Don’t have much time to read about what going on in the world on a daily or even weekly basis? Or perhaps there are just so many headlines clogging your news feed that your confused where to start reading and what’s most relevant. Well, either way, I’ve got you covered! Catch up on the latest news and important details with a crash course on last week's top five important and interesting headlines.
1. Mystery sound causes U.S. staff in China to get sick.
An employee of the U.S. state department recently succumbed to strange hearing and vision issues, describing the symptoms as “subtle and vague, but abnormal, sensations of sound and pressure.” The state department has alerted the remainder of its American staff on ground in China to watch out for any unusual problems with hearing or eyesight. U.S. diplomats have previously been the target of sonic attacks in Cuba.
2. Civil rights organizations call on Amazon to stop selling facial recognition tech to police
The facial recognition program in mind, Rekognition, implements AI to help identify people, places and things from images or videos. Rekognition could benefit law enforcement agencies by allowing officers to pinpoint and seize targets in real time. Though the AI tech would prove useful to police forces, various activist groups think otherwise. In a joint letter to Jeff Bezos, over 40 such groups claimed that Rekognition "is primed for abuse in the hands of governments." This product poses a grave threat to communities, including people of color and immigrants, and to the trust and respect Amazon has worked to build. People should be free to walk down the street without being watched by the government. Facial recognition in American communities threatens this freedom."
3. Trump erupts over reports of FBI campaign infiltration
Dubbed “SPYGATE” by the President, Trump blasted the “Criminal Deep State” earlier this week after claims that an FBI agent had spied on his 2016 campaign. In a tweet on Wednesday morning, Trump stated: “Look how things have turned around on the Criminal Deep State. They go after Phony Collusion with Russia, a made-up Scam, and end up getting caught in a major SPY scandal the likes of which this country may never have seen before! What goes around, comes around!”
4. Trump casts doubt on upcoming North Korea Summit
On Tuesday of this week, President Donald Trump expressed doubt over his upcoming meeting with North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un, stated that “There's a very substantial chance that it won't work out.” Whether or not the summit will take place is currently in the hands of uncertainty; however, top White House officials including the National Security Council’s senior director, Victoria Coates, are still preparing for a potential meeting between Trump and Kim Jong Un.
5. Egyptian archaeologists discover ancient Greco-Roman Building
Archeologists in northern Cairo, Egypt, uncovered remnants of an enormous, red Greco-Roman era brick building, located in the San El-Hagar excavation site in Gharbia province. While digging out the ancient relic, the archeologists discovered various artifacts at the site, including a gold coin of King Ptolemy III (3rd century B.C. ruler of Egypt).
