What Martin Luther King Jr. taught America about America

January 19, 2016 - Daily News Briefing

This Martin Luther King Jr. Day, black Americans are holding up a standard of hope at a time when frustration seems to be holding sway.

Subscribe Now to read this post!

To read this post and thousands more articles, subscribe today!

At the South Carolina Statehouse, more than a thousand people gathered to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., as they have every year for the past 17 years. This year, however, there was no Confederate battle flag looming over the day's events. The Confederate battle flag came down shortly after nine black churchgoers were killed by an alleged white supremacist at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., last June. The incident shocked the nation and sparked a fervent debate around the country about the significance of Confederate symbols in modern life. Community activists in South Carolina and around the United States spent the day celebrating the progress that has been made since Dr. King's death in 1968, but also continued to push for further change.

Donald Trump doesn't have many fans in Britain's Parliament. But a debate among lawmakers on calls to ban Trump from the country revealed little appetite to close Britain's doors to the provocative Republican US presidential contender. During a three-hour debate Monday, legislators from Britain's main parties stood to call Trump an attention-seeker, a demagogue and a fool. Many, though, argued that he should not be stifled or banned.

With just two weeks to go before the first votes of the 2016 race for president, Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders engaged in their most contentious debate match-up to date, underscoring their tightening primary race as the Iowa caucuses draw near. The pair tangled repeatedly Sunday night over who's tougher on gun control and Wall Street and how to shape the future of health care in America. Their heated rhetoric highlighted the central question fueling the increasingly competitive primary race: Will the Sanders passion beat out the Clinton practicality? While Clinton remains the national front-runner, grassroots enthusiasm for Sanders' outsider candidacy and his unapologetically liberal message has imperiled her lead in Iowa and expanded his advantage in New Hampshire.

Iraqi security forces fanned out across the Baghdad neighborhood Monday morning where three Americans were reportedly kidnapped over the weekend, closing streets and conducting house-to-house searches. An Iraqi government intelligence official told The Associated Press the Americans were kidnapped by Shiite militia from their interpreter's home in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Dora.

The hate crime task force of the New York City police is investigating a Friday assault in the Bronx of a man wearing traditional Muslim garb. Mujibur Rahman, a Bangladeshi Muslim, was walking with a 9-year-old girl, believed to be his niece, near a school around 5:30 p.m. when he was attacked by a small group of people who shouted "ISIS, ISIS" as they beat him. Local leaders have condemned the attack, calling it hateful. The attack is one of an increasing number of hate crimes popping up around the country – from New York to San Diego to Pittsburgh – amid rising anxiety over the threat posed by Islamic State, also known as ISIS, which has claimed responsibility for militant attacks around the world.

The family of a man shot and killed by a University of Cincinnati police officer who pulled him over for not having a front license plate will receive $5.3 million under a settlement with the school. The deal announced Monday gives the family of Samuel DuBose $4.85 million and promises free undergraduate tuition for his 12 children. The agreement also provides for a memorial commemorating DuBose and an apology from the university.

Though private aerospace company SpaceX successfully launched an ocean-monitoring satellite from California into Earth orbit on Sunday, the rocket that carried it exploded into pieces after it landed on a floating barge in choppy seas about 200 miles west of San Diego. According to company founder and CEO Elon Musk, the lockout collet on one of the rocket's four legs didn't latch, causing it to tip over after landing. He said the "root cause may have been ice buildup due to condensation from heavy fog at liftoff," in an Instagram post accompanying the video of the landing. The failed landing of the Falcon 9 rocket is a setback for the company, whose mission is to reduce future launch costs by reusing the multi-million dollar rockets instead of having them fall into the ocean as is currently done.

Subscribe Now to read this post!

Are you sure?

Forgot to add folder?

Tags Error