Hi West High and welcome to this week’s weekly news wrap-up! I’m your host, Audrey Parrish, and today I’ll be giving you an overview of what happened in the news this week, with something from West High, Iowa, the US, the world, and a little bit of wacky-fun news to top it all off. Let’s get started!

I hope you all enjoyed your day off yesterday! The district had been planning to use this day to have sessions to celebrate MLK day, so that students could learn about him and what he stood for. However, because school was canceled due to weather, this day will be made up at a later date.

On January 19, press advocates pushed Iowa Senate leaders to change a new policy that removed reporters from the senate floor onto a second-floor balcony where they could not interact with lawmakers. This limits the press’ ability to give a first-hand account of what happens in the Iowa Senate.

In US news, this Thursday was Biden’s one-year anniversary of being president. On Wednesday, Biden held a two-hour press conference where he discussed his first year as president and what policies he hopes to enact during the rest of his presidency. He admitted that his administration should have gotten COVID-19 tests out faster, but said they are working now to do everything that they can to make testing more available, saying “some people call this a new normal. I call it a job not-yet-finished.”

In world news, two Human Rights activists have been detained in China. Some think that these detentions could be related to the 2022 Winter Olympics, which has been facing criticism because of China’s Human Rights abuses. Many countries, including America, have joined a diplomatic boycott. These countries are still sending their athletes to the games, but are not sending a government official as they usually do.

And now for some weird fun news! Last Thursday Millie, a dog living in England, slipped out of her leash. After a four-day rescue effort, she was found near the coast at a time when the tides were rising, and she almost drowned. Millie kept evading rescue efforts from police, firefighters, and a nonprofit pet rescue group. Eventually, she was lured to safety with a sausage carried by a drone.

Thanks for watching and I’ll see you all next week!