India latest to confront big tech, football star Neymar this week’s controversy’s child and a fine Lady Gaga tribute to flag off US’ LGBTQ Month – the top developing news stories from around the world this week.
Highlights – The World This Week
- The LGBTQ Pride Month kicks off with celebrations planned across the US and its embassies across the globe.
- The George Floyd family meet doesn’t dilute the pressure on President Biden to deliver on his promise of police reform.
- Al-Qaeda is very much in action and thriving inside Afghanistan, shielded by Taliban.
- India is the latest land to confront big tech corporations with new IT rules that triggered a legal battle.
- The Covid-19 virus originated in a Wuhan lab and could be man-made: The idea is back on the table with several big guns changing their stance from last year’s rebuttal.
- Brazilian football star Neymar is at loggerheads with former sponsor Nike and the controversy is related to an alleged 2016 sexual assault incident.
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Pride Month is here! Celebrated with aplomb in many American cities with rainbow flags waving, gay pride parades and LGBTQ events, in West Hollywood it holds special meaning. The city holds the One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival to coincide with the celebrations. The festival starts from Harvey Milk Day on May 22 and runs through the Pride month. But this year, the city went a step further and declared May 23 as “Born This Way Day,” as a fitting tribute to LGBTQ icon Lady Gaga.
The Pride month is now celebrated officially too in America. Two presidents, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have declared June officially as the Pride Month. Donald Trump acknowledged it on Twitter. There’s a new president in the White House and his official embassies across the globe will be hoisting the rainbow on official flagpoles this year. Biden is being touted as the most pro-equality president in US history.
But why is the LBGTQ Pride Month celebrated in June?
Find the answer at the end of the article.
Read more on the issue:
RISE: Asia’s Biggest LGBT+ Conference & Job Fair Goes Virtual
Travel Guide To LGBTQ Friendly Countries
Marvel’s First LGBT Couple Has Smoking Hot Chemistry In Real Life
Trans Rights And Education: Citizens at Delhi’s Queer Pride Parade
Hi Readers,
I’m Chitresh Sehgal, the Editor here and this is the weekly DKODING Newsletter – The World This Week.
1/5
Biden says “George Floyd changed the World”, but numbers are still grim and same
George Floyd succumbed to police brutality on May 25, 2020. Since June, police killings in the US, across backgrounds, have gone on at a similar rate as the last five years, Time notes from several surveys. That too when Covid-19 kept most people indoors. In the first four months 2021, the police didn’t kill a civilian while on duty on only six days.
Police killings in the US, across backgrounds, have gone on at a similar rate as the last five years since Floyd’s death.
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris recently met George Floyd’s family in White House. He talked on what Floyd had achieved and how his unfortunate death changed the world. Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on his administration and Democrats pro-change. The significant police reforms that were promised in the wake of Floyd’s custodial killing are in limbo amid Republican opposition. The Policing Act of 2020 crumbled in the Senate and now the revised version, which the House passed in March, looks again at uncertain fate in the Senate.
The Biden administration firmly believes that the “federal overhauls of local police departments” that it intends will “bolster the fight against violent crime.” But many officers from the force across the country are unconvinced stating that the wide outcry over policing conduct is dropping morale across departments. At the same time, gun violence is rising all over the US.
Read more on the issue:
100 Days Of Biden: Does America Feel Different?
Bidenism — How Different Is It From Trumpism?
From George Stinney To George Floyd: The Evolution Of Systemic Racism In The US
2/5
Al Qaeda is Alive and Thriving – Under Taliban’s Protection
In October last year, the US conducted a raid in the Ghazni province of Afghanistan. The target was Husam Abd-al-Rauf, a senior Al-Qaeda militant. The raid missed media attention then, but recent investigations by CNN have revealed new information that suggest how Al-Qaeda is very much alive and thriving. The US was thought to have neutralized the militant group, closing its chapter with the death of Osama bin Laden.
Under the protection of Taliban, the group that was the US’ enemy number one after the 9/11 attacks, still has networks with “other franchises” across the globe. The US also carried out two “rare” strikes on al Qaeda militants in Syria’s Idlib province, ten days after the raid. One of the Afghan intelligence officials told CNN, the Al Qaeda-Taliban is “now much deeper than we think,” and that:
“It is not only now an ideological connection, it’s also a family connection. There are intermarriages. And that is impossible for Taliban to stop, and to not allow [al Qaeda] to do something outside”
Read more on the issue:
Osama Bin Laden’s Ghost Haunts Joe Biden Before 2020 US Elections
How India is Countering China’s Rising Soft Power in Afghanistan?
MBS vs Khashoggi’s Fiancé: Can A US Court of Law Dare To Convict A Saudi Crown Prince?
3/5
India becomes the latest land to take on Big Tech
The Big Tech vs The State – that’s what will decide the future political and ideological landscape of the world. India has become the latest country to come down hard on big tech. Government’s around the world have tried to regulate big firms for multiple reasons. All of Europe does it. The US had a famous war with Apple when Tim Cook refused to give up the iPhone’s encryption for the sake of police investigations. Recently, Russia clamped down on Big Tech. Now India’s new IT rules have made WhatsApp and Twitter lock horns with the govt.
Both governments and the big tech want to control information. Because information is power over the masses. However, the scale of the digital giants means only few governments in the world boast the might to take them on.
Read more on the issue:
How WhatsApp’s Legal Battle Against The Indian Govt Affects Its 400 Million Users
WhatsApp Spygate Investigations — Why These Indian Citizens Were Targeted
The Big Debate: India’s Surveillance Demand versus WhatsApp’s Privacy Promise
How Facebook And Twitter Legitimized Trump’s Absurd Conspiracy Theory
4/5
The Stronger Re-emergence of the Wuhan Lab Origin Theory of Covid-19
The Wuhan Lab Origin claim was dismissed as a flimsy controversy theory by experts a year ago when the pandemic first took shape. Now even the ones who were extremely quick to shun the idea are saying there is probability. The buzz around Covid-19 origins from Wuhan virology lab re-emerged with reports in global media about a classified US intelligence report.
This report allegedly contains mention of three Wuhan lab researchers who fell ill and were hospitalized in November 2019, right before Covid-19 cases emerged in the city. Amid fresh media concerns, politicians and scientists once sceptical of the idea have tweaked their opinions to be for inductive of the claim. US President Biden has now suggested he had enquired for a report on Covid-19 origins after he entered office “including whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident”.
Dr. Fauci has changed his stance to: “That possibility certainly exists, and I am totally in favour of a full investigation of whether that could have happened,”.
But former President Trump is taking credit for the renewal of global interest. He emailed to the NY Post:
“To me it was obvious from the beginning but I was badly criticised, as usual. Now they are all saying: ‘He was right.'”
Read more on the issue:
Third Covid-19 Wave Imminent: How To Shield Your Family
Covid-19 Catastrophe Was Avoidable: IPPPR Report Blasts WHO & Governments
China’s Economic Bounce Back Irks The World
Chinese Pandemic PR Maneuver Puts Xi Jinping’s Propaganda Heroes In Harm’s Way
5/5
Nike and Neymar – From Friends to Foes
Neymar, one of football’s hottest properties is at the centre of sexual assault controversy again. The story is yet to pan out. Nike dropped Neymar as an ambassador in August 2020. It has now claimed that it was due to the footballer’s refusal to cooperate in a “a good faith investigation” into sexual assault allegations against a Nike employee. The alleged incident took place in 2016. Nike initially wanted to keep the incident confidential and avoid an investigation when it first was reported internally in 2018. However, the sportswear giant decided to commission an independent enquiry when the employee expressed an interest in pursuing an investigation.
Nike’s investigation was inconclusive but it did end up with split with Neymar, one of its biggest sponsorship deals. As per the company’s statement, “It would be inappropriate for Nike to make an accusatory statement without being able to provide supporting facts.”
Neymar has hit back at Nike calling the allegation an absurd lie in a detailed Instagram post.
Neymar, who plays for the Brazilian national team and French club PSG was accused of rape back in 2019. The case was eventually dropped.
Read more on the issue:
Justin Bieber Quashes Sexual Assault Allegations
Can Sexual Assault Allegations Against Joe Biden Derail His Campaign?
Taylor Swift’s Netflix’s Doc Miss Americana Delves Into Depression, Anxiety & Sexual Assault
Question: Why is June celebrated as the LGBT Pride Month?
June is celebrated by the LGBTQ community as the Pride Month to commemorate the Stonewall Uprising, a series of spontaneous protests by the LGBTQ community at the end of the month in 1969. The rebellion was triggered by a police raid on June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn it the Greenwich Village, Manhattan, NYC.
The post Al-Qaeda Still Alive, Spotlight Back On Wuhan Lab, Biden’s Floyd Promise — The World This Week appeared first on DKODING.
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