Closing summary
Joe Biden rolled out his plan to fight hunger in the United States, with an eye towards ending it by 2030. Meanwhile, Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida amid fears it could do grievous damage to its west coast.
Here’s what else happened today:
The supreme court is getting ready for its next term, and is expected to receive an update regarding the investigation into the leak of its draft decision overturning abortion rights.
Donald Trump called for negotiating with Russia to end the war in Ukraine and mulled himself, of course, as leading the delegation. Meanwhile, a new book revealed further disquieting details of his presidency.
Jury selection continued in the trial of five Oath Keepers accused of seditious conspiracy for their actions related to the January 6 insurrection.
The White House denied a report that Treasury secretary Janet Yellen could depart the administration next year as it looks to reframe its fight against inflation.
As she sometimes does, singer-songwriter and trained flautist Lizzo played a flute during her performance in Washington on Tuesday. But it wasn’t just any instrument. Lizzo played notes through a more than 200-year-old crystal flute made for President James Madison and on loan from the Library of Congress.
The largest library in the world also has the largest collection of flutes in the world, and when its librarian Carla Hayden heard that Lizzo was coming to town, she asked if she was interested in playing Madison’s instrument at her show.
The library has written an amusing blog about what happened next:
When Library curator Carol Lynn Ward-Bamford walked the instrument onstage and handed it to Lizzo to a roar of applause, it was just the last, most visible step of our security package. This work by a team of backstage professionals enabled an enraptured audience to learn about the Library’s treasures in an exciting way.
“As some of y’all may know I got invited to the Library of Congress,” Lizzo said, after placing her own flute (named Sasha Flute) down on its sparkling pedestal, which had emerged minutes earlier from the center of the stage. Following the aforementioned, highly popular Twitter exchange between Lizzo the Librarian of Congress, the crowd knew what was coming.
“I want everybody to make some noise for James Madison’s crystal flute, y’all!” They made more noise than the instrument, having been at the Library for 81 years, has been exposed to in quite some time. Maybe ever.
She took it gingerly from Ward-Bamford’s hands, walked over to the mic and admitted: “I’m scared.” She also urged the crowd to be patient. “It’s crystal, it’s like playing out of a wine glass!”
NBC4 Washington has footage of the moment she played it at the show:
