By Kevin Mittal ’15, News Editor
Welcome to the second news summary. This set will focus on the most recent developing news stories that Newark Academy students have shown interest in over the past weeks and that have sparked debate.
- US Politics: Mid-term elections took place on November 4, 2014 in New Jersey. The New Jersey vote came down to incumbent Democrat Cory Booker who defeated Republican Jeff Bell. The Republican party won the Senate, now controlling both the House of Representatives and the Senate forming a fully Republican congress.
- Hong Kong Protests: Student protesters in Hong Kong held talks with senior officials in the government over demands for free elections. This was the first talk since the protests began and protesters remain in the streets.
- Apple CEO Comes Out: Tim Cook in a letter to Bloomberg Businessweek announces that he is gay and has been open about it in his private life for quite some time. He clarifies that he is coming out publicly to help others who may be afraid, too.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-30/tim-cook-im-proud-to-be-gay
- Baseball: The San Francisco Giants won the World Series on October 29, 2014 for the third time since 2010. A large part of their success can be attributed to MVP Madison Bumgarner who pitched 5 scoreless innings against the Royals.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/30/us/giants-royals-highlights/index.html
- Ebola Scare: Both the governors of New York and New Jersey, Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie respectively, have begun a policy to quarantine anyone returning from West Africa that might have had any contact with Ebola. Though it was originally announced as a mandatory policy on Friday, October 25, the governors are now making the quarantine policy at home optional.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/26/health/us-ebola/
- Isis: British and US Officials say that the flow of foreign fighters into Syria is increasing, and is greater than the flow into Afghanistan before 9/11. They are estimating about 16,000 foreign fighters from over 80 countries including western countries like the UK, France, Germany, and the United States.
- Brazil Elections: President Dilma Rouseff won the presidential election by a small margin on Sunday October 26. She was the champion of the poorer population in Brazil winning the votes in the North while her opponent Aécio Neves won the votes of the richer population in the South. Rouseff’s battle is not over; however, as she still has issues like a failing economy and corruption to address.
- Soda Tax: Berkeley, California became the first city in the United States to enforce a soda tax. A grass-roots coalition in the city succeeded in getting 75 percent of voters to support the tax which imposes a penny-per-ounce tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. According to NPR, this occurred in no small part thanks to former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
- Missing Mexican Students: Mayor Jose Abarca of Iguala was detained by federal Mexican officials for suspicions that he was involved in the disappearance of the 43 college students who went missing in September. This case has been notable for more than 50 arrests, the finding of several mass graves, but no trace of the missing students.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/05/world/americas/Iguala-mayor-wife-missing-students-mexico.html?_r=0
- Taylor Swift: Taylor Swift’s new album “1989” has had the largest sales week since 2002 selling almost 1.3 million copies. The last person to accomplish such a feat was Eminem with his “The Eminem Show”. Swift is also the only single artist to go platinum in 2014.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/05/showbiz/music/taylor-swift-1989-sales/
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