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- BBC
Chinese man kidnapped and killed in elaborate body-swap scheme
The scheme was devised to grant a dying man's wish to avoid a ban on traditional burials.
- The Independent
Elizabeth Warren rips into CEO of student debt collecting company to his face: You should be fired
Nearly 80 per cent of borrowers’ loans would be forgiven if executive action is taken to cancel $50,000 of debt per individual
- Business Insider
Pfizer is ramping up vaccine production and will meet its goal of 300 million doses 2 weeks early, its CEO says
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said on Twitter that his company was ramping up production of its COVID-19 vaccine.
- The Independent
Biden’s civil rights nominee has to explain to GOP senator that article she wrote was satire
Kristen Clarke would be first Black woman to lead crucial Justice Department division amid rise in white supremacist violence and threats to voting rights
- Yahoo News
'Skullduggery' political podcast: 'Sen. Murphy's Law' — April 14, 2021
Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) joins Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti on this episode to talk about his renewed push for gun control legislation now, in the wake of recent shootings in Atlanta and Boulder.
- The Independent
Democrats to unveil bill adding four new justices to the Supreme Court
The bill aims to expand the number of Supreme Court justices from nine to 13
- Associated Press
Blue Jays closer Merryweather put on IL with oblique strain
Toronto Blue Jays closer Julian Merryweather has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a strained left oblique. The right-hander felt discomfort in the left side of his abdomen on his final warmup pitch in the eighth inning of Tuesday night’s 7-3 victory over the New York Yankees. Merryweather entered with two runners on and two outs and threw just two pitches to Aaron Hicks before Gary Sánchez was tagged out in a rundown between first and second base after a pitch in the dirt.
- The Independent
CEO who Fox News called 'socialist' for $70k minimum wage says company is now worth $10billion
The company’s revenue has tripled since the change was implemented
- FOX News Videos
Stewart on 'heartbreaking' health effects for veterans exposed to 'burn pits'
Activist and comedian says we can't leave servicemembers hanging 'this is the cost of war' on 'The Story'
- Reuters
Fighting kills, injures nearly 1,800 Afghans in first three months of 2021: U.N.
Nearly 1,800 Afghan civilians were killed or wounded in the first three months of 2021 during fighting between government forces and Taliban insurgents despite efforts to find peace, the United Nations said in a new findings on Wednesday. Fighting has increased in several parts of Afghanistan in recent weeks while the peace process between both warring sides has made no progress despite international calls to reduce violence. It comes a crucial time for Afghanistan as President Joe Biden plans to withdraw the remaining 2,500 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021, twenty years to the day after the al Qaeda attacks that triggered America’s longest war.
- Reuters
China push for global power tops U.S. security threats: intelligence report
China's push for global power is the leading threat to U.S. national security, while Russia's efforts to undermine American influence and assert itself as a major actor also pose a challenge, said a U.S. intelligence report released on Tuesday. While China and Russia are presented as the leading challenges, Iran and North Korea will also test U.S. national security, the report said.
- Business Insider
Capitol Police officers were ordered to not use most aggressive crowd-control tactics against January 6 mob, watchdog report reveals
"Heavier, less-lethal weapons were not used that day because of orders from leadership," the inspector general wrote in the 104-page report.
- The Telegraph
W Galen Weston, retail tycoon behind Selfridges, dies aged 80
W.G. Galen Weston, the entrepreneur who built an Atlantic-spanning business network that made him one of the richest Canadians, has died. He was 80. Weston died on Monday “peacefully at home after a long illness faced with courage and dignity,” the Weston family said in a statement. “In our business and in his life he built a legacy of extraordinary accomplishment and joy,” his son, Galen G. Weston, chief executive officer of George Weston Limited, said. His daughter, Alannah Weston, the chairman of Selfridges Group, added: “The luxury retail industry has lost a great visionary.” A friend of Prince Charles and lover of polo and art, Weston oversaw and expanded a high-end family retail empire that includes Selfridges, Canada’s Holt Renfrew, Brown Thomas in Ireland and de Bijenkorf of the Netherlands. Through George Weston Ltd., the company named for his grandfather, the family holds the biggest stake in Canada’s largest food retailer, Loblaw Cos. Willard Gordon Galen Weston was born in Buckinghamshire, England, on Oct. 29, 1940, the youngest of nine children in a prominent family. His father, Willard Garfield Weston, had helped expand the family’s bakery company into a multinational food empire, and served as a member of Parliament during World War II. One brother, Garry H. Weston, who died in 2002, was one of the richest people in Britain, and chairman of Associated British Foods Plc. In 1962, Weston graduated from the University of Western Ontario and moved to Ireland where he met Hilary Frayne, an Irish fashion model; they married in 1966. With financial help from his grandmother, according to a 2014 article in the Irish Times, he bought a grocery store, building it into the Power Supermarkets chain, and then began acquiring clothing stores. At his father’s request, Weston returned to Canada in the early 1970s, taking the helm of Loblaw Cos., which he is credited with saving from near-bankruptcy and subsequently turning into the country’s largest grocer. Weston, who had two children, continued to make business a family affair. His son Galen G. Weston became executive chairman of Loblaw in 2006, and CEO at George Weston Ltd. in 2017 – the fourth generation to lead the business. His daughter Alannah Weston has also served as a director on George Weston’s board, as well as deputy chairman of Selfridges Group Ltd., which Weston acquired in 2003 and under which the family’s other luxury department stores are held. Weston had a net worth of $10.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His wealth sometimes came at a cost. In 1983, police tipped off Weston and his family about a planned kidnapping attempt at their estate in Ireland. During a police ambush, several members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army were reportedly shot and captured. Despite his prominence in society circles on both sides of the Atlantic, the incident led Westin to keep a low media profile throughout much of the rest of his life. He has continued to lease the historic Fort Belvedere in Windsor Great Park in southeast England, a 17th-century “folly” where Edward VIII abdicated. In 1989, Weston and his wife founded Windsor, a wealthy resort community in Vero Beach, Florida, helping design the lay-out of the community, golf course and polo field. A 2013 article in Toronto Life described the enclave as a “plutocrats’ playground,” where a tight-knit group of jet-setters convene in a not-quite-retirement community to “play polo, hit the links, plan corporate takeovers and party.” The Westons also maintained ties to Toronto, keeping a house in the tony Forest Hill neighbourhood where members of the royal family sometimes stayed when they visited Canada. The couple worked in philanthropy, and Hilary Weston served as lieutenant-governor of Ontario – the Queen’s representative in the province – from 1997 to 2002. “He and Hilary were an incredible team,” Nixon said. “He did so much for his country.”
- The Independent
Kim Potter: Former police officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright arrested on manslaughter charges
Killing of 20-year-old Black man has sparked protests and unrest in Minnesota city
- Business Insider
Florida, Michigan, and Texas are the next frontiers in the nationwide battle over voting access
Republican lawmakers in the three 2020 battlegrounds are advancing legislation to restrict voting by mail before 2022.
- Business Insider
A Taliban leader told the BBC 'we have won' after Biden announced the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan
President Joe Biden plans to pull all US troops out of Afghanistan by September 11, most likely leaving the country's government vulnerable.
- The Independent
Two North Carolina police officers suspended over beating Black man in clash caught by bystander video
‘We can’t afford nor do we desire to afford to ignore what we saw,’ says Kinston Mayor Pro Tem Felicia Solomon about footage
- INSIDER
What to know about CVST, the rare blood clot detected in 6 women after they got a Johnson & Johnson vaccine
Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis is a type of blood clot seen in five per 1 million people a year. Johnson & Johnson saw six cases out of 6.8 million.
- Yahoo News
Johnson & Johnson 'pause' adds new wrinkle in Biden's vaccination plans
Just days after Johnson & Johnson announced that 15 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine had been contaminated at a Baltimore plant, federal officials recommended that states stop using that vaccine altogether, citing reports of blood clots.
- The Independent
‘Congress itself is the target’: Capitol police overlooked intel and were ordered to hold back during riot, report finds
Days before attack, law enforcement officials were warned Stop the Steal campaign could attract ‘white supremacists, militia members’ and other violent groups