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Thursday, March 28, 2024
The independent student publication of The University at Buffalo, since 1950

News briefs: What to know locally, nationally and globally

Campus

President Tripathi and Johnson urge local congress members to oppose federal research cuts

UB President Satish Tripathi, along with President and CEO of Roswell Park Cancer Institute Candace Johnson, pushed for those in the Western New York congressional delegation to fight a cap on federal spending on costs that are critical to conducting research, according to UB Now.

The Trump Administration is looking to cap spending on Facilities and Administrative costs by 10 percent in their 2018 budget proposal.

In the letter sent to Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and representatives Brian Higgins and Chris Collins, Tripathi and Johnson said capping these costs is “not only detrimental and debilitating to future research but also shuts off the lights in the labs we have now and ends clinical trials on lifesaving drugs for millions of people.”

Students thrive at Global Innovation Challenge

In the second annual Global Innovation Challenge, team United Youth came in first out of five groups who presented ideas. The event is a weeklong workshop where ideas are supposed to be addressed to refine and develop a certain global health issue, according to UB Now.

Two of the four group members, freshmen Hemanta Adhikari and Pemba Sherpa, are refugees from Nepal. Rosy Zel, also a freshman, is an immigrant from Myanmar. Nicole Little, who graduated this year from UB, proposed a social support network for high-school aged refugees who reside in Buffalo.

“Our main goal is to facilitate a two-tier, social-support structure for newly arrived high school-aged refugees in order to improve both short-term health needs and positively influence long-term health needs,” Zel said.

Local

Pride Week celebrated in Buffalo 

Sunday’s Pride Parade concluded a successful Pride Week in Buffalo. The Pride Parade, which is held on Elmwood Avenue, was followed by the Pride Festival at Canalside. The two events alone drew a crowd of about 10,000 people, according to The Buffalo News.

The events preceding the Pride Parade included a flag raising on Tuesday, and a Gay 5k on Thursday. Teenagers from dozens of schools representing Gay-Straight Alliance groups from more than two dozen local high schools led the parade.

McKinley high school student Bishop Elliott drew much attention, due to his recent legal battle paving the way to McKinley creating their first ever Gay-Straight Alliance after school club.

U2 possibly coming to Buffalo

Unconfirmed reports about U2 coming to Buffalo have surfaced from their fan-based site tours.atu2.com, according to The Buffalo News. The site suggested that the Irish rock band would be announced four additional shows, one of which would include Buffalo. One of the sites that would seem likely to hold the concert would be New Era Field, which also recently was the venue for One Direction and The Rolling Stones. The current rumored date for the concert to be held is September 5.

National

Five killed in Orlando workplace by ex-employee

A man shot and killed five people Monday before killing himself in a town near Orlando, Florida. The man was a former employee who had been fired, according to The New York Times. Three men and a woman were found dead on site due to gunshot wounds. The fifth person died later in the hospital due to gunshot wounds.

The ex-employee suspected of the shooting, a 45-year old male who was previously fired from the business in April, shot and killed himself before law enforcement arrived.

“Over the past year, the Orlando community has been challenged like never before,” Gov. Rick Scott of Florida said in a statement.

This tragedy comes almost a year after the horrific Orlando nightclub shooting.

Trump won’t block Comey from testifying 

White House officials announced on Monday that President Donald Trump would not enforce his executive privilege to stop former FBI director James Comey from testifying before congress this week, according to The New York Times. 

Comey is scheduled to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday. This will be the first public discussion of the events leading to Comey being fired last month and one of the main focuses will be to discuss the reports that President Trump tried to persuade Comey to shut down an investigation regarding Michael Flynn.

Comey was fired on May 9 while the FBI was looking into relationships between Russia and members of Trump’s associates.

“The president’s power to assert executive privilege is well established,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a White House spokeswoman said. “However, in order to facilitate a swift and thorough examination of the facts sought by the Senate Intelligence Committee, President Trump will not assert executive privilege regarding James Comey’s scheduled testimony.”

Global

Trump exits Paris Agreement

President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement on June 1. The agreement was part of an international effort to reduce emissions and fight global warming.

Trump’s stated reason for leaving the agreement is he believes the terms are “unfair” to the U.S. and it was negotiated poorly when the U.S. first entered it. He said that remaining in the agreement kept the country at a huge economic disadvantage, and unfairly favored the other 195 countries who remain in it.

Trump did not rule out re-joining the Paris Agreement, and stated that he is willing to negotiate a deal that is better for American businesses and taxpayers.

The U.S. joins Nicaragua and Syria as the only other countries who are not part of the agreement.

London Bridge terrorist attack leaves seven dead, 48 injured

Seven people were killed, and 48 were injured after a van with three attackers drove their van into pedestrians on the London Bridge and then went on a knife attack, according to BBC. The van hit several people Saturday night before crashing near the Barrowboy and Banker pub at the south end of the bridge.

After, three men got out of the van and attacked several people with knives at Borough Market. All three attackers were shot dead by police less than ten minutes after people began to make emergency calls.

Two of the attackers have been identified as Khuram Shazad Butt, a 27-year-old British citizen born in Pakistan, and Rachid Redouane, a 30-year-old who claimed to be Moroccan and Libyan. 

Email: news@ubspectrum.com

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