News Headlines - 21 August 2018

▽Venezuela issues new currency Bolivar Soberano amid hyperinflation and social turmoil - CNN

Venezuela issued a new currency Monday in an attempt to bolster its crumbling economy as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that inflation could hit one million percent this year.
The move, part of a dramatic raft of measures aimed at halting runaway hyperinflation, comes as thousands of Venezuelans continue to flee across the border into neighboring countries amid food and medicine shortages, political turmoil and soaring crime rates.

▽South Koreans enter North to meet relatives separated decades ago by war | CBC News

Dozens of elderly South Koreans crossed the heavily fortified border into North Korea on Monday for heart-wrenching meetings with relatives most haven't seen since they were separated by the turmoil of the Korean War... The temporary reunions are highly emotional because most participants are elderly people eager to see their loved ones once more before they die. Most of their families were driven apart during the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a ceasefire, not a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula still in a technical state of war.

▽Water at Fukushima nuclear plant still radioactive even after treatment | South China Morning Post

Radioactive substances have not been removed from treated but still tritium-containing water at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The government and Tokyo Electric Power Company have faced the pressing need to dispose of such treated water now kept in tanks. One option is to dump it into the sea, as tritium is said to pose little risk to human health.

▽175 former security officials join criticism of Trump, as he taunts former CIA chief John Brennan

ore than 175 former US security officials have joined criticism of Donald Trump for revoking the security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan.
In a letter released on Monday, the former national security officials said the US president's actions represented a "political litmus test" that "weakened" the country.

▽George Washington gold coin sells for $1.7 million | Reuters

An 18th century gold coin featuring the likeness of first U.S. President George Washington sold for $1.7 million at auction on Thursday, with the net proceeds going to charity, the auction house said.
The 1792 Washington President gold eagle coin was never circulated as money but is instead thought to have been presented to Washington when post-Revolutionary War plans were being drawn up for the first U.S. Mint, according to Heritage Auctions.