Hello, I’m Jake Herrick and I’m here to make you a little less dumb. This is the first of a semi-weekly article that will cover world events so you are not obliged to make remarks concerning weather, pop icons, grades, and hollow petty gossip; and to instead allow conversation to become the breeding grounds of intellectualism. So with that, here’s the news from the last two weeks.

Volkswagen the popular German car company has admitted to programming eleven million cars to cheat on their emissions test. Many VW models are way over the regulations set by the clean air act and were programmed to lower carbon dioxide while they were tested. The company faces charges of billions of dollars for ignoring the Clean Air Act, a cap on emissions put in place by the US government. During the test, sophisticated software lowered emissions, however, when the car was driven emissions would increase up to “40 percent higher than regulation,” reports MSNBC. John Oliver said during his show, “Last Week Tonight,” “That is the worst thing Volkswagen has ever done… Is something you might say if you’d never heard of World War Two.”

Do countries other than Germany have overly strict immigration policies?

• Yes
• No

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Refugees in Syria, and various other war-torn Middle Eastern countries, are making the pilgrimage to the sanctuary of the European Union. However, the new migrants have not had the warmest welcome. Many locals in Germany, Austria and Greece have verbally attacked, with many border police coming to physical blows with those seeking refuge. CBC news reported estimates of well over 100,000 individuals will seek asylum in Germany by the end of the year. Germany has an open door policy meaning that any immigrant can become a German citizen once paperwork is filled. Many other EU nations are not so forgiving. England’s Prime Minister, David Cameron and other European leaders used toxic language when referring to the refugees. Greece and Hungary have put up barbed wire fences to cease the proliferation of refugees.

Teenager shot by cops, again. However, this story is a little different than most cases of police homicide, the kid was white. Deven Guilford, 17, was shot in a Michigan police stop by Sgt. Jonathan Frost. The stop would have resulted in a ticket, but Guilford’s non-compliance with Sgt. Frost caused the officer to threaten an arrest. When Guilford finally moved out of the car, he continued to resist the officer until the officer tried to use his taser. The taser was fired too close to Guilford so it did not work and Guilford got up and tackled Frost. Sgt. Frost sustained a blow to the head and shot Guilford 7 times. An undisclosed amount of money as reparations were paid to the family and Guilford’s autopsy showed a large amount of THC in his bloodstream. Sgt. Frost did not face any criminal penalty. However, it does bring to light some holes on the federal justice system. For example, Eric Garner, African American, choked to death by police in New York City, did not receive reparations and the aggressor remains walking around NYC with his badge. Rumain Brisborn, 34, African American, shot after an officer mistook his pill bottle for a gun. Tamir Rice, 12, African American, shot while holding a BB gun. Kajieme Powell, 25, African American, shot within 15 seconds of police arriving on the scene of a robbery. John Crawford, 22, African American, shot while carrying a pellet gun in a local Walmart, Ronald Ritchie gave a false report to police saying that it was a gun and that Crawford was pointing it at customers, a month later Ritchie admitted to lying. The list is much longer than just this all of the people listed lost their case, and their death was considered justified.

Mars, there’s running water on it now and NASA and others now believe it may be habitable so the real question is…

Would you go to Mars?

• Yes
• No

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ISL (ISIS) has two new enemies, Russia and China. The two countries have started bombing the terrorist organization. Russia has been running regular bombing strikes over Syria. Many political analyst, like those at Vox, report that Putin is declaring war to distract Russian citizens from the dying economy, and even worse Russia has run more strikes in moderate territories controlled by Jaish al-Fath, Nursra Front, and FSA, while only having about 11 strikes in actual ISL territory.