Laughs at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
The annual White House Correspondents’ dinner was held this Saturday and featured many self-deprecating jokes by President Obama. The President also made jokes targeting many people in the government as well as the news media. Joel McHale, the star of “Community,” followed the President with his own roast of not only Obama but various other Washington players as well. Some in the media have said that both the President and McHale took a fairly mean tone with their jokes – Obama poked fun at the media’s early speculation concerning Hillary Clinton’s run for president and previous remarks concerning his birthplace by saying “Let’s face it Fox, you’ll miss me when I’m gone. It will be harder to convince the American people that Hillary was born in Kenya.”
U.S. to send team to search for Nigerian girls
The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it will dispatch military and law enforcement personnel to help locate the 300 girls that were abducted by the militant group Boko Haram three weeks ago. Boko Haram has threatened to sell the girls who were abducted from a school. Obama has announced that the immediate goal is to rescue the girls but that Boko Haram is also a group that has to be dealt with in the long term.
Over 2,100 confirmed dead in Afghanistan landslide
Officials have said that there is no more hope in finding survivors from the landslide in northeast Afghanistan that has left over 2,100 dead and 4,000 people displaced. It is expected that officials will designate the site of the landslide a mass grave. The focus has turned to helping those displaced by the landslide with President Hamid Karzai calling the event a “human tragedy” and asking Afghans and aid groups to assist those affected.
Uruguay launches marijuana market
The Uruguayan government has enacted the rules for its legal pot marketplace, opening the doors to recreational marijuana use. Uruguay is the first country to legalize recreational marijuana use and will rely on a state controlled and regulated marijuana market. Uruguayans can legally buy up to 40 grams of marijuana a month and can also choose to cultivate up to six plants. “The experiment,” as President Jose Mujica has called it, will be closely monitored by other nations, especially ones with drug problems like Colombia and Mexico. If all goes well, Uruguay may be joined by other nations in implementing more relaxed drug policies.
U.N. declares polio emergency
The United Nations’ World Health Organization declared the spread of polio an international health emergency on Monday. An outbreak of polio in at least 10 countries in Asia and Africa triggered the declaration. Pakistan, Syria and Cameroon have allowed the virus to spread outside their borders and the WHO has recommended that these countries more closely monitor who exits their countries to make sure they aren’t spreading the disease further. Two years ago the virus was near eradication, but now it faces possible proliferation if action is not taken.
The week ahead: U.S. heating up
With a new National Climate Assessment report released on Tuesday showing that the United States is already facing the consequences of global warming, responses from Congressional players as well as the White House are expected. The question is, will bipartisanship get in the way of further action? The issues is already split between party lines and with midterm elections creeping up, global warming is an issue that tends to be left out of representatives' talking points.