rescued almost 120 stranded whales on the beach. The Sri Lankan navy, police, environmentalists and volunteers from nearby villages worked through the night to push the whales to deeper water so they could swim back. Three pilot whales and a dolphin died from injuries near Panadura, a few more whales also died after the tiredness of fighting to stay afloat on shallow waters, they didn’t have enough energy to push themselves back to the deeper sea. The Pilot whales beached themselves, and this was thought to be the biggest stranding in Sri Lanka. The short-finned pilot whales started coming ashore at Panadura, 25 kilometres south of Colombo, on Monday at midday. Pilot whales travel in schools, and are social mammals because they travel in large communities with steady communication. Pilot whales grow up to 20 feet in length and can weigh up to 3,000 kilograms.