U.S.NextSharkAsian American Father Walking With 1-Year-Old Son in Stroller Repeatedly Punched in SF
An Asian American father was waiting to cross the street with his 1-year-old child when a man approached and hit him from behind in San Francisco on Friday. What happened: Bruce, 36, was outside of Gus's Community Market by the intersection of 4th and Channel streets around 2 p.m. in Mission Bay when he was punched from behind and knocked to the ground. In a surveillance video, the male suspect, identified as Sidney Hammond, can be seen pummeling Bruce more than a dozen times as the stroller carrying his child rolled away.
PoliticsBBCChild migrants: Massive drop in children held by border officials
The number of unaccompanied migrant children being kept in cramped government-detention facilities on the US southern border with Mexico has fallen sharply, after a 20-year high influx of border crossings led to overcrowding. The massive influx of children left US immigration officials scrambling earlier this year for facilities to house the children. The number of children being held in by US Customs and Border Protection (CPB) has dropped 88% between late March and late April, according to government officials.
- WorldReuters
Taliban capture northern Afghan district amid surge in violence
Taliban insurgents captured a district in northern Afghanistan, forcing government troops to retreat to the provincial capital amid a recent surge in violence, officials said on Wednesday. Fighting has escalated sharply in recent weeks, with Afghan officials saying the Taliban have stepped up their attacks since Washington announced plans last month to pull out all U.S. troops by Sept. 11. The militants seized the district of Barka in the northern province of Baghlan after hours of fighting with Afghan forces, who retreated to the main city, said Jawed Basharat, a spokesman for the provincial police.
PoliticsArchitectural DigestHouse Call: What Do Your Water Glasses Say About You?
A selection of drinkware to make the best first impression Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
U.S.The TelegraphMembers of religious cult in court after 'corpse of leader found decorated with Christmas lights'
Seven members of a religious cult who authorities say kept the mummified remains of their leader at a home in a remote Colorado town festooned with Christmas lights and glitter made an initial court appearance on Wednesday. The four men and three women (Ryan Kramer, Christopher Royer, Sarah Rudolph, Karin Raymond, Jason Castillo, John Robertson and Obdulia Franco, ranging in age from 30 to 52 years old, are each charged with one count of abusing of a corpse and two counts of misdemeanour child abuse. The child abuse charges stem from two children who were living in the house where the body was found.
- PoliticsYahoo News Video
Psaki responds after McConnell' says '100% of focus' from GOP is on stopping Biden
At a White House press briefing on Wednesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki responded to a question about Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's claim that the Republican Party is united against President Biden's administration.
U.S.Kansas City Star‘My soul left my body.’ Shark startles 6-year-old playing in surf, Hawaii video shows
An ordinary day at the beach turned into terror Sunday for a 6-year-old Hawaii girl who spotted a shark beside her in the surf. Sheri Gouveia was shooting a video of her daughter playing in the ocean at Kalama Beach on Oahu at the time, Hawaii News Now reported. Gouveia told Hawaii News Now her daughter has “angels to keep her safe.”
- U.S.Associated Press
NYC schools try compromise on Columbus Day, displeasing some
In a possibly futile effort to please both Italian Americans who celebrate Christopher Columbus and racial justice advocates who accuse him of genocide, the New York City public school system has designated Oct. 11 as Italian Heritage Day/Indigenous People's Day. The double-naming of the school holiday happened Tuesday after a calendar for the 2021-2022 school year was initially posted with Oct. 11, which is Columbus Day, a state holiday, labeled simply Indigenous Peoples' Day. The change, which was made without the knowledge of the city's mayor, drew swift condemnation from elected officials, including Democratic state senators Diane Savino and Joe Addabbo, who called the renaming of Columbus Day “block-headed" and said it did “terrible disservice to a difficult and complex conversation.”
WorldReutersHong Kong activist Joshua Wong jailed for further 10 months over June 4 assembly
HONG KONG (Reuters) -Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong will face an additional 10 months in jail for participating in an unauthorised assembly on June 4 last year to commemorate the 1989 crackdown on protesters in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Commemorations of the Tiananmen crackdown are banned in mainland China, but Hong Kong traditionally held the largest vigils globally every year, having been promised certain freedoms when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997, including rights of expression and assembly. Wong, 24, already in prison on other illegal assembly convictions and among 47 activists charged under the city's sweeping national security law, was sentenced in the district court on Thursday.
WorldBBCColombia protests: UN 'deeply alarmed' by bloodshed in Cali
The United Nations' human rights office has accused Colombia's security forces of using excessive force against protesters. The UN said it was particularly shocked by events in Cali on Monday, where it said police had fired on protesters. On Monday, Colombia's ombudsman said at least 19 people had died during a week of unrest over proposed tax reforms.
U.S.The IndependentGeorge Conway says Rudy Giuliani is in deep ‘sh**’
George Conway warned that an investigation by the FBI into the business dealings of Donald Trump's former attorney, Rudy Giuliani, indicates that the former New York mayor seems to be in “deep s***”. Mr Conway, a conservative attorney and husband of Kellyanne Conway — a former counsellor of Mr Trump — was talking to The Daily Beast's “The New Abnormal” podcast on the topic of the former president's baseless allegations of election fraud, before discussing the FBI investigation of Mr Giuliani. It follows twin raids on the former presidential attorney's apartment and office, with federal investigators seizing computers and cellphones.
WorldThe Telegraph'Depressed' MH370 pilot made ‘series of deliberate turns and speed changes’ to avoid radar detection
The pilot of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 made a series of deliberate turns and speed changes to avoid radar detection before plunging into the Indian Ocean, new research suggests. The plane took an unexplained U-turn from its planned flight path and headed back across the Malay Peninsula and the Malacca Strait before vanishing. Mr Godfrey said the plane's final movements could be mapped out using data from Weak Signal Propagation (WSPR), a global network of radio signals that can trace the movement of planes as they cross signals and set off invisible "electronic trip-wires".
- WorldReuters
Maldives imposes night curfew after steep jump in COVID-19 infections
Maldives will begin a night-time curfew from Thursday to control a doubling of daily coronavirus infections that was fuelled by crowds at a local election and family gatherings during the ongoing Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The Health Protection Agency announced the curfew on Wednesday after government data showed daily cases grew to 734 from 318 a week ago. The health agency also ordered mandatory physical distancing in mosques.
WorldReutersG7 scolds China and Russia over threats, bullying, rights abuses
The Group of Seven scolded both China and Russia on Wednesday, casting the Kremlin as malicious and Beijing as a bully, but beyond words there were few concrete steps aside from expressing support for Taiwan and Ukraine. Founded in 1975 as a forum for the West's richest nations to discuss crises such as the OPEC oil embargo, the G7 this week addressed what it perceives as the biggest current threats: China, Russia and the coronavirus pandemic. G7 foreign ministers, in a 12,400-word communique, said Russia was trying to undermine democracies and threatening Ukraine while China was guilty of human rights abuses and of using its economic clout to bully others.
BusinessBBCPeople return to supermarkets as online sales slow
People grew more confident about shopping in supermarkets in April as lockdown restrictions eased, according to research firm Nielsen. Till sales rose steadily, while online grocery sales growth slowed. There has been a massive rise in online grocery shopping since the first coronavirus lockdowns began in March last year.
U.S.Associated PressEx-49ers player Hayne to spend nearly 4 years in jail
Jarryd Hayne, a rugby league star who also played briefly in the NFL for the San Francisco 49ers, has been sentenced to at least three years and eight months in jail for the sexual assault of a woman in 2018. Hayne was found guilty in March of two counts of sexual assault. A judge ruled on Thursday that Hayne should be jailed for five years, nine months with a non-parole period of three years and eight months.
PoliticsThe IndependentDC police officer slams ‘disgraceful’ political indifference in wake of 6 January Capitol riot
It has barely been four months since a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol and tried to overturn the election results, but a “disgraceful” feeling of political “indifference” to what happened that day has set in, according to an emotional letter a Washington DC police officer sent members of Congress on Wednesday. “As the physical injuries gradually subsided in crept the psychological trauma,” wrote officer Michael Fanone, who has served with the Metro police for nearly two decades. During the 6 January riots, five people were killed and more than 100 officers were injured, the culmination of weeks of baseless conspiracy theories about a stolen election spread by Mr Trump and adopted by his Republican allies in Congress.
U.S.Fort Worth Star-TelegramGreat-grandson of televangelist Kenneth Copeland drowns in swimming pool accident
The great-grandson of televangelist Kenneth Copeland died Tuesday at a Fort Worth children's hospital after being pulled out of swimming pool at a Tarrant County home, according to officials and his father. Clark David Mayer, 2, was pronounced dead at 11:05 a.m. Tuesday at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office website on Wednesday.
U.S.USA TODAY'My heart breaks for our student': 4 people killed after small plane crashed into Mississippi home
A ssmall plane crashed into a Mississippi home, killing one of the home's four occupants and three Texas residents who were flying to a university graduation ceremony, authorities said Wednesday. Gerry Standley, 55, was a resident of the home where the plane crashed in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Also killed were the pilot, 67-year-old Louis Provenza, 23-year-old Anna Calhoun and 2-year-old Harper Provenza, according to Forrest County Coroner Butch Benedict.
PoliticsThe IndependentBiden bemused by GOP infighting over Liz Cheney: ‘I don’t understand the Republicans’
President Joe Biden expressed bemusement on Wednesday over the ongoing conflict between US Rep Liz Cheney and rank-and-file Republican members of Congress. Earlier on Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnel, an institutionalist and ally of Ms Cheney, changed the topic when asked about the spat. “We are confronted with severe challenges from the new administration and a narrow majority in the House and a 50-50 Senate to turn America into a socialist country and that's 100 percent my focus,” he said, according to CNN.
U.S.Business InsiderEddie Gallagher says he and other Navy SEALs used a dying enemy fighter for medical practice with no intention of saving him
Eddie Gallagher said he and other SEALs practiced medical procedures on a prisoner of war. Retired Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, who was found not guilty of murder in a high-profile war-crimes trial nearly two years ago, said in a podcast that aired Tuesday that he and his team practiced various medical procedures on an enemy combatant until he died, with no intention of saving him. After the trial, President Donald Trump restored Gallagher's rank and personally intervened when the Navy attempted to take away Gallagher's SEAL trident.
U.S.The Daily Beast‘A Terrible Thing’: Husband of Colorado Mom Who Vanished on Mother’s Day Charged With Murder
Nearly a year after Suzanne Morphew disappeared without a trace while out on a bike ride last Mother's Day, the 49-year-old's husband—who once pleaded for her safe return—has been arrested and charged with murder. The Chaffee County Sheriff's Office confirmed to The Daily Beast that Barry Morphew, 53, is currently in custody after being arrested Wednesday morning, just days shy of the one-year anniversary of his wife's disappearance on May 10, 2020, in Maysville, Colorado. He has been charged with first-degree murder after deliberation, tampering with physical evidence, and attempting to influence a public servant.
CelebrityTODAYAmy Schumer reflects on husband's autism diagnosis as she honors son's birthday
Amy Schumer's son, Gene, turned 2 on Wednesday, and the comedian celebrated by paying tribute to husband Chris Fischer and his autism diagnosis. Today is our son's birthday and I woke up emotional as hell thinking about my husband, Chris,” she captioned a pair of photos on Instagram, including one of them together while she was in labor and another of Fischer holding Gene. In this first photo while I was having a 3 hour c section he held my hand and stared in my eyes so I never felt alone.
PoliticsThe IndependentTrump v Facebook – live: Ex-president rages at ban as White House says tech has responsibility to public
The Facebook Oversight Board has upheld the platform's decision to ban Donald Trump for posts related to the attack on the US Capitol in January by his supporters. An independent group that reviews the company's most complex issues, the oversight panel also found that the platform was wrong to ban Mr Trump “indefinitely”, and insists that the company “apply and justify a defined penalty” – giving it six months to review its initial decision. Mr Trump has reacted to the news with fury, demanding that “these corrupt social media companies must pay a political price”.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderA GOP-backed auditing group in Maricopa County is burrowing through ballots in search of bamboo fibers and Chinese paper to prove a far-fetched theory votes were flown in from Asia
Workers at the Maricopa County recount are investigating an absurd theory that 40,000 Biden ballots were smuggled in from Asia. The recount is partially funded by a lobbyist group, which raised over $1.5 million for the effort. The Maricopa County vote recount has taken a surprising turn, with UV lights and high-tech cameras being deployed as workers comb through ballots, checking for traces of bamboo fibers in the paper.
“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.”