6.19.2023

Terror Attack in Uganda

At least 37 students were killed and many others injured after an Islamic State-affiliated extremist group attacked a boarding school in western Uganda over the weekend. Four nonstudents were also killed, and six more pupils were abducted as the assailants fled across the nearby border into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Officials said students were killed with machetes, while others died after the dormitories they took refuge in were set on fire. 

A group known as the Allied Democratic Forces claimed responsibility for the attack, which follows a church bombing by the rebel group in January that killed 17 people. The ADF was formed more than three decades ago with the ostensible purpose of overthrowing the Ugandan government. Despite believing to number in the few thousands, the group has persisted throughout the years by hiding in the mountainous border region, abducting children as recruits, and establishing links with other regional terrorist groups. 

Read more about the group here.

/r/strike

Thousands of communities on the popular social message board site Reddit remain inaccessible to the general public as a protest over the company's plan to charge for third-party integrations enters its second week. The standoff comes ahead of Reddit's highly anticipated initial public offering, expected sometime this year.

Reddit is the world's 20th largest website by traffic (see list), boasting an estimated 57 million daily users, with its content almost entirely generated by users of the platform and overseen by volunteer moderators. The site boasts around 140,000 active user-created "subreddits"—though only about 0.5% have more than 1 million subscribers. 

The company recently announced it would begin charging third party apps to interface with the site, which critics say will end ways to customize the platform without introducing fees. Some analysts have said the protest reveals an overreliance by Reddit on user-generated content and oversight, though the ultimate impact of the protest remains to be seen. 

Three of Reddit's largest communities have reverted to posting mostly photos of talk show host John Oliver.

Blinken in Beijing

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Beijing Sunday after his original visit in February was postponed. Blinken's visit to China is the first for a US secretary of state since 2018. 

The nearly eight-hour talks between Blinken and Qin Gang, China’s foreign minister, concluded Sunday with both sides signaling the meeting was constructive. The talks come amid continued disagreements over Ukraine and Taiwan, US sanctions of Chinese semiconductors, and an uptick in US military presence in Asia (see overview). The country's leaders agreed to stabilize ties in November, but tensions renewed after the US discovered a Chinese spy balloon over its territory in February.

China faces an economic slowdown and increasing youth unemployment, announcing stimulus plans and cuts to interest rates this past week. See a timeline of US-China relations here.

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Science & Technology

Business & Markets

Politics & World Affairs

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