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- The Independent
Head of neo-Nazi group arrested for pointing gun at Black motorists after his poorly attended rally fizzles out
Just 15 people showed up for National Socialist Movement’s rally in suburban Phoenix park
- Business Insider
A US Air Force general is facing court-martial for the first time ever. He has been charged with sexual assault
"I can assure you this was not a decision made lightly, but I believe it was the right decision," an Air Force commander said.
- Reuters
Biden offers tax credits for COVID-19 vaccination paid time off
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced tax credits for certain businesses that pay employees who take time off to get COVID-19 shots, a new effort to involve corporate America in his vaccination campaign. The tax credits will apply to businesses with fewer than 500 employees, he said. In a speech, Biden also said he expects the United States to reach his 100-day goal of getting 200 million coronavirus vaccine shots in arms by the end of the day, even as the nation faces an increase in infections.
- Reuters Videos
Belgian envoy's wife 'slapped' S.Korea shopkeeper
South Korean police say they want to talk to the wife of the Belgian ambassador there, after an incident in which she allegedly slapped a shopkeeper.Footage from a security camera emerged online this week from a clothing store.It shows a woman slapping a shopkeeper who had tried to stop her from approaching another worker.They had suspected she was trying to leave the shop with an item of clothing she had not paid for. Police who were dispatched at scene identified her as Xiang Xueqiu, the wife of the Belgian ambassador, according to an officer at the local police station. Police say they received a complaint over an alleged assault.But since then, the police have not been able to contact Xiang, saying it was because she was in a hospital. Reuters was unable to identify which hospital and could not immediately reach her for comment. The Belgian embassy in Seoul confirmed Xiang had been hospitalized but made no further comment. South Korea's foreign ministry told Reuters it had urged the Belgian embassy to cooperate on the matter and said it would take appropriate measure based on the police investigation.
- Associated Press
Rockets' Brown recovering in Houston after assault in Miami
Rockets guard Sterling Brown is back in Houston recovering from injuries sustained when he was assaulted outside a strip club in Miami early Monday morning. “He’s recovering,” coach Stephen Silas said. The Rockets were in Miami to play the Heat when the incident occurred.
- Business Insider
Ted Cruz says Biden's comments about the Derek Chauvin verdict are 'grounds for a mistrial'
Ted Cruz said that President Joe Biden's comments before the Derek Chauvin trial verdict could be grounds for a mistrial.
- BBC
Pakistan hotel bomb: Deadly blast hits luxury venue in Quetta
The explosion in Quetta, which killed at least four people, may have targeted China's ambassador.
- INSIDER
Dave Bautista says he demanded to be the next Bane in a meeting with Warner Bros.
The "Army of the Dead" star revealed that he made it clear to Warner Bros. and DC that he wants to play the legendary villain.
- The Daily Beast
Russia Plunges Into Era of ‘Dictatorship’ as Putin Looms Over Eastern Europe
MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEVMOSCOW—The day began with a dystopian wave of pre-emptive arrests. Many of his opponents were already under lock and key by the time President Vladimir Putin used an annual state of the nation address to remind people what happens to popular uprisings within striking distance of the Kremlin.With Russian troops massed on the border of Ukraine in numbers not seen since the invasion of Crimea, Putin gloried in the fate of the pro-Western movement in Kyiv, seven years after he annexed a chunk of its territory.Similar forces were at play in Belarus, Putin said, where the CIA was accused of stirring up a coup plot against the pro-Russian leader, who rigged elections last year. Putin has helped President Alexander Lukashenko crack down on the protest movement that arose against the blatantly stolen election.Domestic protesters were gathering across Russia as he spoke, fully aware that a similar crackdown is underway here as Putin’s rule slips toward dictatorship.The president will meet Lukashenko on Thursday amid increasingly close military and political ties between Moscow and the former Soviet client state. Putin has long wanted to place a missile base in Belarus and would love to further integrate the countries, putting the former Soviet port of Kaliningrad within reach.In an apparent slip of the tongue, Putin evoked the Cold War era by referring to his Eastern European allies as being members of the “Warsaw… [Pact]” before catching himself.In the major set-piece speech, Putin claimed that while the West was supposedly stirring up insurrection in the region, “Nobody thought of Ukraine’s fate and does not think of consequences for Belarusians.”He warned that any further interference in Eastern Europe would be a “red line” for Russia. “The organizers of any provocations against Russia will regret [it] in a way they never have before,” he said, promising asymmetric warfare while an estimated 100,000 troops, tanks, and fighter jets wait on Ukraine’s border.The recriminations against uprisings within Russia have already begun. Alexei Navalny, the leader of Russia’s opposition, was targeted in a nerve-agent attack last year and then jailed on trumped-up charges earlier this year.While Navalny’s supporters were being snatched out of taxis or arrested in their homes ahead of protests Wednesday, he was languishing in a prison hospital in a Siberia penal colony. Doctors say his life is “hanging by a thread.”After Navalny became ill during a hunger strike and denied access to independent medical professionals, his team called for a nationwide protest. Police stormed the apartments of Navalny supporters on Tuesday and Wednesday, hours before the rally, arresting people in the streets and at work in Krasnodar, Kurgan, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, and many other cities.Many are reluctant to join the protest because they fear lengthy prison terms, not just the short administrative detentions of up to 15 days, which have been commonplace throughout the Putin era. And yet, tens of thousands are taking to the streets in what they see as the final battle in Putin’s transformation into a dictator.One of those protesting is Navalny’s close friend Yevgeny Roizman, the former governor of the Sverdkovsk region. He led several thousand people on a march through Yekaterinburg, despite road closures and police vehicles equipped with water cannons.Roizman told The Daily Beast on Wednesday that several years in prison was an unpleasant thought for a 58-year-old, but he was unwavering in his determination. “This is a philosophical question for every Russian: Either you live for the rest of your life as a slave and coward, or you come out to feel yourself a free and brave man,” he said.Since the imprisonment of Navalny—which Amnesty International has described as a slow-motion execution—experienced Kremlinologists, opposition politicians, and journalists have begun to openly describe a hard shift in domestic politics, a path toward “dictatorship,” not the so-called soft authoritarian model sometimes ascribed to Russia.Moscow politician Vladimir Ryzhkov told The Daily Beast that the country has changed since Navalny’s arrest at the airport as he returned from Germany three months ago.“Russia is a dictatorship now, where young people, university students get prison terms for innocent posts on social media,” he said. “It will be even worse. Decline of the economy, capital outflow, shrinking incomes, technological lag—these are the inevitable consequences of Vladimir Putin’s domestic and foreign policies.”After speaking to The Daily Beast, Ryzhkov was one of hundreds arrested for supposedly organizing Wednesday’s rallies after he reposted details on social media.Professors and students have been deeply traumatized by police persecutions against the authors of the university newspaper Doxa this month. Four of the young journalists have been arrested and others are being questioned—the crackdown on a student paper is seen as a new low in media suppression even under Putin.“Police broke the door to our apartment, arrested my friend for her call not to be afraid of exercising our constitutional right of peaceful assembly,” a witness told The Daily Beast. “Many want to leave the country but the courage of Doxa authors, who continue to publish in spite of their friends being under arrest, inspires all the paper’s readers.”Gennady Gudkov, a Russian opposition figure in exile, insisted that this dark new era would never snuff out all opposition to Putin. “This is not the end of the resistance in Russia,” he told The Daily Beast. “When Putin turns into a dictator supported by military forces, the opposition will radicalize and work from the underground.”On Wednesday morning, Navalny’s wife, Yulia, posted an Instagram video of herself with the caption: “I am the queen of the underground.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
- Associated Press
Indonesia searching for missing submarine with 53 on board
Indonesia's navy is searching for a submarine that went missing north of the resort island of Bali with 53 people on board, the military said Wednesday. Military chief Hadi Tjahjanto said the KRI Nanggala 402 was participating in a training exercise when it missed a scheduled reporting call. The submarine is believed to have disappeared in waters about 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Bali, he said.
- Business Insider
NASA's Perseverance rover just turned CO2 into oxygen. The technology could help future astronauts breathe on Mars.
NASA wants to send astronauts to Mars, where the atmosphere is 96% carbon dioxide. An experiment just turned that CO2 into oxygen.
- The Telegraph
Boris Johnson scraps plans for televised White House-style briefings from £2.6m studio
Boris Johnson’s plans to hold White House-style press briefings have been abandoned, despite the Government spending £2.6million on a new Downing Street conference facility. In another major No 10 upheaval, it was confirmed on Tuesday that the Prime Minister had decided to axe the daily televised press conferences. The No 9 briefing room, which has only recently been renovated, will now be used by the Prime Minister, ministers and officials to hold press conferences. Allegra Stratton, the Prime Minister’s press secretary, will now become his spokesman for the COP26 United Nations climate summit, which is taking place in November. She will move across the road to work in No 9, where Mr Sharma and the Government’s COP26 team are based. On Tuesday night Ms Stratton, a former broadcast journalist who previously worked for Chancellor Rishi Sunak, said she was “delighted” to be taking on the new role, adding that it was a “unique opportunity to deliver a cleaner, greener world". “I’m looking forward to working with the Prime Minister and Alok Sharma [the UK’s COP26 President] to ensure it is a success,” she said. But others suggested Ms Stratton, pictured below, had effectively been sidelined.
- Yahoo News
What Derek Chauvin is charged with in George Floyd's death
Here's what you need to know about each of the charges and what prosecutors must have proved to the jury in order to convict him.
- The Daily Beast
Satellite Images Show Russia Massively Bulking Up Military Near Ukraine Border
Sputnik/Alexei Druzhinin/ReutersA day after the European Union’s top diplomat warned that over 100,000 Russian troops have now gathered on Ukraine’s border and in annexed Crimea, new satellite images show the mighty stockpile of military equipment that the Kremlin has deployed to back them up.On Monday, the EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said a massive Russian army has gathered on the Ukraine border, adding: “It’s the highest military deployment of Russian army in Ukrainian borders ever... When you deploy a lot of troops, a spark can jump here or there.”Top Kremlin Mouthpiece Warns of ‘Inevitable’ War With U.S. Over Another Ukraine Land GrabOn Tuesday, the satellite images published by the Wall Street Journal showed the extent of the Russian force that’s causing so much concern. The photos, taken between March 27 and April 16 by commercial satellite company Maxar Technologies, show that Russia is gathering fighter jets, attack helicopters, and even building a new military hospital.Experts say the range and number of fighter jets gathered are a cause for sharp concern. Philip Breedlove, a retired U.S. Air Force general who was the top NATO military commander when Russian forces annexed Crimea in 2014, told the Journal: “They have appropriately deployed the various elements of airpower that would be needed to establish air superiority over the battlefield and directly support the ground troops.”Dan Jablonsky, the chief executive of Maxar Technologies, said the company decided to make its images public so that the world knows more about what Russia is planning on the Ukraine border. “I think it removes some of the uncertainty and doubt about what is really happening in a fairly critical region of the world,” said Jablonsky.Putin Reignites Ukraine Conflict as Rift With Biden Blows UpU.S. officials are also showing increasing concern about what could happen in the region. The U.S. estimate of the number of Russian troops in Crimea or near Ukraine stands at 80,000, according to the Journal—double the number of troops deployed to the region just one month ago. However, the officials said they would expect to see bigger ammunition stockpiles and more military hospitals if a large-scale invasion was imminent.Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told the Journal: “In a few weeks from now they will be close to sufficient combat readiness to pursue a military escalation. By our estimations, their combined military force will reach over 120,000 troops by then... We don’t know whether Putin will decide to attack, but he will certainly be ready to do so.”Last week, during a call between President Joe Biden and Putin, the White House said the U.S. president “emphasised the United States’ unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
- Business Insider
Watch 2 supermassive black holes dance around each other in a mesmerizing NASA animation
Black holes are encircled by a glowing disk of hot gas. When one black hole approaches another, its strong gravity can bend the other's light.
- The Independent
Derek Chauvin placed in solitary confinement at max security prison in Minnesota
Former police officer found guilty on all three counts
- Business Insider
The lawyer who pointed his gun at Black Lives Matter protesters in St. Louis is considering running for Senate
Mark McCloskey told Politico he was considering running to represent Missouri in the US Senate. Sen. Roy Blunt is not seeking reelection in 2022.
- Business Insider
Cops are willing to admit Derek Chauvin is a murderer. Right-wing media stars are still struggling with that fact.
Police unions are willing to say the Derek Chauvin jury got it right, but conservative-media snowflakes can't accept it.
- The Telegraph
US considering sending missiles to Ukraine, as Russia amasses 100,000 troops on border
The United States is considering sending missiles and other weapons to Ukraine, amid a buildup of more than 100,000 Russian troops along its eastern border and fears of an impending invasion. Shipments of military aid have been discussed by Joe Biden’s administration, and could include anti-tank, anti-ship and anti-aircraft systems according to the Wall Street Journal. Officials in Kyiv have asked for help after Russia’s increasingly bullish behaviour, which has included the largest troop buildup in the region for nearly a decade, intruding into European airspace and restricting the movement of foreign ships in the area. Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns told Congress last week: “That buildup has reached the point where it could also provide the basis for a limited military incursion. “It’s something not only the United States, but also our allies have to take very seriously.”
- Idaho Statesman
This Boise nursing home to close after inspectors cite poor-quality care, patient harm
“We had no indication whatsoever of any impending problems, so it was crazy to hear that.”