Beginning this week, I want to share five news articles that I found interesting. These are articles from all over the world that are generally not the main things covered in the U.S. news. Here’s the articles with a few comments.
1. 8 Reasons for Optimism in Ukraine – There are some reasons for pessimism and a lot of challenges ahead, but there’s also a lot of reasons for optimism. Brian Mefford from the Atlantic Council explains. He says that Ukraine should not be underestimated: “A country that came through the horrors of the 1930s Holodomor terror famine and the brunt of the fighting on the apocalyptic Eastern Front during World War II should never be underestimated. And yet that is exactly what Russia did.”
2. The amount of uninsured in America has dropped from 16% in 2010 to 8% today. – Obamacare is an ongoing experiment, but it seems to be succeeding in reducing the number of uninsured.
3. SpaceX completed 61 launches in 2022. When I was growing up, there were only a handful each year, all done by the government. The 61 launches beat Elon Musk’s goal of 60. Either way, it’s an amazing achievement for a private company.
4. What Will Happen in Iran in 2023? – Protests have continued since the death of Jina Mahsa Amini while in police custody. I have found it difficult to find out exactly what is going on in Iran. Shabnam von Hein and Shora Azarnoush provide some perspective on this in their article on DW.
5. Mexico had a great year economically – Visiting Mexico this past year, I was surprised at how prosperous it is. I have heard from Latino friends that people coming from Central America have just stayed in Mexico because there is opportunity there and because of the common language. This year was a great year for Mexico, which is good news for our neighbor to the South.
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Photo by Dmitry Bukhantsov on Unsplash