PoliticsThe WeekJoe Biden just yanked away stimulus checks from 17 million Americans
During the campaign for the two Georgia Senate races, Joe Biden repeatedly promised to pass $2,000 stimulus checks if the Democrats won. After they did, the administration argued that $2,000 really meant $1,400 in addition to the $600 that had already gone out in the December rescue package. Whether that is true or not, now Biden is inarguably breaking his promise.
U.S.Raleigh News and ObserverKentucky man — and a motorcycle — found after 465-foot Grand Canyon fall, officials say
A missing Kentucky man was found dead after a 465-foot fall from the Grand Canyon, according to the National Park Service. A motorcycle was also found beside the body of John Pennington, a 40-year-old man from Walton, officials say. He was believed to have entered the Grand Canyon around Feb. 23 and abandoned his vehicle at Yaki Point, a scenic overlook, officials say.
WorldThe TelegraphNicola Sturgeon chokes back tears as she rejects 'absurd' claims she was out to destroy Alex Salmond
Nicola Sturgeon choked back tears and insisted "I would never have wanted to 'get' Alex Salmond" as she rejected as "absurd" his claims of a plot among senior SNP figures to destroy him. The First Minister told a Holyrood inquiry the "simple" truth was that several women made complaints about Mr Salmond's behaviour and "I refused to follow the usual pattern of allowing a powerful man to use his status and connections to get what he wants." In an appearance spanning more than eight hours, against the backdrop of calls for her resignation, Ms Sturgeon insisted she had seen "nothing that comes within a million miles" of backing Mr Salmond's conspiracy claims.
U.S.Associated PressCourt raises bar for some immigrants to avoid deportation
The Supreme Court on Thursday made it harder for longtime immigrants who have been convicted of a crime to avoid deportation. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the opinion for a 5-3 conservative majority that ruled against a Mexican citizen who entered the U.S. illegally and has lived in the country for 25 years. The man, Clemente Avelino Pereida, had been charged in Nebraska with using a fraudulent Social Security card to get a job and convicted under a state law against criminal impersonation.
WorldReutersViolence erupts as kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls return to families
One moment, Hadiza was weeping and flinging her arms around her father for the first time since her abduction; the next - gunfire and tear gas filled the air and people ran for cover. It was supposed to be a joyous reunion to end the five-day ordeal of 279 girls kidnapped last week from the Jangebe Government Girls Science Secondary School in a remote corner of northwest Nigeria. Cheering children had lined the street as buses brought the girls, grinning and waving, back to their school from the Zamfara state capital Gusau, where they had been cared for since their release on Tuesday.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderRudy Giuliani, who helped lead Trump's bogus election-fraud conspiracy theory, is being mocked after warning of the dangers of misinformation
Rudy Giuliani warned of "the dire consequences of misinformation on social media." Giuliani has long promoted right-wing misinformation on social media. Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump's former personal attorney, was pilloried on Wednesday after he warned in a podcast of the dangers of online misinformation.
U.S.The State3-year-old girl with autism dies after dad’s rescue attempt in icy pond, Ohio cops say
A 3-year-old girl pulled out of an icy pond died at a local hospital Wednesday, according to Ohio police. First responders went to a home in Olmsted Township after the girl was reported missing Wednesday afternoon, police said. “The male in peril was attempting to rescue his daughter who had wandered out onto the ice and fallen through in a separate location,” the Olmsted Township Police Department said.
PoliticsTheGrioMerrick Garland’s AG confirmation delayed by GOP lawmakers
President Joe Biden's nominee for America's next attorney general has hit another roadblock on his way to confirmation. Senator Tom Cotton tweeted on Wednesday that he is blocking the effort to expedite the confirmation of Judge Merrick Garland for several reasons. Democrats are trying to expedite Judge Garland's confirmation vote,” he wrote on Twitter.
U.S.NextSharkHigh School Teacher's Nose and Teeth Damaged After Being Attacked With a 'Rock' in Seattle Chinatown
A Japanese American woman ended up with a fractured nose and chipped teeth after she was struck with a hard object in Seattle's Chinatown-International District last week. The incident, which was caught on surveillance video, occurred while Noriko Nasu and her boyfriend, Michael Poffenbarger, were walking near 7th and King Streets around 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 25. Police records say a male suspect struck Nasu in the face with what felt like a rock in a sock.
WorldReutersU.S officials have met Yemen's Houthis as Washington seeks end to war - sources
Senior U.S. officials have held a first direct meeting with officials from the Iran-aligned Houthi movement that controls Yemen's capital, two sources familiar with the matter said, as the new U.S. administration pushes to end a six-year war. The discussions, which have not been officially made public by either side, took place in the Omani capital Muscat on Feb. 26 between U.S. Yemen envoy Timothy Lenderking and the Houthis' chief negotiator Mohammed Abdusalam, the sources said. The Houthis captured Yemen's capital in 2014 and control most populated areas.
U.S.Associated PressSUV in crash where 13 died came through hole in border fence
The 13 people killed in one of the deadliest highway crashes involving migrants sneaking into the U.S. had entered California through a section of border fence with Mexico that was cut away, apparently by smugglers, immigration officials said Wednesday. Surveillance video showed a Ford Expedition and Chevrolet Suburban drive through the opening early Tuesday, said Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol's El Centro sector chief. The Suburban carried 19 people, and it caught fire for unknown reasons on a nearby interstate after entering the U.S. All escaped the vehicle and were taken into custody by Border Patrol agents.
U.S.Miami Herald‘The whole plane was just going crazy’: Watch family get kicked off flight over masks
On Sunday evening, a Frontier flight from Miami to New York was canceled after a confrontation right before takeoff, the airline confirmed to the Miami Herald. An Orthodox Jewish person spoke up in defense of the Hasidic couple.
WorldNBC NewsU.S. issues warning after Microsoft says China hacked its mail server program
The U.S. has issued an emergency warning after Microsoft said it caught China hacking into its mail and calendar server program, called Exchange. The perpetrator, Microsoft said in a blog post, is a hacker group that the company has "high confidence" is working for the Chinese government and spies primarily on American targets. The latest software update for Exchange blocks the hackers, prompting the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, to issue a rare emergency directive that requires all government networks do so.
WorldReutersModi's ministers choose 'Made in India' vaccine over AstraZeneca
Government ministers and officials were following Prime Minister Narendra Modi lead by opting on Tuesday for an Indian-made COVID-19 vaccine approved without late-stage efficacy data, instead of the AstraZeneca one. India's health, foreign and law ministers, and state governors, all flocked to Twitter to express support for the much-criticised Bharat Biotech's COVAXIN vaccine, after it was administered to Modi on Monday. "Made-in-India vaccines are 100% safe," Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said after being inoculated with COVAXIN.
PoliticsAssociated PressBiden plan to distribute virus aid irks some governors
The Biden administration's plan to funnel more coronavirus aid into states with greater unemployment has irked governors with lower jobless rates, even though many have economies that weren't hit as hard by the pandemic. The $1.9 trillion relief bill working its way through Congress allocates extra money to larger, mostly Democratic-run states with higher unemployment rates, while rural Midwestern and Southern states that tend to have Republican governors and better jobless numbers would benefit less. “You're penalizing people who have done the right thing," said Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, a Republican whose state has reported the nation's lowest unemployment rate over the last several months.
- NewsWABC – NY
Man describes harrowing, unprovoked attack at subway station
Police are investigating yet another unprovoked attack on a person of Asian descent, this time in a subway station on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
U.S.Fort Worth Star-Telegram91-year-old hospitalized after getting 2 COVID vaccines in 4 hours, Ohio woman says
An Ohio city is investigating after a woman says her 91-year-old father was mistakenly given two COVID-19 vaccine shots only four hours apart. On Monday, Dawn Smith-Theodore posted to Facebook asking for prayers for her father. Her dad, Victor Smith, had gotten the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine on Jan. 22 and fell after becoming very tired, WAPT reported.
WorldArchitectural Digest9 of the Best Outdoor Rugs That Literally Ground Any Space
High-traffic areas are about to meet their match Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
WorldReutersEU vows legal response as UK moves unilaterally on Northern Ireland
The European Union promised legal action on Wednesday after the British government unilaterally extended a grace period for checks on food imports to Northern Ireland, a move Brussels said violated terms of Britain's divorce deal. Since it left the EU last year, Britain's relations with the bloc have soured, with both sides accusing the other of acting in bad faith in relation to part of their trade agreement that covers goods movements to Northern Ireland. The British government extended a grace period for some checks on agricultural and food products imported by retailers to Northern Ireland until Oct. 1 in a move it said was necessary to ensure the free flow of goods to the British region.
PoliticsThe Independent‘Textbook voter suppression’: How Trump’s stolen election lies are shaping the future of democracy
On the floor of Georgia's House of Representatives on 1 March, state Democratic Rep Bee Nguyen warned her colleagues that the bill in front of them – a 66-page, Republican-backed proposal to drastically roll back voting access across the state – followed a months-long campaign from Donald Trump and his GOP allies to undermine millions of voters with baseless claims of widespread voter fraud and a “stolen” election. “Members of this body aided and abetted a deliberate misinformation campaign to sow seeds of doubt among Georgia voters with absolutely no facts or evidence.” The bill would, among other things, cut mail-in voting and early voting access, strip elections oversight from the state's Secretary of State, and limit voting access that would disproportionately target Black voters.
U.S.Associated PressSpaceX Starship lands upright, then explodes in latest test
SpaceX's futuristic Starship looked like it aced a touchdown Wednesday, but then exploded on the landing pad with so much force that it was hurled into the air. The failure occurred just minutes after SpaceX declared success. The full-scale prototype of Elon Musk's envisioned Mars ship soared more than 6 miles (10 kilometers) after lifting off from the southern tip of Texas on Wednesday.
PoliticsFort Worth Star-TelegramWhy is Gov. Greg Abbott waiting a week to reopen Texas and lift mask mandate?
There is a week before Gov. Greg Abbott's order ending the mask mandate and capacity limits at businesses goes into effect. Why did Abbott pick March 10 as the date to roll back his previous COVID-19 orders? Abbott told Hasty he intended to announce the lifting of the state's mask mandate and business capacity limits on the last Monday in February.
WorldReutersThe man who saves forgotten cats in Fukushima's nuclear zone
A decade ago, Sakae Kato stayed behind to rescue cats abandoned by neighbours who fled the radiation clouds belching from the nearby Fukushima nuclear plant. So far he has buried 23 cats in his garden, the most recent graves disturbed by wild boars that roam the depopulated community. Kato leaves food for feral cats in a storage shed he heats with a paraffin stove.
PoliticsThe IndependentBiden news - live: Second Syria strike halted ‘over last-minute intel’, as Trump mulls 2024 run without Pence
Capitol Police said they have obtained intelligence of a “possible plot” by a militia group to breach the Capitol on Thursday, just months after it was attacked by a violent mob of Donald Trump supporters. The threat appears to be connected to a conspiracy theory promoted by supporters of extremist group QAnon that Trump will rise again to power on March 4, which was the presidential inauguration day until 1933, when it was moved to January 20, according to a report in The Washington Post. It comes amid reports Donald Trump has told allies he is serious about running for president in 2024, something the former president hinted at during the Conservative Political Action Conference last Sunday.
CelebrityTheGrioMichelle Obama: Barack and I ‘can’t get a word in’ with Sasha, Malia
During a recent interview on Good Morning America with host Robin Roberts, former First Lady Michelle Obama opened up about how she and her husband, former President Barack Obama, have open communications with their two young-adult daughters. I always have wanted them to start practicing the power of their voices very early on,” Mrs. Obama shared of Sasha, 19, and Malia, 22. If you sit around the dinner table, me and Barack, we can't get a word in edgewise and we like it like that.
“Taking humans to Mars would require an investment astronomically out of kilter with the possible benefits.”
“Can a Mars settlement be a freer society than we enjoy on Earth? Maybe.”
“What we learn...may spark the next revolution that will make life in 2071 beyond anything we can imagine right now.”
“Our presence on Mars could jeopardize one of our main reasons for being there — the search for life.”
“The future of geologic investigation of other worlds lies with highly improved versions of our Mars rovers.”