Boy fatally shoots classmate, 12, in South Carolina, sheriff says
Authorities are investigating the fatal shooting of a 12-year-old student Thursday by a classmate at their South Carolina middle school. The suspect, a 12-year-old boy whose name was not released, was arrested on murder and weapons charges in the shooting, which occurred around noon at Tanglewood Middle School in Greenville, South Carolina, the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. The victim, Jamari Cortez Bonaparte-Jackson, was transported to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 1 p.m., the Greenville County Coroner’s Office said in a statement. According to an autopsy conducted Friday, the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest.
House votes to decriminalize cannabis
The House passed legislation Friday to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level as Democrats and three Republicans banded together to capitalize on the political resonance of legalized cannabis as an issue of economic growth, racial justice and states’ rights. The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, which passed 220-204, is unlikely to secure 60 votes to pass the Senate, despite the backing of the majority leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. But supporters of marijuana decriminalization — even some Republicans who voted against the Democratic legislation — said Friday that the vote was a necessary step toward building consensus on something that can become law.
Juror’s error did not affect Ghislaine Maxwell verdict, judge rules
A Manhattan judge Friday denied Ghislaine Maxwell’s request for a new trial, rejecting her claim that a juror’s failure to disclose his personal history of being sexually abused as a child had deprived her of a fair and impartial jury. The decision by Judge Alison Nathan appears to clear the way for Maxwell to be sentenced June 28. The ruling is also likely to be part of any appeal by Maxwell of her conviction. Maxwell, 60, was found guilty Dec. 29 of sex trafficking and four other counts related to accusations she had helped disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein procure, groom and sexually abuse underage girls.
US Navy to name ship after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Supreme Court justice who fought for women’s rights for more than a half-century before her death in 2020, will have a U.S. Navy ship named after her, military officials said Thursday. The USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg (T-AO 212), which has not yet been constructed, will be a John Lewis-class replenishment oiler ship designed to carry fuel to the Navy’s operating carrier strike groups, the Navy said in a news release. The class and lead ship, T-AO 205, is named in honor of Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat who died in July 2020. Lewis was a stalwart of the civil rights movement.
Sarah Palin announces she’s running for Congress
Sarah Palin, a former Alaska governor and the Republican nominee for vice president in 2008, said Friday that she was entering the race for Alaska’s lone congressional seat, marking her return to national politics after she helped revive the anti-establishment rhetoric that has come to define the Republican Party. She will be joining a crowded field of nearly 40 candidates to fill the House seat left vacant by Rep. Don Young, whose unexpected death last month has spurred one of the largest political shifts in the state in 50 years. Young, 88, who was the longest-serving Republican in Congress and who was first elected in 1973, died March 18.
Pope apologizes to indigenous people of Canada
Pope Francis apologized Friday for the Catholic Church’s involvement in a system of Canadian boarding schools that abused Indigenous children for 100 years, and said he would travel to Canada as part of a process of healing and reconciliation. His apology comes after Canada was jolted last year by the discovery of evidence that more than 1,000 people, most of them children, were buried in unmarked graves on the grounds of some of the former schools. This was the first apology to the Indigenous people of Canada from a pope and was a reversal of Francis’ earlier position.
Turkey moves closer to ending Khashoggi Murder trial without conclusion
Turkey moved another step closer Friday to transferring the trial for the killing of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia. Khashoggi’s killing in Istanbul in October 2018 exacerbated already strained ties between Turkey and Saudi Arabia, and the end of the Turkish trial could facilitate recent efforts by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey to improve relations with Saudi Arabia. Saudi leaders have said they consider their own trial, which wrapped up more than two years ago, the final word on the matter even though rights groups roundly dismissed it as a sham.
War in Ukraine compounds hunger in East Africa
Across East Africa, below-average rainfall has created some of the driest conditions in four decades, according to the United Nations, leaving more than 13 million people facing severe hunger. Seasonal harvests have hit their lowest in decades, malnourished children are filling hospitals and many families are walking long distances to find help. Now the war in Ukraine is making the crisis even worse by raising the price of grains, fuel and fertilizer. Russia and Ukraine are some of the region’s top suppliers of agricultural commodities such as wheat, soybeans and barley.