International
A Chilly Afghanistan
In August, the Taliban rose to power in Afghanistan as the U.S. withdrew. As a result, the nation lost international assistance amounting to billions of dollars, causing humanitarian concerns for the nation.
The U.N. said roughly 90% of Afghanistan’s 38 million population now depend on aid.
The current winter climate only adds to the predicament.
“In Pul-e-Alam, where temperatures in January and February can drop to lows of minus-16 degrees Celsius (3 degrees Fahrenheit), thousands of men and women line up in the bitter cold to collect a World Food Program ration of flour, oil, salt and lentils,” Kathy Gannon wrote for ABC News.
According to Shelley Thakral, spokeswoman for the World Food Program in Afghanistan, they will need $2.6 billion in aid this year.
“Break that number down. That’s $220 million a month, that’s 30 cents per person per day,” Thakral said. “We need the money because we need to reach people as quickly as we can.”
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Tanker Trouble in Yemen
The FSO Safer, an oil tanker loaded with more than a million barrels of crude oil, has sat stagnant in the Red Sea since the 1980s. Now, according to reports from the Associated Press and Greenpeace, a leading environmental group, it may be set to cause one of the biggest oil spills in history.
The Greenpeace report outlined the impacts of a potential spill, including disruption to the drinking water supply of nearly 10 million people and a closure of Yemen’s western ports, through which 68% of aid is received. This spill would also close fisheries, pollute the air and disrupt shipping traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Suez Canal.
The Associated Press obtained internal documents in 2020 revealing reportedly irreversible damage to the ship, including seawater in the engine compartment, rust and the loss of inert gas which prevents the tanks from gathering flammable gasses.
“The question is no longer whether the catastrophe will happen. The question is when it will happen,” Greenpeace MENA Campaigns Manager, Ahmed El Droubi, said.
National
Supreme Court Retirement and Replacement
Justice Stephen Breyer is expected to retire from the Supreme Court in June at the conclusion of the current term.
The White House said President Joe Biden intends to honor his commitment to make an African American woman his first Supreme Court nomination.
“Only two African Americans – both men – have ever served on the court, Justice Thurgood Marshall from 1967 to 1991 and his successor Justice Clarence Thomas, who is set to become the oldest member on the bench at age 73.”
Although Breyer’s replacement has not been confirmed, there are a few likely candidates.
One is Ketanji Brown Jackson, a former law clerk to Breyer, who is believed to be the top contender. Two other potential candidates are Leondra Kruger, who serves on California’s Supreme Court, and J Michelle Childs, a judge on South Carolina’s federal court.
Justice Breyer’s replacement would not shift the court’s current 6-3 conservative majority.
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School Board Bans Award-Winning Holocaust Novel
At a January board meeting of McMinn County Schools in Tennessee, the board decided to ban a Pulitzer prize-winning Holocaust novel.
Maus: A Survivor’s Tale is a graphic novel by cartoonist and author, Art Spiegelman, which tells the story of how his Polish Jew parents endured Auschwitz during the Holocaust. In it, Spiegelman illustrates mice as Jews and cats as Nazis.
The ban came out of concern on a few different fronts.
“There is some rough, objectionable language in this book,” Lee Parkinson, director of schools, said.
Redacting the swear words was Parkinson’s first proposed course of action. However, members pointed to copyright concerns and also objected to a cartoon featuring a drawn mouse’s “nakedness.”
Some of the board supported the book remaining in the curriculum, but it was ultimately banned.
Spiegelman said he was “baffled” by the decision.
Local
Executions in Oklahoma
Donald Grant was executed Thursday, Jan. 27.
“The State’s execution of Donald Grant was carried out with zero complications at 10:16 this morning. Justice is now served for Brenda McElyea, Felecia Suzette Smith, and the people of Oklahoma,” the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office said.
In July 2001, Grant was convicted of a double homicide.
Grant spoke with News 4 months ago and said he feared his execution would be botched like that of Oklahoma inmate John Grant, who had a botched execution in Oct. 2021.
The constitutionality of Oklahoma’s execution protocol will be challenged in federal court in February 2022.
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