New Zealand Struck by Powerful Earthquake

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/14/world/asia/new-zealand-earthquake.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

A powerful earthquake measuring 7.8 magnitudes hit the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island just after midnight on Monday, triggering multiple aftershocks and tsunami waves and killing at least two people, officials said. New Zealand’s North Island and the northern part of its South Island are on the Pacific plate, which goes underneath the Australian plate. The earthquake struck about 50 miles southwest of Kaikoura and 50 miles north of Christchurch. Elliot Fim, a regional official in Christchurch, said in a telephone interview that there were no reports of damage, injuries or fatalities. A spokesman for the Wellington Region Emergency Management office said there were reports of minor damage in the capital city. 

Silicon Valley was worried about the wrong bubble

Article Link: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-silicon-valley-missed-trump-2016-11

In 2015 there was a big concern and debate over if the tech industry was overvalued leading investors to question the future of the tech haven and its ability to keep up its fast growth.  However, this article which was written several days after the election calls another bubble into question currently surrounding Silicon Valley.  The author points out that Silicon Valley has helped create the current political climate of the US.  Many people feel that the tech industry has failed to see resentment built between the rural Americans who feel their manufacturing jobs have been taken and the people of larger affluent cities and areas like Silicon Valley.  Silicon Valley is a very liberal place, as noted in the article it was next to impossible to find a Trump supporter, but America is most certainly not all on board with the views of many tech leaders, as was shown on election day.  Many people that do not live near big cities feel left out of the recent successes in the tech world and believe that equity is failing to reach them in the age of machines. Maybe Trump being elected will pop the bubble around Silicon Valley causing them to realize that they need to use their powers to reach out and spark constructive conversations and actions.

How can Donald Trump's strategies affect the international student in US?

http://time.com/4563685/donald-trump-wins/

"In one of the most shocking U.S. elections in modern political history, Donald Trump has defeated Hillary Clinton."

As we know one of the most important main ideas of Donald Trump is to secure native American's rights and social status, including employment and education. So how this could affect the international students who currently attending schools like me? There are 2 main affects:

1.  The choice of majors
As Hillary mentioned during the campaign, if she won the election, the students who major in STEM(Science, Technology, Engineer, Mathematics) will automatically get green card after graduation. But after Trump won the election, the list of STEM will be updated, change the majors according to the demand of market and then  narrow down the range.

2. The number of international student and the job opportunity
Trump always been saying "Make America Great Again", his attitude towards immigrants and migrant workers is not so friendly. In early this year, March, Trump once said, "The H1B visa is either belongs to high technology visa or immigrant visa, it is just for those cheap recruiters who temporarily take place of Americans." And Trump's newest policies of H1B is: a) Increase prevailing wage for H-1Bs. b)  Preferentially hire Native Americans.

The Dire Economic State of My Country, Zimbabwe

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/11/zimbabweans-sleep-banks-cash-crisis-worsens-161111191648232.html

Zimbabwe has run out of US Dollar reserves 8 years after officially adopting the currency, following a period of record hyper inflation (in mid-December 2008 the inflation rate stood at 79,600,000,000%). As a result, some banks have been forced to introduce daily withdrawal limits of $50. Consequently, long queues outside banks have become the norm, with hundreds of Zimbabweans sleeping on cardboard boxes to keep their place in line. A few months ago, the government announced plans to introduce bond notes to deal with the cash crisis. However, Zimbabweans have fiercely protested the proposed programme, arguing that the country would see a repeat of the uncontrollable hyperinflation of 2008, during which time the daily inflation rate averaged 98.0%, and prices doubled every 24.7 hours on average.

The introduction of bond notes in the country (backed by a US$200 million loan from Afreximbank) may help to ease the monetary situation for many Zimbabweans for a short while. It would ease the burden on banks to cater to its clients. However, if the government overprints bond notes, the 'currency' would begin to decrease in value and inflation would surely follow. This is not outside of the realm of possibilities, as the same thing happened in 2008 during the country's liquidity crisis.

This situation is so concerning to me, begin it's terrible to see how my people are suffering right now. People sleep on the side of the street not only to wait for money outside banks, but also because they don't even have the 50 cents required for public transport to return to their homes. It's such an unfair situation, because it could have been avoided. Zimbabwe has abundant natural resources and arable land, yet its people continue to struggle just to put food on the table. I look forward to the day this won't be the case.

South Korean prosecutors will investigate president next week over confidante scandal

link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-11/13/c_135825982.htm 

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in in charge of investigation into the case has delivered to the presidential Blue House its request to investigate the scandal-plagued president on Tuesday or Wednesday. If realized, Park would become the first South Korean president to be investigated by prosecutors as incumbent leader.Under the country's constitution, a president is free from criminal indictment, but some of law experts claim a criminal investigation is possible if the indictment is suspended until the end of presidency.

Organizers said that about 1 million people turned out in Seoul, which was the largest mass rally in 30 years that was held at Saturday night to demand Park's immediate resignation and this rally was the biggest since the people protest against the military dictatorship in June, 1987.

To add in this news post, Choi Soon-sil, who is the longtime confidante of Park's, is alleged to have pressured big companies into donating 77.4 billion won (66.3 million U.S. dollars) to two nonprofit foundations she actually controls. Samsung transferred 28 billion euros (about 30 billion U.S. dollars) last year to a company in Germany co-owned by Choi and her 20-year-old daughter.

Water Delivery System

 A judge has ordered that water bottles are required to be delivered to homes in Flint, Michigan. Packages of water bottles are can be heavy and there are many residents who are not physically able to carry the packages. This order only increases the costs of the continuing problems due to unsafe drinking water in the Flint area. The usage of water bottles over the past year have been more much inefficient than using tap water for the residents. However, the water bottles are necessary because the tap water remains undrinkable due to high lead levels. The events in Flint that have occurred over the last two years have been difficult for the already struggling area. The required use of water bottles rather than tap water have been very inefficient and costly for government due to the high lead levels in their public water.
 



http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/11/11/judge-orders-michigan-flint-to-make-water-deliveries.html

U.S. Lawmakers Set To Combat Mental Health Regulation

In the United States, roughly one in five individuals suffer from some sort of mental illness. On October 27th, President Obama officially designated a Congressional task force designed to oversee the role of mental health legislation in the United States. The goal of this was to better enforce laws that require equal insurance coverage for both mental and physical illnesses. The Obama administration has found that, although there have been previous pieces of legislation regarding mental health, they have not been well-regulated. This task force calls for more frequent audits of healthcare practices as well as stricter penalties against insurers. Insurers are said to have violated the law if they charge higher co-payments for mental health care than for other physical care practices.

This legislation comes at an opportune time within American society, in which many officials are working to reverse the stigma surrounding mental health. Interestingly, this task force took several months to develop within Congress, and comes within the waning months of President Obama's career. Nevertheless, this is a step in the right direction for the healthcare industry in the United States. By thoroughly expanding these practices to mental health patients, the U.S. can attempt to combat rising rates in depression, drug abuse and other factors associated with mental health treatment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/08/us/mental-health-parity.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fus&action=click&contentCollection=us&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=sectionfront