Top News Stories for Today – Sept 28, 2018
Top News Stories for Today – Sept 28, 2018
Passenger jet crashes off Micronesia
Papua New Guinea’s Air Niugini plane crashes off Micronesia Friday morning. All 47 passengers and crew survived a plane’s crash landing in a Pacific lagoon. Seven people were taken to a hospital, according to officials, including one described as being in a critical but stable condition.
The airline said in a statement that the 35 passengers and 12 crew members aboard the Boeing 737 were all able to safely evacuate. It said the weather was poor at the time, with heavy rain and reduced visibility. Air Niugini is the national airline of Papua New Guinea and has operated since 1973. The airline identified the flight as PX 073 with the registration number P2-PXE. Flight histories show that aircraft has made recent flights to Manila, Sydney and Singapore. VOA
Adultery verdict ruled by India Court
The chief justice of India’s Supreme Court has presided over a string of recent rulings that grant more rights to women, gay couples and religious minorities, challenging deeply conservative Indian society before he retires next month.
In the latest decision Thursday, Chief Justice Dipak Misra and the rest of the five-member court struck down a 158-year-old law that treated adultery in certain cases as a criminal offense punishable by up to five years in prison. The court called the law, which did not allow wives to prosecute adulterous husbands, unconstitutional and noted that a “husband is not the master of woman.” Adultery can still be grounds for divorce in India, the verdict said, but a criminal penalty violated women’s protection to equal rights under the law. VOA
Senate to vote Kavanaugh Friday
The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote Friday morning to recommend or reject Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. If he’s backed by the Republican majority, the entire Senate will vote on his confirmation Tuesday. On Thursday, Christine Blasey Ford, who alleges Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were in high school, testified that she is “100 percent” sure it was Kavanaugh who forcibly groped her at a house party in the 1980s.
Kavanaugh angrily and unequivocally denied Ford’s allegations. “I never sexually assaulted anyone,” he said in a raw opening statement. He fiercely defended his honor, detailing his meticulous calendars, professing his love of mostly responsible beer drinking, and insisting he never attended a party like the one Ford described. Los Angeles Times, The Week
Trump tweets about Kavanaugh’s testimony
As soon as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh finished testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday evening, President Trump tweeted words of support. Kavanaugh was testy and clearly angry throughout the hearing, sparring with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and Trump said that Kavanaugh “showed America exactly why I nominated him.
His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats’ search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote!” Donald J. Trump
ABA, Catholic journal drop support for Kavanaugh
On Thursday night, the American Bar Association urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to hit pause on Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmaion vote until after an FBI investigation and the prominent Jesuit magazine America rescinded its endorsement of Kavanaugh and urged his nomination withdrawn.
America’s editors and the ABA gave similar reasons: Christine Blasey Ford’s assault testimony against Kavanaugh at Thursday’s hearing was credible enough to merit a full investigation, and America needs to have confidence in the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh, a Catholic who attended a Jesuit high school, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), his most impassioned supporter, both held up the ABA’s unanimous well-qualified rating in Thursday’s hearing as a marker of his character and judgment. America, The Washington Post
Trump, Rosenstein meeting postponed
President Trump postponed a meeting with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein scheduled for Thursday. Trump wanted to avoid doing “anything to interfere” with the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for Christine Blasey Ford, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. Ford testified Thursday about her allegation that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in high school, and Kavanaugh offered testimony of his own shortly thereafter.
Rosenstein was expected to leave the White House earlier this week, either by resigning or by being fired, after The New York Times reported Friday that he’d mentioned using the 25th Amendment to force the president out of office. But in a press conference Wednesday, Trump said he’d prefer to “keep him.” The Associated Press, PBS NewsHour