Weekly Roundup: October 18—25

The Weekly Roundup by GWCD is a collaboration between members of the news & blog committee to compile three main headlines from the week. As one of the goals of the committee is to keep our GWCD community updated on current events, the Weekly Roundup is intended as an easy way for members to read up on the highlights from each week in addition to the articles published regularly by our members.

U.S. COVID-19 cases hit all time high last Friday

By Abby Osborne

As of Friday,The U.S. has hit a record high of more than 83,000 confirmed daily COVID-19 cases data from Johns Hopkins University shows. The last record high was in mid-July with more than 77,000 confirmed daily COVID-19 cases.

In addition to the aforementioned figure, the data showed that there were a recorded 942 deaths that same Friday.

Since the afternoon of October 24, a New York Times database reports more than 8,584,100 cases of COVID-19 with at least 225,400 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

Crisis and Violence in Nigeria

By Manuel Wallick

Violence in Nigeria has escalated throughout the country in recent days in response to the SARS police units. These police units, called “Special Anti-Robbery Squads” as well as ensuing violence have sparked both domestic and international outrage. These units were originally created to fight kidnapping and other violent crimes but instead resulted in police brutality and many of the same crimes they were created to fight.

After outcries by the Nigerian people, the units were disbanded, but the officers remain employed. The protests have since evolved into a larger movement that seeks other police and government reforms. The country's president has called for an end to the protests and a return to peace, but said that protesters should accept the reforms that have already been made. People have not responded to this and have continued to protest throughout the country. While the protests have largely been peaceful, the government response has not been, and the situation has escalated with the government trying to suppress the movement. Dozens have been killed so far with one of the worst incidents being when soldiers reportedly opened fire on a crowd in Lagos. Leaders around the world have condemned the violence in Nigeria, but protests are likely to continue.

GOP Voter Suppression Efforts in Texas

By Jack Castanoli

The once-red wall that was the Republican south is breaking: Georgia is a swing state, and for the first time in recent history, the Republican juggernaut of Texas is in play for Democrats. That is the story the polls are showing, but the Republican establishment in the state is doing everything in its power to ensure that Democrats are not able to make inroads in the state.

Vote-by-mail has gained popularity this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but in response to the Postal Service’s financial troubles, many voters are opting to drop off their ballots at drop off locations across the country. Texas Governor Greg Abbot — a Republican — ordered all counties in the state to limit the ballot drop off box locations to one per county. In essence that means that the 4.7 million residents of Harris County — which encompasses the Democratic stronghold of Houston — will have only one ballot drop off box location, as will the extremely sparsely populated counties.

Further, the state only allows those over 65 to even register for an absentee ballot, while the rest of the population must cite a disability. Abbot and other staunch state Republicans cite voter fraud as the reason for such strict measures, despite the lack of evidence for voter fraud around the entire country.

The lone star state is resting at a crossroads with Democrats seeing an opportunity to win the state, and Republicans doing everything in their power to suppress the vote and ensure their victory time and time again.