COMM 208:
BROADCAST Stories
#1
New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/28/style/the-murder-hornet-hunters-of-paris.html
The Queen Is Dead.
The Bize brothers also known as the “murder hornet hunters” killed another nest at a preschool in suburban Paris.
Asian hornets first appeared in southwest France in 2004 and traveled all the way to the capital of France. By now the little insects became a serious threat to institutions like preschools or public buildings. That made the firefighter department punt the wasp problem to private pest technicians. A new side business was established and the Bize brothers took over.
They killed an estimate number of 300 Asian hornet nests in 2019 and the numbers are increasing.
The enormous number of Asian hornets are endangering the honeybees because they both compete for flower resources in the city which makes their work so important.
Honeybees have a long and rich history in France which is one of Europe’s major honey trade hubs. The little insects are not only honey makers though, they also play a really important role for our ecosystem.
A decreasing number of honey bees would not just threaten France’s honey business but also their ecosystem.
#2
New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/02/world/europe/whale-sculpture-netherlands-train.html
Art Piece Stops Train from Falling
A whale sculpture in the Netherlands stopped a train from plunging about 30 feet to the ground. It was around 12:30 am when the train went over the end of the elevated tracks, before it got stopped by the whale tale.
The train was left teetering 30 feet above the ground. Luckily the train was almost empty so that no passenger nor the driver was injured or killed by the accident.
A spokesman for safety in the Rotterdam-Pijnmond area said, “there is no indication that the driver had done anything wrong.”
Officials are now investigating why the system responsible for stopping the train failed.
Maarten Struijs, who created the sculpture, says that the image of a train balancing on the tale looks like an art piece itself but also expresses his concerns about the structure of his 20 year-old work and how long it can last.
Officials are now trying to find a way to remove the train safely.
#3
New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/02/world/africa/ethiopia-school-massacre.html
Schoolyard Massacre in Ethiopia
Dozens of people killed in the latest attack in Africa’s second-most populous nation. The attack where 54 people from the ethnic Amhara group got killed happened on Sunday. It was the latest of a series of attacks that happened the past weekend.
The attackers were from the Oromo Liberation Army which is a group that broke off from a once-banned political party. They attacked three villages in the West Welega Zone.
The group killed the victims on a schoolyard after they plundered what they could and set everything else on fire.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed tries to unite the country’s ethnically federated states for years but ethnic grievances around resources, land, internal borders have intensified.