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Trans Mountain Pipeline
What’s Going On In The World Right Now, 2018
•The Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline
•It carries crude and refined oil from Alberta to the west coast of BC
•They were going to expand it, but that proved very controversial with environmentalists and local First NaPon groups
•The federal government bought it to turn it into a crown corporaPon just as the Federal court of appeal ruled they could not go through with the expansion.
Mt Kilauea ErupPon
NAFTA
•This Hawaiian volcano has been erupPng for 3 months
•The North American Free Trade Agreement is a treaty between Canada, Mexico and the USA
•Hundreds of homes have been destroyed
•Towns have been evacuated •It has created thick clouds of laze (a toxic lava cloud made up of hydrochloric acid and glass parPcles)
Nike’s New Campaign
• Nike just announced that Colin Kaepernick will be the face of the brand's new adverPsing campaign
•The American football quarterback, 30, protested against racial injusPce and police brutality by kneeling during the US naPonal anthem.
•In announcing the deal, Nike said he was "one of the most inspiraPonal athletes of this generaPon".
•But opponents took to social media, promising to destroy Nike products.
•On Twi`er, they hit out at the deal using the hashtag #JustBurnIt -­‐ a play on Nike's slogan 'Just Do It' -­‐ which trended on Twi`er alongside #Boyco`Nike.
•They agreed to remove trade barriers between them (which increases investment opportuniPes)
•Talks between US and Canadian officials broke down on Friday, in part due to leaked Trump comments saying the US doesn't intend to compromise
Cape Town’s Water Shortage
•A severe draught has been going on in South Africa for the last few years
•In early 2018 the city announced plans for "Day Zero", when if the water levels reached a criPcal low point, the municipal water supply would largely be shut off, potenPally making Cape Town the first major city to run out of water
•One cause was how Cape Town’s populaPon has been growing quickly but its infrastructure had not caught up
•The crisis has been averted or postponed for now
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Thai Soccer Team Cave Rescue
•12 boys on and Thai soccer team and their coach went missing in a cave system on June 23
•Monsoon rains had quickly flooded their way out
•They were discovered alive on July 2
•They were rescued from July 8-­‐10
•A former Thai navy seal drowned during the rescue mission
Crisis in Venezuela
•Venezuela has the biggest (or second biggest, some say) oil reserves in the world
•95% of government revenue is from exporPng oil
•Yet its people are starving, and running out of supplies like medicine and groceries
Forest Fires in BC
•A total of 1,994 wildfires have burned 971,103 hectares (2,399,650 acres) of land in BC in 2018 as of August 24
•It is now the worst forest fire season on record •Wildfires caused severe smoke to cover much of BriPsh Columbia. It has impacted tourism and cancelled flights
•The smoke has spread across Alberta as well
•h`ps://
governmentomc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/
MapSeries/index.html?
appid=ef6f11c8c36b42c29e103f65dbcd7
538 InteracPve BC fire map
•President Maduro blames Venezuela’s troubles on either internaPonal conspiracies or his poliPcal opponents
•But it is he who has run the country into the ground
•Also the fact that the price of oil plummeted, and they cannot afford to extract and sell their own huge oil reserves
•There are violent protests in the streets of the capital Caracas
•People have to wait for hours to buy whatever food is les
Venezuelan Refugees
Brexit
•2.3 million Venezuelans have fled since 2014
•Most cross the border into Colombia, it is causing a crisis
•h`ps://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=KODtlEfAfCQ, 4:50 The Crisis in Venezuela Explained
•They have enormous debts and the highest inflaPon in the world (prices double every 26 days)
•Short for “BriPsh Exit”
•In a referendum in June 2016, 51.9% of BriPsh voted to leave the European Union. •The UK is on course to leave the EU by March 2019
•It has been hugely controversial and will affect everything from immigraPon to jobs to the economy
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The Rohingya Genocide
•The Rohingya people are a Muslim ethnic group in Myanmar who have been called the “most persecuted minority in the world”
•Many Rohingyas have fled to other countries
•More than 100,000 Rohingyas in Myanmar live in camps for internally displaced persons, not allowed by authoriPes to leave.
•Probes by the UN have found evidence of increasing incitement of hatred and religious intolerance by "ultra-­‐naPonalist Buddhists" against Rohingyas while the Burmese security forces have been conducPng "summary execuPons, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and detenPon, torture and ill-­‐treatment and forced labour" against the community.
Humanitarian Crisis and Civil War in •In 2014 Yemen descended into civil war Yemen
when rebels took over the capital city Sanaa and President Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia
•He then came back and set up a temporary capital in the city of Aden
•So now are essenPally two Yemens, two capital ciPes, and 2 governments
•Ongoing humanitarian crisis: 25% of people face starvaPon, thousands of civilians have died, 2 million internally displaced people, lack of clean water, cholera outbreaks
•It has become a hotbed for terrorist recruiPng
Syrian Civil War
•The Arab Spring protests swept through many Arabic countries in 2011
•The protests in Syria were violently quelled and that lead to the Civil War, which is sPll going on
•Aleppo, the 2nd largest city in Syria, was an important ba`leground but it was finally ‘liberated‘ last year
•h`ps://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=JFpanWNgfQY Syria’s War: Who is fighPng and why, 7:01
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