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World Monthly Headline News August 2023
Mass shooting took place in Jacksonville on Saturday afternoon
Graeme Massie

Two men and a woman were killed in a racially-motivated shooting in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday. The gunman, a white male in his twenties, “hated Black people”, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said.

The shooting took place at a Dollar General store just blocks from the historically-Black Edward Waters University. The gunman was initially seen near the library on the campus but security guards tried to take him into custody and he escaped.

Shortly before the shooting took place, the gunman’s parents called law enforcement to say they had found a manifesto, reported WJXT. The gunman had reportedly called his parents ahead of the attack and told them to look at his computer.

Sheriff Waters described those writings as a “disgusting ideology of hate”. He also confirmed that the three victims were Black.
Story by Daniel Bonfiglio

Yevgeny Prigozhin
Yevgeny Prigozhin was the leader of the Wagner Group; a collection of private mercenaries that staged a coup against Russian president Vladimir Putin for his invasion of Ukraine. His private jet "crashed" on Wednesday, killing him and nine other people.

Sergei Yushenkov
On a fateful day in 2003, Sergei Yushenkov was greeted by a bullet outside of his Moscow home. Yushenkov believed Putin was responsible for a 1999 apartment bombing, had just registered the Liberal Russia movement as a political party.

Denis Voronenkov
Denis Voronenkov was a Putin-critical member of the Russian parliament, before smartly electing to flee to Ukraine for his safety. Not that it mattered, he was shot in Kyiv in 2017.
US refuses to say whether bomb suspected cause of ‘assassination’
Namita Singh, Jane Dalton, Andy Gregory

Joe Biden’s remarks about Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s suspected death in a plane crash near Moscow were unacceptable, Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov has said. The US president said on Wednesday that he was not surprised by the reports of Mr Prigozhin’s death, adding that not much happens in Russia that Vladimir Putin is not behind.

The crash, which killed 10 people on Wednesday, is widely claimed to be an assassination to avenge Mr Prigozhin’s mutiny in June that challenged Russia’s military leadership. After 24 hours of silence on the matter, Vladimir Putin appeared to eulogise Mr Prigozhin as “a talented businessman” who made “serious mistakes”, and sent his condolences to the families of those killed.
CNN

An expert panel joins CNN to discuss Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of the Wagner mercenary group, who was reportedly on board a plane that crashed northwest of Moscow, according to the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency.
Story by Jane Kim editor

1 Suspicions of a Chinese secret police station in the heart of Seoul
It has been revealed that a Chinese secret police station is operating in the heart of Seoul. Korean intelligence agencies concluded that the Chinese restaurant “Dongbangmyeongju” in Songpa-gu, Seoul, was serving as a secret police station for the Chinese government. According to the intelligence agencies, Dongbangmyeongju was found to have performed consular tasks and handled the extradition of Chinese nationals in Korea, among other duties.

Not only did they not obtain official approval from the Korean government, but disguising their consular duties as a private restaurant seriously violated the law. Furthermore, the fact that Dongbangmyeongju hosted events organized by the Chinese Embassy also raised suspicions about its connection to the Chinese government. In addition to serving the general public, Dongbangmyeongju also operated a separate area called the “VIP Lounge,” which served as a meeting place for high-ranking Chinese officials. Although the operation of this area has been temporarily suspended, it has been confirmed that it is still in business. It was also revealed that the owner of Dongbangmyeongju operates another Chinese restaurant in Myeongdong, Seoul.
Story by Christian Davenport

India landed a robotic spacecraft on the moon Wednesday, a feat that came just days after a Russian vehicle crashed into the surface after firing its thrusters for too long. India’s spacecraft, without any astronauts on board, landed at about 8:30 a.m. Eastern time near the moon’s south pole, an area that several nations covet because it contains water in the form of ice in permanently shadowed craters.

The successful touchdown of the Chandrayaan-3 mission was a triumph for a country with growing ambitions in space and was cheered across the nation of more than 1 billion people. In 2019, a similar mission failed at the last minute because of a software issue. But the mission did successfully put a spacecraft in orbit around the moon that has been mapping the lunar surface in the years since. “India is on the moon,” declared S. Somanath the head of the India Space Research Organization, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi watched while waving an Indian flag.
Story by Kay Smythe

The World Robot Conference held over the weekend in Beijing, China, revealed the insane capabilities of robots, and I gotta say, things aren’t looking good for humanity.

Horrifying images shared by The Associated Press show robots pulling off human-like expressions, such as nodding, winking and even grimacing. Donned with synthetic skin, moving arms and hands and eerily-human facial movements, these machines (made by Chinese company EX Robots) are the stuff of nightmares.

The purpose of many of these robots is to interact with the public at places such as museums, schools and tourist attractions, AP noted. Of course, we’re all worried the first time we see one of these robots in real life will be as it walks towards us, guns blazing, lasers coming out of its eyes as it hunts us down in the next world war.
Story by Elijah Hamilton

Footage showed the Iran navy sent small vessels to confront the USS Bataan and the USS Carter Hall in the fraught Strait of Hormuz. Armed soldiers controlled the speed boats from Iran's Islamic revolutionary guard corps and came within inches of the ships, while drones also taunted the boats and managed to snap pictures right above them.

The standoff comes just weeks after the US warned vessels to avoid the Persian Gulf following a threat Iran made about seizing oil tankers in the region. The footage, taken from several drones and speed boats, also showed Iranian soldiers speaking a mix of Farsi.
Story by Ben Evans

Despite pretended neutrality revealed: China secretly supports Russia with weapons in Ukraine conflict.

The British Telegraph recently reported that China is supporting Russia with significant arms shipments despite its claimed neutrality in the Ukraine conflict. Russian companies, including those that have been sanctioned, have reportedly received numerous shipments from China since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in the first quarter of this year. This is occurring despite China’s desire to position itself as a significant peace broker in the conflict.

According to the Telegraph’s research, Chinese companies would supply Russia with a wide range of military goods. Interestingly, many of the exported goods could also be used for civilian purposes. They are referred to as “dual-use goods,” which allows China to circumvent international sanctions. This, in turn, could help Moscow weather the pressure of sanctions and undermine the West’s intentions to weaken the Russian economy.

It was only a year ago that Beijing and Moscow touted a new world order, but things appear to be unraveling fast for their economies. Exports, manufacturing activity and property prices are sliding in China, which has decided to stop reporting the country's rising youth unemployment rate, while a worsening debt crisis and deflationary spiral are threatening growth. A collapse in commodity-based export revenues and extensive military spending have also weighed on sanctioned Russia, which just saw the ruble fall past the psychologically important level of 100 to the dollar after tumbling 37% YTD.

Tale of two central banks: While the news has been grim, the countries are responding to their economic problems in different ways. On Tuesday, China slashed a range of key interest rates to shore up its economy, aiming to reignite growth and investment. It followed missed payments by Country Garden Holdings (OTCPK:CTRYF) - one of China's largest developers of real estate - in a sector that accounts for a quarter of overall economic activity. On the other hand, Russia's central bank hiked rates by 3.5 percentage points at an emergency gathering, bringing its key rate to a total of 12%, fearing inflationary pressures that could ripple through its economy.
Story by Valerie Tarico

Most antiquities scholars think that the New Testament gospels are "mythologized history." In other words, based on the evidence available they think that around the start of the first century a controversial Jewish rabbi named Yeshua ben Yosef gathered a following and his life and teachings provided the seed that grew into Christianity. At the same time, these scholars acknowledge that many Bible stories like the virgin birth, miracles, resurrection, and women at the tomb borrow and rework mythic themes that were common in the Ancient Near East, much the way that screenwriters base new movies on old familiar tropes or plot elements. In this view, a "historical Jesus" became mythologized.

For over 200 years, a wide ranging array of theologians and historians grounded in this perspective have analyzed ancient texts, both those that made it into the Bible and those that didn't, in attempts to excavate the man behind the myth. Several current or recent bestsellers take this approach, distilling the scholarship for a popular audience. Familiar titles include Zealot by Reza Aslan and How Jesus Became God by Bart Ehrman.
Story by Christiaan Hetzner

Not even Fed chair Jay Powell can be accused of ever moving that far this fast. In an emergency meeting on Tuesday, Russia's central bank governing board decided to increase interest rates by 3.5 percentage points, reaching 12%. This action aims to prop up the ruble, which has been significantly impacted by Western sanctions in response to the conflict in Ukraine.

“This decision is aimed at limiting price stability risk,” it said in a statement, justifying its second hike in less than a month by citing “substantial” upside risks to inflation from the collapsing currency. Just four days prior, a deputy governor had dismissed concerns around the exchange rate in comments to the state news agency TASS.

The move comes after the country’s ruble broke below the psychological floor of 100 to a U.S. dollar, rendering each less valuable than a penny. The currency has now surrendered all of its gains from last year to plumb depths not seen since an investor panic in the early days of the war.
If the proposed deal holds, Tehran will be allowed to use $6 billion in Iranian assets blocked under U.S. sanctions to buy food, medicine or other humanitarian aid.
By Dan De Luce, Andrea Mitchell and Abigail Williams

Five Americans imprisoned in Iran have been placed under house arrest in the first step of a planned prisoner exchange between Tehran and Washington that will include the release of roughly $6 billion in Iranian government assets blocked under U.S. sanctions, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the matter.

If the proposed agreement goes through, Iran will be allowed to access the funds only to buy food, medicine or other humanitarian purposes, in accordance with existing U.S. sanctions against the country. Under the agreement, which could take weeks to carry out, Qatar’s central bank will oversee the funds, the sources said.

Republican lawmakers harshly criticized then-President Barack Obama when he made a similar agreement in 2015. The new deal has been under negotiation for months, with Qatar and other governments acting as intermediaries.
Story by Aimee Picchi

Whereas the U.S. continues to grapple with elevated prices, China is dealing with the opposite problem. In July, the world's second largest economy slipped into deflationary territory, with consumer prices declining 0.3% from a year earlier.

The decline in consumer prices sets China apart in more ways than one. In the post-COVID era, many nations, ranging from the U.K. to the U.S., have struggled with high inflation sparked by a combination of government spending and tight labor markets, which have sent their economies into overdrive.

China's deflation comes amid high unemployment for its younger workers, with more than 1 in 5 people between 16 to 24 unable to find a job. Meanwhile, the country's economic activity fizzled out earlier than expected following the lifting of virus controls, prompting Chinese leaders to try to shore up business and consumer activity.
By Jonny Hallam, Ana Maria Cañizares, Karol Suarez and Helen Regan, CNN

Quito, Ecuador CNN — A candidate in Ecuador’s upcoming presidential election, Fernando Villavicencio, was assassinated at a campaign event in the capital Wednesday as a deadly escalation of violence and crime grips the South American country.

Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso vowed the killing would not go unpunished, saying that “organized crime has come a long way, but the full weight of the law will fall on them.” Lasso announced a state of emergency for 60 days, an immediate mobilization of the armed forces across the country and three days of national mourning.

The election, scheduled for August 20, will go ahead as planned, the Electoral Council President Diana Atamaint said Thursday. Villavicencio was shot and killed as he was leaving a campaign rally at a school north of the capital Quito, 10 days before the first round of the presidential election was set to take place. Opinion polls had put him in the middle of the pack of the eight candidates, far behind the frontrunner Luisa González.
Story by Matthew Henderson

It is becoming increasingly clear that Chinese computer hackers may have penetrated American military and civil critical infrastructure in ways that could cripple a US response to Chinese armed aggression from the outset. Certainly that would align with Beijing’s strategy, familiar from Sun Tzu’s “Art of War”, which is to win the war before a shot is fired.  

In the modern digital context this entails preemptive cyber attacks not just against its enemies’ military forces, but also on the pillars of social and economic security, including communications, transport, energy, water and health systems. The aim is to damage opponents so badly that battle would never be joined, or only briefly before they collapse into domestic disarray and disaster.

To achieve this, China must first access data on the targets it wants to disrupt, and then devise cyber attacks that will avoid preventive measures and create sudden, irreversible havoc. The US is now desperately hunting for malicious software discovered inside the power grids and communications systems that supply its military. The tools for a pre-emptive first strike against the West could already be in place.
Story by Ari Blaff

Prestige Biotech, a Chinese medical company, operated an illegal laboratory in California where they bioengineered and infected almost 1,000 mice with diseases including HIV, E. Coli, malaria, and Covid-19.

The undercover lab was discovered in a warehouse in Reedley, Calif., when a garden hose was found to be illegally attached to the building. “There was a special room that was built housing about 1000 white lab mice,” a city manager, Nicole Zieba, told one local news outlet. “This is an unusual situation. I’ve been in government for 25 years. I’ve never seen anything like this,” she added. According to the official, at least 200 mice were found dead. The remainder were euthanized by the county.

Prestige Biotech was the largest creditor of the now defunct med-tech company Universal Meditech and took control of it following bankruptcy. The Chinese-run company did not have a license to operate in California.
Story by Peter Suciu

Russia may be forced to employ nuclear weapons if Ukraine's counteroffensive is successful, warned a top Russian official on Sunday.

In a message posted to his official social media account, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, suggested that the Kremlin could fall back on its own nuclear doctrine, which calls for nuclear weapons to be employed in response to aggression carried out against Russia that includes conventional weapons.

That response has typically been reserved should the existence of the Russian state be threatened, but Medvedev has suggested that could also include the loss of territory that Russia sees as its own – including Crimea.

"Imagine if the ... offensive, which is backed by NATO, was a success and they tore off a part of our land then we would be forced to use a nuclear weapon according to the rules of a decree from the president of Russia," Medvedev wrote on the Telegram social messaging app.
Aljazeera

Maulana Saad, 19, was killed inside a mosque hours after deadly communal violence in a neighbouring district, officials say.

A deputy imam has been killed after a mob of far-right Hindus torched and opened fire at a mosque in a suburb of the Indian capital, New Delhi, hours after deadly communal violence in a nearby district.

Police have identified the victim as 19-year-old Maulana Saad, prayer leader of the Anjuman Jama mosque located in Sector 57 in Gurugram, a city of 1.2 million known for its glistening towers and offices of multinational corporations.
Reuters

Aug 1 (Reuters) - Myanmar's ruling military pardoned on Tuesday jailed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi on five of the 19 offences for which she was convicted but she will remain under house arrest, state media and informed sources said.

The pardons mean six years will be shaved off Suu Kyi's 33-year jail term, junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun told the Eleven Media Group, adding that it was part of an amnesty under which more than 7,000 prisoners were freed across the strife-torn country.

Myanmar has been in the throes of bloody turmoil since early 2021, when the military overthrew Suu Kyi's elected government and unleashed a crackdown on opponents of military rule that saw thousands jailed or killed. On Monday, the junta postponed an election promised by August this year and extended a state of emergency for another six months, which critics say would prolong the crisis.
The level of rainfall is highly unusual for China's capital, which generally enjoys a moderate, dry climate.
By Associated Press

Chinese state media report 11 people have died and 27 are missing amid flooding in the mountains surrounding the capital Beijing.

Days of heavy rains have prompted authorities to close train stations and evacuate people in vulnerable communities to school gyms, state broadcaster CCTV reported Tuesday. Homes have been flooded, roads torn apart and cars piled into stacks.

The level of rainfall is highly unusual for Beijing, which generally enjoys a moderate, dry climate. Flooding in other parts of northern China that rarely see such large amounts of rain have led to scores of deaths.
CBS News

Sydney — An Australian childcare worker sexually abused 91 young girls over 15 years, police said Tuesday, accusing him of documenting his "unfathomable" alleged crimes in thousands of photos and videos. Seasoned detectives have described it as one of Australia's "most horrific" child sex abuse cases, calling it "beyond the realms of anyone's imagination." "I know this news will seem unfathomable, and I know there will be many questions," said assistant federal police commissioner Justine Gough.

"There is not much solace I can give to the parents and children who have been identified." Included within the 1,623 charges are 136 counts of rape, 110 counts of sexual intercourse with a child younger than 10 — a charge used instead of rape in some Australian jurisdictions — and 613 counts of making child pornography. Investigators had been hunting for the 45-year-old man since discovering a cache of child pornography shared on the dark web in 2014.
Russian defence ministry blames Ukraine for attack in which Moscow high-rise tower struck
Luke Harding, Andrew Roth and Helen Livingstone

A high-rise Moscow building housing Russian government ministries has been hit by a drone for the second time in three days, the city’s mayor has said, as air defences also shot down “several” drones targeting the capital region. The Russian defence ministry said two drones were destroyed by air defence systems in the Odintsovo and Naro-Fominsk districts near Moscow, while it claimed a third was jammed and went “out of control” before it crashed in the Moscow City business district, a cluster of glass skyscrapers that was built to show Russia’s growing integration into world financial markets. . The ministry blamed Ukraine for what it called an “attempted terrorist attack”.

Photos and video showed that a drone had ripped off part of the facade of a modern skyscraper, IQ-Quarter, 3.4 miles (5.5km) from the Kremlin, which houses staff from several ministries, including Russia’s Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media. “The facade of the 21st floor was damaged. The glazing of 150 sq metres was broken,” the Moscow mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said in a Telegram post, adding that no injuries had been reported.
By SAM MEDNICK

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — France prepared to evacuate French and other European nationals from Niger on Tuesday, telling them to carry no more than a small bag, after a military coup there won backing from three other West African nations ruled by mutinous soldiers.

The French Foreign Ministry in Paris cited recent violence that targeted the French Embassy in Niamey, the capital, as one of the reasons for the decision. The closure of Niger’s airspace also “leaves our compatriots unable to leave the country by their own means,” the ministry said. The evacuation comes during a deepening crisis sparked by the coup last week against Niger’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum.
By KANIS LEUNG AP logo

HONG KONG -- A French man is believed to have fallen to his death from a high-rise residential building in Hong Kong last week, police said on Monday, with local media outlets identifying him as daredevil Remi Lucidi.

Police said a 30-year-old man's body was found on a patio in the city's upscale Mid-Levels area. He was believed to have engaged in extreme sports, police said, without identifying him.

Officers conducted an initial investigation and said he apparently fell from a rooftop. No suicide note was found at the scene, they said. The cause of his death would have to be verified by an autopsy, they added.
By Heather Chen, Wayne Chang, Mengchen Zhang and CNN

CNN — A zoo in eastern China has denied suggestions that some of its bears were people dressed in costume after videos of a Malayan sun bear standing on its hind legs – and looking uncannily human – went viral, fueling rumors and conspiracy theories on Chinese social media.

In a statement written from the perspective of a sun bear named “Angela,” officials from Hangzhou zoo said people “didn’t understand” the species. “I’m Angela the sun bear – I got a call after work yesterday from the head of the zoo asking if I was being lazy and skipped work today and found a human to take my place,” the statement read. “Let me reiterate again to everyone that I am a sun bear – not a black bear, not a dog – a sun bear!”
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