World News
Biden Nominates Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson To Become First Black Woman On Supreme Court
President Joe Biden kept his word and nominated a black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court for the first time ever. He has selected Ketanji Brown Jackson as his nominee to the Supreme Court, according to a White House announcement.
President Biden nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to become the 116th associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. The 51-year-old U.S. appeals court judge was nominated to succeed Justice Stephen Breyer, for whom she clerked. The 83-year-old judge – who is considered to be the most senior jurist in the court’s three-member liberal wing – announced in January he has plans to retire this Summer.
If Judge Jackson is selected, she will make history as the first Black woman on the nation’s highest court. And trust, she didn’t get the nomination simply because she’s a Black woman. ”President Biden sought a candidate with exceptional credentials, unimpeachable character, and unwavering dedication to the rule of law,” the White House said in a statement. “Judge Jackson is an exceptionally qualified nominee as well as an historic nominee, and the Senate should move forward with a fair and timely hearing and confirmation.”
If she’s selected, she’ll be the first justice in decades with any significant experience representing criminal defendants. The last justice with any real experience as a defense lawyer in criminal cases was Justice Thurgood Marshall.
Judge Jackson served as a federal public defender for two years and she was a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission during the time the panel significantly rolled back federal sentencing guidelines for many drug offenses.
Judge Jackson’s background is quite impressive. She went to Harvard Law, she served as a Supreme Court clerkship, spent some time at prestigious corporate law firms, she held a seat as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, and she was also a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Judge Jackson was one of President Biden’s first judicial nominees. She was confirmed with bipartisan support to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2021.
During her confirmation hearing for the U.S. Court of Appeals, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, asked Jackson what role race played in her time as a judge.
“I don’t think that race plays a role in the kind of judge that I have been and would be. I’m doing a certain thing when I get my cases,” Judge Jackson replied. “I’m looking at the arguments, the facts and the law. I’m methodically and intentionally setting aside personal views, any other inappropriate considerations, and I would think that race would be the kind of thing that would be inappropriate to inject into my evaluation of a case.”
Interesting a republican had the audacity to ask this, but they acted shocked and appalled that people felt the need to ask now-Supreme Court Judge Kavanaugh about his multiple sexual assault accusations. Hmph.
Judge Jackson was born in Washington, DC and grew up in Miami, Florida. Her parents attended segregated primary schools, then attended historically black colleges and universities. Both started their careers as public school teachers and became leaders and administrators in the Miami-Dade Public School System. When Judge Jackson was in preschool, her father attended law school. In a 2017 lecture, Judge Jackson traced her love of the law back to sitting next to her father in their apartment as he tackled his law school homework—reading cases and preparing for Socratic questioning—while she undertook her preschool homework—coloring books.
Judge Jackson stood out as a high achiever throughout her childhood. She was a speech and debate star who was elected “mayor” of Palmetto Junior High and student body president of Miami Palmetto Senior High School. But like many Black women, Judge Jackson still faced naysayers. When Judge Jackson told her high school guidance counselor she wanted to attend Harvard, the guidance counselor warned that Judge Jackson should not set her “sights so high.”
That did not stop Judge Jackson. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, then attended Harvard Law School, where she graduated cum laude and was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Judge Jackson lives with her husband, Patrick, and their two daughters, in Washington, DC.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement: “With her exceptional qualifications and record of evenhandedness, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will be a Justice who will uphold the constitution and protect the rights of all Americans, including the voiceless and vulnerable. Once the President sends Judge Jackson’s nomination to the Senate, Senate Democrats will work to ensure a fair, timely, and expeditious process – fair to the nominee, to the Senate, and to the American public,” he added.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement: “I voted against confirming Judge Jackson to her current position less than a year ago. Since then, I understand that she has published a total of two opinions, both in the last few weeks.” He added: “With that said, I look forward to carefully reviewing Judge Jackson’s nomination during the vigorous and thorough Senate process that the American people deserve.”
Now that President Biden has named Judge Jackson as his nominee, the President will seek the Senate’s consent to confirm Judge Jackson to the Supreme Court. Judge Jackson’s nomination is subject to confirmation by the Senate, where Democrats hold the majority by a 50-50 margin with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaker.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for SCOTUS!
After 11 days of an exceptional edition, the Jury of the 77th Festival de Cannes, chaired by American director, screenwriter and actress Greta Gerwig, surrounded by Turkish screenwriter and photographer Ebru Ceylan, American actress Lily Gladstone, French actress Eva Green, Lebanese director and screenwriter Nadine Labaki, as well as Spanish director and screenwriter Juan Antonio Bayona, Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino, Japanese director Kore-eda Hirokazu and French actor and producer Omar Sy, presented its winners’ list among the 22 films presented in Competition this year.
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Singer Sean Kingston has been arrested in California, hours after a police raid of his Florida mansion, during which his mother was also arrested. (more…)
The Short Films and La Cinef Jury presided by Lubna Azabal and comprised of Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar, Paolo Moretti, Claudine Nougaret and Vladimir Perišić has awarded the 2024 La Cinef Prizes today during a ceremony held in the Buñuel Theatre, followed by the screening of the winning films. La Cinef consisted of 18 student films, chosen out of 2 263 entries coming from 555 film schools around the world.
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Today at the Plage des Palmes, the Jury of the Immersive Competition of the 77th Festival de Cannes awarded the prize for Best Immersive Work, presenting one winner among the 8 in-competition virtual reality, augmented reality, video projection and holographic works.
The Jury, chaired by French filmmaker and screenwriter Marie Amachoukeli, included French writer, director and producer Mathias Chelebourg, American producer, writer, and director Vassiliki Khonsari, Israeli filmmaker Uri Kranot, and New Zealand and American filmmaker Raqi Syed.
The Award was presented to Colored created by Tania de Montaigne, Stéphane Foenkinos, Pierre-Alain Giraud.
For its inaugural year, more than 3000 tickets were booked by Festival attendees to experience this new movement taking place at the 77th Festival de Cannes.
The selected works – En amour, Evolver, Human Violins: Prelude, Maya: the Birth of a superhero, Noire, TELOS I, The Roaming and Traversing the Mist – each used a variety of technologies and techniques to pave the way for new methods of storytelling.
“With the Immersive Competition, the Festival de Cannes is showcasing a new art form that draws in part on the heritage of cinema. This approach is in line with our desire to explore new stories and new experiences. This is not the first time the Festival de Cannes has exhibited an immersive work. In 2017, Alejandro González Iñárritu‘s Carne y Arena was presented in the Official Selection, and it was a great success. Today the medium is more mature and we’re once again pioneering our approach, offering immersive art pride of place at the Festival, with a selection of 8 works in competition and an awards ceremony hosted by an international jury,’ says Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate of the Festival de Cannes.
“The Immersive Competition is a continuation of the original values of the Festival, exploring new stories with the new tools available,” says Elie Levasseur, Immersive Competition Project Director.
Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums list culminates today with the much-anticipated reveal of the top 10 albums of all time and The Miseducation of Lauryn Hillcrowned No. 1.
Upon receiving the news, Lauryn Hill told Apple Music, “This is my award, but it’s a rich, deep narrative, and involves so many people, and so much sacrifice, and so much time, and so much collective love.”
10. Lemonade (2016), Beyoncé
Beyoncé’s genre-obliterating blockbuster sixth album is furious, defiant, anguished, vulnerable, experimental, muscular, triumphant, humorous, and brave — a vivid personal statement, released without warning in a time of public scrutiny and private suffering. Every second of Lemonade deserves to be studied and celebrated.
9. Nevermind (1991), Nirvana
Nevermind and its opening salvo “Smells Like Teen Spirit” didn’t just mark an unlikely breakthrough for the Seattle trio, it upended popular culture in ways never before and never since. Punk became pop, grunge became global vernacular, industry walls broke into rubble, and lead vocalist Kurt Cobain was anointed the reluctant voice of a generation in need of catharsis — all seemingly overnight.
8. Back to Black (2006), Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse’s presentation and otherworldly, timeless vocals make her music feel different — not so much an attempt to re-create the past as to honor the music she loved while still being true to the trash-talking, self-effacing millennial she was. The sound of Back to Black might appeal to retro-soul fans and jazz classicists, but the attitude is closer to rap. Yes, she was funny. But she wasn’t kidding.
7. good kid, m.A.A.d city (2012), Kendrick Lamar
Kendrick Lamar’s sophomore album good kid, m.A.A.d city is one of the defining hip-hop records of the 21st century. West Coast hip-hop elders like Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre anointed Lamar to carry on the legacy of gangsta rap, and the legacy of this album is a crucial example of American storytelling that established the future Pulitzer Prize winner as perhaps his generation’s most accomplished writer.
6. Songs in the Key of Life (1976), Stevie Wonder
In 1974, Stevie Wonder was the most critically revered pop star in the world; he was also considering leaving the music industry altogether. So when Songs in the Key of Life was released two years later, demand was so high that it became, at the time, the fastest-selling album in history. The album, which runs nearly 90 minutes, is effortlessly melodic, broad in scope, and deeply personal. Sonically, culturally, and emotionally, Songs in the Key of Life is much more than a gigantic collection of songs — it forms an entire worldview.
5. Blonde (2016), Frank Ocean
Though Blonde packs 17 tracks into one quick hour, it’s a sprawling palette of ideas, a testament to the intelligence of flying one’s own artistic freak flag and trusting that audiences will meet them where they’re at. They did. And Ocean established himself as a generational artist uniquely suited to the complexities and convulsive changes of the second decade of the 21st century.
4. Purple Rain (1984), Prince & The Revolution
With half its track list comprising top 10 singles, this soundtrack is what truly turned Prince Rogers Nelson into one of the most instantly recognizable and distinctive pop artists ever. Prince often drew comparisons to Jimi Hendrix for the way he mixed music that felt Black and white, sacred and profane. The reality is that he had no precedent then and no comparison now.
3. Abbey Road (1969), The Beatles
The Beatles’ Abbey Road is an ageless, unmatched collection of songs by a world-changing band at their creative peak. The band’s 11th and penultimate album sounds like nothing more or less than four extremely gifted humans playing one indelible song after another in the same room together.
2. Thriller (1982), Michael Jackson
There are few pop albums, or even works of art, that denote a wholesale shift in time and space the way Michael Jackson’s Thriller did in 1982. It did nothing less than define the modern pop blockbuster and redefine the scope and reach of music. Seven of its nine original cuts were top 10 singles, and it became one of the bestselling albums ever made.
1. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998), Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill’s debut — and only — solo studio album was a seismic event in 1998: a stunningly raw, profound look into the spiritual landscape not just of one of the era’s biggest stars, but of the era itself. She was, and remains, a once-in-a-generation talent whose inspiration and innovation can be heard through the decades. Artists exhaust long discographies hoping for a cohesive piece of work resonant enough to reshape culture and inscribe its creator into the pantheon; Lauryn Hill did it in one.
Iran’s President, Ebrahim Raisi, has been killed in a helicopter crash in a mountainous area of north-western Iran, the country’s state media has said.
He was travelling with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian who also died after the aircraft came down on Sunday.
It was initially reported that the helicopter carrying the men and their entourage had made a rough landing in foggy conditions.
Mr Raisi, 63, was tipped as a potential successor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The helicopter came down in a remote area of north-western Iran on the way back from Azerbaijan where Mr Raisi had been meeting President Ilham Aliyev.
On Monday, the Iranian Red Crescent confirmed the bodies of the president and others who died in the crash had been recovered and search operations had ended.
“We are in the process of transferring the bodies of the martyrs to Tabriz [in Iran’s northwest],” the organisation’s chief said on state television.
According to local media he had been in the area to open the Qiz Qalasi and Khodaafarin dams.
Ahead of the confirmation of the death, vigils had taken place in the capital, Tehran, with pictures showing people kneeling in prayer.
Mr Raisi, 63, was a hard-line cleric close to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and was considered to be a potential successor to the 85-year-old.
His election as president in 2021 consolidated the control of conservatives over every part of the Islamic Republic.
In a statement following his death, the Iranian government said it would continue to operate “without disruption”.
A number of countries have expressed their condolences following President Raisi’s death.
In Pakistan, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced a national day of mourning and described the Mr Raisi and Mr Amir-Abdollahian as “good friends of Iran”.
Writing on social media, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “deeply saddened and shocked” by the deaths.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government was “in full contact and co-ordination with the Iranian authorities” and was ready to “provide any necessary support”.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed his condolences and said the president and foreign minister were “true, reliable friends of our country”.
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