Thursday, February 17 top stories
It is Thursday, February 17. Here are today’s top stories.
Bob Saget family wants to block death records
The family of Bob Saget has filed a lawsuit to block Florida authorities from releasing photos, videos, and other records related to Saget’s death in a Florida hotel room last month. The family said these records should only be released to them and kept private.
Saget’s family previously disclosed that he died in his sleep after accidentally hitting his head. An autopsy found that his skull had fractures and that there was a brain bleed. He was 65 years old.
Estimated 73% of U.S. immune to omicron
AP News reported that scientific experts estimate that about 73% of Americans are now immune to the omicron strain of the coronavirus. This is based on the number of Americans who have received vaccines and the amount of people who have contracted an infection and recovered. This is a positive development in the fight against the pandemic.
Here are international news briefs from Callie Frye.
Callie Frye: The border situation in Ukraine, as of the time I am signing this news, is constantly changing. I am focusing on other important things in the region that are also happening now.
Cyberattacks hit Ukrainian government sites, major banks
At least 10 Ukrainian websites were knocked offline and unreachable due to the cyberattacks on Tuesday, a number of government agencies including the defense, foreign and culture ministries and Ukraine’s two largest state banks – Privatbank and Sberbank.
An Ukrainian official said this cyberattack is the largest of its kind in the country's history. Most of Ukraine’s government sites are back online after a massive series of cyberattacks.
Russia’s parliament votes to recognize separatist regions in eastern Ukraine
Lawmakers in the Duma, the Russian parliament, on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly in favor of urging President Putin to recognize the independence of two areas in Ukraine that Russian is backing to break away from the country. The region in eastern Ukraine is in the Donbas region; Donetsk and Luhansk.
If President Putin recognizes the independence of these regions from Ukraine, the move could justify a Russian incursion because it’s no longer considered a Ukrainian territory. Although Russia and Ukraine signed the Minsk process in 2014 and 2015 guaranteeing the regions would remain part of Ukraine, they disagreed for years over the Minsk accords.
So far there is no sign of how Putin would respond.
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Kremlin critic Navalny faces new trial, this time in prison
Alexei Navalny, the jailed Russian opposition leader and President Vladimir Putin’s longtime foe, faces charges of embezzlement and contempt of court that could extend his time in jail by 15 years.
His allies denounced the case as an effort by the Kremlin to keep Navalny, the anti-corruption crusader, in prison for as long as possible. They said they also believed the trial was deliberately scheduled to coincide with the crisis to divert attention away from his case.
Authorities moved the trial to the prison colony hours away from Moscow. The move received criticism for effectively limiting access to the proceedings for the media and supporters.
US says Russia still building up troops, despite claims of withdrawal
The U.S. said Russian forces massed along Ukraine’s borders have increased by approximately 7,000 troops in recent days. President Joe Biden cited in a televised address earlier this week saying the new estimates would place the number of Russian forces encircling Ukraine, Belarus and along Ukraine’s border, to be more than 150,000 troops. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, “So far, we do not see any sign of de-escalation on the ground — no withdrawals of troops or equipment.”
Biden warns of invasion again
Thank you, Callie for these briefs. The situation in Eastern Europe is rapidly changing. Today President Biden said once again that he believes Russia will invade Ukraine.
Canada defeats U.S. to win gold in women’s hockey
The Canadian women’s ice hockey team defeated the U.S. to win the gold medal in the Beijing Olympics. The score was 3-2. The U.S. were defending gold medal holders from the 2018 Olympics, and that championship now belongs to Canada. ESPN said this was the sixth time the two teams met each other in the Olympic gold medal match with Canada winning four of them.
Shark attack victim identified
The man who was killed by a great white shark in Australia on Wednesday has been identified as Simon Nellist, a 35-year-old British diving instructor and a former member of the Royal Air Force. He was in the water to train for a charity swim. He was attacked about 500 feet from the coast. His family said they are grieving and that everything Simon did in life was connected to the ocean. The attack was seen by multiple witnesses and someone filmed a part of the attack on a cell phone video. Australian authorities said they are searching for the shark but haven’t sighted a shark.
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/saget-family-sues-1.6353623
https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/02/14/bob-sagets-autopsy-sparks-new-questions-conspiracy-theories/
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/15/world/europe/ukraine-cyberattack.html
https://apnews.com/article/europe-russia-vladimir-putin-moscow-ceba38143433cb9fa51fdcbdf0ff5dda
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/15/world/europe/alexsei-navalny-russia-court.html
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/16/politics/russian-troops-biden-administration/index.html
https://nypost.com/2022/02/17/australia-shark-attack-victim-idd-as-engaged-diving-instructor/