Lagos Curfew Extended

State Governor of Lagos (Nigeria), Babajide Sanwo-Olu, officially extended the curfew for the city following police brutality protests that reportedly turned violent. The 24-hour curfew went into effect Tuesday, October 21. 

According to Punch Newspapers, what started as a #ENDSARS protest ended violently with soldiers open-firing on crowds Tuesday night.

The #ENDSARS movement protests police brutality, specifically the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) that has a history of abuse and violence. Governor Sanwo-Olu denied sending soldiers to ground the protest, but it is believed President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the soldiers; however, this cannot be confirmed until the President speaks. The handling of the protests has led to turmoil in Lagos.

Dangerous Delay in Cancer Screenings 

Hundreds of thousands of general cancer screenings were bypassed over the entirety of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to increased worry that there are many undiagnosed cases. More undiagnosed cases means later detection, and later detection is associated with a lower chance of treatment being successful.

According to the Wall Street Journal, there has been a national scare from health officials regarding the decreased diagnosis rates.

Towards the beginning of the pandemic much of the healthcare system was shut down, but many of those places have since reopened. This may serve as a reminder to the public to schedule an oncology screening.

Good Gourd

Minnesota-native Travis Gienger traveled 35 hours to Half Moon Bay, California, to enter his pumpkin into the Half Moon Bay pumpkin competition. Gienger grew a 2,350 pound pumpkin, whom he named the ‘Tiger King’, leading him to earn the first place title.

According to the Star Tribune, the contest winner’s prize would earn seven dollars for every pound of the pumpkin- Gienger therefore earned $16,450 dollars.

The superbowl of weigh-offs in the pumpkin growing community was held on Monday, October 19.

NASA Asteroid Mission

NASA launched its spacecraft, the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx), to land on an ancient asteroid named Bennu. 

According to the NASA website, OSIRIS-REx is to be used to look into the early solar system and how it was made.

Getting an inside look at the beginning of our solar system allows for potential scientific breakthroughs, and furthers knowledge about space as space exploration has grown in interest. The spacecraft recently put its touch-and-go sample acquisition mechanism to use on Bennu’s northern hemisphere on Tuesday, October 20. NASA officials say that this moment was to go down in history. 

Universities Took Billions in Unreported Funds

Big name colleges such as Ivy Leagues Cornell and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have reportedly been accepting money from foreign governments. The U.S. government has become skeptical when it comes to what foreign governments have the ability to access, as concerns have grown that these universities are selling permissions to sensitive research, some of these permissions possibly including facial recognition data.

According to i24 News, the U.S. Department of Education has grown vocal on the topic, saying the universities have allowed foreign governments an unprecedented amount of permissions in an area that is often overlooked.

Studies and research have been done to bring up the data regarding the colleges involved. For example, MIT has held around eleven million dollars in contracts for specified studies from Chinese telecommunications company Huawei. There have been no comments from the colleges.

More Americans Renounce Citizenship

The United States is one of two countries in the world (the other is Eritrea) that uses citizen-based taxation. This means that U.S. citizens living in any country are taxed for their citizenship rather than the residence-based taxation that most countries use. 

According to the Washington Examiner, in the first half of 2020 nearly 6,000 people renounced their citizenship, mainly due to the high taxes. 

The term citizide has been deemed fit for this situation. Citizide rates are expected to increase as more U.S. citizens living abroad find the right choice for them financially.

Iran and Russia Seek to Influence 2020 Election

The U.S. government revealed October 21 that Russia and Iran have taken it into their hands to influence the public opinion for the 2020 presidential election. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe stated that he thinks the actions expected to be made by the Iranians and Russians are a desperate measure.

According to NPR, national security officials have come out to say that the two nations have gained access to voter rolls of some states, sending threatening emails in attempts to get people to vote for one candidate over the other. 

At this point national, security officials have said that the way to defend against the election interference is through informed voters.

Pizza Dough Recall

Portland Pie products were recalled following suspicious tampering with products involving metal objects. Hannaford Supermarkets are continuing to expand their recall; however, there has not yet been a company recall by the Food and Drug Administration.

According to FSN, it is unknown what is meant by the metal objects, whether they were nuts or bolts, or razor blades. 

Finding the answer to that question could change the outcome of the case; nuts and bolts could come off in the manufacturing process, while razor blades are more deliberate, especially in the food industry. 

Antioch Cross Country Places Third in NLCC

The Antioch Sequoits boys and girls cross country teams ran at the Northern Lake County Conference cross country meet on Saturday, October 17, at Eagle Acres in Lake Villa. The girls team placed third behind strong Lakes and Grayslake Central teams. The boys team placed sixth. 

According to a tweet by the Sequoits cross country coach Chris Bailey, the girls team earned the title of highest team finish in school history since joining the conference in 2016.

Both the boys and girls teams are entering the postseason this weekend with the IHSA regionals meet at Eagle Acres on Saturday, October 24. 

Tiger Hugging Tree Wins Photo Contest

Tigers are one of the rarest animals on the planet right now and being able to see one and capture its photo may not be easy. Sergey Gorshkov won the title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year for the photo he captured of a tiger hugging a tree.

According to BBC, the chair of judges loved the photo titled “The Embrace” for the lighting, exposure and colors that gave the appearance of an oil painting.

Gorshkov had to use a hidden camera to capture the shot. The camera stayed there for 10 months before the memory card was retrieved with the winning image.