Current Events News Project

Task:

Working together in a small team, you will read a news article regarding a contemporary global studies issue/event. Next, your team will communicate the news story to the rest of the class by either performing a news broadcast or creating a news broadcast video.

Purpose:

  • Meet new classmates
  • Work together as a team
  • Learn about and research a contemporary news event
  • Improve note-taking, script-writing, speaking, and video production skills

Directions & Timetable (70 mins):

  • Find your group and individually, read your assigned article (5 mins.)
  • Individually, take notes on the article by answering the following questions (10 mins):
  • What is the event?
  • When did it occur?
  • Where did it occur?
  • What is the major issue?
  • Who is being affected? How are they being affected?
  • What is the conclusion being offered? Suggestions? Next steps?
  • As a group, brainstorm ideas of what your news broad cast will look and sound like. For instance, will you have 2 anchor newsman sitting at a desk introducing and concluding the story? With 2 on-site reporters giving details of the event? Will you have an interview with an on-site witness or expert? Will your group re-enact the event? (5 mins.)
  • As a group, write a news broad cast script which will inform the rest of your classmates the story/event (20 mins.) Be sure to use appropriate writing; the script needs to sound like a news broadcast!!
  • As a group, rehearse your news broadcast (30 mins.). Your group can either perform it live in front of the class. Or, your group can film each other and record it using a phone and a video software program like iMovie. If your group chooses to make a video, then email the video to Ms. Grant: Videos will be played to show the rest of the class.
  • Your video should have filming of your group members reporting on the event, background music or sound effects, and some text information to help the audience be able to understand and enjoy the video

News Article Evaluation Worksheet

What is the event? ______

______

When did it occur? ______

______

Where did it occur? ______

______

What is the major issue? ______

______

______

What are the effects? Financial Effects? Health Effects? Environmental effects? Political Effects? Who is being affected? Why should people care about this event? ______

______

What is the outcome of this event? Conclusion being offered? Suggestions? Next steps?______

______

Findings of Police Bias in Baltimore

Validate What Many Have Long Felt,

NY TIMES

SHERYL GAY STOLBERGAUG. 10, 2016

BALTIMORE — As a black man and a lifelong resident of this city, Ray Kelly has been stopped by the police more times than he can count. And as a community organizer who tried to document police bias after the death of Freddie Gray, Mr. Kelly, 45, had always expected that a federal investigation would uncover a pattern of racial discrimination.

Even so, the scathing report that the Justice Department unveiled here on Wednesday — a data-rich indictment of how Baltimore police officers have for years violated the Constitution and federal law by systematically stopping, searching (in some cases strip-searching) and harassing black residents — gave him a jolt.

“Hearing the actual numbers, like on the traffic stops, is blowing my mind,” Mr. Kelly said.

Release of the 163-page report, at a packed City Hall news conference here, was another wrenching moment of self-examination in this majority black city. Even as Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and the police commissioner, Kevin Davis, accepted the findings — both vowed to turn the Baltimore Police Department into a ‘‘model for the nation’’ — there was relief, but also rage and skepticism among black residents here who wondered if anything would change.

“Mere words by officials mean little when it’s people on the ground who are living with these material conditions every day,’’ said the Rev. Heber Brown III, a Baptist pastor who was among a small group of community leaders who met privately last year with Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch. “From the streets to the suites, everybody is skeptical and furious.’’

In one stark statistic after another,the department’s reporthelped validate the experiences of Mr. Brown, Mr. Kelly and countless others in poor African-American neighborhoods who regard the police as an occupying force. Many wanted to know what took so long.

In Baltimore, a city that is 63 percent black, the Justice Department found that 91 percent of those arrested on discretionary offenses like “failure to obey” or “trespassing” were African-American. Blacks make up 60 percent of Baltimore’s drivers but account for 82 percent of traffic stops. Of the 410 pedestrians who were stopped at least 10 times in the five and a half years of data reviewed, 95 percent were black.

The report is a first step toward a negotiated settlement, known as a consent decree, in which police training and practices will be overhauled under court supervision. The city has already entered into an ‘‘agreement in principle,’’ the mayor said, adding, “We have a very long journey ahead of us.’’

Mr. Davis, who described himself as “very, very concerned” by the findings, said he had already fired six officers who had engaged in misconduct uncovered by Justice Department investigators.

The report took 14 months; the mayor invited the Justice Department in after the April 2015 death of Mr. Gray, a 25-year-old black man who sustained a fatal spinal cord injury in police custody, set off riots. As the inquiry has progressed, she said, Baltimore has worked closely with the department to change police practices.

City officials have revised 26 policies, she said, including the one governing use of force, and officials are engaged in ‘‘active discussion’’ about giving residents a role in determining how officers are punished — a central demand of civil rights advocates. The city has also retrofitted its transport vans — officials say Mr. Gray was injured while riding unbuckled in a van — and has begun issuing body cameras to officers.

Tensions over race and policing here date to at least 1980, when the N.A.A.C.P. called for a federal investigation into police brutality, and they continued with a crime-fighting strategy known as “zero-tolerance policing,” which was singled out by the Justice Department.

Baltimore is now among nearly two dozen cities that the Obama administration has investigated after they were accused of widespread unconstitutional policing. Once Baltimore reaches a settlement, an overhaul of the Police Department will take years and will cost millions; Ms. Rawlings-Blake and her aides put the price tag at $5 million to $10 million a year for five to 10 years.

Here are the 4 Challenges Rio de Janeiro Must Meet to Host a Successful 2016 Olympics

Anna J. Kaiser/Rio de JaneiroTIME MAGAZINE, April 2nd, 2015

With fewer than 500 days to go before the next Summer Games, Rio faces great problems including crime, pollution and energy

The countdown is on until the 2016 Olympics and Rio de Janeiro is preparing to welcome millions of people from around the world. But in order to succeed as hosts, the Brazilian city — which won the bid to host the Summer Games back in 2009 — must address the social tensions, environmental problems and water crises that threaten to marr the biggest sporting event in the world. Here are four of the main challenges Rio must tackle before the Opening Ceremony.

1. Pollution in Rio’s Guanabara Bay

Guanabara Bay borders Rio de Janeiro’s east side and is the host site for the Olympics’ sailing and windsurfing events. It’s also made international headlines due to its polluted waters, filled with raw sewage and massive amounts of garbage. While part of Rio’s Olympic bid included a promise to clean up the bay by 80 percent,the stateenvironment secretary, Andre Correa, admitted in January that it would not be possible. They’re currently at 49% of their cleanup goal.

Mario Moscatelli, a biologist and outspoken bay advocate, says the state has the technology, time and money to make significant improvements but that politicians are not interested in making it a priority. He believes they never intended to fulfill this promise and tells TIME they “simply lied” to get the Olympic bid.

Mayor Eduardo Paes told CNN last June that pollution doesn’t pose any health risks for the athletes, but Moscatelli thinks otherwise, claiming that sailing in the bay is “like playing Russian roulette.”

“Sailors run the risk of hitting anything from plastic bags to a car bumper, pieces of wood, tires and even furniture,” he warns. “Falling in the water, the sailors could potentially be victims of gastrointestinal infections, mycoses, otitis or hepatitis.”

2. The water and energy crisis

Brazil is suffering from the worst drought in 40 years. Thesoutheasterncity of São Paulo has started rationing water and Rio could be next. Making matters worse, Brazil gets about 70 percent of its energy from hydropower. In Brazil, water crisis equals an energy crisis.

The Minister of Mines and Energy, Eduardo Braga, also made a frightening announcement last week: the turbines on Brazil’s principal hydroelectric plants will stop running if water levels dip below 10% capacity. They’re currently at 17%.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the Brazilian government spent $5 billion to subsidize fossil fuels to make up for lost hydroelectric power in the lead up to the 2014 World Cup and may have to do so again for the Olympics.

3. Olympic development is raising social tension

In the informal settlements known as favelas, about 8,000 families have been, or are at risk of, removal from their homes for construction linked to the Olympics and the World Cup, according to a 2014 study done by an activist group, the Popular Committee. While the government has been praised for promising market-rate compensation for those evicted, in practice it seems there is no standard price per square foot. A recent study by MIT reported that government officials go from house to house and negotiate behind closed doors. Residents think this is both an intimidation tactic and has sparked rumors of how much people are receiving.

Meanwhile, the “Olympic Legacy” in Rio has been criticized for serving mostly the interests of the private sector and the wealthy. Olympic sites like the golf course and the Olympic Village will be handed over to private construction firms who plan to build luxury apartments, made possible through a financial model known as Private-Public Partnerships (PPP). PPPs mean that private construction firms are footing 60 percent of the bill for Olympic construction projects. While it saves public money, the construction firms are then able to develop the land for profit. Another report by the Popular Committee describes the PPP model as “the eviction of a low-income community, that the city of Rio has made their priority to remove in order to make room for yet another commercialized project.”

Professor Mauro Kleiman, an urban studies professor at the Federal University of Rio, agrees that the legacy will primarily serve private interests, excluding public transportation projects like the extension of the metro and rapid transit bus lines. “The legacy is [in] the interests of real estate development and the tourism sector,” Kleiman tells TIME. “So far, we’re seeing inflated costs, similar to in Greece [where the 2004 Olympics were held in Athens].”

4. Street crime and public security

While street crime has generally fallen over the last 30 years, Rio has seen a spike in street robberies in recent months, reaching levels not seen since 1991.

In March alone there were seven mass robberies, known asarrastões, in public spaces. Armed robbers assaulted commuters twice in the metro and another group of armed criminals closed off a major tunnel and robbed the stopped cars.

A representative from the Rio State Security Secretary said they are responding by increasing police presence in strategic points throughout the city and pointed out that the city of Rio has held major events like the World Cup and Pope Francis’ visit with no major security incidents.

4 Reasons the War Against ISIS Is Working—and 1 Reason It’s Not

Ian BremmerMay 5, 2016, TIME Magazine

The U.S.-led coalition has had increasing success in the war on ISIS, especially in Iraq and Syria—but the terror organization is regrouping in Libya

ISISremainsthe best-funded, best-equipped terrorist organization the world has ever seen. But for the first time since its rise in 2014, real progress is being made against the jihadist group. These five facts explain what you need to know.

1. Finances
ISIS has been an economic juggernaut from the moment it seized Mosul. When the group captured its first wave of Iraqi cities in 2014, it also seized an estimated $700 million in cash, instantly transforming this al-Qaeda offshoot into the world’s richest terrorist organization. By year’s end, ISIS controlled more than $2 trillion in assets and had another $2.9 billion in annual income. Today, ISIS has two main sources of revenue: oil and taxes.

Both are under tremendous strain at the moment—following the Paris attacks, Western coalition forces intensified their air campaign, targeting not just their oil infrastructure, but also banks and warehouses filled with cash. At the same time, the Iraqi government has stopped paying government workers in ISIS-controlled cities, including Mosul. That move deprives ISIS of nearly $2 billion in annual revenue, forcing the group to slash salaries for its fighters and impose harsh new taxes on those unfortunate enough to live under its rule.

2. Territory
Nevertheless, ISIS still has hundreds of millions at its disposal, including 60 percent of Syria’s oil wells and 5 percent of Iraq’s. But that number is shrinking along with the territory it controls. The sustained international offensive has cost ISIS 40 percent of its territory over the last year, a welcome sign of progress for the coalition. It’s particularly noticeable in Iraq, where the Iraqi military was able to recapture the city of Ramadi and push the Islamic State back towards the Syrian border. Syria has proven trickier, which is not surprising given the wide range of international actors (and conflicting interests) involved. Still, progress is progress. IHS now estimates that the number of people living under ISIS control has fallen from 9 million to 6 million over the past 15 months, shrinking the caliphate’s overtaxed base even further.

3. Foreign fighters
The recent progress of anti-ISIS forces have also reduced the jihadi group’s foreign recruitment numbers. At its height, ISIS is believed to have rallied 30,000+ foreign fighters from more than 100 countries to its cause, six thousand of whom travelled to Iraq and Syria from Western countries. That number has reportedly fallen as low as 19,000 today. But the true measure isn’t the absolute number of foreign fighters ISIS controls but its recruitment rate: according to the Pentagon, a year ago ISIS was averaging roughly 2,000 new foreign fighters a month. Today that figure is at 200, which means ISIS can’t replace battlefield losses as quickly. One critical reason is that ISIS’s self-narrative of an inexorable march towards a global caliphate has lost much of its force, given recent developments. Another is that the anti-ISIS coalition has become much more effective at limiting the reach of ISIS propaganda.

4. Social media
ISIS’ deft use of social media caught the world off guard in 2014. ISIS wasn’t the first global terrorist group to come of age in the internet era, but it was the first to so effectively harness its power. It took some time, but tech companies have finally taken a more aggressive and effective approach, spearheaded by Twitter, which has pulled down more than 125,000 accounts for promoting terrorist activities in less than a year. They’ve been aided by hacker collectives like Anonymous and CtrlSec; CtrlSec alone identified nearly 120,000 Twitter accounts with ties to ISIS.

The U.S. government has also tried to take a more tactical approach to combating ISIS propaganda online, establishing the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications. After a few false starts, the government realized that U.S.-branded messages were falling on deaf ears and decided to spend more money providing “seed funding and other support to NGOs and media startups focused on countering violent extremist messaging.” Turns out the messenger is often as important as the message itself.

5. Problems ahead
But troubles still loom. When we talk about ISIS today, we tend to focus on the core fighters who control territory in Iraq and Syria. But as its grip on those two countries weakens, it has begun to shift attention to neighboring countries across North Africa and the Middle East. Of particular concern is Libya, which has seen a marked uptick in foreign fighters—approximately 5,000—according to U.S. officials. In the first three months of 2016, there have been nearly as many ISIS attacks in Libya than the last six months of 2015. And as its control over Iraq and Syria weakens, the group has become even more violent within its own confines, registering more attacks in the first quarter of 2016 than any other three-month span since it stormed to power in 2014.