World News: the news before Christmas
December 18, 2015
The Dark Side of Disney’s 4.05 billion dollar investment already seems to be paying off. Currently one Star Wars ticket is sold every second, though the movie hasn’t even been released yet, according to the Telegraph. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is due to be released Friday the 18th in America. The sequel of the original trilogy is upon release expected to beat the opening week revenue record set by Jurassic World earlier this year.
In Spain, a teenager punched the Spanish prime minister in the face! That is all, just thought you should know.
Malala, the teenage symbol of hope in the Middle East takes the fight to Donald Trump. Earlier this month, Trump proposed a travel ban on all Muslims, going as far as suggesting deportation. As you would expect the backlash from this comment was huge, but who better to lead the offensive than Malala Yousafzai, the teenager who has been granted a Nobel Peace Prize after her brush with the Taliban, where she sustained a bullet wound to the head. Miraculously, she was revived by doctors, and after making a full recovery she began speaking out for the necessity to educate women. So, in essence, the polar opposite of a racist, sextist, rich and old Trump. “I can just highlight one thing. The more you speak about Islam and against all Muslims, the more terrorists we create,” Yousafzai said in an interview with UK’s channel 4 news.
The Arctic air temperature set records as it reached the highest it had in recorded history. The air temperature has risen 5.4 degrees above the average temperature in the beginning of the 20th century, according to the University of Minnesota Duluth. But the Arctic may not be our only environmental concern. The American Geophysical Union announced that lakes and other freshwater bodies are being affected by the rising temperatures, more than other bodies of water. The University of Minnesota Duluth reported that the average temperature of lakes had risen 4.5 degrees since 1979. These temperatures are expected to create an increase in algae, reports the UMD analysis, this algae can increase by 20 percent in the next century and absorb the oxygen, making the water toxic for wildlife.
Congress: while toiling with a new budget, now lead by Paul Ryan, shot down a bill that would deny guns to suspected terrorists.
Iran fired a practice warhead capable of delivering a nuclear payload earlier this month. This of course violated the UN security council’s deal with Iran. This put the US in an uncomfortable position, because Iran implied that sanctions from America would jeopardize the nuclear deal made in July. If the US imposes sanctions with the rest of the security council, the Iran deal with probably fall through, but if the US sides with Iran, they will look all the weaker.
Ted Talks about his main opponent Marco Rubio, and actually came off as affluent, speaking in the last GOP debate. Many of his supporters and donators are rallying around him, and it is extremely likely that he will overrun Rubio by the end of this week.
Cease Dire; the ceasefire in Yemen ended the Houthi, and the Arab Coalition’s nerves are running thin. Each group accuses the other of violating the ceasefire. The Arab Coalition accuses the Houthi of 150 documented violations of the treaty. The Yemen civil war has lasted nine months, killed 6,000 people and caused millions to be displaced. Currently talks are being held in Switzerland, currently but the Arab Coalition is prepared for fighting to resume before a conclusion has been reached.









![Broadcast, yearbook and newspaper combined for 66 Interscholastic League Press Conference awards this year. Yearbook won 43, newspaper won 14 and broadcast took home nine. “I think [the ILPC awards] are a great way to give the kids some acknowledgement for all of their hard work,” newspaper and yearbook adviser Paige Hert said. “They typically spend the year covering everyone else’s big moments, so it’s really cool for them to be celebrated so many times and in so many different ways.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/edited-ILPC.jpg)





![Looking down at his racket, junior Hasun Nguyen hits the green tennis ball. Hasun has played tennis since he was 9 years old, and he is on the varsity team. "I feel like it’s not really appreciated in America as much, but [tennis] is a really competitive and mentally challenging sport,” Nguyen said. “I’m really level-headed and can keep my cool during a match, and that helps me play a bit better under pressure.” Photo by Kyra Cox](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/hasun.jpg)

![Bringing her arm over her head and taking a quick breath, junior Lauren Lucas swims the final laps of the 500 freestyle at the regionals swimming competition on date. Lucas broke the school’s 18-year-old record for the 500 freestyle at regionals and again at state with a time of 4:58.63. “I’d had my eye on that 500 record since my freshman year, so I was really excited to see if I could get it at regionals or districts,” Lucas said. “ State is always a really fun experience and medaling for the first time was really great. It was a very very tight race, [so] I was a bit surprised [that I medaled]. [There were] a lot of fast girls at the meet in general, [and] it was like a dogfight back and forth, back and forth.” Photo by Kaydence Wilkinson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Kaydence-2.7-23-edit-2.jpg)
![As her hair blows in the wind, senior Brianna Grandow runs the varsity girls 5K at the cross country district meet last Thursday. Grandow finished fourth in the event and led the varsity girls to regionals with a third place placement as a team. “I’m very excited [to go to regionals],” Grandow said. “I’m excited to race in Corpus Christi, and we get to go to the beach, so that’s really awesome.” Photo by Addison Bruce](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/brianna.jpg)


















![The fire department came to the school after students were evacuated when smoke started coming from the ceiling of a classroom. All students and staff are safe. “All of my friends left their stuff too, so we couldn’t contact our parents, and it was stressful,” senior Brynn Fowler said. “It was scary because I didn’t know [what was going on], and I couldn’t find anyone because it was a big crowd.” Photo by Anthony Garcia](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/firetruck-300x200.jpg)







