Featured image: (Pacer Graphic / Darby Self)

“In the News” is an event hosted at the Paul Meek Library at UT Martin every Wednesday at 4 p.m. The point of the event is to engage students in thoughtful, thought-provoking discussion regarding current events.

The current events can be local, regional or global.

“In the News” starts by presenting a globe with multiple pinpoints highlighting areas of hot-topic discussion. The host of the event is Johnnie LaDue, Ph.D., an assistant professor and information literacy librarian at UT Martin. LaDue started with events from east to west on the screen and opened the forum to discussion with the participants.

The first event discussed was the torrential snowfall in Japan that killed 30 people. Authorities said 35 people have died and nearly 400 people were injured in snow-related incidents across Japan since Jan. 20. Most of the deaths came from citizens trying to clear the snowfall from their roofs. Officials say incidents reported over the past two weeks have occurred in the areas near the Sea of Japan, which are experiencing heavy snowfall due to cold air masses traveling North from the Arctic.

The next topic was another natural disaster. There was record flooding in the Mozambique region of Africa, where nearly a million people were affected by this rain. It was reported that heavy rains and overflowing rivers have resulted in flooding. Authorities say that this is some of the worst flooding in decades, with more than 150 people killed and an estimated 800,000 people affected in the southern and central provinces of Mozambique, according to Al Jazeera. 

Next, gunmen in Nigeria, believed to be Islamic extremists, killed dozens of people in western Nigeria. According to ABC News, local officials said at least 162 people were killed in the Tuesday attack. Nigeria is currently facing fights with dozens of local armed groups, increasingly battling for areas, including Islamic sects like Boko Haram.

Then the globe spun to Iran, where President Trump has threatened the country with a fleet of aircraft carriers larger than the ones he sent to Venezuela last month. President Trump has taken this step with the hopes of taking over Iran’s nuclear program. Trump removed the United States from the original nuclear deal during his first term.

Among issues covered in last week’s edition of “In the News,” there have been developments on the conflict in Israel and Hamas. Israel continues to bomb Gaza, as well as expanding to the West Bank. According to Al Jazeera, over 2,700 families were wiped out during the genocide in Gaza. To combat this, Donald Trump has instituted the Board of Peace. The chairman of the Board is Donald Trump himself, and he elected several other officials to work alongside him to meet in Washington, D.C. to begin reconstruction plans in Gaza.

In local news, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is now handling the shooting case of Weakley County Deputy Derrick Bonham. According to an affidavit, Krihsti Cunningham, the woman responsible for the killing of the deputy, made an alleged ‘shots fired’ call to the Days Inn hotel in the 800 block of University Street. She then traveled to the Shell Pockets Gas Station, and at around 3 a.m., had an encounter with the police, at which point she opened fire, killing Deputy Bonham.