NEW YORK (Reuters) -A U.S. appeals court on Thursday refused to reinstate a lawsuit by Amy Cooper, the white woman who became known as "Central Park Karen" after calling police on a Black bird-watcher, against the employer that fired her following the encounter. In a 3-0 decision, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said Cooper did not prove that Franklin Templeton illegally dismissed her on the basis of race or defamed her by branding her a racist. Cooper had been an insurance portfolio manager at Franklin Templeton, a unit of San Mateo, California-based Franklin Resources.
A former Donald Trump aide has published almost 9,000 images of Joe Biden's son Hunter online, after claiming it took months to censor compromising images of him nude and with drugs and prostitutes. The photographs come from a cache of material obtained from a laptop the US president's son reportedly took to a computer repair shop in Delaware. The contents were passed to the media and a number of the photos were published ahead of the presidential election in 2020 in an attempt to embarrass the Biden campaign.
A man in China ended up in a legal battle after walking out on a blind date who expected him to pay for her and 23 of her relatives. Some uninvited guests: The man, identified in local reports as Mr. Liu, found his prospective partner, Ms. Zhang, through a matchmaker and arranged to meet her at a popular restaurant in Jilin province. To Liu's surprise, Zhang arrived at the restaurant accompanied by 23 relatives, who joined them on their date.
A police officer who rushed into a high school building during the 2018 Parkland shooting testified Friday that a sheriff's deputy outside confirmed that the shooter was upstairs. The former Broward County deputy, Scot Peterson, is on trial for failing to confront the shooter who killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High. He has insisted since he spoke to investigators two days after the massacre that he couldn't tell where the gunshots were coming from, and that he thought they may have been fired outside.
A top business executive was sacked in China after a video of him with his mistress went viral. Chinese users rushed to buy some 4,000 pieces of the pink dress the mistress wore. A top business executive in China was fired after being caught having an affair with his coworker in a viral video posted on the Chinese version of TikTok.
“On May 1, 2023, at approximately 12:29 a.m. LVMPD dispatch received a call about a suspicious situation,” the Las Vegas Police Department said in an email statement. At around 11:50 p.m. on April 30, body camera footage from an officer with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police captured a bright, glowing object cutting through the sky, according to local TV channel 8 News Now. About 40 minutes later, a local resident placed a 911 call to report that something “100% not human” was staring at him from his backyard shortly after he and his family saw an object fall from the sky, the station reported.
A little white pill has given Syrian President Bashar Assad powerful leverage with his Arab neighbors, who have been willing to bring him out of pariah status in hopes he will stop the flow of highly addictive Captagon amphetamines out of Syria. Western governments have been frustrated by the red-carpet treatment Arab countries have given Assad, fearing that their reconciliation will undermine the push for an end to Syria's long-running civil war. Hundreds of millions of pills have been smuggled over the years into Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab countries, where the drug is used recreationally and by people with physically demanding jobs to keep them alert.
The summer of 2022 proved to be a season of “travel chaos,” but there's something funny about this year: People just keep hitting the road. In fact, as he told Fortune CEO Alan Murray and editor-at-large Michal Lev-Ram on the Leadership Next podcast this week, his team has quantified Americans' thirst for “revenge travel” right now, and it's a huge number. “People talk about revenge travel, or pent-up travel—this is beyond anything that people can classify as truly pent-up,” Bastian said.
O.J. Simpson posted a video on Twitter about Donald Trump's latest indictment. O.J. Simpson—a man most famous for being acquitted of murder (or maybe being a passenger in a slow-moving vehicle after the murder)—thinks Trump should really start shutting the hell up. “Hey Twitter world, yours truly here,” Simpson says in a video he tweeted Friday morning.
Former San Bernardino Deputy Meagan McCarthy was attacked and shot at while responding to a 911 call in 2019, and although a neighbor recorded the encounter on video, the suspect's trial didn't go her way.
Markus Maly said he merely "occupied space" on Jan. 6 and denied attacking and pepper-spraying cops. A prosecutor described Maly as a "lifelong criminal" with 33 prior convictions. A Virginia man who told his wife — and a federal jury — that he had "fun" at the Capitol riot was sentenced on Friday to six years in prison for attacking police as he stormed the building.
A Florida man almost lost his leg — and could have died — from a rare flesh-eating bacterial infection, which developed after he was bitten in the thigh during a family fight. Donnie Adams, a 53-year-old funeral assistant from the Tampa suburb of Riverview, went to the emergency room in mid-February to treat a bump the size of a dollar coin on his upper left thigh. He was sent home with a tetanus shot and antibiotics, but the injury got worse over the next few days, becoming red, swollen and painful to the touch.
The family of an Illinois woman killed in a 2022 crash while she and two children were parasailing in the Florida Keys filed a second lawsuit connected to her death this week and reflected on the tragic end to a family vacation about a year ago. Supraja Alaparthi, 33, was killed after being dragged across the water and slamming into a bridge last June while strapped into a parasail. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission investigated the crash last year and found the boat captain cut the line holding Alaparthi and the two boys because the parasail was “dragging” in high winds from a sudden summer storm.
Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman threatened the US amid an oil price dispute, leaks say. The US subsequently backed away from "consequences" it pledged when the Saudis cut oil production. The crown prince is seeking to assert a more independent path from the US.
A 10-year-old New York school student was reportedly so scared of his bully that he pleaded with his family to let him stay home before he killed himself. Gianlukas "Lukas" Illescas, a student at the Hillcrest Elementary School in Peekskill, New York, was allegedly bullied for months while district officials "didn't have time" to address the issue, his dad, Christian Illescas, claimed during an emotional school boarding meeting on Tuesday. Illescas said he asked district administrators and social workers for help multiple times because his son was scared to go to school for the last six months, according to a report by News12 Westchester.
Counterattacking Ukrainian forces have advanced up to 1,400 metres at a number of sections of the front line near the eastern city of Bakhmut in the past day, a military spokesman said on Saturday. The advance is the latest in a series of similar gains reported this week by Kyiv near Bakhmut, which Russia said it had fully captured last month after the bloodiest and longest battle since it began its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Serhiy Cherevaty, the official, said in televised comments that Russian forces were themselves trying to counterattack but that they had not been successful.
Two blind passengers told ITV News they were ordered to leave a P&O Cruises ship. Pam May and Jennie Bailie said they were the order was due to "health and safety reasons." Two blind passengers who were ordered to leave a cruise ship before it set sail said it was "humiliating" and that they "felt like criminals".
A 13-year-old girl shopping with her mother at a South Carolina Walmart was shot at random Wednesday night, according to WJBF. The shooting happened at the Walmart store in Aiken, which is about 15 miles from the Georgia border. A witness told WJBF that the shooter walked straight up to the victim and shot her.
Remember the first time we saw the Tesla Cybertruck? The event was notable, not just for the wild, futuristic vehicle shown on stage, but for the major blooper that occurred when Tesla CEO Elon Musk tried to demonstrate its “armored glass,” breaking the window on stage. As it turns out, that was just one of several early issues the Tesla engineering team discovered with the alpha-level prototype.
We are excited to celebrate Pride Month with our employees and guests. Everyone is always welcome at our table,” the company wrote. Cracker Barrel did not always welcome everyone at its table, or at least within its employment ranks.
A Russian swimmer was eaten by a tiger shark in the Red Sea in an attack that his father, who was watching on helplessly, described as looking like a “meat grinder”. Video footage online showed the entirety of Thursday's attack, in which 23-year-old Vladimir Popov repeatedly called out for his “papa” as he attempted to swim away from the shark. At one point, he seemed to wrestle with the animal but was flipped upside down, his legs flailing in the air.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday unveiled a series of new tax breaks aimed at businesses and families while proposing to reverse some of President Joe Biden's legislative victories, including credits to spur the sale of clean-burning electric vehicles. Three related bills were introduced on Friday with the goal of moving the legislation through the House Ways and Means Committee next week. White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre termed the proposals a "tax scam" and alleged that "(Republican) priority isn't reducing the deficit or out-competing the world, their priority is giving handouts to rich special interests and corporations at the expense of everyone else."
A study from Australia is the first to scientifically document blue whales' killings by orcas. Orcas were observed devouring the nutrient-rich tongues of the giant blue whales. "This is the biggest predation event on this planet," a marine scientist said.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) fired back at House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) after the GOP leader criticized his proposal for a constitutional 28th Amendment to address gun violence. McCarthy ripped Newsom's suggestion for raising the minimum age for gun buyers to 21, universal background checks, a “reasonable waiting period” for gun purchases and a ban on civilians buying assault weapons. “Hey Governor Newsom, The 2nd Amendment already exists — we don't need a 28th,” McCarthy wrote on Twitter.
Robert Ray, an attorney for Donald Trump during his first impeachment trial, says that if Donald Trump is elected president in 2024, any charges or indictments made against the former president by the Department of Justice would be “gone.