Puerto Rico grid 'teetering' despite $3.8 billion repair job

The article begins with talking about the past eight months that Puerto Rico has been dealing with. Since the hurricane hit in the fall people have still been living in the dark. With a $3.8 billion federal effort the problem is still not solved and is the longest blackout in American history. Additionally, the measures taken for the 3.3 million people living there are most likely to collapse whenever the next hurricane hits. With the weather increasing and getting warmer it is said that hurricane season will begin soon. Statistics that came out said that there is a 75% chance that the on coming hurricane season will bring on five to nine hurricanes that could be categories three, four, or five with winds up to 111 mph. With the chances so high of hurricanes to come measures need to done to prevent worse future conditions. Officials of Puerto Rico blame decades of mismanagement that left more than $9 billion in debt last year which did no allow them for emergency funds for the aftermath of this disaster. With the “work” that has been done in Puerto Rico the vice president said that it is roughly 10 to 15 percent of the work done did not meet basic quality standards. Unfortunately, for the future to come Puerto Ricans are preparing for the worst to come.

Kaleigh Walsh

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/puerto-rico-grid-teetering-38-billion-repair-job-55551772

Trump Puts New Tariffs on Allies Creating Possible Trade War

Kyle Bujak
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/31/trump-hits-us-allies-with-steel-aluminum-tariffs-615327
This morning, President Trump announced new tariffs on steel and aluminum on United States allies such as the European Union, Mexico, and Canada. Mexico and the EU have retaliated slapping new taxes on the United States goods that are coming into their countries. This is very important because the United States is currently in the middle of a trade war with China, and now they have started a conflict with people that we have always had a positive relationship with, and this is something that can be really devastating for the US as Trump is trying to renew American jobs in the steel industry.

Murdered Russian Journailst Appears Alive

According to CNN, a “murdered” Russian journalist appears to be alive and on Ukrainian TV. The journalist was supposedly shot dead in Ukraine Tuesday leaving Russia responsible. However, today he we seen on TV next to Ukraine security officials on a live conference broadcast. According to Ukraine the staged murdered had been planned for over two months. The Russian journalist had left Russia saying it wasn’t safe. Therefore, Ukraine had left evidence to make Russia look responsible for an act a terrorism. The attack was very realistic even his wife and close friends had believed he had been killed. Ukraine went to such extremes by even releasing a sketch of the suspected killer for police. Russia believe that this is an act of propaganda by Ukraine attempting to place the blame on Russia, only making themselves look like the better country. The tensions between states is now escalating meanwhile, Ukraine accused Russia for killing children by supporting Syrian president attacks.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/30/europe/russian-arkady-babchenko-ukraine-television-intl/index.html


Kelsey Persenico

CIA Believes N. Korea Won't Give Up Nukes... Might open Burger Joint...

Kyle Bujak
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/north-korea/cia-report-says-north-korea-won-t-denuclearize-might-open-n878201
With talks about a summit between the United States and North Korea being up in the air and possibly not happening, the CIA has dropped a bombshell saying that they do not believe that North Korea will give up their nukes; however, they believe that there is a chance that North Korea will open a burger joint. This is something that is interesting because of the "Golden Arches Theory" states that two countries that both have a McDonald's in their country will not go to war, so this is a very interesting development in the summit talks is very intriguing.

White House slaps 25% tariff on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods

It appears that a trade war with China is imminent. On Tuesday, the White House announced a plan to impose a 25% tariff on $50 billion worth of goods imported from China. Trump reportedly plans to take steps to protect domestic technology and intellectual property from "discriminatory and burdensome trade practices by China." Earlier this month the two countries agreed to dial back threats of tens of billions in tariffs on imported goods. The US and China also agreed that China would increase purchases of US goods and services to cut down on their trade imbalance. This recent decision definitely goes against the previous agreement.

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/29/news/economy/china-tariffs/index.html

By: Michael Dieckman

Israel strikes Gaza after heaviest mortar barrage in years

This article is about the ongoing disputes between Palestinians and Israel’s, and builds off of the tension that has been rising in the past few weeks. This article specifically talks about how Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired mortars at Israel, and Israel has responded with air strikes on militant positions in Gaza. This attack comes right after the incident where Israeli snipers opened fire on Palestinians, during a mass protest on the Gaza-Israel border. The majority of the mortar fire was shot down by Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile defense system, but some mortars got through the system and one specifically landed in the yard of a kindergarten slightly wounding a worker. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Israeli military will respond very forcefully to the attacks, which he blamed on Gaza’s ruling Hamas movement. The article also reports that within the last week machine-gun fire from Gaza hit houses and vehicles in the Israeli border town of Sderot, an Israeli tank fired and killed four militants in Gaza, and a member of Hamas was killed after Israeli soldiers caught a group attempting to breach the border and carry out an attack. These attacks and the rising occurrence of these attacks represent rising tension between these two sides, and the international community is watching this situation closely.

Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-44287594

-Noah Parrill

Trump & China- Trade War

After 9 days on the Trade War hold, this morning Trump decided to move forward in implementing tariffs on Chinese imports. He has also stated that we will be limiting our technology trade with China in "an effort to preserve national security". Their hope with this new tariff, that China will have a little more motivation and sense of urgency to reach a deal. They have set a deadline for June 15th to reach an agreement, and are set to start imposing new threats starting June 30th.

Kimi Epker

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/05/29/trade-war-trump-gets-tough-china-ahead-new-trade-talks/651493002/

Matthew Wagner- Iranian university students criticize country in meeting with supreme leader, report says

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/05/29/iranian-university-students-criticize-country-in-meeting-with-supreme-leader-report-says.html

        This Fox News article gives us a unique perspective on Iran. The article discusses an event where Iranian college students spoke in front of their country’s leadership. The students covered a variety of issues that the country is facing including the withdrawal of the US from the nuclear deal. The article made it appear that the college students were calling out the leadership of Iran which is good for the international community. If the next generation sees the problems in Iran, then they will one day have the power to change Iran and its policies. This could lead to a more Westernized Iran in the future as well as a more stable Middle East.

                 -Matthew Wagner

Disinformation; A Global Issue - Ryan Lorig

News of Russian interference in U.S. elections has seen rippling effects throughout the international community. Many nations now fear for their risk for interference from not only Russian bots, but from fake news and “disinformation” as a whole. Meserole and Polyakova explain that Germany recently passed the Network Enforcement Act, designed to limit hate speech and fake news in the online community. Meserole and Polyakova argue that policy like this could have a very minimal effect on the transmission of misinformation in the online community; and I would agree. Understanding how the Russians worked in the U.S. election has helped me spot a “fake account” from a genuine person who is interested in American politics. To a social media user who is easily excitable (more appropriately deemed a “keyboard warrior”), it would be extremely hard to detect whether another user is genuinely disagreeing with them or if it is someone trying to incite an aggravated response. Because hate speech and disinformation was so easily and cleverly concealed by “Russian bots,” an automated monitoring of these things would just simply not be effective. In addition, differentiating between a genuine user and a bot is just plain difficult. I, along with Meserole and Polyakova, do not see how Germany’s recent legislation will help to resolve the issue at hand. The way I see it, the international community has a real dilemma on their hands, especially when thinking about foreign interference in domestic affairs. Solutions to this problem will not come from state governments, they will come from the social media outlets themselves. This problem is not only limited to one country, but every country that allows citizens access to social media.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/05/25/disinformation-wars/