Headline
Five Things To Know About US Supreme Court Nominee

President Biden has chosen Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as his pick to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court — fulfilling his campaign promise of appointing a Black woman to the nation’s highest court.
Biden formally announced Jackson, 51, as his nominee at the White House on Friday afternoon.
“Judge Jackson is an exceptionally qualified nominee as well as a historic nominee,” the White House said in a statement. “And the Senate should move forward with a fair and timely hearing and confirmation.”
Here are 5 things to know about Jackson.
She clerked for Breyer
A graduate of Harvard Law School, Jackson served as a law clerk to three federal judges, including Breyer on the Supreme Court.
As Breyer’s clerk during the court’s 1999-2000 term, Jackson “learned up close how important it is for a Supreme Court Justice to build consensus and speak to a mainstream understanding of the Constitution,” the White House said in its announcement.
According to the Boston Globe, the 83-year-old Breyer considers Jackson a member of his extended “family.”
Confirmed to her current post with bipartisan support
Biden nominated Jackson to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last summer, and she was confirmed by the Senate in a 53-44 vote, with Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina voting in her favor.
READ ALSO: Biden Nominates First Black Woman On US Supreme Court
But in a tweet early Friday, Graham said that the nomination of Jackson “means the radical Left has won President Biden over yet again.”
Graham had heaped praise on U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs, who was speculated to be one of Biden’s leading contenders for the Supreme Court.
“She would be somebody, I think, that could bring the Senate together and probably get more than 60 votes,” Graham said on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” earlier this month. “Anyone else would be problematic.”
Life experiences not race play a role in her work
Born in Washington, D.C., in 1970, Jackson moved to Florida as a young child with her parents, graduates of historically Black colleges and universities who worked as public school teachers.
During her confirmation hearing for the U.S. Court of Appeals, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, asked Jackson how race would affect her job.
“I don’t think that race plays a role in the kind of judge that I have been and would be. I’m doing a certain thing when I get my cases,” Jackson replied. “I’m looking at the arguments, the facts and the law. I’m methodically and intentionally setting aside personal views [and] any other inappropriate considerations, and I would think that race would be the kind of thing that would be inappropriate to inject into my evaluation of a case.”
Jackson also made it clear that she believed her perspective was still crucial to the court.
“I’ve experienced life in perhaps a different way than some of my colleagues because of who I am, and that might be valuable — I hope it would be valuable — if I was confirmed to the court,” she said.
She was a public defender
If confirmed, Jackson would be the first Supreme Court justice since Thurgood Marshall to have represented indigent criminal defendants.
During her April confirmation hearing, Jackson discussed how her experience as a public defender would benefit her approach to cases on the bench.
“One of the things that I do now is I take extra care to communicate with the defendants who come before me in the courtroom,” Jackson said. “I speak to them directly, and not just to their lawyers. I use their names.”
In addition to her public-defender work, Jackson served as vice chairman of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, working to reduce the penalties for crack cocaine offenders.
Ordered Trump’s former counsel to testify in his impeachment inquiry
In her work as a federal judge, one of Jackson’s most prominent rulings was a 2019 decision in which she ordered former Trump White House counsel Don McGahn to testify in the impeachment inquiry against then-President Donald Trump.
McGahn, a key witness in Robert Mueller’s investigation, was called to testify by the House Judiciary Committee to determine if there were grounds for Trump’s impeachment. Trump ordered McGahn not to testify on the grounds that his role as the president’s close adviser had granted him immunity.
In her 118-page decision, Jackson declared that immunity “simply does not exist,” even for the commander in chief.
READ ALSO: JUST IN: Buhari Signs Electoral Act Amendment Bill Into Law
“Presidents are not kings,” she wrote. “This means that they do not have subjects bound by loyalty or blood, whose destiny they are entitled to control.”
She’s related by marriage to Paul Ryan
Jackson met her husband, Patrick Jackson, when the two were at Harvard College. He is a surgeon and they have two daughters.
His twin brother is the brother-in-law of Janna Ryan, wife of former House Speaker Paul Ryan.
“Janna and I are incredibly happy for Ketanji and her entire family,” Ryan tweeted on Friday. “Our politics may differ, but my praise for Ketanji’s intellect, for her character, and for her integrity, is unequivocal.”
Headline
Welcome Home, Israel Confirms Return Of 20 Hostages From Gaza

Israel said that the last 20 living hostages released by Hamas on Monday had arrived in the country.
“Welcome home,” the foreign ministry wrote in a series of posts on X, hailing the return of Matan Angrest, Gali Berman, Ziv Berman, Elkana Bohbot, Rom Braslavski, Nimrod Cohen, David Cunio, Ariel Cunio, Evyatar David, Guy Gilboa Dalal, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Horn, Segev Kalfon, Bar Kuperstein, Omri Miran, Eitan Mor, Yosef Haim Ohana, Alon Ohel, Avinatan Or and Matan Zangauker.
READ ALSO:Trump Gives Update On Israel, Hamas Peace Deal
AFP
Headline
20 Members Of Gang Blacklisted By US Escape Guatemala Prison

Twenty members of a gang designated a “foreign terrorist organisation” by the United States have escaped from detention in Guatemala, a prison chief said Sunday.
The members of the Barrio 18 gang “evaded security controls” at the Fraijanes II facility, prison director Ludin Godinez said at a news conference.
He received “an intelligence report” on Friday warning about the “possible escape” from the prison, which is southeast of the capital, Guatemala City.
Godinez said they were investigating possible acts of corruption.
READ ALSO:China’s Trade Surges Despite US Tariff Threats
Washington last month blacklisted Barrio 18, an El Salvador-based gang which has a reputation for violence and extortion, as part of its crackdown on drug trafficking.
The US embassy in Guatemala condemned the prison escape as “utterly unacceptable.”
“The United States designated members of this heinous group as the terrorists they are and will hold accountable anyone who has provided, provides, or decides to provide material support to these fugitives or other gang members,” the embassy said on X.
It called on the Guatemalan government to “act immediately and vigorously to recapture these terrorists.”
READ ALSO:US Threatens To Sanction Countries That Vote For Shipping Carbon Tax
According to Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez, there are about 12,000 gang members and collaborators in Guatemala, while another 3,000 are in prison.
The country’s homicide rate has increased from 16.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024 to 17.65 this year, more than double the world average, according to the Centre for National Economic Research.
According to the Salvadoran government, the gangs Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, are responsible for the deaths of about 200,000 people over three decades.
The two gangs once controlled an estimated 80 percent of El Salvador, which had one of the highest homicide rates in the world.
Headline
South Africa Bus Crash Kills 40 Including Malawi, Zimbabwe Nationals

At least 40 people, including nationals of Malawi and Zimbabwe, were killed when a passenger bus rolled down an embankment in South Africa, a provincial transport minister said Monday.
The bus travelling to Zimbabwe crashed around 90 kilometres (55 miles) from the border on Sunday after the driver apparently lost control, Limpopo province transport minister Violet Mathye said.
“They are still working on the scene, but 40 bodies have already been confirmed to date,” Mathye told the Newzroom Afrika channel. The dead included a 10-month-old girl, she said.
READ ALSO:South African Court Finds Radical Politician Malema Guilty On Gun Charges
Thirty-eight people were in hospital and rescuers were searching for other victims, she told eNCA media.
The bus was travelling from the southern city of Gqeberha, around 1,500 kilometres away, and its passengers included Malawians and Zimbabweans who were working in South Africa. The crash may have been caused by driver fatigue or a mechanical fault, the minister said.
South Africa has a sophisticated and busy road network with a high rate of road deaths, blamed mostly on speeding, reckless driving and unroadworthy vehicles.
AFP
- News2 days ago
BREAKING: Rev Uma Ukpai Is Dead
- Politics5 days ago
Makinde Calls Out Umahi Over Coastal Highway Cost Analysis
- News3 days ago
FULL LIST: Newly Released Subject Combinations For WAEC 2026 Examination WAEC
- News5 days ago
AGILE Leads 200 Girls On Road Walk To Create Awareness In Bauchi
- Headline5 days ago
Burkina Rejects US Deportees, Calls Trump’s Proposal Indecent
- News5 days ago
BRC Sympathises With Edo NSCDC, Family, On Painful Death Of Commandant
- News3 days ago
Edo: Council Boss Attacked During Traffic Intervention At MUYI Line
- Headline3 days ago
Top 10 Most Powerful Countries In The World In 2025 And Why
- Politics2 days ago
Tinubu Under Fire Over Presidential Pardon For Drug Offenders
- Headline5 days ago
Transgender Woman Jailed For Deceiving Man About Gender In UK