U.S.Associated PressHousekeepers struggle as US hotels ditch daily room cleaning
Like many other hotels across the United States, the Hilton Hawaiian Village has done away with daily housekeeping service, making what was already one of the toughest jobs in the hospitality industry even more grueling. Industry insiders say the move away from daily cleaning, which gained traction during the pandemic, is driven by customer preferences. But others say it has more to do with profit and has allowed hotels to cut the number of housekeepers at a time when many of the mostly immigrant women who take those jobs are still reeling from lost work during coronavirus shutdowns.
U.S.INSIDERSwitzerland has a stunningly high rate of gun ownership — here's why it doesn't have mass shootings
In 2016, the NRA said on its blog that the European country had one of the lowest murder rates in the world while still having millions of privately owned guns and a few hunting weapons that don't even require a permit. Video: Inside a factory that makes untraceable 'ghost guns' But the Swiss have some specific rules and regulations for gun use. Insider took a look at the country's past with guns to see why it has lower rates of gun violence than the US, where gun death rates are now at their highest in more than 20 years, and the leading cause of death for children and adolescents.
U.S.QuartzWe ordered the same gun used in Uvalde. Here’s how easy it was.
After Tuesday's school shooting in Uvalde, Texas left 19 children and two adults dead, we wondered how difficult it was to order a DDM4V7, one of the two rifles the gunman bought a few days after turning 18 years old, according to reports. The AR-15-style weapon, made by Georgia-based Daniel Defense, sells online for $1,870, plus tax. Shipping to a local gun shop is free.
WorldAssociated PressUAE dismantles plane of gunrunner Russia wants for Americans
The emirate of Umm al-Quwain plans a $675 million development on a island just across a lagoon from the deactivated airport where Bout's plane sits. His legacy, however, lives on even as workers disassemble the aircraft's wings — Bout is in the news again as Russia has suggested America trade him for U.S. citizens held by Moscow amid its war on Ukraine. I had not realized that the plane was there to this day," said Stephen Braun, the co-author of a book on the gunrunner called “Merchant of Death."
BusinessMoneyWise‘Cash is still trash’ — Billionaire Ray Dalio says keeping money in a savings account is not safe. Here’s what he holds instead
Let's take a look at what Dalio's hedge fund holds instead. Sign up for our MoneyWise newsletter to receive a steady flow of actionable ideas from Wall Street's top firms. Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VWO) According to Bridgewater's latest 13F filing to the SEC, the fund held 22.72 million shares of Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF at the end of March.
U.S.The Hollywood ReporterJohnny Depp Gets Unfavorable Decisions on Jury Instructions
Jurors in the defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard will not consider whether Adam Waldman, Depp's former attorney who was kicked off of the case, had free speech protections when he made allegedly defamatory statements against Heard. In a key ruling on jury instructions, the judge overseeing the case sided with Heard's lawyers Thursday that Waldman does not qualify for privilege, a defense from defamation, because his statements were not in response to anything Heard said or wrote. A ruling the other way could have led to jurors outright denying Heard's $100 million counterclaim against Depp.
- PoliticsThe El Paso Times
Beto O'Rourke confront Gov. Greg Abbott during Texas shooting update
Beto O'Rourke confront Gov. Greg Abbott during Uvalde, Texas shooting update.
U.S.The Daily BeastCops Call BS on Pro-Gun Uvalde Rep’s Wild Claim About Gunman
I got this late last night: 'The shooter was arrested years ago, four years ago, for having this plan for basically saying, for saying, you know, when I'm a senior in 2022, I am going to shoot up a school,'” Rep. Tony Gonzales told Fox News. Something fell between the cracks between then and now to allow this to happen. We need to shake out all the facts.
U.S.HuffPostTucker Carlson Cooks Up Absurd New Scapegoat For Texas School Massacre
Australia hasn't had a mass shooting since 1996, when a gunman opened fire at a tourist resort in Port Arthur, killing 35 people. The government responded by enacting strict gun control legislation, including banning all semi-automatic rifles. In New Zealand, all semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles were banned after a gunman killed 51 people in Christchurch in 2019.
WorldReutersPutin says he is ready to deliver gas, discuss prisoner swap - Austria
ZURICH (Reuters) -Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said Russian President Vladimir Putin told him on a telephone call on Friday that Moscow would meet its natural gas delivery commitments and was ready to discuss a prisoner swap with Ukraine. Nehammer made the comments to reporters after the two leaders held a 45-minute call. Asked what Putin had told him about gas deliveries, Nehammer said: "He also raised the subject (and said) that all deliveries would be completed in full."
BusinessBusiness InsiderThe wild life of billionaire Twitter founder and 'Block Head' Jack Dorsey, who's officially left the social network's board, eats one meal a day, and takes ice baths
After cofounding Twitter on March 21 2006, he was booted as the company's CEO two years later, but returned in 2015 having set up his second company, Square — which he rebranded as Block in 2021. He led Twitter through the techlash that has engulfed social media companies, testifying before Congress multiple times. Related video: Elon Musk on Twitter fame, loneliness and the future of AI And Dorsey announced on November 29, 2021, he had stepped down as the CEO of Twitter.
PoliticsConsequence of SoundKISS’ Gene Simmons: Donald Trump “Allowed” People to Be “Publicly Racist” and “Conspiracy Theorists”
The post KISS' Gene Simmons: Donald Trump “Allowed” People to Be “Publicly Racist” and “Conspiracy Theorists” appeared first on Consequence. KISS founder Gene Simmons was once a contestant on Donald Trump's network TV program The Celebrity Apprentice and was friendly with the former president long before he took office. Now, Simmons has come out to blast Trump's presidency for normalizing racism and conspiracy theories.
PoliticsAssociated Press'Trump is in the past': Mounting losses show limits of power
Donald Trump opened May by lifting a trailing Senate candidate in Ohio to the Republican nomination, seemingly cementing the former president's kingmaker status before another possible White House run. Trump faced a series of setbacks in Tuesday's primary elections as voters rejected his efforts to unseat two top targets for retribution: Georgia's Republican governor and secretary of state, both of whom rebuffed Trump's extraordinary pressure to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Nearly seven years after the onetime reality television star launched what seemed to be an improbable campaign for the White House, the “Make America Great Again” movement Trump helmed isn't going anywhere.
U.S.WFTV‘Like someone had punched a hole in my chest’: Central Florida man survives ‘exploding heart’
A Central Florida man survived what doctors call an “exploding heart. This is the story of how Roy Reid is a living miracle. I suffered what's called an acute aortic dissection,” he said.
U.S.Fox NewsUvalde, Texas residents react to Beto O'Rourke disrupting Abbott press conference: 'Bull----'
Several residents in Uvalde, Texas, still reeling from the elementary school mass shooting that killed 19 kids and two teachers have spoken out against Democratic candidate Beto O'Rourke's attempt to derail Gov. Greg Abbott's press conference Wednesday. Abbott had just finished speaking about mental health resources available for survivors and first responders to Tuesday's shooting when O'Rourke, a pro-gun control gubernatorial candidate, walked up to the stage and accused Abbott of "doing nothing" to prevent these tragedies.
U.S.Associated PressCops: 500,000 fentanyl pills found in Arizona traffic stop
Two women were arrested after about 500,000 fentanyl pills were found in an SUV pulled over for speeding on Interstate 10 in Arizona, police said. The pills were found concealed in collagen supplement bottles on Monday during a search that also turned up a handgun and a large amount of cash, police from the small city of Casa Grande south of Phoenix said in a statement. Over a two-month period in Arizona late last year, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration working with Arizona law enforcement agencies made seizures of more than 3 million fentanyl pills, 45 kilograms (99 pounds) of fentanyl powder and 35 firearms.
ScienceBBCAncient DNA reveals secrets of Pompeii victims
Researchers studying human remains from Pompeii have extracted genetic secrets from the bones of a man and a woman who were buried when the Roman city was engulfed in volcanic ash. This first "Pompeian human genome" is an almost complete set of "genetic instructions" from the victims, encoded in DNA extracted from their bones. Ancient DNA was preserved in bodies that were encased in time-hardened ash.
U.S.The Daily BeastDaniel Defense, the Maker of the Uvalde Shooter’s ‘Perfect Rifle,’ Abruptly Exits the NRA Convention
On a Memorial Day weekend when we honor those who died in service to our country, the company that manufactured a weapon of war used to kill 19 children and two adults in a Texas elementary school had planned to hawk its wares at the gun industry's annual collective disgrace. But in the aftermath of Tuesday's slaughter in Uvalde, Daniel Defense, is no longer slated to join all the other profiteers of violent death at this weekend's NRA convention in Houston. Up until Wednesday afternoon,the company was to have occupied Booth 4839, conveniently close to the cafe at the George R. Brown Convention Center, amid what the NRA terms “14 acres of guns and gear.
ScienceReutersBacteria with antibiotic resistant genes discovered in Antarctica, scientists say
Bacteria in Antarctica have been discovered with genes that give them natural antibiotic and antimicrobial resistance and have the potential to spread out of the polar regions, according to scientists in Chile. Andres Marcoleta, a researcher from the University of Chile who headed the study in the Science of the Total Environment journal in March, said that these "superpowers" which evolved to resist extreme conditions are contained in mobile DNA fragments that can easily be transferred to other bacteria. "We know that the soils of the Antarctic Peninsula, one of the polar areas most impacted by melting ice, host a great diversity of bacteria," Marcoleta said.
PoliticsRolling StoneAs Grieving Parkland Families Waited for Trump, He Ranted About How to ‘Stick It to the Mexicans’
Donald Trump posted about the need for “real solutions and real leadership” on Wednesday in response to the school mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and he'll likely make a similar call on Friday, when he travels to Houston to address the National Rifle Association. As Trump's team was preparing him in late 2018 to meet with the families of murdered children from Parkland, Florida, the president, according to the individual present, was more concerned about his border wall, a desire to “stick it to the Mexicans,” and an unflattering headline on the conservative news site, Drudge Report. The meeting in question was in December of 2018, when the administration had invited select Parkland victims' families to the White House for a roundtable on “the Federal Commission on School Safety Report.”
U.S.HuffPostGOP Senators Unveil Plan For Preventing More Mass Shootings
Republican senators stood united Wednesday in response to the shooting massacre at a Texas elementary school that left 19 children and two teachers dead, making it clear that they have a plan for what they can ― and must ― do in response to these largely preventable and routine mass shootings happening all over the country, all the time. See below for specifics on the GOP senators' strategy, which they unveiled on social media with great fanfare for the American public. The news of the violent loss of 15 innocent lives in Uvalde, Texas, is devastating and unimaginable.
PoliticsReutersWhite House says no decision made on student loan forgiveness
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The administration of President Joe Biden has not made a final decision on student loan cancellation, a White House spokesperson said on Friday, after a news report said it was planning to cancel $10,000 in student debt per borrower. Two of them said the $10,000 debt forgiveness would apply to Americans who earned less than $150,000 in the previous year, or less than $300,000 for married couples filing jointly. White House spokesman Vedant Patel said the report was inaccurate.
U.S.LA TimesThey smeared blood on themselves, hid and watched their teachers get shot. These are the survivors' stories
Two days after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School here, survivors are recounting stories of the horrifying moments they endured as they were attacked. "It's just really hard to cope with everything that's going on," said Amber Gonzales, whose 8-year-old daughter, Aubree, hid under her desk in another classroom while the shooting occurred. Gonzales said Aubree was still traumatized by what happened.
U.S.INSIDERSen. Bill Cassidy claims people need AR-15s to defend themselves from 'feral pigs,' inadvertently echoing an old meme about 'feral hogs'
Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy said people need AR-15 rifles to kill "feral pigs." Cassidy made the comment to a Vice reporter who asked why people would ever need assault weapons. Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy this week said that he thought people still needed assault weapons to kill "feral pigs," inadvertently echoing an old meme about gun control.
U.S.ReutersU.S. FAA vows 'immediate action' after Capitol security scare
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told Congress it has taken "immediate action" to ensure U.S. Capitol Police are aware of unusual aerial events after an April 20 small airplane flight that prompted a security scare. FAA Acting Administrator Billy Nolen said in a letter to Congress that the agency will provide advance notification of special event flights in the Washington-area. Nolen said the agency believes "this will provide all of our interagency partners with the extra time necessary to reduce any potential confusion," the letter dated Friday said.
“It could give millions a chance to finally buy a house or start their business or help their kids get an education, too.”
“You signed a contract…If you don’t want to deal with the financial pressure of debt, don’t take out the loan.”
“Without action from Biden, Black student debt will hinder his agenda with respect to eliminating racial inequities.”
“Blanket relief could end up routing too much relief to those who do not need it and too little to those who do.”
“Unlike a number of other policy issues, student debt relief doesn’t need to be pushed through a narrowly controlled Congress.”