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Mid-Term Election Puts Democrats In Control Of US House Of Representatives

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The House of Representatives in the United States is now controlled by the Democrats. The Senate remains in the control of the Republicans.
The Democrats and Republicans are two political parties in the United States (groups of people with very different ideas about how the country should be run). US President Donald Trump is a Republican.
On Nov. 6, the United States had a big election, called the “mid-term” elections. Americans vote for who they wanted to represent them in two main branches of their government: the House of Representatives and the Senate.

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Lighter News

Man Kicked Off WestJet Flight For Being Asleep Before Takeoff

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A British Columbia man was made to leave a flight because he was asleep right before takeoff.

Stephen Bennett, his wife, Josefa Sapelino, and their son, were taking a WestJet flight from Toronto, Ontario to Cuba on Oct. 13. (They had already flown from Burnaby, BC to Toronto.) Bennett took a sleeping pill which he had been given by a doctor. The flight attendants couldn’t easily wake him up as the plane was preparing to take off. They became worried there was something medically wrong with him, according to CTV News.

Sapelino was eventually able to wake her husband up. That’s when he discovered that the flight attendants wanted him to get off the plane.

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News Science

Canadian Scientist Shares Nobel Prize For Physics

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The Nobel Prize is one of the biggest prizes in the world.
Dr. Strickland will share the prize with Dr. Gérard Mourou of France and Dr. Arthur Ashkin of the United States.
All three scientists won for their work creating tiny (miniature) tools using lasers.
The prize is $1.28 million. It will be divided among the three scientists. Half the money will go to Dr. Ashkin. Dr. Strickland and Dr. Mourou will share the other half.

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Marijuana. Image: Ravenhurst~commonswiki
Health News

Cannabis (Pot) Now Legal In Canada

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On October 17, the Cannabis Act came into force and cannabis became legal for adults in Canada. The recreational drug, also known as marijuana or pot, is often smoked like a cigarette.

It is still illegal to buy or use pot in the United States (except in rare cases such as for medicinal use).

Children may not legally buy or smoke pot; it is not healthy for bodies and brains that are still growing. It is also illegal for anyone under 18 years old to purchase cigarettes.

“Protecting the health and safety of youth is a top priority,” a Government of Canada website states. It notes that there are “serious criminal penalties for those who sell or provide cannabis to youth.”

Only adults, 19 years of age or older, may legally smoke pot. They can also legally buy it and grow marijuana (for their own use, not to sell).

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Lighter News

Million-Dollar Banksy Painting Shreds Itself

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Banksy has done it again.

Banksy is a world-famous artist, but no one knows exactly who Banksy is–or even if Banksy is male or female.

That’s because Banksy is a “street artist.” Most of the art Banksy creates is painted on the sides of buildings, public walls and other places that are out in the open. And the art is created without anyone seeing them being created. So Banksy has remained anonymous (meaning that no one knows who it is).

Banksy’s art is “political.” That means it’s not just interesting to look at, but it makes a point about something.

One of Banksy’s most famous paintings is called Girl with Balloon. It was painted in 2002 on a wall in the UK.

Recently, a framed copy of Girl with Balloon was auctioned off (sold) for nearly two million dollars.

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News

What You Need To Know About NAFTA and USMCA

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A big agreement was just made between the United States, Canada and Mexico.
It’s complicated–too complicated to explain fully here–but it’s good to have an idea about what it is and why it is important.
Back in 1994, the US, Canada and Mexico made a deal to all become “trading partners.” That means, each country would partner with the others to make it easy to buy and sell things and services back and forth. That deal was called NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement.
When countries don’t have a deal like that, it’s sometimes hard for one country to sell things to another country.

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Palu Map. Image: WikipediaPalu Map. Image: Wikipedia
News

Indonesia Recovering From Earthquake, Tsunami

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Lots of medics and emergency workers are helping people in Indonesia after a large earthquake happened there on Friday.

It was a 7.5-magnitude earthquake. (That is how earthquakes are measured in terms of how bad they are. Seven point five is very big.)

The earthquake also caused a tsunami. That is a massive wave of water. When an earthquake happens on or near a large body of water, it can cause huge waves and flowing water that does a lot of damage. The earthquake in Indonesia was along the coast, near a city called Palu, which is on a bay.

Many people helped those who were affected by the disaster.

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Environment News

Teen’s Project Helping To Clean The Ocean

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A teenager’s dream of cleaning up the world’s oceans may soon come true.
Boyan Slat is a high school student who lives in Holland, in Europe. Seven years ago, he was swimming in the ocean. He saw more trash in the water, than fish. So for a school project, he made a plan to clean up the ocean.
In 2013, Slat formed a group called The Ocean Cleanup. It raised money to put Slat’s water clean-up plan in action.
On September 8, Slat’s plan began.
In the ocean between California and Hawaii is a lot of floating garbage. It is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Slat’s group will clean it up using a floating tube. The tube will go around the garbage and trap it.

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Doug Ford. Image: Bruce Reeve
News Politics

Premier Doug Ford Uses “Notwithstanding Clause”

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In June, the province of Ontario got a new premier: Doug Ford. His political party won the election in a landslide and has a “majority government.” That means the party Ford leads has more votes than all of the other political parties put together, and it gives them a lot of power to get things done.

Recently, Ford and his party used that power in a way that has upset some people.

It all began when Ford announced that he was going to reduce the number of city councillors in Toronto from 47 to 25. Toronto is one of the largest cities in Ontario.
Ford says having fewer councillors will make the city run better.

But people who don’t agree with Ford say he is only doing it because he doesn’t like some of the Toronto councillors. They say it’s not a business move–it’s personal.

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News Sports

US Women’s Open Memorable For Two Very Different Reasons

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Twenty-year-old Naomi Osaka won the US Open tennis tournament (Women’s Singles) on Saturday.
Osaka, who is Japanese-American, is the first Japanese person to win a major tennis tournament.
However, her win isn’t the only thing that made the tournament memorable. Something happened to her opponent, 36-year-old tennis star Serena Williams.
She was accused of being “coached,” which is not allowed during a match. Williams’s coach, who was sitting in the crowd, had made a motion with his hands to tell Williams how to hit a shot. However, Williams said she was not looking at the coach at the time and so did not cheat.

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