Russia's defense minister said Tuesday that the country's massive military buildup in the west was part of readiness drills amid what he described as threats from NATO. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the maneuvers in western Russia that have worried neighboring Ukraine and brought warnings from NATO would last for another two weeks. Speaking at a meeting with the top military brass, Shoigu said the ongoing exercise was a response to what he claimed were continuous efforts by the United States and its NATO allies to beef up their forces near Russia's borders.
MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) -Lawyers for Derek Chauvin on Tuesday began presenting their case in the former Minneapolis policeman's murder trial, calling to the stand a now-retired officer who pulled over a car in which Floyd was a passenger in 2019 - a year before his deadly encounter with Chauvin. Chauvin's lead attorney, Eric Nelson, argued in court filings that the earlier arrest supported his defense that a drug overdose may have caused Floyd's death in May 2020, not a lack of oxygen caused by Chauvin kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes, as prosecutors charge. Nelson showed the jury a video taken by a body-worn camera during the May 6, 2019, traffic stop in which Floyd became distressed as the officer, Scott Creighton, pointed a gun at him and ordered him out of a car.
Former President Donald Trump released a statement Tuesday criticizing the Food and Drug Administration's recommendation to pause the use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, baselessly suggesting the decision was politically motivated. "The results of this vaccine have been extraordinary, but now it's [sic] reputation will be permanently challenged," Trump said. "[The FDA] should not be able to do such damage for possibly political reasons, or maybe because their friends at Pfizer have suggested it," he said.
The recent sabotage at Iran's main nuclear enrichment facility is just the latest setback for the country's Revolutionary Guard, though the paramilitary force is rarely publicly criticized due to its power. Its forces failed to stop both an earlier attack at Iran's Natanz facility and the assassination of a top scientist who started a military nuclear program decades earlier. In the wake of the attack, Iran announced Tuesday it would begin enriching uranium at 60% purity, the highest level its program has ever reached.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Police have arrested a longtime suspect and his father in connection with the murder of Kristin Smart, a 19-year-old college freshman who went missing from her California university 25 years ago. Smart was last seen walking to her dormitory on the campus of California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Los Angeles, in 1996 after attending an off-campus party. Paul Flores, a fellow student at Cal Poly SLO in 1996 and long a prime suspect in the unsolved case, was taken into custody on a murder charge on Tuesday morning in the Los Angeles suburb of San Pedro, a source close to the case told Reuters.
A community in North Texas is rallying around a family more than a week after they lost a daughter and a son in an accident involving a backhoe, and the father who was operating the machine was charged in their deaths. Sonakshi Chauhan, the 7-year-old daughter, and Shivraj Chauhan, the 11-year-old son, had โa love for each otherโ that โwas unlike any brother-sister duo,โ friends of the family and religious acquaintances wrote on a GoFundMe page honoring the two young children. Sonakshi is described on the page as a playful and compassionate person, who was also a graceful dancer.
These fantastical houses range from a 64,000-acre Texas ranch to an oceanside estate in the south of France Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
The Government will be forced to defend the logic of Army cuts in the face of increasing threats from Russia. Labour will on Wednesday use an opposition day motion to question the Tories over its 2019 election manifesto pledge, in which Boris Johnson said he would โnot be cutting the armed services in any formโ. However the recent Command Paper revealed that as part of its pivot towards cyber, the Ministry of Defence would axe more than 100 aircraft, reduce the size of the army from 82,000 to 72,500 and cut a number of tanks.
During a press conference on Monday, Brooklyn Center, Minn. released bodycam video of the police shooting of Daunte Wright. Police Chief Tim Gannon said he believes the officer who shot Wright intended to use her Taser, but mistakenly grabbed her firearm.
The Connecticut Supreme Court rejected the appeal of a man convicted of murder, sexual assault and other crimes in the killings of a woman and her two daughters, ages 11 and 17, in a 2007 home invasion. Justices issued a 7-0 decision Monday upholding the convictions against Joshua Komisarjevsky. Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes are serving life prison sentences for the killings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and her daughters, 11-year-old Michaela and 17-year-old Hayley, in their Cheshire home.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former U.S. Senator Chris Dodd and former Deputy Secretaries of State Richard Armitage and James Steinberg headed to Taiwan on Tuesday at President Joe Biden's request, in what a White House official called a "personal signal" of the president's commitment to the Chinese-claimed island and its democracy. A senior Biden administration official told Reuters the dispatch of the "unofficial" delegation comes as the United States and Taiwan mark the 42nd anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act, for which Biden voted when he was a U.S. senator. The delegation will meet with senior Taiwanese officials and followed "a long-standing bipartisan tradition of U.S. administrations sending high-level, unofficial delegations to Taiwan," the official said.
The police chief of the city where a black motorist was killed has resigned along with the officer who shot him. Police Chief Tim Gannon and Officer Kim Potter quit the Brooklyn Center force two days after the death of Daunte Wright sparked two nights of unrest. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott said that he had appointed 19-year veteran Tony Gruenig to take over for Tim Gannon.
A rise in glue traps attached to trees to tackle invasive moths is killing bats, the head of the Mammal Society has said amid warnings of a "biodiversity emergency". Tree barrier glue is used to protect fruit trees from caterpillars which would eat the whole crop. However, environmental campaigners have argued that bats feed on these grubs, so it would be better for biodiversity and the orchards if the mammals were encouraged.
Protesters are trying to get a Georgia state representative fired by cities and counties that pay him to be their attorney, citing his role in pushing through a voting law that adds restrictions. The Washington City Council voted 4-2 to ask Rep. Barry Fleming to resign Monday, WJBF-TV reports. It's not clear if the city can immediately fire the Republican from Harlem because Washington has a contract with Fleming's law firm.
The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) from a crashed Sriwijaya Air jet has been downloaded successfully and includes the last minutes of the flight that ended with 62 people dead, an official at Indonesia's air accident investigator said on Monday. The contents of the recording from the 26-year old Boeing Co 737-500 that crashed shortly after take-off on Jan. 9 cannot be disclosed publicly at this stage of the probe, Indonesia National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) investigator Nurcahyo Utomo said. The channels will need to be synchronised with each other as well as radio communications and the flight data recorder (FDR) for analysis to help determine the cause of the crash.
An Asian man was arrested after California police say he kidnapped and tried to sexually assault an Asian woman, believing she was white, in retaliation for the rise in hate crimes against Asians. Michael Sangbong Rhee, 37, was arrested Thursday night at his Lake Forest home, Irvine police said in a Facebook post. Rhee was charged with kidnapping with intent to commit a sexual assault and is being held at Orange County Jail on $1 million bail.
Elon Musk's SpaceXย satellite prompted a 'red alert' warning after coming within 60m of smashing into another satellite owned by a British-backed firm. Engineers at OneWeb and SpaceX scrambled to avoid what could have been a disastrousย collision last month after the United States Space Force sent multiple "red alert" warnings that the two companies' satellites were about toย crash. Both SpaceX and OneWeb are in direct competition to establish an infrastructure of satellitesย that can provide high-speed andย low-latency internet access to remote or rural locations around the world that were left behind by traditional cable-based providers.
Lebanon's outgoing minister of public works said Monday that he has signed a decree that would increase the area claimed by the Mediterranean country in a maritime border dispute with Israel. Public Works Minister Michel Najjar told reporters that he has signed an amendment of the decree that would formally extend Lebanon's claims by 1,430 square kilometers (550 square miles). The unilateral move by Lebanon is likely to anger Israel and the U.S. who are not expected to recognize Beirut's extension of the disputed area.
The surging COVID-19 outbreak in Brazil is increasingly affecting younger people, with hospital data showing that last month the majority of those in intensive care were aged 40 or younger, according to a new report. The report, released by the Brazilian Association of Intensive Medicine over the weekend, is based on data from over a third of all the country's intensive care wards. It found a significant increase in younger people being admitted to beds in Intensive Care Units (ICUs).
Two police officers in North Carolina are on leave after a video posted on social media shows them beating a Black man. In an 18-second clip shared on Facebook Monday evening, officers are seen chasing and punching a man later identified as 36-year-old David Lee Bruton Jr. Police were looking for him after a Little Caesars restaurant worker in Kinston accused him of threatening her, according to an incident report from police. Kinston Mayor Dontario Hardy did not immediately respond to McClatchy News' request for comment Tuesday but told The Kinston Free Press the officers have been put on administrative leave while police investigate.
Rep. Rick Roeber, a Lee's Summit Republican facing accusations by his adult children that he physically and sexually abused them when they were young, is resigning from the Missouri House. In a letter to other lawmakers Tuesday afternoon, Roeber said his final day as a state legislator will be Friday. Roeber's announcement came shortly after The Independent reported on a letter House Speaker Rob Vescovo wrote to Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Backer stating that over the course of the House Ethics Committee investigation, โwe have learned information that needs to be forwarded to the proper authorities in your jurisdiction.โ
You don't have to commit to full-on maximalism to make a statement Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
More than 60 restaurant owners, nightclub operators and other hospitality figures have told Boris Johnson that they will not force customers to show Covid passports. In a letter to the Prime Minister, seen by The Telegraph, the signatories make clear their opposition to Covid status certification being used in hospitality settings. "We will not be forcing our patrons to show us any documentation referring to health status to gain entry," one line of the letter reads.
The Tropicana Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, a Sin City namesake, is being sold to a new entrant among Las Vegas Boulevard resort owners. Rhode Island-based Bally's Corp. announced Tuesday it will acquire the iconic Strip property from Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc. for about $308 million. The agreement for the nearly 1,500-room hotel, casino, theater and convention property also involves a sale-and-leaseback transaction relating to Bally's Black Hawk, Colorado and Rock Island, Illinois, casino properties, the company said.
The company has also started testing new versions of the vaccine that target a concerning new variant of the coronavirus, which was first identified in South Africa and is known as B.1.351. It said both versions of the vaccine that it is testing, including a multivalent vaccine that combines the newly designed vaccine with the previous one, increased neutralizing antibody titers against variants of concerns in mice, with the multivalent providing the broadest level of immunity. The company in March began testing three approaches to boosting the vaccine in order to protect against new variants.
โThereโs no โboth sides of the debateโ when it comes to active voter suppression.โ
โCompanies that do this ooze contempt for their own customers and employees who are not in the leftmost quarter of opinion.โ
โThe truth is that Fortune 500 companies were never taking moral stances from the goodness of their corporate hearts.โ
โThe truth is, the companies hold the cardsโฆIf companies stick to their guns, Georgia is likely to back down as well.โ
โWhen a company folds to the unfounded outrage of a few misinformed nuts, they are forever at the mobโs beck-and-call.โ