WorldYahoo News'High probability' Biden's decision to pull U.S. troops from Afghanistan will cause its government to fall, expert says
Former White House adviser Richard Clarke said that there is a “high probability” that President Biden's decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11 will result in the collapse of the Afghan government and a takeover of that country by the Taliban. “It's a very courageous move and it's not going to be politically great for him,” Clarke said in an interview on the Yahoo News “Skullduggery” podcast.
PoliticsThe WeekMarjorie Taylor Greene is leading an 'America First Caucus' that wants to uphold 'Anglo-Saxon political traditions'
In an effort to "follow in President Trump's footsteps," a new America First Caucus led by far-right lawmakers is seeking to protect "Anglo-Saxon political traditions." The new caucus is recruiting members, reports Punchbowl News, and is appealing to a "common respect for Anglo-Saxon political traditions," including pushing for infrastructure that "befits the progeny of European architecture." Punchbowl described the materials being distributed as "some of the most nakedly nativist rhetoric we've ever seen."
PoliticsYahoo NewsCongressional Democrats blast 'unconscionable' Biden decision capping refugee admittance
President Biden's decision to keep a strict Trump-era cap on refugees was met with harsh condemnation from progressives in the House and two powerful committee chairmen in the Senate. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, called the decision “simply unacceptable and unconscionable” in a statement on Friday. “After four painful years of fighting Trump's all-out draconian assault on immigrants, President Biden promised to restore America as a beacon of hope and committed to increasing our refugee resettlement numbers,” Japayal said.
HealthYahoo News'You will be just fine,' says surgeon general of Johnson & Johnson vaccine, though pause continues
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy had a message Friday afternoon for the 6.8 million Americans who have received the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine and who, in recent days, have read concerning reports about blood clotting: “The vast and overwhelming likelihood is that you will be just fine,” Dr. Murthy said during a briefing of the White House COVID-19 response team. He added that the response team was quite confident in that assertion, which is in keeping with what scientists know about the vaccine. The Biden administration told states on Tuesday to stop using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after six reports of blood clotting, including one death.
LifestyleArchitectural DigestThe 9 Best Wireless Headphones for Every Kind of Use
From the most comfortable pair to the best value buy, these headphones will carry you through the spring, summer, and beyond Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
WorldAssociated PressIran names suspect in Natanz attack, says he fled country
Iran named a suspect Saturday in the attack on its Natanz nuclear facility that damaged centrifuges there, saying he had fled the country “hours before” the sabotage happened. While the extent of the damage from the April 11 sabotage remains unclear, it comes as Iran tries to negotiate with world powers over allowing the U.S. to re-enter its tattered nuclear deal with world powers and lift the economic sanctions it faces. Already, Iran has begun enriching uranium up to 60% purity in response — three times higher than ever before, though in small quantities.
WorldAssociated PressChina says US-Japan actions are stoking division
China hit back at the U.S.-Japan show of alliance during talks between President Joe Biden and Japan Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, calling it an "ironic attempt of stoking division.” China said Suga and Biden's news conference Friday, in which they issued a joint statement on shared values in democracy and human rights and aired concerns about China's activities in the Indo-Pacific region, had gone “far beyond the scope of normal development of bilateral relations.” The statement by the Japanese and U.S. leaders also mentioned the importance of “peace and stability” in the Taiwan Strait, marking the first time a Japanese prime minister had spoken out in a communique with the United States on Taiwan since 1969 talks between Richard Nixon and Eisaku Sato.
WorldThe TelegraphPaw Patrol: Feline drug smuggler caught on prison narcatics run
It could have been the purrfect crime but an unlikely drug smuggler's journey was put on paws on Friday when it was intercepted by authorities in Panama. The fluffy white cat, concealing an assortment of drugs tied to its belly, was apprehended as it attempted to enter a prison. The feline felon was stopped outside the Nueva Esperanza jail, which houses more than 1,700 prisoners, north of Panama City.
WorldReutersU.S. preliminary plan on Afghanistan is to remove at least some contractors -Pentagon
The Pentagon said on Friday the preliminary plan on Afghanistan is for at least some contractors to be removed during the United States' military withdrawal from the country. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan starting May 1 to end America's longest war, rejecting calls for them to stay to ensure a peaceful resolution to that nation's grinding internal conflict. As of October, there were more than 18,000 such contractors, including 6,000 Americans and 7,000 third-country nationals, according to a U.S. government watchdog.
U.S.LA TimesLitman: Want more gun control? Don't make it about AR-15s
The most remarkable aspect of the gun control package President Biden unveiled last week is that it includes the first major federal regulation of gun violence in over 25 years. According to the researchers at the University of Washington, our gun death rate is eight times higher than Canada's, about 100 times higher than Britain's, 200 times the rate of Japan. Imagine if another cause of death — AIDS or drug overdoses or pancreatic cancer — had such a disproportionate effect on the U.S., and Congress took no action for two and a half decades.
- WorldYahoo News Video
Chicago releases video of fatal police shooting of 13-year-old boy
Body camera footage of a Chicago police officer fatally shooting a 13-year-old boy last month shows the officer yelling “Drop it! at the teen right before he opens fire.
PoliticsAssociated PressJustice Department sues Roger Stone over $2M in unpaid taxes
The Justice Department sued Donald Trump's ally Roger Stone on Friday, accusing the conservative provocateur and his wife of failing to pay nearly $2 million in income tax. It alleges the couple underpaid their income tax by more than $1.5 million from 2007 until 2011 and separately alleges Stone also owes more than $400,000 for not fully paying his tax bill in 2018. The suit alleges that the couple used a commercial entity known as Drake Ventures to “shield their personal income from enforced collection” and to fund a “lavish lifestyle.”
U.S.Associated PressGaetz friend was lightning rod for controversy in Florida
It all started with a hunch by a central Florida prep school teacher about who had launched a politically motivated smear campaign against him, falsely alleging he was racist and in a sexual relationship with a high school student. Investigators say fingerprints on an envelope used in the smear campaign against Brian Beute led them to a local tax collector, Joel Greenberg. That investigation subsequently led to Greenberg's friend, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, who is now the subject of a probe into whether the congressman and tax collector paid women or offered them gifts in exchange for sex and whether one of them was underage.
WorldReutersMyanmar junta chief to attend ASEAN summit on first foreign trip since coup
Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing will attend an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Indonesia on April 24, a Thai foreign ministry spokesman said on Saturday, for his first known foreign trip since he staged a Feb. 1 coup. Myanmar has been in upheaval since Min Aung Hlaing ousted an elected government led by democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi, with security forces killing 728 people, according to an activist group tally, in an attempt to stamp out protests. In the latest violence, security forces shot and killed two people in the ruby-mining town of Mogok, one of several towns in which crowds came out to protest on Saturday, a resident told Reuters and media reported.
U.S.INSIDER'Every rank and file police officer supports you': Police donated to Kyle Rittenhouse, the Guardian reports
A number of police officers and public officials donated to fundraiser raising money to help pay for Kyle Rittenhouse's legal fees, a data breach revealed. Donors from the fundraiser on the Christian crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo were revealed in a report from The Guardian, using data from the transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets. "God bless.
WorldThe TelegraphLast Castro of Cuba finally steps down as island gripped by most serious bout of protests in years
For the first time in more than 60 years, a Castro will not be ruling Cuba, with Raúl, brother of Fidel, stepping down as head of the country's all-powerful Communist Party. There have been protests, hunger strikes and even clashes with police as an underground opposition movement has increasingly ventured into the open. Late on Friday night, the Castro era was broken as 89-year-old Raúl announced his resignation as the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba - a position more powerful than that of the President.
ScienceAssociated Press‘Godzilla’ shark discovered in New Mexico gets formal name
The 300-million-year-old shark's teeth were the first sign that it might be a distinct species. “Great for grasping and crushing prey rather than piercing prey,” said discoverer John-Paul Hodnett, who was a graduate student when he unearthed the first fossils of the shark at a dig east of Albuquerque in 2013. This week, Hodnett and a slew of other researchers published their findings in a bulletin of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science identifying the shark as a separate species.
WorldReutersRussia beefs up warship presence in Black Sea as Ukraine tensions simmer
Two Russian warships transited the Bosphorus en route to the Black Sea on Saturday and 15 smaller vessels completed a transfer to the sea as Moscow beefs up its naval presence at a time of tense relations with the West and Ukraine. The reinforcement coincides with a huge build-up of Russian troops near Ukraine, something Moscow calls a temporary defensive exercise, and follows an escalation in fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces. Russia's relations with Washington, which cancelled the deployment of two of its own warships to the Black Sea last week after fierce Russian protests, are at a post-Cold war low.
U.S.Fort Worth Star-TelegramMan who smoked legal weed in Nevada now faces years in prison in Dubai, lawyer says
A Las Vegas man faces prison time after he traveled to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and marijuana was detected in his urine, his lawyer said. Peter Clark, 51, traveled to Dubai for a business trip on Feb. 24 but was hospitalized for pancreatitis, Clark's attorney Radha Stirling wrote on her website Detained in Dubai. The hospital took a urine test, found traces of marijuana and reported it to the police, who charged Peter and took him to the Al Barsha police station on March 3, Stirling said.
WorldAssociated PressPhilippine troops kill Egyptian, 2 Filipino militants
Philippine troops killed a suspected Egyptian would-be suicide bomber and two local Abu Sayyaf militants in what military officials said Saturday was a setback that would make it harder for gunmen linked to the Islamic State group to stage suicide attacks. Army troops gunned down the three militants in a 10-minute firefight Friday night near a hinterland village off the mountainous Patikul town in southern Sulu province. They also recovered three assault rifles and bandoliers of ammunition, army brigade commander Col. Benjamin Batara Jr. said.
EntertainmentArchitectural DigestShop Troye Sivan’s Eclectic Home Style
Take a page out of the stylish young star's book, from must-have splurges to affordable accessories Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
StyleThe WeekThe woman who does hair for The View swears she isn't secretly sabotaging Meghan McCain
The View co-host Meghan McCain is notorious both for sharing her "oppressive conservative beliefs on daytime TV" and for her, uh, interesting hairstyles, which has resulted in some onlookers wondering if those two things might be related. "Everyone's convinced Meghan McCain's hair and makeup stylist secretly hates her," Queerty wrote last month, while someone else tweeted that "The View's hair and makeup team expressing their contempt for Meghan McCain every day is hilarious." The Cut at last spoke to said hairstylist, whose name is Carmen Currie and who swears the looks aren't intentional sabotage.
PoliticsReutersPompeo violated ethics rules by asking State Dept employees to do personal tasks -watchdog
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo violated federal ethics rules governing the use of taxpayer-funded resources when he, and his wife, asked State Department employees to carry out personal tasks more than 100 times, a government watchdog said in a report on Friday. Pompeo, who was former President Donald Trump's last secretary of state, served until Jan. 20, when Republican Trump left the office after being defeated by Democrat Joe Biden in the November election. Pompeo and his wife asked a political appointee and other employees in his office to carry out tasks such as "picking up personal items, planning events unrelated to the Department's mission, and conducting such personal business as pet care and mailing personal Christmas cards," the State Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) said in the report.
U.S.Miami HeraldOne killed, one injured, another missed in three police shootings in Miami-Dade, Broward
In an unusually violent day for law enforcement in South Florida, police in Miami-Dade and Broward counties fired their weapons at three people Thursday, killing one, injuring another and missing a third. Also shot and killed was a dog — though it wasn't struck by a police bullet. The burst of gunfire from police began in Hollywood just after 2:45 a.m. Thursday, when, according to police, a man from the state of Washington tried to reverse his car into an officer, who then shot at him.
U.S.Kansas City StarSearch for kayaker’s body suspended after dog was found in Colorado lake, cops say
Crews have suspended the search for a missing man, who is now presumed dead, after officials spotted a capsized kayak on Sunday and rescued his dog from Carter Lake in Colorado, according to officials. The Larimer County Sheriff's Office officials said on Friday that the search has been suspended after teams have spent more than 700 hours looking for the man believed to be from Loveland. Rangers found an uninjured dog wearing a flotation device and a kayak in the lake Sunday afternoon but no kayaker.
“There’s no ‘both sides of the debate’ when it comes to active voter suppression.”
“Companies that do this ooze contempt for their own customers and employees who are not in the leftmost quarter of opinion.”
“The truth is that Fortune 500 companies were never taking moral stances from the goodness of their corporate hearts.”
“The truth is, the companies hold the cards…If companies stick to their guns, Georgia is likely to back down as well.”
“When a company folds to the unfounded outrage of a few misinformed nuts, they are forever at the mob’s beck-and-call.”