10 things you need to know today: February 15, 2016

President Obama addresses&#039; Antonin Scalia&#039;s death.

(Image credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Jump to category:

1. Obama to nominate Scalia replacement despite GOP objections
2. Record cold hits Northeast
3. Trump and Clinton maintain leads in South Carolina
4. Hospital supported by aid group destroyed by airstrikes in Syria
5. Haiti's Senate leader takes over as interim president
6. Australian police find $900 million in liquid meth inside bra inserts and art supplies
7. Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reports to Israeli prison to serve 19-month sentence
8. DiCaprio and The Revenant win big at BAFTA film awards
9. British indie rock band dies in car wreck in Sweden
10. Deadpool sets record in debut weekend

published 18 May 2021

1. Obama to nominate Scalia replacement despite GOP objections

President Obama plans to nominate a replacement for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who was found dead Saturday at age 79, after the Senate returns from recess on Feb. 22, the White House said Sunday. Republican lawmakers and presidential candidates are vowing to block Obama's nominee, and calling for letting the next president nominate the new justice. The White House said it expects the Senate to consider Obama's nominee "consistent with their responsibilities laid out in the United States Constitution."

Several Eastern U.S. cities were hit by record cold on Sunday, followed by snow and sleet on Monday. The temperature fell to 1 below zero in New York City's Central Park, three degrees below the former record set during World War I. Bridgeport, Connecticut, also saw a record low of 1 below, shattering the previous low of 3 degrees Fahrenheit. Every state from Pennsylvania to Maine got wind chills under minus 15 during the Valentine's Day freeze, which affected the Plains and Midwest, as well. "These temperatures can be life threatening," New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump holds a 22-point lead over Ted Cruz in the next primary state, South Carolina, according to an online poll released Sunday by CBS News and YouGov. Trump notched 42 percent of the support among likely primary voters to Cruz's 20. Marco Rubio followed with 15 percent. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders, 59 percent to 40 percent. The poll's margin of error is 5.7 percentage points for the Republican contest and 8.7 percentage points for the Democratic one.

Deadly airstrikes destroyed a hospital supported by Doctors Without Borders in northern Syria's Idlib province on Monday. Doctors Without Borders — also known by its French acronym MSF — said eight of the hospital's 54 staff members were missing. In neighboring Aleppo province — where a government offensive is being aided by Russian airstrikes — a missile hit a children's hospital in the town of Azaz on the Turkish border. The two attacks left 24 dead and at least 40 wounded.

Haitian lawmakers on Sunday elected Senate chief Jocelerme Privert as the Caribbean nation's provisional president. Privert was promptly sworn in to fill a void left when former President Michel Martelly's term ended with his successor's election bogged down over a dispute over the results of the first round of balloting. Privert will be responsible for rallying the country's divided parties to organize elections to fill vacant seats in Parliament and choose the next president.

Australian police have seized $900 million worth of liquid methamphetamine, also known as "ice," hidden in boxes of silicon bra inserts, and painting sets and glue bottles, Australian officials announced Monday. It was the largest such drug bust in Australia's history. The find came during an investigation stemming from the December discovery of 50 gallons of the liquid drug inside gel bra inserts in a shipping container bound for Hong Kong. The latest haul could have been used to make 1,100 pounds of crystal meth.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert started serving a 19-month prison sentence for a corruption conviction on Monday. Hours earlier, he released a homemade video maintaining that he never took bribes. Olmert was found guilty two years ago of taking money from real estate developers building a luxury apartment complex in Jerusalem while he was the city's mayor. He is the first Israeli prime minister ever sent to prison, and his drive to Maasiyahu Prison was carried live on TV.

Leonardo DiCaprio and his film The Revenant dominated the British Academy Film Awards on Sunday. The film — a tale of survival and revenge in the American West — won the BAFTA for Best Picture. Alejandro G. Inarritu was named Best Director, and the film also won for cinematography and sound. DiCaprio cemented his position as an Oscar favorite by winning Britain's highest honor for actors for his portrayal of Hugh Glass, a fur trapper who fights for survival and revenge after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by two companions.

All four members of the British indie band Viola Beach were killed over the weekend in a car crash in Sweden. The band members — Kris Leonard, River Reeves, Tomas Lowe, and Jack Dakin, and their manager, Craig Tarry — were traveling in a rental car when they went through a barrier that was meant to prevent vehicles from crossing an opening drawbridge. Their vehicle fell more than 80 feet into a canal, killing everyone inside.

Deadpool, a superhero movie starring Ryan Reynolds, smashed the record box-office haul for the long Valentine's Day/Presidents Day weekend, grossing $135 million domestically over three days, far surpassing expectations. The Marvel-branded film also raked in $125 million overseas. Deadpool's debut was the biggest ever in North America for an R-rated film, a record The Matrix Reloaded held for nearly 13 years after bringing in $91.8 million on its opening weekend in May 2003.

Explore More

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.