June 25 Weekly News Quiz: Final Exits, Freedom, Supernova

President Joe Biden announced Saturday, June 19, 2021, that Champ, the older of the family's two dogs, had died "peacefully at home" at 13. Champ's passing leaves the Bidens with their younger German shepherd, Major, whom the family adopted from the Delaware Humane Society in 2018. The Bidens got Champ from a breeder after Biden was elected vice president in 2008.

On Tuesday, June 22, 2021, Connecticut became the 19th state to legalize recreational marijuana and the fifth to do so in 2021 after New Mexico, New York, Virginia, and New Jersey.

What does the Connecticut cannabis law say?

When the law takes effect July 1, using recreational marijuana in Connecticut will be legal, and adults 21 and older will be allowed to possess up to one and a half ounces. However, retail sales of recreational cannabis in Connecticut are not expected to begin until the summer of 2022, at the earliest.

Antivirus software entrepreneur John McAfee was wanted in the US for tax-related criminal charges that carry a prison sentence of up to 30 years. Hours after Spain’s highest court approved McAfee’s extradition to the United States on Wednesday, June 23, 2021, the 75-year-old creator of the McAfee virus software was found dead in his cell in Spain from an apparent suicide.

John McAfee bizarre fact:

Since making a fortune in the 1980s with the software that still bears his name, McAfee twice made long-shot runs for the US presidency and became the subject of media scrutiny following the unsolved 2012 murder of a neighbor in Belize. Police found him living with a 17-year-old girl and discovered many weapons in his home in the Central American country.

The Bank of England began circulating its new £50 banknotes featuring World War II codebreaker Alan Turing on Wednesday, June 23, 2021, the pioneering math genius’s 109th birthday. Turing is the first gay man on a British banknote.

Britney Spears delivered a court testimony on Wednesday, June 23, 2021, in which she said the conservatorship that has governed her life for 13 years has control over her reproductive and mental health. She also testified that doctors changed her medication after telling her management she wanted to discontinue her Las Vegas residency.  “I was told right now in the conservatorship I am not able to get married or have a baby,” the 39-year-old superstar told the court.

Apple Daily was Hong Kong’s second most-read newspaper (and website), founded in 1995. The newspaper’s political alignment was pro-democracy.

Apple Daily 2021 Fact:

Hong Kong saw the last print edition of the country’s last remaining pro-democracy newspaper, Apple Daily, on Thursday, June 24, 2021. By 8:30 a.m, Apple Daily’s final edition of 1 million copies was sold out across most of the city’s newsstands. The closure of the 26-year-old Apple Daily comes after Hong Kong authorities froze the publication’s assets under a national security law and jailed its owner, Jimmy Lai.

You’re looking at the Seyfert galaxy NGC 3254. Seyfert galaxies have a supermassive black hole in them.

Supermassive News Fact:

The Hubble Space Telescope captured an image of the spiral galaxy NGC 3254, with its active core emitting as much energy as the rest of the galaxy combined. The bright blue light that stands out in the top center of the Hubble image, toward the outer edge of the galaxy's spiral, is a star-exploding supernova.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett condemned on Sunday, June 20, 2021, the election of hardline judge Ebrahim Raisi as Iranian president, saying his rule would be a "regime of brutal hangmen."

Bushehr is twelve kilometers from the site of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant built in cooperation with Russia.

Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant News Fact:

Iran’s sole nuclear power plant has undergone an unexplained temporary emergency shutdown on Saturday, June 19, 2021 - the first time Iran has reported an emergency shutdown of the plant. In March, nuclear official Mahmoud Jafari said the plant could stop working since Iran cannot procure parts and equipment from Russia due to banking sanctions imposed by the U.S. in 2018.

The coelacanth fish, nicknamed a “living fossil,” can live for 100 years, a study published Thursday, June 17, 2021, in Current Biology found.

Coelacanth Fish Facts:

Coelacanth females don’t reach sexual maturity until their late 50s, while male coelacanths are sexually mature at 40 to 69. Researchers figure pregnancy in the fish lasts about five years.

Oxford Languages define colorism as prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group.

Colorism in the News:

“In the Heights,” a big-budget film based on the musical created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, was called out for its short supply of dark-skinned, Black Latinos in leading roles. Miranda, best known as the creator of the Broadway musical “Hamilton” and a longtime champion of including Latinos in the arts, recognized his own short-sightedness in addressing colorism and issued an apology.

Radio City Music Hall and the Théâtre des Champs Elysées were designed in Art Deco architectural style. Other famous Art Deco buildings include New York's Empire State and Chrysler, the Hammersmith Apollo theater in London, the Majorca building in Melbourne, and Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes.

Radio City's longest shutdown

New York's Radio City Music Hall reopened its doors Saturday, June 19, 2021, for the first time since closing in March 2020 — the longest shutdown since the Art Deco venue first opened in 1932.

Will Smith was born on September 25, 1968. His parents named him Willard Carroll Smith Jr.

Will Smith news fact:

Penguin Press announced Sunday, June 20, 2021, that Will Smith will release his memoir called “Will” on Nov. 9. The actor-rapper shared a photo of the book’s cover art to more than 54 million of his followers on Instagram.

With the release of Windows 10 back in 2015, Microsoft was clear that this would be "the last version of Windows." Microsoft announced Windows 11 on Thursday, June 24, 2021. The new operating system started rolling out on Oct. 5, 2021.