Southern states could see more severe weather, tornados this week – National & International News – MON 28Mar2022

Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and Louisiana face second week of severe weather. Judge rules against Trump in Jan. 6 inquiry. Ukrainian peace delegates ‘poisoned’.

NATIONAL NEWS

South faces second week of severe weather

A new super system of severe weather will sweep across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama for the second week in a row. Many of the areas under threat are still cleaning up from last week’s storms, which brought tornados, floods, high winds, hail and thunderstorms.

Meteorologists predict that the system will take shape over Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas overnight on Tuesday. By Wednesday afternoon, they say, the storm will have moved across to Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. High winds coming up from the Gulf could increase the likelihood of tornados and other severe weather events. In all, about 63 million people will be in the path of the severe weather system this week.

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Judge rules against Trump in Jan. 6 inquiry; panel weighs calling Justice Thomas’ wife

A federal judge has ruled that over 100 emails between former President Trump and his attorney John Eastman must be turned over to the Congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

The committee previously submitted a brief that attorney-client privilege did not apply to Trump and Eastman’s correspondence because they were engaged in a “criminal conspiracy” to overturn the results of the 2020 election. U.S. District Court Judge David Carter seemed to accept this argument. In his ruling, Carter wrote, “Based on the evidence, the Court finds it more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021”. 

Jan 6. panel weighs calling ‘Ginni’ Thomas

Last week, texts between Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Virginia ‘Ginni’ Thomas (wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas) stirred controversy. The texts show that Mrs. Thomas was actively advising and supporting the campaign by Trump and his aides to subvert the election certification process.

This revelation put Justice Thomas in ethical hot water and called into question his rulings on two relevant cases. Firstly, in January Thomas was the lone dissenter in a ruling that required Trump to turn over a trove of documents to the Jan. 6 committee. It’s unclear whether these documents included Mrs. Thomas’ questionable texts to Meadows. Later in February, Justice Thomas also disagreed with the Court’s decision not to hear a case challenging Pennsylvania’s 2020 election results. As a result, several politicians have called on Justice Thomas to recuse himself from any cases pertaining to the Jan. 6 probe or the 2024 election. Some have even called for Thomas to resign or face impeachment proceedings.

The Jan. 6 committee is now considering whether to call Mrs. Thomas to testify. 

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Reports: Ukrainian peace delegates ‘poisoned’

Reports have surfaced that members of a Ukrainian peace delegation suffered symptoms of poisoning after talks with their Russian counterparts earlier this month. At least two of the Ukrainian delegates, as well as Russian oligarch Roman Abramavich, suffered symptoms including peeling skin and red eyes. The reports also claim that Abramavich suffered temporary blindness, from which he recovered. Abramavich was participating in the talks at the request of the Ukrainians.

The investigative outlet Bellingcat, which has a history of butting heads with the Kremlin, were the first to publish the story. However, even the Ukrainian government has not confirmed the story.

New talks ahead

Ahead of new Ukraine-Russia peace talks in Turkey, Ukraine’s President Zelensky says he is willing to discuss NATO ‘neutrality’. Zelensky also said he is willing to make some concessions about the status of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. These regions are home to a sizeable ethnic Russian population and are at this point under Russian military control. Before the invasion, Putin recognized these regions as “independent republics” likely with the ultimate goal of absorbing them into the Russian Federation.

Meanwhile, Russia’s military objectives in Ukraine seem to have shifted. They no longer seem intent on taking the capital Kiev. Instead, they are focusing their attentions in the east and south of Ukraine. Ukrainian officials believe that Putin’s goal is to divide up the country into Russian-controlled and Ukrainian-controlled territories, much in the same way that Germany was divided during the Cold War.

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