Monday, March 21 top stories
It is Monday, March 21. Hope your weekend was good. Here are top stories from the weekend and today.
Confirmation hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson
Today Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who is President Biden’s nominee to the Supreme Court, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to begin her confirmation hearings, which is expected to last four days. Today is the opening statements portion, while questioning will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Jackson is the first Black female nominee to the Supreme Court. In her opening statements, she honored her parents who experienced “lawful racial segregation first-hand,” recognized her two daughters, aged 21 and 17, and vowed to carry on the spirit of the outgoing justice she may replace — Stephen Breyer.
Jackson needs at least 50 senators’ votes to get to the Supreme Court. There were several rallies outside of the Capitol in support of Jackson, giving her an abbreviated name, “KBJ.”
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas hospitalized
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was taken to the hospital on Friday due to an infection and flu-like symptoms. A spokesperson said he didn’t have Covid-19. The justice was given antibiotics and should make a full recovery soon. He is 73 years old and has been on the Supreme Court since 1991.
Plane crash in China
In southern China, a Boeing 737 passenger plane with 132 people in it tragically crashed in mountainous terrain. The plane was operated by China Eastern Airlines. As of this morning, we do not know if there are any survivors. It is not clear what caused the plane to crash. The plane was in contact with emergency services for some reason but lost contact around 2:19 p.m. local time and suddenly descended from around 30,000 feet to almost 4,000 feet in three minutes. Videos on social media showed the plane diving straight down from the sky and a large burning, smoking area in a mountainous forest. Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered an investigation into what caused the accident.
Arkansas car show shooting
On Saturday night in Arkansas, during a car show, two people got into a gunfight with bullets flying into a crowd of people. A 23-year-old male bystander was killed and 27 people, including six children, were injured. Law enforcement said they are looking for two suspects. An eyewitness said she saw one man punching another man before one of them pulled out a handgun and started shooting.
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Four U.S. Marines die
Four U.S. Marines who were flying an Osprey military aircraft in Norway during NATO training exercises were killed when the aircraft crashed. It is not known what caused the Osprey to crash, but the Marines were training in bad weather. Military officials said the training exercises had nothing to do with the Ukraine war and were routine.
Ukraine war updates
Here are updates on the war in Ukraine.
Russian President Putin gave a rally-like speech in a stadium on Friday night to mark the eighth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Putin praised the “special operation” in Ukraine and said it was necessary because the U.S. was using Ukraine to threaten Russia.
Ukrainian President Zelensky gave a virtual address to Israeli lawmakers on Sunday. He criticized Israeli Prime Minister Bennett of trying to mediate between Ukraine and Russia without clearly taking the side of Ukraine. Zelensky said you can’t mediate between good and evil and said there are historical parallels between the Nazi holocaust and the Russians’ desire to destroy the Ukrainian people.
The Russian military made a demand for Ukraine’s troops in Mariupol to lay down their weapons and surrender before they would allow civilians out of the city with a 5 a.m. deadline today, but Ukrainian leaders refused to surrender. The city of Mariupol, in southern Ukraine and on the coast of the Black Sea, has been surrounded by Russian forces for many days and has been one of the most heavily bombed cities. The latest is that an art school with 400 people inside of it seeking shelter was bombed.
In Kyiv, a shopping center was destroyed by a Russian missile strike with at least eight people killed.
The U.N. said 10 million Ukrainians have fled their homes since the Russian invasion began last month. That means about 1/4 of the entire Ukrainian population has moved to another city within the country or have crossed borders.
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/live-updates/?id=83532151
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/20/us/arkansas-car-show-shooting-dumas.html
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/21/china/china-plane-crash-guangxi-intl-hnk/index.html
https://twitter.com/DechengDu/status/1505874016845938691
https://www.axios.com/russia-mariupol-art-school-db9baeb5-7b26-4862-89d3-32cd3ab222ef.html