https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/27/world/europe/pipeline-leak-russia-nord-stream.html

September 27th there was discovered a leak in the Nord Stream right outside the Danish island Bornholm. The explosions under the Baltic Sea and the rupture of major natural gas pipelines from Russia to Germany appeared to be a deliberate attack, officials across Europe said. This was an eye-opener of how vital Europe’s infrastructure could be at risk.

There was found three leaks erupted from the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which sent swirling streams of methane to the surface of waters off Denmark and Sweden. There are no prove of whom is behind this attack, but several politicians believes it is Russia. The Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, says “It’s hard to imagine that it’s accidental.” Luckily the leaks did not have an immediate effect since Nordstream 2 was never used and Nordstream 1 has been shut down since August due to the war. Reparation of the pipelines could take months to repair.

Personally, I found this article to be really good and interesting. I do probably have somewhat of a biased opinion since it was something that affected my country, but I do think the reporter made it an easy-read so everyone can understand what is happening in the war. It gave an insight in how (possibly) Russia have discovered a weak point in Europe’s infrastructure. The article was written very simple without a bunch of superfluous details, which is one of the best ways to keep the audience’s attention in my opinion.

7 years ago, Cassie McDermott, went on a vacation to San Francisco, CA for her uncle’s wedding. This was the first thing that popped up in Cassie’s mind when asking her about her most memorable vacation.

At the time McDermott was only 12 years old. She got to meet a lot of new people as well as family members she hadn’t seen in a long time. She says “It was fun to be in that environment, because everyone was excited to see each other.”

McDermott stayed at her ‘new’ aunt’s house for the five days they were there. This was also a new way of getting to know the incoming family.

The ceremony took place at a church. Afterwards they had the reception in a huge room at a hotel with beautiful chandeliers, where there was a big dance floor where they got to see the father-daughter dance. McDermott says to this experience. “I’m not that close with that uncle, so it was really awesome see him interact with all of these new people coming in to his life.”

Even though the main event of the vacation was the wedding, McDermott and her family went sightseeing in San Fransisco, which made the vacation even better according to McDermott.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/21/world/zelensky-russia-war.html?smid=url-share

Wednesday the 21st, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine made a statement to the world leaders in the U.N. General Assembly. He believes Russia deserves “just punishment” for crimes against his country.

Zelensky is thinking of every possibility to stop Russia in this war, so Ukraine can get peace. As a matter of fact he suggested Russia should be deprived of its veto power in the U.N. Security Council.

Throughout Zelensky’s speech he addressed that several countries have tried to avoid antagonizing Russia. According to him, they act only to protect their “vested interests,” (but he did so without naming names.) Towards the end of the speech Zelensky brought up the topic peace talks. He addressed the problem of how Putin keeps saying Russia is ready to talk, but then announce military mobilization. He said that Ukraine, in contrast, was not just ready for talks, but for “true, honest fair peace” and to that he added, “That’s why the world is on our side.”

This NYT article is very good in my opinion. To me the topic is interesting, well written, and the perfect length. The article enlightens the reader in a manageable way. This is done by the reader gets the information needed to understand the situation and it is not so long that the reader wants to stop reading halfway through. It seems to me the article also follows the inverted pyramid as things get a little more detailed and “unnecessary” towards the end. By this I mean it is not the most important part of the article in the end, but as already mentioned I still think it was a good length with a lot of good information.

Object 1: A cell phone photo of a stranger

Object 2: A restaurant recommendation

Today I went on a hunt for two strangers. I ended up finding two Morningside juniors; Hannah Schroeter and Anders Staxen.

The first person I talked to was Schroeter. It was an easy-going conversation since she was sitting at a “Vote Matters” table on campus ready to talk to people. I think because she was already in a position ready to talk to people it made it very natural and she did not have a significant reaction to a stranger walking up to her. I told her I had two tasks to do and one of them was taking a picture with a stranger and her response was “sure, I don’t mind”.

The second person was Anders Staxen who was sitting at the same table as Schroeter. Again, it was a very similar reaction seen from Staxen, especially because he had just heard me interview Schroeter. So, when asked Staxen’s favorite restaurant the response was very friendly. His response was Trio, a danish restaurant in Copenhagen. He says “Trio is a very expensive place, but they have really amazing food there.”

Overall, this experience was very casual and the two respondents were easy to talk to.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/13/climate/climate-law-tax-credits.html

Back in August, President Biden, made sure to sign the Inflation Reduction Act to make sure to fight climate change. This act includes $370 billion where some of it will come in the form of tax credits and rebates to help consumers save thousands of dollars on energy-efficient appliances, plug-in vehicles and renewable electricity for their homes.

There has been created a website by the Biden administration to help people figure out which things will qualify for the tax credits and rebates. There are still some different factors that needs to be taken care of and it will frequently be updated. Something that is already known is that the one thing they all have in common is that they all run through at least 2032.

There is a lot of different benefits from this act, some of them being tax credit of 30 percent off renewable energy investments, buyers of new electric vehicles a tax credit of up to $7,500 if assembled in North America and many more.

This whole program is designed to make Americans use more green energy in hope to fight climate change.

The article is very informational on the topic tax credits and rebates for Americans. In my opinion it is almost too much information in one article, given the fact that most of it is a bunch of numbers that can in the end almost seem more tiring to read than interesting. In my opinion there needs to be a balance between the information and entertainment. Even though articles are made to state facts and enlighten the citizens there still needs to be that drive that makes people want to continue to read the news article. So, the article is definitely good when it comes to a lot of information on the topic, but reading-wise it was a little too boring in my opinion.

This morning at Norfolk Downs Race Track, Chicago 15 horses died in a barn fire right before the opening of racing season.

The fire started in the middle of the stable at four o’clock with 25 horses inside. The fire smoldered all the way till noon and only ten of the horses escaped. An arson squad was called to the scene and it was told that there are only electrical outlets in the ends of the barn in the track rooms. Jim Connery, fire chief: “The fire exploded near the center of the barn. Flames were shooting out of the building when we got here. The fire is definitely suspicious.”

This tradegy affected a lot of people, both the people that owns the place but also the jockeys. One of the jockeys, Albert Ramos, says,  “I love horses more than I do people. I feel like I want to cry.”

The homecoming queen and daughter of locally prominent attorney was arrested for driving under the influence for the third time.

The 22-year-old senior, Cathy Wensen, is known as a cheerleader, homecoming queen, and straight-A student at Vanderbilt University planning on to graduate in biology. Now she is known as the young adult who decided to drink and drive for the third time in six months. All the information given so far is that Wensen was arrested.

Backwater State University changes their graduation requirements for upcoming students in the fall of 2023.

After a recent study at BackWater State University it has been informed that only 15 percent of students took a foreign language course and only 20 percent took a math course. This made the President, David French, change the graduation requirements, so now students must take one math, computer science, and foreign language course. The President believes this will improve the University and bring out better-educated people.

After four seasons of drought, Somalia will be hit with a famine between October and December according to the U.N. More than 7.1 million people – half of Somalia’s population – are in need of food assistance right now.

However it is not yet to be called a famine due to statistical requirements and the purview of a country’s government and the U.N.’s agencies.

A famine would be designated if 20 percent of households in an area face extreme lack of food, if 30 percent of children suffer from acute malnutrition and if at least two out of every 10,000 are dying each day.

Reaching all of those numbers is a hard standard to meet. Therefore, declaring famine is very hard, which can often mean that the global awareness of the problem is brought too late.

The Washington Post reports, when Somalia last faced a famine in 2011 there was a lot of criticism of how the famine declaration came far too late and now the same mistake is being repeated. 

Smaller warning signs of the predicted upcoming famine started already back in April and through the summer of 2022 U.N. agencies have raised the alarm of hunger and the lack of international support. According to several aid workers Somalia was hesitant to declare a famine because it was politically inconvenient seeing that the government came to power in May. 

Now motivated by Somalia’s struggle, international attention has led the US to provide $706 million in drought assistance, but there is still a long way to stop the crisis Somalia is faced with right now, as stated in The Wall Street Journal. 

The famine this year is being affected by other factors than just the weather. According to The Washington Post, 90 percent of the wheat in Somalia is sourced from Russia and Ukraine before the war. Not only is there less wheat now, but the prices have been driven up significantly. In addition, the threat from Al Shabab (a group linked to Al Qaeda) has grown. There have been seen more attacks from them now and several trucks have been burned carrying food relief. 

The U.N. believes Somalia has had a lack of global attention. With all the things they are facing, the U.N. feel it is important to build a long-term system to withstand the severe effects of the weather. The Somalia director of Mercy Corps, Duad Jiran, says “Continuing drought and starvation are the future if we do not protect the planet from a changing climate and help the communities hit first and hardest, like those in Somalia, mitigate and adapt.”

Five people were killed in a plane crash Thursday night during take-off at Kennedy International Airport. The plane contained two professors from Backwater State University.

Professor John Dumont and professor George Johnson were on their way back from two different conferences in New York ready to fly home when the unexpected happened. The two professors along with forty-three others were witnesses to their plane crashing at take-off. The professors from The Backwater State University escaped injury, whilst five others were killed.