Burning hot KICs

Listen, Georgia, I get it is summer but there is no reason for it to be almost 100 degrees. It feels awful to be outside right now. For the first time in Starr’s Mill history, a varsity football game has been delayed due to excessive heat. Seriously, Georgia, please calm down with the heat. While you are trying to cool down, read these KICs. This week includes Brazil and Cuba reconciling, record high temperatures, Georgia defendants surrendering, Donald Trump being held in Fulton County jail, and the mugshot of Trump surfacing on the internet.

World – Brazil and Cuba begin to reconcile after years of tension

In 2019, Brazil voted against the yearly United Nations resolution for the first time, calling for an end to the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba. With Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in office to serve his third term, Latin America’s biggest economy has looked to once again strengthen its ties with the island nation.

When in power, Balsonardo stopped the “More Doctors” program, a plan in 2013 to recruit foreign doctors to work in the more rural parts of Cuba. Stopping the program caused tension between the two countries for years. Through this, Cuba and Brazil may begin to reinitiate the “More Doctors” program, helping people across the countries.

Amorim, who has served as foreign minister under former President Itamar Franco and Lula, said groups of health experts and Brazilian agricultural representatives will travel to Cuba—a good sign of the future these two countries have.

National – Record high weather hits America

From a heat wave shocking the South and fires devastating the northwest to a consequential tropical storm striking in the Southwest on Sunday, it seems that America just cannot shake loose the repercussions of climate change.

With high humidity and soaring temperatures, heat index values have reached as high as 134 degrees Fahrenheit, leaving 90 million under heat advisories. With air quality at a frightening low, multiple fires started in the West resulting in several deaths. After 84 years of avoiding a tropical storm, southern California was hit with record-setting rainfall and flooding.

With our climate drastically changing, scientists say climate change is to blame with warmer oceans as the root of cyclones forming, and wildfires and heat hazards as a direct result of the dry air. Right now, meteorologists are watching multiple storms. One is expected to hit the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and another in southern Texas.

State – Two more defendants surrender overnight in Georgia indictments

Two more defendants in Georgia’s investigation into former President Donald Trump and his allies’ alleged illegal plot to overturn the 2020 election have turned themselves in. Former Georgia GOP chairman and state legislator David Shafer and former Coffee County GOP chair Cathy Latham turned themselves into authorities at the jail early Wednesday morning.

Shafer and Latham are the third and fourth defendants accused by District Attorney Fani Willis of scheming to destabilize the will of Georgia voters to keep President Biden from being in office. Shafer has been charged on 119 different counts, while Latham was charged with 252 different charges. Both have since been released on bond.

Authorities have given former President Trump and the other 15 defendants in the indictment until Friday to turn themselves in. Former personal attorney of President Trump Rudy Guiliani may turn himself in today in the Fulton County jail according to some news outlets but it has not been confirmed.

Local – Former President Trump held in Fulton County jail

Former U.S. President, Donald Trump, was held in the Fulton County jail for tampering with the 2020 presidential election. Trump turned himself in Thursday, where he faced 13 felony charges related to the election in Georgia.

Trump and his co-defendants were accused of making false statements to state legislatures and officials, creating fake Electoral College documents and recruiting supporters to cast fake votes, harassing a Fulton County election worker, and soliciting senior Justice Department officials former Vice President Mike Pence.

Officials say that the booking process was a quick 30 minutes since he had already surrendered early that week on a $200,000 bond assisted by Charles Shaw, the CEO of Foster Bail Bonds.

Politics – Former President Donald Trump’s mugshot surfaces

Former President Donald J. Trump made history as he earned himself the first mugshot of an American President. The shot was taken by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office after Trump’s fourth indictment.

Eleven of Trump’s fellow defendants’ mugshots were also taken. These include Mark Meadows, Sidney Powell, and Rudolph Giuliani. Some believe that this photo could stand to be the most famous one of Trump.

This came as a surprise, as in the other three Trump cases the prosecutors did not take any mugshots of Trump due to his recognition worldwide. Georgia law requires a mugshot for felony cases and the Georgia Sheriff put in charge believes that all defendants, no matter how recognizable, will be treated equally.