5 Things that happened this week
Week of October 23
October 25, 2015
- The American Cancer Society (ACS) released mammogram guidelines on Tuesday, saying that women should begin annual breast cancer screening at age 45, up from the previous recommended age of 40. The recommendations, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, included research from a team of experts which found that regular mammograms in women aged 40 to 69 did reduce the number of breast cancer deaths.
- Vice President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that he won’t make a late entry into the Democratic Presidential race. Biden, 72, who said in September that the recent death of his son Beau was a large drain on his emotional energy, leaves Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton alone atop the party’s 2016 presidential candidates.
- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with Russian officials to discuss the Syrian conflict on Friday in Vienna, a meeting that comes during the same week as a visit to Moscow by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Mr. Kerry will voice concern over Russia’s air strikes against rebels in Syria and a need for a political transition in the war-torn country that would remove President Assad from power.
- President Obama vetoed legislation on Thursday that authorized $612 billion in military spending over the next year, only the fifth time the president’s career that he has used a veto. “This is the worst possible time for an American president to veto the national defense bill,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
- Hurricane Patricia is expected to remain a Category 5 hurricane when it makes landfall sometime Friday evening in the Mexican state of Jalisco. With 200-mph sustained winds, Patricia became the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere on Friday morning.
