Apr 5, 2024
ICYMI: News Round-Up for April 1–5, 2024
Here are just a few of the news events that took place around the world this week:
- Seven food aid workers (including foreign citizens) were killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. The Israeli military would eventually dismiss two officers involved in the drone strikes that hit World Central Kitchen, a humanitarian organisation. IDF Chief of Staff, Herzi Halevi, issued an apology for the “misidentification” of the target.
- In an effort to bring more aid into Gaza, Israel agreed to reopen the Erez land crossing (on the north side of the territory) and to allow use of Ashdod port, which sits between Tel Aviv and the Gaza Strip. The move comes on the heels of international pressure to improve the flow of humanitarian aid into the war-torn territory.
- In the face of a severe drought that has devastated crops, Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa declared a national disaster. Neighbouring nations are also facing the same challenges, and an estimated 2.7 million people in the region are facing hunger. Later in the week, the country unveiled a new gold-backed currency called ZiG (aka "Zimbabwe Gold"). This is the latest in an effort to stabilise the African nation's faltering economy.
- A 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit the east coast of Taiwan marking the island’s most powerful quake since 1999. In the city of Hualien, which is the closest major population cluster near the epicenter, apartment buildings collapsed and hundreds of people were injured.
- Cybersecurity is back in the spotlight as AT&T announced a data breach affecting 73 million past and current customers. The company is investigating the impact of the breach which leaked sensitive customer information such as social security numbers to the dark web. The notorious hacker behind the attack struck a nonchalant tone, stating, "I don’t care if they don’t admit. I’m just selling."
- This week brought unexpectedly good news for the U.S. as job growth shattered expectations (303K vs the projected 200K). Unemployment also fell, continuing a streak of 26 straight months below 4% – the longest such stretch since the 1960s.
- Turkish President, Tayyip Erdogan, and his AK Party suffered its worst defeat in more than two decades in power. Erdogan will continue to rule the country–the federal election was last year–but his party lost key local elections and saw the country's main opposition party grow its influence.