News Wrap Up
State News: Virginia Goes Red in Last Tuesday’s Election
Tuesday’s Election Day had many Virginians on their toes as Glenn Youngkin (R) and Terry McAuliffe (D) competed for governor of Virginia. The votes came out to 1,662,968 for Youngkin and 1,596,849 for McAullife, giving Youngkin the victory. FiveThirtyEight proposes three possible reasons for why Youngkin won a typically democratic office: the drift right by suburban voters, education-related topics that were highlighted up to the day of the election, as well as a statewide disappointment in Biden’s current presidency. The GOP also won the lieutenant governor and attorney general spots. The lieutenant governor, Winsome Sears, made history as the first woman to be elected lieutenant governor as well as the first black woman to be elected into office statewide. Additionally, Sears is a veteran, immigrant, and Regent University graduate.
National News: 8 Deaths and Many Injured at Travis Scott Festival
On Friday night, eight people died and hundreds of people were injured during a crowd surge at a music festival hosted by Travis Scott in Houston, Texas. Travis, a Houston native, is a 29-year-old rapper best known for his songs “goosebumps”, “HIGHEST IN THE ROOM”, and “SICKO MODE”. What caused this tragedy? Officials are still unsure, but as most of the deaths and injuries were due to compressive asphyxia, it is speculated that ‘crowd crush,’ when people are so tightly packed together that their airways are blocked, is the culprit. Travis took to social media and released a statement following the event expressing his devastation at what happened, but many fans are unsure if he is genuine. According to the Los Angeles Times, this is not the first time that a Travis Scott concert has gotten out of hand. He has previously faced two criminal charges “related to inciting crowds into over-heated fervors.” Travis’s partner, Kylie Jenner, also spoke out on her Instagram story saying that she and Travis “weren’t aware of any fatalities until the news came out after the show.”
World News: COVID-19 Antiviral Pill Approved in the U.K.
This week, the United Kingdom’s medical regulator approved an antiviral pill that is said to fight off infections of COVID-19. The pill, developed by Merck, is called molnupiravir and is intended to be taken twice a day to fight symptoms of COVID-19. Testing revealed that, in mild to moderate cases, molnupiravir reduces the chances of hospitalization and death by 50% in adults, and due to this success, is currently awaiting approval by the Food and Drug Association. What does this mean for the United States and other parts of the world? Merck and its partner, Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, agreed to allow other countries to make molnupiravir and will receive no royalties from its production “as long as COVID-19 is considered a global emergency by the World Health Organization.”
