Five Things You Need to Know: March 24

Plane Crashes in the French Alps

On the way from Barcelona to Dusseldorf, a jet passenger crashed today in the French Alps. French president Francoise Hollande has warned that, while search-and-rescue teams are attempting to reach the crash site, no survivors are expected. Aboard the Germanwings Airbus A320 were 144 passengers and six crew members.

The plane crashed at Meolans-Revels, 430 miles southeast of Paris. The area is surrounded by mountains and has very few clear trails into it, thus making it difficult to reach. After leaving Barcelona at 9:55 a.m., the plane sent out a distress signal at 10:45 before crashing at an altitude of 2,000 feet. German chancellor Angela Merkel as well as Spain’s king and queen have canceled appointments today, and offered condolences to the families of those involved in the crash.

Wichita State University Beats University of Kansas

Sunday night, the University of Kansas basketball team fell 78-65 to Wichita State University in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. For the second year in a row, the Jayhawks lost prior to the Sweet 16. The team struggled with their offense during the game, and by the half, the Wichita Shockers were leading 29-26, and continued to surge forward until their win.

Wrestling Team and Member Receive Honors

Over spring break, senior Marshall Green and the entire East varsity wrestling team received honorable mentions for the Kansas All-State Academic Team. The wrestling team, while advocating for athletics, is proud to put education first and to hold their members to high standards.

Actress Angelina Jolie Undergoes Surgery

Actress Angelina Jolie revealed in an op-ed for the New York Times that she recently underwent a preventive surgery to have her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed. Two years ago, Jolie had both breasts removed in a preventive double mastectomy to avoid developing cancer cells, and underwent this latest surgery for the same reasons. As a result of this, Jolie has also entered early menopause at age 39.

Jolie had not yet developed cancer prior to both surgeries, yet is biologically prone to developing it. The actress cites “[wanting] other women at risk to know about the options” as one reason for speaking out about the surgeries.

Instagram Releases New App

Popular company and app Instagram has released a new app, called Layout. The new app allows the user to create collages with images saved on the user’s phone, and to share those on Facebook and Instagram. Although the app is currently available only for iOs, a version for Android is in development. Layout separates the photos in the user’s camera roll into recent photos as well as faces. The user can choose nine photos to collage, and the app provides 10 different options for the collages.

Layout is the second standalone app Instagram has released, following the timelapse-creating Hyperlapse of last August.