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Hi everyone and welcome back to this week’s West Side Story Weekly News Wrap Up! Today I’ll be bringing you an overview of what happened in the news this week at West, in Iowa, in the US, the world, and a bit of weird, fun news to top it all off. Let’s get started!

In world news, the US is proposing to send $40 billion to Ukraine, to support the war effort against Russia without actually going to war. Most of the money is to be allocated for military defense, but a large portion is also for humanitarian aid like food and healthcare.

After living through two years of a pandemic, many people are ready for a vacation. However, many Americans have had to alter or cancel vacation plans, because the cost of restaurants, hotels, plane tickets and rental cars has risen dramatically due to inflation. In a survey, 41% of Americans are planning to travel less this year, and 28% said they will take shorter trips. Only 31% said the rise in prices will not impact their travel plans this year.

In Iowa news, there has been an increase in the number of grocery stores and restaurants that have been closed temporarily because they violate health code standards. One possible reason is a lack of training for new employees due to worker shortages.

In West news next Wednesday, May 18, is the last day for seniors to turn in any late work. Freshman, Sophomores and Juniors have until the next Wednesday, May 25, before assignments and projects can no longer be turned in. This decision was made so that teachers have time to finalize grades before the school year ends.

Yesterday, astronomers took the first picture ever of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. It took over 300 researchers working at over 80 institutions five years to take this blurry image. The black hole is named Sagittarius A, and is located 27,000 light years from Earth, and if we were to see it from Earth, it would be the size of a donut on the moon.

Thanks for watching and I’ll see you all next week!