2020: A Vision For Global Turmoil

Photo courtesy of FIU News.

By: Victor Jorges / News Director

Venezuela, Iran, and Australia, among other countries, entered the new decade experiencing complete turmoil.

The Nation With Three Presidents

    Venezuela’s interim president, Juan Guaidó who has international backing from over 50 countries, was blocked from entering the National Assembly’s voting session by the national guard.

   The excluded leaders met, in turn, at the headquarters of a national newspaper.

    Inside the assembly, Luis Parra, who was ejected from the pro-Guaidó party, in December 2019 amid corruption claims was elected. He currently presides the country’s National Assembly, which mirrors the U.S.’s Congress. Maduro recognized Parra in a televised speech on the evening of Jan. 5 saying that he will “recover the National Assembly.”.

     Juan Guaidó still has support from dozens of countries, including Colombia. Additionally, the U.S. State Department’s Acting Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Michael Kozak, tweeted that Guaido “remains Venezuela’s interim president under its constitution. This morning’s phony national assembly session lacked a legal quorum. There was no vote.” referring to the meeting that took place without Guaidó.

     Around this time last year, Venezuelan exiles living in South Florida met in Doral to celebrate the self-proclamation of Juan Guaidó on Jan. 23, 2019. A little under a year later, on Jan. 5, Guaidó attempted to enter the National Assembly, where he was expected to be reelected as chief of the legislature. He wasn’t allowed in, so he attempted to climb the building’s fence.

     Along with other opposition members, he went to one of Venezuela’s oldest newspapers, El Nacional, headquarters where they had their version of the voting. Here, Guaidó came out victorious.      The situation is the following: Venezuela technically has three presidents currently: Nicolas Maduro, Juan Guaidó and Luis Parra. They each claim a different sense of ownership over the divided, South American nation.

World War III?

     Further north, in the United States, questions that seem unfathomable plague millennial’s heads: will there be a draft?

      After Iran’s top security and intelligence commander, Qassem Soleimani was killed by an American drone, the concerns about a possible war with the Middle East rose.

     “World War III” became a trend on Twitter, and people, especially students, started to realize that when applying for FAFSA, they are automatically registered for the draft.

    The draft, however, is not a possibility right now.

     Here’s why: in the early 70s, amid the Vietnam War, there was so much backlash and support for ending the draft that it was abolished. Subsequently, in the current situation, for the draft to happen, Congress would have to pass a law reinstating it – something that would require broad political support.

Save The Koalas

     Australia is also undergoing environmental turmoil.

     As of Jan. 5, about 2,000 firemen working around the coast of the country where there are about 130 fires still burning, according to the New South Wales Rural Fire Rescue. The NSW RFS is the world’s largest fire service covering 95 percent of the area with the help of over 74,000 volunteers.

     In contrast to the fires in the Amazon and the Brazilian president’s response, Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison committed the equivalent of $14 million to lease firefighting airplanes.

     The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) released a report in 2007 with a formula to predict the number of animals affected.

     Chris Dickman, who co-wrote the report estimates that 480 million animals have been affected since the fires started in September of last year. He has over 30 years of experience working on Australia’s ecology.

     Aside from the fact that this number is enormous, 244 species or about 80 percent of those affected are distinctive fauna – only found in Australia.

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