The Weekly Focus Edition 94
Sri Lanka Debt Crisis
Sri Lanka is currently experiencing one of the most abysmal economic crises in years now. Since the past few months, they have had many shortages of items such as fuel and other necessities. The opposition party announced that they planned on introducing a no-confidence motion against the ruling government. Numerous protestors have gathered on the streets and are demanding action. Many people are enraged by the Prime Minister’s assets overseas and are fighting for them to be frozen such as the property in the USA. Sri Lanka’s central bank has doubled interest rates showing the drastic consequences of this problem. Clearly, external help will be needed as soon as possible. We saw during the Eurozone debt crisis that Germany came out and took strong control to strengthen the countries with harsh measures known as austerity measures; similarly, Sri Lanka will need a strong leader to tackle this issue with some strong foreign backing. The finance minister has resigned from his position. A Sri Lankan Delegation is currently negotiating with the IMF for a bailout to help raise capital and strengthen the economy. This crisis could have serious repercussions, especially after the hit on economies by COVID-19. We can hope that everyone meets their needs and that the Sri Lankan economy can prosper.
Russia Ukraine war update
Earlier this week, the UNGA raised a motion to kick Russia out of the United Nations Human Rights Council over its alleged war crimes in Europe, which have recently increased in intensity. The bill was also raised due to the fact that Russia had recently disallowed independent human rights organisations from operating within their borders, which raised a lot of controversies and further boosted claims of human rights violations in Ukraine. Recently, a missile attack on a train station occurred in Ukraine, killing 52 civilians. Although Russia has denied launching the offensive, Ukraine has said the missile belonged to Russia and urged strict international action against this. Meanwhile, the EU raised fresh sanctions on Russia, banning coal imports. Ukraine also said it had inflicted around 19,000 casualties on Russian forces, while Russia hasn’t given a large number but said they had suffered a significant number of troop losses. Hopes for an end to this war via peace reduced as Russia increased their claims, so sadly the war will have to continue for now and in the near future.
Exoplanet with no precipitation?
The Hubble Space Telescope, known for discovering fascinating worlds in our Milky Way, has challenged ground-based telescopes. The flying observatory has now explored the atmospheres of two Jupiter-like planets.
The temperatures on these planets are so high that even one of the hardest metals, titanium, can vaporize. According to NASA, these planets have the hottest planetary atmospheres ever seen. Astronomers used Hubble to observe WASP178b, which is about 1,300 light-years from Earth and has an atmosphere rich in silicon monoxide.
The newly formed planet, known as AB Auriga b, is located in a protoplanet with a unique spiral structure orbiting a young star estimated to be about 2 million years old.
Other News
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted after a no-confidence motion voted against him.
UK PM meets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, talks about further action against Russia
Elon Musk buys a stake worth 9.2% in Twitter, offered a seat on the board of directors
Azerbaijan and Armenia agree to peace talks over the disputed Nagorno Karabakh region, which they had gone to war over in 2020.
The UK compares Russia's massacre of Ukrainian citizens in Bucha to genocide, world lashes against Russia for its misdoings.
After the first week of IPL, KKR top the table as Gujrat closely follow as 9 times champions Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings are yet to record a win
Charles Leclerc claims pole in the Australian Grand Prix Qualification round.
Shuttlers Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth lose in the Semi FInals of the Korrea open 2022
Spinner Yuzvendra Chahal announces an unnamed Mumbai Indians player hung him outside a 15-floor balcony window while he was drunk, probe announced
Fact or Fiction
1) Global Tourism Industry is the largest industry with a global economic contribution of US 7.6 Trillion!
2) China remains the world’s top tourism spender with USD 261B
3) World’s top tourist destinations are:
France
USA
Spain
China
Italy
4) Around 1/20 jobs are supported by the tourism industry across the world i.e 4.9% of global employment
5) Among all the cities of the world, tourists splash the highest amount of Cash of USD 28.50B in Dubai
6) Total International Tourist Arrivals in 2016 were 1.235 Billion
7) Amongst emerging travel hotspots, Osaka in Japan is the world’s fastest-growing destination.
8) In 2017, travel and tourism directly supported 168,454,000 jobs i.e 4.4% of total employment
9) Visitor exports generated USD1, 494.2 Billion (6.5% of total exports) in 2017.
10) Travel & Tourism investment in 2017 was US927.4bn or 4.6% of total investment.
The Fault in Our Stars
Romance/Drama
John Green
★★★★★
One of the most famous books in the world, John Green’s tear breaking book has now been converted into a movie as well and is a masterpiece. Hazel Lancaster is a 16 year-old girl with thyroid cancer which is slowly affecting her lungs. Soon, her parents force her into attending a support group where she meets a gorgeous ex-basketball player, Augustus Waters, who is there to support his friend who has eye cancer. Not long after, the two of them form a friendship, starting with recommending eachother books to read. After reading a book by the author Van Housten, Augustus found the ending to be too abrupt and tried to meet the author himself. After meeting the author in Amsterdam, the two realize he is a mean spirited alcoholic and leave him be. Read the book to find out more about the teenagers trying to navigate the whirlwind of their lives and their feelings.
Written by Vivaan Dharamshi
Edited by Nirvaan Zaveri
Article 1 by Arhaan Zaveri
Article 3 by Krishnav Bubna
Fact or Fiction by Nikunj Gupta
Review by Saveer Solanki
Fact or Fiction Answers:
1) Fact
2) Fact
3) Fact
4) Fiction (The correct percentage is 9.9, or 1/10th of the jobs in the world.)
5) Fact
6) Fact
7) Fact
8) Fiction (Yet again, the actual percentage is 3.8, with the number of people being 118.5 million, 50 million less).
9) Fact
10) Fiction (Again, the percentage is wrong, the actual percentage is 4.5 with the amount being around 882bn USD).