Happy Friday, Panthers! I am sure you noticed all the construction happening on campus. Who could have missed it? Next to the school, there is planning to be new medical offices and right outside the cafeteria is the construction of our new auxiliary gym. While you are taking in all the new renovations, take a look at this week’s KICs. This week we have Russia invading Ukraine by the stats, snow storms that are continuing to cancel schools around the northern U.S., Georgia experiencing major weather changes, and Democrats protesting Trump’s State of Union.
World – Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the stats
Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II, Russia’s invasion on Ukraine, will have been going on for five years marking Tuesday February 24, 2026. Many civilians and soldiers’ lives have been lost since the start, but the end is not close.
An estimated 1.8 million soldiers have been killed, injured, or have gone missing. 19.4% of Ukrainian land is currently occupied by Russian forces. 5.9 million Ukrainians have immigrated away from their country.
The war is not just killing the citizens and soldiers, though. The Russian aerial strikes have also brought years of power outages and water cuts.
National – Snow storms cancel school in northern US
Beginning this Monday, an intense snow storm blanketed the Northeast. Thousands lost electricity, roads were blocked off by snow, and many United States flights were delayed or canceled.
The weather service has deemed Monday’s storm a “classic bomb cyclone,” which occurs when a storm’s pressure drops significantly within a 24 hour period. Meteorologists have concluded the storm is the strongest recorded in a decade. Two people have died and one is still injured as a result of wind debris-related accidents.
New York and Philadelphia, as well as other cities and states, have declared the situation an emergency. New York Major Zohran Mamdani has closed schools in the area, but he has announced that schools may reopen for in-person learning soon.
State – Georgia experiencing extreme weather changes
Georgia has had an unpredictable weather pattern over the last two weeks. Experts are now reporting that Georgia has gone from its record 80-degree highs on Friday to wind chills in the single digits earlier this week.
These sudden cold chills are even more prominent in North Georgia, with some counties reporting snow. While in Metro Atlanta, there have been winds up to 30 mph and wind chills in the single digits. Forecasters warn that as the sun comes out this week, winds could reach up to 40 mph in higher elevations.
Forecasters are also expecting the Metro Atlanta area to experience some light rain as the week continues. But on a more positive note, spring-like weather is expected to return to Georgia over the weekend with temperatures averaging 70 degrees.
Politics – Democrats protest during Trump’s State of the Union
Multiple Democrats pushed back against President Trump’s State of the Union address. On Tuesday night, multiple Democrats boycotted the speech, attended counter-programming, and participated in a small number of protests within the House chamber.
At the start of Tuesday’s address, Rep. Al Green held up a sign that read “Black people aren’t apes.” His sign was a reference to the racist video depicting former President Barack Obama and his wife as apes that was posted on Trump’s social media. Also, a number of the Democrats walked out as Trump delivered his remarks.
Other protests came as Trump announced his illegal immigration crackdown. Many Democrats refused to stand up, as a protest to illegal immigration, when Trump said to stand up if they believed “protecting Americans, not illegal aliens was the government’s first duty.”