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 WeekThe Derek Chauvin solitary confinement predicament
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is being held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day following his conviction for the murder of George Floyd. Chauvin's solitary confinement is protective, and he's hardly languishing in a dank hole. A brief separation is one thing, but extended isolation from human contact is "cruel and unusual punishment," in constitutional parlance.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Romania's 'modern slaves' who burn trash for a living
In the trash-strewn slums of Sintesti, less than 10 miles from Romania's capital, Bucharest, Mihai Bratu scrapes a dangerous living for his Roma family amid the foul reek of burning plastic that cloys the air day and night.
U.S.Associated PressPolice: Arrested Michigan lawmaker warned he'd call governor
A Michigan lawmaker who was arrested for drunken driving and resisting police threatened to call Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and told state troopers it would not be good for them because he oversees their budget, according to an incident report. Rep. Jewell Jones, an Inkster Democrat, was charged in Livingston County last week after driving his Chevy Tahoe into a ditch along Interstate 96 near Fowlerville around 6 p.m. on April 6, following reports of erratic driving. Police said he became so combative that they had to use a Taser and pepper spray.
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.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.
WorldReutersChina rebukes Australia for "Cold War mentality" after Belt and Road accords cancelled
SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia said on Thursday that it cancelled two accords between Victoria state and China on the Belt and Road Initiative because they were out of line with the federal government's foreign policy, which sees a "free and open Indo Pacific" as a key goal. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman responded by urging Australia to abandon its "Cold War mentality and ideological bias" and "immediately correct its mistakes and change course". The Chinese embassy earlier criticised the move by Foreign Minister Marise Payne to veto two agreements signed by Victoria state as "provocative" and said it would further damage ties.
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-...
U.S.Associated PressEx-officer who killed Rayshard Brooks wants his job back
A former Atlanta police officer's attorney said Thursday that his client didn't get a chance to defend himself before he was fired for fatally shooting Rayshard Brooks, a Black man who had been running away from two white officers after he resisted arrest and fired a stun gun at one of them. Officer Garrett Rolfe was dismissed “without a proper investigation” by the city on June 13, one day after Brooks' death, Rolfe's attorney, Lance LoRusso, told the city's civil service board as he argued for his client's reinstatement to the force, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The encounter outside a Wendy's restaurant last year started calmly but rapidly spun out of control when Atlanta police tried to handcuff and arrest Brooks, 27, for suspected DUI.
WorldArchitectural DigestBookmark These 11 Places on HipCamp for Your Next Outdoor Retreat
A WiFi break? Yes, please 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
PoliticsThe Independent‘Gaslighting 101’: Ted Cruz ridiculed over claim GOP has never tried to pack the Supreme Court
Ted Cruz has been accused of “gaslighting” for saying Republicans never tried to “rig the game” by altering the size of the Supreme Court, a response to Democrats introducing legislation to expand the court to 13 judges. The Republican senator for Texas was accused of contradicting his stance from 2016, when late Justice Antonin Scalia died unexpectedly and Mr Cruz endorsed an unprecedented partisan blockade in the Supreme Court to insist that the high court have eight members for 11 months. The criticism came after Mr Cruz, along with fellow Repulicans Lindsey Graham and Marsha Blackburn, held a press conference in front of the Supreme Court on Thursday and accused Democrats of a “power grab” by introducing the legislation.
TechnologyAssociated PressEU outlines ambitious AI regulations focused on risky uses
Risky uses of artificial intelligence that threaten people's safety or rights such as live facial scanning should be banned or tightly controlled, European Union officials said Wednesday as they outlined an ambitious package of proposed regulations to rein in the rapidly expanding technology. The draft regulations from the EU's executive commission include rules for applications deemed high risk such as AI systems to filter out school, job or loan applicants. The proposals are the 27-nation bloc's latest move to maintain its role as the world's standard-bearer for technology regulation, as it tries to keep up with the world's two big tech superpowers, the U.S. and China.
U.S.Associated PressMan pleads guilty in fatal shootings of 8 from Ohio family
A man pleaded guilty Thursday in the murders of his child's mother and seven members of her family in 2016 — a grisly crime that spread terror across their rural Ohio community and stirred rumors of drug dealers and hit men before authorities concluded it stemmed from a custody dispute. On the fifth anniversary of the slayings, Edward “Jake” Wagner pleaded guilty to 23 counts in southern Ohio's Pike County in a deal with prosecutors that spares him from being sentenced to death. He agreed to cooperate in the cases against his parents and brother, who are also charged in the Rhoden family slayings of seven adults and a teenage boy.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderTop Trump ally Lindsey Graham praises Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema for refusing to abolish the filibuster
Sen. Lindsey Graham explicitly praised two Democratic senators for rejecting their party's efforts to eliminate the filibuster. Graham supported GOP's successful effort to eliminate the filibuster for Supreme Court nominee confirmations. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has urged his caucus to publicly praise the two Democratic lawmakers.
WorldAssociated PressGeneral: Afghan military will collapse without some US help
McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, said that as the U.S. pulls out all forces, “my concern is the Afghans' ability to hold ground” and whether they will able to continue to maintain and fly their aircraft without U.S. aid and financial support. Later, at a Pentagon news conference, McKenzie said the U.S. will look for “some remote, televised way” to help the Afghan security forces perform maintenance on their aircraft without having U.S. personnel in the country. We're certainly going to try to do everything we can from distant locations to assist the Afghans as they maintain the aircraft and other platforms that will be essential for the fight ahead of them,” the general said.
“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.”