On April 15, 2019, the Notre Dame Cathedral, in Paris, caught on fire. The centuries old building burned through the wooden roof. The fire was believed to be accidental.

The cathedral caught on fire at around 6 p.m., and around 500 firefighters spent nearly five hours fighting the fire.

The cause of the fire was believed to be an electric short-circuit in an elevator, and that a computer glitch may have a played a part by showing the fire in the wrong place. The flames were believed to have started at the base spire.

By 11 p.m., the cathedral had been preserved, that includes the two iconic bell towers, but two-thirds of the of the roof was gone. According to The New York Times, the French President Emmanuel Macron promised that the cathedral will be rebuilt.

After the fire was cleared from the cathedral, people from around the world assessed the damage of the cathedral and the many works of art it contained. The overall structure of the cathedral was still intact, except for the roof and spire. After all the bell towers survived the blazing fire, most of the bells are believed to have survived as well. The Emmanuel Bell, the cathedral’s main bell, and a 15th century relic, survived the fire.

Many of the paintings and other art works inside of the building had been rescued from the fire. The grand organ in the cathedral was intact, but was believed to have suffered water damage.

Since the fire, nearly $1 billion dollars has been raised to rebuild the cathedral. After the news broke about the donation, many people have had negative reactions worldwide to the amount of money raised, with some even saying that the money could be used to solve world social issues.

Officials had said that the $1 billion will most likely repair all damages to the cathedral, despite President Macron’s five-year promise, rebuilding the cathedral could take up to decades to repair.

By: Daniela Fernandez

On April 11, 2019, Julian Assange was arrested in London at the Ecuadorian Embassy. He was arrested for refusing to surrender to the court.

Assange is most well known for creating Wikileaks, which is a place where classified information can be illegally released for the world to know, according to NBC News.

According to CNN, Assange had been living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012 after seeking asylum there. He first seeked asylum there after being accused of rape in 2010, while in Sweden. On November 2, 2011, while in London, the High Court ruled that Julian Assange was to be extradited to Sweden for the accusations of rape against him.

Then on December 5, 2011, Assange petitioned the UK Supreme Court to have his extradition to Sweden revoked. On May 30, 2012, the UK Supreme Court came to a decision to finalize Assange’s extradition to Sweden.

A month later on June 19, 2012, Julian Assange applied for political asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The UK then responded to this by stating that they can revoke Assange’s asylum and extradite him to Sweden. On August 16, 2012, Ecuador gave Assange asylum in their embassy, stating they were concerned about his human rights being violated by the UK extraditing him.

On August 13, 2015, Sweden dropped their case against Assange for sexual molestation, and unlawful coercion, because they had no more time to question him as their case had expired. Then on May 17, 2017, Assange’s rape charges were dropped by Sweden.

On July 27, 2018, the UK and Ecuador reported that they were talking about what was to be done about Assange. Then, on December 6, Assange denied the UK and Ecuador’s deal to let him go free.

Then, after many years of struggle between Ecuador and the UK, Julian Assange was removed from the embassy and arrested by the UK. Ecuador stated the reason for their decision was because Assange violated international conventions through Wikileaks. Wikileaks stated Ecuador violated international law by revoking his asylum.