Friday, February 14

Happy Valentine's Day!

Dozens of people were injured yesterday after a car plowed into a crowd of people in Munich, Germany, just 10 days before the country's next election.

The car ramming took place during a protest by a large labor union, meaning that there were over 1,500 people on the streets at the time of the attack. Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft, or ver.di for short, is Germany's second largest trade union with over 1.9 million members. Some of these members were rallying on local streets, and the group was crossing the intersection of Karlstrasse and Siedlstrasse at the time of the attack, which was around 10:30 am.

Then, a Mini Cooper accelerated past local police and plowed into the back of the group, injuring over 30 people, at least two of which were critically injured. The suspect fired one gunshot before being arrested by police, and he was later confirmed to be a 24-year-old Afghan man who had been seeking asylum in Germany.

The man's asylum application had been rejected by the government, but he had not been forced to return to Afghanistan yet due to the dangerous conditions in that region. However, the suspect does not have any criminal history, and seems to be a regular citizen with a proper work permit and house.

The incident occurred just one mile away from the Hotel Bayerischer Hof, which is where the Munich Security Conference begins today. Many major world leaders, including Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and US Vice President J.D. Vance, will be there for three days to talk about important international security challenges facing our world today, with the conference ending on Sunday.

However, authorities do not believe that the location of the car attack has anything to do with the conference. They are currently investigating whether the attack was related to the rally in any way, though. Further investigations are also taking place, and the driver will appear in court today.

Fact of the Day (Reader's Digest): Our bodies lose a lot of water on flights, making it very important to stay hydrated. You lose about 8% of your body water while on a flight because the humidity in the climate-controlled environment can be as low as 10-15%. In fact, some studies show that you could lose as much as 1.5 to 2 liters of water on a 10-hour flight.

Quote of the Day (Gracious Quotes): Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in. (Isaac Asimov)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Gallant (adj, GAL-unt) - Someone or something described as gallant is very courageous and brave. Gallant is also sometimes used to mean “large and impressive” (as in “a gallant ship”), or to describe someone who has or shows politeness and respect for women.

Ina Sentence: Though they failed to reach the summit, the mountaineering team made a gallant attempt.