- PoliticsThe Independent
Trump says 'something must be done' about big tech alleged anti-conservative bias - while spending $3.5m in Facebook political ads
Donald Trump has accused major technology firms such as Facebook and Google of “radical left” bias – even as he is spending millions of dollars in political adverts on the platforms. In a post on Twitter – which he also included in his accusation – the president repeated a claim he and many on the right have made before, namely that big tech companies reduce or minimise access to conservative content. “Facebook, Google and Twitter, not to mention the Corrupt Media, are sooo on the side of the Radical Left Democrats.
WorldAssociated PressThe Latest: NZ police error in murder charge against suspect
New Zealand police say they inadvertently charged the mosque terror suspect with the murder of a person who is still alive. Police charged 28-year-old Australian Brenton Tarrant with a single, representative count of murder after 50 people were killed in Friday's attack on two mosques in Christchurch. Police said they have spoken with the person incorrectly named on the document and have apologized, and said they would change the charge sheet.
WorldAFPSyria force makes gains in last IS redoubt
Kurdish-led fighters advanced in the Islamic State group's last bastion in eastern Syria, confining holdout jihadists to a tiny pocket on the edge of Baghouz village, the force said Tuesday. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said those IS fighters who had not yet surrendered had been forced out of their main encampment and cornered into a very small area on the banks of the Euphrates River. "SDF is in control of the Daesh encampment area in Baghouz," spokesman Mustefa Bali said on Twitter in English, using the Arabic acronym for the jihadist group.
- U.S.WLS – Chicago
Lawyers release list of Illinois Catholic clergy accused of sexual misconduct
Attorneys for clergy sex abuse victims released a new report Wednesday detailing all the Illinois priests who they say have been publicly accused of sexual abuse.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Supreme Court will decide if convicted sniper in 2002 District of Columbia-area killings can get new sentence
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether life-without-parole sentences for the primary gunman in a series of murders that terrorized the Washington region in 2002 must be reconsidered. The justices will hear the state of Virginia's appeal of a federal appeals court ruling that Lee Boyd Malvo should be resentenced because he was a teenager at the time of the crimes. Malvo was 17 during the shooting spree that killed 10 people in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.
WorldReutersU.N. rights boss decries Venezuela crackdown; says sanctions may worsen crisis
The country was plunged into a political crisis in January when Juan Guaido, head of the opposition-controlled congress, invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency, arguing Nicolas Maduro's 2018 re-election was not legitimate. Bachelet told the U.N. Human Rights Council that she had information, without elaborating, that the National Police's Special Actions Force (FAES) had executed 37 people in January in Caracas in illegal house raids in poor areas supporting the opposition. "... my office documented numerous human rights violations and abuses by security forces and pro-government armed groups, including excessive use of force, killings, arbitrary detentions, torture and ill-treatment in detention, and threats and intimidation," she said.
- NewsMashable
Aggressive Instagramming is ruining Southern California's super bloom
Fields of fiery "super bloom" poppies are lighting up the hills of Walker Canyon in Lake Elsinore, a city about halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. Thanks to uncommonly heavy rains this winter, much of Southern California is seeing a massive burst of wildflower blooms across the state. The poppies in Walker Canyon are so lush, they can be seen from space.
LifestyleUSA TODAYI got into 39 colleges without cheating: What applying to schools looks like in 2019
Jordan Nixon has received 39 college acceptance letters so far, all without celebrity parents or $500,000 bribes. It just took years of planning, a private college adviser, 50-plus applications and the unwavering support of family. As the nation's largest-ever college admissions scandal surfaces this week, with celebrity parents and rich CEOs accused of cheating to get their children into prestigious schools, the Nixons are navigating college admissions like the rest of us.
- BusinessCar and Driver
Ford Will Build the Mustang Hybrid in Michigan and the Mustang-Inspired Electric Crossover in Mexico
Ford has announced production changes that coincide with pending requirements of the United States-Canada-Mexico Agreement (USCMA) and potential tariffs on imported vehicles. Ford is adding more jobs to its Flat Rock, Michigan plant than it had anticipated, including for a fleet of automated vans. The Mustang Hybrid and an unnamed electric crossover are still on schedule.
- PoliticsThe Independent
Beto O'Rourke campaign: Bernie Sanders' supporters fuel misinformation about Texas Democrat's record-breaking fundraising haul
Beto O'Rourke's record-breaking fundraising haul has appeared to upset supporters of Bernie Sanders, who began spreading misinformation about how the Texas Democrat's campaign managed to top that of the Vermont senator's in its first 24 hours. A tweet claiming the former congressman's 2020 campaign was part of a supposed financial kickback with the Texas Democratic Party went viral after Mr O'Rourke released his fundraising figures from his first day on the campaign trail earlier this week. That tweet was posted by Xavier Perez, a member of the Democratic county committee in Bronx, New York and a former volunteer for Mr Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign.
NewsAssociated PressThe Latest: Minnesota to help Nebraska flood fight
The order came after Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts requested Minnesota Army National Guard helicopter support. Minnesota sent one CH-47 Chinook helicopter with 10 personnel to support flood response operations in Nebraska on Wednesday morning. Minnesota Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Jon Jensen says in a statement that the emergency executive order will remain in effect until the emergency flood conditions in Nebraska ease.
WorldAFP'Generation Nazarbayev' jokes, hopes after Kazakh leader resigns
People under 30 in Kazakhstan have only known one leader -- Nursultan Nazarbayev, who announced his resignation this week after shepherding the country from the Soviet era. His stage-managed departure -- he will keep key posts and significant political influence -- has left Kazakh millennials wondering what will come next. "The word 'Nazarbayev' means something like the word 'parent'," said 18-year-old film student Madi Makanov, who lives in the country's largest city Almaty.
- WorldThe Telegraph
New Zealand holds first funerals for victims of Christchurch massacre
A father and son who fled the civil war in Syria for "the safest country in the world" were buried before hundreds of mourners on Wednesday. The funerals of Khalid Mustafa, 44, and Hamza Mustafa, 15, came five days after a white supremacist methodically gunned down 50 worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch - a massacre that he broadcast live on Facebook. Hamza's high school principal described the student as compassionate and hardworking, and said he was an excellent horse rider who aspired to be a veterinarian.
- PoliticsUSA TODAY Opinion
The bread crumb papers: Why Cohen document dump should worry Donald Trump and others
While the case against former Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen is over, the search warrants and other documents unsealed Tuesday contain a series of bread crumbs telling us what may lie ahead in investigations by special counsel Robert Mueller and others. The bulk of the redactions appear in a section called "The Illegal Campaign Contribution Scheme.” Among the crimes to which Cohen pleaded guilty was a scheme involving payments to suppress allegations of Trump's relationships with women to prevent the stories from influencing the 2016 presidential election. Cohen pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws by causing a corporate contribution and making an excess contribution.
NewsReutersTrump gets a U.S. Supreme Court victory on immigration detention
The Supreme Court on Tuesday endorsed the U.S. government's authority to detain immigrants awaiting deportation anytime - potentially even years - after they have completed prison terms for criminal convictions, handing President Donald Trump a victory as he pursues hardline immigration policies. The court ruled 5-4 along ideological lines, with its conservative justices in the majority and its liberal justices dissenting, that federal authorities could place such immigrants into indefinite detention anytime without the possibility of bail, not just immediately after they finish prison sentences. The ruling, authored by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, left open the possibility that some immigrants could challenge their detention.
- LifestyleArchitectural Digest
Punctuation Marks
Sculptural side tables in bold hues or luxe materials add that functional finishing touch
NewsThe IndependentFox News contributor called 'complete moron' for falsely saying US was first to end slavery
Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich attempted to counter Senator Elizabeth Warren's call to discuss the injustices of slavery, and its lasting systemic impact on generations of African-Americans, by claiming that the United States does not get “enough credit” for ending slavery. While discussing reparations to descendents of enslaved people on Fox News' "Outnumbered" on Tuesday, Ms Pavlich claimed that the US was the first country to abolish slavery. They keep blaming America for the sin of slavery but the truth is, throughout human history, slavery existed, and America came along as the first country to end it within 150 years,” she said.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Here is what happens when you try to open a plane door mid-flight
On Monday, a female airplane passenger is under arrest for attempting to open a boarding door on a Delta Airlines flight from Indianapolis to Detroit. Fellow passengers restrained the woman, who has not been named, until the plane landed in Detroit.
PoliticsReutersWarren tests 2020 message with black voters in U.S. South
They just can't afford (to fix) it," state Senator Willie Simmons told Warren during the Democratic presidential candidate's three-day campaign swing through Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama. Affordable housing is a chief concern for the senator from Massachusetts, who recently reintroduced a $500 billion housing plan she says will create millions of housing units and reduce rental costs by 10 percent. But the trip to the deep South, the first extended tour of the region by any of the more than dozen Democrats vying for the party's 2020 White House nomination, also gave Warren an opportunity to try to set herself apart from the crowded and diverse field.
NewsAssociated PressFloodwaters threaten millions in crop and livestock losses
Farmer Jeff Jorgenson looks out over 750 acres of cropland submerged beneath the swollen Missouri River, and he knows he probably won't plant this year. In Fremont County alone, Jorgenson estimates that more than a million bushels of corn and nearly half a million bushels of soybeans have been lost after water overwhelmed grain bins before they could be emptied of last year's crop. This year farmers have stored much more grain than normal because of a large crop last year and fewer markets in which to sell soybeans because of a trade dispute with China.
- WorldAFP
Doomed jihadists retreat within shrinking Syria bastion
Holdout jihadists scurried along the reedy banks of the Euphrates in an increasingly desperate defence Tuesday of the last scrap of their "caliphate" in eastern Syria. Advancing Kurdish-led forces forced diehard fighters from the Islamic State group out of the main encampment where they had been confined in recent days. The move brought a months-old operation to wipe out the last vestige of IS's once-sprawling proto-state closer to its inevitable outcome but the Syrian Democratic Forces stopped short of declaring the battle over.
- BusinessKTLA - Los Angeles
Mid-Air Fight on Flight to LA Forces Plane to Return to Hawaii
Two `unruly passengers` forced a Hawaiian Airlines flight headed for Los Angeles to return back to Honolulu on Tuesday.
NewsAssociated PressColleges weigh fate of students with tainted applications
In the wake of a massive college bribery scheme, the schools caught in the middle have been left facing a thorny question: What to do about the students who may have been admitted through fraud? The University of Southern California announced late Monday it had placed holds on an undisclosed number of students, meaning they can't register for classes or obtain transcripts until their cases are reviewed. At Yale, the president declined to comment on specific cases but said it's a "longstanding policy is to rescind the admission of students who falsified their Yale College applications." Stanford similarly noted that students could be "disenrolled" or have offers of admission rescinded.
NewsYahoo NewsTrump administration plays favorites with faith-based media
The State Department barred members of traditional news outlets from covering a briefing with “faith-based media” on Monday. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held the telephone briefing with reporters from religious media groups, but the State Department denied requests from mainstream outlets for a transcript of the call or a list of who had been invited to attend. In a statement to CNN, a State Department spokesman said the phone meeting differed from typical “briefings and sprays” in that it was tailored for “audience-specific media.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Danish MP told her baby not welcome in parliament
A Danish MP said on Tuesday she was ordered to remove her infant daughter from parliament's chamber, sparking surprise in a country often hailed as a pioneer in women's rights. "You are not welcome with your baby in the parliament's chamber," speaker Pia Kjaersgaard, an outspoken former leader of the far-right Danish People's Party, allegedly told MP Mette Abildgaard. "I didn't ask for permission to bring her since I had previously seen another colleague bring a child into the chamber without any problems," Ms Abildgaard, whose Conservative party is part of the ruling centre-right coalition, wrote on Facebook.
