PoliticsYahoo NewsBiden administration begins 'long haul' of reuniting migrant families separated under Trump
This week, the Biden administration announced that the parents from four different families who were deported to Central America and Mexico without their children under former President Donald Trump will be allowed to cross the border and rejoin their children in the United States. The families are the first to be reunited in the U.S. since President Biden issued an executive order in February to create a task force dedicated to repairing families torn apart as a result of his predecessor's controversial family separation policy. The task force, which is led by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, estimates that the number of families who remain separated is over 1,000.
U.S.The TelegraphIdaho school shooting: 'Absolute blessing' no one dead after young schoolgirl opens fire on classmates
A girl reported to be 11 or 12 years old has been taken into police custody after shooting two students and a cleaner before being disarmed by a teacher at a school in Idaho. The child pulled a handgun from her backpack on Thursday and fired multiple rounds inside and outside Rigby Middle School in the small city of Rigby, about 95 miles southwest of Yellowstone National Park. “It's an absolute blessing" that they weren't more badly injured, said Dr Michael Lemon, the trauma medical director at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Centre.
ScienceAssociated PressNASA Mars helicopter heard humming through thin Martian air
First came the amazing pictures, then the video. Now NASA is sharing sounds of its little helicopter humming through the thin Martian air. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California released this first-ever audio Friday, just before Ingenuity was set to soar on its fifth test flight.
PoliticsThe WeekConservatives say McConnell is battling the Democrats' voting rights bill with 'Supreme Court fight' fervor
Florida on Thursday joined Georgia in enacting a sweeping Republican election law that constricts voting rights in the state, and Texas, which already had some of the most stringent voting laws in the country, is on the cusp of joining them. Democrats were not able to stop the new voting laws in the country's biggest red states, but House Democrats passed their own countervailing national voting rights legislation, the "For the People Act" or HR1, in March, and Senate Democrats are working on their own version, S1. When Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Wednesday that "100 percent of my focus is on stopping this new administration," these voting reform bills might have been what he had in mind.
WorldAssociated PressAhead of Harris meeting, Mexico president accuses US
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Friday that Mexico has complained to U.S. officials about their alleged financing for an anticorruption group that he said has engaged in political activity against his administration. Speaking at a news conference shortly before a scheduled online meeting with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, López Obrador displayed tax records that appeared to show payments from the U.S. government to Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity. “It is an interventionist act that violated our sovereignty,” said López Obrador, who announced that Mexico had filed a diplomatic note with the U.S. Embassy.
U.S.The TelegraphNew Providence Wharf fire: Blaze at tower blocked wrapped in 'Grenfell cladding' tackled by more than 100 firefighters
Residents have had to evacuate themselves from a blaze in a London block of flats covered in the same type of cladding as Grenfell Tower. More than 100 firefighters tackled the fire at New Providence Wharf in Poplar, east London on Friday morning. More than 20 fire engines and around a dozen ambulances were rushed to the scene.
U.S.Kansas City StarMushroom hunter wanders upon woman’s body — but Missouri police can’t find her family
The body of a woman discovered by a mushroom hunter in Missouri has been identified, officials say. On April 10, the mushroom hunter found human remains in a wooded area of Branson near state Highway 248 and Gretna Road, officials say. Branson police and the Taney County coroner searched the area for clues for the next day in hopes of learning how the woman died.
WorldBBCAntony Blinken: US tells Russia to cease 'reckless and aggressive actions'
What Biden's foreign policy 'reset' really means America is back, says Blinken He did not provide further details of any additional security support the US was considering. Barbara Plett Usher, the BBC's State Department correspondent, says the visit was intended to signal that Ukraine is a high foreign policy priority for President Joe Biden's administration. Irresponsible and destabilising' Mr Blinken travelled to Ukraine following a meeting of foreign ministers of the G7 group of industrialised nations in London earlier this week.
LifestyleArchitectural Digest27 College Graduation Gifts They'll Need (and Actually Want) This Year
Uncertain times call for gifts you know they'll love Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
U.S.The WeekOhio state senator caught driving during work videoconference insists he wasn't distracted from the road
Ohio state Sen. Andrew Brenner (R) showed up to work Monday, participating in a videoconference meeting of the budget-adjusting Ohio Controlling Board. "The problem for Brenner was that he did so while driving, while his government meeting was being recorded, and while his legislative colleagues were pressing to tighten rules on using smartphones behind the wheel," The Washington Post reported Thursday. "A recording of the nearly 13-minute videoconference — much of which overlapped with Brenner's drive — showed the seat-belt-using senator repeatedly glancing in the direction of his phone, which had been placed to his right."
WorldThe TelegraphKeir Starmer running out of time to prove Labour has any point at all
He's got about a year to demonstrate that he can turn things around,” said one Labour MP, “otherwise the party will increasingly start to look for someone who can inspire the public in a way that so far he has failed to do. Sir Keir promised to “carry the can” for the result of the Hartlepool by-election, and he has few excuses after approving a candidate championed by his own team. The selection of Paul Williams, a remainer who lost his seat as the MP for nearby Stockton South at the last election, proved that Sir Keir is “tone deaf when it comes to the North”, according to one northern Labour MP who narrowly retained their seat in 2019.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderDemocrats renew calls to end the filibuster after McConnell said he's '100%' focused on stopping Biden
McConnell said Wednesday "one-hundred percent of our focus is on stopping this new administration." Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders were among the lawmakers to renews calls for an end to the rule. After Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said his entire focus is on stopping President Joe Biden's administration, Democratic lawmakers renewed calls to end the filibuster.
PoliticsAxiosThe evidence is piling up: Trump's iron grip over the GOP has been institutionalized
Republican officials are rendering an unequivocal verdict: They want to cement former President Trump's politics and policies into the foundation of the GOP for many years to come. Why it matters: The debate over Trump's post-election hold on the GOP is over — it has gotten stronger since the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol. The evidence is overwhelming: House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney, a Trump critic, is expected to get booted from leadership next week for saying Trump's claims of an illegitimate Biden victory are lies and destructive.
PoliticsUSA TODAY'Don't take questions': White House press secretary frowns on Biden's media interaction
President Joe Biden was fielding his fourth question from a reporter after delivering remarks on the pandemic last week when he apologized to the press corps. In fact, yes, White House press secretary Jen Psaki divulged in a podcast interview this week. “That is not something we recommend,” Psaki said.
PoliticsMiami HeraldRepublicans get away with cheating in voting bill DeSantis signs on Fox News | Opinion
But giddy, greedy DeSantis is using this bill, now law, for two purposes: To set up roadblocks for Democratic voters, who sent in a record number of votes by mail, to do so again in 2022 — and to keep peddling the big lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump. Under a cloud The voting bill is awash in irony and chicanery. Republicans were the big cheaters in the 2020 election in Florida.
WorldBusiness InsiderThe US has no plans to shoot down the Chinese rocket due to crash down this weekend, defense secretary says
A Chinese rocket is hurtling toward Earth and is expected to crash this weekend. The US has no plans to shoot down the remains of a Chinese rocket that's expected to enter the atmosphere uncontrolled this weekend, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said. The Long March 5B rocket took off from China on April 29, and a big chunk is now heading back towards earth in an uncontrolled reentry.
- WorldKGO – San Francisco
Parents, attorney respond after Bay Area students given life sentence
"It's bewildering. They gave him and they gave Gabe a sentence that is befitting a mafia boss who wantonly kills innocent people," Craig Peters, lawyer for the Elder family, said of the verdict.
- U.S.Tribune Publishing
At 16, she drove drunk and killed a man. At 24, cops say she did it again.
Jennifer Carvajal admitted she was drunk early one morning a few weeks shy of her 17th birthday. Last summer, Carvajal was once again in court, accused of violating probation by walking away from a substance abuse treatment facility. Two weeks ago, authorities say Carvajal was once again driving drunk.
WorldThe IndependentIran shouldn't expect any more US concessions in nuclear talks, White House says
President Joe Biden's government is hinting that Iran should keep their expectations low for new offers following a new series of discussions between the two nations over the nuclear deal. A senior source told reporters on Thursday that the U.S had outlined all their terms and conditions for rejoining their 2015 nuclear deal, which was heralded as a major success of diplomacy, that President Donald Trump removed the US from. The source, an official within Mr Biden's government, said that continuing was up to Iran, as they were not going to budge from their position.
U.S.The Daily BeastMelinda Gates Warned Bill About Jeffrey Epstein
Melinda Gates met with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein alongside her husband, Bill, in New York City and soon after said she was furious at the relationship between the two men, according to people familiar with the situation. The previously unreported meeting occurred at Epstein's Upper East Side mansion in September 2013, on the same day the couple accepted the Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award at The Pierre hotel and were photographed alongside then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg. The meeting would prove a turning point for Gates' relationship with Epstein, the people familiar with the matter say, as Melinda told friends after the encounter how uncomfortable she was in the company of the wealthy sex offender and how she wanted nothing to do with him.
WorldTimeThe Real Biggest Myths About World War II, According to a Military Historian
More than 75 years after V-E Day—the German surrender on May 8, 1945, that ended the physical fighting on the Western Front in World War II—myths and misconceptions about the war remain. TIME asked the Senior Historian at the National World War II Museum, Rob Citino, which myths he has spent the most time debunking in his career as a professor of military history and author of 10 books. “Historians owe it to the millions of people who participated in this event, and unfortunately, the millions of people who died in World War II, to delve as deeply as possible into why this all happened,” he says.
EntertainmentRaleigh News and ObserverWhat to Watch Friday: 20/20 reports developments on toddler murder case
20/20 (9 p.m., ABC) - ABC News anchor David Muir reports on shocking new details about the abduction and murder of three-year-old Riley Fox, who disappeared from Wilmington, Illinois, in June 2004. Tonight's program reports on how the mystery of the case unraveled, including how authorities mistakenly zeroed in on Riley's father, Kevin Fox, who was represented by Chicago attorney Kathleen Zellner (also connected to the Steven Avery case from “Making a Murderer”).
PoliticsBusiness InsiderWhite House press secretary Jen Psaki says she'll resign next year when it's 'time for somebody else to have this job'
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said she plans to leave the role next year to spend more time with her family. "I think it's going to be time for somebody else to have this job in a year from now or about a year from now," Psaki said in an interview with CNN's David Axelrod, her former colleague in the Obama administration, on Thursday. Psaki, who delivers regular press briefings as the public face of President Joe Biden's administration, said she wanted to be able to spend more time with her two young children.
U.S.The IndependentArmed school bus hijacker let children go after they pestered him by ‘asking lots of questions’
An armed military trainee accused of hijacking a school bus let the children off after they frustrated him by asking too many questions, authorities have revealed. Jovan Collazo, 23, a trainee at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, got on the bus at an interstate highway on Thursday before demanding the driver divert to a nearby town. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, in a press conference, told reporters that Mr Collazo "told the bus driver that he didn't want to hurt him,” but to drive to a town with the children on board.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis' former aides say he treated them 'like a disposable piece of garbage'
Many of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' former staffers told Politico they felt abused by the politician. A group of the ex-staffers have formed a "support group" to discuss their experiences DeSantis is closely aligned with former president Donald Trump, who recently said he'd consider the governor as a potential running mate. See more stories on Insider's business page.
“Every college has a public health responsibility to require its students to be vaccinated.”
“While the vast majority of students will likely get the vaccine, schools should honor the decisions of the few who object.”
“A vaccinated campus could be the step toward normality that college leaders are seeking.”
“College students are mobile and spread COVID-19 with them whenever they travel.”
“There almost certainly are going to be legal challenges because the anti-vaccine movement is already preparing for them.”