PoliticsThe Telegraph'Mr President?': Biden and Putin suffer awkward silence in climate summit technical glitch
A technical glitch at the climate summit meant Joe Biden was left hanging for nearly 90 seconds by his political nemesis Vladimir Putin. "I now turn the floor to the President of the Russian Federation," announced Tony Blinken, the US secretary of state. Instead, Mr Putin loomed silently on a giant screen above Mr Biden, Mr Binken and John Kerry, the US climate tsar.
U.S.CBS NewsAlternate juror in Chauvin trial on testimony that "really got to me"
She was known to the court as juror number 96, and even though she wasn't part of the deliberations, she came to a decision. "I felt he was guilty. They read the jury instructions to us in the courtroom briefly, but I didn't know it was going to be guilty on all counts but I would have said guilty," Christensen said.
WorldAssociated PressBombing in hotel parking lot kills at least 4 in SW Pakistan
A powerful bomb exploded in the parking area of a luxury hotel in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Wednesday, killing at least four people and wounding at least nine others, police said. Footage on Pakistan news channels showed burning cars. Hours after the attack, the Pakistani Taliban in a statement claimed responsibility, saying it was a suicide attack.
PoliticsThe WeekAfter reading 'all 14 pages' of the Green New Deal, Marjorie Taylor Greene says she's ready to debate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Now that she's done her homework, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is ready to spar. One day after seemingly admitting she had never finished reading "all 14 pages" of the Green New Deal, a bill she's repeatedly criticized while throwing barbs at sponsor Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Greene has now finally perused the full policy — and dubbed it a "Communists manifesto." Greene incriminated herself on Wednesday, while tweeting a surreptitiously-taken photo of the two lawmakers chatting on Capitol Hill.
U.S.National ReviewMa’Khia Bryant’s Neighbor Says Cops Had No Choice But to Shoot
Ma'Khia Bryant's neighbor Donovan Brinson said Tuesday that a video captured by his garage security camera led him to believe the Columbus police officer who shot Bryant had no other choice. Brinson watched the incident begin to unfold as he pulled into his driveway. “They were calling each other the B-word, so I figured it was just a girl fight,” he told The Columbus Dispatch.
U.S.The WeekThe Derek Chauvin solitary confinement predicament
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is being held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day following his conviction for the murder of George Floyd. Chauvin's solitary confinement is protective, and he's hardly languishing in a dank hole. A brief separation is one thing, but extended isolation from human contact is "cruel and unusual punishment," in constitutional parlance.
PoliticsNational ReviewBiden Weighs Raising Capital Gains Rate to Over 40 Percent
President Biden is expected to announce a proposal to nearly double the capital gains tax rate in order to help fund a forthcoming spending package, according to multiple reports. The proposal would set the capital gains tax rate for individuals earning over $1 million at 39.6 percent, two people familiar with the plan told Bloomberg. When combined with an existing federal surtax on investment income, investors could pay federal taxes at a rate of as high as 43.4 percent.
PoliticsThe WeekD.C. statehood bill passes in the House, but faces 'formidable' odds in the Senate
The House of Representatives voted 216-208 along party lines on Thursday to pass the Washington, D.C. Admission Act to create the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, The Washington Post reports. A D.C. statehood bill was previously passed last year only for it to die in the Senate, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said "we hope that the momentum will help it pass in the Senate" this time, also calling the vote a "significant step to enfranchise the people of D.C. and empower them to participate fully in our democracy," per The New York Times.
WorldReutersReigning Mrs World resigns weeks after pageant controversy
The reigning Mrs World, Caroline Jurie, has resigned her title, the organisation running the pageant said late on Tuesday, weeks after she was involved in a controversy at the Mrs Sri Lanka event. Jurie was arrested and released on bail this month after a fracas at the Mrs Sri Lanka pageant in Colombo, where Jurie forcibly removed the winner's crown, claiming the other woman was a divorcee and not qualified to win the title. "Her voluntary resignation decision was made solely by Caroline herself," Mrs World Inc said late on Tuesday, in a news release on social media.
LifestyleArchitectural Digest12 Outdoor Furniture Sets for Living Alfresco
With warmer weather just around the corner, we're taking our home-design focus to the great outdoors Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
U.S.Miami HeraldMinutes into a 911 call a Florida driver realizes what smashed through her windshield
“Something just came through the windshield and hit my mom in the head!” a woman cried out to a 911 dispatcher after she pulled over on Interstate 95 while driving to Daytona Beach on Wednesday. On the 911 call, the driver, heeding directions from the dispatcher, works to stem the bleeding, using towels. “There's so much blood,” the driver says.
- WorldWTVD – Raleigh/Durham
Durham woman charged in fatal stabbing of boyfriend
A 22-year-old woman is behind bars on Wednesday after she allegedly stabbed her boyfriend to death overnight, according to the Wake County Sheriff's Office.
U.S.Raleigh News and ObserverDog that smiles despite being shot in NC gets nickname. Turns out, it’s her real name
A dog rescued in North Carolina had a “rough go.” Smiley was brought to the Pender County Animal Shelter in Eastern North Carolina by animal control, which got a call about stray dogs roaming an area in the western part of the county, Jewell Horton, the shelter manager, told McClatchy News on Thursday. “The reason she has the name Smiley is because literally when she sees you, she smiles at you,” Horton said.
U.S.Fort Worth Star-Telegram‘Frustrated’ dad kills his crying baby — then goes to sleep, Pennsylvania official says
A father who at first said he accidentally killed his infant daughter in March has now admitted to purposely harming the two-month-old child, a Pennsylvania district attorney said. Lamont Bacchus, 31, and two others received upgraded charges Thursday after officials said he revealed new information regarding the death of the baby, identified by Lehigh Valley Live as Reann M. Bacchus. The autopsy revealed the baby “suffered from a gaping skull fracture on the left side of the head and numerous scalp and brain hemorrhages,” according to the district attorney's office, which listed her cause of death as “traumatic brain injury as a result of homicide.”
TechnologyBBCTaiwan authorities look into Apple supplier hack
Authorities in Taiwan say they are looking into a ransomware cyber-attack on a major technology firm there. Quanta Computer is a manufacturer of many flagship Apple products, including its MacBook line. The hackers, known as Revil, have published stolen blueprints for unreleased products, and are threatening to release more.
U.S.Business InsiderA Virginia GOP candidate for governor said Derek Chauvin's guilty verdict 'makes me feel sick'
A GOP candidate for Virginia governor said Derek Chauvin's guilty verdict made her feel sick. State Senator Amanda Freeman Chase made the comments at a campaign event Tuesday. The self-described "Trump in heels" touted her ultra-conservative values at the event.
U.S.Miami HeraldA Miami man killed an armed teen in self-defense. Why he’s still facing a criminal case
In a strange twist, police say, Luis returned to the scene minutes later — and from inside his truck, fired 10 more times at Nimikae as he lay dying on the ground, using the teen's own handgun. Luis surrendered Thursday to face a charge of aggravated battery with a firearm against Nimikae. Luis is not being charged with murder.
HealthNBC NewsCDC is considering revising its outdoor mask guidance. Here's what health experts say.
Already in states where mask orders are still in effect, there are moves to loosen restrictions for outdoors. “We know that the virus largely spreads indoors and there's very little transmission outdoors, except in some very specific circumstances,” Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said. “At this point in the pandemic, with more than half of Americans vaccinated, it's pretty reasonable to start thinking about peeling back outdoor mask mandates.”
U.S.Idaho StatesmanBoise woman killed in California skydiving accident was a ‘free spirit,’ loved ones say
There was “just something different” about Sabrina Call, friends said. “She found the good in everybody,” said Cindy Phillips, who befriended Call in high school and remained close friends with her for years. Call, 57, died Saturday in a skydiving accident near Lodi, California, according to San Joaquin County officials.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderRepublican House leader rejects George W. Bush's condemnation of the party as 'isolationist, protectionist' and 'nativist'
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy dismissed former President George W. Bush's recent condemnation of the GOP. Bush said his party had become "isolationist, protectionist, and to a certain extent nativist." McCarthy insisted Bush is wrong because the GOP has more House members who are women and people of color than ever before.
HealthLexington Herald-LeaderHow 18 fully vaccinated residents caught COVID-19 in a KY nursing home. One died.
An unvaccinated health care worker brought COVID-19 into an Eastern Kentucky nursing home, propagating an outbreak that infected dozens of vaccinated and unvaccinated residents last month, a new study confirms. Gov. Andy Beshear and Kentucky Public Health Commissioner Steven Stack first announced the outbreak in March, which ultimately infected 26 residents, 20 staff and killed three people, including one resident who was fully vaccinated and two who were not. In that facility, which hasn't been publicly named by state officials, roughly half of the staff population chose to get the vaccine.
U.S.INSIDERThe police officer who killed 16-year-old Ma'Khia Bryant is a military-trained expert marksman
The Columbus, Ohio, police officer who fatally shot a Black teen was identified as Nicholas Reardon. Reardon is a military-trained expert marksman, The Daily Beast reported. The distinction means Reardon scored high on a marksmanship test, using the Air Force's M4A1 rifle.
PoliticsThe IndependentSouth Korean president calls Trump failure who ‘beat around the bush’ on North Korea
South Korea's president Moon Jae-in has criticised Donald Trump's efforts to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula and said he “failed” in his diplomacy towards North Korea. He beat around the bush and failed to pull it through,” Mr Moon said about the former US president in an interview with the New York Times. The South Korean president, who is scheduled to meet US president Joe Biden next month, said he hopes he would “go down as a historic” leader to have achieved substantive and irreversible progress on the stalled denuclearisation process.
U.S.The StateCop who fatally shot teen in Tennessee school bathroom won’t face charges, official says
Prosecutors say they won't charge the Tennessee officer who fatally shot a 17-year-old student last week during a violent confrontation inside a high school bathroom. Knox County District Attorney General Charme Allen said Knoxville officers were justified in the April 12 shooting that killed Anthony J. Thompson Jr. at Austin-East Magnet High School. Knoxville policeman Jonathon Clabough fired in self-defense, Allen said, after thinking Thompson had shot and wounded an officer.
U.S.USA TODAYFact check: Ma'Khia Bryant was holding a knife when shot by police
Despite the limited information available on the Bryant shooting, many presented details of what purportedly happened. One such claim, a Facebook post made six hours after the shooting and shared over 3,000 times so far, presents this narrative: "As the George Floyd verdict was being announced, Columbus Ohio Police killed 15 year old Makhia [sic] Bryant. She called the police as she was about to get jumped.
“High-speed rail is bold and attention-grabbing, but the scale of the project makes it near impossible.”
“While a long, slow train ride across the country can be a great thing, the US needs real high-speed rail too.”
“Liberals are right that America has a car problem — but it's commutes, not road trips, that suck.”
“Investments into a high-speed rail system wouldn’t just improve the railroads — automobile traffic could also see some relief.”
“Big cities that are reasonably close together is pretty much a prerequisite for high-speed rail.”