Current Event #9

The death toll from a new flu-like coronavirus in China rose to nine along 440 confirmed cases of the disease. Another 2,000 plus cases of close contact with patients had been confirmed along with evidence of “respiratory transmission” of the virus. China said they would tighten containment measures in hospitals and the World Health Organization (WHO) is going to hold an emergency meeting to decide if this virus is a global health emergency. The virus originated in Central China in a city called Wuhan in Hubei near the end of last year and it’s been spreading to more populated areas and bigger cities along as a few countries. The WHO said that the new virus is likely t spread to other parts of China and maybe even other countries later. 

I’m a little worried considering there’s a new deadly virus on the run and it supposedly has already reached America but I’m not sure. People on the internet have called it the death plague 2.0 which is even scarier. I really hope that they get this whole thing situated before it gets out of hand and half the population is sick and dead. I personally doubt it will go that far because we are much more advanced in technology than back then.

Current Event #8

The Kansas City Chiefs just won the AFC Championship against the Tennesse Titans 35-24. They are now moving onto Superbowl LIV (54) against the San Francisco 49ers who had just beat the Greenbay Packers 37-20 to win the NFC Championship. This is the first time in 50 years that the Chiefs had made an appearance at the Superbowl. The last time the 49ers were in the Superbowl was Superbowl XLVII (47) against the Baltimore Ravens, the 49ers lost 34-31. The first and last Superbowl won by the Chiefs was Superbowl IV (4) and the 49ers have won 5 Superbowls, they won Superbowl XVI (16), XIX (19), XXIII (23), XXIV (24), and XXIX (29) but have made 6 Superbowl appearances. 

I personally want the Chiefs to win the Superbowl because they are an AFC team and so are the Steelers so I need to stick with the same division. I also want them to win because if the 49ers win then they’ll be tied with the Steelers and Pats with 6 wins. I’m honestly just glad the Pats didn’t make it to the Superbowl because it gets really annoying seeing everyone hop on the bandwagon and start liking them because they win a lot. I also hate the Pats because of a certain Patriots fan (*cough* Garry *cough*)who always makes fun of me for liking the Steelers. 

Current Event #7

Pro-Democracy protesters and police fought in Hong Kong’s financial district Sunday. The police out of nowhere quickly shut down the protests with batons and tear gas. Thousands of people are still continuing to protest against universal suffrage which is now going into its 8th month. Some people were waving British and American flags calling for international support to help with their cause. Sometime around the shutdown people were seen damaging a traffic light, and some set up makeshift barricades and began digging up bricks.

These protests have been going on for a long time now and many people believe they are doing what’s right. A lot of people also believe that the people protesting should have won the Time’s person of the year. I don’t really know much about the protests other than that it’s getting a lot of negative attention towards China. A few people have died from this and from what I heard is that the government is corrupt and arresting for no reason and beating people.

Current Event #6

American firefighters have gone to Australia to help beat the fires and hopefully get rid of them completely. Most of them from Southern California who are highly skilled and helped fight the fires that are in California. Weekly lightning storms have caused more fires beyond their defensive positions which just caused even more havoc. Later it had been announced that they stopped a fire’s progress, it was their first success since they’d arrived on January 8th. More than 170 American firefighters are currently in Australia fighting against the fires. 

These American and Australian firefighters are fighting to help keep Australia alive. They’re doing airdrops for animals and fighting extremely hard to stop the fires. Australia sent firefighters to help put out the fires in California and I’m glad to hear that we are returning the favor by sending our firefighters there. I think sending American firefighters to Australia was a good idea because now we know that we can trust Australia and they will hopefully have our back.

Current Event #5

Fires in Australia claimed more than 1 million animals, over 3,000 homes, and the lives of 28+ people have died. Clouds of black smoke have pumped more than 400 million tons of carbon pollution into the atmosphere and the smoke can be seen as far as South America. Climate change wasn’t the only thing to cause the fires, it has to do with the natural variations in oceanic temperatures that reduced the amount of rain there was, which also caused strong winds which only caused the fire to get stronger. The fires in Australia have grown to destroy over 24 million acres which is 12 times bigger than the area that was burned in California. According to NASA, 2010-2019 was the hottest decade ever on record, and so far the world is only getting hotter and hotter and will keep growing if something isn’t done. 

The fires in Australia are getting really out of hand and are messing up the lives of tons of people living there. Most of the fires started because of climate change but there are plenty of other reasons and many people are saying it was only climate change. I think climate change needs to be fixed but I know a 14-year-old boy like me won’t be able to stand up and say something huge about why it’s ruining lives. Besides Greta Thunberg is already trying to get to work on fixing climate change.

Current event #4

Antonio Brown, NFL wide receiver, awhile back was filed for the sexual assault upon many women and is soon to interview with the NFL to see whether or not he can continue playing. In the beginning, Antonio was signed with the Steelers and then the Raiders signed him with more money but before the season started he got dropped by the Raiders and picked up by the Patriots. He didn’t play in week 1 but did play in week 2 against the dolphins and scored a touchdown, but after that game and later into the week he was dropped by the Patriots and is currently a free agent because of the allegations against him (Also Bill Belicheck did not like him). Antonio did tweet stating that he will not be playing in the NFL anymore but since then it’s changed and many teams are looking to sign him. 

I used to love Antonio Brown, who wouldn’t he’s the best WR in the NFL and I’m not just saying that, he literally has the best stats in the entire league. The reason I say I used to is that I’m a Steelers fan and was heartbroken when we lost him, it doesn’t help that before we lost him we had lost another amazing player, LeVeon Bell an amazing RB, to the Jets. A lot of people that have meant Brown like his personality, but personally I don’t like him in general, he left his team to go play for another team that had more money, he then didn’t like the helmets that team had, so he was released. Then out of nowhere, the Patriots picked him up and everyone immediately knew that they were gonna win the Superbowl, but then he got released again. All I’m saying is that he isn’t loyal to his team and he let them and the fans down.

Current Event #3

Just recently a “33 foot long “Sea Monster” was found surrounded by ancient crocodile teeth”. Paleontologists at the Polish Academy of Sciences just found partial remains of a 150 million-year-old pliosaurus in a cornfield. The remains were found near the village of Krzyżanowice, Poland in the Holy Cross Mountains. This deep-sea creature has only been found in a few other countries but it was never found in Poland before. Data shows that the fossils are between 145 and 163 million years old, that’s back when these long flippered reptiles were on top of the marine food chain. These creatures went extinct the same time that the dinosaurs did. 

I think this is a pretty cool discovery and I hope that people find more and more fossils and bones from the past, it gets me really curious about what all the creatures that were alive back then. Hopefully, there are more fossils out there for us to discover and even more creatures in general that we haven’t discovered. When I hear about stuff like this I get curious about what the world would be like now if we still had those creatures from 150 million years ago. I believe that they haven’t found very many of these fossils so actually finding one of these is amazing.