Zuckerberg and the Cambridge Analytica Scandal: Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Facebook, testified before Congress’ House Energy and Commerce Committee regarding his company’s data collection from users. Facebook is being investigated for its relations to Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm that worked with Donald Trump’s campaign during the presidential election of 2016, which had obtained access to over 87 million users’ private data without their consent. The five-hour long marathon of a testimony on the first day saw Zuckerberg battered with questions about Facebook’s priority of sharing user data. He evaded questions about how Facebook tracks its users, explaining that users “had full control of their data all along.” “I’m sorry,” Zuckerberg said, “I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here.” Zuckerberg is still currently testifying before Congress and the future for both the CEO and Facebook is not looking so bright.

Stephen Hawking: Professor Stephen Hawking passed away on March 14 at the age of 76. Hawking’s family stated that he died peacefully at his home in Cambridge, England. He was a world-renowned physicist, cosmologist, and author. Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 1963, shortly after his 21st birthday. Despite being wheelchair-bound and having to rely on a technological voice system in order to communicate, Hawking became a remarkable figure in the world of science and humanity.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High: With the horrific school shooting that occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14 still etched in the minds of millions of Americans, gun control continues to be a hot topic in the U.S. MSDHS students took the American public by storm with the “Never Again” movement, as they took action into their own hands. On Mar. 24, the student-led demonstration known as March for Lives commenced. The protest was in favor of tighter gun control, universal background checks when purchasing firearms and raising the federal gun ownership age to 21. The March for Our Lives event engendered over 800 sibling events all across the United States and has solidified the fact that the fight for gun control has just begun.

DACA: The Supreme Court decided not to hear President Donald Trump’s bid to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. DACA is an American immigration policy intended to protect undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. This move has lessened the pressure on Congress to create a solution for the roughly 700,000 members in DACA. Trump had terminated DACA but allowed a six-month window of renewal for anybody whose status was about to expire. The six-month grace period ended on March 5, although the Supreme Court’s actions have not ruled on the efforts of Trump to end DACA.

Venezuela: Over half a million Venezuelans have fled to the neighboring country of Colombia since the early 2010s in search of sanctuary from Venezuela’s collapsing economy. Venezuela is in grim condition, both economically and politically, due to the corruption surrounding both President Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan government. The country has seen an increase in homicide, kidnapping, assault, and annual robbery rates, and has the second highest murder rate in the world. The United Nations has stated that the crime is a result of the poor political and economic environment and warns against traveling to the unstable country.