Five officers charged with murder in Memphis police killing
Five Memphis, Tennessee, police officers were charged Thursday with second-degree murder for the death of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, after a traffic stop that escalated into what authorities have described as a display of staggering brutality. The city has been bracing for over a week for the release of video footage that officials say depicts in agonizing detail how a stop this month for suspicion of reckless driving ended with Nichols being hospitalized in critical condition Jan. 7 and dying three days later. Civic leaders and others in Memphis have raised concerns about the reaction the footage could provoke among residents already anguished and outraged about Nichols’ death.
Data from cities show violent crime rates fell slightly last year
Violent crime rates in some major cities declined last year but have yet to recover from a 2020 surge associated with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report released Thursday. The report, by the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice, examined trends in 35 cities and found that although homicides, gun assaults and reports of domestic violence declined slightly in 2022 compared with the year before, some property crimes have worsened. In some cities, car thefts in particular have spiked, the report found. Nationwide, crime has been steadily declining for most of the past quarter-century, starting in the early 1990s.
FDA seeks more authority to oversee CBD products
Four years after Congress legalized hemp, spawning a vast, unregulated market for cannabidiol-infused beverages, gummies and lotions, the Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that it lacked the authority to regulate such products. Instead, the agency called on federal lawmakers to give it a stronger regulatory framework to address the health claims and safety concerns that have dogged the prolific CBD industry. Dr. Janet Woodcock, the FDA’s principal deputy commissioner, said the agency’s existing regulatory methods governing the sale of food additives and dietary supplements were inappropriate for products containing CBD, short for cannabidiol, the hemp-derived chemical whose promoters ascribe to it a dizzying welter of health benefits.
Israel, Gaza fighters trade fire after deadly West Bank raid
Gaza militants fired rockets and Israel carried out airstrikes as tensions soared following an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank. The raid killed nine Palestinians, including at least seven militants and a 61-year-old woman. It was the deadliest single incursion in the territory in over two decades. The flare-up in violence poses an early test for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government and casts a shadow on U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s expected trip to the region next week. Palestinian militants fired five rockets at Israel, which carried out a series of airstrikes at what it said were militant targets. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
US military kills senior Islamic State official in Somalia
U.S. special operations forces have killed a senior Islamic State group official and 10 other terrorist operatives in remote northern Somalia. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says the operation in a mountainous cave complex targeted Bilal al-Sudani, a key financial facilitator for the global terrorist organization. President Joe Biden was briefed last week about the proposed mission that was months in the planning. He gave the final approval this week following the recommendation of Austin and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Mark Milley, according to two officials who briefed reporters on the operation on the condition of anonymity. Pentagon officials say no civilians were injured or killed in the operation.
New barrage of Russian strikes in Ukraine kills at least 11
Ukrainian authorities say Russia has fired more missiles and self-exploding drones at nearly a dozen Ukrainian provinces, causing the first war-related death in Kyiv this year and killing at least 11 people overall. The attacks came a day after Germany and the United States announced they would send advanced battle tanks to Ukraine. The spokesperson for Ukraine’s State Emergency Service announced the casualty toll. The mayor of Kyiv said earlier that one person was killed in the capital, the city’s first attack-related death of the year. Authorities say three other people died in a strike on an energy facility in Zaporizhzhia province. The attacks adhered to Russia’s recent pattern of launching widespread infrastructure strikes about every two weeks.
COVID cases spread to 9/11 defendants at Guantánamo Bay
Four of the five men accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have contracted COVID-19, according to legal staff members, as the coronavirus continued to move through a maximum-security prison for former CIA detainees at Guantánamo Bay. The prisoner accused of masterminding the attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, has not tested positive for the virus. But the other four defendants in the capital case have flu-like symptoms and are in quarantine. It is believed to be the first coronavirus outbreak at the 70-cell prison housing Mohammed.
By wire sources
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