Unexpected and Historical British Election

An unexpected landslide victory and the youngest diplomat in Britain since 1667 highlight the most recent election of the United Kingdom.

In what mock poles had deemed to likely be a very tight election, the results came as a surprise to the Labour Party when they had lost the Prime Minister Election and lost seats in the House, meaning they would not have majority control. The Conservative Party was victorious on all fronts, David Cameron being voted in as Prime Minister and claiming 331 of the 650 the seats in the House of Commons. That is a 24 seat increase for the Conservatives from the last election of 2010.

The Scottish National Party had adequate representation as well, including Mhairi Black who at only 20 years old, is the youngest lawmaker in British government since 1667. Black hopes to be a leading figure in removing the Labour Party's influence in her home country, ultimately gaining their independence. Given the huge set back that this election proved to be for Labour, Scottish independence may arrive sooner than she had originally planned.

Conservative Party

Scottish National Party

The March on Washington

Dr. Martin Luther King is credited with leading one of the largest and most influential protests during the Civil Rights Movement, known as the March on Washington. King had a difficult time getting the march to ever even happen with opposition coming from many, sometimes surprising sources.

Dr. King had an adversary very early on in Eugene Bull Connor, who seemed hell-bent on maintaining segregation in all establishments across the country. More specifically, Connor wanted to end King's desegregation speech in particular.

The cause seemed to be lost after MLK was thrown into jail, being that he could not conduct any of the business or protests needed in order to form the march. However, due to the protests of many teenagers, the Civil Rights Movement was given new life.

Dr. King was influenced by A. Phillip Randolph during the early days of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, who originally had the idea of a march of some sort in Washington. Year's later, this influence, along with the fact that the white turnout to his speeches were rising rapidly, led Dr. King to believe a march in Washington was necessary.

Once King was able to go through with his famed protest and speech, the national dialogue of America immediately demanded a change. It surely is, if not the most, one of the most important events of the Civil Rights Era.

Advanced Airport Security Causes More Questions

Students at Northeastern University are working on a multitude of new products made with the purpose of shortening airport security wait times, but not without question.

Their main project seems to be a device that could notify TSA officials of the exact moment when someone walks through a security exit the wrong way, flagging the person as well for easier tracking. It would do this by scanning their face, stature, clothes, and other unique aspects that could be helpful in finding the target.

Prior to the invention of this new technology, TSA agents were forced to close down entire terminals, or even whole airports in order to find their perpetrator, in turn canceling flights and drastically lowering the productivity of the airport as a unit.

Of course, there are questions being raised about if and how this could begin to infringe on the rights of citizens. The possibility of face recognition technology had Kade Crockford, director of the Technology for Liberty project of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, wary of the possibility that they could simply scan faces to get all of the information there is to know about certain individuals within the airport. She warns that if this technology were to be developed and used in an airport, it would be inevitable for it to take to other locations.

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NSA Court Ruling Shocks All

Many people on both sides of the argument were shocked at the news that a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals in the Second Circuit ruled the NSA's bulk collection of phone records as illegal.

The news struck Senator Mitch McConnell particularly hard, as he has been one of the main proponents for maintaining the original legislation of the Patriot Act, which was what called for these massive phone record collections initially.

The House looks to be ready to pass a bill called the USA Freedom Act that would further combat the harboring of these phone records. Under this new law, the NSA would still have the ability to analyze phone calls, but would not own them in bulk. The phone companies would keep these records and freely be able to dispose of them after 18 months, which is much shorter than the 5 years in which the NSA currently keeps their calls on file.

Surprisingly, Thursday's ruling was not influenced by the ACLU's argument that harboring phone records in bulk is unconstitutional.

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Klansville, USA

During the latter half of the Civil Rights Movement, what had become one of the most progressive states in the south was set back by a new resurgence of the Klan.

Bob Jones, a North Carolina native, took advantage of a lack of political representation for white citizens of the state who weren't as well off as others. These people weren't used to the idea of being socially equal with African Americans, claiming that this occurrence was ruining the American way of life. He added to his arsenal when he recruited George Dorsett to preach at his rallies, giving his message a Christian backing which was a very powerful asset to such a religious state. These rallies would often lure some of the attendees into becoming a part of the Klan.

In just 3 years, Jones had managed to grow the Klan from only a few members to a group that was more than 10,000 strong, more than any of the other states with Klan members combined. His main goal was for the Klan to become a powerful political voice in the legislation of the United States, possibly preventing and even reversing the early steps toward integration.

Jones used many non-physically violent yet intimidating methods to impose his group on the communities, including Klan marches and cross burnings. He was aware of how much more the Klan could do if they portrayed a seemingly non-violent stance, unlike other state's Klans. Unlucky for Jones, one such act of violence in Alabama, the murder of a civil rights worker, forced the federal government to investigate the Klan and their acts.

The North Carolina government felt the need to intervene as well by interfering with rallies and preventing them from even happening. By 1966, Jones was sentenced to a year in prison, and the numbers of the North Carolina Klan had dwindled back into insignificance.

Ebola Declared Dead in Liberia

After more than 4,000 deaths by the hand of Ebola, it is finally considered dead itself in the country of Liberia.

The last confirmed case was on the 27th of March meaning that it has been 42 days. This is important because in order for the WHO to declare a disease as "dead" within a country, there must be no more confirmed deaths for double the incubation period of the specific disease.

According the officials dealing with the epidemic, huge strides have been made in the months since the initial hysteria that worried the nation. With that being said, much still must be done to fully eliminate the disease in West Africa, as it still resides in places like Sierra Leone and Guinea.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is so ecstatic about the news that she plans on taking to the streets with a victory parade to thank health care workers and those in the community who helped to work so diligently.

Even though the disease has been removed from Liberia, the effects of the epidemic have crippled the country's already feeble economy.

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North Korean Threats

North Korea claims to have successfully tested a ballistic missile from a submarine last Saturday.

This is the first test of which American officials are aware, even though it has been suspected that North Korea has been developing such a missile for quite some time. For the countries most worried of the possibility of incoming North Korean projectiles (Japan, South Korea, and the United States), this poses a new threat, given that missiles fired from submarines tend to be more difficult to detect as well as intercept. This new factor gives the potential for much more mobility, flexibility, and secrecy in attacks from North Korea against these countries.

Evidence of preparation for this test can be seen as far back as December of 2012 when North Korea successfully launched a long range rocket to put a satellite into space. It is believed that the true purpose of that launch was to test the effectiveness of their long range missile in reaching targets as far away as the continental United States.

News of this came as a surprise to South Korean military officials due to their expectations that it would take the North many years to develop such technology. However, within recent months there have been a number of warning signs, such as the fact that there have been supposed land-based tests of a submarine ejector launcher in the city of Sinpo.


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