Top News Stories for Today – Mar 14, 2019
Top News Stories for Today – Mar 14, 2019
US ground Boeing 737
Belatedly following the lead of more than 30 other countries, the US Federal Aviation Administration has ordered the immediate grounding of the entire Max series of Boeing jetliners. The action to halt all flights of the new planes in American airspace is a quick and sudden reversal of the stance taken by the manufacturer, the US airlines flying them and the administration of US President Donald Trump that there was no reason to order a grounding despite fatal nose-dive crashes of the Max planes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.
Trump predicted Boeing will solve the problem: “Hopefully, they will very quickly come up with the answer. But until they do, the planes are grounded.” The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from the crashed Ethiopian Airlines flight arrived Thursday in France where they will be analyzed by the government’s BEA air accident investigation authority for more information about what caused the plane to go down. The Voice of America
Manafort sentenced to 73 months in prison
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., sentenced Paul Manafort to 73 months in prison on Wednesday following his conviction on charges of unregistered foreign lobbying and witness tampering. Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced the former Trump campaign manager to 60 months on the first count, running concurrently to 30 months of the 47-month sentence imposed in his Virginia case last week.
She also sentenced him to 13 months on the witness tampering count to be served consecutively with the count one sentence and his Virginia sentence. That would mean an additional 43 months overall, bringing the total time he faces behind bars, including the nine months that he has already served in Virginia, to 81 months. The judge also ordered Manafort to pay one-time restitution of $6.16 million to the Internal Revenue Service, the same amount he was sentenced to pay in the Virginia case. ABC News
Beto O’Rourke Joins Presidential race
Former US congressman Beto O’Rourke announced Thursday he is joining the race for the Democratic Party’s nomination in the 2020 presidential election. He released a video message pledging a positive campaign that embraces the opportunity of facing challenges at what he called a “moment of maximum peril and maximum potential.” He highlighted healthcare, criminal justice reform and ending US involvement in decades-long wars as some of his priorities. O’Rourke ran for a Senate seat representing the state of Texas in 2018, losing by less than three percentage points to Sen. Ted Cruz. The Voice of America
Senate votes to cut off US support for war in Yemen
In a rebuke to President Trump, the Senate voted on Wednesday to end US support for the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen. Seven Republicans joined the Democrats to vote for the resolution, which now heads to the House, where a similar measure was passed earlier this year. The coalition is fighting the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, but during bombing campaigns, civilians have been killed, and aid has been blocked. The United Nations has called what is happening in Yemen the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The Washington Post via The Week
UK MPs to vote on delaying Brexit
Theresa May will make a third attempt to get her EU withdrawal deal through Parliament in the next week. She told MPs that if her deal fails again to get their backing, a lengthy delay to Brexit may be needed.
The prime minister’s warning comes ahead of a Commons vote later on whether to ask the EU for permission to delay Brexit beyond 29 March. MPs voted on Wednesday evening to reject a no-deal Brexit under any circumstances. No date has yet been set for the third so-called “meaningful vote”. BBC
Vietnamese woman to stand trial in Kim killing
Malaysia’s attorney general ordered the murder case to proceed against a Vietnamese woman accused in the killing of the North Korean leader’s estranged half brother, prosecutors said in court Thursday. Prosecutor Iskandar Ahmad gave no explanation for the refusal to drop the murder charge against Doan Thi Huong, who is the only suspect in custody after the stunning decision to drop the case Monday against Indonesian Siti Aisyah.
Huong’s lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik told the court they were disappointed with the attorney general’s decision and said prosecutors were being unfair to Huong. A Vietnamese delegation said Huong told them she was happy for Aisyah but that she was also innocent. The two women were the only people in custody after four North Korean suspects fled the country Feb. 13, 2017, when Kim Jong Nam was poisoned with VX nerve agent. The Voice of America