Politics, current events, and global issues can be quite confusing. More events are happening, and it’s hard to keep track.
Well, this is your one-stop shop. This is a breakdown of the political events that occurred in October.
Let’s start with the most recent events: The No Kings Protest.
Protests with millions of people in New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C came together to protest President Trump’s policies. There were around 2,600 ‘No King’ events and protests across the United States on Saturday.
There are signs with the slogans “Democracy not Monarchy” and “The constitution is not optional”.
However, President Trump responded to the large protests by stating himself “I’m not a king, I work my ass off to make this country great”.
While several states called the National Guard and police, the protests remained peaceful.
Next, the Government is shut down. As of October 21st, the government has been shut down for 21 days. That means that 1.4 million federal workers are on unpaid leave or continuing to work without pay.
The government has shut down because Congress disagrees with each other on whether or not to extend the ACA. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is used by 24 million people who don’t have access to healthcare or Medicaid. This system allows people to purchase health plans.
Republican Congressmen believe that extending the ACA will use American taxpayers’ dollars to pay for undocumented workers. Additionally, Democrats in the Senate are refusing to approve a short-term funding bill that excludes the healthcare benefits.
All of this adds to one government shutdown.
Chicago has had some military action. There are hundreds of National Guard Troops from Texas sent right outside Chicago to help crack down on immigration. There have been temporary living quarters for the troops on the Army Reserve Training Center. On October 17th, President Trump asked the Supreme Court to approve the National Guard being deployed to Chicago. The Justice Department, in response, asked the Supreme Court to block this approval on the grounds of the protests from local lawmakers.
The Trump Administration’s reasoning for the troops was “rebellion or danger of rebellion.”, in response to the new immigration protests.
Chicago- new military zone
On October 10th, there was a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza. But after two Israeli Soldiers were attacked and killed, the Israeli government sent airstrikes, killing 44 people. However, the ceasefire resumed after that. Vice President Vance, who is in Israel on October 21st, said “the ceasefire is in a very good place”.