Friday, March 25 top stories
It is Friday, March 25. Here are today’s top stories.
Manchin supports KBJ
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced this morning that he will vote in support of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. Manchin is a key swing vote in a split Senate. Axios said Manchin’s support “essentially guarantees” that Jackson will be confirmed to the court.
Teenager killed by Florida ride
In Orlando, a 14-year-old boy tragically fell to his death from a thrill ride on Thursday night. His name was Tyre Sampson. The ride is at ICON Park in Orlando. The ride looks like a large circular disk in which people are strapped on seats as it is raised about 400 feet up a steel tower before being dropped down at 75 mph. Tyre somehow got loose when it was going down and fell out as the ride was coming down. Tyre was from Missouri and was supposed to be an offensive lineman at East St. Louis High School this fall. There is an investigation into what went wrong.
Ginni Thomas texts
The Washington Post reported that Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, texted the then-President Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows at least 21 times in the time between the 2020 election and the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Ginni texted that Meadows needed to be supportive of Trump, that he needed to do something to overturn the election loss and that she suspected there was fraud.
Ginni texted several mentions of QAnon-related conspiracy theories of massive election fraud, such as machines rigging votes, theories that have since turned out to be false or worthless. Many texts were about this.
The New York Times said the texts “represent the first evidence that (Ginni) was directly advising the White House as it sought to overturn the election.” The texts have raised questions and concerns about Justice Clarence Thomas’ independence from the White House.
In separate news, Justice Thomas was released from a hospital today after a week-long treatment for a non-Covid infection and flu-like symptoms.
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300 killed in Ukrainian theater
Ukrainian government officials said about 300 people were killed in the Russian airstrike of a theater in Mariupol with 600 people surviving. This is the deadliest attack on civilians during the war. There were about 1,000 people inside of the building’s shelters when it was struck. There were large letters that said, “Children” in Russian on the floor outside of the theater, but it was still hit.
Ukrainian President Zelensky said at least 100,000 people are trapped in the city by encircling Russian troops and that they don’t have food, water, and medicine.
Trump sues Hillary
Former President Trump filed a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee, and multiple other people with the allegation that Hillary and others worked together to create a false narrative that Trump was colluding with Russia during the 2016 election. Trump said this was not true.
The lawsuit is 108 pages long and was filed in a federal court in Florida.
Microplastics in blood
Scientists at a university in the Netherlands tested blood samples from 22 donors and found that there were microplastics in 17 of them. It is the first time that microplastics have been detected in human blood. People can have the plastics in their body by food, water, or by breathing them in. The scientists said they are concerned about the plastics’ impact on human health, especially in babies and young children, and said more research is needed.
That is all the top stories for this week. Have a good weekend and stay with the light.
https://twitter.com/Sen_JoeManchin/status/1507352490722967558
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/24/virginia-thomas-mark-meadows-texts/
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/24/us/politics/ginni-thomas-trump-mark-meadows.html
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/ukraine-says-300-died-in-theatre-attack-hunger-grips-cities-1.5834124