What to Know
- The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 officially ended Tuesday in mystery
- Trump's pick for education secretary, charter school advocate Betsy DeVos, has a Senate hearing
- Officials in Turkey confirmed that they have caught the gunman behind a New Year's nightclub attack that killed 39 people
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Trump’s Education Pick Gets Hearing
Charter school advocate Betsy DeVos is widely expected to push for expanding school choice programs if confirmed as education secretary, prompting pushback from teachers unions. But Democrats and activists are also raising concerns about how her conservative Christian beliefs and advocacy for family values might impact minority and LGBT students. DeVos’ financial and political clout will be on display on Tuesday as she goes before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which has members who have benefited from her largesse.
Trump Meets With MLK’s Son
Donald Trump met with one of Martin Luther King Jr.'s sons on the holiday marking the life of the slain American icon just days after the president-elect attacked Rep. John Lewis on Twitter. Lewis and the elder King were among the Big Six leaders of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Trump accused Lewis, D-Ga., for being "all talk" after Lewis questioned the legitimacy of Trump's election. Martin Luther King III downplayed the slight, saying that "in the heat of emotion a lot of things get said on both sides." But the timing of the attack was particularly unfortunate for Trump. Meanwhile, Alec Baldwin played Trump again on “Saturday Night Live” after the show’s holiday hiatus. Watch it here.
Turkish Officials: Gunman Captured
Local
Turkish police captured the gunman who carried out the deadly New Year's nightclub attack in Istanbul, with officials saying Tuesday that he's an Uzbekistan national who trained in Afghanistan and confessed to the massacre. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters in Ankara that the man was being questioned by police. Istanbul’s governor said the man, captured late Monday, confessed to carrying out the massacre and that his fingerprints matched those of the attacker.
Search for Flight MH370 Ends
After nearly three years, the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 ended in futility and frustration Tuesday, as crews completed their deep-sea search of a desolate stretch of the Indian Ocean without finding a trace of the plane. The reason the aircraft vanished from radar in the early hours of March 8, 2014, remains a mystery. Last year, Australia, Malaysia and China — which have each helped fund the search — agreed that the hunt would be suspended once the search zone was exhausted unless new evidence emerges.
Wife of Pulse Gunman Arrested
The wife of Orlando mass shooting gunman Omar Mateen was arrested on Monday in the San Francisco Bay Area months after her now-dead husband committed what's believed to be the country's deadliest gun massacre at Pulse nightclub. Noor Salman, 30, was arrested at her family's home outside San Francisco on charges of providing material support to a terrorist organization and obstruction of justice. In June, a source close to the family told NBC News that Mateen sent his wife a text message during the rampage, asking her, "Do you see what's happening?"
Last Man to Walk on Moon Dies
Former astronaut Gene Cernan, the last of only a dozen men to walk on the moon who returned to Earth with a message of "peace and hope for all mankind," has died. He was 82. NASA announced that Cernan died Monday surrounded by his family. Cernan, commander of NASA's Apollo 17 mission, set foot on the lunar surface in December 1972 during his third space flight. "Those steps up that ladder, they were tough to make," Cernan recalled in a 2007 oral history. "I didn't want to go up. I wanted to stay a while."
