Current Events: Gun Laws, Gerrymandering, Syria, Nigeria

Anna Kaganova, Staff Writer
February 27, 2018

Bombings in Syria

Damaged cars and buildings in besieged Eastern Ghouta, outside Damascus. (Bassam Khabieh/Reuters)

This week, the Syrian government has been bombarding eastern Ghouta, a rebel-controlled territory. More than an estimated 200 people have been killed during what has been some of the deadliest attacks in the area.

The fighting is taking place despite the UN-ordered ceasefire (explained last week).

Rebels have controlled Ghouta, an area near Syria’s capital, Damascus, since 2012. This is one of the last rebel-controlled areas in the country. The Syrian government seems determined to regain the territory at any cost.

The government has allegedly attacked the area with chemical weapons in 2013, sparking international backlash, and has been blockading the city for years, limiting access to food and other supplies.

The Syrian Civil War has been going on for almost seven years. Rebel forces, supported by the US, are fighting against the government forces of President Bashar al-Assad (who’s been accused of many human rights violations). Russia backs Assad. Hundreds of thousands have been killed in the war, and millions have been displaced, causing an international refugee crisis. A UN official called the war “the worst man-made disaster since World War II”.

 

In Nigeria

More than 200 Nigerian girls were kidnapped from a school in Chibok by Boko Haram [File:Al Jazeera]
Boko Haram attacked a girls school in northeast Nigeria (in a state called Yobe) this Monday. More than 100 students have been abducted.

On Wednesday, the Yobe state government said dozens of the girls had been rescued, sparking celebration. By Thursday, however, it had to admit most of them were still missing.

The government has expressed determination to rescue the girls. But it didn’t respond so well to a similar kidnapping in 2014. Will it do better now?

Boko Haram is an Islamist military group acting in Nigeria. It is affiliated with the Islamic State. Boko Haram fighters have killed more than 20,000 people and forced around two million people to flee since their insurgency began almost a decade ago. The group has notoriously kidnapped around 300 Nigerian schoolgirls in 2014, starting the “#BringBackOurGirls” campaign in the U.S. Around 100 of the girls are still held hostage.

 

Jerry mandarin?

The new congressional districts in southeastern Pennsylvania under the map imposed Monday by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. (Philly.com)

Pennsylvania drew itself up a new congressional district map. Congressional district: an electoral constituency that elects a single member of a congress.

In 2011, Republicans in the state set up districts in a way that unfairly favored the GOP. Last month, Penn’s Supreme Court said that the map was unconstitutionally partisan and that lawmakers needed to make a new one. After arguing and drawing and redrawing, the court redrew the map by itself. The new map is set to go into effect by the May 15 primary.

The GOP is expected to continue debating the map in court. But the redrawn map also means that the Democrats might win some new seats in the fall midterm elections.

 

Action

School students rally in solidarity with those affected by the shooting at Parkland High School in Florida, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

America has seen a great social push to tighten gun laws and increase school safety in the recent weeks, following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

This includes:

  • Mass protests on gun laws;
  • The government apparently moving to ban bump stocks;
  • Schools planning various events to call for better school safety. Our school plans to hold an open forum in the auditorium in the morning dedicated to victims of shootings, where people will be able to express their opinions. Date TBA.

 

More details on this nation-wide call for change will be described in an upcoming article. All this is really cool, though.