On Sunday May 9, 2021, 13-year-old Trystin Bailey was killed by 14-year-old classmate Aiden Fucci in a wooded area near her home in St. Johns county, Florida. After an hours-long search, the police had located her body and announced on Tuesday, May 11 that the teenager had been stabbed to death. Aiden Fucci, who was previously charged with second-degree murder, has now been indicted as an adult on a first-degree murder charge by St. John’s County Grand Jury. According to the 7th Judicial Circuit State Attorney R.J.

After 15 long months of battling the COVID-19 crisis, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced on May 24, 2021 that the statewide indoor mask mandate and requirement for maintaining six feet of social distancing in indoor and outdoor settings would be lifted on May 28. The Governor also signed Executive Order No. 241 on May 17, which eliminates the requirement of masks in public outdoor spaces. These new executive orders come into effect, as more and more New Jerseyans have gotten vaccinated and the number of COVID-19 cases has continued to decline.

On May 18, news came out that Ohio is holding a Vax-a-million lottery for Ohio’s residents. Five people will get $1 million for getting the vaccine. Five separate weekly drawings of the lottery will take place.

On April 19, 2021 it was reported that more than 100,000 Russian soldiers had built up near the Ukraine border and in annexed Crimea. This worried members of NATO and the EU as this came after the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the Russo Ukrainian war which also began in 2014. Journalists and politicians have Identified this as the biggest Russian troop movement since WW2.

Recently in South Carolina, a new law has been put in place regarding executions for death row inmates. South Carolina’s Governor, Henry McMaster, has signed to approve the electric chair and firing squad option if lethal injection is not available for executions.

On May 29, Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation Chief Rosanne Casimir announced that the remains of 215 children had been found near the city of Kamloops’ native residential boarding school in southern British Columbia.

Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, which rules the independent state of Gaza, agreed to a cease-fire that began on May 21, following pressure from the U.S. and its allies to end 11 days of fighting.

The barrages from both sides were the worst since the most recent of three wars between Israel and Hamas in 2014. The fighting, which began on May 10, claimed the lives of more than 250 people, mostly in Gaza.

In February, it appeared India had gotten Covid-19 under control, with daily cases falling nearly 90% from the peak of the first wave last year.

Now, the country is experiencing the world's worst outbreak, with new cases surging past 400,000 per day and breaking the record for the highest single-day figure globally.

On April 13, 2021 President Joseph Biden announced that he was planning to remove troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021. The move has had mixed reactions from politicians and citizens alike. Many Republicans want to keep soldiers in Afghanistan and their reason as to why is because they say the goals of the war have not been completely fulfilled.

On Friday, April 9, 2021, news struck the world that Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and husband to the Queen of England, passed away at the age of 99. He laid to rest peacefully with his wife, Queen Elizabeth II, beside him. Prior to his passing he was able to spend time with his children as they all were vaccinated earlier this year, but relations with other family members were cut due to COVID protocols. 

On April 21, 2021, Attorney General, Maverick Garland, announced the start of a civil investigation for misconduct in the Minneapolis Police Department. This now is the second investigation the department is under. The first was a federal investigation into the death of George Floyd.  

The world has been fighting COVID-19 for over a year. Mask mandates and social distancing are now a part of our everyday lives. When vaccines were created to help fight the virus, companies were quick to ship them out. Over 114 million people have been vaccinated in the United States which is over 34% of the population. More than 1.3 billion vaccines have been administered worldwide. Despite these statistics, many people are still wary. 

According to Pfizer-BioNTech, the Pfizer Covid vaccine shots are safe and effective towards teenagers 12-15. After much testing and research, it was found that the shots showed 100% effectiveness towards the response to the antibodies in this age group.

Just miles away from where former Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, was standing on trial for the murder of George Floyd, another Black man was killed at the hands of police. On the Sunday afternoon of April 11, 20-year-old Daunte Wright was shot during a traffic stop in suburban Minneapolis, propelling an already tense city into a state of righteous furor.

Within April, two states in the United States have launched Anti-Transgender Bills. North Dakota’s Governor, Doug Burgum, vetoed a bill that would have restricted transgender girls from participating in public school sports. Florida’s bill, SB 1028, would also ban transgender youth from participating in school sports due to their new identity. 

On Tuesday, April 20, the 12-member jury in the case Derek Chauvin found the former Minneapolis police officer guilty on all the counts he faced over the death of George Floyd. The trial has been one of the most closely watched cases in recent memory, setting off a national reckoning on police violence and systemic racism.

As college students return for the fall semester, many universities have required students to get vaccinated due to the ongoing pandemic. Currently, the United States reports 32,713,675 COVID-19 cases and 581,056 deaths.

Since the 2020 Presidential Inauguration, President Biden has made progress throughout his first 100 days in office. From tackling climate change, to establishing the American Rescue Plan, to working on gun reform, the President has made fruitful efforts to restore the nation and unite Americans.

On April 8, a video was trending on social media from Norfolk, Virginia. The video consisted of a capital lieutenant named Caron Nazario, an African American-Latino man getting pepper-sprayed numerous times by the police at a gas station. During the video, Nazario is shown innocently keeping his arms up so he can demonstrate that he was not a threat. Despite this and repeatedly trying to cooperate with the police, Nazario was forced to feel the sting from the pepper spray.

Since coronavirus has first invaded the country, there have been 562,007 deaths and there are 31,292,106 cases currently. As the year has progressed, the number of COVID-19 infections continues to increase and burden daily lives. As scientists have worked to develop effective vaccines, a new vaccine, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, has since been developed and has proven to be 62% effective.