What Happened Was...

A lightning fast comprehensive recap of the week's biggest events for December 11th - 17th, 2023

Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss speak to the public outside the E. Barrett Prettyman US District Courthouse on December 15, 2023, in Washington, DC, after a jury ordered Rudy Giuliani to pay $148 million in damages to the two Fulton County election workers. (Photo by Alex Wong/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.

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Gun Violence This Week

There were six separate mass shooting incidents in the United States this past week, where 15 people were killed and 11 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, December 10, 2023: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

2. Monday, December 11, 2023: Las Vegas, Nevada

3. Tuesday, December 12, 2023: Madison, Indiana

4. Thursday, December 14, 2023: Ashland, Illinois

5. Friday, December 15, 2023: Los Angeles, California

6. Friday, December 15, 2023: Memphis, Tennessee

• A binder containing highly classified Russian election interference information known as "Crossfire Hurricane" went missing at the end of Trump’s presidency, raising alarms that closely guarded US and allied security secrets could be exposed.

  

• More than 150,000 registered Republican voters in Florida have now signed a petition calling for a state constitutional amendment that would guarantee a woman’s right to an abortion up to the point of a fetus’s viability.

• A federal appeals court will consider whether Mark Meadows, charged by Fulton County prosecutors for his role in efforts to overturn the 2020 Georgia election, should see his criminal case transferred to federal court.

• The Arizona Supreme Court is set to decide whether they will further curtail abortion rights in that battleground state as we enter the 2024 election cycle.

• Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis raised the possibility this week that more of Trump’s 18 co-defendants in the Georgia case could still take plea deals to avoid trial, which is really bad news for Trump, Giuliani, Meadows and Eastman.