| | | US announces new sanctions as 2nd round of talks between Russia and Ukraine end with no cease-fire: As Russian and Ukrainian delegations disagreed on a cease-fire on Thursday, the U.S. announced new sanctions against members of the Russian elite, including Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesperson. The sanctions will block 19 oligarchs and 47 of their relatives and close associates from traveling to the U.S., and ban eight members of the Russian elite from the U.S. financial system. The Justice Department also announced a task force to target assets of Russian oligarchs close to Putin who may have helped him launder or hide money obtained through corruption. On the battlefield, Russian forces continued to advance into southern Ukraine after seizing the eastern Ukrainian city of Balakliya on Thursday morning. Officials said that Russian forces also fired at Ukraine's largest nuclear power plant and "disabled" a television tower in Kyiv. In response to what has happened in the region since the conflict began last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a warning to Putin in a televised news conference. "You will repay everything you did against Ukraine -- in full," he said. "We will not forget those who perished -- and God won't." | | Jury finds ex-officer Brett Hankison not guilty on all counts in shooting during Breonna Taylor raid: After just three hours of deliberation, a jury in Louisville, Kentucky, found Brett Hankison, the former police officer charged with recklessly shooting into a neighboring apartment during the course of the raid that ended with the death of Breonna Taylor, not guilty on all three counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree. Hankison was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment for firing multiple shots into a neighboring apartment that endangered the lives of three people on March 13, 2020. Hankison and fellow officers Myles Cosgrove and Jonathan Mattingly fired 32 shots into Taylor's apartment while serving a "no-knock" warrant searching for Taylor's ex-boyfriend, who they allege was dealing drugs. He was not at the residence, but her current boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, was. Walker thought someone was breaking into the home and fired one shot from a 9 mm pistol at the officers. Hankison, who fired 10 shots, had several of those shots enter a neighboring apartment. In response to the ruling, Taylor's attorney, Ben Crump, said there is more work to be done to protect people of color. | | Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's daughter once asked Obama to put her mom on the high court: While a group of fellow clerks and former colleagues of Ketanji Brown Jackson endorsed the Supreme Court nominee on Thursday, it was an 11-year-old middle schooler who asked former President Barack Obama to put Jackson on the high court six years ago. In 2016, Jackson's daughter, Leila, penned a letter to Obama requesting he nominate her mom for a seat on the Supreme Court. Leila wrote the letter touting her mother's credentials following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. "I would like to add my mother, Ketanji Brown Jackson of the District Court, to the list," she wrote, referring to Obama's shortlist of potential nominees. "She is determined, honest, and never breaks a promise to anyone, even if there are other things she'd rather do." The letter was read aloud in a 2017 speech Jackson gave, in which she first explained to her daughter the process of becoming a justice. Jackson, who is the first Black woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court, will meet with senators for confirmation hearings later this month. | | Girl inspired by grandpa's cancer experience makes care bags for chemo patients: When Sophie Enderton of Newfane, New York, saw her late grandfather, Terry Enderton, sit through chemotherapy for hours with nothing to do, she wanted to do something to help him and other chemo patients. So, Sophie got to work and created chemo-friendly care packages filled with comforting items such as blankets, pillows, cozy socks, soup bowls, pre-made soups, mints and ginger candies. She later added playing cards and checker sets, as well as donated items from people in her community. Sophie made a total of 10 bags for her first set of patients at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York, but the first bag went to her grandpa Terry. "He was super proud of her," Sophie's mom, Jillian Enderton, told "GMA." Terry died in December from his battle with pancreatic cancer but Enderton said her daughter plans to continue making care bags for chemo patients. "We just want to keep it going and do grandpa proud," Enderton said. | |
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