Friday, April 22 top stories
It is Friday, April 22. Here are today’s top stories.
Mike Tyson punches passenger on airplane
Boxing star Mike Tyson was seen on a video published by TMZ punching a male passenger on a JetBlue flight on Wednesday night.
The video shows that prior to the fight, the passenger was in a row behind Tyson and seemed to be overly excited. He tried to talk to Tyson, who sat silently and ignored him. The video didn’t show exactly what happened right before the fight.
Tyson said the passenger was aggressive and harassing and threw a water bottle at him. There were no charges against either man after the flight.
The passenger, Melvin Townsend III, has hired an attorney and may take legal action. News reports said Townsend has an extensive criminal history and in 2019 was labeled as a “habitual felony offender” by a court. To be fair, Tyson has a criminal history too, but most of it is from decades ago.
Supreme Court says residents of Puerto Rico cannot receive SSI
The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 to uphold a federal law that says U.S. citizens who live in Puerto Rico cannot receive SSI benefits that are given to low-income elderly, blind, deaf, or disabled people. The reasoning is because residents of Puerto Rico are exempt from paying most federal taxes. The exemption means they can’t get SSI.
The Supreme Court was considering a case of a U.S. citizen born in Puerto Rico who moved to New York and started collecting SSI benefits due to an illness. He later moved back to Puerto Rico but continued to receive SSI benefits and when the government discovered it, they sued the man to recover about $28,000 in benefits paid.
The court’s 8-1 vote means that the man lost his case and will have to repay.
“The Hill” explained that Puerto Rico has its own aid program but the average monthly payments are $75.
The Supreme Court’s 8-1 decision caused some controversy because there are people who believe that U.S. citizens who live in Puerto Rico should get SSI benefits.
McCarthy’s call with Cheney
An audio recording released last night on MSNBC reveals that four days after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif) said in a phone call with Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo) that he was thinking of calling President Trump to urge him to resign. McCarthy said in the call that he believed that Trump would be impeached and possibly be convicted by the Senate for inciting an insurrection. So McCarthy was thinking of urging Trump to resign.
The audio recording is unexpected because McCarthy has been viewed as being extremely loyal to Trump and because McCarthy and Cheney have become political enemies after the January 6 incident. So it was surprising that McCarthy shared his thoughts with Cheney about Trump resigning.
News reports said both McCarthy and Trump had a phone call today after the audio recording was released. The reports said Trump wasn’t angry but was grateful that McCarthy did not actually ask him to resign.
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Over 1 million African children receive first malaria vaccine
The World Health Organization said over one million children in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi have received at least one dose of the first anti-malaria vaccine called RTS,S.
News reports say that around 90% of the world’s malaria cases are recorded in Africa.
Malaria is a parasite that enters humans through mosquito bites. It causes serious fever-like symptoms and kills about 260,000 children a year.
WHO Director-General Ghebreyesus said the RTS,S vaccine demonstrates the power of science and innovation for health and will change lives for families across Africa.
Marjorie Taylor Greene in court
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga) appeared in a federal court in Atlanta to testify about whether she was involved with or had foreknowledge of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
A group of Georgia voters filed a lawsuit seeking to block Greene from running for re-election, accusing her being disqualified because she violated the 14th Amendment by being “engaged in an insurrection or rebellion.”
Greene testified that she didn’t know about any plans to violently or noisily disrupt Congress’ proceedings to certify electoral votes for Joe Biden’s victory on Jan 6. Greene said she had to evacuate during the riot and was a victim.
Those who sued Greene said she made several statements that showed she supported the rioters, such as a statement she said on January 5 that “this is our 1776 moment.”
The hearing was still going on at the time of signing this news. The judge will have to determine whether Greene should remain on the ballot or not.
Russia wants to control southern Ukraine and Donbas region
A top Russian general said in a statement that his objective in the war in Ukraine is to achieve full control of southern Ukraine and the Donbas region in the east. This means that Russia is not going to back off from the war anytime soon, although they did withdraw from the Kyiv region. These troops have been repositioned into Ukraine’s south and east.
Russia already controls Crimea from its annexation in 2014 and if they achieve full control of southern Ukraine, then they can have a land corridor to Crimea.
UK PM Boris Johnson said it is possible that the war in Ukraine could continue until the end of next year.
That is all the top stories for this week. You all have a good weekend and stay with the light.
https://www.axios.com/tape-mccarthy-trump-resign-jan-6-a98e1dc8-4674-46cf-b09f-e9fe27017da1.html
https://twitter.com/GOPLeader/status/1517164322782433287
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61188943
https://www.tmz.com/2022/04/22/mike-tyson-victim-lawyer-lawsuit-overly-excited-fan-excessive-force/
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-testifies-oath-jan/story?id=84219632