BERNIE SANDERS WINS WEST VIRGINIA—
West Virginia held their democratic primaries on Tuesday, May 10 and Bernie Sanders won in a landslide with 51 percent of the vote to Hillary Clinton’s 36 percent. The win gives Sanders a five delegate advantage in the Mountain State, and he has won back to back primaries after his surprise win in Indiana. The win doesn’t do much to cut into Hillary’s commanding delegate lead, but he is expected to win this month’s remaining primaries in Kentucky and Oregon which will be held on May 17. Sanders win is similar to those of his in the past, as he has typically dominated primarily white states so far in this election.
LONDON ELECTS SADIQ KHAN AS NEW MAYOR—
The second week of May saw the election of Sadiq Aman Khan as the new mayor of London, the third to hold that political title since its creation in 2000 after the London devolution referendum. After receiving a record highest number of votes in UK history, Kahn officially took up office on May 9 on a ballot of “affordable housing, transport infrastructure and fares, the NHS, the need for real neighbourhood policing and pro-business policies.” Kahn’s rising popularity in both the Labour and Tory parties has positively affected his election and potentially his ability to change the political sphere in the new position.
PRESIDENT OBAMA TO VISIT HIROSHIMA—
President Barack Obama has announced plans to visit Hiroshima, Japan, the site where the United States first dropped an atomic bomb at the end of World War II. The visit will make him the first sitting president to visit the historic space and may help to further solidify and coda the two countries’ relationship reversal that followed the war’s end. Both American and Japanese officials stressed that the president’s stopover is not an apology for the bombing, which killed more than 100,000 people and impacted an entire generation. Instead, it will offer a forward-looking vision focused on the nations’ shared futures.
STEPHEN CURRY UNANIMOUSLY WINS M.V.P. VOTE—
On Tuesday, Stephen Curry became the first N.B.A. player in history to win the Most Valuable Player award on a unanimous vote. All 131 voters chose him as the M.V.P., meaning he received more votes than Lebron James, Magic Johnson or Michael Jordan ever did. He won the same award last season with 100 out of 130 total votes. This season was a record-breaker for Curry; he made 402 3-point shots and led the Golden State Warriors of Oakland, Calif. to an all-time best 73-9 record. On Monday night, he came back from an injury and won 40 points against the Portland Trailblazers. Only two players before Curry—Lebron James and Shaquille O’Neal—came within a single vote of a unanimous M.V.P. award.
QUESTIONS OF DRIVERS’ RIGHTS RAISED—
After the settlement of a California class action suit against Uber last week, concerns are being raised over the continued efforts to promote labor rights in Uber and similar companies. The settlement itself calls for the company to pay drivers as much as $100 million and make other concessions such as regular meetings with associations. Yet in Seattle, this development has raised issues with the recent ordinance calling for the unionization of such workers. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is suing to block the ordinance from taking effect. Though some support this action, seeing the Californian concessions as a starting step, others still believe that unionization is the only way to solve key issues such as wages. Both these developments are still in flux, and coming months of judicial deliberation as well as grassroots action will decide the fate of these workers.
NC SUED OVER BATHROOM LAW—
North Carolina and the US Justice Department are in the middle of a lawsuit battle regarding laws that determine who may use different bathrooms. Earlier in the year, NC passed a law that said that no one could use the bathroom that did not match their assigned gender at birth. This decision was met with intense outcry and pushback from critics who said that this was discrimination against transgender people. The US Justice Department stated that this was in violation of civil rights laws, and expected NC to respond by this week. The state’s reaction was to sue the Justice Department, who in turn, sued them back. Moving forward, this battle could result in NC losing ample federal funding, and the state setting a precedent for their relationship with transgender rights.
