Nakia Harmon 

International

On Oct. 16, Tanzania’s Supreme Court of Appeal confirmed an earlier ruling involving the banning of parents from marrying off their daughters from as young as the age of 15. According to the UN estimates, that with two out of five girls being married off before their 18th birthday, Tanzania has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world. The sections of Tanzania’s marriage act which allowed child marriage were declared “unconstitutional” by a high court ruling in 2016. As a result, the government raised the legal age of marriage to 18 years of age within a year. The high court ruling in 2016 resulted from a legal challenge by children’s rights activists who argued that girls were pressured into underage marriages by the existing laws. Claims that child marriages could protect unmarried girls who get pregnant were made by Tanzania’s attorney general in an appeal. According to the court documents seen by CNN, the Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed the attorney general’s appeal on Wednesday and asked Tanzania’s government to respect the previous ruling. Child marriage is not only an issue that is impacting Tanzania, but child marriage is a global issue that can be put to an end through the awareness of others.

https://theirworld.org/voices/campaign-to-end-child-marriage-in-tanzania-facts-about-early-marriage

National

Samantha Cornett

Large storms and tornadoes have swept across the United States from Arkansas to Texas this past week. The storm hit a tree that fell, leaving one dead in Arkansas. The tornado touched down near Love Joy airport in Dallas before moving north-east. According to numbers released by power company Oncor on Monday morning, the storms overall “left more than 95,000 people without power in Texas.” Although they had no power, there were no reports of death or serious injuries in Texas. 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/dallas-tornado-last-night-path-storm-texas-arkansas-oklahoma-aftermath-a9164971.html

National

Adelaide Barrett

Last April, actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman were accused of participating in a college admissions scandal. As the scandal progressed, Felicity Huffman pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 14 days in prison and 250 hours of community service. Lori Loughlin, her husband, and nine other parents involved in the scandal, however, pleaded not guilty. On Oct. 22, they were charged with conspiracy to commit federal program bribery. As a result, they face a maximum of 45 years in prison.

Local

Landon Wilde

There has been an explosion in the number of home and auto break-in reports in Fayette County. One home, one business, and three auto break-ins from Oct. 12-15. A guitar has been stolen out of a house as well as 11 tires from a local business. Several belongings such as medicine and a wallet have been taken from cars. Officers have been working on the cases since they happened but no information has come out yet about who is responsible.