[BREAKING] News Thread

[ShiraNoMai]

Does it pertain to the COVID-19 pandemic? Go here.

Does it pertain to a particular celebrity passing away? Go here.

Everything else gets posted here! New and topical, but probably won't warrant its own topic for discussion cuz it's one of those "in the moment" news flashes!

Any hot news today, y'all?

[Dragon Lord]

So some possibly good news in this sea of constant bad news:

Reports are coming in that Kim Jong-Un has died. Though not 100% confirmed yet, but it sounds like it's pretty good. TMZ reported today that he was dead, but reports coming out of Japan say that he's still alive, but is a vegetable.

China has sent medical exports to North Korea to help advise on what to do about him, so that's probably a pretty good idea that he's in a pretty bad state.

Now, normally we wouldn't want to celebrate the news of someone's death, but considering how much of a piece of shit Kimmy boy is, I cannot wait to get confirmation on his death so I can throw a party.

The only bad news that comes with this is that his sister would take over and I've read that she's apparently worse than he is, so that would not be so good (though if you go by what people are saying online, it doesn't matter how evil she is because she's a woman and that makes her the greatest leader in the history of the world).

[Moonface]

The only downside to this would be if his sister is worse than him. It would be a classic case of better the devil you know.

[Karo]

I've been hearing a lot of conflicting news about this really.

Not sure how I feel about it. I feel like there a lot of unknown when power exchange happens I kinda feel like North Korea under it current regime probably wouldn't actually try attacking someone and dooming themselves, but hey if the next ruler is as crazy as America president....well something terrible could happen.

[Moonface]

I've been hearing a lot of conflicting news about this really.

Not sure how I feel about it. I feel like there a lot of unknown when power exchange happens I kinda feel like North Korea under it current regime probably wouldn't actually try attacking someone and dooming themselves, but hey if the next ruler is as crazy as America president....well something terrible could happen.

As easy as it is to think a leader of a country would do something as drastic as attack another country, it's highly unlikely to happen. If North Korea were to attack the US, then obviously the US would attack back, which is obviously bad for North Korea. Mutually assured destruction is what keeps the balance of power in place between all of the big powers of the world today. If I have a nuke I can use on you, but you also have a nuke you can use on me, and your allies have nukes too, then what benefit is there to me launching a nuke at you only for one to come back at me? The same applies to a war. I have to get substantially more out of a war than what I can lose to make it worthwhile to me. It's also why things like 9/11 were performed by non-state actors (people not directly tied to a country), because retaliation is hard to do when it isn't from a country. We went to war with Iraq yet they didn't actually do the attack, but because we thought the attackers were from there we went after them.

[ShiraNoMai]

Wasn't he having a specific heart operation, and that went south and that's why he got the way he got? I wonder if he caught the virus. I heard that cardiac problems are associated with people who contract at a young-ish age.

[Moonface]

Wasn't he having a specific heart operation, and that went south and that's why he got the way he got? I wonder if he caught the virus. I heard that cardiac problems are associated with people who contract at a young-ish age.

Heart surgery was the reported event that led to whatever his current state is. I was about to question you on his age but then saw he's only 36/37?! Honestly didn't think he was that young.
I'm surprised North Korea hasn't just outright proven the claims wrong. A letter doesn't really cut it because there's no credibility behind it.

[Dragon Lord]

Reports from a South Korean reporter are now saying that he's 100% fine and is just staying out of the public eye while he recovers from the surgery. I have a hard time believing that, because he's an attention whore and there's no way he's keeping still while the world continues to move without him.

It feels more like N. Korea just wants to try to make other countries believe he's alive, or at least not in a really bad spot, because they know they are screwed if their "supreme leader" has bit the bullet.

[Moonface]

I'm surprised South Korea would try to defend the guy in any way since they don't get along with NK.

[Dragon Lord]

Apparently the current leader of S. Korea has been doing his best to patch relations with N. Korea since he took over. I haven't looked more into it than that, so can't really provide any in-depths details to it, but it would explain why a S. Korean reporter contacted someone in N. Korea to get information.

But as I said before, N. Korea has never been honest about anything so it's hard to take what they say at face value.

[Moonface]

I think North Korea has some parade coming up very soon which Kim is normally guaranteed to attend. If he doesn't show up then I would take that as indication he isn't as fine as they say he is.

[Dragon Lord]

So reports began to surface yesterday that there has been the discovery of a giant hornet species from Asia in North America. These hornets are nicknamed "Murder Hornets" and are capable of killing a human being. Victims of their sting have described their stingers and the venom from them as feeling like hot metal is driving into your skin. According to what I've read, their venom kills red blood cells, which can lead to a host of problems such as liver failure, and as I mentioned above, death.

More worrisome though is the fact that these hornets absolutely slaughter bees. They have mandibles shaped like spiked shark fins that they use to behead bees. This is very terrible news when we're already struggling to keep the bee population alive, and now there's a possibility that a very dangerous, invasive species to them has come to North America. The loss of bees would be catastrophic to the world.

2020 is just becoming this huge clusterfuck of what the actual hell.

[Moonface]

Ah, so that's why I've been seeing people talking about hornets on social media today. I had no idea it was because of that reason.

How'd they even get over here? Surely they didn't fly here?

[Dragon Lord]

The only two explanations for how they got here would be:

A) Somebody, for whatever idiotic reason, brought them over.

B) They got into a crate or something that was being shipped to the US.

[Moonface]

Both cases are bad because I feel like neither should happen and that checks should be in place to catch that stuff. Although if someone intentionally brought those over here they should face repercussions for it.

Also, if no one saw, apparently Kim is all fine and well. I saw it when Trump tweeted that he was glad he was better, which I don't agree with mostly because of the double edged sword it produces. On the one hand, taking the moral high ground and not wishing another country's leader to be dead is a better look for another leader to say than to be all "Damn you ain't dead?", but at the same time it makes it come off that you're happy a dictator piece of garbage is alive and well. It would have been better to have said nothing so that way you can't fall into any traps that both sides of the media are going to spin and run away with for their respective audiences.