Iran removes core of Arak reactor
Iranian state media reported that the country’s nuclear technicians finished dismantling the core of the Arak nuclear reactor, a heavy water nuclear facility that could produce weapons-grade plutonium from its wastewater, as of Jan.14. The removal of the core is one of Tehran’s obligations under a global nuclear deal involving the U.S., the UK, China, France, Russia and Germany in order to lift strict economic sanctions. The plan was originally for the core to be removed and filled with concrete to eliminate the possibility of nuclear proliferation; however, the countries agreed on a plan to allow Iran to redesign the facility so that it was incapable of producing weapons of mass destruction. Iran said it needed the heavy water reactor for the production of medical isotopes and denied intention to produce nuclear weapons.
Regulations to make lion trophy imports more difficult
On Jan. 22, the U.S. will enact regulations on the import of lion trophies to give African lions greater international protection. The regulations will make it significantly more difficult to import lion trophies from Africa. According to BBC, the number of lions in Africa has decreased by 50 percent. Last December, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that central and western African lions would be classified “endangered” and southern and eastern African lions would be classified as “threatened.” The heightened protection of the species comes after Minnesota Dentist Walter Palmer hunted Cecil, a beloved lion lured from a national park in Zimbabwe, in 2015. Ninety percent of hunters using “canned” hunting facilities, in which handlers raise lions in captivity that hunters pay to kill, are from the U.S.
Three US Columbia University students killed in Honduras bus crash
Authorities reported that three women who were in Honduras on a volunteer mission to help the poor died in a crash when their bus swerved off the road and fell 80 feet into a ditch. At least 12 other Americans, who were also reportedly students, suffered injuries. The group was part of a program at Columbia University called Global Brigades, a student-led humanitarian organization that seeks “global health and sustainable development”; the students were travelling to the airport to go home when the bus crashed due to mechanical failure, according to the responding firefighters’ spokeman.
London increases armed police
In response to last year’s Paris attacks, London Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said the Metropolitan police will increase the number of armed officers to 2,800 by training 600 more firearms officers. The police will also increase the number of armed response vehicles by 50 percent to ensure that firearms response “continues to come from a group of highly specialist and highly skilled officers,” Hogan-Howe said in a statement. Despite the increase in arms, most of the Metropolitan police force will remain unarmed; but London’s police decided to arm more officers to ensure that the city is equipped to handle and respond to possible terrorist attacks.
Disneyland comes to mainland China
By June 2016, The Shanghai Disney Resort will be the first Disney park on mainland China and the third in Asia after Tokyo Disneyland and Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. The 960-acre, estimated $5.5 billion resort broke ground in 2011 and will include an Enchanted Storybook Castle, which is reportedly Disney’s largest, most technologically advanced castles, and Marvel and Star Wars characters under the Disney property umbrella. Disney hopes to take advantage of China’s recent economic boom, in spite of reports of uncertainty of the country’s continued prosperity.
Chemical threatens Europe’s cetaceans
Polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, are present in European killer whales and dolphins in “dangerously high levels,” according to scientists, who published a study in the journal Scientific Reports. Their research found that Europe’s dolphins and killer whales have the highest level of PCB concentrations in the world and that some killer whale populations face extinction because of the chemical. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, PCBs are synthetic compounds found in older electrical equipment, such as transformers, as well as in other commercial products like adhesives, caulking and plastics. Many countries banned PCBs in the 1970s due to environmental concerns, but countries in Europe banned the chemical later than others. Despite the bans, the chemical remains in the environment, bioaccumulating in the marine ecosystem’s apex predators, namely whales and dolphins.
