10 things you need to know today: April 20, 2023

1. Supreme Court extends abortion pill access through Friday

The Supreme Court said Wednesday that sales of the abortion pill mifepristone could continue at least until Friday as justices consider a challenge to a Texas lower court ruling that suspended regulators' approval of the drug. The Food and Drug Administration authorized mifepristone more than 20 years ago, but antiabortion groups in November challenged the decision and recent Biden administration regulations designed to make it more widely available. The New Orleans-based Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week narrowed the Texas ruling but restored restrictions on access that were in place before 2016, when mifepristone was only authorized for use through seven weeks of pregnancy and after three in-person doctor visits. The appeals court also blocked distribution by mail.

The Wall Street Journal

2. 3 suspects arrested in Alabama birthday party murders

Alabama authorities took three suspects into custody and charged them with killing four people and wounding 32 in a mass shooting at a Sweet 16 birthday party last week, state police said Wednesday. The suspects — Wilson LaMar Hill Jr., 20; Ty Reik McCullough, 17; and Travis McCullough, 16 — face four reckless-murder charges. Police did not immediately say whether they had a theory about the motive for the murders. "We're tired of going to mothers and having to tell them these kids aren't coming home," said Sgt. Jeremy Burkett of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. Three teens and a 23-year-old man were killed in the mass shooting. One of the teens was a star athlete and the birthday girl's brother.

Subscribe to The Week

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

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

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.

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

Sign up

Reuters

3. Temporary cease-fire holds in parts of Khartoum

A temporary cease-fire held in parts of Sudan's capital, Khartoum, on Wednesday, giving some residents who had been trapped for five days without adequate water or food a chance to try to leave. Witnesses said fighting continued in some areas despite the 24-hour truce. Nearly 300 people have been killed and more than 3,000 wounded since fighting broke out between army forces led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the North African nation's de facto ruler, and Rapid Support Forces paramilitaries headed by his former deputy, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti. The fighting has disrupted talks that Western mediators were pushing to put Sudan on track to transition to a civilian government.

The New York Times Reuters

4. Tyre Nichols' family sues Memphis, police over beating death

The family of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man who died after being beaten by Memphis police officers during a traffic stop, filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the city, police Chief Cerelyn "C.J." Davis, and the five officers now facing criminal charges for Nichols' death. The lawsuit, which seeks $550 million for negligence, poor training, careless hiring, and "oppression style policing," also listed two other officers and three fire department employees. Family attorney Ben Crump said the lawsuit was meant to send a message to help prevent more deaths. "It is our mission to make it financially unsustainable for these police oppression units to unjustly kill Black people in the future," he said.

USA Today

5. Florida expands ban on teaching about sexual orientation, gender identity

The Florida State Board of Education voted Wednesday to expand a ban on "intentionally" teaching students about sexual orientation and gender identity to cover Florida middle school and high school teachers. The only exceptions are when the lessons are part of an "expressly required" reproductive health-care course. The move broadens the state's Parental Rights in Education laws, which critics call the "don't say gay" bill, which prohibited classroom instruction on the topics in kindergarten through third grade, and in higher grades if the material was deemed inappropriate. The law has prompted schools to roll back policies intended to be sensitive to gay and transgender students, including bathroom access, pronoun use, and protections for children who confide information about their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The Miami Herald

6. Dozens killed in stampede at Yemen charity distribution

At least 78 people were killed late Wednesday in a stampede at a school in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, where people were jostling to receive charity donations from merchants to mark the final days of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, according to local media and officials in the ruling Houthi movement. Thirteen others were rushed to hospitals, several with critical injuries. An Interior Ministry spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Abdul-Khaleq Al-Ajri, said two merchants had been detained in the investigation into the crush, which he blamed on the "haphazard" distribution of donations. Witnesses told The Associated Press that armed Houthis fired into the air to control the crowd, hitting an electrical wire and starting a panic.

The Washington Post The Associated Press

7. China detains 12 people over hospital fire that killed 29

Chinese authorities said Wednesday they had detained 12 people in connection with a hospital fire that killed 29 people in Beijing. Video of the Tuesday fire at the multistory Changfeng Hospital showed people scrambling out of windows and standing on air conditioners. Some lowered bedsheets to climb down. Investigators said that 26 of the people who died were patients. A nurse, a medical assistant, and a relative of a patient also died. The people detained included the head of the hospital, as well as her deputy and construction workers. CNN reported that the fire was the deadliest in the Chinese capital in two decades.

NPR CNN

8. Cheerleaders injured in shooting after getting in wrong car

A man shot two Texas cheerleaders this week in the third U.S. case of people opening fire on strangers who mistakenly approached them. Two other young people — Ralph Yarl in Kansas City and Kaylin Gillis in upstate New York — were shot when they approached the wrong houses. Gillis died. The cheerleaders went to the HEB grocery store parking lot, where they meet to carpool, after a night practice. Cheerleader Heather Roth, 21, said she got into the wrong car, and jumped out when she saw a man in the passenger seat. She got into the correct car and a man approached. He opened fire, grazing Roth's leg but critically injuring another cheerleader, Payton Washington, 18. Police arrested a suspect, Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr., 25.

The Washington Post

9. RFK Jr. officially launches presidential campaign

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., son of a late presidential candidate and nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy, officially launched a longshot campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, becoming the first Democrat to challenge President Biden's expected bid for re-election. Kennedy, who denounced vaccine and mask mandates during the pandemic, made the opening public appearance of his campaign in Boston, once the home turf of his politically powerful family. In a nearly two-hour speech, Kenney, 69, talked about his career as an environmental lawyer. He criticized Biden for his commitment to supporting Ukraine as it fights a Russian invasion. Kennedy also spoke against the coronavirus lockdown imposed early in the pandemic, when Donald Trump was president.

The Boston Globe The New York Times

10. Ralph Yarl GoFundMe page hits $3 million

A GoFundMe page set up for Ralph Yarl, the Kansas City teenager shot for mistakenly ringing a stranger's doorbell, has raised $3.2 million to cover his medical bills and therapy. Yarl, a Black 16-year-old, had been sent to pick up his little brothers, but got the address wrong. The 84-year-old white homeowner, Andrew Lester, shot Yarl in the head and arm. Yarl's aunt, who started the fundraising page, said any money left after paying for medical care and therapy will go toward Yarl's education at Texas A&M University, and a trip he has long hoped to take to West Africa. Lester, who said he was "scared to death" someone was breaking into his house, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to assault charges and remained free on bond.

The Hill BBC News