Domestic
On Tuesday, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled a first-of-its-kind decision upholding that they consider frozen embryos as children, and therefore, a person can be held liable for destroying them in a wrongful death lawsuit. The case involves couples whose embryos were destroyed when a patient removed them from the freezer and accidentally dropped them. Reproductive rights advocates say the case could have implications for fertility treatment such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) and the hundreds of thousands of patients who seek them every year. Additionally, critics claim this is just another step in lawmakers from blocking access to women’s healthcare and letting them make their own bodily decisions, while supporters say the case rightfully protects the constitutional rights of unborn children.
Police have charged Dominic M. Miller and Lyndell Mays with murder in the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade shooting, which resulted in 20 people injured and one woman killed last week. Both face the penalty of second-degree murder, armed criminal action and unlawful use of weapons, according to the prosecutor’s office. They are being held on $1 million bond. Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said preliminary evidence indicates the deadly shooting started after one of them got into a verbal argument with someone he had no prior connection to. According to court documents in the case, the altercation started with a remark about whether one person was looking at the other.
International
Alexei Navalny, a journalist known for his staunch opposition to the current Russian regime imposed by President Vladimir Putin, died on Friday at the age of 47 as he was serving his prison sentence. His sudden death occurred less than a month before a presidential election in Russia that will almost certainly give Putin another six years in power. Global outrage poured in from world leaders toward Putin, who has been persecuting Navalny politically for several years. Throughout his life, Navalny faced threats, acts of torture and near-death experiences, including a poisoning of his eye. U.S. President Joe Biden, along with the German Chancellor, Ukrainian President and many other world leaders, came out this week blaming and condemning Putin for the death. Specifically, Biden called for tougher sanctions from America to be imposed on Russia for this act. Hours after the reported death, Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, said he “could have lived safely in exile” but returned home despite knowing he could be imprisoned or killed “because he believed so deeply in his country, in Russia.”
Social turmoil broiled up on Tuesday as anti-government protesters showed up in support of Albanian’s opposition and against the current corrupt Cabinet. Protesters violently harassed law enforcement and some pulled down an iron fence around the main government building in the capital, Tirana. Since last fall, protesters have been seen causing violence in their strong disapproval of the ruling Socialists party’s refusal to create parliamentary commissions to investigate the corruption of Prime Minister Edi Rama and other top officials. The protestors were also seen voicing their opinions for the former Prime Minister and current leader of the opposition, Sali Berisha, who is currently being held on house arrest for corruption. The United States and Western nations have supported the regimes in Albania significantly less as corruption on the divided nation’s top party leaders roams widely.
