Headline

Biden Nominates First Black Woman On US Supreme Court

Published

3 years ago

February 25, 2022

Editor

President Joe Biden picked Ketanji Brown Jackson on Friday to be the first Black woman in US history to serve on the nation’s highest court.

“I’m proud to announce that I am nominating Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve on the Supreme Court,” Biden said. “She is one of our nation’s brightest legal minds and will be an exceptional Justice.”

The president will officially unveil his decision later Friday at an appearance with Jackson, the White House said.

Jackson, 51, was appointed to the federal bench in 2013, and was backed by three Republican senators last year when she was elevated to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, seen as a staging ground for aspiring Supreme Court justices.

With one liberal justice replacing another the announcement will not reshape the ideological make-up of the court — but it is a huge moment for Biden personally and politically.

White House officials hope it will provide a few days of positive news coverage ahead of the president’s State of the Union address on Tuesday.

The pick presents an opportunity for the administration to pivot from a spate of bad news in recent months, with Biden’s domestic agenda stalled amid runaway inflation and plummeting poll numbers.

The announcement is a chance for Biden to show the Black voters who rescued his floundering 2020 primary campaign that he can deliver for them following the recent defeat of voting rights legislation.

“Ketanji Brown Jackson is an intellectual heavyweight and highly regarded jurist who has dedicated her life and career to the service of others,” said Mondaire Jones, one of the first Black openly gay congressmen.

– Political attacks –

Black Americans are among Biden’s strongest supporters, with two-thirds approving of his job performance, according to a CBS poll released last week.

His popularity among the key demographic however declined over the months following his inauguration and he has not recovered the lost ground.

In his first year in office, Biden nominated 62 women to the federal judiciary, including 24 Black women.

But there are still only a few dozen active Black female judges on the federal bench out of almost 800 total.

The president had promised during his successful 2020 White House run to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court for the first time in US history.

The pledge dismayed some Republicans who thought ruling out candidates of other backgrounds would further politicize the judiciary.

Dismissing the objections, Biden shortlisted a handful of top Black women to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, including southern jurists J. Michelle Childs and Leandra Kruger.

Reflecting Washington’s bitter political divisions, at least two top Republicans depicted his eventual nominee as the darling of what they called the American far left.

Lindsey Graham had argued that it was “about time” a Black woman sat on the bench but the senator went to bat for Childs, who is from his home state of South Carolina.

He complained that Biden’s choice of Jackson meant “the radical left has won President Biden over again.”

– Bumpy ride ahead? –

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell echoed Graham’s objection, saying Jackson was “the favoured choice of far-left dark-money groups that have spent years attacking the legitimacy and structure of the Court itself.”

But neither said outright they would oppose Jackson’s appointment.

Jackson will now go through weeks of hearings and meetings with senators before her nomination comes to the floor, likely in April.

Republicans cannot block a Supreme Court nomination as long as all 50 Senate Democrats stick together, but the comments by Graham and McConnell signal a bumpier confirmation process than had been expected.

But the party has shown little appetite for a fight, which they fear could backfire, and are trying to keep the focus on kitchen-table issues such as spiralling fuel and food costs.

The announcement also represents another first in US history.

Biden presided over Breyer’s confirmation to the Supreme Court as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1994, and has now named Breyer’s replacement.

Headline

Bomb Scare Forces Emergency Landing Of Hajj Flight In Indonesia

Published

1 hour ago

June 17, 2025

Editor

A plane carrying hundreds of hajj pilgrims back from Saudi Arabia was diverted in Indonesia on Tuesday after an email bomb threat was sent to authorities, Indonesia’s aviation body said.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation said it received a report from Indonesia’s airport operator “regarding a bomb threat sent by an unidentified person via electronic mail”.

The email at 07:30 am (0030 GMT) contained a threat to “blow up” Saudia Airlines flight SV 5276 which was flying from the Saudi city of Jeddah to the Indonesian capital Jakarta, it said in a statement.

After 10:00 am the pilot diverted the plane from its destination of Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport to Kualanamu International Airport in Medan, a city on Sumatra island in western Indonesia.

The flight was carrying 442 hajj pilgrims, including 207 men and 235 women, it added.

“Upon identifying security and safety threats, the pilot decided to divert the landing to the nearest airport,” said In Journey Airports, Indonesia’s airport operator.

A transport ministry official told AFP the plane was still in Medan and Flightradar24 showed the plane there.

The airport evacuated the pilgrims and a bomb disposal unit swept the plane for explosive devices, the aviation body said in its statement.

AFP

Headline

Russian Strikes Kill 16 In Kyiv

Published

1 hour ago

June 17, 2025

Editor

Russia launched dozens of drones and missiles at Kyiv in the early hours of Tuesday, killing at least 16 people and wounding dozens of others, as negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow broke down.

President Volodymyr Zelensky described the latest overnight barrage as “one of the most horrific attacks” on Kyiv since the Kremlin launched its brutal invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago.

Zelensky said a total of 440 drones and 32 missiles were launched in the strikes nationwide and urged the international community not to “turn a blind eye”.

“Russian President Vladimir Putin does this solely because he can afford to continue the war. He wants the war to go on,” he said.

AFP journalists saw smoke billowing over the capital’s skyline at dawn and a multiple-storey housing block gutted by the attack. Rescue workers were scrambling to find any survivors buried beneath the rubble.

“It was probably the most hellish night in my memory for our neighbourhood,” 20-year-old student Alina Shtompel told AFP.

“It is indescribably painful that our people are going through this right now.”

More than three years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has stepped up attacks despite efforts by the United States to broker a ceasefire.

Talks have stalled. Moscow has rejected the “unconditional” truce demanded by Kyiv and its European allies, while Ukraine has dismissed Russia’s demands as “ultimatums”.

– Diplomatic ‘facade’ –

Zelensky had been hoping to speak with US leader Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada, but the US leader cut short his visit, amid the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran.

Russia hit some 27 sites in Kyiv overnight and some residents were left without electricity, officials said.

Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, updated an earlier toll of 14 dead, saying two people had been pulled from the rubble at the scene of one strike.

“The search continues, as there may still be people under the ruins,” he said.

One person was also killed and 10 wounded in the southern port city of Odesa, while attacks on the Sumy and Kherson regions later in the day killed two others, authorities said.

The Russian defence ministry said it had carried out precision strikes on “military-industrial facilities in the Kyiv region,” in a statement similar to those releases after major attacks.

Germany vowed in response to “increase the pressure” on Russia. The strike showed that “Russia is using diplomacy merely as a facade,” the foreign ministry wrote on X.

“Putin doesn’t want a solution, he wants capitulation.”

– US citizen dead –

Dozens of residents took shelter in a metro station in central Kyiv, sleeping on mats, exchanging information on attack or reassuring pets, AFP journalists reported, while drones buzzed and explosions echoed out over the city.

“I was asleep. There was a loud bang. The window was smashed, and glass rained down on me,” Sergii, another Kyiv resident, said.

Residential buildings, educational institutions and “critical infrastructure facilities” were all hit, Interior Minister, Igor Klymenko.

Kyiv’s mayor reported earlier that a 62-year-old US citizen had died in a Russian strike on the capital’s Solomyansky district.

Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said the new attacks showed Moscow was “continuing its war against civilians”.

Tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed on both sides since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, according to independent monitors and Western intelligence agencies.

Russian forces have been steadily advancing across the sprawling front line even since the inauguration of Trump brought about an uptick in US efforts to secure a halt in fighting.

AFP

Headline

25-year-old Nigerian Arrested With N1.8bn Drugs In India Risks 20-year Jail

Published

4 hours ago

June 17, 2025

Editor

A 25-year-old Nigerian woman, Ifeoluwa Akinwunmi, risks up to 20 years jail in India after she was allegedly caught in possession of drugs worth over N1.8bn.

Akinwunmi, reportedly a hairstylist and nail artist, was arrested last Tuesday by operatives of the Anti-Narcotics Wing of the Central Crime Branch in Bengaluru.

She was apprehended at the Tarahunase village, along Rajanukunte Main Road, after arriving from Delhi with a suspicious bag.

According to The New Indian Express, which was cited in a report by The PUNCH on Monday, the bag contained 5.325 kilograms of MDMA crystals, a banned party drug.

The contraband was concealed among 11 new churidars — traditional Indian outfits.

“She is a courier. She had come to hand over the drugs to a group of African peddlers.

“We noticed four men on two scooters in the area, but they did not collect the parcel. Akinwunmi was arrested while standing with the bag,” a police officer involved in the operation was quoted as saying.

The suspect, who claimed she travelled to India to establish a beauty salon, is now facing charges under India’s Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, and the Foreigners Act, 1946.

Section 23 of the NDPS Act stipulates severe penalties for those caught importing, exporting, or transhipping narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.

According to the Indian legal code reviewed by The PUNCH, offenders found with a commercial quantity, such as the MDMA seized from Akinwunmi, face a minimum of 10 years and up to 20 years in prison, in addition to heavy fines.

The section reads in part, “Where the contravention involves commercial quantity, [the offender shall be punished] with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than ten years but which may extend to twenty years and shall also be liable to a fine which shall not be less than one lakh rupees but which may extend to two lakh rupees.”

Under the Foreigners Act of 1946, the Indian government also has the authority to prosecute and deport foreigners involved in criminal activities.

Akinwunmi’s arrest comes just two days after another Nigerian national, Emmanuel Bediako, also known as Maxwell, was apprehended by the Telangana Anti-Narcotics Bureau for alleged drug trafficking.