U.S.Associated PressProsecutors defend newer charges against Ghislaine Maxwell
Prosecutors hope to preserve a July trial date for Ghislaine Maxwell by defending a late-hour expansion of charges against her, saying they developed when a woman spoke after Maxwell's arrest about her abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein in the early 2000s. The rewritten indictment lodged against the 59-year-old British socialite on March 29 added sex trafficking charges to allegations that Maxwell recruited three teenage girls from 1994 to 1997 for then-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse. Two days after the superseding indictment was returned in Manhattan federal court, defense attorney Bobbi Sternheim called it “shocking, unfair, and an abuse of power," saying the charges were based on evidence prosecutors had in their possession for years.
WorldReutersEcuador ponders return to socialism in presidential runoff
Ecuadoreans will vote in a presidential runoff on Sunday to decide whether to maintain the pro-market policies of the last four years or return to the socialism of the preceding decade as the Andean country seeks to revive its stagnant economy. Left-wing economist Andres Arauz won the first round of the election in February, garnering almost 33% of the vote, on promises of generous cash handouts and a resumption of the socialist policies of his mentor, former President Rafael Correa. Arauz's rival, banker and third-time presidential candidate Guillermo Lasso, is promising to create jobs through foreign investment and financial support for the agricultural sector.
WorldAssociated PressJordanian prince makes first public appearance since arrest
Jordan's Prince Hamzah on Sunday made his first public appearance since he was placed under house arrest last week, attending a ceremony with King Abdullah II in what appeared to be an attempted show of unity on a major Jordanian holiday. But it remained unclear whether the king and his popular half brother had put aside the differences that escalated last week into the most serious public rift in the ruling family in decades. Hamzah joined members of the Jordanian royal family marking the centenary of the establishment of the Emirate of Transjordan, a British protectorate that preceded the kingdom.
U.S.Raleigh News and ObserverChester SC ex-sheriff charged in ‘man cave ... party barn’ case goes to trial on Monday
The trial of former Chester County Sheriff Alex “Big A” Underwood on public corruption charges is set to begin Monday morning at the federal courthouse in downtown Columbia. Underwood and two of his former top deputies, Lt. Johnny Ricardo Neal Jr. and Chief Deputy Robert Sprouse, are alleged to have been part of a conspiracy in which they illegally used their positions for private gain, according to an indictment in the case. Among the specifics of an alleged conspiracy by Underwood and his top deputies is a claim that they used lower-ranking on-duty deputies to drain a pond and turn a building on his property into a “party barn” with a sumptuous “man cave,” according to evidence in the case.
WorldReutersTurkey's Erdogan calls for end to 'worrying' developments in eastern Ukraine, offers support
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday called for the "worrying" developments in eastern Ukraine's Donbass region to come to an end after meeting his Ukrainian counterpart in Istanbul, adding Turkey was ready to provide any necessary support. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy held more than three hours of talks with Erdogan in Istanbul as part of a previously scheduled visit, amid tensions between Kyiv and Moscow over the conflict in Donbass. Kyiv has raised the alarm over a buildup of Russian forces near the border between Ukraine and Russia, and over a rise in violence along the line of contact separating Ukrainian troops and Russia-backed separatists in Donbass.
U.S.ReutersDoctor who performed George Floyd autopsy stands by homicide conclusion
MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) -The medical examiner who performed the autopsy on George Floyd after last May's deadly arrest explained how he concluded the death was a homicide at the hands of police in testimony on Friday at former Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin's murder trial. As jurors studied graphic autopsy photographs, Dr. Andrew Baker, Hennepin County's chief medical examiner, said he stood by the cause of death he determined last year as protests in Floyd's name against police brutality spread around the world. Baker is one of the most important witnesses as prosecutors from the Minnesota attorney general's office wrap up their case against Chauvin, a white man captured on video kneeling on the neck of Floyd, a 46-year-old handcuffed Black man, for nine minutes.
WorldArchitectural DigestWhy We Love a Small Loveseat
Supremely versatile, loveseats work as standalone pieces in studio apartments and as part of a seating arrangement in sprawling living rooms Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
WorldAssociated Press'Suspicious' blackout strikes Iran's Natanz nuclear site
Iran's underground Natanz nuclear facility lost power Sunday just hours after starting up new advanced centrifuges capable of enriching uranium faster, the latest incident to strike the site amid negotiations over the tattered atomic accord with world powers. As Iranian officials investigated the outage, many Israeli media outlets offered the similar assessment that a cyberattack darkened Natanz and damaged a facility that is home to sensitive centrifuges. While the reports offered no sourcing for the evaluation, Israeli media maintains a close relationship with the country's military and intelligence agencies.
U.S.INSIDERA Proud Boys leader is arguing he shouldn't be sent back to jail, since other accused Capitol rioters are being beaten and threatened by guards
Lawyers for a self-proclaimed "Sergeant of Arms" of the far-right Proud Boys asked a federal judge to keep his client out of jail, in part because other accused Capitol rioters have alleged abuse and mistreatment behind bars. In a court filing on April 8, which was first reported by Law and Crime, lawyers for 30-year-old Ethan Nordean cited a recent Politico article describing alleged violence other Capitol siege defendants have experienced from guards. According to the article, one defendant told a judge that another defendant "was severely beaten by correctional officers, [is now] blind in one eye, has a skull fracture and detached retina."
ScienceThe TelegraphRussian space programme facing existential crisis as Elon Musk helps US relaunch Nasa ambitions
It took four international crews and almost a year before anyone onboard the International Space Station could locate the air leak, untraceable by equipment at hand, which had been driving the cosmonauts insane. One evening last October, Russian cosmonaut Ivan Vagner in a desperate attempt to find that tiny hole sucking up precious air ripped up a tea bag inside one of the station's segments, sending the tea leaves flying into weightlessness. Mr Vagner's ingenuity won him plaudits back home but the incident at the 22-year-old core segment of the station has laid bare Russia's withering space dream as the country is nearing the 60th anniversary of the first human space flight.
WorldAssociated PressEU and COVID-19: When a vaccine only adds to the trouble
Lofty hopes that the crisis would encourage a new and tighter bloc to face a common challenge have given way to the reality of division: The pandemic has set member nation against member nation, and many capitals against the EU itself, as symbolized by the disjointed, virtual meetings the leaders now hold. Leaders fight over everything from virus passports to push tourism to the conditions for receiving pandemic aid. Perhaps worse, some attack the very structures the EU built to deal with the pandemic.
U.S.Business InsiderA 'Boogaloo' extremist group destroyed evidence from an investigation into one of their members who allegedly killed a police officer
Members of the "boogaloo" movement tried to cover up evidence in a federal probe, officials said. A member of a California group was arrested and charged with killing a federal officer. Members of the "Boogaloo" extremist movement were charged with conspiring to destroy evidence tied to the investigation of a fatal shooting of a federal officer, authorities said on Friday.
U.S.INSIDERFlorida cops who responded to a noise complaint at house party 'cowered away' after finding out their boss was a guest
Florida cops backed off a noise complaint at a party after they found out their boss was a guest. The officers "cowered away" when partygoers told them the sheriff was inside the house. Florida police officers were in for a big surprise after responding to a noise complaint at a house party last Saturday, only to find that a guest at the event was their own boss.
WorldAssociated PressOfficial: Chinese vaccines' effectiveness low
In a rare admission of the weakness of Chinese coronavirus vaccines, the country's top disease control official says their effectiveness is low and the government is considering mixing them to get a boost. Chinese vaccines “don't have very high protection rates,” said the director of the China Centers for Disease Control, Gao Fu, at a conference Saturday in the southwestern city of Chengdu. Beijing has distributed hundreds of millions of doses abroad while trying to promote doubt about the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine made using the previously experimental messenger RNA, or mRNA, process.
U.S.USA TODAYVirginia cops pepper-sprayed Black and Latino Army officer who had hands raised during traffic stop, video shows
A U.S. Army officer is suing two Virginia police officers after a December traffic stop in which the officers drew and pointed their weapons, pepper-sprayed him and used a slang term to suggest he would face execution as he purposefully held both hands aloft in attempts to defuse the situation. Police in Windsor, in southeast Virginia, have yet to issue any comment about the incident involving second lieutenant Caron Nazario, a Black and Latino man who was in uniform when officers ordered him to exit his Chevrolet Tahoe as he held his hands up through the driver's side window outside a local gas station. The lawsuit, filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court in Norfolk and obtained by The Washington Post, alleges the officers violated Nazario's constitutional rights during the stop and that the officers further threatened to destroy the lieutenant's military career "with a series of baseless criminal charges" if he reported them for misconduct.
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Buttigieg says safety is key to get cruise ship industry operating again
Speaking to reporters in the White House briefing room on Friday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hope cruise ships could be taking passengers by the middle of the summer.
PoliticsKansas City StarHey, Bob’s uncle’s sister’s cousin: The Kansas GOP wants you to verify voter fraud
One of your state senators has proposed making it a felony for anyone to impersonate the secretary of state or a county election clerk. Proposed by state Sen. Caryn Tyson, a Republican from Parker, the felony for impersonating the secretary of state is now part of a bill that state Sen. Larry Alley was not joking about when he said it “would make it easy for everyone to vote.” It would be mixing holiday metaphors to wish that this March 31 discussion was some sort of elaborate prank on the people of Kansas (you can see for yourself, starting around 5:57 in the video).
U.S.Business InsiderEver Given ship forbidden to leave the Suez Canal until its owners pay up to $1 billion in compensation for the chaos it caused
The Ever Given can't leave the Suez Canal until compensations are paid, officials said Thursday. The owner of the Ever Given said it hadn't officially heard from Egyptian authorities yet. While the giant Even Given container ship might have been freed from the banks of the Suez Canal, it still finds itself stuck, embroiled in a row of who should pay for dislodging it from the waterway.
WorldThe Daily BeastHow Putin or Xi Could Blow It All Up for Biden
Russia has in recent weeks increased troop and military resource deployment on the Crimean peninsula and along the Russian-Ukrainian border. And China has increased aggressive posturing toward Taiwan and within the South and East China Seas that has Asian and U.S. military leaders deeply concerned. While neither a Russian invasion of Ukraine nor a Chinese attack on Taiwan is considered the most likely near-term consequence of their saber-rattling, it does not make these situations less risky.
WorldBusiness InsiderLuxury ships from the Royal Caribbean and Carnival Cruise lines sail to the rescue and evacuate islanders in the path of a volcano eruption
Royal Caribbean International and Carnival Cruise sent ships to the Caribbean island Saint Vincent. The ships helped to evacuate northern areas of the island after La Soufrière threatened to erupt. Saint Vincent's National Emergency Management Organisation later tweeted that the volcano did erupt.
WorldArchitectural DigestThese Prefabricated Homes Showcase the Beauty and Innovative of Sustainable Living
A new book from Thames & Hudson explores the latest advancements in prefabricated housing Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
U.S.USA TODAYChina 'didn't do what it needed to do' to halt pandemic, US official says; 40% of Marines decline vaccine: Latest COVID-19 updates
China's failure to share information and provide access to international public health experts in the early stages of the pandemic fueled the global crisis, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday. Blinken said the pandemic revealed the need for a "stronger global health security system to make sure that this doesn't happen again" to ensure that the world can mitigate public health crises. Blinken said the World Health Organization must be strengthened and reformed, and that "China has to play a part in that."
U.S.USA TODAY OpinionFind a rope, get a tree: That's the sorry history of lynching, not the justice we need now
There's no indication that in November 1935, a year before the marker was placed there, two African American teenagers were taken to the tree by a mob and lynched. In a New York Times article, “Texas Prosecutor Condones Lynching,” the elected official says it was “the expression of the will of the people. A faded photograph, a ghostly negative taken that night, shows two bodies suspended from what is still known as the Hanging Tree.
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Two sheriff deputies shot in Utah
Both deputies were shot in the face while on patrol outside the jail complex, Rivera said. The suspected gunman, whose identity was not immediately known, was killed during the gunfire exchange. Both deputies were taken to the hospital.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderTrump spent several minutes insulting 'dumb son of a b---h' Mitch McConnell during a rambling speech to GOP donors at Mar-a-Lago, say reports
Former President Donald Trump insulted Mitch McConnell during a speech to donors at Mar-a-Lago. Trump referred to the Senate Minority Leader as a "dumb son of a b---h," Politico reported. Former President Donald Trump derided Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell during a 50-minute speech at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Politico reported.
“Without modern infrastructure, the US cannot create decent jobs, social justice or climate safety.”
“The plan itself is really a big bait-and-switch...A fraction of the spending is actually devoted to traditional infrastructure projects.”
“Focusing on the size of the investment is misleading when you consider the high cost of not making it.”
“Rather than spending $2 trillion, we should privatize infrastructure where feasible and cut taxes and regulations on the rest.”
“Public investment can also be a major source of jobs and growth, helping to pull us out of the stagnation trap.”