The Roar keeps you updated with local news, recent events, and interesting stories- everything you need to know for this week.
1. Former President George H. W. Bush has been released from the Maine hospital where he was receiving treatment for a neck injury. He is expected to make a full recovery.
2. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has authorized the adjutant general of the Texas National Guard to arm military facilities across Texas. This is in response to the Thursday attack on a recruiting center and Marine-Navy reserve facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee which left five servicemen dead. Similar action has already been called for in Florida and Louisiana.
3. Following the death of 28 year-old Sandra Bland, protesters from all over Texas gathered outside the Waller County Jail on Friday, demanding answers and justice. Protesters do not believe that Bland committed suicide in jail, as was claimed by the medical examiner assigned to the case.
4. On Tuesday, Blue Bell announced that Fort Worth billionaire Sid Bass has invested $125 million in the company. This investment will allow Blue Bell to remain in business.
5. A venomous cobra, which was believed to have fatally bitten an 18 year-old Texas man, was found on Friday in Austin.
6. On Sunday, North Koreans participated in elections to select governors, mayors, and county assemblies. As the ballots only contained one candidate for each position (chosen by the Democratic Front of the Reunification of the Fatherland) and a “no” vote is considered treason, no surprise turnouts occurred. Similarly, the impressive 99.97% voter turn-out rate is, once again, unsurprising as the penalty for not voting is treason as well.
7. The supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has approved the nuclear deal with the West. Interestingly, he has claimed that Iran did not succumb to the will of the “arrogant U.S. government”, but instead has halted its nuclear program as the result of a fatwa, which declared nuclear weapons forbidden under Islamic Law. By contrast, Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, has said that the deal could lead to cooperation in other areas.
8. Presidential candidate Donald Trump has once again sparked wide-spread backlash after insulting Republican Sen. John McCain, calling McCain a “loser”. Trump was referring to McCain’s five and a half years spent in a prison camp during the Vietnam War. Trump has also claimed that many of his Republican competitors “have no business running for president”.
9. New images of Pluto have been released by NASA, revealing unexpected complexity, such as a large ice plain and mountains.
10. Anders Breivik, who in 2011 set off a bomb in the Norwegian capital that killed eight people and then fatally shot 69 people on a nearby island, has gained admission into Oslo University to study computer science. Breivik is currently serving a 21-year prison sentence.
