News Brief: Jan 9-13

Overview

Russia-Ukraine Update

A Timeline of Biden’s Documents

JFK assassination files released

Further Information on the Campus Lockdown

State Senators Support Ukrainian Troops Training in Oklahoma

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International

Russia-Ukraine Update

A report from the New York Times reveals Russia to be fighting fiercely for Soledar, a small town in eastern Ukraine.

There is little certainty over who presently controls Soledar, but the devastating costs are clear in images released by Maxar, a satellite company: several apartment buildings, houses and other structures beyond repair.

Both sides have released comments on the state of the battle.

“A huge amount of work has been done,” Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov said, while Ukraine’s Serhiy Cherevaty, a spokesman for Ukraine’s eastern forces, said, “the enemy is suffering great losses.”

Click heree to read more live updates from the New York Times.

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National

A Timeline of Biden’s Documents

On Nov. 2, 2022, classified documents were discovered in President Biden’s office at the Penn Biden Center, a think tank Biden worked at from 2017 to 2020.

Shortly thereafter, on Nov. 9, the FBI began an investigation to determine if information was mishandled and if any laws were broken.

Since then, more documents have been found. Some on Jan. 9 in Biden’s temporary office at the University of Pennsylvania, which runs the Penn Biden Center, and some on Jan. 12 in Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware.

In terms of legality, on Nov. 14, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland assigned John Lausch, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, to determine if special counsel is needed. Lausch recommended the counsel on Jan. 5. 

On Jan 12, Garland appointed Robert Hur, the former Trump-era U.S. attorney for the district of Maryland, as special counsel.

Read more here.

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JFK assassination files released

After 13 thousand documents pertaining to John F. Kennedy’s assassination were released on Dec. 16, 2022, the White House said more than 97 percent of the records were now publicly available.

Since the assassination of Kennedy in November 1963, several conspiracy theories have swirled.

Lee Harvey Oswald, a US citizen who had previously lived in the Soviet Union, was convicted of the murder and found dead in the Dallas police headquarters just days after his arrest. Also in 1963, Oswald ventured to Mexico City where little is known beyond him meeting a Soviet KGB office in October.

Theorists, academics and the Mary Ferrell Foundation had hoped this release would shed insight on Oswald’s time in Mexico. In October 2022, the Mary Ferrell Foundation also sued President Biden and the National Archives over the delayed release of the documents.

The CIA said they have not withheld information or records about Oswald and this latest release would not reveal any new information.

While no revelations are expected from this release, the National Archives will continue to withhold 515 documents in full and partly withhold another 2,545.

This is to protect against “identifiable harm,” Biden said whilst pushing their release to June 2023.

Until then, click here to read more on this story.

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Local

Further Information on the Campus Lockdown

In an email, Oklahoma Christian University’s Chief of Campus Police shared the following statement regarding the campus lockdown on Jan 12.

“Oklahoma Christian Police received a call from a caller threatening to ‘shoot up’ the school. I notified Oklahoma City Criminal Intel and Springlake Division, the phone was ‘pinged’ to an address in another state. I notified Neil Arter to Lockdown until we could confirm this. The lockdown went very well. No shots were fired, the suspect was never on campus.”

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State Senators Support Ukrainian Troops Training in Oklahoma

“We must put the people of Oklahoma first,” Sen. Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow, said on Wednesday in response to the recent announcement of Ukrainian troops beginning to train on the Patriot missile system at Oklahoma’s Fort Sill.

On Thursday, however, several other senators issued a statement against Dahm’s proposal to direct the Pentagon, Department of Defense and federal government to cease sending troops to Oklahoma for training.

“Oklahoma has had partnerships with military forces from partner countries to train and maintain the safety and security of the United States and other allied countries for decades. To cut these ties would be akin to jeopardizing our national security. The resolution that was issued does not speak for the vast majority of the Oklahoma Senate, or Oklahomans, who welcome training exercises to defend the lands we love and our neighbors in other countries. We hope the troops from other countries currently training on our beloved military installations in Oklahoma feel welcomed and experience what makes our state the best in the country,” the statement against Dahm’s proposal said.

Read more here.