U.S.BBCSouth Carolina court halts executions until firing squad is available
A high court in the US state of South Carolina has blocked two executions until the inmates are given the choice of death by electrocution or firing squad. A new law requires inmates on death row to decide between the two methods if lethal drugs are not available. But as prison authorities have not yet formed a firing squad, the executions have been halted by the supreme court.
WorldThe TelegraphViolence shatters Pakistani elite as thousands protest 'illegal' land grab
For those fortunate enough to own a home in a Bahria Town development, the elite suburb promises to offer a respite from the clamour of life in much of Pakistan. Prospective residents from Karachi are lured with assurances that they can swap the blackouts, floods and rubbish heaps of the port metropolis for a luxury lifestyle in a manicured architectural fantasia. While Pakistan is often gripped by political and religious protests, the rich are rarely targeted - and the violent intrusion in Bahria Town has shaken elite Pakistani society beyond its gates.
U.S.Raleigh News and ObserverFive people shot, two killed, in overnight shootings in Durham
Durham police are investigating overnight shootings that left two people dead and injured three others. The first shooting happened around 10 p.m. along the 1600 block of Holloway Street and Guthrie Avenue, reported ABC11, The News & Observer's media partner. At 1:30 a.m. a second shooting in the 4000 block of Tranquil Road injured a woman who was taken to a hospital, the police department said in a tweet.
U.S.The StateOfficer responding to shooting runs over man bleeding in the street, Ohio police say
A Springfield, Ohio man wounded in a shooting called 911 for help, but was run over by a police officer as he lay bleeding in the street Sunday night. Eric Cole, 42, was flown from the scene to a hospital where he died after midnight Monday, according to police. The Ohio State Patrol is investigating the incident, and Cole's cause of death is pending results of an autopsy “This was an accident,” Springfield Police Chief Lee Graf said during a /news conference Wednesday, flanked by city leaders.
BusinessBBCTikTok owner ByteDance sees its earnings double in 2020
ByteDance, the Chinese company behind the smash-hit video app TikTok, saw its earnings double last year. The figures underscore TikTok's continued global popularity. It comes as ByteDance and several other Chinese technology giants have come under increasing pressure from governments around the world.
U.S.Raleigh News and ObserverJudge frees man from death row, points to withheld evidence in Charlotte murder trial
Michael Wayne Sherrill, convicted 12 years ago for the 1984 fatal stabbing and rape of Cynthia Dotson, climbed into a truck with his brother on Wednesday evening and drove off from Central Prison in Raleigh. Sherrill's freedom hinged on the discovery in April that several pieces of evidence, which could have strengthened his defense, had not been shared with his attorneys before his 2009 trial. Sherrill's release after more than 16 years in custody angered and dismayed two members of Dotson's family who were in Superior Court Judge Lou Trosch's courtroom on Wednesday, according to courtroom observers.
CelebrityArchitectural DigestStill Need a Father’s Day Gift for Dad? Here Are Chip Gaines’s Suggestions
The Fixer Upper star shares five little ones with his wife, Joanna Gaines Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
WorldLA TimesIn Iran's presidential election, apathy is looking like the big winner
Yet issues of major import loom over the Islamic Republic, including its tanking economy, the Middle East's deadliest COVID-19 outbreak and Tehran's relations with the West, particularly efforts to revive a moribund international nuclear accord with renewed U.S. participation. Concern over widespread voter apathy prompted Khamenei to try to coax voters to the polls by declaring in a live television address Wednesday that participating in elections was “an act of virtue.
U.S.Lexington Herald-LeaderMan drowns trying to save child who fell off a sailboat, Washington officials say
A man who jumped into Lake Washington after a child fell off a sailboat drowned trying to save the child, the Bellevue Fire Department said. Officials rushed to the scene Wednesday evening after receiving reports that a child had fallen into the water from a sailboat. The child made it safely back to the boat, but the man who tried to rescue the child went missing, the fire department said.
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Prosecutors seek 'very substantial' prison time for Michael Avenatti over attempted extortion of Nike
Prosecutors on Wednesday urged a judge to impose a “very substantial” prison sentence on Michael Avenatti for trying to extort millions of dollars from Nike.
U.S.BBCPornhub videos: Women sue, alleging lack of consent
More than 30 women are suing the company which owns the streaming site Pornhub, alleging exploitation over the use of explicit videos of them. The women say the videos were uploaded to Pornhub without their consent and have lodged a civil suit in California. The California lawsuit accuses Mindgeek of running a "criminal enterprise".
U.S.Idaho StatesmanHome where Manson murders took place sells in California – after price reduction
The Los Feliz home where Charles Manson's followers savagely killed the LaBiancas has finally sold after spending months on the California real estate market. The house, which was owned by paranormal investigator Zak Bagans according to the New York Post, sold for a discounted $1.875 million. The two-bedroom home was the famous site where Manson instructed his “family” — a group of individuals radicalized by Manson's teachings – to murder Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, one night after they killed actor Sharon Tate and four others in August 1969.
U.S.Miami HeraldDeSantis has no business sending Florida police to Texas border. Campaign ruse alert! | Opinion
If Gov. Ron DeSantis really cared about the meth-addiction problem in Florida, he would not be looking for solutions among immigrants at the Texas or Arizona borders, where he has no jurisdiction to enforce immigration law or run drug stings. But demagogue DeSantis made another round of attention-grabbing headlines when he pledged to send local and state security forces to Texas and Arizona to help police the southern border. Never mind that everyone knows that immigration and border security are federal government issues.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderPutin says 'there is no happiness in life' after his meeting with Biden
Russian President Vladimir Putin struck a dark tone after his private chat with President Joe Biden. "There's no happiness in life," Putin said. Russian President Vladimir Putin struck a dark tone during his lengthy, rambling press conference following nearly four hours of talks with President Joe Biden in Geneva on Wednesday.
U.S.Raleigh News and ObserverEnvironmental groups are worried about new NC energy bill despite coal plant closures
Environmental groups responded to Tuesday's unveiling of long-awaited energy legislation by criticizing the closed-door process that shaped it, as well as questioning provisions that replace some coal plants with natural gas facilities. The N.C. Sustainable Energy Association was one of a small number of groups in conversations with legislative leaders as the proposal was negotiated, but late Tuesday issued a statement criticizing House Bill 951, specifically the prescribed replacements for coal plants and a provision allowing Duke and other utilities to spend up to $50 million finding a site for an “advanced nuclear facility.” “We believe there are clear opportunities to improve this legislation to better protect our state's electricity customers while still empowering electric utilities to continue providing reliable energy generation,” Ward Lenz, executive director of the N.C. Sustainable Energy Association, wrote in a prepared statement.
PoliticsLA TimesColumn: Small-time leader with a big mouth shows the problem with today's politics
The political career of Tito Ortiz was short and flashy before fizzling like a meteor plunging into the Pacific. The former mayor pro tem of Huntington Beach fancied himself the Donald Trump of Orange County, gaining national attention for calling COVID-19 a "plandemic" and "political sham" and for his confrontational refusal to wear a mask in public. Brief though it was, Ortiz's stretch in small-time politics reflects something much bigger: a political culture that spurs conflict, rewards intransigence and empowers the loud and adversarial, even if polls show most voters would rather their lawmakers give in some if it means getting things done.
HealthLexington Herald-LeaderIs it better to get immunity from catching COVID — or vaccines? What science shows
Research shows both coronavirus infection and vaccination offers immunity that can protect people from getting sick again. Regardless of how immunity is acquired, there's no telling whose bodies will or won't create effective antibodies, and why they last longer for some than others; doctors speculate age or certain medical conditions might play a role. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that between February 2020 and March 2021, there were about 114.6 million total coronavirus infections in the U.S.. That's about 81.1 million more cases than are confirmed as of June 17.
U.S.USA TODAYAiden Leos case: California man in suspected road rage killing admitted to firing gun, prosecutors say
A Southern California man charged with killing a 6-year-old boy in a road rage incident last month told police he pulled out a gun and fired at a car on the freeway after he got angry with a driver who made a rude gesture, prosecutors said. Orange County prosecutors wrote in a court document filed Wednesday that murder suspect Marcus Eriz, 24, told police on June 6 that he grabbed the loaded gun, rolled down the window and shot at the car driven by a woman who gestured toward him on a freeway while he was on his way to work on May 21. The shot killed 6-year-old Aiden Leos while he sat in a booster seat in the back of his mother's car on his way to kindergarten, prosecutors have said.
LifestyleMiami HeraldIf you’re looking for a super healthy food, try this. Your blood pressure will love it.
Another phrase that I have used is “a plant-based food intake.” If three quarters or more of a plate is beans, rice or vegetables with a smaller amount of fish, chicken or meat that would be a plant-based meal. Plant based is more than fruits and vegetables.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderVideo shows Osama bin Laden's niece waving a flag saying 'Trump won' on a lake outside the Biden-Putin summit
Bin Laden, who has denounced the 9/11 attacks, came out last year as a Trump supporter. Osama bin Laden's niece waved a flag that said "Trump won" on a lake outside the villa where President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin met Wednesday.
HealthLA TimesSome vaccine experts having second thoughts about rushing to inoculate kids
In the weeks that have followed, the safety monitoring systems managed by the FDA and CDC detected dozens of cases of a possible side effect in newly vaccinated teens: an inflammation of the heart muscle known as myocarditis. The cases typically developed in older adolescents, most of them boys, three to four days after they got a second dose. Virtually all were considered mild, presenting as chest pain and tightness that resolved after treatment with over-the-counter medications.
U.S.INSIDERPortland police officers have quit the force's crowd-control team after one of the cops was charged with assaulting a protester
Portland police officers in the crowd-control unit resigned en masse from the unit on Wednesday. The resignations happened a day after an officer was charged with assaulting a protester. The officers will still continue to be a part of the Portland Police Bureau.
PoliticsUSA TODAYWho are the 14 House Republicans who voted against a Juneteenth holiday? And why?
Senate Bill 475, the "Juneteenth National Independence Day Act," passed 415-14. The bill recognizes June 19, 1865, the day enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned slavery was ended, as a public holiday. President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation had freed all enslaved African Americans in rebel states two and a half years earlier.
U.S.Raleigh News and ObserverPaul Murdaugh received threats from strangers before killing, Murdaugh family says
Strangers had threatened Paul Murdaugh before he and his mother were shot to death, but the family didn't believe the threats were valid, two members of the Murdaugh family said in their first interview since Paul Murdaugh and his mother, Maggie, were killed. John Marvin Murdaugh and Randolph “Randy” Murdaugh IV, Paul's uncles and Maggie's brother-in-laws, recorded an interview with Good Morning that aired Thursday morning. “The person that did this is out there, and there's information, however big or however small it is,” Randy Murdaugh IV said, pleading for help in the investigation.
LifestyleArchitectural Digest21 Ways to Make Your Space Into a Smart Home
With great technology comes less responsibility Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
“It may seem desperate at this point, but I can’t be mad at any and all efforts to get people vaccinated.”
“I won’t get rich, but I will get to live my life. That seems like reward enough.”
“Offering incentives may encourage people who are not actively opposed to vaccination but may have put it off.”
“At some point, the government is simply rewarding irresponsible behavior.”
“Sure, people should do it without needing an incentive. But what’s the alternative? Not enough people get vaccinated.”