What you need to know about news before you go home for Thanksgiving
As Thanksgiving is approaching, so are the political dinner conversations. Here are some news events that are happening to keep students up to date on World News.
Election Results
Midterm Elections were on Tuesday November 8, giving us results in time for the Thanksgiving politics conversations. In North Dakota, results were concentrated in the Red with majority of Republicans getting voted into office.
John Hoevan was reelected into the United State Senate, beating the more conservative Independent Candidate Rick Becker and the Democratic Candidate Katrina Christiansen.
For the United State House of Representatives, Republican candidate Kelly Armstrong won in the election against Democratic Candidate Cara Mund. Mund visited North Dakota State University prior to the election for the Get Out the Vote event.
The ballot also contained two measures to vote on. North Dakota voted in approval of the change of term limits for the governor and lawmakers. The measure created eight-year term limits for state lawmakers. It also allows the ND governor to be in that position for 8 years, or two 4 year terms.
The second ballot measure was not passed as it called for the legalization of the recreational use of marijuana in North Dakota for people over the age of 21. 54.9% of North Dakota voted no on this measure. Arkansas voted against the legalization of Cannabis and South Dakota also voted against the use Marijuana. However Missouri and Maryland voted in favor of the use of Marijuana and Cannabis respectively.
California, Michigan and Vermont all passed measures having to do with reproductive rights surrounding abortion. Although, reproduction right laws did not get passed in Kentucky and Montana, who both received a “No” for their abortion measures.
Dallas air show crash
Two planes collided in Dallas during an airshow on Saturday, November 12. These were military planes from World War II that were performing an airshow in Honor of Veterans Day, which was celebrated the day before the crash.
Six people died in the Crash including 5 crew members on a a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and the pilot of the Bell P-63 Kingcobra. There were no ground injuries recorded from the event.
According to the New York Times, “videos posted online appeared to show a fast and agile airplane slamming into a larger aircraft as horrified onlookers watched.”
There is an investigation being held to determine why and how this event took place. Michael Graham, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, spoke at a press conference explaining the state of the investigations. They are looking into the airworthiness, operations, air traffic control and aircraft performance of the aircrafts to determine the cause. They are asking that those with video recordings, send them footage so they can better understand what happened.
“At this time, parties doing the Investigations by the commemorative air force and the FAA,” said Graham, although more agencies may join if needed.
Update on Ukraine
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that the end of the Russo-Ukraine War may come. Ukrainian forces have captured the city of Kherson, which was lost to Russia early in the war. The United States has also pushed for peace between Russia and Ukraine.
Although Kherson is back in Ukraine’s hands, the infrastructure is nearly destroyed. “There is no electricity, no communication, no internet, no television,” said Zelenskiy, “Russian occupiers destroyed absolutely all critical infrastructure for the people.” The UN General Assembly is ready to hold Russia accountable for the damage they have caused across Ukraine. According to Al Jazeera, Zelenskiy visited Kherson “and accused Russian forces of war crimes throughout the region.”
However, Zelenskiy stated that “we know that peace for Ukraine is getting closer.”
Both the United States and China have agreed that a nuclear situation should not be reached. During the meeting between US President Biden and China’s leader Xi Jinping in Bali, Indonesia, they discussed the tension in Ukraine. According to NPR, “the U.S. has pushed China to take a clearer stand against Russia’s war in Ukraine, which China has tried to remain neutral.”
According to the White House, “President Biden and President Xi reiterated their agreement that a nuclear war should never be fought and can never be won and underscored their opposition to the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.”