PoliticsAssociated PressDemocrats move 2 bills showing strength and limits of power
The House voted along party lines to make the nation's capital the 51st state, and two hours later, the Senate overwhelmingly approved bipartisan legislation to address violence against Asian Americans. Thursday's twin victories let Democrats display momentum just six days before President Joe Biden's maiden speech to Congress. Despite a minuscule majority, House Democrats have passed legislation this year reworking voting laws, toughening gun background checks and fulfilling other party goals.
U.S.The TelegraphGhislaine Maxwell to appear in person for first time since her arrest as she pleads to new charges
Ghislaine Maxwell is set to appear in person for the first time since her arrest last year in a New York court on Friday, where she is expected to plead not guilty to new sex trafficking charges. Ms Maxwell was granted rare permission to attend the usually procedural court hearing by Judge Alison Nathan. The 59-year-old British socialite has already pleaded not guilty to charges of recruiting and grooming teenage girls from 1994 to 2004 to provide sexual massages to her one-time boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein.
U.S.Fort Worth Star-TelegramTeen viciously beaten because he identified suspect in Fort Worth holdup, mother says
I am being told despite my son positively identifying this man via the snap video he posted _ that they don't have enough and don't know who the other 3 boys are,” McOmber said in a Facebook post. As his mother, you can probably imagine how hard this is. McOmber took to Facebook after waiting more than two weeks for arrests in the case, but no one was in custody for the assault on her son, who suffered a concussion, a broken nose, two black eyes and contusions across his arms and legs, she said.
WorldReutersGermany rejects idea of redrawing Western Balkans borders - minister
Germany rejects a redrawing of borders in the Western Balkans along ethnic lines and the idea has been "put back into a drawer", Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Thursday. The idea was raised in an unofficial European Union diplomatic note that alarmed Bosnians, who saw it as a threat to their country's territorial unity, two decades after ethnic conflicts led to war in the region. The note, seen by Reuters, suggested that creating a Greater Serbia, a Greater Albania and a Greater Croatia could help resolve national tensions holding up EU integration in the region.
WorldAssociated PressWorries grow about Indonesian sub's crew as oxygen dwindles
Indonesian navy ships were scouring the waters off Bali on Friday as they raced against time to find a submarine that disappeared two days ago and has less than a day's supply of oxygen left for its 53 crew. The KRI Nanggala 402 went missing after its last reported dive Wednesday off the resort island, and concern is mounting the submarine may have sunk too deep to reach or recover. The navy chief said the submarine was expected to run out of oxygen by around 3 a.m. Saturday.
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.Raleigh News and ObserverChatham man freed in 1975 murder can have DNA evidence used against him in new one
Willie Womble walked free in 2014 after nearly 40 years in prison, cleared for a convenience store robbery and murder he didn't commit. Now 67, Womble faces new charges in a Chatham County slaying, in which a 54-year-old Pittsboro woman was found stabbed to death with a pair of scissors. Womble faced a setback this week when the NC Court of Appeals ruled a lower court erred by suppressing DNA evidence found at the scene.
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Putin warns West as supporters rally for Navalny
President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Wednesday (April 21) not to cross Russia's "red lines," saying Moscow would respond swiftly and harshly to provocations. Relations are under acute strain over Ukraine and the health of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, whose supporters were gathering in protest across the country as Putin spoke. Putin makes a point of never naming Navalny, his fiercest critic, who is three weeks into a hunger strike in jail and gravely ill.
WorldReutersU.S. general concerned about capability of Afghan security forces
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The head of U.S. forces in the Middle East said on Thursday that he was concerned about the ability of the Afghan security forces to hold territory after the withdrawal of all foreign troops from the country in the coming months. President Joe Biden announced last week that the United States will withdraw its remaining 2,500 troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the al Qaeda attacks that triggered America's longest war. "My concern is the ability of the Afghan military to hold the ground that they're on now without the support that they've been used to for many years," Marine General Kenneth McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.
WorldAssociated PressCanada bans flights from India, Pakistan
Canada on Thursday said it is banning all flights from India and Pakistan for 30 days due to the growing wave of COVID-19 cases in that region. Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said the ban would start late Thursday, speaking hours after India reported a global record of more than 314,000 new infections in the previous 24-hours. Cargo flights from India and Pakistan will continue.
U.S.The WeekAndrew Yang accused of 'Michael Scott levels of cringe and insensitivity' at forum with LGBTQ group
It sounds like a recent attempt by Andrew Yang to secure an endorsement in his New York City mayoral bid didn't exactly go as planned. The candidate on Wednesday met with the Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City to seek the Democratic LGBTQ organization's endorsement, but he ended up offending its members, The New York Times reports. Yang, according to the report, "cited gay members of his staff as apparent evidence of his openness to the club's concerns, and expressed enthusiasm about the prospect of visiting" the New York gay bar Cubbyhole.
WorldBBCAustralia resists calls for tougher climate targets
Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison has resisted pressure to set more ambitious carbon emission targets while other major nations vowed deeper reductions to tackle climate change. Addressing a global climate summit, Mr Morrison said Australia was on a path to net zero emissions. US President Joe Biden, who chaired the virtual summit, pledged to cut carbon emissions by 50-52% below 2005 levels by the year 2030.
WorldThe TelegraphForeign aid destined for China will be diverted to fighting human rights abuses
Chinese foreign aid will be devoted to fighting human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Dominic Raab has said. It comes after the Government was criticised last year for funding schemes to China including a photography project to understand the country's past, syphilis tests for gay men and improving cancer screening in rural areas. The Foreign Secretary told the International Development Committee that he had cut China's Official Development Assistance by 95 per cent.
WorldAssociated PressVenezuela prosecutor who defied Maduro implicated in bribery
A former Venezuelan attorney general who defied President Nicolas Maduro by siding with his opponents has been implicated in a major corruption case involving a Venezuelan businessman who this week pleaded guilty to paying $1 million in bribes, two people familiar with the case said Thursday. The former official, Luisa Ortega, isn't mentioned by name in the Miami federal case. But in quietly pleading guilty Monday to a single charge of conspiring to defraud the United States, businessman Carlos Urbano Fermin admitted to paying around $1 million in bribes to a “high-ranking prosecutor” in Venezuela as “insurance” against any investigations into his extensive construction contracts with state-...
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.
WorldReutersGerman business favours Greens candidate to succeed Merkel - poll
Germany's business elite favours Greens candidate Annalena Baerbock to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel after a federal election in September, an opinion poll published on Thursday showed. Baerbock said on Monday she would run to become chancellor at the Sept. 26 election, the first time the left-leaning ecologist party has sought the top job in its 40-year history. The Civey poll of 1,500 executives for WirtschaftsWoche magazine, conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday, showed 26.5% favoured Baerbock for chancellor, ahead of Christian Lindner of the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) on 16.2%.
U.S.Associated PressParents sue father accused of hiding Kristin Smart's body
The parents of missing California college student Kristin Smart on Thursday sued the father of the man charged with killing their daughter nearly 25 years ago. The lawsuit filed in San Luis Obispo County Superior Court said Smart's body was buried in Ruben Flores's backyard and he moved the body “under cover of darkness” to another location a few days after investigators searched his property in February 2020. Ruben Flores, 80, pleaded not guilty to accessory after murder on Monday, and his son, Paul Flores, 44, pleaded not guilty to murder.
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
WorldUSA TODAYFact check: No evidence to back claim that man convicted for Floyd's murder was not Derek Chauvin
Fact check: Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all counts but has yet to be sentenced The post includes several images of Chauvin from the day he killed Floyd, his mugshot and his trial. A close-up image highlights perceived differences in Chauvin's ear shape between his mugshot and images taken during Floyd's murder. Two different people.
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.
U.S.Associated PressSheriff: Deputy fatally shot Black man while serving warrant
A North Carolina deputy shot and killed a Black man while serving a search warrant Wednesday, authorities said, spurring an outcry from community members who demanded law enforcement accountability and the immediate release of body camera footage. Authorities wouldn't provide details of the shooting but an eyewitness said that Andrew Brown Jr. was shot while trying to drive away, and that deputies fired at him multiple times. The car skidded out of Brown's yard and eventually hit a tree, said Demetria Williams, who lives on the same street.
WorldBBCVaranasi: The viral picture that defines India's Covid distress
A heartbreaking image of a mother sitting with the lifeless body of her 29-year-old son at her feet has gone viral in India. The photo shows an exhausted Chandrakala Singh, sitting stone-faced in an electric rickshaw with the body of her son Vineet Singh, on a busy street in the city of Varanasi in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The haunting image is just one example of the plight of Indians trapped between a raging pandemic and a healthcare system on the brink of collapse.
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Belgian envoy's wife 'slapped' S.Korea shopkeeper
South Korean police say they want to talk to the wife of the Belgian ambassador there, after an incident in which she allegedly slapped a shopkeeper. Footage from a security camera emerged online this week from a clothing store. It shows a woman slapping a shopkeeper who had tried to stop her from approaching another worker.
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.
U.S.Associated PressMormon sex therapist ousted from faith for critiques
A sex therapist in Utah who has publicly challenged her faith's policies on sexuality has been kicked out of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints following a disciplinary hearing. Natasha Helfer received a letter Wednesday from a regional church official explaining the reasons for her removal from the Salt Lake City-based church, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. Helfer was disciplined by church leaders in Kansas, where she lived before moving to Utah in 2019.
“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.”