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This is our 100th blog post! Enjoy reading! UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, has agreed to buy its rival, Credit Suisse, for over 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.25 billion USD) to help stop financial panic after Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank were shut down in the US recently. Here's the breakdown: Credit Suisse had been collapsing for a while, after years of scandals and top management changes led to clients pulling over 110 billion ($119 billion USD) Swiss francs out of the bank since 2021. It all started with the collapse of US investment fund Archegos, which left Credit Suisse with a $5.5 billion loss, but Saudi National Bank, their largest shareholder, bought 9.9% of the company to keep them going. Unfortunately, in March 2023, Credit Suisse's annual report for the past year reported "material weaknesses," which are the result of flaws or gaps in a company's internal control. This sparked concern over the latest bank collapses and whether Credit Suisse would fall as well, and the bank's shares fell by 30% after its biggest shareholder, Saudi National Bank, announced that it could not provide any more support to Credit Suisse because of regulatory concerns in its home country. To help the Swiss financial structure survive, the Swiss National Bank loaned Credit Suisse over $54 billion, which made it the first big bank to receive emergency funding since the 2008 financial crisis. Sadly, that didn't do much to save the bank, though it did help to give the company more time to figure things out. UBS is now buying the bank for $3.25 billion, but unfortunately, their shareholders will lose most of their money, and Swiss regulators say that the owners of 'additional tier one' bonds, worth over $17 billion, will lose everything. By Armaan Dhawan

In June, the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC Wagner) declared a rebellion against the Russian government. How did it play out? Let’s find out. Since way before the Russo-Ukrainian War started, tensions sprang up between the PMC Wagner and the Russian government, though it escalated throughout the war. This was mostly because PMC Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin constantly blamed the Russian Ministry of Defense for the mass killing of some of his troops. Finally, Prigozhin decided to rebel. On June 23, PMC Wagner paramilitary troops captured the city of Rostov-on-Don. Some sources report that the citizens of the city actually welcomed the PMC Wagner troops. Then they moved onto capturing Moscow. But when they got there, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko called a temporary truce and held a meeting with Prigozhin. There, Lukashenko was able to convince Prigozhin to withdraw his troops from both cities. This resulted in the “invasion” lasting only 2 days. Prigozhin went into exile in Belarus, and everything went back to 'normal' wartime life. ​ However, Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, is now coming under criticism for appearing as 'weak,' as he needed the Belarusian president to step in for the crisis to be averted. By Mihir Gupta and Armaan Dhawan

Silicon Valley Bank is completely down, for good. California regulators have taken control of the huge western bank, and this is the second largest bank failure in US history, only second to the collapse of Washington Mutual in the 2008 financial crisis. Basically, it started on SVB's end, with them investing billions into bonds. Then, interest rates started to rise to curb inflation, which the bank did not expect, and they ended up losing over $2 billion in bond value. This was when the collapse started. Since SVB didn't have the money to pay their customers back for regular withdrawals, they had to sell their securities at extremely low prices due to the high interest rates, and they lost a lot of money. Unfortunately, when a bank sells a lot of bonds at one time, they are required by the law to publicly announce it. When they did, people got scared that their money would be lost, so they started making massive withdrawals. In fact, over $42 billion worth of deposits were withdrawn in just 24 hours. As a result, the Federal Depository Insurance Corp. (FDIC) shut it down and took over the bank's assets to recover depositor funds. Most SVB depositors have received all of their money back, and even though the organization only insures $250,000, many customers of SVB had much more money in the bank than that, but the FDIC has assured that they would get 100% back. By Armaan Dhawan

The Tour de France is a 2116.1-mi (3,405.6-km) bike race split up between 23 days. The race is split up into 21 stages and 2 rest days. This article explains all the important stuff in the race, and is updated daily. July 1, 2023: Stage 1 Stage length: 113.1 mi (182 km) Stage location: Bilbao, Spain Stage winner: Adam Yates (UK) July 2, 2023: Stage 2 Stage length: 129.8 mi (208.9 km) Stage locations: Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain to San-Sebastian, Spain Stage winner: Victor Lafay (France) July 3, 2023: Stage 3 Stage length: 120.2 mi (193.5 km) Stage locations: Amorebieta-Etxano, Spain to Bayonne, France Stage winner: Jasper Philipsen (Belgium) July 4, 2023: Stage 4 Stage length: 113 mi (181.8 km) Stage locations: Dax, France to Nogaro, France Stage winner: Jasper Philipsen (Belgium) July 5, 2023: Stage 5 Stage length: 101.1 mi (162.7 km) Stage locations: Pau, France to Laruns, France Stage winner: Jai Hindley (Australia) July 6, 2023: Stage 6 Stage length: 90 mi (144.9 km) Stage locations: Tarbes, France to Cauterets-Cambasque, France Stage winner: Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) July 7, 2023: Stage 7 Stage length: 105.6 mi (169.9 km) Stage locations: Mont-de-Marsan, France to Bordeaux, France Stage winner: Jasper Philipsen (Belgium) July 8, 2023: Stage 8 Stage length: 124.7 mi (200.7 km) Stage locations: Libourne, France to Limoge, France Stage winner: Mads Pederson (Denmark) July 9, 2023: Stage 9 Stage length: 113.3 mi (182.4 km) Stage locations: Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, France to Puy-de-Dôme, France Stage winner: Michael Woods (Canada) July 10, 2023: Rest Day 1 Rest day location: Clermont-Ferrand, France July 11, 2023: Stage 10 Stage length: 103.9 mi (167.2 km) Stage locations: Saint-Ours-les-Roches, France to Issoire, France Stage winner: Pello Bilbao Lopez de Armentia (Spain) July 12, 2023: Stage 11 Stage length: 111.7 mi (179.8 km) Stage locations: Clermont-Ferrand, France to Moulins, France Stage winner: Jasper Philipsen (Belgium) By: Mihir Gupta For more information/news on Tour de France, go to www.letour.fr/en.

Mark Zuckerberg's new Threads app has reached over 100 million users within just five days of its launch, which is a huge feat for the rising competitor to Twitter. That also puts it on track to surpass Twitter's user count in just a matter of weeks, maybe even days. Threads poses as a huge threat to the social media company now owned by Elon Musk, which has already been in decline for a few months now. After unreliability at Twitter, many users have moved to Meta's Threads, including many celebrities and over 100 US lawmakers. On another note, floods are plaguing many areas around the world, including the Northeastern US, India, and Japan. The US states of New York and Vermont are experiencing huge flash floods and heavy rain, killing one person as they were swept away. The water has washed away roads, bridges, cars, and even entire houses in some areas. Meanwhile, in India and Japan, rain and mudslides are the issue. In India's monsoon season, heavy rains are common, but these are unprecedented. Torrential rains have closed schools, washed away roads, buildings, people, everything. Many crops have been destroyed as well, leading prices to rise over 400% in some areas. Lastly, in Japan, floods and landslides have killed at least six people in what some residents call the 'heaviest rains ever.' Again, roads and buildings have been washed away, and scientists warn that these severe weather events will only get worse due to climate change.

British singer Elton John has officially retired from touring after his final concert in Stockholm, Sweden, where he thanked fans for 52 years "of pure joy" during his career. He highlighted that he wanted to spend more time with his family in 2018, and then launched his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour. The farewell tour was supposed to end in 2021, but was delayed after COVID-19 hit. At 76-years-old, he has achieved 35 gold and 25 platinum albums, five Grammy Awards, five Brit Awards, two Academy Awards, two Golden Globes, a Tony Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, a Disney Legend Award, and the Kennedy Center Honor; his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour has also become the highest-grossing tour of all time. Since the start of his career in 1969, he has played over 3,500 concerts worldwide, and has composed 31 studio albums, 5 live albums, 10 soundtrack albums, 16 compilation albums, 4 extended plays, 3 tribute albums, 4 collaboration albums, and 2 holiday albums, which all comes out to 464 songs in total. Wow! On another note, severe weather is punishing the northeastern US, causing road closures, water rescues, flash floods, and some damaging winds. The heavy rain has flooded multiple major cities, and at least one person was killed after they were swept away in Orange County, New York. New York and Vermont are the hardest hit states so far, but more rain is yet to come. In fact, the governor of Vermont declared a state of emergency because of the flooding, and over 9,000 people are out of power in the New England state. Over 25 million people are still under flood alerts across the entire Northeast as well, because the water can quickly flood basements, parking garages, and ground floors; officials are urging residents to move to higher floors to avoid the high water levels. Lastly, for information/stats about Tour de France, check out this article by Mihir Gupta!

Logan Paul's PRIME energy drink is now going under investigation by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its caffeine content after it was requested by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. The drink has become extremely popular with many children across the country- as it is backed by many social media influencers- but it actually contains the caffeine of six Coke cans. The FDA is now investigating it, as the high caffeine content could be harmful to some people. On another note, flooding has also recently hit northern India, with hundreds of roads collapsing and lots of infrastructure being destroyed. Monsoon season, which lasts from June to September, is a common occurrence in south Asia and brings severe flooding to the region every year. Officials reported that New Delhi received more rain than it has in decades, and 15 people have been killed in the floods and landslides triggered by the heavy monsoon rains. However, a lot more rain is yet to come. Lastly, for information/stats about Tour de France, check out this article by Mihir Gupta!

Today, the Russia-Ukraine War has reached a grim milestone, with the statistics on the 500th day of the war showing just how much both sides have lost. At least 62,500 people have been killed, with over 60,000 others injured. At least 15,000 people are missing, and over 17 million people in total have been displaced. Over 140,000 buildings have been destroyed, and the war has caused at least $411 billion in damages. Now, as this day has come and gone, the United States has approved a new military aid package to Ukraine, which also includes controversial cluster munitions. These unique bombs explode into smaller bombs (called submunitions), and are designed to attack a large area. However, these bombs are banned in over 100 countries around the world, so Ukraine announced that they would not use these munitions in Russia. Ukraine's Defense Minister announced after the aid package was approved that they welcome the helpful munitions, but they would only be used to liberate Ukrainian territory that had been taken by Russia. He also said that it would help to save the lives of many soldiers, but they would keep a strict record of the cluster munition usage for their partners in NATO. Also, for information/stats about Tour de France, check out this article by Mihir Gupta!

Today's only news is that a new update has just come in on the deadly train crash in Odisha, India on Saturday, June 3, where over 290 people were killed in a three-way accident. Three people have now been arrested; two signal engineers and one technician. The accident took place as a passenger train was put onto a parallel loop track by mistake, and crashed into a freight train carrying iron ore coming from the opposite direction. Then, one of the train cars fell onto another track, and another passenger train hit the derailed car and crashed. In all, over 290 people were killed and over 1,000 others were injured in the incident involving almost 2,300 people. Also, for information/stats about Tour de France, check out this article by Mihir Gupta!

Today, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder, chairman, and CEO of Facebook (and its parent company, Meta), announced the launch of a new competitor to Twitter. The app, called Threads, is very similar to Twitter in many ways, but it could be a huge game-changer for the market. As it has been launched by an already globally-known company, it could be Twitter's only big competitor that could compete with the social-networking company now owned by Elon Musk. The app is currently under Instagram, and it has gained a large amount of traction in just a day. Over 30 million people signed up for the social media app within 24 hours of its launch, and Mark Zuckerberg expects millions more in the coming days. On another note, new reports show that the world temperature average broke records again, just the following day after the record was previously broken. On Monday, July 3, the world average temperature reached 62.62ºF (17ºC), which passed the previous record from August 2016- 62.46ºF (16.92ºC). However, the record did not last long. Just the next day, the world's average temperature broke temperatures again, reaching 62.92ºF (17.18ºC). Some scientists say that Tuesday, July 4 could have been Earth's hottest day in over 125,000 years! But the heat wasn't done. On Wednesday, July 5, the average temperature almost broke records again, but thankfully did not- topping out at 62.90ºF (17.17ºC). These three days are just another sign that global warming continues to affect our planet in numerous detrimental ways, and more action is needed to help stop it. For information/stats about Tour de France, check out this article!