In the World

The civil war in Syria has led to the very first withdrawal of the Doomsday vault. The Global Seed Vault, also known as the Doomsday Vault, holds almost every known crop in the world contained in a frozen vault on the island of Svalbard. The vault is only meant to be opened whenever a catastrophic event will lead to the eventual extinction of a crop. This is such a case with Syria’s civil war. The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, one of the Crop Trust’s 11 global seed banks, has a gene bank in Aleppo, Syria has been facing many difficulties in the past years relating to the civil war. This has led to the center being in a critical and vulnerable state. ICARDA scientists need seeds from the vault to continue their decades of research in order to prevent any doomsday scenarios.

In the U.S.

Pope Francis made his first visit to the United States last week. Making stops to Washington, New York and Philadelphia, Pope Francis stayed for six days. During his stay he gave several speeches, held masses and prayer services, and met with many people. Pope Francis addressed topics such as sex abuse, money, and climate change. On his return back home, Pope Francis said that he was surprised by the warmth that was shown to him and the amount of devoutness of the faithful.

In Missouri

Petitions to ease the marijuana restrictions in Missouri are underway and will begin collecting signatures in the month of November. The petitions include easing restrictions in Columbia and legalizing marijuana for medical purposes in the entire state. Marijuana activist groups Show-Me Cannabis, Missouri NORML, Mid-Missouri NORML, MU NORML and the Missouri Civil Liberties Association will be leading the initiative with the hope to bring up these two issues on the November 2016 ballot.

In Kansas City

Kansas City is seeing a rise in Shigellosis, an infectious diarrheal disease that is caused by a group of bacteria called Shigella. On average there are 10 cases of Shigellosis for Kansas City, but this year numbers have spiked to 150 in less than half a year. Most of these cases come from elementary schools and daycares. Shigella spreads via direct or indirect fecal-oral contact, such as contaminated water from pools or poor food preperations. According to health department spokesman Bill Snook, there is an outbreak of Shinellosis every five years. Annually, the US sees 500,000 Shigellosis cases, according to the CDC.