WorldThe Daily BeastShocking Footage Shows Jerusalem Mosque Turned Into a War Zone, Hundreds of Palestinians Injured
The third-holiest site in Islam—the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem—was turned into a chaotic battlefield Monday as Israeli police responded violently to Palestinian protesters, injuring more than 300 people. In recent days, Jerusalem has been suffering its worst violence for years, sparked by incendiary plans to evict dozens of Palestinians from an Arab area in the east of the city and hand their homes to Israelis. The crisis worsened Monday ahead of the nationalist Jerusalem Day Flag March, which marks Israel's capture of East Jerusalem in the 1960s.
WorldAssociated PressQatar ruler in Saudi Arabia for first time since rift eased
Qatar's ruling emir visited Saudi Arabia on Monday for the first time since signing a declaration with the kingdom and other Arab Gulf states to ease a years-long rift and end an embargo that had frayed ties among important U.S. allies and security partners. Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani was greeted at the airport by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Red Sea city of Jiddah, according to Saudi and Qatari state-run media. The meeting highlights how ties between the neighbors are improving following a decision earlier this year by Saudi Arabia to end its more than three-year-long embargo of the tiny and wealthy Gulf state.
WorldReutersU.S. military ship fires 30 warning shots after encounter with Iranian vessels
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A U.S. Coast Guard ship fired about 30 warning shots after 13 vessels from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) came close to it and other American Navy vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, the Pentagon said on Monday. This is the second time within the last month that U.S. military vessels have had to fire warning shots because of what they said was unsafe behavior by Iranian vessels in the region, after a relative lull in such interactions over the past year. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the warning shots were fired after the Iranian fast boats came as close as 150 yards (450 feet) of six U.S. military vessels, including the USS Monterey, that were escorting the guided-missile submarine Georgia.
- WorldYahoo News Video
Children were spared death in Colorado mass shooting, 7 dead
Investigators will continue seeking a motive and possibly release the names of the victims and the shooter on Monday after a Sunday-morning massacre at a Colorado home where a man killed six adults and then himself in the presence of children.
U.S.Raleigh News and ObserverEx-mayor charged with child sex crimes after allegations on Facebook, Texas city says
The former mayor of a Texas city who resigned shortly after winning re-election has been charged with child sex crimes. Scott Saunders Jr. — who was mayor of Smithville, a small town southeast of Austin — was arrested Monday on two charges of sexual assault of a child and a charge of indecency with a child, officials say. Early this year, allegations of “possible indiscretions” involving Saunders surfaced on Facebook, officials say.
WorldAssociated PressBystanders stop man who stabbed 4 at New Zealand supermarket
Shoppers and staff at a New Zealand supermarket were being praised for their bravery Monday after authorities said they managed to stop a frenzied man from hurting others after he stabbed four people in a random attack, severely wounding three of them. New Zealand Police Superintendent Paul Basham said he'd watched CCTV footage of the attack at a Countdown supermarket in the city of Dunedin and the actions of the bystanders in detaining the man until police arrived was “nothing short of heroic. What I can say is that those that intervened, some of whom became injured themselves, I think have acted selflessly and with great courage to prevent this man from hurting anybody else,” Basham said.
U.S.Associated PressCyberattack on US pipeline is linked to criminal gang
The cyberextortion attempt that has forced the shutdown of a vital U.S. pipeline was carried out by a criminal gang known as DarkSide that cultivates a Robin Hood image of stealing from corporations and giving a cut to charity, two people close to the investigation said Sunday. The shutdown, meanwhile, stretched into its third day, with the Biden administration loosening regulations for the transport of petroleum products on highways as part of an “all-hands-on-deck” effort to avoid disruptions in the fuel supply. Experts said that gasoline prices are unlikely to be affected if the pipeline is back to normal in the next few days but that the incident — the worst cyberattack to date on critical U.S. infrastructure — should serve as a wake-up call to companies about the vulnerabilities they face.
WorldBBCBiloela family: Locked up by Australia for three years
Kopika is a five-year-old girl who has been locked up by the Australian government for most of her childhood. In 2019, her family was sent to a detention centre on Christmas Island, an Australian outpost in the Indian Ocean. Kopi is in this situation because her parents, Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka, arrived by boat in Australia nearly a decade ago seeking asylum.
WorldAssociated PressGerman Catholics to bless gay unions despite Vatican ban
Germany's powerful Catholic progressives are openly defying a recent Holy See pronouncement that priests cannot bless same-sex unions by offering such blessings at services in about 100 different churches all over the country this week. The blessings at open worship services are the latest pushback from German Catholics against a document released in March by the Vatican's orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which said Catholic clergy cannot bless same-sex unions because God “cannot bless sin.” The document pleased conservatives and disheartened advocates for LGBTQ Catholics around the globe.
U.S.Idaho StatesmanMan stumbles onto dead shark on Virginia coast, leaving many to wonder what killed it
A dead shark found washed up on Virginia Beach has many fascinated, some “freaked out,” but most of all, curious what caused its death. Discovered last week by a man walking in the Sandbridge area of Virginia Beach, the shark cuts a macabre figure in the sand; it's gills sunken, skin wrinkled, eyes still open, sharp teeth set in a red-ringed mouth. It is at least 6 feet long, according to the beachgoer, who shared a photo of the dead shark on Facebook.
WorldAssociated PressMalaysian prime minister announces one-month virus lockdown
All of Malaysia will be placed under a near lockdown for about a month to fight the coronavirus, but businesses will be allowed to continue to operate at reduced capacity, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced Monday. The lockdown, starting Wednesday until June 7, took the nation by surprise because restrictions on movement are already in place in many parts of the country, including Kuala Lumpur and the richest state of Selangor. Muhyiddin said drastic action was needed to battle a new aggressive outbreak before it turns into a national catastrophe.
WorldBBCIndia's Covid crisis: The newsroom counting the uncounted
On 1 April, the wife and daughter of an editor of a leading newspaper in India's western state of Gujarat went to a state-run hospital to get the daughter a Covid-19 test. Waiting in the queue, they noticed two body bags on gurneys. Workers at the hospital in the capital, Gandhinagar, said the patients had died of Covid-19.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderMitch McConnell says he has no plans to step down as Senate GOP leader or retire: 'I'm at the top of my game'
Mitch McConnell said he does not have "any current plans" to step down as Senate GOP leader. McConnell has held his seat in the US Senate since 1985. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell shut down speculation about his retirement in a new interview on Sunday.
U.S.The Daily BeastTeenage Boy Charged With Murdering 13-Year-Old Florida Cheerleader
After a daylong search, a 13-year-old cheerleader was found murdered in Florida—and police have arrested a 14-year-old boy who attended the same school. Tristyn Bailey's family reported her missing at 10 a.m. on Sunday, and residents of St. Johns County came out in droves to look for her. The St. Johns County Sheriff's Office did not provide a cause of death; they said the seventh grader was clothed but did not confirm reports that she had on her cheerleading uniform.
WorldAssociated PressHindu temple in UAE ships oxygen aid to crisis-hit India
As India's government scrambles for supplies of oxygen and other emergency aid to control the raging coronavirus outbreak, donors around the world have come to the rescue — including a Hindu temple in the United Arab Emirates. On Monday, volunteers from the country's Hindu community gathered at the Jebel Ali Port, here at the northern end of Dubai, to haul hundreds of cylinders of liquid oxygen and massive containers of compressed oxygen onto a ship, where it will head to crisis-wracked India. The organizers, Indian owners of a Dubai helium factory, shifted production to oxygen when the latest surge in virus cases hit India.
ScienceBBCOceans' extreme depths measured in precise detail
The key locations where the seafloor bottoms out in the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and Southern oceans were mapped by the Five Deeps Expedition. For example, in the Indian Ocean, there were two competing claims for the deepest point - a section of the Java Trench just off the coast of Indonesia; and a fracture zone to the southwest of Australia. The rigorous measurement techniques employed by the Five Deeps team confirmed Java to be the winner, but this lowest section in the trench - at a depth of 7,187m - is actually 387km from where previous data had suggested the deepest point might be.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderBiden said he'd cut down on unemployment benefits, but he really might reinstate a pre-pandemic job-seeking policy
Biden is pushing states to reinstate job-seeking requirements for people to stay on unemployment. "Anyone collecting unemployment who is offered a suitable job must take the job," he said. It comes as the GOP ramps up criticism that unemployment aid is dissuading people from seeking jobs.
U.S.INSIDERMan accused of hate crime attack on Asian woman in NYC told parole board he wished he could take back murdering his mom
Brandon Elliot told a parole board in 2019 that he regretted stabbing his mother to death. Elliot was arrested in March on suspicion of attacking a 65-year-old Asian woman in Manhattan. The parole board transcript also suggests Elliot had "visions" where people looked like animals.
WorldAssociated PressGreece welcomes young students back to school; courts reopen
Greece reopened primary schools and junior highs for in-person classes Monday for the first time in months, as the country eases coronavirus restrictions even as daily infections and deaths remain stubbornly high. Greek courts also restarted many activities, with civil courts reopening to all cases and criminal courts now hearing cases involving defendants in custody and any cases reaching the statute of limitations next year. Long lines developed outside the courthouse in the northern city of Thessaloniki as lawyers, witnesses, defendants and court staff arrived.
BusinessBBCBoeing's 737 Max aircraft under scrutiny again
Little more than six months after Boeing's 737 Max was cleared to fly again by US regulators, the aircraft finds itself under intense scrutiny once again. Boeing and the US regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration say they are working closely to address the issue. According to Boeing and the FAA, the problem first became apparent during testing of a newly manufactured 737 Max 8, which had yet to be delivered to its owner.
WorldBusiness InsiderPutin is looking abroad for an enemy as he feels the heat at home
Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Kiev on Thursday as part of a new push from the Biden administration to show support for Ukraine in the wake of Russia's recent military action on the border. Blinken met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and emphasized the US's commitment to the country. Washington is "actively looking at strengthening even further our security cooperation and our security assistance," Blinken said, adding that while most of the Russian troops deployed to the border had been withdrawn, "significant forces remain."
U.S.The IndependentParents of son sentenced to life in prison for killing an Italian police officer speak out
The parents of one of two Americans who were convicted and sentenced to life in prison after an Italian police officer was fatally stabbed have spoken out for the first time since their son's verdict. Ethan and Leah Elder, the parents of Finnegan Elder, described their son's mental state as “perilous” after he was sentenced to life in prison. “We just want Finn to be able to survive this,” Leah Elder told ABC News' Good Morning America on Monday.
WorldAssociated PressIndian virus variant found in Thai travelers from Pakistan
Health authorities in Thailand said Monday they have confirmed the country's first cases of the Indian variant of the coronavirus, in a Thai woman and her 4-year-old son who have been in state quarantine since arriving from Pakistan. The finding comes as Thailand battles a new wave of the coronavirus that began at the beginning of April, originating in upmarket entertainment venues in Bangkok and spawning clusters in several crowded slum communities. Thailand banned travelers from India, other than Thai citizens, starting on May 1 in response to a massive outbreak of COVID-19 cases in the South Asian nation that began in early April.
BusinessReutersNovavax delays timelines for COVID-19 vaccine regulatory filings, production
(Reuters) -Novavax Inc on Monday again delayed its timeline for ramping up COVID-19 vaccine production and said it does not expect to seek regulatory authorization for the shot in the United States, Britain and Europe until the third quarter of 2021, sending its shares tumbling. The Maryland-based company has repeatedly pushed back production forecasts and has struggled to access raw materials and equipment needed to make its vaccine. Novavax shares fell more than 9% in extended trading after closing nearly 9% lower on Monday.
WorldAssociated PressUS trashes unwanted gear in Afghanistan to be sold as scrap
The twisted remains of several all-terrain vehicles leaned precariously inside Baba Mir's sprawling scrap yard, alongside smashed shards that were once generators, tank tracks that have been dismantled into chunks of metal, and mountains of tents reduced to sliced up fabric. The Americans are dismantling their portion of nearby Bagram Air Base, their largest remaining outpost in Afghanistan, and anything that is not being taken home or given to the Afghan military is being destroyed as completely as possible, even small outposts are being dismantled or reduced to rubble. As the last few thousand U.S. and NATO troops head out the door, ending their own 20-year war in Afghanistan, they are involved in a massive logistical undertaking, packing up bases around the country.
“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.”