Senate votes to move Kavanaugh confirmation ahead News
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Senate votes to move Kavanaugh confirmation ahead

The US Senate voted on Friday morning to end discussion and advance Brett M. Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination in a key procedural vote. Next, a final confirmation vote will happen, possibly as soon as Saturday.

The 51-49 Senate vote had one defection from each party — Democratic Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia voted to advance, and GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted against. While holdout Susan Collins voted to advance, it remained unclear until Friday afternoon which way she would vote, at which point Collins addressed the Senate, informing them she expected to vote yes.

The American Bar Association (ABA) sent the Senate Judiciary Committee a letter Friday noting that they are re-evaluating their “well qualified” rating of the nominee.

ABA Chairman Paul Moxley wrote, “New information of a material nature regarding temperament during the September 27th hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee has prompted a reopening of the Standing Committee’s evaluation. The Committee does not expect to complete a process and re-vote prior to the scheduled Senate vote.

In the meantime, the ABA’s rating still stands.

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UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

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