Here’s an update on World News;
To begin with a shocker, there was a terrorist attack in New Zealand on the morning of March fifteenth. As of now, there are three arrested suspects who targeted two mosques in Christchurch. During the whole ordeal, fifty people died and thirty-four were injured. During the following investigation, bombs were found strapped to their cars. One of the more surprising aspects is that the attack was actually streamed by the attackers on different social media platforms. At this point, however, people who spread the video can and most likely will face jail time. Due to their platforms harboring this incriminating footage, big tech companies have become very strict over what goes on their platforms and are frantic to remove any trace of the incident. President Donald Trump has said that he would help with the investigation any way he could, and according to him, the FBI is ready to help. The flags were ordered to fly at half-mast. Everyone’s angry about the loss, and there are families mourning all over the country. Since this incident, the minister of New Zealand has implemented new gun laws that ban all assault rifles and some select others.
Secondly, there were five malfunctions during flights in one weekend, with three of them being fatal (The following reports are in no particular order.) On Ethiopian Airlines, a Boeing 737 crashed, killing all 157 people on board. The pilot was a senior, which makes it unlikely that it was his error entirely that caused the crash. The cause is unidentified. With United Airlines, there was an issue with the engine, but they landed safely. On a Turkish airline, there was severe turbulence, which luckily didn’t kill anyone. However, thirty people were left injured. On yet another Boeing plane, there was a fire in the cargo. Due to the smoke and the obvious danger of fire, they had to make an emergency landing. Nobody died, but three were injured due to causes that didn’t relate to the fire. A small plane crashed into a lake for an unidentified cause, and the five passengers died. 12 people died on a Columbian flight due to, once again, an unidentified cause. Due to incidents surrounding Boeing 737 planes, they are being retested for possible errors. Pilots are being tested more before planes fly. For now, though, Boeings have been grounded internationally.
Brexit has been postponed again. They will either be departing April 12 or May 22. It all depends on a vote. Here’s a quick summary of what’s going on. Britain is trying to leave the European Union, mostly because Britain wants to be more independent and a few other minor reasons. The EU is a unity of 28 countries. However, the rest of the EU doesn’t want Britain to leave. If Britain can’t negotiate with them in time, there will be what is called a No-Deal Brexit. These would cause sharp declines in trade throughout Europe and overall just make life there more difficult for a while. There is most likely no possible chance to stop Brexit, especially at this stage.
Lastly, you’ve probably been told that getting into college takes a lot of effort. How would you feel if you were rejected and another student got in? That would be hurtful anyway, but what if they didn’t even get in legitimately? That’s what happened in a few sports colleges. Wealthy families paid off the coaches testing the students to give the students a good recommendation, which almost always ensured that their application was accepted. Some families paid between $15,000 and $75,000 dollars for this to happen. The person who organized this is named William Rick Singer, and there were at least 50 participants in the scandal. In order to hide these massive payments, the participants donated the money to a nonprofit charity, where most of the workers had no idea they were involved and expressed regret. Some people at the charity then gave the sum to the coaches. Multiple coaches have already been arrested over this, but there will be more, most likely. An investigation is still taking place, with more to be revealed in the future.
In case you’ve missed everything going on, here’s your brief.
Andie
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