New special counsel has long career confronting corruption
The prosecutor named as special counsel to oversee investigations related to former President Donald Trump has a long career confronting public corruption and war crimes. Jack Smith was named in 2010 to lead the Justice Department’s public integrity section after it was involved in a botched case. Colleagues who have worked with Smith describe him as hard-charging, fast-working and passionate, a prosecutor who operates free of political persuasion and who is relentless about his cases. The investigations Smith is overseeing carry obvious political implications because they concern a former president and current White House hopeful.
Truck in North Carolina holiday parade crashes, kills girl
Police say a vehicle towing a float for a holiday parade in North Carolina crashed, killing a girl participating in the event. A Raleigh Police Department news release says the driver who lost control of the vehicle and struck the child was charged with reckless driving and other offenses. Witnesses told WTVD-TV that people attending the Raleigh Christmas Parade heard the truck’s driver screaming that he had lost control of the vehicle and couldn’t stop it before the crash. Nobody else at the parade was injured in the collision.
Georgia Senate rivals, with little time to spare, sprint toward runoff
With nearly every other midterm election decided, Herschel Walker, Republican nominee for Senate in Georgia, and his Democratic rival, Sen. Raphael Warnock, remain in campaign mode, pressing ahead with the approaches that left them narrowly divided Nov. 8 and facing a runoff election Dec. 6. That short timeline has both sides scrambling to buy more ads, mobilize hundreds of new staffers and arrange visits from national allies. The stakes remain high, even though the Democratic Party will hold the Senate. A victory by Warnock, who edged out Walker but fell short of the 50% threshold needed to win outright, would give his party an important 51st seat.
Buffalo nears a state snowfall record, with more on the way
The city of Buffalo, New York, where heavy snow is commonly met with a shrug and a shovel, awoke Saturday to chest-high drifts left by a lake-effect storm that ran roughshod over roadways. Officials said the storm appeared to drop a record amount of snow for Erie County in a 24-hour period — up to 6 inches per hour at times, leaving more than 50, 60 and even 70 inches over the whited-out region. County officials said two people had died as a result of the storm. There were 280 people rescued in the area and some 1,600 without power.
Biden is turning 80. Experts say age is more than a number.
President Joe Biden has said it is a “legitimate question to ask anybody over 70 years old whether or not they’re fit” to serve in the White House. To those who question his fitness, he has a stock answer: “Watch me.” On Sunday, Biden turns 80. But although the risk of life-threatening diseases, dementia and death rises faster with each passing decade of a person’s life, experts in geriatrics say that people in their 80s who are active, engaged and have a sense of purpose can remain productive and healthy — and that wisdom and experience are important factors to consider.
Naomi Biden, president’s granddaughter, is wed at White House
Naomi Biden, 28, the eldest grandchild of President Joe Biden, and Peter Neal were married in a private ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House on Saturday morning. Of the seven Biden grandchildren, Naomi Biden, a Washington attorney with an interest in politics, is a particularly influential presence in the president’s life. It was she who called a family meeting to urge her grandfather to run for the presidency in 2019, and she will be involved in the discussions as Biden mulls a second run.
As the war rages, Ukraine wages a daunting battle to rebuild
For the first time since Russia this past week carried out its largest assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, the Ukrainian energy utility said Saturday that it was again able to use coordinated blackouts to keep the national grid stabilized rather than resorting to emergency power shutdowns. Ukraine’s government said nearly half of the country’s energy grid has been knocked out by recent Russian missile strikes. Kyiv also estimates that nearly 61,000 square miles of the country could be littered with land mines and other explosives. So far, only 288 square miles of the land freed from Russian control have been cleared.
Hundreds of protesters in Iran blinded by metal pellets and rubber bullets
The protester was speeding toward a demonstration in Tehran on his motorbike when an Iranian security officer fired a rubber bullet. The protester said the bullet hit his left eye. He is one of hundreds of victims to have suffered severe eye injuries inflicted by Iranian security forces since mid-September, according to doctors and medical facilities. That month, anti-government protests swept across the country, prompting a violent crackdown. Among the most irreversible effects of the crackdown has been the blinding of people taking part. Scores of protesters have gone to hospitals with eyes ruptured by metal pellets and rubber bullets that security forces fire to disperse crowds.
Fireball flashes above Ontario and parts of the US
A fireball that soared over Ontario, Canada, early Saturday was the sixth object to be detected in space before it struck Earth, the European Space Agency said. The Minor Planet Center, which tracks objects in the solar system, said the meteor entered Earth’s atmosphere at 3:27 a.m. EST, over Brantford, Ontario. It was detected in images taken at Mount Lemmon Survey near Tucson, Arizona. Mike Hankey, operations manager for the American Meteor Society, had cameras monitoring the sky in Maine. The organization had received 33 reports of a fireball from people in Maryland, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Ontario as of Saturday afternoon.
By wire sources
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