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CARL AZUZ: Looking forward to the weekend
and bringing you up to speed on current events.
This is CNN 10 and I'm Carl Azuz.
We're thankful you're watching.
Thursday, January 27th marked the 77th anniversary
of when the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp was
liberated during World War II.
Located in Poland, this complex was the largest death
camp that Nazi Germany had.
More than one million people were killed here
in the early 1940s, and Auschwitz
still stands today is a symbol of terror and the Holocaust.
The vast majority, an estimated 90% of those murdered here
were Jews.
They were among the six million Jews the Nazis
killed during the war.
Millions of others the Nazis opposed were killed as well.
That's why the date of January 27
when Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet Army
has been designated as international Holocaust
Remembrance Day.
It's marked each year by ceremonies
and educational events designed to preserve awareness about it,
oppose arguments that deny the Holocaust
and prevent future acts of genocide.
A letter written shortly after the Holocaust ended
made news just a few months ago.
At a flea market in New York, an author
who investigates heirlooms recently
came across this document.
It was written by Ilse Lowenburg a woman
who jumped from a moving train bound for Auschwitz in 1943.
According to ABC News, Lowenburg spent three days
walking back to Berlin.
She hid out there until she was recaptured in 1944,
and she was held in prison until the summer of 1945.
That's when she penned this letter
to her sister, who had emigrated to England before the war.
Ilse told her that the rest of their family had been killed,
but the sisters reunited and eventually settled in New York.
And the letter was recently returned
to their great niece who remembered Ilse
and said her family was in awe.
Up next today, a US Supreme Court justice
looks toward retirement and the government
looks toward the nomination of his replacement.
PRES.
JOE BIDEN: I'm here today to express the nation's gratitude
to Justice Stephen Breyer for his remarkable career
of public service and his clear eyed commitment
to making our country's laws work for its people.
CARL AZUZ: After serving almost 14 years as a Court of Appeals
judge, Stephen Breyer was nominated to the Supreme Court
by President Bill Clinton in 1994.
Justice Breyer, who's now 83, made his decision
to retire official this week, saying he planned to serve
until the end of the court's current term
in June assuming his successor has been confirmed by then.
In a public event Thursday with President Joe Biden,
the high Court Justice said despite Americans
many different viewpoints, they've
come to accept the importance of the rule of law.
And he referred to the idea and the views
of some previous presidents that America is an experiment.
JUSTICE STEPHEN BREYER: You know who will see
whether that experiment works?
It's you, my friend.
It's you, Mr. high school student, it's you,
Mr. college student, it's you, Mr. law school students.
It's us, but it's you.
It's that next generation, and the one
after that, my grandchildren, and their children.
They'll determine whether the experiment still works.
And of course, I am an optimist and I'm pretty sure it will.
CARL AZUZ: The US Constitution doesn't
set a limit for how long justices
can serve on the Supreme Court.
It says only that they should hold their offices
during good behavior.
But 2022 is an election year, the midterms held in November
will determine the makeup of the next Congress.
So Breyer has been under intense pressure
by Democrats to retire during this term.
Because right now, they control the White House and the Senate,
the two parts of the government that nominate and confirm
Supreme Court justices.
And that gives Democrats an easier path to sitting
the Justice of their choice.
Breyer is considered a liberal justice which Democrats
generally favor on the high court,
while Republicans generally favor conservative justices.
And though President Biden isn't up for re-election
this November, his recent approval
rating reached an all time low.
That's part of the reason why Democrats may lose
their narrow Senate Majority in the midterms,
and that's why they want to confirm another liberal justice
before that could happen.
We'll be explaining next week how
the nomination and confirmation processes play out.
But right now, we're having a look
at who may be likely to get the Supreme Court
nomination in the days ahead.
The big question now, who will President Biden pick?
On the campaign trail in 2020, then candidate Biden
vowed to make history and nominate the first Black woman
to the bench. PRES.
JOE BIDEN: I committed that if I'm elected president,
have an opportunity to appoint someone to the courts
will be, I'll appoint the first Black woman to the court.
CARL AZUZ: The likely front runner judge Ketanji Brown
Jackson, a federal judge and former Supreme Court
clerk for Breyer.
- We will start with Judge Jackson.
CARL AZUZ: She was vetted by Biden and his team
just last year and comfortably confirmed to the DC Circuit
Court of Appeals, with three Republicans
joining Democrats in support.
KETANJI BROWN JACKSON: When you become a judge,
you take an oath to look only at the law in deciding your cases,
that you set aside your personal views about the circumstances.
CARL AZUZ: A close second choice is California Supreme Court
Justice Leondra Kruger, a former acting deputy Solicitor General
in the Obama administration.
She once clerked for the late Justice John Paul Stevens
and has argued cases in front of the high court.
LEONDRA KRUGER: Oral argument doesn't very often
change the outcome of cases.
Occasionally, it does.
Occasionally, oral argument reveals a new dimension.
It is also in the United States Supreme Court the first time
that all of the judges sit down together.
CARL AZUZ: Other names circulating Minnesota district
court judge Mimi Wright, outgoing NAACP Legal Defense
and Educational Fund president Sherrilyn Ifill,
Second Circuit court of Appeals judge Eunice Lee,
Seventh Circuit court of Appeals judge Candice Jackson Akiwumi,
and South Carolina Judge Michelle Childs,
who has the backing of House Majority Whip James Clyburn,
the man who convinced Biden to publicly pledge
to nominate a Black woman.
WHIP JAMES CLYBURN: And she has the kind
of diverse background in life, and education, and work.
An incredibly smart woman that I believe would do well.
CARL AZUZ: The eventual nominee will
face a high profile confirmation process
with the 2022 midterms looming.
Senate Democrats don't need Republicans to confirm
Biden's nominee, but Republican opposition
could still be a factor.
- We don't even know who the nominee is yet,
so that's something the president
has an opportunity to make, should there be a vacancy.
CARL AZUZ: Whoever is picked, Breyer
had this to say about the job.
JUSTICE STEPHEN BREYER: Really, when
you put on that Black robe, you understand whatever
the appointments process, however politically
involved it was, once you put on the robe of a judge,
you're a judge.
And that means you're a judge for every person.
CARL AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia, which of these animals
is an example of a chelonian?
Squid, sloth, tortoise, or crab?
Chelonians include turtles, terrapins, and tortoises.
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Happy birthday, dear Jonathan.
I'm singing to a tortoise.
He lives in St. Helena, a remote island in the South Atlantic.
He's making news because he's old.
How old is he?
Jonathan the giant tortoise is celebrating his 190th birthday.
Guinness World Record says, he's the oldest
chelonian ever known.
For reference, when he was born in about 1832,
electric light bulbs didn't exist.
Britain's Queen Victoria was a teenager,
and no one had ever been photographed.
But coral, you might say.
I see a picture of him right here.
Yeah, from when Jonathan was 50.
But there's no record of his birth,
so Jonathan could actually be as old as 200.
What a turtle to turtle.
Of course, he never lived life in the fast lane.
He ate a lot of fruit and he stayed out of soup.
So maybe you could tear a pin his longevity on that.
For reference, the average lifespan of a rabbit
is between 3 and 12 years, so Jonathan won
that race by more than a hair.
Fridays are awesome!
Bear River High School gets today's shout out.
It's great to see our viewers in Tremonton, Utah.
I'm Carl Azuz for CNN.
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