A crowd surge at Astroworld leaves eight dead and hundreds injured
On Friday 5th November, over 50,000 people gathered in Houston, Texas for rapper Travis Scott’s two-day Astroworld festival, which would result in a disaster no one saw coming. Concerns about overcrowding were raised early in the day, with reports of people hopping turnstiles and fences in order to attend the sold-out festival without tickets. The show turned deadly when guests began pushing towards the front of the stage in a ‘crowd surge’ crushing some and reportedly leaving them unable to breathe. One commentator said, “This was not a concert, this was a fight for survival” and investigators are looking to determine why and how this surging crowd turned deadly.
Covid vaccine to be mandatory for all NHS staff
Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has announced that COVID-19 vaccines will be compulsory for all NHS staff in England from April. “They will have until spring to give them time to receive both vaccine doses, or risk losing their job”, the government has announced. The only people exempt from the mandatory policy will be those who do not have face to face contact with patients and those who have a medical exemption.
COP 26 draws to a close
Leaders from more than 100 world countries, representing about 85% of the world’s forests, promised to stop deforestation by 2030. A scheme to cut 30% of current methane emissions by 2030 has been agreed by more than 100 countries. More than 40 countries – which include major coal-users including Poland, Vietnam and Chile agreed to shift away from coal. Some 450 financial organisations, who between them control $130tn, agreed to back “clean” technology, such as renewable energy, and direct finance away from fossil fuel-burning industries. Despite only a few countries making their pledges legally binding, there is hope that as momentum towards net zero accelerates, it will encourage more countries to keep up.
