OnPolitics: Madeleine Albright, first female secretary of state, dies at 84.
Hello, OnPolitics readers.
As many as 15,000 Russian troops have been killed as the Russian invasion of Ukraine reaches its 28th day.
Russia has also suffered 30,000 to 40,000 battlefield casualties, said a senior NATO military official in a Wednesday briefing from the alliance's military headquarters in Belgium.
Also Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. has determined Russian military forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine.
The senior military officer, speaking on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by NATO, said the estimated deaths are based on information from the Ukrainian government, indications from Russia and open-source information. The officer said the number of fatalities came from a calculation of three wounded soldiers for every soldier killed. Casualties include killed, wounded or missing in action as well as those taken prisoner.
In an emergency meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels this week, the alliance is expected to pressure China to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
“I expect leaders will call on China to live up to its responsibilities as a member of the U.N. Security Council,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday.
It's Amy and Chelsey with today's top stories out of Washington.
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Madeleine Albright, first female secretary of state, dies
Political and feminist icon and first female secretary of state Madeleine Albright died Wednesday at 84 from cancer, according to a statement posted to Twitter.
Albright, who first arrived to the U.S. as a young girl from war-torn Czechoslovakia, rose to become one of the highest officials in government. She served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997 and later as secretary of state under Clinton from 1997 to 2001.
Albright heavily influenced NATO's actions in her role. She pushed for the alliance's eastward expansion into the former Soviet bloc and helped lead the NATO bombing campaign in 1999 to halt ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.
Born Madeleine Korbel in Prague in 1937, Albright fled to England with her family in 1939 after Nazi Germany invaded Czechoslovakia. Her family eventually moved back to the country, but left for the U.S. in 1948 after the communist takeover of Czechoslovakia. She graduated from Wellesley College and earned a master's degree from Columbia University.
Albright married Joseph Albright of the Medill newspaper-publishing family in 1959. The couple had three daughters and divorced in 1982.
Before becoming the 64th secretary of state, Albright worked on a presidential campaign, for former President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser and for various nonprofits during the Reagan and Bush years. She also worked as a professor of international affairs at Georgetown University from 1982 to 1993.
President Barack Obama awarded Albright the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.
Real quick: stories you'll want to read
- Children fall into poverty without COVID relief: A federal spending plan signed into law last week increases money for federal programs and grants that help subsidize child care for low-income parents. But those programs reach only a small percentage of the families that need such support, advocates say.
- I'll be (following you) back: Russian leader Vladimir Putin follows just 22 people on his official English-language Twitter account, including Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Hollywood actor and former California governor posted a video condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine on social media last week.
- 'We are too tired to be nervous': As Ukraine's conflict with Russia nears its one-month mark, some Ukrainians are returning home, either to grab more supplies or because they believe the Ukrainian military will prevail.
- Sen. Braun on interracial marriage: Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., said during a media call Tuesday that the U.S. Supreme Court was wrong to legalize interracial marriage decades ago.
- MAGA Mo no more: Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday rescinded his endorsement of Rep. Mo Brooks, the U.S. Senate hopeful from Alabama who spoke at the Jan. 6 rally before a mob of protesters stormed the Capitol.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson faces questions on sentencing, Harvard SCOTUS case on day 2
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson explained her sentencing practices and her views on expanding the Supreme Court, among other topics, during a second day of questions from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday, as hearings continue over her historic nomination to be the first Black woman on the Supreme Court.
At one point, the judge said - if she is confirmed - that she will recuse herself in a case before the court about the use of race in the admissions process at Harvard University. The Harvard Law graduate has been a member of the college’s board of overseers since 2016.
Senators asked the judge about a wide range of topics Tuesday, including her judicial philosophy, her faith, her work as a former federal public defender and sentences she handed down as a District Court judge in Washington.
A look at her record on child pornography: Jackson said judges consider many factors beyond sentencing guidelines when imposing punishment. Those include prosecution and defense recommendations, information about the defendants, and U.S. Probation Office recommendations. Paste BN examined the charges and sentencing memoranda in the seven cases raised Tuesday.
Democrats are planning to finish the hearings on Thursday and hope to move Jackson to a final confirmation vote by early April.
Think you're a wiz at world geography? Test your global knowledge with Paste BN's Map Quiz. - Amy and Chelsey