WorldAssociated PressIsrael steps up Gaza offensive, kills senior Hamas figures
Israel on Wednesday pressed ahead with a fierce military offensive in the Gaza Strip, killing as many as 10 senior Hamas military figures and toppling a pair of high-rise towers housing Hamas facilities in airstrikes. The Islamic militant group showed no signs of backing down and fired hundreds of rockets at Israeli cities. In just three days, this latest round of fighting between the bitter enemies has already begun to resemble — and even exceed — a devastating 50-day war in 2014.
BusinessBBCAsian markets fall for third day after shock US inflation rise
The stock market falls come as investors fret that America's central bank may be forced to tighten its monetary policy. US inflation sees biggest jump since 2008 Stock markets slide on fears of rising inflation US economy accelerates as recovery continues Official US figures showed that inflation, which measures the rate at which the prices for goods and services increase, surged in April from a year earlier as the economic recovery picked up. Consumer prices jumped by 4.2% in the 12 months through to April, up from 2.6% in March and marking the biggest increase since September 2008.
U.S.ReutersSuspect in New York Times Square shootings arrested in Florida
The man wanted in the weekend shooting of three bystanders, including a 4-year-old girl, in New York's Times Square was arrested near Jacksonville, Florida, on Wednesday after an intensive manhunt, New York police officials said. "While there is no joy today, there is justice," New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea told a briefing, adding he had promised the girl's father the shooter would be found. The gunfire, in which police said the victims did not appear to be the intended targets, erupted late on Saturday afternoon in one of the most-visited tourist destinations in the country and with an always heavy police presence.
WorldAssociated PressNowhere to run: Fear in Gaza grows amid conflict with Israel
Screams and flying debris enveloped Umm Majed al-Rayyes as explosions hurled her from her bed in Gaza City. Groping in the dark, the 50-year-old grabbed her four children and ran as Israeli bombs struck their apartment building Wednesday, shattering windows, ripping doors to splinters and blasting away concrete. While casualties mounted this week in the most severe outbreak of violence between Israel and the Gaza Strip since a 2014 war, al-Rayyes and other Palestinians in the line of fire faced an all-too-familiar question: Where should we go?
WorldBBC'Cocaine of the sea' threatens critically endangered vaquita
But the vaquita's days may be numbered because of illegal fishing for another protected species: totoaba. Totoaba, a fish that can grow as large as a vaquita, was a food source before it was placed on Mexico's endangered list. "We used to catch it in the 60s and 70s," remembers Ramón Franco Díaz, president of a fishing federation in the coastal town of San Felipe, on the peninsula of Baja California.
U.S.Miami HeraldMiami man who bought Lamborghini with COVID-19 relief money sentenced to six years
A Miami businessman was sentenced to more than six years in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to fleecing millions from a federal COVID-19 relief program and buying luxury items with the money, including a $318,000 Lamborghini Huracán Evo. David T. Hines, 29, arrested last July, was ordered by a Miami federal judge to turn over the luxury Italian sports car and $3.4 million that he received in government loans. Hines, who owned South Florida moving businesses, applied to the Bank of America for seven loans under a Small Business Administration program.
PoliticsAssociated PressGOP purged Cheney for 'unity,' but Trump bent on retribution
Republican leaders insisted that purging Trump critic Rep. Liz Cheney from their ranks was necessary to unify the party ahead of next year's midterm elections. But former President Donald Trump, who celebrated Cheney's ouster by calling her a “bitter, horrible human being,” has made clear he has no interest in putting the hostilities behind him as he continues to seek vengeance and lie about the 2020 election. Whatever the rest of the country thinks or whatever his opponents in the news media think, he believes that he lost the White House illegitimately, and that's a pretty big grudge, so I don't think he's going to give up that sense of grievance very easily,” said former House Speaker New...
U.S.Architectural DigestHouse Call: This Is the Comfort You Need
In support of plump, fluffy, puffy furniture Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
WorldReutersExhaustion kills two Everest climbers, an American and a Swiss
A Swiss and an American climber have died on Mount Everest, hiking company officials said on Thursday, the first fatalities on the world's highest peak this season. Abdul Waraich, 41, of Switzerland and American Puwei Liu, 55, died of exhaustion while descending the slopes of the 8,848.86 metre (29,031.69-foot) mountain on Wednesday, said Thaneshwar Guragai, a manager of the Seven Summit Treks company that provided support to the climbers. Waraich, who was on his way down after reaching the summit, died near the south summit, according to Chhang Dawa Sherpa, another official of the company.
U.S.Associated PressDeath of student in China triggers questions, protests
On Mother's Day, around 9 p.m., a woman in Chengdu in southwestern China was told that her son, who she had dropped off at school just hours ago, had died. Distraught, she went to Chengdu No. 49 Middle School immediately, but could not even enter the school grounds, she wrote in a series of Twitter-like Weibo posts on Monday that were shared hundreds of thousands of times this week. People online called for justice for the mother and questioned the actions of the school, police and local authorities.
- HealthYahoo News Video
Can the COVID-19 vaccines affect fertility? Yahoo News Explains
One of the many persistent falsehoods spread on social media about the vaccines for COVID-19 is that they cause infertility. Dr. Lusine Aghajanova, an assistant clinical professor at the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Stanford, told Yahoo News that these false claims about the coronavirus vaccines affecting fertility in both men and women are “concerning” and have no “scientific basis.
WorldReutersTurkey calls on Muslims to take clear stance over Gaza
Muslim countries must show a united and clear stance over Israel's conflict with the Islamist Hamas movement in Gaza, Turkey's vice president, Fuat Oktay, said on Thursday, criticising world powers for condemning violence without acting. "What we desire is that active measures are taken," Oktay told reporters after morning prayers marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. In several days of conflict, Hamas has fired volleys of rockets towards Israeli cities and Israel has launched air strikes against the Islamist faction in the Gaza Strip.
U.S.Miami HeraldA drunk Florida man was ‘enraged’ about Tom Brady — then he went on the attack, cops say
A Florida man who police say hit a friend multiple times and shoved his wife after being enraged over an argument involving NFL star Tom Brady found himself arrested over the weekend. A St. Petersburg Police Department report says that Brian Paulter had been out all day Sunday drinking with friends. Then “a verbal altercation erupted” while all of them were being transported back to Paulter's St. Petersburg home.
U.S.Associated PressWitness: Man angered by Texas deputies in yard killed them
A West Texas man accused of fatally shooting two sheriff's deputies was angry they were in his yard trying to catch a dog and he told them he would open fire if they didn't leave, a witness said. They walked up towards him, rushed him, and he pulled a gun, and shots were fired,” David Hutchings told the San Angelo Standard-Times. The shooting happened Monday evening in Eden, a city of about 1,300 people roughly 210 miles (340 kilometers) southwest of Dallas.
PoliticsAssociated PressKerry: US weighs sanctions on China solar over forced labor
The Biden administration is considering sanctions over China's alleged use of forced labor in production of solar panels and other components in renewable energy, climate envoy John Kerry told lawmakers Wednesday. Kerry's comments at the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing sought to defuse one of the main arguments that congressional Republicans have cited against President Joe Biden's push for a climate-friendly makeover of the U.S. economy: China's manufacturing dominance risks implicating buyers of Chinese-made solar panels, batteries and other green-energy tech in that country's human rights abuses.
WorldThe TelegraphCoronavirus latest news: Delaying second jab reduces deaths, study finds
No 10 plays down reopening fears over Indian variant GPs told to screen patients online first How GP services lapsed into long-term sickness Philip Johnston: Inquiry is last thing we need Britain's vaccine strategy of delaying the second dose appears to have been vindicated after a study found it reduced deaths from coronavirus. Modelling in the US shows that delaying the second dose so that more people can receive a first could reduce fatalities by up to a fifth. If a first dose offered 80 per cent protection, deaths fell to 207 per 100,000 people if the second dose was delayed.
U.S.Associated PressEx-cops in Floyd death claim witness coercion, harm of leak
Attorneys for three former Minneapolis officers awaiting trial in George Floyd's death will be in court Thursday to argue pretrial motions, including a request that prosecutors be sanctioned after media reports that Derek Chauvin had planned to plead guilty a year ago, and allegations that they haven't disclosed information about the alleged coercion of a witness. Attorneys for Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao have said they want the court to require prosecuting attorneys to submit affidavits under oath that they aren't responsible for the leak to the media. In a filing late Wednesday, Thao's attorney also alleged that the Hennepin County medical examiner was coerced to include “neck compression” in his findings — and that prosecutors knew of it.
PoliticsAssociated PressScrum of challengers awaits Cheney after House GOP ouster
The rush to punish Cheney for her criticism of former President Donald Trump and his loyalists is drawing a cast of Wyoming primary challengers so big it could ultimately help her win again next year. Another boost for Cheney is a pile of campaign money and a family legacy that has helped her before. Still, there's no doubt that her campaign to call out Trump's lies about fraud in the 2020 election is firing up opposition — in the process revitalizing old complaints about a politician some see as more in touch with Washington insiders than Wyomingites.
WorldAssociated PressUS hits China and others for repressing religious freedom
The Biden administration on Wednesday took aim at China and a number of other countries for repressing religious freedom as it forges ahead with its aim of restoring human rights as a primary focus of American foreign policy. The condemnation was similar to that lodged by the Trump administration, which had been criticized for prioritizing religious freedom over other rights, and reflected continuity in the U.S. position that China's crackdown on Muslims and other religious minorities in western Xinjiang constitutes “genocide.” Much as his predecessor did, Secretary of State Antony Blinken used the release of the State Department's annual International Religious Freedom Report to lambaste China for severe restrictions on its citizens' ability to worship freely.
WorldAssociated PressClock is ticking for EU vaccine certificates as summer looms
As strict lockdowns are loosened across Europe and many EU citizens dream about holidays in the sun, the 27-nation bloc has yet to agree on how to quickly implement a virus certificate scheme to boost summer travel and tourism. A deal between the Parliament and EU countries is required in May to ensure the system will be up and running by the end of June, but several sticking points remain. When it proposed the scheme in March, the EU Commission said coronavirus certificates would be given to EU residents who can prove they have been vaccinated or those who tested negative for the virus or have proof they recovered from it.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderRight after 'Big Four' meeting with Biden, Pelosi says an infrastructure bill will 'absolutely' be ready by July 4
Biden met with McCarthy, Pelosi, Schumer, and McConnell to discuss a bipartisan infrastructure plan. After the meeting, Pelosi told reporters a bill will "absolutely" be ready by July 4. Republicans are not so optimistic and are unwilling to compromise on tax hikes to fund the plan.
U.S.Associated PressEXPLAINER: With bankruptcy tossed, what's next for the NRA?
Now that a judge has rejected the National Rifle Association's bankruptcy bid, blocking its plan to reincorporate in Texas, the gun rights group is back to fighting a lawsuit that threatens to put it out of business. Harlin Hale, a federal bankruptcy judge in Dallas, dismissed the NRA's case Tuesday. He ruled the organization's leadership sought Chapter 11 protection in bad faith — without informing most of its 76-member board — and did so to gain an “unfair advantage” in its fight with New York regulators.
U.S.Associated PressJustices consider hearing a case on 'most offensive word'
Robert Collier says that during the seven years he worked as an operating room aide at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, white nurses called him and other Black employees “boy." Now, however, at a private conference Thursday, the Supreme Court will consider for the first time whether to hear his case. Focusing on the elevator graffiti, Collier is asking the justices to decide whether a single use of the N-word in the workplace can create a hostile work environment, giving an employee the ability to pursue a case under Title VII of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.
WorldArchitectural Digest31 Glass Coffee Tables for Any and Every Living Room
Could we be any clearer? Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
WorldAssociated PressWest and rights groups accuse China of massive Uyghur crimes
Human rights groups and Western nations led by the United States, Britain and Germany accused China of massive crimes against the Uyghur minority and demanded unimpeded access for U.N. experts at a virtual meeting on Wednesday denounced by China as “politically motivated” and based on “lies. China's U.N. Mission sent notes to many of the U.N.'s 193 member nations last week urging them not to participate in the “anti-China event. And China's U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun sent text messages to the 15 Western co-sponsors of the meeting expressing shock at their support, urging them to “think twice” and withdraw it.
“If Facebook lets Trump back on Facebook and Instagram, he'll assuredly restart his assault on democracy.”
“Facebook should have known better than to believe that it could limit speech on its platform without setting a terrible precedent.”
“Providing a microphone and an amplifier for deceit isn't fighting the good fight for free speech.”
“It’s no defense of Mr. Trump’s conduct to say that the digital public square shouldn’t suppress speech by political leaders.”
“The former president no longer gets the ‘head of state’ exception to terms of service.”