5 Things that happened this week
October 11, 2015
- South Carolina’s weather disaster intensified early in the week, as the region faced what the National Weather Service called “mind-boggling rain amounts.” Though Hurricane Joaquin didn’t make landfall in the United States, edges of it combined with a low pressure system over South Carolina to cause the massive rain, widespread flooding, and 15 deaths.
- United States authorities pressed charges on Tuesday against six people in a United Nations bribery and corruption scheme, which allegedly involved millions of dollars in payoffs to John Ashe, former President of the United Nations General Assembly and former U.N. ambassador for Antigua.
- Coast Guard officials said Wednesday that they have halted their search for 33 survivors from El Faro, a cargo ship headed from Florida to Puerto Rico which disappeared last week near the Bahamas. The Coast Guard attributed the boat’s sinking to Hurricane Joaquin.
- Three scientists: Tomas Lindahl of Sweden, Paul Modrich of the U.S., and Aziz Sancar of the U.S. and Turkey, were awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for breakthroughs in describing how cells repair damaged DNA, research that has large implications in cancer treatment.
- House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy dropped out of the race to succeed Speaker of the House John Boehner on Thursday. The move has thrown the House into chaos, as Boehner is set to resign at the end of the month with no clear successor who can mend the deep divisions in the Republican party.
