Thursday, June 16 top news briefs
Hello! I’m Renca and I will be subbing for Alex today and tomorrow as he is taking time off. Today is Thursday, July 16. Are you ready for our top news?
Trump drops plan to block international students
The Trump administration announced they would drop their plan to not allow international college students to stay in the U.S. if their upcoming fall courses were online only. The rule change was announced last week. Harvard and MIT sued the government and there was criticism and more lawsuits from multiple states and organizations. Now the rule change is scrapped and it’s back to “normal.”
213 killed in South Asia from floods and landslides
Over the past month in South Asia, very heavy rainfalls called monsoons have triggered landslides and flooding that have killed 213 people. The countries affected are Nepal, Bangladesh, and India. Most of the deaths happened in Nepal. Millions of people’s lives and homes are disrupted or destroyed from overflowing rivers. The monsoon season in South Asia runs from June to September.
Nick Cannon apologies for “anti-Semitic” comments
Earlier this week, Nick Cannon was fired from his TV show “Wild ’N Out” and ViacomCBS said they would no longer work with him due to his anti-Semitic remarks.
Nick is known for his appearances in several TV shows and movies like “Drumline” and “Men In Black II.”
Nick has a podcast named “Cannon’s Class” and there was a recent episode of him having a conversation with a former member of a rap group named Public Enemy, Richard Griffin. The conversation led into these two discussing that Jews have stolen Black people’s identity as the true Hebrews and amplified some conspiracies related with Jewish people.
Nick has apologized remorsefully and said he was only trying to raise up more knowledge about the Black community, but ended up hurting another community. He said it was not his intention and he absolutely has no hate in his heart.
ViacomCBS said they do not tolerate any conversations that promote hateful speech and spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories which is why they cut off the ties with Nick.
Nick thanked the Jewish Rabbis who contacted him to have a dialogue rather than criticizing him. He said we need to continue educating each other and embrace uncomfortable topics.
Nick is also the host of “The Masked Singer” on FOX. FOX announced that they will still be keeping Nick as a host because they said that Nick quickly apologized and taken steps to educate himself. They believe that this moment calls for a dialogue so they want to move forward to help him advance this important conversation. 3 women attack Spirit Airlines employees at airport
There was an attack that happened at the Fort Lauderdale airport in Florida on Tuesday night while waiting to board on Spirit airlines.
Three women from Philadelphia were arrested and charged with battery after attacking the airline employees. The employees suffered minor injuries.
It is not clear what started the attack, but the local deputies said the three women became upset when their flight home was delayed. It started with the women throwing items to the employees like water bottles, personal belongings, and even their fast food. The tension built up from there and then they attacked the employees.
One person filmed the attack and posted it on Twitter saying, “A delayed flight is no reason to assault anyone even if it’s spirit airlines. Now you got federal charges for what??” And that video has been viewed over a million times.
Spirit airlines commented saying that kind of behavior was not acceptable and they are grateful that their team members took quick action.
The Brown County Sheriff’s Office said that the investigation is ongoing, but the three women could face more charges.
NASCAR All-Star Race draws 20,000 fans at Tennessee
Yesterday, the NASCAR All-Star Race happened at Bristol Speedway in Tennessee. They permitted up to 30,000 fans to attend.
It is reported that about 20,000 people showed up and they were socially distanced throughout the grandstand. This event yesterday makes it the largest sporting event in the USA since shutdowns due to the pandemic.
Usually, this event would be at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina, but moved to Tennessee because the Tennessee officials allowed Speedway Motorsports to sell tickets for an agreed number of seats and because North Carolina would not authorize fans to attend.
Chase Elliot was the winner of that race and took home 1 million as a prize.
That’s all for now. See you tomorrow. Stay with the light.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/floods-landslides-kill-213-south-asia-71815316
https://www.foxnews.com/travel/spirit-airlines-employees-attacked-florida-airport-passengers-report
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/16/entertainment/nick-cannon-masked-singer-fox/index.html