One Sentence News / November 23, 2022
The news simply summarized / November 23, 2022
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Indonesian rescuers search through rubble of quake
Summary: At least 268 people have been confirmed dead and more than a thousand confirmed injured in the aftermath of a 5.6-magnitude earthquake that struck the Indonesian island, Java, on Monday.
Context: This region suffers near-constant seismic activity because of its location, but this time of year is particularly bad because of the combination of earthquakes and heavy rainfall, which often leads to mudslides, and this quake was particularly devastating because the epicenter was near a densely populated area, and the quake occurred close to the surface, under land rather than ocean; rescuers are still attempting to save residents trapped under rubble, and a lot of people are still missing.
—The Associated Press
Iran team stage silent protest
Summary: The Iranian football team participating in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar stood silent as their national anthem played before their game against England’s team, defying convention—most teams sing or fake-sing along with their anthem—to show their support for anti-government protests happening back home.
Context: Several Iranian players have individually made their opinions about their government and the protests more overtly known—those protests sparked by the death of a young woman while she was in the custody of Iranian morality police, and in the months since, growing into a full-blown movement for women’s rights and against the repressive Iranian government—and this silent statement of solidarity has been welcomed by many fans, though there are concerns that the players may be punished by their government when they return home.
—Deutsche Welle
Beijing shuts parks and Shanghai tightens entry as China COVID cases rise
Summary: Following a brief loosening of COVID-related rules and regulations, many large Chinese cities have reimplemented harder-core policies—including the closure of parks and requiring proof of a negative COVID test in order to enter public buildings—to deal with fresh waves of infections that have been, in some cities, hitting new highs every day.
Context: China’s COVID-zero policy has kept overall infection numbers low for most of the past few years, but it has also led to low vaccine-uptake numbers, and they continue to only use locally made vaccines, which aren’t as effective as those used elsewhere; consequently, every time they drop their draconian COVID-related rules, there are fresh infection surges, and the rules then go back up; some argue this is the superior option compared to approaches being used elsewhere around the world, but the Chinese economy has taken a serious hit as a direct result of this strategy, and usually well-behaved citizens have grown increasingly frustrated with all the lockdowns and restrictions, to the point where semi-regular protests have become almost normal in some areas.
—Reuters
It hasn’t been a good month for crypto assets (for FTX collapse reasons, but also because of the drop in asset prices for the past year-ish), and that not-good-ness has been bad for crypto infrastructure like crypto-exchange Coinbase, as well—the platform has dropped from a high of nearly $430 per share in April of 2021, down to $40.61 per share this week.
$1.1 billion
Conditional funding approved by the US government to prevent the closure of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California. This facility is the last operating plant in the state.
There’s been pushback against nuclear power infrastructure for decades, but many consider it to be vital to making a speedy transition to decarbonized power sources (the US’s 92 reactors produce more than half the country’s emissions-free energy), despite the (in some cases essentially eternal) radioactive waste these plants also produce.
—Reuters