United States Victorious At Olympics
The 2024 Paris Olympics took place from Friday, July 26 to Monday, August 11. Despite the US consistently leading in overall medals, China led in gold medals for a while. By the end of the competition, however, the US had caught China, tying for 40 gold medals. With the US nearly doubling China’s in both silver and bronze medal counts, it secured its top spot on the medal table.
Presidential Race Heats Up
Following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal in July, Vice President Kamala Harris consolidated democratic support and made significant gains in polls. In a big shift from Biden’s slipping support, Harris is leading former President Donald Trump in many key battleground states, and in national polls. On Thursday, August 6, she also revealed her running mate to be Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
On Friday, August 23, former Democrat turned independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. withdrew from the race, endorsing Trump. Kennedy, whose campaign had legal issues for ballot access, ran on a wide range of political views from monopoly busting to less US involvement in global affairs. He also believes in numerous conspiracy theories, including the disproven myth that vaccines are linked with autism.
War In Gaza Continues
The war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas continues. According to the UN, 90% of Gaza residents have been displaced by the war. Palestinian civilian and combat casualties continue to mount — the death toll is over 40,000, according to the Gazan Ministry of Health. On Thursday, August 29, Israel and Hamas agreed to have multiple three-day pauses in fighting in order to distribute polio vaccines. 640,000 Palestinian children are planned to be vaccinated, after the first Gazan polio case this century partially paralyzed an infant on Friday, August 23.
Tensions between Israel and Iran have also been growing. Iran has blamed Israel for the Wednesday, July 31 assassination of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh. It has vowed to retaliate for the killing, which took place in Tehran. Israel has also been trading airstrikes and rocket fire with Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group funded by Iran. A late-July rocket strike on a soccer field in the occupied Golan Heights killed multiple Israeli children, which led Israel to assassinate a top Hezbollah commander and increase airstrikes against the group. Hezbollah denied responsibility for the Israeli civilian deaths, and fired rockets at Israeli military positions. Since Monday, August 26, the rocket and missile exchange seems to have died down.
This article was accurate as of press time on August 31.
