Vox Sentences: Kavanaugh’s final countdown

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Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court moves to the Senate floor; the Interpol president goes missing after a trip to native China.

The final motion to vote

Brett Kavanaugh is one step closer to being confirmed to America’s highest court after the Senate narrowly passed a motion to move his confirmation vote forward Friday. [Washington Post / Seung Min Kim and John Wagner]
And Kavanaugh appears to have the votes; three senators who previously appeared undecided announced they’ll vote to confirm the nominee. These were Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat, and Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Jeff Flake. [CNN / Stephen Collinson and Clare Foran]
Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, who opposed the cloture vote, has yet to publicly announce which way she’ll swing, though many indigenous communities from her state have formally come out against the candidate’s nomination. [Vox / Umair Irfan]
With the votes of Collins, Flake, and Manchin’s secured, however, it is near certain Kavanaugh will be confirmed to the Supreme Court. The senators are expected to join the rest of the Republican Party (excluding Murkowski) for a 51-vote majority. [Wall Street Journal / Natalie Andrews and Kristina Peterson]
If confirmed, Kavanaugh will become the second Trump-appointed member of the Supreme Court, following Neil Gorsuch’s 54-45 confirmation vote last year. [New York Times / Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Nicholas Fandos]
Kavanaugh’s presence on the Supreme Court bench would swing the balance of the court decisively toward conservatives — a shift that could transform America as we know it. [Vox / Dylan Matthews]
The judge seems all but certain to be confirmed despite Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation that he sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school, which he has denied. Kavanaugh’s confirmation, almost exactly a year after exposés on Harvey Weinstein made the #MeToo movement take off, will represent the apex of the #MeToo backlash. [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]
That backlash was embodied not just by Trump’s mocking of Ford but by Collins’s speech explaining her vote, in which she cited the presumption of innocence as paramount. [NYT]

2 nations search for the Interpol chief

The Interpol president has been reported missing after a trip from France to native China, French officials said Thursday. [Wall Street Journal / Nick Kostov and Eva Dou]
Meng Hongwei’s wife alerted the police in Lyon, France, where the international police organization has its headquarters, after she lost contact with her husband in late September. The authorities in both nations are investigating. [NPR / Bill Chappell]
Chinese media reports that Meng was allegedly “taken away” by authorities “as soon as he landed in China,” though there remain questions about both the nature of the investigation and Meng’s whereabouts. [South China Morning Post / Laurie Chen and Catherine Wong]
Meng also serves as China’s deputy minister of public security. He held an interest in cybercrime, while he’s dealt with several instances of narcotics control and counter-terrorism during his 40-year tenure in the criminal justice system. [Bloomberg / Gaspard Sebag]

Miscellaneous

Chance the Rapper announced a $1 million donation to Chicago’s mental health services and an additional $200,000 to 20 Chicago public schools. [ABC News / Mark Rivera]
In an effort to win the coveted crown of homecoming queen, a high school cheerleader in Hartford, Michigan, allegedly gave out pot brownies to her classmates in exchange for their vote. [Washington Post / Herman Wong and T.J. Ortenzi]
Doorstops may come in many forms of heavy, mundane objects, but a man in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was unknowingly using a meteorite valued at $100,000 for years before a geology professor noticed it and sent two slices to the Smithsonian for examination. [Detroit Free Press / Fiona Kelliher]
Mumford & Sons announced their biggest world tour to date, kicking off with a concert in Ireland on the same day they release their upcoming LP. [Rolling Stone / Althea Legaspi]