Top eight today

Top eight stories for today including the EU’s second-highest court upheld an antitrust deal with Russian gas giant Gazprom; A proposed California bill would require parents of public and charter school students to disclose whether any guns are kept at their homes; President Biden is reviving a program aiming to reduce cancer fatalities, and more.

National

Biden aims to halve cancer death rate, reigniting ‘moonshot’ program

Picking up where he left off in the Obama administration, President Joe Biden committed the country on Wednesday to an expansion of medical screenings and research with the goal of cutting U.S. fatalities from cancer in half over the next 25 years.

President Joe Biden announces the revival of the Cancer Moonshot program during a speech on Feb. 2, 2022. (Screenshot via Courthouse News)

Biden nominates Stephanie Dawkins Davis to Sixth Circuit vacancy

President Joe Biden nominated Stephanie Dawkins Davis to the Sixth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals on Wednesday, laying the groundwork for Davis to become the second Black woman to serve on the Cincinnati-based federal court.

The Potter Stewart U.S. Courthouse in Cincinnati, home of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. (Carol M. Highsmith/Library of Congress)

Star witness from 2019 impeachment sues Trump Jr., Giuliani

Seeking “long-overdue accountability for unlawful actions,” a retired Army lieutenant colonel details a plot by several allies of former President Donald Trump to silence his testimony about Trump's abuse of his office ahead of the 2020 election.

National Security Council aide Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman is sworn in to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on Nov. 19, 2019. After playing a central role in President Donald Trump’s impeachment case, Vindman announced his retirement from the Army on July 7, 2020, in a scathing statement that accused the president of running a “campaign of bullying, intimidation, and retaliation.” (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

‘Lie after lie after lie,’ Avenatti’s second fraud trial in New York moves to jury deliberations

“He was pretending to fight for Ms. Daniels when he was the one scamming her,” federal prosecutors said on Wednesday, delivering summations in the criminal trial of Michael Avenatti, the once-high profile California lawyer accused of helping himself to nearly $300,000 that his former client, adult film actress Stormy Daniels, was advanced by her publishers.

This courtroom sketch shows Michael Avenatti, foreground center, discussing his ongoing defense case while responding to Judge Jesse Furman's questions on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, in Manhattan federal court.(Elizabeth Williams via AP)

Regional

California bill would require students’ parents to detail gun ownership

A newly proposed California bill would require parents of public and charter schools students to disclose whether any guns are kept at their homes as well as how they are stored.

North Carolina justices urged to strike down GOP-drawn voting maps

The North Carolina Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Wednesday over whether the state’s Republican-drawn electoral maps are constitutional.

A map of election districts in North Carolina is shown on July 15, 2019, (AP Photo/Gerry Broome, File)

International

EU court upholds antitrust deal with Russian energy giant

A 2018 European Commission antitrust settlement that ordered Russian gas giant Gazprom to stop abusing its dominant position in Eastern and Central Europe but not pay a fine was properly negotiated, the European Union's second-highest court ruled Wednesday.

European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager speaks during a media conference on Gazprom at EU headquarters in Brussels in May 2018. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Swedish truck maker ordered to pay $1B fine for price fixing

Swedish truck manufacturer Scania was ordered by the European Union's second-highest court on Wednesday to pay a $1 billion fine for its role in a price-fixing scheme that spanned 14 years.

(WikimediaImages/Pixabay via Courthouse News)

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