CURRENT EVENTS

WORLD NEWS
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-Civil War has broken out in Russia due to Okawan dickery.  World Powers at large are deploying troops to the immediate area to decide further action.  This means quite a large of Visiwan Rangers have been deployed.  Not uncommon for someone's dad, mom or both to be overseas at the moment. Tensions are sort of high on the home front over this news, and it's created a bit of a security hole that the region hopes explorers will fill.

-Due to the above Merc groups and weapon sales are way up! BUY TOURGE.  MANNCO SUCKS.

REGIONAL NEWS: POLITICS AND GOSSIP
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-Also due to the above there was a rather recent resurgence in new members to the E4 and Gym Leaders.  The newest of which, just selected about a month ago, was Thomas Gelzer.  Pop Culture writers are trying to find out as much as they can about him but he's eerily good at avoiding the spotlight and paparazzi(s).

-Big surprise, Yvonne still refuses to hand hers over to anyone. News at 11.  She's one of the few older ones who still claim her position.  General Myres is just due to his current assignment and so its out of his hands.  "Queen" Rhasha retains hers for cultural reasons.

-Elections for Parliament are coming up in a few months.  Pundits expect the reigning party, The Queen's Party, very conservative and trying to keep with her ideals, to be ousted from dominance by a rising Civil Party, who are more liberal and want to see traveling beyond city limits opened a more.

-Much like the Explorers, Conscripted pirate groups have been seeing a big boost in popularity due to the war abroad.  A lot of them have been heading out to fuck with the Okawan supply lines, but quite a few are staying local to help security.

REGIONAL NEWS: SCIENCE AND TECH
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-A fishing vessel recently sunk suddenly south of Red Blade Isle.  The crew had little trouble escaping the capsize and made it to shore fine, but claim they -hit- something and sunk.  Scientists are looking into it but are having difficulties finding out what happened.

-A tribal village was found in the swamps of White Pearl Isle recently around a hotsprings in the swamps!  It's suspected there's a large number of these villages still among the isles, as it's heavily jungle forestation.  There's been a lot of interest in this one in particular as they seem rather welcoming to the world at whole, but a bit shellshocked at how behind they are on the times.  They have at least opened up a hot springs 'resort' of sorts for exploreres and researchers in attempts to learn what they can at their own pace.  Shaywun has already been preemptively banned. Forever.

-The Mewtwo formula got linked via a torrent a few months ago.  It got taken down REALLY fast but not fast enough that quite a few joints in Thundercry City have been experimenting with it in secret.

REGIONAL NEWS: EXPLOSIONS(?)
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-Bandits have been striking caravans between towns in record numbers due to the lesser amount of Rangers around.  The Firefoot Terrorists in particular have been very active.  Their main motivation is just to create chaos and uncertainty in the wilds.  Their tribe has been very upset for their treatment ever since The Great Conflict.

-The Keeper's Cult has been aggressively recruiting during this period, claiming the end times are nigh and the Gods must be awakened to bring about a right to matters.  Socially, they are frowned upon for their extremist views, but the Gods they worship are fairly accepted.  The media and political side of things are hesitant to comment on them much because historically, they -have- been right a lot.

-DID YOU KNOW THAT 97% OF THINGS ON VISIWA AREN'T EXPLODING RIGHT NOW? THAT'S BULLSHIT, BUY TOURGE. (advertisement space)

REGIONAL NEWS: SPORTS
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-Visiwa is going to be host to the next Pokemon World Cup and the cities are fighting over whose gonna host it.  It's a pretty big deal and honor, as this will be the first one the region's hosted.

-The Battle Arenas are growing fast as a popular sport.  They were heavily based off Asteri's Clubs initially but the Explorers Guilds gave them unique twists to make it a bit more dynamic than just a brawl fest.

-Did you know we have a bobsled team?