A Catholic diocese agrees to settle sex abuse lawsuits, the Johnny Depp trial, Blac Chyna, and more top news
Here’s a look at a few of the trending topics for today, April 19.
NJ Catholic diocese
A New Jersey Catholic diocese has agreed to pay $87.5 million to settle claims involving clergy sex abuse with some 300 alleged victims in one of the largest cash settlements involving the Catholic church in the United States.
The agreement between the Diocese of Camden, which encompasses six counties in southern New Jersey on the outskirts of Philadelphia, and plaintiffs was filed with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden on Tuesday.
The settlement must still go before a U.S. bankruptcy judge. Find out more here:
Richard Shotwell – invision linkable, Invision
FILE - Blac Chyna arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, Feb. 9, 2020, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. A jury has been seated and opening statements are set to begin Tuesday, April 19, 2022, in a trial that pits model and former reality television star Blac Chyna against the Kardashian family, who she alleges destroyed her TV career.
Blac Chyna
A jury has been seated and opening statements are set to begin Tuesday afternoon in a trial that pits model and former reality television star Blac Chyna against the Kardashian family, who she alleges destroyed her TV career.
After a selection process that saw many prospective jurors air their disdain for the Kardashians and the world of reality television, the two sides settled on a panel of eight men and eight women.
Kris Jenner and her daughters Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian and Kylie Jenner, are the defendants in the case. All were in court Monday and Tuesday, and all are expected to take the stand. Read the details here:
Jim Watson – pool, AFP Pool
Actor Johnny Depp testifies during a hearing at the Fairfax County Circuit Court in Fairfax, Va., Tuesday April 19, 2022. Depp sued his ex-wife Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court after she wrote an op-ed piece in The Washington Post in 2018 referring to herself as a "public figure representing domestic abuse."
Johnny Depp
Actor Johnny Depp told jurors Tuesday that he felt compelled to sue his ex-wife Amber Heard for libel out of an obsession for the truth after she accused him of domestic violence.
“My goal is the truth because it killed me that all these people I had met over the years … that these people would think that I was a fraud,” he said.
Depp flatly denied ever hitting Heard, calling the physical and sexual assault allegations against him disturbing, heinous and “not based in any species of truth.” Read more here:
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
The efforts of Greta Thunberg and youth-led organizations like the Sunrise Movement, as well as the increased presence of leftist politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Congress, have fueled a new wave of environmental activism. For Earth Day 2021, President Joe Biden hosted a “Summit on Climate” with other world leaders to address climate change. This came on the heels of his pitch for a $2 trillion infrastructure overhaul, which put combating climate change and moving America to green energy at the center of improving infrastructure and providing jobs.
You may also like: Earth Day to school strikes: A timeline of the American environmental movement
Earth Day
Earth Day falls on April 22, which also coincides with National Parks Week (April 16-24). If you’re not out there experiencing all that our national parks have to offer, there are still ways to explore and learn from the comfort of your home, with a variety of streaming programming celebrating our national parks, offering education about our natural world and urgently calling for action to preserve life on planet Earth. Read some suggestions here:
Travel mask mandate
A federal judge’s decision Monday to throw out a mask requirement on public transportation did away with the last major vestige of federal pandemic rules and led to a mishmash of new locally created rules that reflected the nation’s ongoing division over how to battle the virus.
Major airlines and airports in places like Dallas, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Salt Lake City quickly switched to a mask-optional policy. New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and Connecticut continued to require them on mass transit. But a host of other cities ditched their mandates, even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continued to recommend masking on transportation. Read on:
