Putin still wants most of Ukraine, war outlook grim -U.S. intelligence chief

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin still wants to seize most of Ukraine, but his forces are so degraded by combat that they likely can only achieve incremental gains in the near term, the top U.S. intelligence officer said Wednesday. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, outlining the current U.S. intelligence assessment of the more than four-month war, said that the consensus of U.S. spy agencies is that it will grind on "for an extended period of time." "In short, the picture remains pretty grim and Russia's attitude toward the West is hardening," Haines told a Commerce Department conference.

Georgia man tricks car salesman into getting out of luxury sportscar, steals it, police say

A Greenville man was arrested Monday police say he stole a sports car mid-test drive. Police said, Nickloas Jermaine Render Jr., 19, took a yellow 2015 Corvette on a test drive at ALM Newman Used Car dealership in Coweta County. The employee riding along with Render, Robert Edens, told police he was doing a routine test drive when Render told him he wanted to “feel what riding in the passenger seat was like.”

1955 warrant in Emmett Till case found, family seeks arrest

A team searching the basement of a Mississippi courthouse for evidence about the lynching of Black teenager Emmett Till has found the unserved warrant charging a white woman in his 1955 kidnapping, and relatives of the victim who initiated the hunt want authorities to finally arrest her nearly 70 years later. A warrant for the arrest of Carolyn Bryant Donham — identified as “Mrs. Roy Bryant” on the document — was discovered last week inside a file folder that had been placed in a box, Leflore County Circuit Clerk Elmus Stockstill told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The search was started by the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation and included two members of Till's family: Cousin Deborah Watts, head of the Foundation; and her daughter, Teri Watts.

Police warn of rise in car thefts of two particular car brands. Is yours one of them?

The Forest Park Police Department is warning residents of a local increase in car thefts of Kia and Hyundai brand vehicles, similar to instances reported in other cities across the country. The thefts are mainly of Kia cars newer than 2011 and Hyundai cars newer than 2015. Forest Park police say there were six reported thefts of these vehicle brands since June 21 from large apartment complexes at night.

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  Forest Park police seeing rise in thefts targeting specific car models

  WLWT - Cincinnati
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  WATCH: Body camera video shows CPD arrest teens

  WCPO - Cincinnati Scripps

Cornell University removes Gettysburg Address, Lincoln bust from library after alleged complaint

A bust of President Abraham Lincoln and a plaque of the Gettysburg address have been removed from a Cornell University library. "Someone complained, and it was gone," Cornell biology professor Randy Wayne told the College Fix of the matter. The bust of Lincoln and the bronzed plaque of the former president's historic 1863 address had been in the Kroch Library, where the university's Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections is located, since 2013.

Housing: ‘We’re at a tipping point’ for home prices, economist says

Higher mortgage rates are finally carving out early signs of a cooling housing market. According to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller report, U.S. home values increased 20.4% in April, down from the prior month's revised climb of 20.6%. While April posted the largest jump in home price growth since the start of the data series, the pace slowed for the first time since November 2021.

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  Home prices surged to another record high in April

  Yahoo Finance
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  Slowing of home price growth ‘is certainly a welcome change,’ economist says

  Yahoo Finance Video

Travis Barker reportedly hospitalized with pancreatitis after a colonoscopy. Gastroenterologists say it's extremely rare.

Travis Barker's hospitalization is reportedly due to pancreatitis after a colonoscopy. Complications from colonoscopies are rare, and pancreatitis after one is almost unheard of. Travis Barker was hospitalized Tuesday morning, but early reports didn't indicate the cause of his admission.

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  Travis Barker hospitalized: Everything we know so far

  Yahoo Celebrity
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  Travis Barker Hospitalized for Pancreatitis (Report)

  The Wrap

Africa's dream of feeding China hits hard reality

THIKA, Kenya (Reuters) - Watching workers poke avocados from the treetops in an orchard owned by Kenyan agriculture firm Kakuzi, managing director Chris Flowers revels in the thought some might soon go to the crown jewel of emerging consumer markets: China. Taking advantage of Beijing's deeper focus on trade with African countries to help reduce gaping deficits, Kenya struck an export deal with China for fresh avocados in January after years of lobbying for market access. Six months later, no shipments have left, Kenya's avocado society, the East African country's plant health inspectorate and Kakuzi told Reuters.

Macron Overheard Breaking Some Bad News to Biden on G7 Sidelines

French president Emmanuel Macron was caught revealing some bad news to President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the G7 summit Monday. Macron told Biden the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, informed him that OPEC's top oil exporters were already at their production maximum. “I had a call with MbZ,” Macron told Biden, referring to Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Reuters reported.

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  Ukraine war: Macron says Russia 'cannot be allowed to win' as Germany and France toughen approach

  The Telegraph
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  France's Macron calls Russian strike on Ukrainian mall a 'new war crime'

  The Week

The media receive copies of intercepted conversations between the Russian pilots who launched missiles on Ukraine on 25 June

DENYS KARLOVSKYI – TUESDAY, 28 JUNE 2022, 18:01 Belarusian journalist Anton Motolko has published the intercepted conversations between Russian military pilots and dispatchers on 25 June, when missiles were launched from the airspace of Belarus. Source: Motolko Help Telegram channel Details: The Russian pilots are discussing how they are launching missiles from their planes on the territory of Ukraine. They are also coordinating the missile launches and their course within the airspace of Belarus, first in the direction of the Ukrainian border, and then back to their bases at airfields in Russia.

The story behind AP report that caused Trump to throw lunch

The news story that reportedly caused former President Donald Trump to throw his lunch against a White House wall came from an exclusive interview that former Attorney General William Barr had arranged with The Associated Press. The scoop, which was published on Dec. 1, 2020, quoted Barr as saying that the U.S. Justice Department had uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election. It was a bombshell that contradicted the concerted effort by Trump, his boss, to subvert the results of the election.

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  Witness describes Trump temper before Jan. 6

  Associated Press Videos
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  Trump threw lunch against the wall over Barr interview, Hutchinson says

  The Hill

Major Theme Park Coming to a Sad End

Popular Theme Park's Days are Numbered The rare occurrence of a theme park closing will soon happen again as Cedar Fair , which owns California's Great America in the heart of the Silicon Valley in Santa Clara, Calif. said on June 27 that it has sold the land beneath that theme park to San Francisco Bay Area developer Prologis for $310 million, according to a company statement. The sale includes a lease agreement that allows Cedar Fair to operate Great America for up to 11 years and then close the park operations at the end of the lease.

California is sending ‘inflation relief’ checks up to $1,050 — here’s who qualifies

If you're a California taxpayer being hurt by inflation, you may be getting some financial relief. The state is sending 23 million residents “inflation relief” checks of up to $1,050 this fall to help ease the financial burden that the highest inflation in 40 years has placed on Americans. “California's budget addresses the state's most pressing needs,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a joint statement with state lawmakers on Sunday, “and prioritizes getting dollars back into the pockets of millions of Californians who are grappling with global inflation and rising prices of everything from gas to groceries.”

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  California lawmakers to vote on $307.9 billion spending plan

  Associated Press
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  Inflation is so bad that California is sending relief checks of up to $1,050 to millions of people

  Fortune

Russia warns West: Don't take your assets in our country for granted

Russia hinted on Wednesday that it had not dropped the idea of seizing Western-owned assets and businesses in the country, as a top official sharply criticised governments that have hit Moscow with sanctions. In a combative media briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova warned that Russia was prepared to "act accordingly" if the West decided to use Russia's frozen state assets - chief among them being around $300 billion of central bank foreign currency reserves. The use of the funds "will be interpreted by us as an unlawful and defiantly unfriendly attack, giving us the right to take retaliatory actions to protect our interests," she said on Wednesday.

Justice Neil Gorsuch fumes that the Supreme Court 'failed' to 'honor this Nation's promises' as it rolled back tribal authority in Oklahoma

The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave Oklahoma officials the authority to handle certain crimes on Native American land. Justice Neil Gorsuch blasted the ruling, saying it "failed" to "honor this Nation's promises." A 2020 ruling previously said only tribal and federal authorities can prosecute crimes in the jurisdiction.

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  U.S. Supreme Court expands state power over Native American tribes

  Reuters
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  Supreme Court Rules That States Can Prosecute Non-Native Americans Who Commit Crimes on Tribal Land

  People

'They Have So Much Power Over The White House' - Elon Musk Explains About One Particular Group

In a recent interview, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO, Elon Musk said about the UAW “They have so much power over the Whitehouse, they can exclude Tesla from an EV (Electric Vehicle) summit.” The referenced EV summit was held in August of 2021, where President Joe Biden discussed the promising future of Electric Vehicles. While President Biden has now referenced Tesla when discussing the future of EVs, that wasn't always the case.

Chinese spacecraft acquires images of entire planet of Mars

An uncrewed Chinese spacecraft has acquired imagery data covering all of Mars, including visuals of its south pole, after circling the planet more than 1,300 times since early last year, state media reported on Wednesday. Among the images taken from space were China's first photographs of the Martian south pole, where almost all of the planet's water resources are locked. In 2018, an orbiting probe operated by the European Space Agency had discovered water under the ice of the planet's south pole.

Videos debunk Russia's lies about missile strike on Ukraine mall

Video has emerged that appears to refute Russian propaganda suggesting that a missile strike on a shopping mall in Ukraine never happened. At least 18 people died and about 60 were wounded in the Monday strike, according to Ukrainian officials, but Russia claims it only hit a legitimate military target near the mall. Video from security cameras in the area clearly caught the moment when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says a Russian X-22 cruise missile slammed into the shopping center in the central city of Kremenchuk.

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  Russia denies hitting Ukrainian shopping centre with missiles

  Reuters
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  Russian missile strike hits crowded shopping mall in Ukraine

  Associated Press Videos

Stephen Colbert's Jaw Literally Drops After This 1 Line From Jan. 6 Testimony

Stephen Colbert broke down the explosive revelations from Tuesday's congressional hearings on former President Donald Trump's actions on Jan. 6, 2021. The committee played footage of Michael Flynn, the former Army general who resigned in disgrace after just 24 days as Trump's national security advisor, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights in response to basic questions. Flynn ― a QAnon conspiracy theorist ― was asked if he thought the violence on Jan. 6  was justified and if he believed in the peaceful transition of power.

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  Michael Flynn Takes 5th When Asked If He Believes In A Peaceful Transfer Of Power

  HuffPost
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  Flynn pleads Fifth when asked about peaceful transfer of power

  NBC

I just got laid off from my dream job at Tesla without warning. I feel like my life got uprooted so a billionaire could save some money.

I worked as a recruiter at Tesla for two months before being laid off on June 17. And I'm not alone — the company is planning to lay off 10% of salaried employees. There was no warning.

The House Republican who led a rioter on a tour the day before the January 6 attack could lead the committee overseeing Capitol security

Rep. Barry Loudermilk led a Capitol rioter on a tour of House offices the day before the January 6 attack. Now, he could be next in line to lead the committee that oversees security at the Capitol. The current most senior Republican, Rep. Rodney Davis, lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger on Tuesday.

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  How to watch the House January 6 committee hearings on the Capitol attack

  Business Insider
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  January 6 hearing: White House aide 'disgusted' by Trump tweet calling out Mike Pence after Capitol Riot

  WAGA

Hong Kong burnishes China ties as luster as global hub fades

Every few generations, Hong Kong transforms itself, evolving from a swampy fishing village to 19th century colonial port, to capitalist outpost and factory after China's 1949 revolution, to 21st century financial center. As the former British colony marks the 25th anniversary of its return to China, reeling from pandemic curbs that devastated business and a crackdown on its pro-democracy movement, Hong Kong leaders say it is time to transform again. Chief Executive-elect John Lee's government is under pressure to generate new sources of economic growth, looking beyond COVID outbreaks and anti-virus controls that have devastated tourism and business and uncertainty about the legal climate after a crackdown on the city's pro-democracy movement.