I slept through the week, what happened?
18th October 2020
North Korea Literally Parades it’s Nuclear Missile Capability
In a televised parade, Kim Jong Un wheeled out at least four nuclear-capable warheads through a crowd of thousands, all frantically waving North Korean flags as though their lives depended on it.
Military experts from across the world have muffled a skepticism on this grand act of overcompensation, concerned at the size of the missiles, but holding off saying “we don’t believe these are real, prove it.”
Neither Trump nor Biden have commented on the display, perhaps content that America is very capable of destroying itself without any need of foreign nuclear attack.
Sorry State of States
The Eastern states were in disarray this week, with three no confidence motions made against premieres (two against Gladys in NSW — which is apparently possible — and one against Andrews in VIC). None of which succeeded.
Things weren’t too frecking sunny in QLD either, with the opposition leader, Deb Frecklington (name included to clarify pun), being reported to the electoral commission by her own party for investigation into fundraising activities.
Gladys Berejiklian is dealing with the fallout from her secret relationship with Daryl Maguire. At first glance, Maguire seems to be the sort of failed businessman-turned-MP who would be entirely forgettable, if it weren’t for his baffling insistence of boasting about corrupt activities to people in positions too high to ignore it. Time will tell whether that proves to be true for the premiere.
Armenia and Azerbaijan Sick of Being the Only Countries in the Middle East Who Were Getting Along
The two rivals you’d forgotten existed are back at again. It feels like I’ve just read a buzzfeed article saying that C.C. from ‘The Nanny’ had glassed Niles. “Oh yeah, they hated each other didn’t they. I just assumed they were getting along since we hadn’t heard about them for decades.”
The conflict is over the Nagorno-Karabakh border region, and is now under a ceasefire after two weeks of conflict which has killed over 700.
President Steps Down After Riots (*Kyrgyzstan’s president)
(Spilling over from news last week, but worth noting:)
In Bishkek (the Kyrgyzstan capital, not the Ikea model), groups protesting the parliamentary election results have overtaken government buildings. During the protest, Jeenbekov ordered security forces not to shoot protesters, and has now stepped down gracefully.
Although he did not ‘@ mention’ any other political leaders who are meddling in election processes, we can all appreciate the example he was trying to set for others.
Now ex-President Sooronbai Jeenbekov is the third president in the past 15 years to be ousted in revolts, meaning Australia is just holding onto the lead over Kyrgysztan on the ‘leaders who were kicked out’ scoreboard.