Top 8 today

Top eight stories for today including France saw its eighth day of nationwide strikes and protests against pension reforms; Former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was finally confirmed by the U.S. Senate as ambassador to India; The Alex Murdaugh saga continues as prosecutors turn their attention to a nearly $9 million fraud scheme, and more.

National

High court invited to tackle fairness for trans athletes

West Virginia has asked the justices to grant an emergency request so that it can exclude a transgender middle schooler from the girl's track and field team.

Becky Pepper-Jackson is a transgender teen at the center of a legal battle over transgender participation in West Virginia sports. (Raymond Thompson/ACLU via Courthouse News)

Domestic violence cases in new terrain following gun rights expansion

Perpetrators of domestic violence are already taking advantage of the new legal protections created by the Supreme Court, members of the Senate’s judiciary panel argued Wednesday, pointing to a recent holding out of the Fifth Circuit.

A Sig Sauer P320 handgun. (Digitallymade/Wikimedia Commons via Courthouse News)

Senate finally confirms former LA Mayor Eric Garcetti as ambassador to India

Nearly two years after he was nominated, former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was finally confirmed by the U.S. Senate as ambassador to India on Wednesday, in a narrow 52-42 vote that saw both Democrats and Republicans cross party lines.

Mayor Eric Garcetti appears before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Regional

Whales win in federal fight over sablefish net permit

A federal judge has awarded summary judgment to environmental advocates over the National Marine Fisheries Services' handling of endangered Pacific humpback whales that get tangled in fishing gear off the Pacific coast.

FILE - In this Oct. 3, 2009 file photo, boaters and fishermen watch as a group of up to six humpback whales feed on herring near Ketchikan, Alaska. Over the past several years researchers have noticed a decline in the number of North Pacific humpback whales showing up in their traditional breeding grounds around Hawaii. The missing humpbacks migrate each autumn from Alaska, where they feed during the summer months, to Hawaii, where they mate and give birth during the winter. (Tom Miller/Ketchikan Daily News via AP, file)

With Murdaugh convicted of murders, prosecutors turn to $9 million fraud case

Alex Murdaugh has been given a life sentence for killing his wife and son, but the South Carolina saga continues as prosecutors turn their attention to a nearly $9 million fraud scheme that ensnared a prominent banker and convicted drug dealer.

Disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh, left, walks into court for his bond hearing on Sept. 16, 2021, in Varnville, S.C. (AP Photo/Mic Smith, File)

International

Qualcomm antitrust hearings end with fight over jurisdiction

Brussels and Qualcomm spent the last day of hearings on Wednesday debating whether the European Commission even had jurisdiction to investigate the anti-competitive behavior it fined the tech giant for in 2019.

The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. (Molly Quell/Courthouse News)

It’s crunch time for pension reforms in France

France on Wednesday saw its eighth day of nationwide strikes and protests against pension reforms that President Emmanuel Macron has made central to his second term in office.

People demonstrate against pension reforms in Bayonne, France, on Wednesday, March 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Bob Edme)

Science

Scientists narrow down Earth’s water source to ‘unmelted’ meteorites

While scientists have long assumed that water arrived on Earth through meteorites, new research suggests the planet’s substantial amount of water could have only come from unmelted material.