Biden plans to name Breyer’s successor by the end of February
President Joe Biden said on Thursday that he would name a successor for Justice Stephen Breyer by the end of February, pledging to take what he called the overdue step of putting a Black woman on the court for the first time in its 232-year history. Breyer, who served as an associate justice on the Supreme Court for nearly 28 years, formally announced his retirement in a letter to Biden that was delivered Thursday morning. Breyer plans to stay on the court through the end of the current term this summer, and he said he would not leave until a successor had been confirmed by the Senate.
Transportation outlines plan to address rising traffic deaths
The Transportation Department is embarking on a national strategy to tackle rising traffic fatalities using new funding in the $1 trillion infrastructure law, addressing issues ranging from speed limits and street lighting to emergency medical care. In a 38-page report being released Thursday, the department outlined an approach heavily dependent on working with state and local governments to address things like reducing alcohol-impaired driving. The department also said it would issue federal guidance and create programs to carry out the strategy. About 38,680 people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2020, an increase of about 2,500 from 2019, and deaths surged further in the first half of 2021.
Austin orders US military to step up efforts to prevent civilian harm
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday ordered the military to strengthen its efforts to prevent civilian deaths and to improve the way it investigates and acknowledges claims of civilian harm in U.S. combat operations. In his most sweeping statement on the issue to date, Austin set in motion a series of measures that military officials say are intended to change how commanders in the field think about their jobs, fostering a culture in which they view preventing civilian harm as a core part of their missions. The move comes after a series of investigations by The New York Times into airstrikes that killed civilians.
Can Biden avert a crisis with North Korea?
After North Korea ushered in the new year with four sets of ballistic missile tests this month, the Biden administration turned to a well-thumbed page in the Washington playbook: It called for more United Nations sanctions. Heavy sanctions imposed by President Joe Biden’s two immediate predecessors have not pushed Kim Jong Un any closer to giving up his nuclear weapons program, and a critical element usually coupled with sanctions — diplomacy — has so far been missing from Biden’s approach, analysts say.
Johnson vows to release full report on lockdown parties
Fighting to save his job, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday insisted he was “absolutely not” delaying publication of a report into a scandal over parties held in Downing Street during lockdown. “I’m afraid you’ve got to let the independent inquiries go on,” Johnson said in Wales, where he posed for the media in a high-visibility jacket and hard hat, explaining why the report had not been released. After being briefed on the findings of Sue Gray, a senior government official, into the allegations engulfing Downing Street, London’s Metropolitan Police this week launched its own investigation into possible lawbreaking in Johnson’s home and office.
SCOTUS clears way for execution of Alabama inmate
The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way Thursday night for the state of Alabama to execute an inmate who contended that an intellectual disability combined with the state’s inattention cost him a chance to avoid lethal injection and choose a new method. The nation’s highest court upheld a state request to lift a lower court order that had blocked prison workers from executing Matthew Reeves. The state said earlier that it was prepared to execute Reeves, 43, by lethal injection at Holman Prison if notified to proceed. Reeves was convicted of killing a driver who gave him a ride in 1996.
By wire sources
