WorldReutersPutin says Russia just starting in Ukraine, peace talks will get harder with time
LONDON (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had barely got started in Ukraine and dared the West to try to defeat it on the battlefield. In an ultra-hawkish speech to parliamentary leaders more than four months into the war, Putin said the prospects for any negotiation would grow dimmer the longer the conflict dragged on. Russia accuses the West of waging a proxy war against it by hammering its economy with sanctions and stepping up the supply of advanced weapons to Ukraine.
U.S.HuffPostMarjorie Taylor Greene Goes Full Kook With Mass Shooting Conspiracy Theory
Conspiracy theorist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) claimed this week's mass shooting at a parade in Illinois could have been a secret operation carried out by gun control advocates. “Two shootings on July 4th, one in a rich, white neighborhood and the other at a fireworks display,” she said in a clip posted on Twitter by Patriot Takes, which monitors right-wing media. Greene was referring to the parade shooting in Highland Park, which left seven people dead, and likely an incident in Philadelphia that left two police officers wounded.
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Judge denies lawmakers’ challenge to testify for special grand jury in Trump election probe
A Fulton County judge has denied a motion to challenge subpoenas by two state lawmakers to testify in front of the special grand jury looking into potential election tampering by former President Donald Trump. The special grand jury was seated in May at the request of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who said in a letter to the county superior court chief judge that her team believes the 2020 general election “was subject to possible criminal disruptions” and is looking into “any coordinated attempts to unlawfully alter the outcome of the 2020 elections in this state.” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled Wednesday that Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and former state Sen. William Ligon have to testify in front of the grand jury but also set limits on what grand jurors may ask them and other state lawmakers who are summoned.
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Bear dramatically falls from 49-foot-tall tree
A bear in Mexico fell from a 49-foot-tall tree he was stuck in after officials used a tranquilizer to help him down.
WorldNextSharkYouTuber gets scam ring in India arrested after hacking into their office's CCTV cameras
A YouTuber allegedly hacked into the CCTV cameras of an India-based scam ring office and gathered enough evidence of fraud to alert local police, which ultimately led to five arrests. The most recent video uploaded by Scambaiter on Sunday, titled “I Got Scammers ARRESTED On Their CCTV Cameras!”, has garnered nearly a million views at the time of this writing. In the 20-minute clip, viewers are given a look at CCTV footage taken from June 13-24, beginning with video of the alleged scammers at work, posing as Best Buy's Geek Squad tech support employees, and ending with their arrest by local police in Punjab, India.
U.S.The Daily BeastFamily of Parade Suspect’s Only Friend: ‘It Blows My Mind’
Michele Rebollar remembers the moment during her son Anthony LaPorte's funeral when Bobby Crimo—now charged with massacring seven people and wounding two dozen others at a Chicago suburb's Fourth of July parade—stood up to speak. It was August 2017, and the long-haired, awkward Crimo described how Anthony was one of the only people he had to confide in. “My name is Bobby, and Anthony was the person I would call when I couldn't sleep and he would always reply,” Crimo says in a video of the memorial service reviewed by The Daily Beast.
U.S.Associated PressBiologists' fears confirmed on the lower Colorado River
Minutes later, the park service confirmed their worst fear: smallmouth bass had in fact been found and were likely reproducing in the Colorado River below Glen Canyon Dam. They may be a beloved sport fish, but smallmouth bass feast on humpback chub, an ancient, threatened fish that's native to the river, and that biologists like Arnold have been working hard to recover. The predators wreaked havoc in the upper river, but were held at bay in Lake Powell where Glen Canyon Dam has served as a barrier for years — until now.
WorldUkrayinska PravdaRussian missile hits an empty ship Operational Command South
IRYNA BALACHUK – THURSDAY, 7 JULY 2022, 13:20 One of the missiles that the Russians fired at Odesa region on 7 July hit the empty tanker "Millennial Spirit '', sailing under the flag of Moldova, which is drifting in the Black Sea. Source: Serhiy Bratchuk, the spokesman for the Odesa Military Administration, referring to the official message by Operational Command South, on Telegram Quote from Operational Command South': "In the following air strike on Odesa region, two X-31 missiles were launched from an Su-30 aircraft.
BusinessMoneyWise‘The biggest Ponzi scheme in history’: This CEO warns that the Fed’s strategy has created a giant bubble in housing. Here’s what he likes for protection
Don't miss Mitt Romney says a billionaire tax will trigger demand for these two physical assets — get in now before the super-rich swarm Stocks are down, but “cash is not a safe investment,” says Ray Dalio — get creative to find strong returns Warren Buffett likes these 2 investment opportunities outside of the stock market Federal funds rate Morehead argues that the Fed made a big policy mistake by keeping the federal funds rate far too low. The difference between inflation (their mandate) and their policy tool (fed funds) is much larger than at any point in history — including the disastrous 1970s,” he writes. They left rates at zero.
U.S.In The Know by YahooHomeowner finds out guests took bed for a ‘test drive’ during open house: ‘I wish we had cameras’
Her home is for sale, so her agent hosted an open house. But the potential buyers were more interested in some of the furnishings than the home itself. mortgage truths that may surprise you “I wish we had cameras because I am seriously so curious about what happened in my house during this showing,” the caption read.
U.S.The Daily BeastLook at My Face and Tell Me We Don’t Need Gun Control
The ambulances and police vehicles that kick off the parade came by, then the marching band passed. That's when we heard it: pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. I thought it was fireworks until I saw people ducking.
U.S.Rolling StoneThe Worst Person You Know Just Made a Great Point: ‘Roe v. Wade’ Edition
In light of the Supreme Court Dobbs decision effectively overturning Roe v. Wade, many reproductive rights activists have criticized cisgender heterosexual men for staying silent on the issue of abortion rights — even though men are also impacted by the availability of safe, accessible abortion. One surprising straight man who has publicly come out in favor of abortion rights is Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports. Portnoy is no stranger to intense controversy — his former employees have accused him of fostering a toxic and misogynistic work environment, promoting cyberbullying and sexual harassment, and he was even accused of sexual misconduct in a Business Insider expose, which he has vehemently denied.
U.S.Associated PressChristians strip down at a South Texas nudist community
The gate opens to reveal a seemingly ordinary community. RVs and small homes line the roads, péntaque and pickleball courts offer residents recreational spaces, and the front office acts as the community's nucleus. Misty Katz, part owner of Nature's Resort, finds comfort in shunning clothes.
BusinessHerald-TribuneExclusive: Trump left Sarasota media company weeks before federal subpoenas were issued
Donald Trump removed himself from the board of his Sarasota-based social media company, records show, just weeks before the company was issued federal subpoenas by both the Securities and Exchange Commission and a grand jury in Manhattan. Trump, the chairman of Trump Media and Technology Group, was one of six board members removed on June 8, state business records show. Among the board members removed were Kashyap Patel, Trump's former point man in the White House; Scott Glabe, a former assistant to Trump who was counsel for the media company; and Donald Trump, Jr. The SEC served Trump Media and Technology Group with a subpoena on June 27, according to a regulatory filing.
BusinessMoneyWiseBill Gates just won legal approval to buy 2,100 acres of North Dakota farmland worth $13.5M — and people are ‘livid’ about it all across the state
Bill Gates made his fortune in tech, but he's now betting big on something completely different: farmland. Last week, Gates secured the legal approval for purchasing 2,100 acres of farmland from northeastern North Dakota potato growers Campbell Farms. Of course, this isn't first time Gates has invested in the asset class.
PoliticsYahoo Celebrity'Fed up' Debra Messing says she got Biden elected during White House call about abortion rights: Report
The White House orchestrated a call with celebrity Democratic supporters amid the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade... and it didn't go very well. According to a report from CNN, Debra Messing was among the participants "fed up" about President Joe Biden's lack of urgency and the administration being unprepared despite weeks of warning. White House aides co-organized the call with the advocacy group Build Back Better Together.
U.S.Fort Worth Star-TelegramMan lights firework on his head and it explodes into his skull, Texas cops say
A 43-year-old man lit a firework on top of his head, resulting in his near-sudden death in San Antonio, police say. Officers in San Antonio were called to a residential area just after midnight on Tuesday, July 5, following the firework mishap, according to a police report. First responders found the victim was suffering from severe head trauma, with brain matter exposed from his skull, police said.
U.S.National ReviewPolice Arrest Illegal Immigrants after ‘Hero Citizen’ Tipped Off Authorities to Planned Mass Shooting
Police in Richmond, Va., said a tip from a “hero citizen” helped prevent two illegal immigrants from carrying out a planned shooting at a Fourth of July celebration. “A hero citizen picked up the phone and overheard a conversation there was a mass shooting being planned here in the city of Richmond, Virginia,” Richmond Chief of Police Gerald Smith said during a press conference on Wednesday. Police said they found evidence that Julio Alvarado-Dubon, 52, and Rolman Balacarcel, 38, were planning an attack at the city's Independence Day celebration at the Dogwood Deli amphitheater and a city baseball game.
WorldReutersU.S. funeral home owner who sold body parts pleads guilty to fraud
A former Colorado funeral home owner pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a federal charge of defrauding relatives of the dead by dissecting their family members' corpses and selling the body parts without permission, a practice exposed in a 2018 Reuters investigative report https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-bodies-funeral. Megan Hess, who operated a funeral home called Sunset Mesa and a human body parts business called Donor Services from the same building, entered the plea to the charge of fraud at a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gordon Gallagher in Grand Junction, Colorado. Gallagher scheduled Hess, who had previously pleaded not guilty, to be sentenced in January, with the prosecution calling for 12 to 15 years in prison.
WorldBusiness InsiderA Russian aircraft flew 9 hours between Moscow and Switzerland, flying over European airspace in a rare routing that added 6 hours to the flight time
A Russian government aircraft flew nine hours between Moscow and Basel, Switzerland, on Wednesday. The route should only take about three hours — if European Union airspace were not closed to Russian planes. The jet flew over EU airspace with special clearance to retrieve Russian diplomatic staff in Switzerland.
PoliticsINSIDERTrump questions whether a future president could have 'candid' conversations with a White House counsel after Pat Cipollone agrees to testify before the January 6 committee
Trump questioned whether future presidents could be "candid" with a White House counsel. Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday said it is "so bad" for the country and the future of the presidency that one of his former White House counsels is cooperating with the congressional investigation into the Capitol riot. "Why would a future President of the United States want to have candid and important conversations with his White House Counsel if he thought there was even a small chance that this person, essentially acting as a 'lawyer' for the Country, may some day be brought before a partisan and openly hostile Committee in Congress, or even a fair and reasonable Committee, to reveal the inner secrets of foreign policy or other important matters," Trump wrote on his social-media platform, Truth Social.
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Explosion rocks Georgia Guidestones, 'America's Stonehenge'
STORY: A large portion of the structure was destroyed before dawn on Wednesday when "unknown individuals detonated an explosive device," the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said on its Twitter feed. The collection of gray monoliths was erected in 1980 in the middle of a large field near the town of Elberton, Georgia, off Highway 77, and is listed as a tourist attraction by the state's travel site and the Elbert County Chamber of Commerce. The GBI said the Elbert County Sheriff's Office, which has joined it and other agencies investigating the incident, discovered the damage when its officers responded to the blast.
U.S.Refinery29Say Goodbye To Macy Gray — She Outed Herself As A TERF
You can't support someone's rights or claim to believe in their existence as you take away their basic rights — like their right to play on a school sports team. Trans girls and women are being barred from competing in sports in states around the country. Gray's trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) behavior isn't new (J.K. Rowling — who supported Gray on Twitter — and writer Chimamanda Nzgozi Adichie are other famous examples), but it's even more upsetting considering that cis Black women should be supporting trans women because we're fighting the same fight against the same oppressors.
BusinessMoneyWiseWarren Buffett says inflation 'swindles almost everybody' — here's 10 ways his frugal habits can help you save money
Warren Buffett might have billions of dollars to his name, but unlike other celebrities and financial gurus, he prefers to live life simply. Consider what Buffett had to say during Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting in May, when he acknowledged inflation was already one of the economy's biggest problems. Here are nine ways Buffett's frugality can help you save and spend wisely.
U.S.In The Know by YahooWoman learns her neighbor pays $600 more in rent than her: ‘Is that legal?’
A woman discovered her landlord is inflating rent prices for new tenants. TikToker @cal_cifer_2.0 dished on what she dubbed “community drama” after her neighbor did some sleuthing around. She lives in an area with a bunch of one-bedroom rentals.
“Left unchecked, if artificial intelligence reaches cognition … it will be fueled by some of the most inhumane impulses of humanity.”
“Now is the time to stop and think — before our technology outstrips us once again.”
“I don't want to talk about sentient robots, because at all ends of the spectrum there are humans harming other humans.”
“Minds can take different forms … We should avoid reducing questions about AIs to ‘Can AIs think and feel like us?’”
“To identify sentience, or consciousness, or even intelligence, we’re going to have to work out what they are.”