Summer 2019 News Update

When school’s out it can be especially hard to keep track of everything that is occurring within the world. Whether it’s pop culture or politics, this summer was jam-packed with important happenings. Here’s a recap: 

On June 7, NASA announced that it will allow private citizens to fly to the International Space Station, the only place where humans are living outside Earth. 

On June 27, the first Democratic debates took place, marking the first step in the decision for the democratic presidential nominee for next year’s elections.

On June 30th, President Trump met with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, where they agreed to resume their nuclear negotiations. This marked the first time that a sitting US President crossed the border into North Korea.

July 4th marked the release date of the third season of the popular TV show Stranger Things. The show smashed Netflix records as it reached 40 million households in the first four days.

On July 7, the US Women’s soccer team defeated the Netherlands 2-0 in the finals of the World Cup in Lyon, France to claim their second consecutive championship.

On July 20, Disney reported that Avengers Endgame had surpassed Avatar as the highest grossing movie of all time with almost $2.8 billion grossed.

On July 28, Kyle Giersdorf, a 16-year-old gamer who plays online as “Bugha,” beat out 99 other players to win the solo competition at the inaugural Fortnite World Cup.

Throughout much of July, massive heat waves in France and other parts of Europe resulted in temperatures rising to nearly 115 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat wave is linked to the deaths of nearly 1500 people. 

Two notable deaths occurred in August: Tony Morrison, the Nobel laureate in literature whose best-selling work explored black identity in America, died on August 5 in the Bronx at the age of 88. David Koch, who amassed a multibillion-dollar fortune with his brother Charles and poured his riches into a powerful right-wing libertarian movement that helped reshape American politics, died on August 23 at age 79.

This summer also saw two mass shootings, one after the other in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. 22 were killed and 24 were injured at a local Walmart in El Paso, Texas; in Dayton Ohio, the shooting left 10 dead and 17 injured.

On August 11, Simone Biles won a record-tying sixth United States Gymnastics national championship. Her winning performance included two skills never executed successfully before in a  women’s gymnastics competition: a triple-double (two flips with three twists) on floor exercise and a double-double dismount (two flips with two twists) on the balance beam.

The Amazon fires and the melting of Greenland’s ice have come to a frightening climax this summer. The number of fires this year in the Amazon is the highest since 2010, reaching more than 90,000 active fires. Greenland’s ice sheet just experienced its biggest melt of the summer, according to scientists, losing 11 billion tons of surface ice to the ocean.