Wednesday, November 20, 2024
It is Wednesday, November 20, 2024. Here are today’s top stories.
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Guilty verdict in murder of Laken Riley
Jose Ibarra, a Venezuelan man who is an undocumented immigrant, was convicted of murdering a nursing student, Laken Riley, in court today.
The murder happened in February. Prosecutors said Riley was jogging on the University of Georgia campus when Ibarra attacked her. Prosecutors said Riley fought back and refused to be a rape victim and was murdered.
Police said it was a “crime of opportunity” where Ibarra saw an individual and bad things happened. One of the pieces of evidence is Ibarra’s DNA being found under Riley’s fingernails.
Ibarra was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Ibarra illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 and was allowed to stay in the U.S. while he pursued his immigration case. This case sparked a national debate on illegal immigration enforcement and was often brought up by Donald Trump as a reason to get tougher on this issue.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/laken-riley-suspect-guilty-murder/story?id=116030068
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Rep. Nancy Mace targets 1st trans member of Congress with restroom bill
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) introduced a bill to ban transgender women from using women’s restrooms at the U.S. Capitol and said it was meant to prevent Sarah McBride, who will be the first transgender member of Congress, from using the Capitol’s women restrooms.
McBride said on social media that this shows that far right-wing extremists have no real solutions to what Americans are facing.
Mace said she is a victim of abuse and is a rape survivor so she wants to stand in the way of any “man” who wants to be in a women’s restroom.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said this is an issue that Congress has never had to address before and would accommodate the needs of every person. He later said he believes that a man cannot become a woman because that’s what the Bible says but he wants to treat everyone with dignity.
So, this is a new controversy for lawmakers at the Capitol.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/mace-effort-ban-transgender-women-capitols-womens-restrooms/story
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Susan Smith, mother who killed 2 sons, denied parole
Susan Smith, who killed her two young sons 30 years ago by rolling her car into a lake while the kids were strapped in car seats, was denied parole and will remain in prison.
Prosecutors said Smith killed her boys because she was having an affair with a man who said her kids were the reason why they didn’t have a future together.
Smith, at the time, made a false allegation that a Black man stole her car and drove away with her sons inside. She later confessed to the killings.
Smith is now 53 years old. CBS News said it is her first parole hearing. She will be eligible for a parole hearing every two years because she’s served 30 years.
Smith told the parole board that she knows what she did was horrible and that she is sorry.
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U.S. shuts embassy in Ukraine over threats
The U.S. closed its embassy in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv due to receiving information about a threat of an air attack.
NBC News said the decision came after Ukraine struck Russian territory with U.S.-supplied long-range missiles that President Joe Biden recently authorized.
Biden also, more recently, authorized Ukraine to use landmines to thwart Russian troops’ advances.
Russian President Putin said their threshold for using nuclear weapons has been lowered and could use them if a nonnuclear country that is supported by a nuclear country attacks them. That’s exactly the scenario in Ukraine with the U.S. supporting them.
The war between Russia and Ukraine reached its 1,000th day on Tuesday, and tensions are high.
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Bomb cyclone impacts West Coast
ABC News said two people were killed by falling trees in Washington state as a powerful storm hit the Pacific Northwest.
The storm became a “bomb cyclone” and caused wind gusts of about 100 mph. A bomb cyclone means the pressure in the center of a storm drops 24 millibars within 24 hours, which means a rapidly-intensifying storm.
About 500,000 customers in Washington state were without power. News images show many fallen trees and damaged structures.
There are many storm alerts across the western U.S. that include blizzard warnings, avalanche warnings, wind alerts, and flood watches.
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That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.