Stuff YOU Should Know
Pfizer Vaccine Now FDA Approved Although Americans have been receiving COVID vaccinations since early Spring, it was only last week that the Pfizer vaccine was fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Because of the urgency of the pandemic, the FDA granted emergency use authorization. It is important to know, however, that the […]
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Refugee Crisis in Afghanistan As the United States and its allies pull their troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban has swept across the nation, swiftly overtaking cities. The situation has been devastating for civilians, especially for women, who fear that Taliban rule will bring an end to their human rights. More than 2.9 million Afghans have […]
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California School Vaccination Requirement As schools start again across the United States, school districts are deciding how to keep students and staff safe during the surge of COVID-19 delta variant cases. While several districts across the country have mandated mask wearing, the state of California has taken precautions a step further. Beginning October 15, 2021, […]
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Boy Scouts Rescue Drowning Woman On June 25, 2021, a heavy storm dropped at least six inches of rain on the city of Columbia, Missouri. The city’s creeks overflowed, and there was widespread flooding. Jay Dix Station Park was deeply submerged under six to seven feet of water. Two local boys–Dominic Viet, 15, and Joseph […]
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Ida B. Wells Monument Unveiled in Chicago Ida B. Wells was an enslaved person who later became a newspaper editor and civil rights activist in Memphis, Tennessee. As a journalist, she travelled the South in a crusade against lynching. Wells published the stories she heard in her newspaper, The Memphis Free Speech and Headlight. She […]
Tokyo Olympics: Full Speed Ahead?
After cancelling the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games last year, the event’s organizers are ready to go forward with in-person competition in Japan this year. The Games will take place from Friday, July 23, 2021, until Sunday, August 8, 2021. But is it too soon to hold such a large international event? Here, btw takes a […]
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AAPI Film Industry Successes This year Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) made a great impact in the American film industry with an impressive slate of recent achievements, recognitions, and honors. Chloe Zhao, the director of “Nomadland,” originally made headlines for being the second female director–and the first woman of color–to win the Academy Award […]
Biden: Let’s Loosen Rules on COVID Vaccine Patent
This week’s Election Central post tells you about President Biden’s desire to loosen vaccine patents and why that is a difficult situation. As the world struggles to battle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, some nations have had more success than others. Today, the vaccine is readily available in the United States and many other wealthy countries. […]
India and COVID-19
We receive daily updates about the state of the COVID-19 crisis in the United States: the number of new cases, hospitalizations, deaths, and now, the number of vaccinations received. As we move into the warmer months, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has begun lifting some of its restrictions about masks and social distancing while […]
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Biden Calls Killing of Armenians Genocide Over one hundred years ago, about 1.5 million ethnic Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Now, for the first time, an American president has officially recognized this tragedy as a genocide. President Biden made a statement on April 24, 2021, on the 106th anniversary […]