Tragedy, Anger, and a former-president missing the spotlight, we’ve got a lot to talk about.

This episode features the song “Aside” by Normcore, available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

Links to this weeks stories :

00:10 Asian-American Murders

• 8 Dead, at the hands of gunman who accused the women of furthering his addiction to sex
• Caught alive, defended by the police officers who claimed it was a “rough day” for the perpetrator 
• Further investigations showed anti-Asian posts and even sold merchandise originating on the police officer’s page
• Marches and vigils across the country remember the dead, and call for more restricted gun rights with a renewed highlight on racial injustice pertaining to the Asian community

09:16 Hard Stances on the Geopolitical Stage 

• Biden accuses Putin of being a “Killer”. Putin fired back at the nuclear bombs dropped in Japan, and the Native American massacres as a whataboutism
• Biden had said the US had “rolled over” for the Russian government in the last administration and he would not further that mentality
• During a meeting in Anchorage, US and Chinese delegations met and traded public barbs
• Chinese officials claimed there was the “strong smell of gunpowder and drama” as US officials took aim at the aggressive authoritarian nature of Chinese ruling in the past few years
• Taiwan, Tibet, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang all stand out as sore spots in the talks, with both sides accusing each other of grandstanding

17:11 Trump Social Media

• Trump to return to social media on his own platform in some 2-3 months 
• No details of how open or exclusive it will be, a paywall function is hinted at 
• Likely to face similar challenges to Gab and Parler, with Twitter and Facebook monopolizing the market