PoliticsYahoo NewsBiden celebrates infrastructure deal at White House
President Biden announced on Thursday that the White House and a group of bipartisan senators had reached a deal on a $579 billion infrastructure plan. “It's been a very long time since the last time our country was able to strike a major bipartisan deal on American infrastructure,” Biden said at the White House. Biden said he and congressional Democrats had to concede some on what's known as “human infrastructure,” such as investments for childcare and spending on climate change.
PoliticsYahoo NewsPelosi announces select committee to probe Jan. 6 attack on Capitol
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced plans to convene a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. “The gleeful desecration of the Capitol resulted in multiple deaths, physical harm of over 140 members of law enforcement, and terror and trauma among staff, workers and members,” Pelosi told reporters at a press conference Thursday. Pelosi said she was announcing the decision to form a select committee “with great solemnity and sadness,” as she believes a bipartisan commission, similar to the one formed in the aftermath of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, would be better positioned to investigate the events of Jan. 6 and all the circumstances surrounding it.
WorldThe TelegraphPoland and Baltics block Merkel and Macron's push for talks with Putin
France and Germany's call for European Union summit talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin were blocked on Thursday night after fierce opposition from Poland and the Baltic countries. At a European Council meeting, EU leaders considered overhauling their foreign policy towards Moscow, a week after US President Joe Biden met Mr Putin in Geneva. Member states, especially those which border Russia, had been infuriated after Paris and Berlin blindsided them with a last minute proposal on Wednesday.
U.S.The WeekAnthony Fauci was hosed down, naked, 'in what looked like a kiddy pool' after being mailed mysterious white powder
Last summer, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases chief Anthony Fauci was reportedly sent mail containing white powder that "literally blew up in his face," Politico writes, per a preview of the new book Nightmare Scenario by Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta. Luckily, chemical testing came back negative for both anthrax and ricin, but not before Fauci was hosed "down to his skivvies in a chemical lab," standing "naked in what looked like a kiddy pool" while his team awaited results, per Politico. Previously reported excerpts of Nightmare Scenario revealed Trump once joked he hoped COVID-19 would "take out" former National Security Adviser John Bolton, and had even proposed the U.S. house COVID-19 patients at Guantanamo Bay.
PoliticsWashington ExaminerTrump says Giuliani suspension from practicing law in NY is part of 'Witch Hunt'
Former President Donald Trump rallied to the defense of his former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who was suspended from practicing law in New York after a court determined he made false statements in challenging the results of the 2020 election. A tweemail sent Thursday afternoon described the decision, which leaves Giuliani facing the possibility of disbarment, as being part of a partisan campaign to attack Trump and people in his orbit. "Can you believe that New York wants to strip Rudy Giuliani, a great American Patriot, of his law license because he has been fighting what has already been proven to be a Fraudulent Election?” Trump said.
U.S.Kansas City StarKansas City man gets life in prison for stabbing father to death: prosecutors
A Kansas City man convicted of stabbing his father to death three years ago was sentenced Thursday to a term of life in prison, according to the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office. Curtis V. Lee, 43, was found guilty by a jury in April on charges of first degree murder and armed criminal action, court records show. Lee was arrested by Independence police in the early hours of April 18, 2018 in the 3500 block of South Lynn Court after officers responded to a residence and found Charles and Clyde Burton — Lee's uncle and father — stabbed to death.
WorldThe TelegraphLovestruck Pentagon translator who passed on secrets to Hizbollah jailed for 23 years
A lovestruck military translator has been jailed for 23 years for passing on the names of US informants to Hizbollah. Mariam Thompson, 62, admitted she had sent classified information to a man with ties to the Lebanese militant group. Prosecutors alleged Lebanese-born Thompson, who became a US citizen in 1993, had put the lives of US troops and sources at risk by passing on the material to a man she hoped would marry her.
U.S.Fort Worth Star-Telegram911 operator didn’t send Fort Worth officer on call and 3 people died, news report says
An overworked 911 call-taker didn't send a Fort Worth police officer on a June 1 domestic call that ended in a double-murder and suicide, according to a news report. Ex-911 operator Kate Colley told KXAS-TV that the stressed 911 dispatcher received a call from Holly Beverly, who reported that her estranged husband was on his way to her apartment in west Fort Worth to harm her. The operator didn't send an officer because the suspect wasn't actually on the scene yet, Colley told the TV station.
U.S.Kansas City StarKansas City police officer ‘violently’ threw man to ground in wrongful arrest, lawsuit says
A man has filed a lawsuit against the Kansas City Police Department alleging he was “violently” thrown to the ground during a wrongful arrest last year. Murray Anderson, Jr., 47, claims Officer Jose Romero Jr. placed a knee on his neck after he was handcuffed and taken to the ground following a nearby assault. The assault Romero and other officers responded to occurred on the afternoon of May 24, 2020, outside reStart Inc., a shelter for the homeless community at 918 E. 9th St., according to the lawsuit filed in Jackson County Circuit Court in May.
WorldThe TelegraphChina's first Covid case could have been in October 2019, says UK study
The virus that causes Covid-19 could have started spreading in China as early as October 2019, two months before the first case was identified in the central city of Wuhan, a new study showed on Friday. Researchers from Britain's University of Kent used methods from conservation science to estimate that SARS-CoV-2 first appeared from October to mid-November 2019, according to a paper published in the PLOS Pathogens journal. The most likely date for the virus's emergence was November 17, 2019, and it had probably already spread globally by January 2020, they estimated.
WorldLA TimesPhotos: Miami condo tower collapses; almost 100 people missing
A wing of a 12-story beachfront condo building collapsed in a town outside Miami Thursday, killing at least one person while trapping residents in rubble and twisted metal. Rescuers pulled dozens of survivors from the tower and continued to look for more. Nearly 100 people were still unaccounted for at midday, authorities said, raising fears that the death toll could climb sharply.
U.S.Business InsiderA judge expressed skepticism about arguments from Mike Lindell, Sidney Powell, and Rudy Giuliani, who want Dominion's defamation lawsuits against them dismissed
A federal judge on Thursday weighed whether to dismiss Dominion's defamation lawsuits. Dominion is suing all three Trump allies over election conspiracy theories. A federal judge heard arguments Thursday over whether to allow multibillion-dollar defamation lawsuits from Dominion Voting Systems to proceed against Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.
U.S.Raleigh News and ObserverDurham man arrested for Chapel Hill road rage shooting
The U.S. Marshals Regional Task Force arrested a Durham man Thursday in connection with a road rage incident involving an assault rifle earlier this month on Fordham Boulevard in Chapel Hill. Jose Daniel Rivas-Sanchez, 21, was charged with one felony count of discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle. Investigators with the Chapel Hill Police Department and other regional police and sheriff's office agencies, state law enforcement agencies, and the U.S. Marshals Service are members of the Regional Task Force for the Middle District of North Carolina.
U.S.Kansas City StarMissouri Gov. Mike Parson says he is not convinced Kevin Strickland is innocent
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Wednesday said he is not convinced that Kevin Strickland is innocent, making him the first official to publicly doubt prosecutors' assertions that the Kansas City man was wrongly convicted four decades ago. In an interview with 41 Action News, Parson said he does not know if Strickland, 62, is “innocent or not” in a 1978 triple murder in Kansas City that the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office now says he did not commit. Parson's comments came more than 40 days after Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced her office had concluded Strickland, who was 18 when he was arrested, is “factually innocent” in the April 25, 1978, shooting at 6934 S. Benton Ave.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez slams the lack of diversity in an all-white group of lawmakers who drafted a bipartisan infrastructure deal
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized the bipartisan group of lawmakers who negotiated an infrastructure deal. President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that the group reached a deal. The New York lawmaker called out the group for its lack of diversity.
- NewsYahoo News Video
Biden on trusting Republicans on infrastructure: “I’ve worked with a lot of these who are people in the room. I know them.”
Delivering remarks after announcing a deal with a group of Republican senators on infrastructure, President Biden responded to a question about trusting Republicans on the agreement. Biden said, “I've worked with a lot of these people who are in the room. I know them.
U.S.Fort Worth Star-TelegramDo buildings show warning signs before collapsing? Expert weighs in after Miami tragedy
The collapse of a 12-story condo near Miami has raised questions about whether there were any warning signs in the months and days leading up to the deadly disaster. “It's likely that one moment things will seem fine, and the next everything falls apart,” McClatchy News reported, citing StoragePrepper. Warning signs will depend on the type of building, its condition and where it's located, said Atorod Azizinamini, chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Florida International University.
TechnologyBBCCrackonosh: How hackers are using gamers to become crypto-rich
But hidden inside the code of these games is a piece of crypto-mining malware called Crackonosh, which secretly generates digital money once the game has been downloaded. Criminals have made more than $2m (£1.4m) with the scam, researchers say. The researchers, at Avast, say the "cracked" games are spreading Crackonosh fast and the cyber-security software company is now detecting about 800 cases on computers every day.
U.S.Raleigh News and ObserverLive updates Thursday: Murdaugh family to offer reward; Vehicle towed from crime scene
The Murdaugh family will soon be offering a $100,000 reward for information that will lead to an arrest and conviction in Paul and Maggie's murders, a Columbia lawyer told The State Media Co. and The Island Packet on Thursday. A local towing company owner also confirmed with The Island Packet that it towed a Chevrolet Suburban from the Murdaugh property to the Colleton County Sheriff's Office the morning after the killings. These are the latest developments as the June 7 double homicide investigation of Paul Murdaugh and his mother Maggie outside their home in Colleton County approaches its third week.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderNancy Pelosi says 'there ain't no bipartisan bill' unless Senate also approves Democrat-only infrastructure package
Schumer and Pelosi are plowing ahead with a separate spending package without the GOP. A bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure deal is in sight after weeks of sputtering negotiations. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that a bipartisan infrastructure plan won't get voted on in the House until the Senate approves a Democrat-only package.
U.S.The StateLottery player settles for different NC ticket after favorite sold out. It paid off
A North Carolina woman won a top lottery price after settling for a different ticket. Joanne Pacheco bought the winning “7” scratch-off lottery ticket from the Lakeland St. Mini Mart in Durham over the weekend after the one she wanted to buy was sold out, according to the North Carolina Education Lottery. “They didn't have my tickets,” she told lottery officials.
U.S.The Daily BeastLord Ashcroft’s Daughter-in-Law Breaks Silence on Shooting of Belize Cop
The British billionaire's daughter-in-law who killed a top police officer in Belize is breaking her silence to tell the story of how she accidentally shot him—and how she is now locked in a battle to see her own children. “I feel like I'm living in a movie and I don't know what the endgame is,” Jasmine Hartin, the partner of Lord Michael Ashcroft, told the Daily Mail in her first interview since her arrest. Hartin is charged with manslaughter by negligence in the shooting death of Police Superintendent Henry Jemmott last month—a sensational case that has gripped the Central American country and made headlines around the world.
U.S.INSIDERLand around the Florida condo that collapsed was showing signs of sinking, according to a 2020 study
A 2020 study showed that the land around the collapsed Florida condo showed signs of sinking. FIU professor Shimon Wdowinski said that the ground movement alone is not likely to be the cause of the accident. Land around the Florida condominium that collapsed early Thursday morning in Surfside, Florida, showed signs of sinking in the 90s, according to a 2020 study.
PoliticsUSA TODAYDefendants in Dominion defamation lawsuit over election fraud claims invoke free speech rights
WASHINGTON – Defendants facing defamation lawsuits brought by Dominion Voting Systems argued that the First Amendment protects them from being sued over claims they made about the 2020 presidential election because Dominion – a private company that manufactures voting machines – is a public figure that took on a governmental role. Sidney Powell, a lawyer and conservative firebrand; Rudy Giuliani, former President Donald Trump's personal attorney; and Mike Lindell, founder and chief executive of MyPillow and a prominent Trump supporter, are each facing billion-dollar lawsuits accusing them of falsely claiming that Dominion rigged the last election to help President Joe Biden.
WorldBusiness InsiderChinese authorities reportedly interrogated workers linked to US company Verité, which investigates supply-chain labor abuses in the country
Workers linked to a US company were interrogated by Chinese officials in April, sources told Axios. The workers were linked to nonprofit Verité, which investigates labor abuses in global supply chains. The State Department said it was "deeply concerned" by the reports.
“The pandemic has unequivocally proven the public health value of masks. And they should stick around in certain situations.”
“With the steady thrum of anti-mask sentiment in the U.S., it’s highly unlikely that they will continue to be a ubiquitous sight.”
“Wearing masks on airplanes or other modes of transit ... can help keep everyone safe.”
“Just because masks are common in many other nations ... is hardly a reason to emulate the practice.”
“The fact that the flu all but vanished ... is not evidence alone that masks were responsible.”