PoliticsYahoo News'We certainly trust the path': White House expresses support for Schumer's aggressive infrastructure strategy
White House press secretary Jen Psaki projected guarded optimism about the ongoing infrastructure negotiations on Friday, saying the administration has faith in Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's aggressive plan to push the bills forward. Schumer would be running point on the “timeline, process and sequencing of votes,” Psaki said at a White House briefing. “We certainly work closely with him, and we certainly trust the path he is mapping out for the legislative process,” she added.
PoliticsReutersBiden digs in on U.S. public lands nominee as Republican opposition mounts
The White House on Friday backed President Joe Biden's nominee to lead the nation's public lands bureau, pushing back against growing calls to withdraw the nomination from key Republican lawmakers. Earlier, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell joined calls by several Republican Senate colleagues for Biden to withdraw the nomination of Montana conservationist Tracy Stone-Manning to run the Bureau of Land Management due to her ties to a decades-old tree-spiking incident. Tree spiking involves hammering a metal rod into a tree to prevent logging.
U.S.Fort Worth Star-TelegramGunman in Fort Worth standoff surrenders after shooting at lawn mowing crew, officers
A gunman who opened fire on a lawn mowing crew and officers held authorities at bay for almost four hours Friday before he surrendered, police said. Fort Worth police did not release the name of the suspect. The man had opened fire on officers and mowers who were at his home to enforce code compliance because the grass was too tall, according to police.
CelebrityThe WeekAllen Weisselberg's ex-daughter-in-law reportedly stuns prosecutors by directly implicating Trump in tax fraud case
An interview with a witness in New York's ongoing investigation against the Trump Organization and its longtime CFO Allen Weisselberg revealed information that may directly implicate former President Donald Trump in charges of tax fraud, reports The Daily Beast. Jennifer Weisselberg, ex-wife of company employee Barry Weisselberg, Allen Weisselberg's son, claims she was there in 2012 when Trump "personally guaranteed" he would cover school costs "at a top-rated private academy" for her and her husband's children in lieu of a raise, per The Daily Beast. She told prosecutors that Trump had turned to her and said, "Don't worry, I've got it covered," according to descriptions of the call.
WorldAssociated PressThailand tightens measures as daily cases cross 10,000
Thailand has tightened coronavirus restrictions and warned of further measures as daily cases surpassed 10,000 and the death toll hit a record 141 on Saturday despite an overnight curfew in Bangkok and several other provinces. Cases have been climbing particularly in Bangkok and surrounding provinces. The government imposed additional measures overnight including a ban on any gatherings and activities that can spread the virus, including anti-government rallies that have criticized Prayuth's handling of the pandemic.
WorldReutersLibya PM unaware of Russia, Turkey deal on foreign fighters
Libya's unity government Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah said on Friday he was unaware of any understanding between Russia and Turkey on a withdrawal of their foreign fighters, but that such a move would be welcomed. Speaking to Reuters in New York, Dbeibah also said he was committed to holding elections on Dec. 24, but warned that some lawmakers may be reluctant to give up power. Dbeibah, a businessman appointed interim prime minister in February, said he has not yet decided whether to run for office.
U.S.Associated PressBiden: Social media platforms 'killing people' with misinfo
President Joe Biden said Friday that social media companies are “killing people” by failing to police misinformation on their platforms about COVID-19 vaccines. Biden's comments came a day after U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared misinformation about the vaccines a threat to public health, and as U.S. officials advised that deaths and serious illness from the virus are almost entirely preventable because of the vaccines. Biden, asked if he had a message for platforms like Facebook where false or misleading information about the coronavirus vaccines has spread, told reporters, “They're killing people.”
WorldBBCDanish Siddiqui: Remembering India's Pulitzer prize-winning photographer
Pulitzer Prize-winning Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui was killed on Friday while covering a clash between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters near a border crossing with Pakistan. Working for Reuters since 2010, Siddiqui covered the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Rohingya refugees crisis, the Hong Kong protests and Nepal earthquakes. Siddiqui was part of a Reuters team to win the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for documenting the Rohingya refugee crisis.
EntertainmentArchitectural DigestYou Need a Coffee Table With Storage–And We’ve Got 17 for You
Because we can't all live in a minimalist fantasy, try a coffee table that hides stuff for you Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
WorldReutersSinovac's vaccine finds supporters in Singapore despite effectiveness questions elsewhere
Sinovac's COVID-19 vaccine, under growing scrutiny over its effectiveness, has found a small but determined group of takers in Singapore - even though the country does not count them as being vaccinated in its official tally. Singapore provides the more effective mRNA shots from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna free under its national vaccination programme but thousands have chosen to pay as much as S$25 ($18.5) for Sinovac's CoronaVac. "I personally don't trust (mRNA) results, compared with something that is traditional, which has been used for over 100 years," said Tan Bin Seng, a retired Singaporean doctor, referring to inactivated-virus vaccines.
U.S.The StateBody is found after another person goes to hospital with a gunshot wound, SC cops say
One man was killed and another person was injured in an overnight shooting, the Aiken County Sheriff's Office said Thursday. The body of Aiken resident Joccoui Jackson, 26, was found shortly after another person who had been shot was treated at Aiken Regional Medical Center late Wednesday night, Aiken County Coroner Darryl Ables said. At about 11:30 p.m., deputies met with medical staff at the hospital who were treating a gunshot victim, the sheriff's office said.
WorldAssociated PressAP PHOTOS: Swollen rivers smash through parts of Europe
Torrential rain turned normally placid rivers into raging torrents in parts of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands this week, dragging cars and roads with them, bringing down whole houses and leaving more than 150 people dead. The Ahr river in western Germany, normally a minor tributary of the Rhine, caused some of the worst damage as rapidly rising floodwater smashed through its curving valley on Wednesday night. In Erftstadt, near Cologne in Germany, people were trapped when the ground gave way and their homes collapsed.
U.S.Miami Herald‘Not a single drawing’: Mom who lost son, husband in Surfside faces life without keepsakes
Raquel Oliveira, a mom who lost her husband, Alfredo Leone, and 5-year-old son, Lorenzo Leone, in the Surfside condo collapse, is painfully aware of how irreplaceable those items are and how much strength it will take her to get through life without them. “She is an extremely strong woman, grounded and really intelligent, and she is suffering in ways we can't imagine; but not having anything to remember them by, not a single object, that's just beyond tragic,” said Katia Pirozzi, a close friend who lives in Deerfield Beach, her voice cracking with emotion. Leone, 48, and Lorenzo later were among the people identified in the wreckage of the beachfront building.
- U.S.Associated Press
Man sentenced in wife's beating death on Alaska cruise dies
A Utah man who was sentenced to 30 years in prison last month in the beating death of his wife on an Alaska cruise has died, the Alaska Department of Corrections said. Kenneth Manzanares was in the department's custody, at a facility in Juneau, when he was found unresponsive in his cell Wednesday morning, the department said in a statement. Manzanares is the seventh person to die in the department's custody this year, according to the department, which said all deaths are reviewed by the Alaska State Troopers and state medical examiner's office.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderLeaked Kremlin documents reportedly show Putin wanted to sow chaos in the US by supporting Trump. He succeeded.
Leaked documents purportedly from the Kremlin claim that Putin planned to sow discord by supporting Trump. Leaked documents reportedly from the Kremlin suggest that Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a concerted effort to sow chaos in the US with a plan to "facilitate" Donald Trump winning the presidency in 2016. In the biggest upset in modern political history, Trump stunned America and the world to become the 45th president of the US.
ScienceAssociated PressJust 7% of our DNA is unique to modern humans, study shows
Scientists have taken another step toward solving an enduring mystery with a new tool that may allow for more precise comparisons between the DNA of modern humans and that of our extinct ancestors. “That's a pretty small percentage," said Nathan Schaefer, a University of California computational biologist and co-author of the new paper. “This kind of finding is why scientists are turning away from thinking that we humans are so vastly different from Neanderthals.”
- WorldYahoo News Video
Pope Francis reverses Benedict, reimposes restrictions on Latin Mass
Pope Francis cracked down Friday on the spread of the old Latin Mass, reversing one of Pope Benedict XVI's signature decisions in a major challenge to traditionalist Catholics who immediately decried it as an attack on them and the ancient liturgy.
U.S.The Daily BeastJuiced Up Trump Fanatics Plotted to Blow Up Democratic HQ, Feds Say
Two Trump fanatics who abused steroids and had access to a disturbing home arsenal plotted to blow up a Democratic building in the wake of Biden's win—and even reached out to the Proud Boys for help, according to new indictments unsealed Thursday. According to court documents filed by DOJ attorneys in the Northern District of California, Ian Benjamin Rogers, 45, of Napa, and Jarrod Copeland, 37, of Vallejo started plotting to attack Democratic targets as early as November, after former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. Text messages recovered from Rogers' phone showed an effort to keep Trump in power at all costs, and showed that he intended to attack Democrats and places associated with Democrats in an effort to keep Trump in office, DOJ officials said.
U.S.Business InsiderUtah's Republican governor said anti-vaccine rhetoric from some on the right is 'literally killing their supporters'
Utah's Republican governor said Friday that anti-vaccine messaging is "killing people" and pleaded with his state's residents to get vaccinated. During a news conference Friday, a reporter asked Governor Spencer Cox how harmful anti-vaccine rhetoric, particularly from right-wing sources, has been to the state's vaccination effort. "I think it's ridiculous," Cox said after praising former President Donald Trump's Operation Warp Speed.
WorldAssociated PressSKorea removes banners at Olympic village after IOC ruling
South Korea's Olympic committee said Saturday it removed banners at the Olympic athletes' village in Tokyo that referred to a 16th-century war between Korea and Japan after the International Olympic Committee ruled they were provocative. In agreeing to take down the banners, the South Koreans said they received a promise from the IOC that the displaying of the Japanese “rising sun” flag will be banned at stadiums and other Olympic venues. The flag, portraying a red sun with 16 rays extending outward, is resented by many people in South Korea and other parts of Asia who see it as a symbol of Japan's wartime past.
U.S.Associated PressIowa duo deny any involvement in Mollie Tibbetts' death
Two childhood friends named by defense lawyers as alternate suspects in the killing of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts said Friday they had nothing to do with the crime. Lawyers for Cristhian Bahena Rivera, the man convicted of killing Tibbetts, named Gavin Jones and Dalton Hansen as perhaps responsible for Tibbetts' 2018 stabbing death in court filings this week. They made that assertion after inmate Arne Maki came forward in May to say Jones told him that Jones and Hansen killed Tibbetts after she was kidnapped and briefly held at a home used for sex trafficking.
PoliticsThe IndependentMike Pence refused to get in car amid 6 January riots fearing Secret Service ‘conspiracy’, reports claim
Former Vice President Mike Pence purportedly refused to get into a vehicle with secret service agents amid the 6 January riots out of fear there was a “conspiracy” to “vindicate the insurrection”. According to the journalists, Mr Pence refused to evacuate the Capitol a number of times on 6 January as pro-Trump rioters stormed the building in a bid to prevent the certification of the 2020 election results. Amid the riots Mr Pence was evacuated from the Senate chamber to his ceremonial office, where he remained protected by secret service agents alongside members of his family, the book's account recalls.
PoliticsUSA TODAYFact check: Altered Hunter Biden photo falsely claims Trump won the 2020 election
The claim: Image shows Hunter Biden painting 'Trump won Democrats cheated' It's been eight months since Election Day, and some Republicans are still falsely asserting the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump via widespread voter fraud in states he lost. Following Trump's address to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas – in which he repeated debunked election falsehoods – claims that "Democrats cheated" resurfaced on social media. On July 16, Trump's son Eric took to Facebook to share a purported image of Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, painting a sign that says, "TRUMP WON DEMOCRATS CHEATED."
BusinessBusiness InsiderWalmart fired an employee with Down syndrome who worked there for 16 years. A jury said it should pay her $125 million.
A federal jury determined on Friday that Walmart violated the Americans with Disabilities Act when it fired an employee with Down syndrome following issues related to her work schedule. After a four-day trial in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the jury awarded Marlo Spaeth $125 million in damages. Before her termination, Spaeth worked at Walmart for about 16 years.
U.S.The IndependentDozens of Ghislaine Maxwell documents unsealed in sex-trafficking case
Dozens of documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein's alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell have been unsealed after she lost the fight for them to stay secret. The 52 documents were unsealed overnight in the ongoing sex-trafficking proceeding and mostly concern a previously settled defamation lawsuit. The lawsuit came from one of the most outspoken accusers of Epstein and Ms Maxwell – Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
“Make no mistake, the court is moving in a conservative direction, and the conservative justices are in the driver’s seat.”
“This is a conservative court. … It is not, however, a court that’s driven by Trump’s appointees in a Trumpian direction.”
“It’s going to be a snowball. Every term they’re going to be more comfortable taking more controversial cases.”
“They are rightly concerned about overreaching and appear resolved in each case to decide no more than need be decided.”
“Single out the cases that really matter … and the court doesn’t look so unpredictable or nonpartisan.”