The news can often be hard to follow, but this week in particular has been a doozy.
There’s the seemingly endless staff changes in the Trump administration, the reported privacy breach and misuse of millions of Facebook users’ data, the death of the bombing suspect in Austin and the police shooting in Sacramento. It’s been a lot.
Here’s a rundown of some of the biggest news that happened in the last seven days.
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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Protesters march in Sacramento, California, on March 22, 2018, after two police officers shot and killed Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man.
The suspected serial bomber who terrorized Austin with a string of exploding packages died early Wednesday after detonating an explosive device in his vehicle as police closed in on him, authorities said.
Austin police and the FBI tracked him to a hotel parking lot in Round Rock, about 18 miles north of Austin, where they found him inside his vehicle, Interim Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said. Officers wanted to wait for tactical units to arrive before engaging the suspect, but he started to drive away.
The man stopped on the side of the Interstate 35 frontage road, and as Austin SWAT officers approached, he detonated a bomb, knocking one of the officers backward and injuring him, Manley said.
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Austin Police confirmed the suspect in the multiple package explosions killed himself with an explosive device on March 21.(Patrick Martin, Amber Ferguson, Taylor Turner/The Washington Post)
Rosemarie Aquilina, the judge who presided over the astounding sentencing hearing of former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar this month, has emerged as a heroine for victims of sexual assault.
Her decision to allow 156 women and girls to address their alleged abuser in court, with their emotional testimony streamed live across the nation, created an invaluable opportunity for catharsis, and directed vital attention to what is likely the worst sex abuse scandal in U.S. sports history.
But Aquilina’s manner during sentencing, in which she said she was honored to sentence Nassar to die in prison and suggested he deserved to be sexually assaulted himself, has raised questions about whether she overstepped her role as an impartial arbiter of justice.
She’s a killer with a soft voice and a sharp blue suit. And not just any killer.
Kim Hyon-hui is a mass murderer, a former spy for North Korea who blew up a passenger jet in 1987 on orders from Kim Jong Un’s father.
She says he wanted to sabotage the 1988 Seoul Summer Games.
And with the Olympics returning to South Korea in just over two weeks in PyeongChang, she’s warning the world not to trust Kim Jong Un. She sees dark motives behind his decision to send athletes to the Winter Olympics.
At least two students were killed and 17 other people were injured in a school shooting on Tuesday at Marshall County High School in Benton, Ky.
The suspect, a 15-year-old student at the school, was taken into custody in “a nonviolent apprehension,” Gov. Matt Bevin said on Tuesday.
The student, who was not immediately identified, entered the school with a handgun at 7:59 a.m., according to Richard W. Sanders, commissioner of the Kentucky State Police. The student will be charged with murder and attempted murder, he said.
A 15-year-old girl died at the school, and a 15-year-old boy died later in a hospital, the officials said.
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Emergency crews responded to a fatal shooting at Marshall County High School in Benton, Ky., on Tuesday morning.CreditRyan Hermens/The Paducah Sun, via Associated Press
Representative Patrick Meehan, a Pennsylvania Republican who has taken a leading role in fighting sexual harassment in Congress, used thousands of dollars in taxpayer money to settle his own misconduct complaint after a former aide accused him last year of making unwanted romantic overtures to her, according to several people familiar with the settlement.
A married father of three, Mr. Meehan, 62, had long expressed interest in the personal life of the aide, who was decades younger and had regarded the congressman as a father figure, according to three people who worked with the office and four others with whom she discussed her tenure there.
But after the woman became involved in a serious relationship with someone outside the office last year, Mr. Meehan professed his romantic desires for her — first in person, and then in a handwritten letter — and he grew hostile when she did not reciprocate, the people familiar with her time in the office said.
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Representative Patrick Meehan, Republican of Pennsylvania, traveled with President Trump to the state on Thursday.CreditDoug Mills/The New York Times
With more than 2 billion users, Facebook’s reach now rivals that of Christianity and exceeds that of Islam. However, the network’s laser focus on profits and user growth has come at the expense of its users, according to one former Facebook manager who is now speaking out against the social platform.
“One of the things that I saw consistently as part of my job was the company just continuously prioritized user growth and making money over protecting users,” the ex-manager, Sandy Parakilas, who worked at Facebook for 16 months, starting in 2011, told NBC News. During his tenure at Facebook, Parakilas led third-party advertising, privacy and policy compliance on Facebook’s app platform.
As Facebook transitioned from a Harvard dorm-room project into one of the world’s most valuable companies, its power grew in ways that founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg never could have anticipated.
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Facebook is a ‘living, breathing crime scene,’ says one former tech insider
The private school had a welcoming name. The principal was scientifically minded. But the Sandcastle Day School was a nightmare for the six students enrolled there.
David A. Turpin created the school inside his nondescript stucco home southeast of Los Angeles. But the only ones enrolled there were the six of his 13 children who were school age. And what took place inside was not teaching but torture, the authorities said, after they raided the house over the weekend and found a horrifying scene of emaciated children chained to furniture. The putrid smell overwhelmed them.
By creating such a school of horrors, Mr. Turpin had kept the authorities at bay. His children were never seen by teachers or counselors. Their absences never raised suspicions. On Tuesday, state and local officials were on the defensive as they tried to explain how such things could have occurred in a private school the state had sanctioned.
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Members of the news media were parked outside the home of David A. Turpin and Louise A. Turpin in Perris, Calif.CreditMike Blake/Reuters
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