Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could add another bottleneck to a global supply chain that is still struggling to meet demand as a result of rising inflation and the ongoing pandemic. Gas prices are expected to climb, and the stock market is experiencing severe volatility.
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Russian troops moved into Ukraine on Feb. 24, as part of the largest ground invasion Europe has seen in decades. Shocked by the Kremlin’s aggressive maneuvers, countries around the world responded by imposing economic sanctions on Russia. The United States, along with other European nations, have decided to ban Russian banks from SWIFT, an international trading system that makes trade flow smoothly between countries. Deemed as the ‘financial nuclear bomb,’ the West maintains that the Russian economy will suffer significantly from the new measure.
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California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) is suing electric vehicle maker Tesla, alleging that the company allowed racial discrimination to persist in its Fremont, California factory for years.
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Student loan provider Navient agreed in a settlement to wipe out $1.7 billion of debt and provide $95 million in restitution, following allegations from 39 states that it issued predatory and unfair loans to people who could not afford them. The agreement came on Jan. 13. Affected borrowers, totaling over 66,000, will have their loans cleared as a result of the settlement. 350,000 federal borrowers will also receive checks of $260 in restitution, according to the AP.
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After traveling 1 million miles from Earth, the James Webb Telescope has sent back its first set of images from space: 18 pictures of a star in the Ursa Major constellation. The images are a crucial first step in aligning the telescope’s mirrors to capture images of deep space, The New York Times reports.
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Starting on Feb. 2, soldiers in the Army who are not vaccinated and who do not plan on getting vaccinated began to be discharged. Prior to the Army making this decision, the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps had already gone through the process of discharging unvaccinated members. The Army is the last of these groups to have discharged members over their vaccination statuses, with Politico stating that the number of unvaccinated soldiers reaches over 3,300.
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The Biden Administration is considering new rules that would expand government oversight of apps developed by foreign companies, such as TikTok and WeChat, after deciding in June to rescind the Trump Administration’s attempt to ban the apps, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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Bald eagles are a rare sight in cities, but that may be slowly changing. The New York Times reports that a bald eagle named Rover’s presence in New York City is part of a growing trend of birds of prey settling into urban areas. Rover himself was born to a family of bald eagles residing in another city, New Haven, Connecticut.
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Stephen G. Breyer, one of the nine Supreme Court Justices, announced his retirement after his term of almost 27 years on Jan. 26, According to Oyez, a website dedicated to archiving the Supreme Court, his career as a Supreme Court Justice began in 1994 when President Bill Clinton had appointed him for the second time after he lost the year prior to then Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
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Tensions between Russia and Ukraine have been building over the last few years, but recently the conflict has taken a turn towards war. Russia has gathered an army in preparation for a Ukraine invasion, a move that could change the political landscape of the world. If war comes to fruition, Ukraine’s existence and livelihood could be in peril.
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The 2022 midterm election season has officially arrived, and both Republicans and Democrats have already built up war chests of about $400 million each in preparation. Fundraising levels are higher now then at the same point in 2018 or 2020. Given the Democrats’ 50-50 Senate majority, even one gain or loss could determine which party holds the chamber in the next Congress.
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On Jan. 24, two earthquakes, with magnitudes of 5.4 and 5.6, struck southern Haiti, killing two people and injuring 52. These earthquakes come after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Aug. 2021, which killed over 2,000 people.
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The remains of a rocket booster that helped launch a climate observation satellite in 2015 are on a path to collide with the earth’s moon. Experts predict the collision will occur on March 4 at 7:25 a.m.
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Amid tensions between the United States and Russia over Ukraine, President Biden ordered the Pentagon to deploy 3,000 U.S. troops to Eastern Europe on Feb. 2. The order reflects the United States’ efforts to support European allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and increase its defenses.
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Microsoft announced on Jan. 18 that it had agreed to purchase controversial video game studio Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion in one of the largest technology acquisitions in history. The deal was first reported by the Wall Street Journal and then officially announced by Microsoft.
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Affirmative action has been a prevalent policy in the United States for the last 40 years. The withstanding practice attempts to limit discrimination in college admissions and job hiring by increasing efforts to include individuals in disadvantaged groups. In 2003, Grutter v. Bollinger permitted universities around the country to consider race as one of many factors in college admissions. A few attempts have been made since then to repeal affirmative action, including a case in 2016 with the University of Texas at Austin. Now, the Supreme Court has decided to take another affirmative action case, but this time the Court looks a little different.
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On Jan. 18, the Indonesian Government approved a bill to relocate their capital. Indonesia’s current capital city, Jakarta, faces problems from overpopulation and global warming that led officials to conclude it is not sustainable as a base of government operations.
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As of Sunday, Jan. 23, Russia is in the process of finalizing a months-long military build-up along the Ukrainian border in a move that many observers believe is in preparation for a large-scale invasion of its neighboring nation.
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On Jan. 15, an underwater volcano called Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai erupted close to Tonga, a county in the Pacific Ocean. This eruption created a massive shockwave traveling at 1000 feet per second, triggering a major tsunami across the Pacific.
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Following President Joe Biden’s announcement last month that Americans would soon be able to order at-home Covid-19 tests for free from the federal government, the website covidtests.gov is now live and accepting orders for four free tests per household. Neither proof of citizenship nor a credit card is required to order the tests.
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