Monday, August 15 top stories
It is Monday, August 15. Here are today’s top stories.
Man rams into US Capitol barrier, then kills himself
On Sunday early morning, a 29-year-old man crashed his car into a barricade near the U.S. Capitol. The man got out and began walking towards the Capitol. He fired a handgun into the air and then shot himself in the head. He died. The man’s vehicle caught on fire.
Capitol police said officers did not hear the man say anything and they have no information that would explain his motivation. The man was identified as Richard A. York and he was from Delaware. His mother said he was a good person but with a troubled past.
It is not known if the man was angry over the FBI search of Donald Trump’s home, but the location of the Capitol suggests that the man is angry at the government. It is possible that the man was angry at the Supreme Court over its decision to overturn Roe vs Wade because the crash location is near the Supreme Court.
In separate news, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin that warned of a spike in threats to federal law enforcement since the search of Trump’s home.
One year since Afghanistan withdrawal
Today is the one-year anniversary of the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s capture of the country. Over 80,000 Afghans evacuated to the U.S.
Today, the Taliban is still in power. Journalists with Axios said life has gotten worse for 40 people who live in Afghanistan. The country’s government has lost more than half of its normal revenue and outside aid groups have been cut off. Schools are still closed to most girls and young women after sixth grade.
ABC News said Taliban fighters marked the one-year anniversary by staging small victory parades on foot, bicycles, and motorcycles in the streets of the capital, Kabul.
NASA prepares test launch to Moon
NASA will start testing launches to the Moon this month to kick off its Artemis space program that aims to send astronauts into orbit around the Moon by 2024 and walk on it again by 2025.
NASA has scheduled an uncrewed launch of a new Space Launch System (SLS), a very powerful rocket that will carry the Orion capsule on it. The capsule will go into orbit around the Moon and remain in space for 42 days before returning to Earth.
NASA teams have been rehearsing the launch for three years. Teams of astronauts have been training what it’ll be like to work inside of the capsule and the conditions on the Moon. So the test launch will be a big first step into the Artemis program.
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Judge orders Sen. Lindsey Graham to testify
A federal judge said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) must testify before investigators in Georgia who are looking into potential crimes related to interfering in the 2020 presidential elections in the state.
Graham argued that he should be exempt from testifying because he is a high-ranking government official and that he has Constitutional rights to freedom of speech.
The lead investigator in Georgia is Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis. She said the senator made multiple calls to Georgia Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger and their staff to “reexamine certain absentee ballots” to make it more favorable for Donald Trump.
Today, D.A. Willis’ team notified Trump’s former attorney Rudy Giuliani that he is a target for criminal election interference.
Updates on Salman Rushdie attack
Salman Rushdie, the author who was attacked on Friday in upstate New York by a man with a knife, is now recovering in a hospital and is able to talk. His representative said he had an injured eye that he may lose, has a damaged liver, and severed nerves in an arm.
Rushdie is a controversial person because his book, “The Satanic Verses,” is considered to be blasphemous by some Muslims around the world. The book criticizes Islam and its prophet, Muhammad. In 1989, the Iranian government issued an order to kill him.
The suspected attacker was identified as Hadi Matar. He was charged with attempted murder and assault and pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors said Matar planned the attack because he got an advance pass to Rushdie’s lecture, arrived a day early, and used a fake ID with the goal of attacking him. The judge in the case ordered Matar held without bail.
Matar was born in the U.S. to immigrants from Lebanon and lived in New Jersey. Police said it’s not clear what his motive was, but a review of his social media accounts shows that he is “sympathetic to Shia extremism and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps causes.”
Study: U.S. will have an “Extreme Heat Belt”
Axios reported that a nonprofit organization that studies climate change has predicted that in 30 years, the Lower 48 of the U.S. will become a very hot and dangerous place during the summer.
The study predicted that there will be an “Extreme Heat Belt” that will form in the area from Texas to Wisconsin where the heat index could reach at least 125 degrees F at least one day a year.
Currently, about 8 million people in the U.S. are exposed to extreme heat, but in 30 years, that number will go up to about 107 million people in the “belt” area.
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That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/14/capitol-barricade-rammed-shots-fired/
https://www.axios.com/2022/08/14/afghanistan-us-withdrawal-anniversary-taliban-photos
https://www.axios.com/2022/08/15/afghanistan-taliban-us-withdrawal-anniversary
https://news.yahoo.com/systems-houston-nasa-prepares-return-012741983.html
https://www.axios.com/2022/08/15/extreme-heat-belt-global-warming