A lot has happened in the world over the past week. Let’s catch up on the major news headlines:
Lunar New Year
On Saturday, billions began the 15-day celebration of the Lunar New Year, showcased through Chinese lanterns, red paper cuttings and banners covering homes and businesses. This year the celebration highlighted the Year of the Dragon, and it’s the most special year because they are the only animal of the zodiac that is mythical. The creature largely symbolizes luck, strength, ambition and charm.
Celebrations of Lunar New Year range from all-day parades in honor of the holiday with an abundance of food, to opera and martial arts performances in the U.K. Closer to home, Asian communities mark their holidays featuring lion dances, floral art displays and a Golden Dragon Lunar New Year Parade.
King Charles announces cancer diagnosis and makes public appearance
On Sunday, King Charles III made a special appearance for the first time since announcing his cancer diagnosis. He was seen leaving Church services near his country estate in England and waved to the community, all waiting to send the King well wishes.
Charles was joined with Queen Camilla near the Sandringham House where the king is recuperating after his first treatment. His appearance came after the king expressed his thanks for the messages of support that he received from the public.
Illness found on luxury cruise ship
On Monday, a luxury cruise ship arrived in Honolulu that departed from Southampton, England on Jan. 11. Upon arrival the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that as of last Thursday, 129 passengers and 25 crew members were reported ill on the ship. The CDC is now investigating the outbreak after more than 150 people reported symptoms of gastrointestinal illness, including diarrhea and vomiting.
In response to the outbreak, the crew onboard the Queen Victoria will “increase cleaning and disinfection procedures” as well as isolate infected passengers and crew members from others on the ship. While this is not the first time this illness has broken out on a cruise ship, they are treating the situation with caution and will move forward with their course.
Endangered whale washed up on Oregon beach
On Monday, a member of one of the world’s largest whale species was found washed ashore on the Oregon coast. The 46-foot-long fin whale was found dead, covered in wounds from other whale species, and entangled in a net.
NOAA Fisheries West Coast announced that the whale washed ashore at Sunset Beach State Park with what seems to be a thick rope wrapped around its mouth. Officials found that the whale was severely thin and emaciated and had likely died from underlying illness.
Fishing equipment entanglements and vessel strikes are among the biggest threats to the population and have been presenting as the main cause of whale deaths in the past year.
Three ex-policemen found guilty of destroying evidence in Seoul crowd crush
In 2022, close to 160 South Koreans were killed in a crowd rush during Halloween. Earlier this week, three police officers who were involved in the incident were found guilty of destruction of evidence and attempting a cover-up of the incident.
This crowd rush is believed to be the result of poor choices by the Seoul police during the event. A large crowd of people were pushed into a narrow alley during a Halloween festival. This resulted in many people being trapped or trampled, with some victims being trapped for upwards of 40 minutes. Nine out of the 10 victims who were given CPR by a leader of a non-profit organization, Kim Mi Sung, later died, she said in an interview with AP News.
The police assigned only 137 officers to an event where over 100,000 people were expected to attend. Calls from concerned attendees over crowd size were ignored by the police hotline, and police failed to control the crowd and let paramedics treat the injured in a reasonable amount of time. These three police officers were the first convictions over these deaths.
rbleich@ramapo.edu & jgray11@ramapo.edu
Featured photo courtesy of Firdaust Latif, Wikipedia
