Ill Residents due to Flint River Water; Toy Businesses to Go Under due to Tariffs; Volcanic Eruption in 600 Years;

Ill Residents due to Flint River Water

    Residents in Flint, Michigan, noticed a strange smell, taste, and colour in their water after the city switched its supply to the Flint River. The Environmental Protection Agency initially said the water was safe, but for their part, tests revealed the switch was corroding the city’s water pipe and releasing lead. Residents have suffered from behavioural issues, brain damage, seizures or even Legionnaire's disease, a severe pneumonia caused by contaminated water. Following the EPA’s announcement, the authorities were forced to reconstruct thousands of pipes. 

Toy Businesses to Go Under due to Tariffs 

    After taking office, Donald Trump promised sweeping tariffs on imported products. In April and July, the details were rolled out, with the goal of protecting U.S. industry, reducing trade deficits, and addressing national security concerns. However, the impact has begun to trickle down to the small businesses. As the holiday approaches, toy businesses are facing steep price increases due to tariffs of 30% on products from China and 20% from Vietnam. A local toy store in NY will be closing this month after two months of declining sales. The owner says the debacle of the tariffs is “the nail in the coffin.” She explains American-made toys are few and far between and tend to languish on store shelves, while customers seek affordable, popular imports such as Legos. This volatility makes toy manufacturing a volatile industry. She also calls it a fallacy that Chinese products are low-quality, noting that many are very well made. 

Volcanic Eruption in 600 Years

    A powerful 8.8-magnitude earthquake may have triggered the recent explosive encore in Russia’s remote region, Kamchatka. The volcano erupted in 600 years, with 4-mile-high plumes from a 6,000-foot peak. The ash spread out over the seas, but fortunately, there’s no population in its path. 

    A 12-year-old Chinese phenom, Yu Zidi, competed against Olympians in the 4x200 freestyle relay in Singapore, earning a bronze medal. She’s the youngest athlete to medal in a major international competition since 1936.

Grammars; for one’s part, trickle down, debacle, nail in the coffin, sweeping, roll out, vendor, volatile, few and far between, languish, fallacy, encore, plume, phenom, medal

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