Opinion: President Biden's withdrawal a gracious step

SEOUL, July 24 (AJU PRESS) - President Joe Biden's decision to withdraw from the 2024 presidential contest is becoming, in the sense of complimentary to him, reflecting well on him. That is a term rarely, if ever, used in today’s extraordinarily cruel and ugly political rhetoric. True to form, former President Donald Trump reacted with a series of crude personal insults, including the statement that Biden never should have run. Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH), now the Republic

July 24, 2024

Opinion: One small update brought down millions of IT systems around the world

SEOUL, July 24 (AJU PRESS) - This weekend's global IT outage caused by a software update gone wrong highlights the interconnected and often fragile nature of modern IT infrastructure. It demonstrates how a single point of failure can have far-reaching consequences. The outage was linked to a single update automatically rolled out to CrowdStrike Falcon, a ubiquitous cyber security tool used primarily by large organizations. This caused Microsoft Windows computers around the world

July 24, 2024

Opinion: Kamala Harris is likely to become Democratic nominee for president

SEOUL, July 23 (AJU PRESS) - After three weeks of pained debates in the media and within the Biden administration itself, the 61 percent of Americans who wanted Joe Biden to step aside have had their wish granted. Only a few minutes after announcing he would no longer be seeking re-election, Biden made clear he endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him, while major Democratic Party stalwarts – including the Congressional Black Caucus as well as Bill and Hillary Clin

July 23, 2024

Opinion: China's economic resilience amid turbulent first half of 2024

KARACHI, July 22 (AJU PRESS) - Amidst a turbulent internal and external landscape, the Chinese economy has managed to produce a noteworthy "midterm paper," demonstrating resilience with a relatively mixed performance in the first half of 2024. On July 15, the National Bureau of Statistics released its 2024 China Economic Semi-annual Report, revealing a 5% year-on-year GDP growth. However, in the second quarter, China's economy grew by 4.7 percent year-on-year, follow

July 22, 2024

Biden withdraws from presidential race

SEOUL, July 22 (AJU PRESS) - Now that Joe Biden has dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the nominee, it will ultimately be up to Democratic National Convention delegates to formally select a new nominee for their party. This will mark the first time in over 50 years that a major party nominee was selected outside of the democratic process of primaries and caucuses. Many Democrats had already begun discussing how to replace Biden.

July 22, 2024

Opinion: What is CrowdStrike Falcon and what does it do? Is my computer safe?

SEOUL, July 19 (AJU PRESS) - A massive IT outage is currently affecting computer systems worldwide. In Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, reports indicate computers at banks, media organisations, hospitals, transport services, shop checkouts, airports and more have all been impacted. Friday's outage is unprecedented in its scale and severity. The technical term for what has happened to the affected computers is that they have been "bricked." This word refers to those

July 19, 2024

Opinion: Joe Biden has COVID. Here's what someone over 80 can expect

SEOUL, July 19 (AJU PRESS) - If U.S. politics leading up to the 2024 presidential election was a Hollywood thriller, it would be a movie full of plot twists and surprises. The latest twist is President Joe Biden has COVID and is isolating at home. Biden's doctor says his symptoms are mild and include a runny nose, cough and generally feeling unwell. His temperature, oxygen levels and respiratory rate are said to be normal. Biden, who has been diagnosed with COVID twice before

July 19, 2024

Opinion: Conspiracy theories on Trump assassination attempt are spreading like wildfire – on both sides of politics

SEOUL, July 18 (AJU PRESS) - As the sound of gunshots interrupted Donald Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, the former U.S. president clutched his right ear before squatting to the ground. Members of the Secret Service quickly surrounded Trump, who fiercely pumped his fist towards the crowd. It was during this moment an instantly iconic photo was taken as Trump stood, fist raised, in front of the U.S. flag – blood running from his ear to his cheek. Almos

July 18, 2024

Opinion: Assassinations and American politics

SEOUL, July 17 (AJU PRESS) - Political assassination is a particularly grim, disturbing, and important subject. Murder alone is awful, but violence against a political leader tears at the very fabric and foundations of our system of government. Unfortunately, this phenomenon has been a regular – though not frequent – occurrence in U.S. political history. Former President Donald Trump fortunately has survived this latest instance of a despicable crime. His actions

July 17, 2024

Opinion: Target just became latest US retailer to stop accepting payment by checks

SEOUL, July 17 (AJU PRESS) - Can you still use a check to make purchases? In increasing numbers of stores across the U.S., the answer is "no." The large retailer Target stopped accepting checks on July 15, 2024. It follows decisions a decade earlier by supermarket chains Whole Foods and Aldi to no longer accept this form of payment. Target said it was phasing out checks because not many customers use them. It's a fair point: Check usage has fallen dramatically around t

July 17, 2024