The Week of 2/1/16 in a Glance

Hi Everyone! Hope you all are getting excited for February break, happy about the "snow" that fell today, and most importantly, that we have officially entered election season! We've got three articles as well as an update following up on an article from our last post this week. Read, comment, and enjoy!

- The Glance editors

Clinton Nearly Trumped, Trump Was

By Maddy Art

Monday night, the Iowa caucuses occurred. Iowa is one of thirteen states that opts to use caucuses, rather than primaries, to elect their party’s representative. Now, what the heck is a caucus, you wonder (as I did three weeks ago). Caucuses can not easily be put simply, but I will attempt. Both caucuses and primaries usually take place in public spaces (schools, churches, town halls) that are accessible to be utilized for this purpose. Primaries are essentially just secret ballot elections where members from each party vote for who they want their party’s presidential candidate to be. However, caucuses work differently for Democrats and Republicans. Republican caucuses are quite simple: voters write the name of the candidate who they want to win on a slip of paper. On the other hand, Democratic caucuses are not done by secret ballot. Essentially, voters stand in the section of the room dedicated to their candidate of choice. Whichever section has the most voters wins that precinct (individual caucus). If a candidate does not receive at least 15% of voters at any given precinct, their voters must join another candidate’s section. This is where it can get uncomfortable, as voters can (and do) attempt to persuade their friends, neighbors, and colleagues whose section to join. It seems as if, if you live in one of the thirteen caucusing states, peer pressure lives on after your teenage years.

So on Monday, Cruz beat out Trump 27.7% to 24.3% for the Republicans. Meanwhile, the Democratic caucus had some more drama. Clinton ended up winning by only 0.3%! Sanders finished with a total of 49.6%, and Clinton had 49.9%. (I know that math doesn’t add up, and I believe rounding may be to blame for that.) The Democratic results were so close that the winner wasn’t decided for a while after the caucus itself. In the meantime, Clinton thought she had one and gave a speech thanking voters for her victory. Her win had not yet been announced at the time of the speech. The closeness of the race for the Democrats shows that Bernie is doing better than predicted. Feel the Bern.

The next state to determine its choice representative with be New Hampshire, with a primary on February 9.

This Week in Terrorism: Syria and Nigeria

By Owen Tucker-Smith

Two important terrorist attacks occurred this week, one in Syria and one in Nigeria. We will explain what happened in both them.

Syria

This past weekend a triple bombing occurred near Syria’s capital in the suburbs. The result? Dozens and dozens of people were killed. Bad timing? Really bad timing. The bombings occurred right as peace was supposedly going to spread. Peace that was supposed to end the Syrian civil War.

Back up, please... If you have been reading the Glance, you probably know about the Syrian civil war. It is a civil war that has been going on for five years in Syria, President Assad versus many rebels that are trying to get rid of him. Throughout the war over a quarter million people have been killed. And ISIS, as we have said before, thrives in war struck places. They have gained more and more power as the war has gone on. We, (the US) and some other countries are on the side of the rebels while Russia and Iran are on the president’s side. And ISIS is just another big enemy floating around. Now that everyone just wants ISIS out, there is a slightly larger chance that peace could be made.

So what exactly happened? The UN was trying to lead a peace talk to end the civil war. The last time they did this, in 2014, it didn’t go as planned. It failed. This was “take two.” But ISIS Didn’t want peace, so naturally, they bombed Syria. Like peace wasn’t already hard enough to make. ISIS just keeps getting in people's’ ways.

Nigeria

Over the weekend, Boko Haram struck again, attacking Northeast Nigeria and killing many children and adults alike. The president’s promise he would keep the country under control? Promise broke.

Who are Boko Haram? Boko Haram is a terrorist group, an Islamic Extremist one specifically, which is a group that promotes violence to follow specific styles of Islam. Do you remember two years ago when terrorists kidnapped over 200 girls? That was them. Boko Haram has been killing and killing in Nigeria. Tens of thousands are dead because of them.

The attack? A while ago a president was kicked out of office in Nigeria and a new one was elected, on who “promised to get things under control.” This didn’t happen. Boko Haram killed at least 86 people, many of them being children. The protective forces were under armed, and backup didn’t come for hours. Looks like the president didn’t keep his promise...

Update: The Ziki Virus

By Owen Tucker-Smith

If you read Maddy’s entry the other week, you know about the Zika virus, a mosquito born disease. It has been traveling faster and faster as time goes on. Recently, the World Health Organization decided to declare it a global public health emergency. They better stop it quick, because Brazil, where the virus is thriving, is hosting the olympics this Summer. If you’ve read our article about the Rio olympics, you know what bad shape Rio’s in to host. This just adds to that pile. And by the way, the virus is officially on this country. But don’t panic, it was in Texas. The really important part is that the victim was not bitten by a mosquito. The virus was passed through sex, which marks the first time someone has gotten it not from one of those nasty little bugs.

No, Not “Breakfast”

By Rose Gotlieb

So… scrambled eggs? Ha. I said Brexit. That is the official term for the UK exiting the EU. In case you didn’t know, the EU (The European Union) is 28 countries, including UK that works together on stuff like international trade and negotiation. The EU kind of needs the UK to be part of their clubhouse, because the UK - (England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland) - has a big economy. The UK, however, kind of wants out.

Why doesn’t the UK like the EU? Basically, they think the EU is ruining their chances. At everything. They think the membership card cost is way too high - billions of pounds a year, and not much in return. They don’t agree with all the clubhouse rules, either - they think there are too many rules on business. They want their borders back, too, and want to lower the amount of people going to the UK to work. They say they don’t want to become the “United States of Europe”. (Are you insulted or what?)

Does everyone want to split? Nope. They’re about halfway split - some people want to just chill out. They think that the EU makes trade easier and that all the immigrants help economic growth. They also think that Britian’s social status will be hurt if they’ve got no friends to sit with at the lunch table.

Are they breaking up the band then? Well… not exactly. Nobody can agree. So they’re going to do it the classic way - a show of hands. Who can vote? Anyone over 18 who are British, Irish or Commonwealth citizens and who reside in the UK, along with UK citizens who have lived in a different country for less than fifteen years. Members of the House of Lords and Commonwealth citizens in Gibraltar will be eligible, but citizens from EU countries besides Ireland, Malta, and Cyprus, will be excluded.