Monday, October 18 top stories
It is Monday, October 18. Here are today’s top stories.
Colin Powell, who was the first Black U.S. Secretary of State and a top military general, passed away this morning from complications from Covid-19. He was 84.
Powell was fully vaccinated, but was battling multiple myeloma, which is a cancer that attacks the body’s immune system.
Powell’s family announced his death this morning, saying “we have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather, and a great American.”
Today is the first day of the murder trial for Gregory McMichael, his son Travis, and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan Jr. in the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was shot to death as he was running down a street on February 23, 2020. The jury selection process began this morning at a courthouse in Brunswick, Georgia. If the men are convicted, they face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
USA Today explained that the McMichaels’ defense lawyer said they were trying to make a citizen’s arrest because they suspected that Arbery was stealing things in the neighborhood. Prosecutors said Arbery was jogging and that McMichaels' racial bias caused them to kill him.
Over the weekend in Haiti, 16 American and one Canadian missionaries from a Christian organization based in Ohio were kidnapped by a gang. The group consists of 12 adults and five children. AP News said American officials are working with Haitian authorities to try and release the missionaries.
AP News explained that there is a spike in reports of kidnappings this year in Haiti. Gangs who commit the kidnappings will then demand ransoms with amounts ranging from $200 to over $1 million.
AP News said the kidnapping of the 17 missionaries has sparked a widespread protest among Haitian citizens to demand the Haitian government to do more to stop the kidnappings and improve security.
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Axios said today the Biden Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court to temporarily block Texas’ new law banning abortions after six weeks while federal courts consider its constitutionality. The Texas law allows any private citizen to sue an abortion provider if they perform an abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected and receive a $10,000 award. The Supreme Court last month did not intervene to stop the Texas law. Two weeks ago a federal district judge in Austin blocked the law, but that was overturned by a panel with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Right now, the abortion law is in effect and we’ll see how the Supreme Court responds to the DOJ’s request.
Officials in the Philadelphia area said a woman was raped while on a SEPTA city train on Wednesday night as bystanders watched and failed to intervene or call 911. News reports said a man sat next to a woman about 10 p.m. and tried to touch her a few times and the woman pushed back and tried to stop him, but the man ripped off her clothes and sexually assaulted her. Officials say the incident lasted about eight minutes and that there were several passengers in the train car, but nobody intervened until a city transportation employee got on the train and called 911. A police officer quickly got into the train and arrested the suspect, who is now charged with rape. The woman was taken to a hospital and was able to provide information to police. A police official said they are appalled by those who did nothing to help the woman.
Investigators with the U.S. Coast Guard working on the case associated with the oil spill in Southern California say they believe that in January, a cargo ship dragging its anchor on the seafloor during bad weather caught and pulled an oil pipeline. The pipeline is 16 inches across and was pulled around 100 feet. It is not clear whether the anchor caused the oil pipeline to eventually rupture and leak this month. The Coast Guard said they are still looking at multiple vessels and scenarios. The pipeline leak released over 25,000 gallons of oil into the ocean and forced several beaches in Orange County to temporarily close for cleanup.
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/18/politics/colin-powell-dies/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/17/us/riders-watched-woman-raped-septa.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/17/us/riders-watched-woman-raped-septa.html