The RECC’E - DAY 62 | 03.03.22 | A CITY FALLS

Day 62 / 365

9YEARS ago today a 2 year old U.S girl became the first child born with HIV to be cured.

RECC’E OF THE DAY

1mPEOPLE have now fled Ukraine in the week since the Russian invasion began. This represents 2% of Ukraines 44m population and the UN has stated their initial predictions that up to 4m could leave the country may be revised upwards in due course. Uber has begun offering unlimited trips between the Ukrainian border and Polish cities; Airbnb will also provide free temporary stays for 100k Ukrainian refugees.

752UKRAINIAN civilian casualties have been officially recorded by the UN's office for human rights (OHCHR) including 227 deaths, but it  believes that the number is "considerably higher.” And current Ukrainian sources put the figure at around 2000. 

498RUSSIAN troops have been killed according to the Russian defence ministry with another 1597 injured however the Ukrainian President has stated that 9000 Russian troops have in fact been killed in the week of fighting.

40MILE convoy of Russian military vehicles bearing down on Kyiv appears to have stalled, it has shown no significant movement - only 2 miles - towards the capital in the past 24 hours and remains 16-18 miles outside of Kyiv. 

300kPEOPLE live in the port city of Kherson and it has become the first major Ukrainian city to fall to Russia. It is a strategically important location due to its position on the Black Sea has which has led to fears forces from Moscow could use it for amphibious landings.

4MAJOR explosions also rocked the capital of Kyiv overnight and concerns persist the over the threat of nuclear war; all in all Russia has 5977 nuclear warheads - though around 1,500 are retired or set to to be dismantled - NATO has 5943; 5428 of which are held by the U.S.

$118A BARREL is what the international benchmark standard for oil prices touched early Thursday morning; an almost decade high and up nearly $5 from yesterdays average. The U.S has stated it is open to imposing sanctions on Russia’s oil and gas supplies and block supplies if aggression continues. 

71RUSSIAN and 12 Belarusian athletes due to compete in the winter Paralympics in Beijing after the International Paralympic Committee stated they could compete as neutrals will now not be allowed to compete. The committee has stated the situation had become "untenable" and the athletes were "victims of your governments' actions".

1stTIME in 40 years the UN security council has referred a crisis to the UN general assembly. Russia was the sole vote against a UN resolution in the security council on Friday however because Russia is one of the five powers with a veto, the resolution was not upheld. So Ukraine’s allies referred the matter to the general assembly. It is only the 11th time an emergency session of the UN general assembly has been called since 1950. 

141OF 193 member states voted for a resolution deploring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and called for the immediate withdrawal of its forces, in a global expression of outrage that highlighted Russia’s increasing isolation. 35 abstained and 5 voted against; Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea, Syria and of course Russia.

NEED-TO-KNOW

5tPEICES of plastic are in the world's oceans and each year 400m tonnes of plastic is produced of which 40% is single-use. Now the 193 UN member states have agreed to start negotiations on an international agreement to take action on the "plastic crisis"; efforts which will result in a global treaty to tackle plastic pollution.

420kYEAR disparity between DNA sequenced from European ancestors (430k years old) compared with African ancestors (10k years old) has left questions about the continent’s past.  Now genome-wide ancient DNA data for six individuals from eastern and south-central Africa spanning the past approximately 18,000 years - almost doubling the time depth of sub-Saharan African ancient DNA - is helping address science’s racial bias.

3GENES linked to autism which were studied using lab-grown clumps of neurons called organoids have been shown by Harvard researchers to affect the timing of brain development. Hundreds of genes have been linked to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and this new approach is now yielding promising results.

SHOULD-KNOW

68AMAZON physical stores - every single one of its book, 4-star and pop-up stores - will be closed by the online giant in a bid to focus on its grocery and fashion stores. Amazon Fresh, Whole foods and grocery, as well as Amazon Go convenience stores and it’s experimental clothing store “Amazon Style” all appear to be sticking around.

8kARRIVALS are expected on day 1 of Western Australia reopening its borders nearly two years since first sealing them to international visitors and other Australians because of the coronavirus pandemic. It is the last state to drop its travel entry ban, four months after the nation's biggest city Sydney welcomed back international travel.

5mHOUSEHOLDS in major cities across Taiwan including the capital Taipei have seen widespread blackouts after a reported accident at a power plant. The island does occasionally experience large power outages. In 2017, a massive blackout hit half of Taiwan, affecting 6.68 million households.

GOOD-TO-KNOW

60COLLEGES and universities trialing Facebook’s attempt at recreating the original Facebook - a campus only project - inside Facebook itself have been informed the Pilot is being closed down March 10th; 17 months after it launched. Leaked 2021 memo’s showed a 13% decline in teen Facebook users since 2019. 

5-0WAS THE SCORE when AI fighter pilots took to the skies in simulated F-16 dog fights against human pilots. Now the Pentagon says it intends go beyond the simulator and pit humans against machines in 2023. But with China forging ahead too, it is likely to pull this programme into 2022.

30DAYS is how long a recorded Twitter Space lasts on the social network but it seems Twitter is looking at audio with a much longer half-life, potentially indefinitely. Twitter’s appears to be building a tab dedicated to podcasts with one user already posting screenshots of the development online. The change comes as TikTok, which started out as 15 second clips moves to a 10 minute maximum video length.  

SIGN-OFF STAT

2WORDS come together to produce the word ‘oxymoron’, which is itself an oxymoron. This is because it derives from Ancient Greek where ‘oxy’ means ‘sharp’ and ‘moros’ means ‘stupid’.

  

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