Why don't we focus on Hong Kong?

edition.cnn.com

Today, historic event happened again in East Asia.
Protesters got in the legislative council over China extradition bill.
I had thought this wouldn't happen, because Beijing would send tons of military weapons and soldiers, before such an event happens.
But, the result was that the government office was broken.

According to twiiter, inside the building,
・Flag of UK was waved.
・”No China extradition bill” was written with spray
・"Quit Carrie Lam" was written with spray
・Hong Kong flag during UK's sovereignty was put up
・Flag of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China was partly deleted with spray
　(The letters of "People's Republic of China" were deleted)
・Portraits of the former leaders were sprayed.

Why is this meeting surprising one?

DMZ: Donald Trump steps into North Korea with Kim Jong Un
edition.cnn.com

Historic moment came into our sight suddenly.
If we imagine lives of statesmen, we tend to think about people with bureaucracy and severely scheduled lives.
But, when it comes to President Trump, he doesn't seem to be the case. None of Japan's ministry of foreign affairs nor US department of State knew his tour to North Korea. It means this meeting was really unplanned, and was realized by his tweet.
Flourishing of SNS also changed the political way of the world's most famous president.

Why is the ban meaningless?

San Francisco's e-cigarette sales ban is an unprecedented health experiment
https://edition-m.cnn.com/2019/06/26/health/e-cigarette-ban-san-francisco-health-experiment/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fedition.cnn.com%2F

If e-cigarette sales ban is enforced in San Francisco, e-cigarette smokers will shift to conventional smoking cigarettes.
It is meaningless for promoting health.
What San Francisco City should do is to think about how to persuade them to stop smoking cigarettes, and about how to protect non-smokers from motivation to smoke.

Why is Eastern Bloc still horrible?

How Donald Trump made a total mockery of Russia's election interference
https://edition-m.cnn.com/2019/06/28/politics/vladimir-putin-donald-trump-election-interference/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fedition.cnn.com%2F

If it's true that Russia interfered U.S presidential election, we can't conclude that Western Bloc won after the end of the Cold War. Economically, we take it for granted that Socialism lost, and some countries in the Eastern Bloc adopted capitalism. But, the leader of the Eastern Bloc still aims at invading Western Bloc.

Why is it a different case to build high speed rail there?

Leshan – Yibin high speed line opens
https://www.railwaygazette.com/news/news/asia/single-view/view/leshan-yibin-high-speed-line-opens.html

Passenger Dedicated Line, roughly meaning high speed rail, seems to be extended to inland China.
Since topography there is so steep, there will be technical issues to pass through mountainous area of inland China.

Why does this corridor need speedup?

Québec – Toronto High Frequency Rail study awarded funding
https://www.railwaygazette.com/news/news/n-america/single-view/view/quebec-toronto-high-frequency-rail-study-awarded-funding.html

Considering the distance between Quebec and Toronto, it would be better to think about how to minimize travel time by raising maximum speed or building high speed line. That's because conversational trains are not rapider than vehicles, and then won't be competitive.
Without speedup, high frequency plan will result in vain. Only if speedup is done, the corridor will get more passengers so as to need higher frequency.

Why does Afghanistan have places to promote dark tourism?

How Band-e-Amir National Park became Afghanistan's oasis of peace
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/band-e-amir-afghanistan-national-park/index.html

That would be one of the "Dark tourism", which I mentioned yesterday.
By seeing destructed statues of Buddha, visitors will realize how sad it is to look down on different religions.
It would be a good opportunity for Afghanistan to lure more tourists.