Dr Honoree Fleming died days before what would have been her and husband Ron Powers' 45th wedding anniversary

Devonnia Tscheulin was remembered as a 'selfless leader' after she died on Tuesday, August 15

A journalist who was once banned from a White House event for asking awkward questions about Vladimir Putin is moderating an event featuring a man facing legal jeopardy who lied about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, in a town hall aired on the cable news network he blamed for publishing fake news. We’re talking about CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins and Donald Trump, who of course wants to be president once again, in his first time back on the news network he has spent years disparaging. On Wednesday night the pair broadcast from a New Hampshire liberal arts college, where Mr Trump faced questions from Collins and an audience of 400 Republican and centrist voters during primetime on CNN. Collins became known to most in her previous role as CNN’s White House correspondent. She delivered breaking news from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in a commanding, confident tone throughout the Trump presidency, fast becoming a familiar face onscreen and known as a political authority. Born in Alabama to a family she has previously described as “apolitical”, Collins graduated from Alabama University in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, moving into the field shortly afterwards. After spending two years working on the entertainment desk of The Daily Caller, the outlet founded by Tucker Carlson in 2010, Collins moved over to become the website’s White House correspondent, having also covered the 2016 election for the outlet. “The day [Mr Trump] was inaugurated was my first day covering the White House, and it was obviously an adventure that started that day,” she said in an interview with In Style magazine. “We had no idea what was ahead of us.” In 2017, she joined CNN’s politics team, becoming their White House correspondent – a role that saw her clash with then-president Trump and his press secretaries on multiple occasions. Indeed, one such occasion in 2018 saw her barred from a White House press event after asking supposedly “inappropriate” questions about topics including Russian president Vladimir Putin during Mr Trump’s meeting with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker. “They said, ‘You are dis-invited from the press availability in the Rose Garden today,’” Collins told CNN at the time. “They said that the questions I asked were inappropriate for that venue. And they said I was shouting.” Her line of questioning often didn’t hit well with the Trump White House, who unofficially declared war on CNN during Mr Trump’s 2016 campaign and White House term, and she was once described by then-press secretary Kayleigh McEnany as an “activist”. Yet for all her “inappropriate” questions and CNN affiliation, Collins appears to have escaped the former president’s scathing online attacks that many of her colleagues have been subject to – suggesting she is far better placed than others to take point at the town hall. Indeed, she is thought to have been offered the role thanks in large part to her experience interviewing the former president. “He wants to intimidate and bully [the press] so you don’t ask him what he doesn’t want to get asked about. You have to remember to focus on the question and get an answer. Being banned by him really prepared me for that,” she told In Style regarding previous interviews with Mr Trump. More recently, in September 2022, Collins moved over to host CNN This Morning with Don Lemon and Poppy Harlow as part of a major shake-up of the network’s schedule by incoming CEO Chris Licht. The transition was far from smooth. Lemon parted ways with CNN in April amid a furore over sexist comments on air, but not before he had reportedly screamed at Collins off-air, leaving her in tears. There may be more big changes ahead for Collins as just hours before the New Hampshire town hall, Dyland Byers of Puck News reported that Licht plans to offer Collins a new contract to serve as the host of the network’s 9pm primetime hour. The move could be announced as early as next week as CNN continues its pivot towards a more centrist posture. “Kaitlan’s offer is not contingent on her performance at tonight’s town hall, but, given the Trump X-factor, those 90 minutes have the potential to modify, accelerate, or stifle the arc of her career,” Byers said. “At the very least, her performance tonight will set the tone for a new Collins era at CNN, which, barring any f***-ups, will run at least through the 2024 presidential election.” There is always pressure on town hall moderators to keep things on course as there are many moving parts to such a format. In this case, the subject answering questions — Mr Trump — has just been found liable for sexual abuse and faces a multitude of other legal woes and investigations ranging from alleged financial irregularities and election interference to his role in the events surrounding the Capitol riot on 6 January 2021. As a journalist on the rise, Collins has had to deal with controversy and challenging situations before during her time at CNN. However, Wednesday’s town hall — which generated a significant backlash over whether it’s appropriate to platform Mr Trump — was perhaps her biggest test to date and something of a potential crossroads for the network, her career, and the Oval Office prospects of Mr Trump. Regarding the pressure she was under ahead of the broadcast, one Washington insider said: “Kaitlan has big brass ones, she should do a good job.” On Wednesday night, Collins had an impossible task of trying to push back against a tsunami of falsehoods as Mr Trump steamrolled over her fact checks and objections, and refused to answer some questions directly as the audience cheered and laughed with him. In an especially combative moment regarding why he wouldn’t return classified material to the government, he called her a “nasty person”. She remained unphased and continued to press him on the matter and rounded out the town hall in a more interrogative way than she began, asking about Mr Trump’s interference in the 2020 election in Georgia, and whether he would accept the result of the 2024 election. There were earlier moments in which Twitter users howled at the lack of any pushback from Collins, including one completely false statement from Trump about abortion in the ninth month of pregnancy or even after birth. Collins had strong moments, at one point forcefully challenging Mr Trump: “The election was not rigged, Mr President. You cannot keep saying that all night long.” Much of the criticism was less about Collins’s performance and more about using a format that makes it extremely difficult to fact-check in real-time, as well as having an overly friendly audience. The overall decision to offer Mr Trump airtime to spout disinformation has been the main point of anger. It remains to be seen how or whether Wednesday’s broadcast will impact Collins professionally. Reporters who know her from her time in Washington tweeted their support and lauded her journalistic abilities, and as Byers wrote, her prospects are not contingent on her performance. Most fury is directed at CNN which has been condemned as “shameful” for allowing the “disastrous” broadcast to go ahead and give Mr Trump a platform from which to spread falsehoods. Justin Baragona of The Daily Beast reported that a CNN on-air personality told him: “It is so bad. I was cautiously optimistic despite the criticism. It is awful. It’s a Trump infomercial. We’re going to get crushed.” Podcaster and author Wajahat Ali tweeted: “Kaitlan Collins was placed in an impossible situation by CNN leadership. She did well considering the circumstances. But set up to fail. Shameful stuff by Licht and Zaslav.” Earlier, in response to the “nasty person” barb from Mr Trump, Ali wrote: “Congrats, Chris Licht and CNN leadership. Bravo. What a way to treat your employees.” Matthew Gertz of Media Matters for America wrote: “The venue for CNN's Trump town hall will be ‘filled with about 400 voters who are Republicans or Republican-leaning independents.’ I've never seen a network try this hard to get their own anchor booed live on their own airwaves.” Read More CNN Trump town hall — live: Kaitlan Collins prepares to face Trump as calls grow to boycott network over event Cheney launches anti-Trump ad ahead of ex-president’s CNN town hall Trump appearing at CNN town hall after sex assault verdict CNN sparks fury with Trump’s ‘volcano of bulls***’ town hall where he repeats Big Lie and gives Putin a pass Disastrous Trump town hall begs the question: What was CNN thinking? 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The judge presiding over Lori Vallow’s murder trial has ruled that the court will stream the verdict of the high-profile case once it’s reached. The decision was made public on the fourth week of Ms Vallow’s trial over charges of conspiracy to kill her children JJ Vallow, seven; and Tylee Ryan, 16; as well as his doomsday preacher husband Chad Daybell’s wife Tammy Daybell. Last year, Judge Steven Boyce banned cameras from the courtroom, citing concerns that they could prevent a fair trial. It came after Ms Vallow’s attorneys contended that one news organisation abused the privilege by repeatedly zooming in on Ms Vallow’s face during previous hearings. Prosecutors sided with the defence and said the cameras should be banned as news coverage could make it hard for the court to find an impartial jury. A coalition of more than 30 news organisations including The Associated Press and East Idaho News asked the judge to reject the motion but the court ultimately decided that news organisations would no longer be able to shoot still photography or videos inside the courtroom. Judge Boyce stated in his Tuesday ruling that the reasoning behind the ban loses validity upon the reaching of a verdict, allowing the court to stream the final chapter of the weeks-long trial through its YouTube channel, according to East Idaho News. On Monday, the court heard testimony from retired FBI Agent Doug Hart, whose role in the investigation was to comb through Ms Vallow’s iCloud accounts. With more than 4,500 text messages saved to the accounts, he was able to piece together a timeline of the developing relationship between Mr Daybell and Ms Vallow over 2019. This included the period in which Ms Vallow’s previous husband Charles Vallow was shot to death by her brother Alex Cox and she was able to pursue a romance with doomsday author Mr Daybell. In addition to raunchy text messages — some threaded together to form a lengthy story — the couple’s bizarre beliefs about possession and zombies and rating individuals on a light-to-dark scale were laid out. Shortly after the death of Charles Vallow on 11 July 2019, Ms Vallow and her son JJ, seven, took a trip with her niece Melani Boudreaux and her two children. It is not known if Tylee Ryan was on the trip. In texts, Mr Daybell referred to the Boudreaux children as “3s” based on where he placed them on his strange rating system. He sent Ms Vallow a text asking if she wanted him to “cause pain” to the two 3s she was travelling with. The two believed in an ability to use their minds to cast out demons from people and “work on them”. She replied to him telling him to hold off, but added that if they started to act up again “we can zap them”. Mr Daybell agreed and responded: “If they are going to act up, we’ll at least give them a reason to scream.” JJ and Tylee vanished without a trace back in September 2019, with their mother refusing to reveal their whereabouts to authorities for many months. One month after they were last seen alive, Tammy – an otherwise healthy 49-year-old – died suddenly and Ms Vallow and Mr Daybell soon jetted off to Hawaii to get married on the beach. In June 2020, the remains of JJ and Tylee were found buried on the grounds of Mr Daybell’s property in Rexburg, Idaho, and the doomsday cult couple were eventually charged with murder. Prosecutors allege that Ms Vallow and Mr Daybell conspired with Ms Vallow’s brother Alex Cox to murder Tammy, JJ and Tylee as part of their bizarre cult beliefs – but also for financial purposes so that they could collect Tammy’s life insurance money and the children’s social security and survivor benefits. Mr Daybell will stand trial separately with a potential date of June 2024 spoken about in court. Read More Lori Vallow trial - live: Court hears chilling ‘demons’ comments as judge allows livestream of verdict Lori Vallow trial verdict will be livestreamed, judge rules after banning video of testimony Lori Vallow’s disturbing texts revealed: ‘A reason to scream’

(In paragraph 2, please read "A 2-1 panel" instead of "In a unanimous decision." Corrects vote. In paragraph 10, please

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It feels like there have been staggering science stories emerging every other day recently, all of which have blown our tiny little minds. First, there was the discovery of a terrifying black hole pointing right at us, then there was a huge hole found in the sun and a missing continent found after going missing for 375 years. Now, people are only just realising that there’s a massive ocean hidden under the Earth’s crust. It turns out there’s a huge supply of water 400 miles underground stored in rock known as 'ringwoodite'. Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter Scientists previously discovered that water is stored inside mantle rock in a sponge-like state, which isn’t a liquid, solid or a gas, but instead a fourth state. The scientific paper titled ‘Dehydration melting at the top of the lower mantle’ was published in 2014 and laid out the findings. "The ringwoodite is like a sponge, soaking up water, there is something very special about the crystal structure of ringwoodite that allows it to attract hydrogen and trap water," said geophysicist Steve Jacobsen at the time. "This mineral can contain a lot of water under conditions of the deep mantle,” added Jacobsen, who was part of the team behind the discovery. He added: "I think we are finally seeing evidence for a whole-Earth water cycle, which may help explain the vast amount of liquid water on the surface of our habitable planet. Scientists have been looking for this missing deep water for decades." Scientists made the findings at the time after studying earthquakes and discovering that seismometers were picking up shockwaves under the surface of the Earth. From that, they were able to establish that the water was being held in the rock known as ringwoodite. If the rock contained just 1 per cent water, it would mean that there is three times more water under the surface of the Earth than there is in the oceans on the surface. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.