Democrat Leaders Walk Out
On Oct. 16, 2019, top democrats walked out of a meeting with President Donald Trump. The meeting was held to discuss the United States current situation in Syria, reported ABC News.
Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, was presenting to the president a recent vote within the House of Representatives. The vote was 354-60 on a resolution that criticized Trump’s withdrawal of troops from Syria.
In response to this, Trump is quoted as calling Pelosi a “third-rate politician.” ABC News also reported that he claimed Pelosi must like ISIS, a terror group has former communists as members.
Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader, told reporters after the event, “[Trump] was insulting, particularly to [Pelosi]. She kept her cool completely. But he called her a third-rate politician ... this was not a dialogue. It was sort of a diatribe, a nasty diatribe.”
This meeting was the first face-to-face encounter that Pelosi and Trump have had since her formal impeachment inquiry.
In response to the Democrats walking out of the meeting, Republicans told a different version of events. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy says that this is a pattern of behavior with Pelosi.
Professional Boxer Passes Away
Boxer Patrick Day passed away on Oct. 16, 2019. This comes four days after he sustained a traumatic brain injury during a boxing match, CNN reported. Day was 27 years old.
The match took place on Saturday night at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Ill. Day was knocked unconscious by his opponent Charles Conwell in the 10th round of their match. Day slipped into a coma after emergency surgery was performed; he never woke up, NBC News reported.
Lou Dibella, a boxing promoter, confirmed his death Wednesday evening in an online statement.
Dibella wrote, “[Day] was surrounded by his family, close friends and members of his boxing team.”
Conwell never meant for this to happen and wrote a letter on social media expressing his thoughts on the event.
“All I wanted to do was win,” Conwell wrote. “If I could take it all back, I would.”
Other tweets from Conwell urged his audience to keep Day and his family in their prayers. After releasing the letter, Conwell, 21 years old, said that this would be the last he would speak on the matter out of respect for Day.
Pig Populations Problems
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday, Oct. 16th, 2019 that U.S. authorities have started preparations for a deadly swine disease. The disease, African swine fever, has ravaged China’s pig population to the point where some consumers of pork products are switching to other meats.
CNN reported that pork in China now costs nearly 70 percent more than it did this time last year. With China being home to half of the pigs on the planet, having such a deadly disease rapidly spreading from pig to pig has farmers worried. Some are even weary of restocking pigs after they are slaughtered; farmers fear that the new herd will get infected.
The disease has begun to spread across Asia, and experts in the U.S. say that the most likely way for the disease to get state-side is through tainted meat, reported The Washington Post.
With reports of the disease in more than 50 countries, the U.S. pork industry has begun taking precautionary measures. Since there is no cure or vaccinations for the disease, it is imperative that the virus not reach North America.
