Tuesday, December 7 top stories
It is Tuesday, December 7. Here are today’s top stories.
President Biden had a video call with Russian President Putin today. The main topic discussed was concerns with Ukraine. The U.S. is concerned about increasing levels of Russian troops along the border, while Putin wanted a promise from the U.S. to not allow Ukraine join NATO. The White House said Biden warned that if Russia escalates things with their military, the U.S. would respond with strong economic measures and other actions. The Washington Post said U.S. intelligence believes that Russia may be planning to invade Ukraine next year with a force of 175,000 troops. The Russian government said in the past that if the U.S. places weapons systems in Ukraine, it would breach a “red line.” So, clearly there are major concerns in the Eastern Europe region.
A car that belonged to a teenager that has been missing since 2000 was found underwater in a river in White County, Tennessee by a freelance diver who is also a YouTuber. The missing teenager’s name is Erin Foster and she was 18 at the time of the disappearance. She was last seen going to a party with a 17-year-old male named Jeremy Bechtel, who also went missing. The diver said he did some research and talked with police on where their car could possibly be, and when he dived into a river, he found the car about 12 feet underwater and covered with mud. The car was pulled out of the water and placed with a facility under the supervision of the White County Sheriff’s Office, who will now investigate the car and collect whatever evidence they can find. The sheriff said he believes it is possible that the two teenagers happened to run off the road and into the water. The sheriff is hoping for closure for the teenagers’ families.
A group of men with masks and sunglasses carrying shields and upside-down American flags was seen marching on the Lincoln Memorial over the weekend. The group is called Patriot Front and they were carrying a banner that said, “Reclaim America.” The men were dressed in identical blue shirts and khaki pants. News analysts said the group is considered a white nationalist hate group and is related to groups who protested during the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. There is not much more information on why this group marched last weekend and what they hope to achieve in the future, but it’s caused people to feel alarmed.
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The horse that won this year’s Kentucky Derby but failed a drug test afterwards, Medina Spirit, passed away on Monday due to a heart attack after a training session in California. The horse was 3 years old. There will be an operation on the horse to determine the cause of death and to get toxicology test results.
The CEO of an online mortgage company Better.com, Vishal Garg, laid off 900 employees during a Zoom call. A video of the call shows Garg saying, “If you are on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off. Your employment here is terminated effective immediately.” CNN Business said the 900 employees represented 9% of the company. The day before the call, the company received $750 million in cash from investors, so there was a lot of criticism against the company. But Garg said in an interview that the employees were unproductive, working only two hours a day, and “stealing” from other co-workers and customers.
The Department of Justice sued the state of Texas over its new electoral maps. The DOJ said Texas’ new congressional districts make it more difficult for Black and Latino voters. The DOJ said Texas has violated the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voting-related actions that discriminate on the basis of race.
The Guardian explained that 95% of Texas’ population growth over the last 10 years were composed of minority/BIPOC voters, but there are no new majority-minority districts in the new maps. The lawsuit accuses Texas Republicans of intentionally drawing districts to carve out minority-majority communities and attach them to rural, white-majority areas that typically lean conservative to dilute minorities’ voting power.
Texas’s attorney general said the lawsuit is “absurd” and an attempt from the Biden administration to control Texas voters.
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-putin-call-russia-ukraine-invasion-nato
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/medina-spirit-dies-kentucky-derby-winner/
https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/07/business/better-zoom-firing-employees/index.html