News Roundup 01/28/19
1. Government Shutdown Update
After 35 days of the government shut down, President Trump has announced a temporary reopening for three weeks. On Friday Jan. 25 Trump made a deal with the House and Senate that the government will be temporarily opened until Feb. 15. The re-opening comes after hundreds of thousands of government employees did not receive a paycheck for the second time in a row. This deal means that no new money will go towards funding the wall but it does end the longest shutdown in U.S. history. The president said he could declare a national emergency to fund the border wall if Congress doesn't provide the money after the three-weeks.
Source: NPR
2. Italy Agrees to Pay Amanda Knox for Flawed Investigation
The European Human Rights Court in France has ordered Italy’s government to pay Amanda Knox nearly $20,000 as a result of police failing to provide her with legal assistance and a translator during her interrogation in Nov. 2007. Knox was an American student studying abroad who was imprisoned for the murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher, a British student whose throat had been cut and was sexually assaulted. After four years in Italy’s prison, Knox was found not guilty and has been fully acquitted by the Italian Supreme Court as of Mar. 2015.
Source: USA Today
3. Banksy Memorial Stolen in Paris
A mural by the anonymous England-based street artist Banksy, was stolen on Friday, Jan. 25 from the Bataclan theater in Paris. The next day, the Bataclan took to Twitter to confirm the theft and left the following statement: “The work of Banksy, a symbol of remembrance belonging to all: locals, Parisians, citizens of the world, has been taken from us.” The stolen door had a black and white painting of a figure wearing a veil with its head slightly bowed down. The mural was a tribute to the 90 people who lost their lives during a terrorist attack in Paris in November of 2015.
Source: CNN, New York Times
4. Starbucks Howard Schultz Considers Presidential Campaign
Former executive of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, is considering running for president as an independent for the 2020 election. In the past, Schultz identified as a Democrat, but during an interview with the New York Times, he said: “I feel if I ran as a Democrat I would have to be disingenuous and say things that I don’t believe because the party has shifted so far to the left.” Schultz will be touring across the country for the next three months as part of a book tour before deciding if he’ll join the race to the White House.
Source: New York Times
5. Holocaust Remembrance Day
Sunday Jan. 27 was the 74th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In 2005, the United Nations recognized Jan. 27 as Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day when the world commemorates the victims and survivors of the Holocaust. Former prisoners gathered at the former Nazi concentration camp, along with politicians, such as Poland's prime minister and ambassadors from Israel and Russia, to attend the ceremony that memorialized all those who died there. According to NPR, this year’s anniversary was a growing concern because there are signs that younger generations know less and less about the genocide that took place in World War II.
Source: NPR