Iran explosions: Iran says that at least 103 people were killed and at least 141 injured in two explosions during a ceremony in the city of Kerman, Iran, today. The ceremony was honoring Iranian General Qaseem Soleimani who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2020. The Trump Administration had ordered the drone attack after identifying Soleimani as a terrorist.
Secretary Mayorkas: A spokesperson for the Republican-controlled House Committee on Homeland Security has told CNN that the committee plans to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in the hope that the Senate will then remove him from office. Republicans have been pushing for Mayorkas to close the southern U.S. border to immigrants. On CNN this morning, Mayorkas said he’s not concerned about the impeachment effort while again calling for Congress to provide more resources to his department so it can better handle the border situation..
Harvard’s president: Harvard University’s President Claudine Gay has announced that she’s resigning. She had been on the job for six months. Gay has been under criticism for failing to condemn a rise in antisemitism on campus after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. She also faced charges of plagiarism after the conservative publication The Washington Beacon alleged she did not provide proper attribution when she used material by other authors in scholarly papers and articles she had written.
Plane collision: Japanese officials reported this morning that the Japan Airlines Airbus A350 that hit a Japanese Coast Guard plane at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport yesterday had been cleared to land. The crew of the Coast Guard plane had been instructed to hold short of the runway and their plane should not have been on the runway at the time of the collision. A communications transcript reveals that a controller told the pilots of the Coast Guard plane that they would be receiving a priority departure, and it is possible that the pilots mistook that nonstandard phrase to be a clearance to take off. Five people on the Coast Guard plane were killed when it was hit by the A350. Everyone on board the airliner escaped after it burst into flames.
Texas law: The Federal 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that doctors and hospitals in Texas are not obligated to perform emergency abortions as required by the Biden Administration’s interpretation of the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. The 5th Circuit is one of the most conservative courts in the country. It ruled that Texas law can override the federal law and ban emergency abortions. Two of the judges who ruled in the case were appointed by Donald Trump while the third was appointed by George W. Bush.
Trump’s appeal: Lawyers for Donald Trump have gone into state court in Maine to appeal the ruling by Maine’s Secretary of State that Trump is not qualified to run for office under the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution’s 14th Amendment disqualifies from holding office anyone who has participated in or supported an insurrection, such as the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump’s lawyers claim that the Secretary of State exceeded her authority and relied on faulty evidence in ruling that Trump cannot be on the presidential primary ballot in Maine.
