What Happened Was...

A lightning fast comprehensive recap of the week's biggest events for April 1-7th 2024.

Faith Halstead chants along with other protesters and activists near the Florida State Capitol in Tallahassee, Florida, on April 3, 2023. (Photo by Octavio Jones/via Getty Images)

Below is a catch-up of the significant events of this past week. You can check in with a minimal time commitment, read about the big stuff, and stay in the know before we’re on to the next. If you want more information on the past week's events, you can scroll through my Twitter; Bluesky; Spoutible; and Post News feeds for more detail on other topics that I don’t mention below.

Gun Violence This Week

There were 12 separate mass shooting incidents in the United States this past week, where eight people were killed and 50 were injured. My Sunday recap covers this, as well as the week's most critical news. Here at SHERO, we document all mass shooting incidents for the week every Sunday, so please take a moment to review them and remember to keep up the fight for sensible gun reform. 

1. Sunday, March 31, 2024: Saint Petersburg, Florida

2. Sunday, March 31, 2024: Paris, Texas

3. Sunday, March 31, 2024: Jackson, Mississippi

4. Sunday, March 31, 2024: Dublin, Georgia

5. Sunday, March 31, 2024: Jackson, Mississippi

6. Sunday, March 31, 2024: Chicago, Illinois

7. Sunday, March 31, 2024: Chicago, Illinois

8. Sunday, March 31, 2024: Nashville, Tennessee

9. Monday, April 1, 2024: Eastpointe, Michigan

10. Tuesday, April 2, 2024: DeMoines, Iowa

11. Friday, April 5, 2024: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

12. Saturday, April 6, 2024: Miami, Florida

• Last weekend Turkey’s nationwide elections dealt President Tayyip Erdogan and his party their biggest electoral blow by reasserting the opposition as a political force supporting Erdogan's chief rival, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu. The election also nearly tripled the number of female mayors to 11 out of 81 provinces.

• Ted Cruz, who claims he isn't being paid for his podcast, is in ethical hot water this week after the media platform — which is owned by Clear Channel that supports right-wing media figures — made $630,850 in payments to a super PAC supporting Cruz's campaign.

  

• Kyiv, Ukraine, is running short of munitions to fight Russia, and money that the Senate approved to help Ukraine may be delayed even longer as hardline Republicans push House Speaker Mike Johnson to add border-security provisions and spending cuts to the package.

• US employers hired far more workers than expected in March while raising wages, suggesting the economy ended the first quarter on solid ground, and potentially delaying anticipated interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve this year.

• Donald Trump’s social media company managed to go public last week only after it had been kept afloat in 2022 by emergency loans provided in part by a Russian-American businessman under scrutiny in a federal insider-trading and money-laundering investigation.

• I found a video of a kitten riding an electric scooter on TikTok this week and you need to watch it:

  

• In a move that prevented New York Attorney General Letitia James from beginning to seize $454 million in assets for the judgement in his civil fraud case, Donald Trump was finally able to post a $175 million bond on Monday.

• On Monday, April 1, (insert joke here) the Florida Supreme Court — in a 4-3 vote — cleared the way for the public to decide an abortion-rights issue on the ballot in November that would amend the Florida Constitution to protect access to abortions. In a 6-1 separate ruling on the same day, justices also allowed for a 6-week abortion ban across Florida starting May 1, 2024.

• A judge sentenced convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh to 40 years in prison on Monday for stealing millions of dollars from his legal clients — a punishment that can be served at the same time as a 27-year state sentence previously imposed for related crimes.

• The Texas Department of State Health Services said in a statement Monday that an infected person worked on a dairy where some cows tested positive last week for the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which is considered to be a highly pathogenic, infectious strain.

• On Tuesday, former Trump Aide Peter Navarro filed a petition to reconsider his Contempt of Congress conviction with Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, asking him to reconsider Chief Justice Roberts' earlier denial of Navarro’s motion to remain out of jail while he appeals.

• Judge Merchan expanded the gag order against Trump in his criminal hush money case on Tuesday, barring Trump from publicly commenting on family members of the court, which includes Merchan's daughter and any relatives of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.

  

• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Tuesday that Israel mistakenly killed seven people working for the aid charity World Central Kitchen in a Gaza airstrike.

• The strongest earthquake in a quarter-century hit Taiwan during the morning rush hour Wednesday, killing nine people, stranding dozens of workers at quarries and sending some residents scrambling out the windows of damaged buildings.

• Uganda's constitutional court refused on Wednesday to annul or suspend an anti-LGBTQ law that includes the death penalty for certain same-sex acts, but voided some provisions that it said were inconsistent with certain fundamental human rights.

• On Wednesday, Judge Merchan denied Trump's presidential immunity argument as well as his motion to delay the trial's start date until the Supreme Court has ruled on his immunity claims. The trial will still start on April 15th.

• Late Wednesday night, numerous Twitter users reported seeing the blue checks return to their accounts, or appear for the first time, despite the fact that they were not paying for “premium” services on X.

• Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee rejected Donald Trump's motion to dismiss his case on First Amendment grounds on Thursday, saying "the state is not merely attempting to criminalize political speech" with these charges.

• On Thursday, New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office filed papers demanding that Donald Trump’s lawyers or his bond underwriter “justify” his recent $175 million bond within the next 10 days and provide more information on the bond’s bona fides to prove the company can make good on the pledge.

  For more on this issue, read:

• The GOP-dominated Tennessee State Senate passed legislation on Thursday that will require public school students to watch a video on fetal development, or something comparable, produced by an anti-abortion group. The bill is now headed to Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s desk for ratification.

• In a brief order issued Thursday, Judge Cannon rejected Trump's Presidential Records Act defense argument, but kept open the possibility that Trump could still use the argument to defend himself at trial or bring it up in other pre-trial proceedings.

• The Biden administration announced Friday that $20 billion will be invested to expand access to clean energy and climate solutions and lower energy costs for communities across the nation.

• An earthquake struck the East Coast of the United States on Friday morning, according to the US Geological Survey, causing buildings to shake and rattling nerves in Philadelphia north to Boston.

• As a response to a bill proposed by several House Republicans to rename Dulles Airport in Washington, DC, after Donald Trump, a group of House Democrats on Friday introduced legislation to rename a federal prison in Miami after former President Trump.

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Amee Vanderpool writes the SHERO Newsletter, is an attorney, published author, contributor to newspapers and magazines, and an analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.

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