Ehlana and Ethan:
Happy 25th Birthday, Julian Sparks!
This has been another day where we haven’t been in on a celebration, but then Julie and Jillian are away this week anyway on one of his adventure trips that Jillian went along for this time because of his birthday timing. We would have loved to be on that trip too, but that wasn’t an option; so we’ll try to be content with knowing that our exams are going perfectly and we’re only a day away from having them finished for another school year.
Ethan and I hosted the last study session after school; we had swim breaks thanks to better weather after the rain moved out of the area by lunchtime; and we did some of the studying outdoors too – though we mostly did that while having dinner too as food was grilled and cold salad and snacks sides were put out on a buffet table. We wrapped up the study session a bit early tonight – mostly because even our least-prepared friends conceded that they were as-ready as possible for those last exams. We still had a clean-up to deal with after our friends headed out, but we had that done by shortly-after Mom and Dad got home from the Inn and game night that we missed again this week. We had a short chat with them, but no work or Magi lessons; and we moved on to bath or Jacuzzi time. That pretty much brings us up to now and the usual daily twin chat and computing wrap-up.
The top world news is again all about the Iran war. One of the biggest changes today that we’ve noted has been ‘our’ naval attacks on ships and barges in the Strait of Hormuz region. Western media screamed about tankers and cargo ships being targeted when Iran was doing it at the start of this war, but they are all suspiciously silent today when other media outlets are reporting that ‘our’ navy has hit at least three oil tankers and even a barge carrying emergency supplies from Oman to Iran. President Trump has declared multiple times today that ‘we’ are going ahead with a major attack on Iran tonight for a third day in a row. He’s also claimed that he has canceled that attack – possibly because Iran was promising more retaliation across the region; and now we’re waiting to find out which ‘truth’ will happen! None of our western leaders or major media outlets seem to be taking the risks very seriously; and the war hawks definitely want the attacks to resume and escalate. Israel wants that too and they have joined in on some of the strikes on Iran; they continue to bomb and invade Lebanon; and the horrors in Gaza worsen whether reported on or not. The Ukraine war continues without much news today, so while we know that the Russian forces continue to advance; and we continue to wait for the next round of defensive lines collapses.
There are two other stories that we do want to write about tonight. The first is about Sudan and a report that the civil wars there have led to a tripling of poverty in the country. The rest of the world should definitely care about any country that has seventy percent poverty rates, but western media is again ignoring that story and the situation is sure to get worse through the rest of the year. The other story is about a new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and while that isn’t a major world story; we do want to keep an eye on any potential rise in diseases around the world as part of the stresses that could trickle down from the Middle East conflicts. There are several connections that might not seem obvious, but for one example; there are critical ingredients for medicines that come out of the Gulf region; and that could become a serious problem as stockpiles run out.
Let’s stop there. We’re tired and need some sleep to be ready for our last exams – and the weekend, so we’ll go and do that; and be back again sometime tomorrow for our exams wrap-up report.
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
