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- LA Times
NHL extends regular season to May 16 after Canucks' COVID-19 outbreak
The NHL has extended the regular season to May 16 to accommodate rescheduled games for the Vancouver Canucks after a COVID-19 outbreak within the team.
- The Daily Beast
Mother Arrested After 3 Toddlers Found Stabbed to Death in L.A.
Los Angeles Police DepartmentThree toddlers were found stabbed to death on Saturday morning in a Reseda, Los Angeles, apartment, and their mother, Liliana Carrillo, was arrested following a police manhunt. The victims, whose names were not disclosed, were 3, 2, and six months old. Their grandmother found their bodies after she returned from work around 9:30 a.m. Police said Carrillo, 30, may have stolen a pickup truck in Bakersfield, California hours after the stabbing. She was taken into custody near Ponderosa in Tulare County. Investigators have yet to identify a motive. “Obviously, they’ll be talking with this lady at length to try to figure out what’s going on in her mind,” Lt. Raul Jovel told The Los Angeles Times, “These are the moments we carry throughout our career. It’s hard to process that as a police officer.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
- INSIDER
Prince Harry will attend Prince Philip's funeral without Meghan Markle, who didn't get permission to fly
Prince Harry will attend Prince Philip's funeral, which is set to be held April 17. Markle, who's pregnant, didn't get medical clearance to fly.
- Business Insider
Nearly 40% of Marines have so far declined to receive a vaccine to protect against the coronavirus
Of the 123,500 Marines who have been offered a vaccine, about 48,000 said no, while about 75,500 agreed to get one, according to data obtained by CNN.
- INSIDER
Prince Philip was royalty before he married Queen Elizabeth. In fact, they were distant cousins.
Prince Philip died at age 99 on Friday. Born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, he and Queen Elizabeth II were cousins through Queen Victoria.
- The Telegraph
Service with a smile: Prince Philip puts Land Rover hearse at heart of funeral he designed himself
The Duke of Edinburgh’s coffin will be carried through the grounds of Windsor Castle in a modified Land Rover that he designed for the occasion himself. The funeral will take place next Saturday at 3pm, following a short procession in which the Prince of Wales and senior members of the Royal family will follow the coffin on foot as it is driven to St George’s Chapel. The Queen will not take part in the procession. It will be a royal funeral like no other, with Royals adhering to Covid-19 guidelines by wearing masks throughout the ceremony and maintaining social distancing. A Buckingham Palace spokesperson confirmed that it would not be a state occasion, in accordance with the Duke’s wishes, but a ceremonial royal funeral in line with the Queen Mother’s funeral in 2002. Her Majesty gave final approval to the plans, which “very much reflect the personal wishes of the Duke" who died peacefully at home in Windsor Castle on Friday morning.
- Reuters
South African variant can 'break through' Pfizer vaccine, Israeli study says
The coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa can "break through" Pfizer/BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine to some extent, a real-world data study in Israel found, though its prevalence in the country is low and the research has not been peer reviewed. The South African variant, B.1.351, was found to make up about 1% of all the COVID-19 cases across all the people studied, according to the study by Tel Aviv University and Israel's largest healthcare provider, Clalit. But among patients who had received two doses of the vaccine, the variant's prevalence rate was eight times higher than those unvaccinated - 5.4% versus 0.7%.
- Reuters
Ukraine says it could be provoked by Russian 'aggression' in conflict area
Ukraine's defence minister said on Saturday his country could be provoked by Russian aggravation of the situation in the conflict area of Ukraine's eastern Donbass region. The minister, Andrii Taran, said Russian accusations about the rights of Russian-speakers being violated could be the reason for the resumption of armed aggression against Ukraine. "At the same time, it should be noted that the intensification of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine is possible only if an appropriate political decision is made at the highest level in the Kremlin," he said in a statement.
- Business Insider
Creator of a scam PAC that targeted Trump supporters has been charged with defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program
Authorities say that James Kyle Bell duped Trump supporters into giving to his PAC and then presented false tax documents to get a PPP loan.
- INSIDER
Photos show people flocking to Buckingham Palace to mourn Prince Philip's death with flowers and flags
Despite the palace's discouragement, crowds mourned with flowers and tributes outside Buckingham Palace following Prince Philip's death on Friday.
- Business Insider
Pfizer and BioNTech have asked US regulators to make their COVID-19 vaccine available to adolescents ages 12 to 15
The vaccine showed "100 percent efficacy" and triggered a "robust antibody response" in trials with adolescents, the companies announced last month.
- Yahoo News
Biden on Prince Philip: 'I admired the devil out of him'
President Biden joined world leaders in paying tribute to Prince Philip, who died Friday at 99.
- Business Insider
Russia demanded 200,000 Sputnik V vaccines back after officials in Europe questioned the quality of the shot
Slovakia's drug agency said roughly 80% of Sputnik V's safety and effectiveness data was missing. Russia accused it of "sabotage."
- The State
UNC basketball loses another frontcourt player to transfer portal. Find out who
Tar Heels could be depleted in the frontcourt if new coach Hubert Davis is unable to convince Walker Kessler to stay.
- Business Insider
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell says he hired private investigators to find out why Fox News isn't letting him speak on air
Mike Lindell said Friday he "spent a lot of money" investigating Fox News for its failure to invite him on air to peddle false election claims.
- Business Insider
NASA delays Mars helicopter flight after a crucial rotor-blade-spinning test ended abruptly
Ingenuity was supposed to spin its blades at full speed on Friday, but a "watchdog" timer that identifies issues abruptly cut the test short.
- The Telegraph
Nikolai Glushkov: Putin critic's murder made to look like suicide, inquest finds
A Russian dissident was murdered in his own home and his death made to look like suicide, a coroner has ruled. Nikolai Glushkov, a close friend of the deceased oligarch Boris Berezovsky, Mr Putin's one-time fiercest rival, was found dead in the hall of his property in New Malden, south-west London, a week after Sergei Skripal, a former Russian double agent, and Yulia, his daughter, were poisoned with a nerve agent in Salisbury. Glushkov, 68, the former deputy director of the state airline Aeroflot, said he feared he was on a Kremlin hit-list. Paramedics who arrived at Glushkov's home on March 12 2018 immediately raised concerns that he had been killed because of the way suicide paraphernalia appeared to be deliberately placed around the body. A post-mortem examination concluded he died at the hands of a third party, due to compression of the neck". The pathology report read to the court said the injuries "could be consistent with a neck-hold, applied from behind, and the assailant being behind the victim. "There is a lack of injuries to suggest prolonged grappling or restraint with the third party, and a lack of injuries of a defensive nature to the upper limbs. "This would suggest the victim had been rapidly incapacitated - garroted sleeper holds are known to cause unconsciousness within seconds."
- Reuters
Turkey's Erdogan calls for end to 'worrying' developments in eastern Ukraine, offers support
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday called for the "worrying" developments in eastern Ukraine's Donbass region to come to an end after meeting his Ukrainian counterpart in Istanbul, adding Turkey was ready to provide any necessary support. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy held more than three hours of talks with Erdogan in Istanbul as part of a previously scheduled visit, amid tensions between Kyiv and Moscow over the conflict in Donbass. Kyiv has raised the alarm over a buildup of Russian forces near the border between Ukraine and Russia, and over a rise in violence along the line of contact separating Ukrainian troops and Russia-backed separatists in Donbass.
- The New York Times
They Are Not Alone: UFO Reports Surged in the Pandemic
In the years since she says extraterrestrial beings took her from her suburban yard outside Rochester, New York, Virginia Stringfellow has kept her story mostly within a close-knit community of people who say they have also encountered UFOs. But over the past year, that pool has grown: Each of her monthly locals-only UFO meetups average about five new people who believe they have seen a mysterious object in the sky — not including about 50 out-of-towners who have tried to join. “I have to turn away people,” said Stringfellow, 75. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Sightings of unidentified objects in 2020 nearly doubled in New York from the previous year, to about 300, according to data compiled by the National UFO Reporting Center, or NUFORC. They also rose by about 1,000 nationwide, to more than 7,200 sightings. But according to ufologists (pronounced “yoof-ologists”), as those who study the phenomena call themselves, the trend is not necessarily the result of an alien invasion. Rather, it was probably caused in part by another invader: the coronavirus. Pushed to stay home by lockdown restrictions, many found themselves with more time to look up. In New York, droves of urbanites fleeing the virus took up residence in places such as the Catskills and the Adirondacks, where skies are largely free from light pollution. About a quarter of the reports nationally came in March and April of last year, when lockdowns were at their most strict. Glimmers wobbling across the sky have gone viral on TikTok, racking up millions of views. Longtime UFO enthusiasts say the pandemic clearly has more people scanning the night skies. But there is another reason that the public might be newly receptive to the idea that the flicker on the horizon is worth reporting: The Pentagon revealed over the summer that it would soon convene a new task force to investigate so-called “unidentified aerial phenomena” observed from military aircraft. Last year, it declassified three videos of such sightings. In addition, the $2.3 trillion appropriations package signed late last year by then-President Donald Trump includes a provision that the secretary of defense and director of national intelligence collaborate on a UFO report and release it to the public. “It’s encouraging to many of us in the field of ufology that the government is willing to confirm that they are aware of these circumstances, that they are conceding that people are reporting these events,” said NUFORC director Peter Davenport. Previously, he said, the government appeared to have believed “that people like me are just crazy — and we’re not.” Davenport and his peers are quick to point out that any uptick in sightings does not mean a spike in flying saucers. Unidentified flying objects are just that — airborne phenomena that have not yet been identified. The vast majority of sightings called in to the reporting center are swiftly determined to be things such as birds, bats, satellites, planes and drones, he said. A number of sightings last year were quickly identified as satellites launched by SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space-exploration initiative that conducted test runs over northern Idaho last year. One viral TikTok video of an object hovering in New Jersey last year turned out to be a Goodyear blimp. “A skilled UFO investigator is one of the most skeptical people around,” Davenport said. Only a small fraction of reports scrutinized by NUFORC, which is based in Washington state, are truly not identifiable. That proportion has not changed even as more calls have poured in, according to Davenport. Ufologists are frequently prickly when it comes to the subject of apparent increases in UFO sightings, warning that bumps occur with regularity over the years, and are a favorite subject of news reports. The coverage itself may also drive up sightings, they warn. In New York, as city dwellers have tried to escape the virus by relocating to the countryside, they have driven up rural sightings, said Chris DePerno, assistant director of the New York state branch of the Mutual UFO Network, a nonprofit organization that uses civilian investigators to study reports of UFOs. Absent urban light pollution, he said, the transplants are taking new notice of the night sky and whatever may be in it. “They come up toward the Hudson Valley — it’s beautiful up there, you get clear skies and then all of a sudden you see this thing zipping through the sky, that stopped on a dime, goes straight up, takes off again, stops, comes back. We’re talking incredible speeds,” said DePerno, a retired police detective. “With the COVID thing, more people are looking up.” The seeming uptick in reports has come as a relief to some who say they’ve seen mysterious floating craft but feared they were alone. “Because of the Pentagon being outed, there is more news now, there is more reporting now,” said Stringfellow, who goes by Cookie. “People aren’t so afraid to say, ‘Oh, jeez, I was in the woods now, or I was by the lake, and this thing came down.’” But for a 65-year-old retired New York State Park Police officer from Granville (along the state border with Vermont) who asked not to be named because he worried about going public with his belief in UFOs and extraterrestrial life, full acceptance still feels a ways off. The lingering fear of ridicule may be suppressing the true numbers of UFO sightings, he suggested; there might, in fact, be more out there. He urged city folks to stay calm should they see a UFO, just as he did one evening about 30 years ago, when, he said, he spotted a football-fields-long object floating beside the Taconic State Parkway as he finished a patrol shift. And most important, he said, people should not let fear of being mocked prevent them from reporting what they see. If enough people report UFOs when they see them, he said, the world will believe they are telling the truth. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. © 2021 The New York Times Company
- USA TODAY
Filipino man dies after being forced to perform hundreds of squats for breaking COVID-19 curfew near Manila
Philippine authorities are investigating the death of a man forced to perform nearly 300 squats after officials say he broke COVID-19 curfew rules.