Thursday, January 26 top stories
It is Thursday, January 26. Here are today’s top stories.
Asteroid will pass near Earth tonight
NASA said an asteroid about the size of a box truck will pass very close to Earth tonight, but it won’t make an impact. The asteroid’s name is 2023 BU. It is projected to pass Earth over the southern tip of South America around 7:30 pm tonight. It will be about 2,200 miles above the Earth’s surface. Scientists said this will be one of the closest approaches ever and that if it did impact Earth, it would turn into a fireball and mostly disintegrate into the atmosphere with some debris falling as small meteorites. But that won’t happen, as 2023 BU will continue to travel away in its orbit around the Sun.
Five Memphis cops charged with murder over death of Tyre Nichols
Five police officers in Memphis, Tennessee were fired and charged with second-degree murder for their roles in the death of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old man who was pulled over on the night of January 7 for reckless driving.
There is a body camera video of the incident that will be released soon. The police department said there was a confrontation during that traffic stop and that officers chased Nichols on foot and then had another confrontation. Nichols was hospitalized in critical condition and died three days later.
It is not known exactly what happened because the video has not been released, but Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis said the death was “reckless and inhumane” and asked the public to not react violently after they see the video.
Nichols’ family said they saw the video and that it showed officers beating Nichols for three minutes, causing him to bleed extensively. The family shared an image of Nichols unconscious on a hospital bed.
In related news, two employees of the Memphis Fire Department who were the first to give medical treatment to Nichols were fired.
U.S. government prosecutors have opened a civil rights investigation. This is in addition to state and local investigations over what happened.
Meta / Facebook allows Trump back in
Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta announced on Wednesday that it would end the suspension of Donald Trump’s accounts after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
A Meta official said the company has determined that Trump is no longer a serious risk to public safety and they have “guardrails” in place for Trump’s return in a few weeks.
Trump responded on his Truth Social account that “such a thing should never again happen to a sitting President…!”
Twitter did a similar action in November by restoring Trump’s account, but Trump has not tweeted at all since instead preferring to communicate on the Truth Social app.
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Lawyer: School knew boy had gun prior to shooting
An attorney who represents the teacher who was shot by a 6-year-old boy at an elementary school in Virginia on January 6 said the school’s administrators were warned prior to the shooting that at least three times by staff that the boy had a gun and was threatening other students. The attorney said the administration was “paralyzed by apathy” and did not call police or do any other actions.
One of the warnings was that another student became fearful and cried because the boy showed him his gun and threatened to shoot him if he told anyone. But there was no action until after the teacher was shot. The teacher was hit in her hand and chest and is now recovering at home after being hospitalized for two weeks.
The attorney said they will sue the school district in Newport News. AP News said that the school has already fired its superintendent.
The gun was legally owned by the boy’s mother. The family of the boy said he has an acute disability and usually had either his mother or father attending school with him but on the day of the shooting neither parent was there.
The school has been closed since the shooting but will reopen next week.
Lawsuit over Fireball’s mini bottles
An Illinois woman is leading a class-action lawsuit against the maker of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky, the Sazerac Company because she felt that she and many others were misled by two different kinds of small bottles of alcohol that Fireball makes. One type of bottle contains the actual Fireball Cinnamon Whisky while another type is labeled as only “Fireball Cinnamon” and doesn’t have whisky in it. It is actually a malt beverage that tastes like Fireball. The latter bottle can be seen in stores or gas stations that don’t typically sell hard liquor. Some people think it has whisky in it but it’s only a malt drink. The lawsuit said it is easy for customers to make a mistake in thinking that the two products were the same and alleges that the Sazerac Company intended to make it that way.
Israeli troops kill 10 Palestinians in raid
AP News reported that Israeli forces killed at least nine Palestinians during a raid today in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. Israeli forces later shot and killed a 22-year-old Palestinian. That’s a total of 10 people killed.
The Israeli military said its special forces entered the camp undetected by hiding inside a dairy products delivery truck because they wanted to raid an Islamic Jihad group that was suspected of attacking Israeli soldiers and of planning more attacks. There was a gunfight and one of those killed was a 60-year-old woman.
The Palestinian Presidency said it was a massacre, but an Israeli official said it was a necessary action in the “war against the terrorists.”
There are concerns that there will be retaliatory rocket attacks fired toward Israel.
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/asteroid-make-extremely-close-approach-earth-week/story?id=96675561
https://www.axios.com/2023/01/25/tyre-nichols-memphis-police-death
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/01/26/us/tyre-nichols-death-memphis
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lawsuit-claims-fireball-cinnamon-has-no-whiskey-misleading-label/
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-issues-statement-meta-announces-year-facebook-ban
https://apnews.com/article/newport-news-school-shooting-a40dfad64388aadf1f90211177412522
https://twitter.com/GMA/status/1617867381061066753
https://www.axios.com/2023/01/26/palestinians-killed-jenin-israeli-forces-west-bank-raid