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China Approves Hong Kong Nat’l Security Law

China’s National People’s Con- gress (NPC) approved a controver- sial Hong Kong national security law last Thursday, in a move which critics fear threatens civil liberty and politi- cal freedom in the territory.

The resolution was approved almost unanimously and will al- low mainland China’s state security agencies to operate in the city. Only one delegate voted against the pro- posal and six abstained, while an overwhelming 2,878 voted in favor. Now that it has been approved, the NPC’s standing committee will draft the law in an estimated two months.

The law was designed for “Hong Kong’s long-term prosperity and stability,” said China’s Premier Li Keqiang after the parliamentary meetings, invoking the “steady im- plementation of ‘one country, two systems.’”

On the heels of last year’s anti-government demonstrations in Hong Kong, the city once more saw people taking to the streets following news of the proposal. Following the arrest of about 300 protestors last Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the U.S. would no longer consider Honk Kong, a global finan- cial hub, as autonomous from China for trade and economic purposes.

I n a statement, Pompeo de- nounced the law as a “disastrous de- cision” and called it “ the latest in a series of actions that fundamentally undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms.”

“No reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from Chi- na, given facts on the ground,” said Pompeo.

Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo said the law marks “the beginning of a sad and traumatizing era” for the city.

“They’ve practically taken away our soul. Our soul we’ve been treasuring all these years, the rule of law, human rights, they’re taking away all the core values we’ve come to know,” she said. “From now on, Hong Kong is nothing but just another mainland Chinese city.”

Hong Kong exists as a Special Administrative Region controlled by The People’s Republic of China and enjoys its own limited autonomy as defined by the Basic Law. The prin- ciple of “one country, two systems” allows for the coexistence of social- ism and capitalism under “one coun- try,” which is mainland China. The Hong Kong economy is characterized by low tax rates, free trade, and less government interference. The main- land Chinese stock markets are more conservative and restrictive.

The relationship between Hong Kong and China goes back to the Opium Wars, which were fought be- tween Great Britain and China in 1839-1860. During these military and trade clashes, China was forced to cede Hong Kong Island and a part of Kowloon to Great Britain in per- petuity. In 1898, Britain negotiated a major land expansion of the Hong Kong colony and signed a 99-year lease with China. The lease ended in 1997, at which time Britain returned Hong Kong to China as a Special Administrative Region (SAR) called the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (HKSAR).

Locusts Take Over

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Mattos מַּטֹות Parashah Pointers Moshe teaches the laws of nedarim (promises) to the nesi’im of each shevet and then to all the rest of the Jewish people. Hashem tells Moshe to go to war against Midian. Moshe tells the Jews to raise an army of 12,000 soldiers, 1,000 soldiers from each shevet. Moshe sends Pinchas with the soldiers, and gives him the Aron, Tzitz, and trumpets to take to the battle. The Jews win the war! They kill all the men of Midian and their five kings. They also kill Bilaam, who was in Midian during the war. The soldiers take the wealth and animals of Midian and burn down their cities. Moshe, Elazar, and the nesi’im of all the shevatim meet the army when they return from Midian. Moshe is upset that some of the evil Midianite women were allowed to live. Many of them had caused Jews to sin and die (see end of Parashas Balak). Moshe said these evil Midianites should be killed. Moshe warns the soldiers who are tamei meis not to enter the Mishkan area unless they become tahor using the ashes of the Parah Adumah. Elazar teaches the Jews how to kasher (make kosher) the metal pots, pans, dishes, and cups they had captured from Midian. He also tells them to put these items into a mikveh before using them. The Jews captured many animals and people. Moshe says that half of the booty should go to the Jewish soldiers, and the other half should go to the rest of the Jews. The surviving Midianites will be servants. The Jewish commanders are thankful to Hashem that not one of their soldiers died. To show their gratitude, the commanders give an extra gift of gold for the Mishkan. The shevatim of Gad and Reuven come to Moshe with a request. They have a lot of sheep and cattle, and the lands of Sichon and Og are good for raising sheep and cattle. These two shevatim tell Moshe they want to settle there, and not go into Eretz Yisrael. Moshe is upset. He tells them: “Your brothers are going to fight and you will stay behind? This will discourage the Jews from going to Eretz Yisrael. Why are you doing this?” The shevatim answer that they certainly will cross the Yarden River. They will fight to conquer Eretz Yisrael together with the other shevatim. They will stay with them until the land is divided. But they will leave their flocks and families on this side of the Yarden, where they want to settle down. Moshe tells them that if they agree to go with the rest of the Jews to Eretz Yisrael and fight together with them, then they can have the lands of Sichon and Og. Moshe tells Elazar and Yehoshua about the agreement. He commands them to give Gad and Reuven the lands they want, if they keep to their agreement and fight in the wars to conquer Eretz Yisrael. Gad and Reuven build cities. Two of Menashe’s families conquer more land on the east side of the Yarden for them to live in.

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cust swarm the country has seen in almost 30 years.

Waves of desert locusts – millions strong and stretching up to 4 miles long – crossed into India’s western state of Rajasthan from neighboring Pakistan in early May and swarms have since pushed into five different states in search of food.

The desert locust is the most destructive of all locust species because of its speed and ability to multiply

Earlier this year, the Horn of Africa was hit by the worst invasion of desert locusts in 25 years, devastating food and pasture in the region.

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rapidly, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. Adult locusts can fly more than 90 miles a day and eat their own body weight worth of fresh vegetation in that period.

A swarm can vary from one to several hundred square kilometers, with each square kilometer containing up to 80 million adult locusts.

Much of the locust movements were driven by the strong westerly winds in the wake of Cyclone Amphan in the Bay of Bengal, which slammed into India and Bangladesh on May 20, killing at least 90 people and causing more than $13.2 billion in damage.

The locusts have flown into India from their breeding areas in Pakistan, added Om Prakash, a Rajasthan-based plant protection officer for the Locust Warning Organization.

In a cruise ship coronavirus outbreak back in March, over 80% of people testing positive for the disease did not exhibit any symptoms, according to a new paper published in the journal Thorax.

While researchers have known that COVID can be transmitted even by asymptomatic carriers, without population-wide testing it is hard to determine the percentage of precisely how many people are infected despite not showing any symptoms. The new paper suggests just how widespread asymptomatic transmission may be, at least in a contained environment. Furthermore, it suggests that official case counts are quite possibly drastic underestimates.

The cruise ship discussed in the paper, while not identified by name, departed Argentina in mid-March and was meant to travel around the Antarctic Peninsula and over to South Georgia Island in the south Atlantic Ocean. Prior to departure, all passengers were checked for symptoms of COVID, and those who had traveled through “hotspots” of the outbreak were not permitted to board.

Regardless of these measures, eight days into the trip one passenger developed a fever, which led to a lockdown of the entire ship as additional passengers and crew members began exhibiting symptoms over the next few days.

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everyone remaining on board to be tested. Of the 217 people on board, 128 tested positive for coronavirus – of whom only 24 had shown symptoms prior to testing. The remaining 104 people, or 81% of those who had tested positive, had not experienced any symptoms, the report states.

As those aboard the ship had been entirely isolated from the outside world for about a month, living in close quarters, it’s difficult to extrapolate these results to the general population. Even so, the results suggest that the rapid spread of COVID may be further reaching than previously suspected. policy, which separates the Iranian-backed militia’s military and political wing. The EU had defined Hezbollah’s armed wing as a terror group after a 2012 attack in Bulgaria killed six Israelis but has refrained from blacklisting its political division.

Austria to Sanction Hezbollah

Austria’s parliament passed a unanimous resolution on Friday calling on the government to sanction the Hezbollah terrorist organization.

T he bill exhorts the government to take action against Hezbollah members operating inside Austria and to change European Union

“In the application, the National Council acknowledges Austria’s historical responsibility towards the State of Israel. The EU had to deal with Hezbollah again. Its military arm had already been classified as a terrorist organization in 2013 and would threaten Israel’s security,” Austria’s governing coalition said in a statement.

The bill was sponsored by the Austrian People’s Party, which said that it was time to end the “artificial” designation separating the organization’s military and political arms. “Hezbollah wants to destroy Israel and propagates anti-Semitism and spreads radical Islamic ideology,” noted MPs Reinhold Lopatka and Michaela Steinacker.

Israel praised Austria’s parliament for the move, saying that recognizing the armed Lebanese militia as a terror organization constituted a valuable step in protecting the lives of innocent Israelis.

“This is a significant decision against Hezbollah, and I hope the Austrian government adopts the parliamentary decision and joins the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands, which have recognized Hezbollah as a whole as a terrorist organization,” said Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi.

The move comes after Germany recognized Hezbollah as a terror organization last month and completely banned its activities in the country. The change reportedly followed an intensive campaign by Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency that documented Hezbollah’s considerable presence in Germany.

What Happened with Crashed Pakistani Jet?

An interim safety report found that the crew of the doomed Pakistan International Airlines jet put the aircraft on the runway with the wheels still up while moving at 200 miles per hour.

The pilots soon aborted their attempt to land, instead choosing to take off again, but lost power shortly thereafter. As the plane attempted to touch down for a second time, it crashed into a neighborhood outside Karachi, Pakistan, killing 97 of the 99 people on board, last month.

Speaking with Bloomberg, aviation safety consultant John Cox said that the report suggested highly irregular behavior by the pilot “It is unbelievable to me that an airline crew on a jet like an Airbus, with all the warning systems, would attempt

T he aircraft then tried an emergency landing at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport but failed and slammed directly into the ground. Videos of the crash showed the crippled jet hitting the ground and then skidding before going up in flames.

to land the plane without the gear extended,” he said.

Cox added that “the airplane is not happy that you’re this close to the ground without the gear extended” and that there are multiple warning systems which should alert the crew that the landing gear is either not extended or not working.

It is not yet clear why the plane’s two jet engines malfunctioned at the same time and so abruptly.

In a press briefing on Friday, Pakistan’s Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan emphasized that “the million-dollar question is why the plane landed, touched the ground three times, and then took off.”

Furthermore, at no point did the pilots say they were experiencing any type of emergency or that they had any issue with their landing gear. Just before the plane crashed, one of the pilots said, “Sir, we have lost engines” and then called, “Mayday, mayday, mayday,” seconds before the plane crashed.

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight PK-8303 had taken off on May 22 from Lahore for the short flight to Karachi with 91 passengers and eight crew members on board. Shortly before its scheduled 2:30 PM landing time, the pilot issued an emergency mayday call and soon disappeared from radar screens.

Rabbis Can be German Chaplains

For the first time since the 1930s, rabbis will be allowed to serve as military chaplains in Germany. The German parliament unanimously approved an agreement between the government and Germany’s Central