Top eight today

Top eight stories for today including The trial of actress Amber Heard has been a long, arduous and unfailingly dramatic journey — and it has not yet begun; A jury in Michigan found two of the men accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer not guilty then deadlocked on the charges for the others as a mistrial was declared; The U.K.’s four largest housebuilding firms have pledged to replace dangerous combustible cladding on high-rise apartment blocks they have built and more.

National

Jackson feted at White House after historic confirmation to high court

President Joe Biden took a victory lap Friday with Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson after her appointment to the Supreme Court made it through the Senate a day earlier with no small amount of pushback from Republicans across the aisle.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, accompanied by President Joe Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris, speaks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Friday, April 8, 2022, celebrating the confirmation of Jackson as the first Black woman to reach the Supreme Court. (Andrew Harnik/AP)

Wall Street dips as Fed’s new aggression takes hold

The Federal Reserve is trying to dispel any notion that it is bluffing in its newfound hawkish approach, and Wall Street is beginning to pull back.

George Ettinger, right, works with fellow traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, April 8, 2022. Treasury yields continue to rise as traders get accustomed to the Federal Reserve's ongoing policy pivot to fighting inflation instead of stimulating the economy. (Courtney Crow/New York Stock Exchange via AP)

A Hollywood trial on the East Coast kicks off next week

The trial of actress Amber Heard has been a long, arduous and unfailingly dramatic journey — and it has not yet begun.

Actress Amber Heard, former wife of actor Johnny Depp, arrives at the High Court in London in 2020. (Frank Augstein/AP)

Regional

Police parody Facebook account debated again at Sixth Circuit

A Parma, Ohio, resident arrested after he created a Facebook page parodying the city’s police department urged an appeals court to reinstate his First Amendment retaliation claims against the city and several police officers that were previously granted immunity by a federal judge.

Michigan jury acquits two men accused of governor kidnapping plot; mistrial declared for two others

A jury in Michigan found two of the men accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer not guilty then deadlocked on the charges for the others as a mistrial was declared. The verdict was reached after a full week of deliberation following a closely watched trial that stretched more than three weeks long.

This photo combo shows from top left, Kaleb Franks, Brandon Caserta, Adam Dean Fox, and bottom left, Daniel Harris, Barry Croft, and Ty Garbin. The six men were charged with conspiring to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. (Kent County Sheriff via AP)

International

Dozens killed in strike on train station in Ukraine

At least 50 people were killed and dozens wounded on Friday when a missile struck outside a train station where thousands of people were waiting to evacuate from a city in eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian servicemen stand next to a fragment of a Tochka-U missile, with the words “For children” written on it in Russian, after Russian shelling at the railway station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, on April 8, 2022. (Andriy Andriyenko/AP)

Denmark decries EU decision to till fallow lands in face of food shortage

This past month, European agriculture officials agreed to let farmers grow food and sow crops on their fallow lands. The decision clashes with the new agricultural reform 2023-2027, which calls for a mandatory 4% increase in unused farmland.

Fallowed fields. (Pixabay image via Courthouse News)

UK sees progress in cladding scandal as inquiry continues

The U.K.’s four largest housebuilding firms have pledged to replace dangerous combustible cladding on high-rise apartment blocks they have built, a major step in a British building safety scandal that has been left unresolved since a catastrophic residential fire five years ago.

The burnt Grenfell Tower apartment building in London as it stood on June 15, 2017, just one day after a fire broke out. Dozens died after a fridge-freezer caught fire; the building’s flammable cladding fueled the spread of the flames. (Frank Augstein/AP)

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