Daily News Digest: Recent Episodes
Tipping Point
During his first week on the Supreme Court, Justice Neil Gorsuch will deal with an important case about the separation of church and state that has its roots on a Midwestern church playground. On Wednesday, the justices will hear a Missouri church’s challenge to its exclusion from a state program that provides money to use ground-up tires to cushion playgrounds. Missouri is among roughly three dozen states with constitutions that explicitly prohibit using public money to aid a religious institution, a more severe boundary than the U.S. Constitution draws. Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Mo., says its exclusion is discrimination that violates its religious freedom under the U.S. Constitution.
It’s been nearly a year since Prince died from an accidental drug overdose at his suburban Minneapolis recording studio and estate, yet investigators still haven’t interviewed a key associate or asked a grand jury to consider whether criminal charges are warranted, according to an official with knowledge of the investigation. Dozens of counterfeit pills were found during a search of Paisley Park, including at least one that tested positive for fentanyl. Yet authorities still don’t know the origin of those drugs, and there has been no indication that they are poised to hold anyone responsible anytime soon.
Turkey’s main opposition party on Monday prepared to contest the results of a landmark referendum that gave a narrow victory to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s long-time plans to greatly expand the powers of his office. Turkey’s electoral board confirmed the “yes” victory in Sunday’s referendum and said the final results would be declared in 11-12 days. Opposition parties complained of a number of irregularities in the voting, including an electoral board decision to accept as valid ballots that did not bear the official stamp.
Boston Celtics star Isaiah Thomas, playing just one day after his 22-year-old sister, Chyna Thomas, was killed in a car crash, led his team with 33 points in a 106-102 loss to the Chicago Bulls on Sunday night. Celtics fans rallied behind Thomas, showering him with a deafening cheer when he was introduced. Thomas appeared to be a little emotional at the start of the game, badly missing his first free throw short off the front rim.
Vice President Mike Pence expressed impatience with the speed and willingness of North Korea to move toward ridding itself of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles during a meeting on Monday with reporters near the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea. Pence, who has called the North’s failed missile test a day earlier “a provocation,” said the U.S. and its allies will achieve their objectives through “peaceable means or ultimately by whatever means are necessary” to protect South Korea and stabilize the region. Pointing to the quarter-century since North Korea first obtained nuclear weapons, the vice president said a period of patience followed. “But the era of strategic patience is over,” Pence said.
Shortly after wishing everyone a “Happy Easter” on Twitter Sunday morning President Donald Trump hit back at nationwide protests calling for him to release his tax returns, questioning “who paid for” the “small” rallies. His messages came after thousands of protesters gathered Saturday in cities across the nation to pressure the president to release his tax returns, a move of transparency he has repeatedly rejected. The demonstrations were timed to coincide with the traditional April 15 deadline for annual tax filings and resulted in dozens of arrests.
The eighth installment in the “Fast and the Furious” had the roads to itself and inched past the $100 million benchmark on American screens and roared to record global revenues of more than a half-billion dollars, industry analysts estimated Sunday. Numbers have yet to be released, but based on earlier estimates, the action-thriller is poised to pass the previous world record of $529 million set by “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” However domestically, there are indications that a franchise has crested. “The Fate of the Furious” had an impressive turnout, but was still a steep drop from “Furious 7’s” $147.2 million kick-off. The seventh installment had a groundswell of additional interest since it served as a sort of memorial for actor Paul Walker who passed away before the film’s debut. The latest film also had to contend with reports of off-screen tension between actors Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson that undermined one of the franchise’s key selling points — that these films are celebrations of family and brotherhood. Both stars steered clear of each other at the picture’s New York premiere and Diesel’s attempt to brush aside the reports of a beef between the actors left something to be desired.
A Cairo court acquitted an Egyptian-American woman and seven others on Sunday that worked with street children and had been detained for nearly three years on human trafficking charges, in a case that had raised concerns in Washington. Supporters broke into applause as the judge announced that Aya Hejazi, her husband Mohamed Hassanein and six others were found not guilty on charges including human trafficking, sexually exploiting children and failure to properly register a non-governmental organization. Hejazi, who co-founded a charity which helps Cairo street children, was arrested in May 2014 and has been in jail pending the outcome of the trial.
The United States slammed North Korea’s latest missile test as a provocation and insisted Sunday it is working closely with China to resolve a crisis that Washington sees as reaching a critical stage. Vice President Mike Pence, who arrived in South Korea on Sunday for talks on curbing the North’s weapons programs, was flying over the Bering Sea when the missile exploded during its launch on Sunday, U.S. officials said. Although the North did not conduct a nuclear test as expected, the missile launch failure came amid high tensions as the North attempted to showcase its military capabilities during the birth anniversary of the its late founder and as a U.S. aircraft carrier neared the Korean Peninsula.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared victory in Sunday’s referendum that will grant sweeping powers to the presidency, but the knife-edge result left the country bitterly divided with the opposition crying foul. The ‘Yes’ campaign won 51.3 percent of the vote against 48.7 percent for 'No’, the election commission said in figures quoted by state news agency Anadolu. Opponents fear the constitutional changes will concentrate too much power in the hands of a man they allege has shown increasingly autocratic tendencies. Turkey’s two main opposition parties have said they would challenge the results after alleged violations. The referendum campaign was divisive and heavily one-sided, with the “yes” side dominating the airwaves and billboards across the country. Supporters of the “no” vote have complained of intimidation, including beatings, detentions and threats.
Polling stations for Turkey’s historic referendum opened Sunday, when voters are set to decide on the future of their country: Whether to approve or reject reforms that would concentrate power in the hands of the president. If the “yes” vote prevails, the 18 constitutional changes will convert Turkey’s system of government from parliamentary to presidential, abolish the office of the prime minister and grant extensive executive powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan, who called the referendum and has championed the “yes” campaign, says the proposed “Turkish style” presidential system will ensure the country no longer risks having weak governments, and insists the stability will lead to a long period of prosperity.
Uber hasn’t been able to stop ploughing through cash, and the ride-hailing company lost $2.8 billion in 2016, excluding its China business, according to newly-released numbers published in Bloomberg. Factoring in its China subsidiary, which it sold in July, the number is likely greater than $US3 billion for the year. Uber released its numbers to the public for the first time ever on Friday to show that its sales growth has remained strong even as it entered a tumultuous 2017.
DNA evidence and an attentive state trooper helped find the man authorities believe killed a New York City woman last summer who was out jogging near her mother’s Massachusetts home, authorities said Saturday. The body of 27-year-old Vanessa Marcotte was found Aug. 7 in some woods about a half-mile from her mother’s house, where the young woman was visiting family. Marcotte, who worked as an account manager for Google in New York, had gone out to run several hours earlier.
About 200 people were at Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park when several fights broke out between groups of supporters and detractors of President Donald Trump holding rallies in downtown, authorities said. At least 20 people were arrested. Dozens of police officers in riot gear standing nearby quickly arrested one man. Others were arrested after several skirmishes. The trouble unfolded when hundreds of Trump opponents staged a counter-rally alongside an event billed as a “Patriots Day” free speech rally and picnic, organized by mostly Trump supporters.Between 500 and 1,000 people were in park as the rallies peaked.
A North Korean missile exploded during launch on Sunday, U.S. and South Korean officials said, a high-profile failure that comes as a powerful U.S. aircraft supercarrier approaches the Korean Peninsula in a show of force. It wasn’t immediately clear what kind of missile was test-fired from the east coast city of Sinpo. But the failure will sting in Pyongyang because it comes a day after one of the biggest North Korean propaganda events of the year— celebrations of the 105th birthday of late North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, the current leader’s grandfather.
Before an online audience of more than a million viewers, April the giraffe gave birth to a calf Saturday at a New York zoo — Animal Adventure Park — ending weeks of proverbial pacing by animal lovers in a virtual worldwide waiting room. The 15-year-old giraffe tenderly licked her calf, which began to slowly pick its head up from the floor of the pen. About 45 minutes after it was born, the calf stood on its wobbly legs for the first time, while mom helped keep her baby steady. This is April’s fourth calf, but Animal Adventure Park’s first giraffe calf.
Thousands of protesters at Tax Day marches today in cities from Washington, D.C., to Denver to Los Angeles are calling are on President Trump to release his tax returns. The protests were timed to coincide with the traditional April 15 deadline for U.S. tax filings (though this year the deadline falls on April 18). Organizers said Saturday’s protests, dubbed the Tax March, were scheduled in nearly 150 cities, and stemmed from the women’s march that took place the day after Trump’s inauguration.
Coachella, the music festival that attracts many of our favorite celebrities, got off to a rocky start Friday in Indio, Calif. Headliner Radiohead ran into technical difficulties. Fan video showed that the glitches started just three songs into its set, while Radiohead performed “15 Step.” The band’s audience — including the millions tuning in to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on a live stream — couldn’t hear the last two minutes of the song. Radiohead was forced to stop its show four times and even leave the stage twice.
Breaking with the practice of President Trump’s predecessor, the White House is keeping secret the lists of visitors to the building. The Trump administration cited privacy and national security concerns on Friday with senior officials arguing that the decision to keep the logs secret is in line with what previous administrations have done, except for President Barack Obama’s. White House communications director Michael Dubke said Trump has taken steps to improve the ethical climate in Washington and said the decision was based on the “grave national security risks and privacy concerns of the hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.”
A bomb blast hit a bus convoy waiting to cross into government-held Aleppo in Syria on Saturday, killing at least 100, including children, government supporters and opposition fighters, at an evacuation point — adding new urgency to the widely criticized operation. The blast ripped through the al-Rashideen area where thousands of government loyalists evacuated the day before waited restlessly for hours, as opposition fighters guarded the area while negotiators bickered over the completion of the transfer deal. Only meters away, hundreds of evacuees from pro-rebels areas also loitered in a walled-off parking lot, guarded by government troops.
The number of militants killed in an attack by the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat by the U.S. military has risen to 94, an Afghan official said Saturday. Ataullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor in Nangarhar, said the number of Islamic State group dead was up from the 36 reported a day earlier. A Ministry of Defense official had said Friday the number of dead could rise as officials assessed the bomb site in Achin district.The U.S. attack on a tunnel complex in remote eastern Nangarhar province near the Pakistan border killed at least four IS group leaders, Khogyani said. He said a clearance operation to assess the site of the attack was continuing.
Apple Inc has secured a permit to test autonomous vehicles in California, fueling speculation that it is working on self-driving car technology in a crowded arena of companies hoping to offer those cars to the masses. The permit allows it to conduct test drives in three vehicles with six drivers, the state Department of Motor Vehicles said on Friday. The vehicles are all 2015 Lexus RX450h, according to the DMV. Although it has never openly acknowledged it is looking into building an electric car, Apple has recruited dozens of auto experts in recent years, and the permit pulls the curtain back a bit on any possible plan.
Washington churches have long welcomed presidents to their pews. Bill Clinton frequented a Methodist church, Jimmy Carter taught Baptist Sunday school and Barack Obama visited an Episcopal church near the White House. As Easter Sunday arrives, President Donald Trump has not attended a church service in the capital since the worship events of his inauguration weekend. Trump is spending the holiday at his private Palm Beach club, Mar-a-Lago, where he often weekends. The White House would not say if he’d go to Easter services, but last year he attended the nearby Episcopalian church where he and Melania Trump were married.
Quiet remembrances have been planned Saturday to remember the victims of the deadly Boston Marathon attacks on April 15 2013. Three spectators were killed and more than 260 others wounded when two bombs planted near the finish line exploded on April 15, 2013, spraying shrapnel into the crowds. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer also was killed later while struggling with the bombers as they tried to steal his gun. Bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in an ensuing standoff with police. His younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was convicted on federal charges and sentenced to death. The attacks have inspired several movies, including the Mark Wahlberg film “Patriots Day.” On the eve of the anniversary, volunteers planted thousands of daffodils along the marathon course in solidarity.
North Korea rolled out intercontinental ballistic missiles and other military hardware at a massive parade on Saturday to celebrate the birthday of the country’s late founder, as third-generation leader Kim Jong Un looked on in delight. State television showed Kim, wearing a black suit and white shirt, stepping out of a limousine and saluting his honor guard before walking down a red carpet. Ostensibly the event is to mark the 105th anniversary of the birth of Kim’s grandfather, it is also intended to send an unmistakable message to Washington about the isolated, nuclear-armed North’s military might.
U.S. authorities have charged a Detroit doctor with performing genital mutilation on 7-year-old girls in what is believed to be the first case brought under a law prohibiting the procedure. Jumana Nagarwala, an emergency room physician at a Detroit hospital, faces a maximum life sentence for female genital mutilation (FGM), which typically involves the partial or total removal of the clitoris and is barred by numerous international treaties. Common in several African countries, where it is often a cultural or religious tradition, the practice has been outlawed in the U.S. since 1996.
Ex-NFL star Aaron Hernandez, who is already serving a life sentence for a 2013 murder, was acquitted Friday for a 2012 double slaying that prosecutors said was fueled by his anger over a spilled drink. After six days of deliberations, the jury found the former New England Patriots tight end not guilty of first-degree murder in the killings of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado. It convicted him of a single charge: unlawful possession of a gun. The judge sentenced him to an additional four to five years in prison, separate from his existing sentence.
An investigation into an elite Connecticut boarding school revealed former faculty members engaged in sexual misconduct with students that went on for decades, according to a report released Thursday. An investigator hired by Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford released the information, which graphically recounts the alleged experiences of 24 former students that took place between 1963 and 2010. The report notes that in some cases the school acted quickly in response to the alleged sexual misconduct, but in other instances it did not.
The Syrian government and rebels evacuated thousands of people from four besieged towns Friday in the latest coordinated population transfer in the country’s six-year-long civil war. The deal to evacuate the towns has been touted by the government as the best way to end the fighting, but rebels say residents are forced out by siege and bombardment. Men, women and children packed onto buses leaving government-controlled Fuaa and Kafraya and rebel-held Madaya and Zabadani, with many expressing despair at not knowing when they might return.
The Trump administration has settled on its North Korean strategy after a two-month review: “maximum pressure and engagement.” U.S. officials said Friday the president’s advisers weighed a range of ideas for how to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear program, but noted the administration’s emphasis will be on increasing pressure on Pyongyang with the help of China, North Korea’s dominant trade and military partner. The new strategy will be deployed at a time of escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula. U.S., South Korean and other officials are closely monitoring the North amid indications it could conduct another missile test or nuclear explosion to coincide with an important national anniversary this weekend.
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner are formally calling it quits. After announcing their separation in June 2015, the couple have now filed for divorce. Affleck and Garner have filed “pro per,” without legal representation, and filed both the petition and response — which mirror each other exactly — together. The pair are seeking joint legal and physical custody of their three children, but did not specify anything about spousal support. The move comes just a few weeks after Affleck announced that he had completed rehab for alcohol addiction. According to TMZ, which first reported the news, Affleck and Garner did not sign a prenuptial agreement, indicating that all earnings during their marriage, which began in June 2005 and lasted for 10 years before announcing their separation, would be split 50/50 unless another agreement is reached. They are also said to still be in the process of negotiating a financial settlement and could finalize the divorce in the next six months.
According to the New York Post, New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning was involved in a scheme with the team’s equipment manager to sell fake gear that could be advertised as “game used.” The Post obtained court papers that show Manning sending an email to Joe Skiba, the team’s equipment manager, asking for “helmets that can pass as game used,” an email that Manning was forced to turn over last week in connection to a civil racketeering suit.
As the holiday weekend approaches, more than 150 local, state, and federal law enforcement officers are searching for Joseph Allen Jakubowski, who allegedly stole numerous weapons from a Wisconsin gun store and then mailed an anti-government manifesto to the White House, as well as a separate letter threatening attacks on churches on Easter Sunday. Authorities said the letter mentions the Sussex area about 25 miles northwest of Milwaukee, but added that the authenticity of the letter is in question. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has canceled his annual Easter egg hunt, which had been scheduled for Saturday, out of concerns about safety.
The Coachella festival kicks off Friday with performances from Lady Gaga and Kendrick Lamar, drawing its highest-ever attendance as it weathers growing competition in the live music world. In one sign that the sold-out festival has succeeded in preserving its buzz, leading ticket reseller StubHub said that passes for the first weekend were 60 percent more expensive than a year ago. In a performance that would have stirred major attention, Beyoncé was scheduled to play her only 2017 show at Coachella both Saturdays — while expecting twins. The increasingly experimental diva bowed out on doctors’ advice but was replaced by another top pop figure: Lady Gaga. Staying true to Coachella’s alternative roots, Radiohead will play Friday, the third time the arthouse English rockers will be a headliner. With Lady Gaga, Coachella will ensure it has a female headliner for the first time since Björk in 2007.
North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Han Song Ryol on Friday blamed President Trump for escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula through his tweets and expansion of military exercises, saying the U.S. was becoming “more vicious and more aggressive” under his leadership than it had been under President Barack Obama. Tensions are deepening as the U.S. has sent an aircraft carrier to waters off the peninsula and is conducting its biggest-ever joint military exercises with South Korea. Pyongyang, meanwhile, recently launched a ballistic missile, and some experts say it could conduct another nuclear test at virtually any time.
At least 97 African migrants are missing and believed drowned after their Europe-bound boat sank in the Mediterranean Sea on Thursday, the Libyan coast guard said. Spokesman Ayoub Gassim said the guard had rescued 23 migrants from the disaster, just off the coast of Tripoli. The boat’s hull was completely destroyed, and the survivors, all men, were found clinging to a flotation device, he said.
Fast-food chain Burger King unveiled an ad Wednesday designed to trigger Google Home devices to search for “Whopper” on Google and read out the finding from Wikipedia. But it resulted in users’ describing BK’s Whopper sandwich in some less-than-flattering terms and raised questions about whether marketing tactics have become too invasive. Because Wikipedia can be edited by users, within the first few hours of the ad’s release the Whopper’s definition had been changed to include items like “cyanide” as an ingredient.
The Canadian government introduced a bill on Thursday that puts the country on track to legalize recreational marijuana by July 2018, with plans to regulate production but leave the oversight of retail sales up to the provinces. Although medical marijuana use has been regulated in Canada since 2001, cannabis remains a controlled substance. The stated aim of legalization is to reduce policing and prosecutions, and keep marijuana out of the hands of children.
“Survivor” contestant Zeke Smith was outed as transgender by fellow competitor Jeff Varner on Wednesday night’s episode of the CBS reality competition. The incident sparked online criticism and condemnation by a major LGBT rights group. Varner had made accusations of “a deception” before revealing that Smith is transgender. Varner was immediately criticized by the other players. He repeatedly apologized, calling his actions a “mistake” and saying he’s “deeply saddened,” but he was voted out of the competition. “Survivor” host Jeff Probst added to the opprobrium against Varner.
The U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State on Thursday denied a Syrian army report it had carried out an airstrike that had hit poison gas supplies belonging to ISIS and caused the deaths of hundreds of people. The army’s statement appeared to be the Syrian regime’s effort to pin the blame of last week’s chemical attacks on Syrian rebels and jihadists. The statement circulated by state media said the alleged incident took place late on Wednesday in the eastern Deir al-Zor province and proved that ISIS and al- Qaida-linked militants “possess chemical weapons.” Syria and its ally Russia have both denied any part in the attacks, and have pointed the finger at Syrian rebels. In his first interview since the attacks, Syrian President Bashar Assad said they were “100 percent” a “fabrication,” suggesting fake videos may be to blame for images of dead children.
Dwyane Wade is going back to the playoffs. The Miami Heat aren’t going with him. The field for the NBA postseason is set, with Wade and the Chicago Bulls claiming one of the last two available spots on the final night of the regular season. The other went to the Indiana Pacers, who downed the Atlanta Hawks. The Bulls and Pacers winning eliminated the Heat, who finished 41-41 after beating Washington. Miami was 11-30 in the first half of the season, then 30-11 in the second half of the season.
Customers armed with smartphones and video cameras are watching when corporate America messes up. The viral video of a ticketed passenger dragged off a United flight is only the latest example of bad behavior exposed in the age of social media. In February, Uber came under fire after a driver posted video of CEO Travis Kalanick berating him. Earlier, a Comcast technician was shown in a video sleeping on a customer’s couch. They are among the embarrassing customer complaints that ultimately forced improvements. Not long ago, such incidents might have gotten a mention on the local news at most, but smartphone cameras and social media have democratized information and shifted power to consumers.
Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred has made his strongest comments on wanting the Cleveland Indians to eradicate their Chief Wahoo logo. Manfred has been in talks with Indians owner Paul Dolan about abolishing the divisive symbol, which has sparked debate for decades. In the past, Manfred has only gone as far as saying he understood why many people find the logo offensive. Now, Manfred appears to be pressuring the Indians, who have reduced Wahoo’s visibility in recent years, to make more significant changes.
In the hierarchy of dietary fats, trans fats are the worst for your health. Just like saturated fat, trans fats have been found to increase levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol. But trans-fats consumption also has the effect of lowering levels of HDL—the good cholesterol. And the health risks don’t stop there. Trans fats have also been linked to heart attacks, strokes, type 2 diabetes, inflammation, and even problems with memory and cognitive function. Local bans on artery-clogging trans fats in restaurant foods led to fewer heart attacks and strokes in several New York counties, a study published Wednesday in JAMA Cardiology suggests.
President Trump has a new best friend. On Wednesday, Trump, who admitted being “very impressed” with Chinese President Xi Jinping, spoke glowingly of their personal connection that he said had developed during the two days of the Chinese leader’s visit last weekend in Florida. Trump and Xi also talked by phone Tuesday on the simmering topic of nuclear weapons in North Korea. And, in a big change from his campaign rhetoric, Trump said he would reverse his previous pledge to label China a currency manipulator, which had been a cornerstone of his argument that China was cheating the U.S. and depriving American workers of jobs.
Comedian Charlie Murphy has died after battling leukemia. He was 57. The successful standup comic and former star of “Chappelle’s Show” was also the older brother of comedic legend Eddie Murphy. He was perhaps best known for his “C! True Hollywood Stories” sketches on Dave Chappelle’s mid-2000s Comedy Central show, where the two of them hilariously reenacted experiences the Murphy brothers had had with celebrities, including the late Prince and Rick James. The Brooklyn native also co-wrote and acted in some of his brother’s movies, including the 2007 comedy “Norbit.” After news broke of his passing, other comedians and actors took to social media to pay their respects.
Former reality TV stars Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt are expecting their first child. The couple tells Us Weekly that Montag is 12 weeks along and the baby is due Oct. 19. Montag says she’s glad she and Pratt took their time before trying to conceive. The 30-year-old says she thought she was ready in her 20s, but both of their work obligations at the time meant it “wouldn’t have been a good situation.”
Millions of shoelaces come unfurled every day, and yet the mechanics of that process has never been thoroughly examined. To tackle the enigma, a trio of mechanical engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, filmed a knot — on the shoe of a researcher running on a treadmill — coming undone in extreme slow motion. The images suggested a two-pronged attack on the knot’s integrity. “When running, your foot strikes the ground at seven times the force of gravity,” which stretches and relaxes the knot, said co-author Christine Gregg, a graduate student. And then — as the knot relaxes — the legs swing into motion, applying additional force.
Russia blocked a Western effort at the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday to condemn last week’s deadly gas attack in Syria and push Moscow ally President Bashar Assad to cooperate with international inquiries into the incident. Last week’s toxic assault prompted the U.S. to launch missile strikes on a Syrian air base and widened a rift between the U.S. and Russia. Western powers blame Syria for the attack, and some U.S. officials have floated allegations that Russia may have been complicit. Syria denies it poisoned its own civilians, and Russia has maintained that Syrian rebels are to blame. But Britain said its scientists found sarin was used in the attack, which killed 87 civilians, adding they believe Assad is responsible. The U.S.’s U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, warned Russia against protecting the Syrian regime.
President Trump has done an about-face on NATO, the military alliance he once dismissed as ineffective. He said at a White House news conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg that the organization is “no longer obsolete.” Trump thanked NATO members for their support of his decision last Thursday to launch 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack on civilians, and said it was time to end Syria’s civil war. As a candidate, Trump said the 28-member organization had outlived its usefulness. Since taking office, he has repeatedly said NATO members still need to pay their fair share for Europe’s security umbrella. If they “pay their fair share rather than relying on the U.S. to make up the difference, we will all be much more secure,” Trump said on Wednesday. Stoltenberg said he had an excellent and productive meeting in the Oval Office with Trump.
A Florida state prosecutor removed from 23 murder cases by Gov. Rick Scott for refusing to consider the death penalty on Tuesday filed federal and state lawsuits seeking to reverse his order as unconstitutional. Aramis Ayala, who took office in January as state attorney for the 9th Judicial District in central Florida, covering Orange and Osceola Counties, said last month that she would not seek the death penalty in those murder cases, one of which involved the killing of an Orlando police officer. In the state suit as well as one filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Ayala claimed that Scott acted against the state constitution in not allowing her the discretion to decide how she wants to run the prosecutor’s office.
LeBron James understands what it’s like being a kid on the outside looking for hope — and now he’s giving them some. James, who has been committed to helping kids in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, through a variety of educational programs, is teaming up with the local public schools to open the I Promise School, dedicated to aiding at-risk children who might otherwise be left behind. The school will be backed by James’ family foundation.
Another “Great Spot” has been found at Jupiter, this one cold and high up. A group of British scientists reported Tuesday that the dark expanse is 15,000 miles across and 7,500 miles wide. It’s in the upper atmosphere and much cooler than its hot surroundings, thus the name Great Cold Spot. And unlike the giant planet’s familiar Great Red Spot, this newly discovered weather system is continually changing in shape and size. It’s formed by the energy from Jupiter’s polar auroras. Scientists will be on the lookout for other features in Jupiter’s upper atmosphere while also studying the Great Cold Spot in greater detail, using ground telescopes as well as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Juno spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter.
David Letterman’s mother, Dorothy Mengering, a Midwestern homemaker who became an unlikely celebrity in her 70s as she baked mystery pies and covered the Olympics for her son’s late-night show, has died. She was 95, Letterman’s publicist confirmed Tuesday.
The FBI obtained a secret court order last summer to monitor the communications of Carter Page, an adviser to then-candidate Donald Trump. The Washington Post, citing law enforcement and other U.S. officials, said Tuesday that the government surveillance application laid out the basis for believing that Page had knowingly engaged in intelligence activities on Russia’s behalf. The application includes contacts that Page had with a Russian intelligence operative in 2013. The contacts are detailed in a 2015 court filing involving a case against three men charged in connection with a Cold War-style Russian spying ring. Allegedly, Page provided one of the men with documents about the energy industry.
The chief executive of United Airlines issued another apology on Tuesday amid a firestorm of criticism sparked by the forcible removal of a passenger from an overbooked flight. Videos showed the man, later identified as a Kentucky doctor, being dragged from his seat by Chicago police before a Sunday evening flight from Chicago to Louisville. According to passengers, United staffers boarded the plane, and after no one accepted their request to voluntarily give up their seats for four crew members, the airline said a computer would select people. The man refused to leave, which led to security personnel violently dragging him from his seat.
A Democratic civil rights attorney running in the nation’s first congressional election since President Trump’s November victory has made the race surprisingly competitive for a Kansas House seat held by a Republican for more than two decades. The special election Tuesday between Democrat James Thompson and Republican Ron Estes to fill the seat vacated by CIA Director Mike Pompeo is being watched across the nation for signs of a backlash against Republicans or waning support from Trump voters. The president won 60 percent of the ballots cast in the 17-county congressional district that includes Wichita, the state’s largest city. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have both recorded get-out-the-vote calls on behalf of Estes, the state’s treasurer.
Toshiba Corp. filed twice-delayed business results on Tuesday without an endorsement from its auditor and warned its very survival was in doubt, deepening a prolonged crisis at the Japanese conglomerate. “There are material events and conditions that raise substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern,” Toshiba said in announcing losses for the nine months through December that were bigger than previously estimated. The filing carried a disclaimer from auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers Aarata that it was unable to form an opinion of the results, increasing the likelihood that shares in the company — whose products include computer chips and household appliances — will be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The move would be a first for a major Tokyo-based firm, and puts the stock exchange center stage as it weighs the pros and cons of forcing Toshiba to delist.
An influential U.S. government advisory panel is dropping its opposition to routine prostate cancer screening in favor of letting men decide for themselves after talking with their doctor. The new draft guidelines released Tuesday echo those of several leading medical groups, but they don’t make the decision any easier for men: With their doctor’s help, they would have to choose whether to take an imperfect PSA test that has a small chance of detecting a deadly cancer and a larger chance of triggering unneeded worry and treatment with serious side effects. “This isn’t a one-size-fits-all” recommendation, said the panel’s chair, Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, a San Francisco internist who already follows the advice and discusses the potential pros and cons with her patients. Men whose greatest concern is reducing their chances of dying of cancer are sometimes willing to face the consequences and choose testing.
The U.S. is looking into whether Russia was complicit in an alleged chemical weapons attack on civilians by the Syrian military but has not yet made a determination, a senior administration official said Tuesday. Last week’s nerve gas attack, which killed 87 people, many of them children — and Russia’s allegation that rebels and not Damascus were responsible — have chilled U.S. relations with Moscow after a presidential campaign during which President Trump frequently called for an alliance with Russia to fight the Islamic State. Earlier, senior White House officials accused Russia having prior knowledge of the attack, citing Syrian and Russian planes in the area before it happened, and said Moscow was trying to deflect blame from Syrian President Bashar Assad. On Tuesday, however, White House spokesman Sean Spicer stopped short of accusing Russia of collusion with Syria.
The Lower Colorado River topped this year’s list of the 10 rivers most in danger from pollution and environmental degradation, and river advocates are calling on the Trump administration to not undo protections put in place under President Obama. The river is a key resource for agriculture in America’s Southwest, and it also provides drinking water to one in 10 Americans, including those in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix. So much water is drawn along the way for agricultural, industrial, municipal and recreational purposes that it dries up before it reaches its natural mouth in the Gulf of California.
Pitchers dream of no-hitters and perfect games, but generally take whatever they get in the batter’s box. San Francisco Giants pitcher Matt Moore had a pretty average day at the plate on Monday, finishing 0-for-2, with a strikeout and one RBI, against the Arizona Diamondbacks. While that’s pretty average for a pitcher, what the box scores doesn’t show is the remarkable play that left him safe at first with three runs scoring on a ball that rolled just 25 feet.
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley has resigned following allegations that he used state resources to cover up an affair he was having with one of his top aides, 45-year-old political adviser Rebekah Caldwell Mason. Bentley, 74, was booked into a Montgomery County Jail Monday on charges of failing to file a major contribution report and knowingly converting campaign funds to personal use. He pleaded guilty in an agreement with prosecutors to two misdemeanor campaign violations and is barred from seeking public office again. The relationship between Bentley and his married aide became a topic of speculation in 2015, when his wife of 50 years, Dianne, abruptly filed for divorce.
Scientists have now spent some time watching the daily lives of whales, and their findings reveal a highly social animal that eats at night and must blow hard to clear sea ice to breathe. As part of a study to better understand the creatures, tiny cameras and electronic tags were attached to humpbacks. The cameras were attached by suction cups to each whale for between 24 and 48 hours before they fell off and were retrieved and reused.
A meeting of the “like-minded” countries was hastily arranged on the sidelines of a Group of 7 industrialized economies in Italy, days after the U.S. for the first time launched airstrikes against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces. It came hours before U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was to make a tense trip to Moscow to press Russia’s leaders to finally abandon their support for Assad. Diplomats gathered in Italy as U.S. officials in Washington floated the possibility of new sanctions on the Syrian and Russian military, plus the threat of additional U.S. military action if Assad’s government continues attacking civilians.
A celebrity once beloved among young people now finds himself on a list of books parents and other community members most wish to see removed from libraries: Bill Cosby’s “Little Bill Books” series is among those making the American Library Association’s annual top 10 “challenged books.” The ALA said the books’ challenge is unique for the list in that they are challenged not for their content, but for the multiple accusations of sexual assault against the actor-comedian. James LaRue, who directs the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, said he would have a two-part defense if a parent objected to a library’s carrying the books.
Severe coral bleaching events back to back have damaged about two-thirds of the Great Barrier Reef, scientists revealed on Monday. Aerial surveys by the Australian Research Council’s Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies revealed the scale of the destruction after global warming-induced rises to sea surface temperatures have caused “unprecedented” damage. The bleaching happens when corals under stress drive out the algae known as zooxanthellae, which give them color. Also, Cyclone Debbie added to the human and economic toll of coral reef destruction. The damage, caused when the intense, slow-moving cyclone system struck a healthier section of the reef, outweighed any potential beneficial cooling effect.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is ending an Obama-era partnership with independent scientists that aimed to improve the reliability of forensic science. Sessions said Monday that the Department of Justice will not renew the National Commission on Forensic Science, a panel of judges, defense attorneys and law enforcement officials that advises the attorney general on the use of scientific evidence in the criminal justice process. The department will instead appoint an adviser on forensic science and conduct a broad assessment of the equipment and personnel needs of overloaded crime labs.
Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors surpassed General Motors on Monday to become America’s most valuable carmaker, eclipsing a company whose well-being was once viewed as interdependent with the nation’s. Tesla climbed as much as 3.4 percent in early trading, boosting its market capitalization to about $51 billion — valuing the company about $1.7 billion more than GM.
President Trump is open to authorizing additional strikes on Syria if the use of chemical weapons continues in the country, the White House said on Monday, as a senior official confirmed the U.S. concluded Russia knew about the attack in advance. In a shift in Washington’s strategy, U.S. missiles hit a Syrian air base last week in retaliation for what the U.S. and its allies say was a poison gas attack by Syria’s military in which scores of civilians died. The Syrian government has denied it was behind the assault and Russia has maintained that a Syrian plane hit a storage unit belonging to extremists who were housing chemical weapons. The official said a Russian-operated drone flew over a hospital in Syria as victims of the attack were rushing to get treatment. Hours after the drone left, a Russian-made fighter jet bombed the hospital in what American officials believe was an attempt to cover up the use of chemical weapons. Until Monday, U.S. officials had said they weren’t sure if the drone was operated by Russia or Syria. The senior official said it still wasn’t clear who was flying the jet that bombed the hospital.
The airlines are getting better at sticking to their schedules and are losing fewer bags. Their customers seem to be complaining less often. Those are the findings of an annual report on airline quality being released Monday by researchers at Wichita State University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. The researchers use information compiled by the U.S. Department of Transportation to rate the airlines for on-time performance, baggage handling, bumping passengers off oversold flights, and complaints filed with the government.
First, Russell Westbrook broke Oscar Robertson’s record for most triple-doubles in a season. Then, he broke the Denver Nuggets’ hearts. Westbrook’s 36-foot dagger at the buzzer gave Oklahoma City a 106-105 victory, eliminating the Nuggets from playoff contention and capping a historic Sunday afternoon in which he scored 50 points to go with 16 rebounds and 10 assists. Westbrook’s 42nd triple-double is one more than the Robertson had for the Cincinnati Royals in 1961-62, a mark that many in the NBA had considered unbreakable until Westbrook’s incredible run.
Sergio García, the onetime teen prodigy whose career has been defined by what he hasn’t done rather than what he has, finally captured his first major on Sunday afternoon. García shot a 69 and outdueled Justin Rose in a playoff, coming from two strokes behind with five holes to play to claim a late victory. García battled both the course and his own demons, pulling himself back upright after what should have been a Masters-killing disaster in Amen Corner, and can now take his place among the game’s winners. García is the third Spanish golfer to win the Masters, behind Seve Ballesteros (1980 and 1983) and Jose María Olazábal (1994 and 1999).
Somewhere between the Republican caricature of the next justice of the Supreme Court as a folksy family guy and the Democrats’ demonization of him as a cold-hearted automaton, stands Neil Gorsuch. That man, a 49-year-old appeals court judge from Colorado, will join the Supreme Court today and fill the vacancy left by Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February 2016. And he will be seated in time to hear one of the biggest cases of the term: a religious rights dispute over a Missouri law that bars churches from receiving public funds for general aid programs.
In his first televised interview, President Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, left open the possibility of additional U.S. military action against Syria by urging Russia to re-evaluate its support for Syrian President Bashar Assad. He pointed to the dual U.S. goals of defeating the Islamic State group and removing Assad from power. He said Russia should also be asked how it didn’t know that Syria was planning a chemical attack since it had advisers at the Syrian airfield.
An American special forces soldier was killed while conducting operations against the Islamic State group in Afghanistan, the U.S. military said. The identity of the soldier, killed late on Saturday in Nangarhar Province, was not revealed. Nangarhar, which borders Pakistan, is a hotbed of ISIS militancy. U.S. forces have conducted a number of airstrikes on jihadist bases in the area since August last year.
The Smurfs are feeling a little blue this weekend after studio estimates on Sunday say the third installment in Sony’s animated series, “Smurfs: The Lost Village,” made its box-office debut in third place, with $14 million. The weekend belonged to family-friendly holdovers “The Boss Baby” and “Beauty and the Beast,” which took first and second place respectively. “The Boss Baby,” produced by DreamWorks Animation and featuring the voice of Alec Baldwin, has been a surprise success so far, with a $50 million launch weekend — one of the best ever for a comedy opening in the first quarter. It will wind up this weekend with nearly $90 million in its first 10 days.
Huge crowds gathered in Stockholm for a “Lovefest” vigil against terrorism on Sunday, two days after a truck attack that police believe was committed by an Uzbek man interested in jihadist groups. Thousands gathered in the spring sunshine near the site of Friday’s attack to show support for those killed or injured when a driver mowed down shoppers in a stolen beer delivery truck before slamming into a department store on Friday afternoon. Friday’s attack has deeply shocked the usually tranquil Scandinavian nation, which prides itself on its openness and tolerance.
On Sunday, the United States stepped up pressure on Russia to rein in Syrian President Bashar Assad, warning that any further chemical attacks would be “very damaging” to their relationship, but officials seemed divided on the Kremlin’s as well as Assad’s future. Moscow has sought to deflect blame from its long-time ally Assad over a chemical weapons attack in Syria that killed at least 87 people, including children. The presence of Russian advisers at the airfield used to launch the attack raised questions about how they could not have known about Syria’s chemical weapons. The stage seems set for a diplomatic confrontation in Moscow this week when U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for the first face-to-face meeting since U.S. cruise missiles slammed into a Syrian air base early Friday in retaliation for the suspected sarin gas attack. Still, Tillerson stopped short of accusing the Russians of complicity. Yet Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, overtly accused Russia of covering for Assad.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for bombing two Egyptian churches as worshippers gathered to mark Palm Sunday, killing at least 44 people in the deadliest attacks on the Coptic Christian minority in recent memory. The attacks followed a Cairo church bombing in December and came weeks before a planned visit by Catholic Pope Francis intended to show support for Egypt’s Christian minority. The first bombing, in Tanta, a city north of Cairo, tore through the inside of St. George Church during its Palm Sunday service, killing at least 27 people and injuring at least 78, the Ministry of Health said. The second, just a few hours later in Alexandria, hit Saint Mark’s Cathedral, the historic seat of the Coptic pope, killing 17 people, including three police officers, and injuring 48, the ministry added. ISIS said two of its fighters wearing suicide vests carried out the attacks, and it warned of more to come.
Recent high-profile advertising missteps by Pepsi and skin-care company Nivea underscored anew Madison Avenue’s awkward relationship with racial diversity at a time when the United States is becoming less white. PepsiCo’s ill-fated “Moments” spot, featuring model Kendall Jenner, was quickly pulled with an apology after being vilified for trivializing the “Black Lives Matter” movement. Nivea also apologized and withdrew an ad for a deodorant after its “White is Purity” pitch was embraced by white supremacists. Only 4.1 percent of advertising industry employees in the country are African Americans, well below their 13.3 percent of the overall population. Latinos account for 12.3 percent of the industry, compared with 17.6 percent of the population.
Alec Baldwin pulled double duty on Saturday Night Live’s April 8 episode, starring as Bill O'Reilly in his very own no-spin zone, in which he even interviewed himself in a split-screen appearance as Trump. Mocking the host for his recently resurfaced sexual harassment allegations, Baldwin’s version of O'Reilly kicked off his Fox News show by addressing “the scandal everyone’s been talking about all week,” he said, “the shocking allegations of abuse of power that have been leveled against … the Obama administration.” After trying to avoid the subject, he finally got to the allegations against him, and O'Reilly admitted he has also been in the news as “women have come forward … and accused me of offering them exciting opportunities here at Fox News.” One brave man, President Trump himself – played by Baldwin – appeared on the show to defend him once again. Comedian Louis C.K. hosted this week’s SNL, which was the first episode in three weeks. The brief hiatus gave the show plenty of material to hit the ground running when it came to lampooning American politics.
Cormier lived up to his words, defeating Johnson by second-round submission via rear-naked choke to retain the UFC light heavyweight championship. But the drama in the room was centered around former champion Jon Jones who is serving a one-year suspension for failing a drug test three days before his rematch with Cormier at UFC 200 back in July. Cormier knew Jones was in the building and had some pointed comments towards his rival. Up next at UFC 210, in the headlining bout on UFC Fight Pass, in lightweight action, Andrew Holbrook goes up against Gregor Gillespie. Don’t know what the judges were looking at in giving Emmett a round, much less the fight. Green’s striking was on point and controlled the fight throughout. Hopefully this isn’t a sign of things to come at UFC 210.
Norwegian police set off a controlled explosion of a “bomb-like device” in central Oslo early on Sunday and were holding a suspect in custody in an investigation led by security police. A Reuters reporter described a loud bang shortly after Oslo’s bomb squad arrived with a remote-controlled robot once the area was cordoned off by police late on Saturday night. “The noise from the blast was louder than our explosives themselves would cause,” a police spokesman said, adding that further investigation was needed to find out if the device had contained explosives. The device, about 30 cm (1 ft) across, had appeared to be capable of causing only a limited amount of damage. Forensics experts will examine fragments to figure out what it was.
The U.S. Navy said on Saturday it had sent a carrier-led strike group to the Korean peninsula in a show of force against North Korea’s “reckless” nuclear weapons program. North Korea’s recent ballistic missile tests and continued pursuit of a nuclear program have raised tensions in the region, where U.S. Navy ships are a common presence and serve in part as a show of force. However, the move by the U.S. will raise tensions in the region and comes hard on the heels of a US missile strike on Syria that was widely interpreted as putting Pyongyang on warning over its refusal to abandon its nuclear ambitions. North Korea denounced Thursday’s strike as an act of “intolerable aggression” and one that justified “a million times over” the North’s push toward a credible nuclear deterrent. Pyongyang is on a quest to develop a long-range missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland with a nuclear warhead, and has so far staged five nuclear tests, two of them last year.
A Georgia special congressional campaign has become an internal conservative squabble, with a national conservative group blasting a Republican establishment favorite as a big-spending “career politician,” while other GOP hopefuls argue over who’s most loyal to President Donald Trump. It’s enough to leave national Republicans nervous they could lose the traditionally conservative suburban Atlanta district where Trump underperformed, with any upset certain to embolden Democrats ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. All 11 Republican candidates vying to replace Tom Price, who resigned to serve as Trump’s health secretary, are looking up at Jon Ossoff, a 30-year-old Democrat who has raised at least $8.3 million.
Seattle rockers Pearl Jam, the late rapper Tupac Shakur and 1970s hitmaking band Journey were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Friday night. Joan Baez, Electric Light Orchestra and Yes were also part of the 2017 class inducted at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, which kicked off with a tribute to Chuck Berry. The new inductees closed the multi-hour event with a group performance, and before that Pearl Jam electrified with a performance of its well-known songs. David Letterman inducted the band, and brought a small guitar and letter onstage that he said Eddie Vedder gave to his son days before his late-night show ended in 2015.
Russell Westbrook joined Oscar Robertson as the only players in NBA history to average a triple-double for a season. That didn’t make him feel much better about his or his team’s awful Friday night, when Westbrook failed for the second game in a row to break Robertson’s 55-year-old, single-season record for most triple-doubles. The dynamic Thunder guard fell two assists shy of what would have been his 42nd in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 120-99 loss to the Phoenix Suns. Of averaging a triple-double for the season, Westbrook said, “You could never say in a million years that I would think that was even possible.” And as for not getting 10 assists?
Basque militant group ETA effectively ended an armed separatist campaign after almost half a century on Saturday, leading French authorities to the sites where it says its caches of weapons, explosives and ammunition are hidden. ETA, which killed more than 850 people in its attempt to carve out an independent state in northern Spain and southwest France, declared a ceasefire in 2011 but did not disarm. Founded in 1959 out of anger among Basques at political and cultural repression under General Francisco Franco, ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna - Basque Country and Freedom) gained notoriety as one of Europe’s most intractable separatist groups. The Spanish government said ETA’s handover of weapons in the French city of Bayonne was positive but insufficient and called on the group to formally dissolve and apologize to its victims.
President Donald Trump’s White House has been sharply divided by the rivalry between his powerful son-in-law with unfettered access to the president and the ideologue behind Trump’s populist rise. Senior adviser Jared Kushner and chief strategist Steve Bannon, arguably the two most influential voices in the West Wing, have clashed repeatedly in recent weeks over strategy to pass health care legislation, the fallout of the bogged-down immigration bans and, most recently, whether to intervene in the Syrian civil war. Although the White House is rife with rumors of a staff shake-up, Trump’s young administration is pushing back against reports of a pending West Wing overhaul fueled by squabbling among top aides.
Thirsty California lawns faded to brown from a lack of water in four extraordinarily dry years have revived to bright green in neighborhoods across the state. Scenes like these and many others prompted California Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday to declare an end to the state’s drought emergency that had drained reservoirs and wells, devastated forests and farmland and forced millions of people to slash their water use. Still, lifting the emergency drought order is a largely symbolic measure that doesn’t remove most of the restrictions. Officials insisted they’re holding onto some conservation rules for the 40 million residents of the nation’s most populous state.
The Senate confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court was vindication for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who made a risky bet more than a year ago that paid off big time for President Donald Trump and the Republican leader himself. When Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, McConnell decided immediately that the Senate would not fill the seat until the next president was elected. He stuck to that stance without wavering, ignoring Democratic griping, misgivings from fellow Republicans, and ultimately erroneous predictions that GOP Senate candidates would pay a political price. Now McConnell, R-Ky., can take credit for allowing Trump to put a young conservative on the court for life, even though it took changing Senate rules to do it.
Swedish police said Saturday that a man arrested on “suspicion of terrorist crime” was likely to be the driver of a truck that ploughed into a crowd of people in central Stockholm a day earlier. The attack on Friday killed four people and injured 15, nine of them seriously. Police had earlier said they had detained a man who “matched the description” of a photo released of a suspect wearing a dark hoodie and military green jacket. According to the newspaper Aftonbladet, the individual in the photo is a 39-year-old man of Uzbek origin and a supporter of the Islamic State (IS) group. If confirmed as a terror attack, it would be Sweden’s first such deadly assault.
MTV is dumping gender-specific categories in its upcoming Movie & TV Awards. Instead of categories called “Best Actress” and “Best Actor,” the 2017 ceremony will honor a non-gendered “Best Actor in a Movie” and “Best Actor in a Show.” In place of the Best Actress and Best Actor categories, this year’s awards will honor a non-gendered Best Actor in a Movie and Best Actor in a Show. The move follows the Grammy Awards’ decision in 2011 to dump gender distinctions between male and female singers, collaborations and groups.
After President Donald Trump’s election victory, the United States and Russia appeared headed toward their smoothest ties in decades. Not anymore. The former Cold War adversaries are once again spiraling into confrontation, punctuated by a U.S. attack on a military base controlled by Syrian President Bashar Assad, Russia’s client. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev wrote on Facebook on Friday, declaring U.S.-Russian relations “completely ruined.” No longer optimistic about a “reset” in relations, the U.S. and Russia openly bashed each other Friday, trading caustic accusations about who violated international law.
U.S. employers cut back sharply on hiring in March, yet Friday’s jobs report still had much to be encouraged about, including a drop in the unemployment rate to 4.5 percent, the lowest in a decade. Employers added just 98,000 jobs, the Labor Department said. It was barely half the previous month’s gain. Yet unemployment dropped from 4.7 percent, reaching its lowest point since May 2007. While the rate has fallen in the past because of unemployed workers who had given up looking, it happened this time because of a healthy gain in the number of people with jobs.
Jared Kushner failed to disclose some of his contacts with Russian government officials when he was filling out his application for security clearance, his lawyer said Friday. The New York Times first reported the omissions, including meetings with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. and the head of a Russian bank owned by the Kremlin. The president’s son-in-law and senior adviser last month volunteered to be interviewed about his Russian contacts by lawmakers investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and the Kremlin’s possible ties to the Trump campaign. Kushner’s failure to disclose these meetings with Russian officials was the third time a Trump administration official had not disclosed details about meetings and conversations with Russians.
A “nervous” Harry Styles unveiled his debut solo single on Friday, the singer’s first music release since hugely popular boy band One Direction announced it was taking a break. At around five and a half minutes, “Sign of the Times” — a ballad with touches of 1970s glam rock — comes off as a statement by Styles on a new artistic direction after the succinct pop ditties of One Direction.
The U.S. is looking into whether Russia participated in the Syria chemical weapons attack that provoked President Trump’s airstrikes against the Assad government — a revelation that could have dramatic implications for relations between Washington and Moscow. On Friday, senior U.S. military officials said a drone belonging to Russia or Syria was seen hovering over the site of the chemical weapons attack after the assault earlier this week. Russia is one of Syria’s most important patrons and has long resisted U.S. efforts to push President Bashar Assad from power. The Trump administration sent conflicting messages about what the strikes signaled for the overall U.S. policy in Syria. White House officials said the assault was not a step toward deeper involvement in Syria’s civil war, though Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Washington was prepared to take further military action.
A federal judge on Friday approved an agreement negotiated under the Obama administration to overhaul the troubled Baltimore police force, sweeping aside objections from the Trump Justice Department. President Trump’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions, promptly warned that the agreement may result in “a less safe city.” U.S. District Judge James Bredar signed the so-called consent decree one day after a hearing to solicit comments from Baltimore residents, calling the plan “comprehensive, detailed and precise.” He denied a request to delay the signing to give the Trump administration more time to review the agreement. At Thursday’s hearing, a Justice Department attorney expressed “grave concerns” about the plan, aimed at rooting out racist practices.
In a charmed start Thursday for a popular yet polarizing athlete who seems to have a knack for creating remarkable moments, former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow hit a home run in his first official at-bat as a New York Mets minor leaguer. Playing a sport where many thought he didn’t even belong in the batter’s box, the former Heisman Trophy winner launched a two-run drive for the Columbia Fireflies in a Class A South Atlantic League game against Augusta.
In her first interview since the presidential election, Hillary Clinton said Thursday that while she has mostly recovered from her devastating loss, she continues to feel apprehensive about the country’s direction under President Trump. “As a person, I’m OK,” she said. “As an American, I’m pretty worried.” The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof interviewed Clinton in front of a packed theater at New York’s Lincoln Center to close out day two of the annual Women in the World Summit.
A vote scheduled for today is expected to confirm Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, in what some consider to be the new president’s first major legislative achievement. Gorsuch’s confirmation required Republicans, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, to eliminate the 60-vote threshold, dubbed the “nuclear option,” to ensure Gorsuch’s approval via a simple majority. But after weeks of wrangling in the House over a plan to repeal and replace the so-called Obamacare law, the confirmation battle amounts to a badly needed triumph for Trump.
President Trump late Thursday unleashed a barrage of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles on Syria to punish its strongman, Bashar Assad, after a chemical attack this week that killed dozens of civilians, including children. The attack — the first known direct American strike on Syrian government assets since the start of the country’s civil war — is the most significant military operation ordered by Trump, a newcomer to governing who had warned, before taking office, against escalating America’s involvement in the Middle East. Trump explained his decision by describing the horrific images from Tuesday’s chemical weapons strike, saying “there can be no dispute” that Assad’s forces were responsible.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its latest employment report at 8:30 a.m. ET today. The report follows a private payrolls report from ADP earlier in the week, which indicated that hiring remains strong in the early days of the Trump administration. In a note to clients ahead of the report, economists at Goldman Sachs said they expect nonfarm payrolls to grow by 170,000, slightly less than consensus and down from last month’s 235,000. Economists at Wells Fargo forecast that nonfarm payrolls grew by 191,000 — better than consensus, but still below last month.
The percentage of men and women who use tobacco every day has dropped in most nations since 1990, but the total number of smokers and tobacco-related deaths has increased, a group of researchers reported Thursday. Mortality could rise even further as major tobacco companies aggressively target new markets — especially in the developing world — they warned in a major study, published in the medical journal The Lancet.
You know those snacks that are OK if they’re handy, but not worth the bother if you have to go track them down? Our Stone Age forerunners may have felt the same way about eating each other. Neanderthals and prehistoric members of our own species occasionally practiced cannibalism, and explaining that is a scientific challenge. Generally, it has been attributed to reasons such as starvation, violence between groups or ceremonial practices following a death. Now a new study suggests that when early humans ate their own kind, it was more for ritualistic purposes than a nourishing meal. Carving up the human body to calculate the caloric value of each part, the study in the journal Scientific Reports argues that prehistoric cannibalism — while less rare than widely assumed — was a dangerous undertaking that offered relatively meager nutritional rewards.
A picture that depicts President Vladimir Putin as a gay clown has been banned in Russia. The legislation, however, means that news outlets are unable to report exactly which image has been outlawed, but it could be one of several. An array of Putin-gay-clown memes has appeared on the Internet, but Item 4071 on the Russian government’s list of things that constitute “extremism” specifies: a picture of a Putin-like person “with eyes and lips made up,” captioned with an implicit anti-gay slur, implying “the supposed nonstandard sexual orientation of the president of the Russian Federation.” The memes became popular four years ago, after Russia made it illegal to “propagandize” to children about “nontraditional sexual relations,” and gay rights protesters were beaten and arrested.
The United States hinted at possible military action against Syria Thursday as a response to a poison gas attack that killed scores of civilians which Washington blamed on the Syrian government. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters, “There’s no role for [Syrian President Bashar Assad] to govern the Syrian people.” Just last week, Tillerson declared that the Syrian people should decide Assad’s fate, marking a sharp turn in policy from the previous administration, which insisted Assad’s removal was necessary. Though Trump’s tone on Syria has changed over the past few days, he has yet to take a decisive stance, which other international powers suggest is exacerbating the situation and allowing leeway that critics say Assad is testing. The Pentagon and the White House are considering options that include grounding aircraft used by Assad’s forces, an official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Such options would include use of cruise missiles — allowing the U.S. to strike targets without putting piloted aircraft in the skies above Syria.
Dustin Johnson arrived at Augusta National on quite a roll, having won his last three tournaments. He never even took a shot at the first major of the year. The world’s No. 1-ranked player was forced to withdraw from the Masters on Thursday because of a lower back injury suffered less than 24 hours earlier in a freak fall at the home he was renting for the week. “I want to play,” Johnson said. “I just can’t swing.” Johnson came into the week as the favorite to win the green jacket. But his quest to win his first Masters will have to wait another year.
Severe storms unleashed powerful winds, large hail and heavy downpours on Wednesday in the U.S. Southeast and parts of the Midwest, where several damaging tornadoes reportedly touched down and two people were injured, forecasters said. A powerful tornado toppled trees and downed power lines in rural Georgia, and similar scenes played out in spots around Alabama and South Carolina amid drenching rain, high winds and scattered baseball-size hail. Portions of Kentucky and Georgia were still under threat of tornadoes late Wednesday, and flash flooding was possible in the Atlanta area, according to the National Weather Service.
The heirs of Nazi-era Jewish art dealers won a round last week when a federal judge ruled that Germany can be sued in the United States over claims that a so-called Guelph Treasure was sold under duress in 1935. The relatives of the art dealers — Jed Leiber, Gerald Stiebel and Alan Philipp — say their family was forced to sell the relics in a coerced transaction for a fraction of its market value. German officials claim the sale was voluntary and the low price was a product of the Great Depression and the collapse of Germany’s market for art. The collection includes gold crosses studded with gems, ornate silver work and other relics that once belonged to Prussian aristocrats.
The Masters should be the easiest to predict of golf’s four major championships. But it got a lot harder Wednesday afternoon when Dustin Johnson, the betting favorite and No. 1 player in the world, took a serious fall down a staircase at his rented home and landed “very hard on his lower back,” his agent said. Johnson, who was treating his injury with ice and medication, still hopes to tee off with the last group at 2 p.m. Thursday. Earlier this week, Johnson was optimistic about his play.
President Trump faces the most serious test to date of his “America First” foreign policy this week as he hosts Chinese President Xi Jinping for a summit that will be largely defined by escalating tensions with North Korea and its nuclear weapons program. The two men will have dinner on Thursday and then hold what officials on both sides have described as informal, get-to-know-you meetings on Friday at Trump’s luxury Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Trump and Xi also are expected to discuss disputes over the two nations’ trade and investment relationship, as well as tensions over Beijing’s territorial ambitions in the South China Sea, where it has built an archipelago of artificial islands.
In an administration where women play only supportive roles, Ivanka Trump has settled for assistant White House czar. The bigger job, writes Yahoo political columnist Matt Bai, belongs to her 36-year-old husband, Jared Kushner, whose portfolio so far includes brokering Middle East peace, negotiating trade deals, reconfiguring the federal government, stamping out opioids, establishing ties with China and Mexico and — as of this week — surveying our strategy in Iraq. A raft of critics say that the first daughter and her husband don’t know a thing about policy and that they’re awash in ethical conflicts. But, Bai notes, the problem with Washington’s newest power couple is larger and more pervasive than that.
Halfway through the first week of April, the month the president has dedicated to sexual assault awareness and prevention, Donald Trump defended Bill O'Reilly in an interview with the New York Times amid a raft of sexual harassment allegations against the Fox anchor. The Times reported over the weekend that Fox and O'Reilly paid $13 million to five women who accused him of sexual harassment. In a statement Saturday, O'Reilly dismissed the claims, saying he had been unfairly targeted because of his prominence.
A member of Malaysia’s Parliament said there was “nothing wrong” with a rape victim marrying her rapist, as she would then not face a “bleak future.” Shabudin Yahaya, a member of the Barisan Nasional coalition, made the comment while discussing a proposal by an opposition member of Parliament to amend the Sexual Offenses Against Children bill to include a ban on child marriages. Shabudin said girls as young as 9 were “physically and spiritually” ready for marriage, as the Muslim-majority Southeast Asian country voted down the proposal to criminalize child marriage. Shabudin’s comments sparked outrage on social media, with some opposition politicians asking for him to be fired.
The United States women’s national team and U.S. Soccer announced a new five-year collective bargaining agreement on Wednesday, running through 2021 and ending a standoff that had seen the team file a federal wage discrimination suit and take to the court of public opinion in a series of television interviews. The national team, which is the defending Women’s World Cup holder and has won both that tournament and the Olympics more often than any other nation, had fought for equal pay with the far less successful men’s national team. The women will receive raises in base pay and bonuses as well as better provisions for travel and accommodations.
The Shia LaBeouf thriller “Man Down” has managed to triple the number of general-public paid admissions in Britain — from one ticket sold to three. During its U.K. opening last weekend, it sold a single ticket in its only venue, the Reel Cinema in Burnley, northern England, taking in a whopping £7 ($8.73), according to data tracker comScore. That admission is believed to have been a single student ticket priced at £6.90 (comScore rounds its data up to the nearest pound). The cinema has since been confirmed to have sold a further two tickets after its dismal opening weekend. The movie was also simultaneously released On Demand.
U.S. officials dismissed Russia’s assertion on Wednesday that Syrian rebels were to blame for a suspected chemical attack and signaled possible unilateral action if the United Nations fails to respond. The warning came from U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley during an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council called by France and Britain following the attack, which killed scores of civilians, including children, in the Idlib province. Western countries, including the U.S., blame Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces; however, Russia offered an alternative explanation that would shield Assad, claiming the poison gas belonged to rebels and had leaked from an insurgent weapons depot hit by Syrian bombs. Britain, France and the U.S. have presented a draft resolution that condemns the attack and threatens consequences, demanding a full investigation of the attack. Still, Russia called it “categorically unacceptable,” citing the blame on Assad is preemptive since the investigation is not yet complete, and signaled it would block the resolution. Haley accused Russia of closing its eyes to the “barbarity” as it has before, citing a February veto that would have imposed sanctions on Syria for previous chemical attacks.
Tuesday was the deadline for companies to propose designs for President Trump’s border wall with Mexico. As a next step, U.S. Customs and Border Protection will ask several of the bidders to build prototypes. The government won’t identify companies until contracts are awarded around June 1 — and even then, only the winners — but some bidders released plans on their own. Their ideas range from solar panels to an overlook for tourists, artwork and more.
The Trump administration is losing patience with North Korea, and quickly. The country fired a ballistic missile into the waters off its east coast on Wednesday, U.S. and South Korean officials said, in a reminder of the simmering tensions on the Korean peninsula. Speaking at a White House business forum Tuesday, Trump called North Korea a “humanity problem” and hinted at a willingness to act alone to curb the nation’s nuclear weapons program. A White House official later confirmed that, for the U.S., “all options are on the table.” Trump is slated to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons is expected to be a primary topic of discussion.
In a giant step away from its former days as a mere online bookstore, Amazon.com said that this fall it will livestream 10 NFL Thursday night games. The move is a high-profile push by the online retailer to attract fans to its Prime shopping and video-playback club. While a company spokesperson declined to say what Amazon will pay for the one-year deal, a source put the price tag at $50 million. That’s five times what Twitter paid last year for the same deal.
It will take 40 to 50 years to clear the mines, improvised explosive devices and other unexploded ordnance from Iraq and Syria, the United Nations said Tuesday. The agency’s Mine Action Service says it is looking at a “ballpark figure” of between $170 million to $180 million a year to clean up the areas retaken from the Islamic State extremist group in Iraq. That figure includes $50 million annually needed just to rid weaponry from Mosul.
A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects LGBT employees from workplace discrimination, overruling a three-judge panel in Atlanta and setting up a likely battle before the Supreme Court. The dissenting opinion — written by Judge Diane Sykes — said the majority was stretching the meaning of the law’s text too far. The dissent alludes to the judicial philosophy of President Trump’s high-court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, who advocates sticking with the original legislative texts in deciding legal disputes. A GOP-majority House and Senate make it unlikely that the current Congress will amend the 53-year-old law, even as gay rights advocates push to broaden its scope.
A 22-year-old suicide bomber born in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan was behind a blast on the St. Petersburg subway that killed 13 other people, Russian investigators said Tuesday. No claim of responsibility has been made for the Monday afternoon attack, which came while President Vladimir Putin was visiting the city, Russia’s second-biggest and Putin’s hometown. Although police originally were seeking two people as possible suspects in the hours after the attack, Russian investigators said Tuesday that it was the work of one suicide bomber, Russian citizen Akbarzhon Dzhalilov. The Investigative Committee said that forensic experts found Dzhalilov’s DNA on the bag with a bomb that was found and deactivated at another subway station.
The U.S. government plans to stop funding the United Nations Population Fund because of the organization’s “coercive” family planning practices, including providing abortions, officials in Washington said late Monday. According to a State Department official, President Trump has instructed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson “to take all necessary actions, to the extent permitted by law, to ensure that taxpayer dollars do not fund organizations or programs that support or participate in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.” The funding cut would go into effect during the 2017 fiscal year, the official said in a statement.
A suspected Syrian government chemical attack killed scores of people, including children, in the northwestern province of Idlib on Tuesday, a monitoring group said. The Syrian military denied responsibility and said it would never use chemical weapons. After a 2013 chemical attack in the Ghouta neighborhood, the Syrian government agreed to give up its chemical arsenal, but concerns have been raised about President Bashar Assad’s transparency. Eyewitnesses told Yahoo News that people had yellow material and blood coming out of their mouths, and as they were rushing toward the hospital, they were “targeted with rocket-propelled grenades.” They said children already inside receiving treatment were then killed when a Russian aircraft destroyed the hospital. Russia has denied claims that its aircraft were involved in the attack. If confirmed, Idlib would be one of the worst chemical attacks since the start of the war. The incident brought swift international condemnation, with world powers all pointing the finger at Assad. At the request of Britain and France, the United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday.
At least 11 companies have pulled their advertising from Fox News’ “The O'Reilly Factor” program days after the New York Times reported Fox and star host Bill O'Reilly paid five women to settle claims he sexually harassed them. Automakers Hyundai, BMW and Mitsubishi, financial firm T. Rowe Price, personal finance site Credit Karma, insurer Allstate, drug makers Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline, pet food company Ainsworth, men’s shirt seller Untuckit and online marketing firm Constant Contact all said they have pulled their ads from the show. The National Organization for Women called for O'Reilly to be fired and demanded an independent investigation into the “culture of sexual harassment” at Fox News.
A federal appeals court in Chicago on Tuesday ruled that the 1964 Civil Rights Act also protects LGBT employees from workplace discrimination, the first time a federal appellate court has come to that conclusion. The decision by the full 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago comes just three weeks after a three-judge panel in Atlanta ruled the opposite, saying employers aren’t prohibited from discriminating against employees based on sexual orientation. The Hively case stems from a lawsuit by Indiana teacher Kimberly Hively alleging that the Ivy Tech Community College in South Bend didn’t hire her full time because she is a lesbian. The entire court reheard oral arguments in November and directed the toughest questions at a lawyer for the college who argued only Congress could extend the protections. The aggressive questions suggested the court might be willing to expand the 53-year-old landmark law.
A common antibiotic called doxycycline can disrupt the formation of negative thoughts and fears in the brain and may prove useful in treating or preventing post traumatic stress disorder, according to research by British and Swiss scientists. In a specially designed trial involving healthy volunteers, those who were on doxycycline had a 60 percent lower fear response than those who were not. Scientists said the antibiotic blocks matrix enzymes, which our brains need to form memories. PTSD is caused by an overactive fear memory and includes a broad range of psychological symptoms that can develop after someone goes through a traumatic event.
White House officials, led by Vice President Mike Pence, made a new offer to conservative House Republicans late Monday on the GOP’s failed American Health Care Act, hoping to resuscitate a measure that crashed less than two weeks ago. In a closed-door meeting with members of the House Freedom Caucus, the White House’s latest version allows states to apply for waivers from several coverage requirements that former President Barack Obama’s 2010 health care law imposed on insurers. Conservatives have argued that such requirements inflate insurance costs. Freedom Caucus members said they wanted to see the White House offer in writing — which is expected Tuesday — before deciding whether to accept it.
By now, everyone knows to watch for the president’s 140-character dispatches relayed via Twittter, usually starting around 6 a.m. ET. And now, the National Archives and Records Administration wants to make sure that none of them, including those tweets that get deleted or edited, are forgotten. The head of the archives, David S. Ferriero, told two Democratic senators in a letter last week that the White House has assured him it is saving all of Trump’s Twitter blasts. The archives contacted the White House about the matter because the Presidential Records Act requires such correspondence to be preserved for history.
Harrison Ford will not face any penalties over mistakenly landing on a taxiway at a Southern California airport in February, said his attorney, Stephen Hofer. The Federal Aviation Administration will not fine Ford and the actor will retain his pilot’s license without restriction, Hofer said. Ford mistakenly landed on a taxiway at John Wayne in Orange County on Feb. 13 after flying over an American Airlines jet that was waiting to take off.
The North Carolina Tar Heels are national champions. One year after a heartbreaking loss to Villanova, the Tar Heels made clutch plays down the stretch and beat Gonzaga, 71-65, in a choppy, back-and-forth title game. The game, though, was far from a classic — until the final five minutes. A foul-riddled second half put both teams in the bonus midway through the second period, and neither squad could hit a jump shot. Some of the most exciting plays were scraps for loose balls and, regrettably, controversial calls.
The governing body of track and field suffered a cyberattack it believes has compromised information about athletes’ medical records. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said Monday it has been hacked by Fancy Bears, the group that previously attacked the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The organization apologized and said it believes the hack “compromised athletes’ Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) applications” during an unauthorized remote access to its network on Feb. 21. TUEs are permissions for athletes to take substances that would normally be banned, and are used by athletes around the world.
A Fox News contributor has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against deposed chief executive Roger Ailes, saying she was denied opportunities after rebuffing his advances and that current management sought to keep her complaints quiet. Julie Roginsky, 43, who has appeared regularly on Fox News programs since 2011 and writes a column for the network’s website, said that a promised position on the Fox show “The Five” never happened after she rejected Ailes’ sexual advances. She also said in her lawsuit that a misogynistic culture at Fox News had not changed since Ailes resigned last year in the wake of separate sexual harassment lawsuits by other former Fox News employees. Roginsky also sued Bill Shine, the co-president of Fox, claiming he failed to investigate her claims after they met to discuss Ailes’ conduct.
The NHL announced Monday that it will not participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, saying it sees no tangible benefit in halting the season for three weeks — despite clear signs from the world’s best players that they want to go. The statement brings an end to years of tension between the league, the International Olympic Committee and International Ice Hockey Federation over the NHL’s continuing participation in the Winter Games.
A respected Russian newspaper says it has uncovered information that police in the southern Russian republic of Chechnya have rounded up more than 100 men suspected of homosexuality and that at least three have been killed. Novaya Gazeta reported on Saturday that more men may have died in extrajudicial killings. The paper also suggests that others may have been handed back to their families, where they risk being victims of honor killings. Ali Karimov, spokesman for Chechnya’s leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, called the report “lies,” saying there are no gay people in the quasi-independent state, which is formally a part of Russia.
A Senate panel advanced President Trump’s Supreme Court pick Monday, setting up days of contentious debate, but Democrats forced a historic showdown by securing enough votes to block Neil Gorsuch’s nomination. Republicans quickly vowed to change the Senate rules to ensure the conservative judge gets the lifetime job. In the face of the filibuster, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to force a confirmation vote by having the Senate change its rules and allow for a simple majority vote for confirmation of Supreme Court justices, a move sometimes called the “nuclear option,” which Trump has urged. Judiciary Committee Republicans blasted Democrats for pursuing what they called the first “partisan filibuster” of a Supreme Court nominee.
Betty Jo Shelby, a white Oklahoma police officer charged with manslaughter for fatally shooting an unarmed black man last year, says the man’s race had nothing to do with her decision to fire her gun. The Tulsa officer said in an interview on Sunday that she used lethal force because she feared Terence Crutcher, 40, was reaching inside his SUV for a gun. Although video footage from a police helicopter showed Crutcher had his hands in the air as he stood beside his car in a roadway just before Shelby shot him, she said the video fails to show clearly that he suddenly reached into the vehicle in what she believed was an attempt to grab a weapon.
Powerful storms that killed a mother and her 3-year-old daughter in a Louisiana trailer park rolled toward Alabama and other parts of the Southeast on Monday. The storm also brought hurricane-force winds, large hail, and flash floods. Up to 6 inches of rain fell in some areas. Tornadoes and strong winds are likely Monday from parts of Mississippi extending to South Carolina. The greatest tornado risk is centered over southern Alabama, the National Weather Service reported.
In the top of the fifth inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks, pitcher Madison Bumgarner stepped in against Zack Greinke and launched a rocket of a home run. Two innings later, Bumgarner launched another. Never before had a pitcher hit two home runs on opening day. And that’s only part of what’s made Bumgarner so impressive. Bumgarner was perfect through 16 hitters with eight strikeouts using just 60 pitches. Despite his efforts, though, the Giants blew a ninth inning lead and lost 6-5.
The 2017 Academy of Country Music Awards did not fail to surprise on Sunday evening — from a climactic performance from a noncountry pop act to an Entertainer of the Year trophy going to someone who didn’t win another award all night. The show also packed in an array of performances. An acoustic Miranda Lambert performed an emotional rendition of her song “Tin Man” and won album of the year for her double disc, “The Weight of These Wings.” She was also named the female vocalist of the year, besting Reba McEntire’s record for most wins in the category. Thomas Rhett took home song of the year for “Die a Happy Man,” as well as the trophy as male vocalist of the year. Joe Walsh of The Eagles and the show’s co-hosts Luke Bryan and Dierks Bentley performed “Johnny B. Goode” in tribute to Chuck Berry, who died last month. And Keith Urban, who was the night’s top nominee but walked away empty-handed, nailed a soulful “Blue Ain’t Your Color” before being joined by Carrie Underwood for an upbeat, disco-flavored “The Fighter.” But the performance of the night went to a pop act that by all arguments should not have been there: the Backstreet Boys brought the party vibe to life while singing their classic “Everybody (Backstreet Back)” along with duo Florida Georgia Line.
The Senate judiciary committee meets on Monday for a weeklong partisan showdown over President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch. The Republican-led panel is expected to back Gorsuch and send his nomination to the full Senate, most likely on a near-party-line vote. However, Democrats have been steadily amassing the votes to block Gorsuch and force Republicans to unilaterally change long-standing rules to confirm him. Intent on getting Trump’s pick on the high court, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is likely to change Senate rules so that Gorsuch can be confirmed with a simple majority in the 100-seat chamber, instead of the 60-vote threshold.
A 14-year-old boy has been arrested in the sexual assault of a 15-year-old Chicago girl that was streamed live on Facebook and watched by about 40 people who didn’t report it to authorities, police said late Saturday. Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said more arrests are expected as the investigation continues. Police have said the attack involved five or six males, and Guglielmi said the boy “was one of the offenders in the video. Guglielmi said the juvenile suspect faces felony charges of aggravated criminal sexual assault, manufacturing of child pornography and dissemination of child pornography.
The New York Post apologized early on Sunday hours after its app was apparently hacked on April Fools’ Day, sending out push alert notifications that included “Heil President Donald Trump.” The tabloid newspaper did not provide details of the alerts, but screen grabs posted on Twitter show cryptic, vague messages, some seemingly religious in nature, including one message that said, “Open your heart to those you do not understand and listen to all those you fear and look down upon.” The Post is owned by Trump-friendly media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
It sounds like science fiction, but a cap-like device that makes electric fields to fight cancer improved survival for the first time in more than a decade for people with deadly brain tumors, final results of a large study suggest. Many doctors are skeptical of the therapy, called tumor treating fields, and it’s not a cure. The treatment is also ultra-expensive. But in the study, more than twice as many patients were alive five years after getting it, plus the usual chemotherapy, than those given just the chemo. In a 2011 study, the device didn’t improve survival but caused fewer symptoms. In a second study those using the device were living several months longer on average than the rest. The FDA expanded approval but some doctors were still leery because the device wasn’t compared with placebo group since many would refuse to use an inconvenient device for years if the treatment might be fake. Now that long-term results are in some doctors are calling it a step forward.
The custodian of a Pakistani religious shrine and two accomplices have been arrested for torturing and murdering 20 worshippers with knives and clubs early Sunday, police said. Four women were among those killed in the attacks at the Sufi Shrine to Mohammad Ali in Punjab province. Victims were apparently given intoxicants before being slaughtered and some of the bodies were disrobed. The motive was unclear but some officials said the chief suspect, 50 year-old shrine custodian, Abdul Waheed had mental health problems and had used violence on followers before. Another local official said Waheed had told police that the saint buried at the shrine had been poisoned and he feared that his victims might kill him also.
The White House abruptly canceled a scheduled meeting in February between President Trump and a high-level Russian central banker after a national security aide discovered the official had been named by Spanish police as a suspected “godfather” of an organized crime and money-laundering ring, according to an administration official and sources familiar with the event. Alexander Torshin, once a leader of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia Party and a senator in the Duma before being named deputy governor of the Bank of Russia, is a key figure in the Kremlin’s outreach to the conservative movement in the U.S. Torshin was the target of a long-standing Spanish police investigation and subsequent sting operation in 2013. Police failed to arrest Torshin after they say he was tipped off by Russian authorities. The Feb. 2 event had been planned as a meet and greet with Trump before the National Prayer Breakfast, but was canceled the night before, according to Maria Butina, a special assistant to Torshin.
Rescuers prying through piles of rocks and wooden planks left by floodwaters through a Colombian city vowed to resume their search at first light Sunday as the death toll from one of the worst disasters in the country’s recent history neared 200. With no electricity to light Mocoa, authorities were forced to suspend the search Saturday night almost a day after heavy rains caused the rivers to overflow, sweeping away homes, cars and trees while residents slept in their beds. President Juan Manuel Santos said 193 people had been killed and authorities said as many as 220 were feared missing. The bodies were being placed in a temporary morgue where three teams of medical examiners were working around the clock to swiftly identify the remains.
President Horacio Cartes fired Paraguay’s interior minister, Tado Rojas, and top police official, Crispulo Sotelo, on Saturday following the killing of a young opposition party leader and violent overnight clashes sparked by a secret Senate vote for a constitutional amendment to allow presidential re-election. Closed circuit cameras captured the death of 25-year-old Rodrigo Quintana, leader of the opposition Liberal Party’s youth branch, who was apparently shot by police early Saturday as they searched the party’s offices in Asuncion for protesters. About 30 people were injured, including three lawmakers, according to firefighters and an opposition senator.
Ford Motor Co is recalling about 52,600 F-250 pickup trucks sold in the United States and Canada because the vehicles could roll after the driver moves the automatic transmission lever into park position, the company said on Saturday. The recall, the third announced by Ford this week, affects 2017 model year F-250 vehicles powered by 6.2-liter gasoline engines and built in its Louisville, Ky., truck plant, it said in a statement. Ford also said it was unaware of any injuries or accidents associated with the latest issue. The automaker on Wednesday said it was recalling 211,000 vehicles in North America to replace potentially faulty side door latches. Another recall involves 230,000 vehicles that present a fire risk in the engine compartment. Ford said it had reports of 29 fires related to that issue but no injuries.
A rare 1804 silver dollar fetched almost $3.3 million dollars in what officials say is a record-breaking coin collection auction. The silver dollar, one of only eight of its kind, was snapped up at auction on Friday in Baltimore. It was one of more than 200 coins sold at the event. The coin is emblazoned with the bust of a woman with flowing hair who represents liberty. Minted by the U.S. government, it was intended as a gift for foreign heads of state.
The contrast in the NCAA Tournament championship game is clear: North Carolina, winners of five titles and appearing in its record 20th Final Four, is in one corner. Gonzaga, in its first Final Four after spending almost two decades chugging up the mountaintop, is in the other. The last time they played each other in the NCAA Tournament was 2009, when the Tar Heels eliminated the Bulldogs in the Sweet 16. Since the Zags graduated from upstart to national power, there have been lots of early exits in the tournament. And make no mistake. The programs might hang different kinds of banners in their arenas, but Monday night will be a heavyweight matchup all the way.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly have defended federal agents who make immigration arrests at courthouses after California’s top judge asked them to stop, according to a letter released Friday. Sessions and Kelly sent the letter Wednesday to California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, saying state and city policies barring local law enforcement from turning over suspects for deportation have compelled federal agents to arrest immigrants at courthouses and other public places. Courthouses are a safe place for federal agents to make the arrests because visitors are typically screened for weapons, the letter says.
Fox News has paid millions to settle allegations of sexual harassment against ratings king Bill O'Reilly, the New York Times reported on Saturday. The Times uncovered settlements totaling $13 million that were paid out to five women in exchange for the their agreeing not to file lawsuits against O'Reilly or speak about their accusations. The women’s allegations, which date back to 2002, included complaints of verbal abuse, lewd comments, unwanted advances and phone calls “in which it sounded as if Mr. O'Reilly was masturbating,” according to documents and interviews. The network said Saturday that it had looked into “these matters” in the past few months and discussed them with O'Reilly. The company said O'Reilly “resolved those he regarded as his personal responsibility” although he denied their merits.
Venezuela’s president and Supreme Court backed down Saturday from an unprecedented move to strip Congress of its legislative powers, which had sparked widespread charges that the South American country was no longer a democracy. President Nicolas Maduro asked the Supreme Court in a late-night speech to review a ruling nullifying the branch of power that set off a storm of criticism from the opposition and foreign governments. The court on Saturday reinstated congress’ authority. It was a rare instance of the embattled Socialist president backing away from a move to increase his power. Opposition leaders dismissed the reversal as too little, too late. They said the clarification issued by the judges only proved yet again that Maduro controls the courts and there is no longer a real separation of powers in Venezuela.
After months of controversy, Bob Dylan was due in Stockholm Saturday to finally grab his Nobel Prize in literature in a meeting with the Swedish Academy, which honored him for his poetry. The first songwriter to receive the prestigious award, Dylan has joined the league of Nobel laureates including Thomas Mann, Samuel Beckett, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Doris Lessing. At a secret time and place, the famously reclusive Dylan is to receive his Nobel diploma and medal in a closed meeting with members of academy, which elects the winners of the literature prize.
President Trump’s approval of greater U.S. military authority to pursue al-Qaida-linked extremists in Somalia will put civilians further at risk, experts say, especially as drought displaces thousands of people in areas that now will be considered a war zone. Trump has approved a Pentagon request to allow more aggressive airstrikes against extremist group al-Shabab, as parts of southern Somalia will be considered areas of active hostilities. U.S. special operations forces can move closer to the fight and call in offensive airstrikes more quickly while increasing assistance to the Somali National Army. Some in long-chaotic Somalia, where access to independent information is extremely challenging, could see this as a chance to spread misinformation.
Three people were arrested in connection with the large fire that collapsed a portion of an Atlanta highway on Thursday evening, according to officials. The suspects were identified as Basil Eleby, Sophia Broner and Barry Thomas. Eleby faces a charge of criminal damage to property, while Broner and Thomas each were charged with criminal trespass. According to Georgia Deputy Insurance Commissioner Jay Florence, the fire was lit using materials that were on site and Eleby is the suspect believed to be responsible for the fire, which may have been set maliciously. Eleby remains in custody and additional charges may be pending; it is not clear if the other two suspects remain in custody.
Mississippi State coach Vic Schaefer last year was showing the movie “Miracle” to his players and hoping for one. Now, the Bulldogs are living one. A year after an embarrassing 60-point loss to mighty UConn in the Sweet 16, the Bulldogs are now headed to their first national championship game. Morgan William’s overtime buzzer-beating jumper gave them a 66-64 victory over the four-time defending national champion Huskies in the national semifinals Friday night.
An Oregon mom is suing for negligence after an overcrowded Easter egg hunt allegedly led her to suffer serious injuries, according to court documents obtained by ABC News. According to the lawsuit, Rachel Townsend of Hillsboro attended the event called “The Hatter’s Easter Extravaganza” on March 26, 2016, paying admission for an egg hunt designed for smaller children and bringing her son and niece. The lawsuit states that as the hunt began, the field was rushed by older children and unregistered participants, causing Townsend to be separated from her niece. Townsend was then “pushed from behind and knocked to the ground,” causing her to be injured, according to the lawsuit. She is suing for a total of $112,411, citing negligence and personal injuries.
Tiger Woods won’t play in the Masters for the third time in the last four years, announcing Friday night on his website that rehabilitation on his back didn’t allow him enough time to prepare. He still plans to be at Augusta National, but only for dinner with past Masters champions on Tuesday night, just like last year. Augusta National checked on Woods’ status Thursday before sending out its press conference schedule for Masters week. Woods did not know if he could play, so the club had held onto his 1 p.m. Tuesday spot just in case.
President Donald Trump released details of the personal finances of his staffers on Friday evening, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka, confirming that he has surrounded himself with a very wealthy inner circle. White House ethics officials said the legally required disclosure documents provided a snapshot of assets and positions held by personnel when they first entered their new jobs at the White House, and before they started selling stocks and other assets that could pose conflicts of interest. Gary Cohn, former Goldman Sachs president and now head of the White House National Economic Council, had assets worth at least $230 million; Senior adviser Steve Bannon’s pre-White House bank accounts, real estate and other holdings were valued at between $3.3 million and $12.6 million; and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus had assets of between $604,000 and $1.16 million and income of $1.42 million. The New York Times reported that the real estate and investment empire held by Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, may be worth as much as $741 million.
SpaceX successfully launched and then retrieved its first recycled rocket late Thursday, a historic feat and the biggest leap yet in its bid to drive down costs and speed up flights. It was the first time SpaceX founder Elon Musk tried to fly a booster that had soared before on an orbital mission. He was at a loss for words after the Falcon 9 core landed on the bull’s-eye of the ocean platform following liftoff with a broadcasting satellite, achieving what some had once told him was impossible.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday that he wants to close the city’s troubled Rikers Island jail complex, though he cautioned that doing so would be difficult and take at least a decade. “It will take many years, and it will take many tough decisions along the way, but it will happen,” de Blasio said. Among those challenges: The mayor said the jail’s daily population would have to be slashed to less than half of what it was just a few years ago. New, smaller jails would also have to be opened elsewhere in the city — a potentially lengthy process considering the possibility of neighborhood opposition. Key details of the plan, including the cost and the location of alternative jails, are still a long way from being worked out, the mayor said. Previously, the mayor, a Democrat, had called proposals to close Rikers “noble” but too expensive.
Security forces violently repressed small protests that broke out in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, Friday after the government-stacked Supreme Court gutted Congress of its last vestiges of power, drawing widespread condemnation from foreign countries and even from the government’s top prosecutor. Governments across Latin America condemned the power grab, with the head of the Organization of American States likening it to a “self-inflicted coup” by Socialist President Nicolas Maduro’s “regime” against the opposition-controlled Congress. The United Nations’ top human rights official called on the high court to reverse its decision. In a surprising and significant rebuke to Maduro, the country’s powerful attorney general broke ranks with the Socialist government as protests and international condemnation grew.
LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers just might be at their lowest point since the King came home three years ago. In any event, they’ll have to do better than this if they’re going to be crowned again. Despite a more active defensive effort than they’d mustered in weeks, and despite James generating enough offense to pass Shaquille O’Neal on the NBA’s all-time scoring list, the Cavs came up short yet again Thursday night, falling to the Chicago Bulls, 99-93, in a game that did little to assuage mounting concerns over the well-being of the defending NBA champs with the playoffs just two weeks away.
Congressional investigators on Friday rebuffed former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s offer of cooperation in exchange for immunity from prosecution, saying it’s too early in their probe of Russia connections to discuss a deal. President Trump tweeted that Flynn, his former national security adviser, should ask for immunity because he’s facing “a witch hunt.” It was unclear from that tweet whether he was advising the Justice Department or the congressional panels to give his former adviser immunity. The president is not supposed to direct ongoing investigations. Flynn’s attorney said talks have taken place about immunity in exchange for his testimony. Intelligence committees in both the Senate and the House are investigating Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
The U.S. music industry has been crying poor for some time, arguing that YouTube and other ad-supported streaming services don’t pay enough money in licensing fees for the music they use. But that message may be harder to sell now. In 2016, the record industry had its best year in nearly two decades, the Record Industry Association of America said on Thursday. The industry isn’t giving up its claim that YouTube is underpaying for the music played on the service, however. In the preamble to its report, the RIAA noted that while 2016 was a “substantial overall improvement for the industry,” total revenues are still half what they were in 1999, and that sales of physical products like CDs and digital downloads continue to decline.
The FBI has released a previously unseen batch of archival photos showing the devastation at the Pentagon following the 9/11 terror attacks. The agency uploaded 27 photos to its website, in the “FBI Records: The Vault” section. Photos show fragments of the American Airlines aircraft, the gaping hole in the building left by the plane, as well as the Pentagon’s scorched interior and exterior. Other photos show first responders battling the blaze and surveying the damage. Al-Qaida terrorists crashed American Airlines flight 77 — which had departed Dulles International Airport for Los Angeles — into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001. The plane hit an area of the building that was under renovation and relatively empty, but 189 people died, including 125 who worked at the building, which serves as the headquarters of the Department of Defense.
Ousted U.S. national security adviser Michael Flynn is ready to speak candidly to the FBI and Congress if the conditions are right, according to his lawyer. On Thursday night, the Wall Street Journal reported that Flynn has offered to testify about potential ties between the Russian government and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in exchange for immunity from prosecution. A close adviser on Trump’s bid for the White House, Flynn was forced to step down as the administration’s national security adviser just weeks into the job after it became clear that he made misleading statements about talks he had held with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak concerning Obama-era sanctions on Moscow.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned NATO allies today to boost their defense spending or come up with plans to reach the alliance’s guidelines within two months. Tillerson, in his first talks with NATO counterparts in Brussels, said that Washington is spending a “disproportionate share” on defense compared with its 27 partners, and that he expects action by the time President Trump meets with other alliance leaders on May 25. In 2014, NATO leaders pledged to halt defense spending cuts and move toward a guideline target of 2 percent of gross domestic product within a decade. Only four other nations currently meet the target: Britain, Estonia, Greece and Poland.
Atlanta’s notorious traffic is expected to be even more tangled than usual after a massive fire caused an overpass on Interstate 85 to collapse Thursday afternoon during rush hour, completely shutting down the heavily traveled highway. No injuries were reported. Georgia’s top transportation official said there’s no way to tell when the highway, which carries 250,000 cars a day, can be safely reopened to traffic in either direction. The bridge collapse effectively “puts a cork in the bottle,” according to Georgia State Patrol Commissioner Mark McDonough.
President Trump declared war on members of his own party on Thursday by threatening the political careers of conservative Republicans who helped torpedo the health care legislation he backed, but was quickly told the lawmakers will not bow to “bullying.” In a Twitter post, Trump took aim at the Freedom Caucus, a hard-line conservative group of about 30 members, indicating he would try to defeat them in next year’s congressional elections if they continued to defy him. Rep. Justin Amash, a Freedom Caucus member from Michigan, shot back immediately at Trump in remarks outside the U.S. Capitol.
Self-taught sculptor Emanuel Santos defended his grinning bust of Cristiano Ronaldo on Thursday, telling his thousands of online detractors he had followed the soccer star’s instructions down to the last wrinkle. Officials unveiled the bronze bust at Madeira’s airport on Wednesday, triggering an onslaught of online abuse and ridicule. Some focused on the sculpture’s toothy smile, others on its close-set, bulging eyes. All questioned the accuracy of its depiction of Portugal’s captain, known for his model-like looks, who was there at the unveiling. Santos, a 40-year-old former airport cleaner, said the Real Madrid striker had asked him to make the portrait more jovial and had praised his efforts.
Pedestrian deaths are climbing faster than motorist fatalities, reaching nearly 6,000 last year — the highest total in more than two decades, according to an analysis of preliminary state data released Thursday. Increased driving due to an improved economy, lower gas prices, and more walking for exercise and environmental factors are some of the likely reasons behind the estimated 11 percent spike in pedestrian fatalities in 2016. But researchers say they think the biggest factor may be more drivers and walkers distracted by cellphones and other electronic devices, although that’s hard to confirm. Walking and miles driven are up only a few percentage points and are unlikely to account for most of the surge in pedestrian deaths, the report’s author said. Meanwhile, texting and use of wireless devices have exploded.
The top Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, accepted the White House’s invitation to review intelligence information after the administration refused to say on Thursday whether it gave the top Republican on the committee access to highly classified materials. The New York Times reported that two White House officials — including an intelligence aide whose job was recently saved by Trump — helped Rep. Devin Nunes view documents showing Trump and his associates were swept up in lawful surveillance meant to monitor foreign officials. Nunes, who was a member of Trump’s transition team, is leading the House investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia. Schiff, who does not know if the information is the same as that reviewed by Nunes, said that White House staff has no reason to pass information to a committee chairman rather than just delivering it to Trump directly. White House press secretary Sean Spicer refused to comment on the Times report.
Israel’s Security Cabinet on Thursday approved the building of the first new settlement in the occupied West Bank since 1999, even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu negotiates with Washington on a possible curb on settlement activity. Netanyahu said the decision passed unanimously to honor a promise he made to build a new settlement after one was destroyed earlier this year. Palestinian officials swiftly condemned the move.
After a powerful cyclone struck northeastern Australia this week, scientists are warning that the storm could have caused further damage to the under-pressure Great Barrier Reef, turning parts into an “underwater wasteland.” There are already fears for the survival of corals in the central and northern areas of the World Heritage-listed marine ecosystem that spans approximately 1,430 miles off the Queensland state coast, after two consecutive years of mass bleaching from warming sea temperatures. It is believed that Tropical Cyclone Debbie mostly struck the reef’s southern parts, which have not been as seriously affected by bleaching, but ongoing inclement conditions mean that the extent of the damage from Debbie is not yet known.
SpaceX, a California-based company headed by entrepreneur and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, is poised to launch its first recycled rocket on Thursday. The goal of the launch, scheduled for 6:27 p.m. ET (2227 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, Fla., is to send a communications satellite for the Luxembourg-based company SES into a distant orbit. The white Falcon 9 rocket contains a tall columnlike portion known as the first stage, or booster, that propelled an unmanned cargo ship to space last year before returning to an upright landing on an ocean platform. SpaceX has spent years been honing the technology of powering its boosters back to careful Earth landings on solid ground and in the water. To date, it has successfully landed eight — five on so-called drone ships floating in the ocean, and three on land.
President Trump’s administration denied a petition by environmental groups that sought to ban a common pesticide used on citrus fruits, apples, cherries and other crops, reversing a push by the Obama administration to revoke all uses of the pesticide on food after a government review concluded it could be harmful to the neurological development of children. In announcing the decision, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said that by not banning chlorpyrifos, he is providing “regulatory certainty” to thousands of American farms that rely on the pesticide. U.S. farms use more than 6 million pounds of the chemical each year — about 25 percent of it in California.
The first line-up poster for Glastonbury 2017 has been revealed in one of the earliest billing announcements from the festival in years. The XX, Katy Perry, Lorde, Solange and Stormzy are among the 88 extra acts who will join headliners Radiohead, Foo Fighters and Ed Sheeran across the three days of main stage programming. The line-up also offers sets from other heritage greats: Chic will be returning to the festival after a triumphant set in 2013; The Jacksons, formerly known as The Jackson 5, are on the bill; and Barry Gibb, who was set to perform with Coldplay during their Sunday night headline slot last year but pulled out, is in the mix. While the “Golden Oldie” performer, who traditionally fills the Sunday 4pm slot on the Pyramid Stage, is yet to be officially announced, Kris Kristofferson appears to be a favorite and will be in attendance.
U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in Hawaii, who temporarily blocked President Trump’s revised travel ban hours before it was set to take effect, issued a longer-lasting order Wednesday. The federal judge held a hearing on Hawaii’s request to extend his temporary hold. Several hours later, he issued a 24-page order blocking the government from suspending new visas for travelers from six Muslim-majority countries and halting the U.S. refugee program. Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin argued that even though the revised ban has more neutral language, the implied intent is still there. He likened it to a neon sign flashing “Muslim ban,” which the government hasn’t bothered to turn off.
The U.S. Census Bureau said Wednesday that it mistakenly proposed counting LGBTQ Americans and has since “corrected” the proposal to remove the gender and sexuality category. Gay rights groups quickly declared that it was another sign that President Trump was reneging on a campaign promise to protect them. An appendix to a report reviewed by the Associated Press showed that the bureau had proposed a subject called “sexual orientation and gender identity,” but it did not appear in a subsequent version. Rights groups said that suggests it was to be included at one point in the long process but was later rejected. The Census Bureau would not comment early Wednesday.
An Indonesian farmer was discovered inside the belly of a giant python after the swollen snake was caught near where the man vanished while harvesting his crops, an official said Wednesday. The body of the 25-year-old, named Akbar, was found when local people cut open the 23-foot python after it was found bloated and slithering awkwardly in the village of Salubiro, on the eastern island of Sulawesi, on Monday. Worried relatives launched a search for Akbar after he failed to return home from a trip to the family’s plantation on Sunday. The search party found scattered palm oil fruit, a picking tool and a boot, and then spotted the engorged python.
Snoop Dogg will induct the late rapper Tupac Shakur into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, while Pharrell Williams will induct Nile Rodgers during the ceremony in Brooklyn next month. The hall on Wednesday announced additional guests who’ll be on hand April 7 at the Barclays Center to install this year’s class. Dhani Harrison, George Harrison’s son, will induct ELO, and Pat Monahan will welcome Journey. The hall previously said Neil Young will induct Pearl Jam, Jackson Browne will introduce Joan Baez, and Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of Rush will induct Yes. Additional performers at this year’s ceremony include Lenny Kravitz, Alicia Keys, Mary Chapin Carpenter and the Indigo Girls.
U.S. regulators have approved the first drug for an aggressive type of multiple sclerosis, giving a lift to patients with a form of the disease that until now had no approved treatment. Although there are more than a dozen treatments for the most common form of MS, drugmaker Roche Group’s ocrelizumab (with the brand name Ocrevus) is the first FDA-approved medicine for the primary progressive form of the neurological disease (PPMS).
The U.K. formally filed for divorce from the European Union on Wednesday. The move overturned four decades of integration with its neighbors, demolished the notion that EU expansion was inevitable, and shook the foundations of a bloc facing challenges to its identity and its place in the world. Britain’s top envoy to the EU, Tim Barrow, hand-delivered a letter to European Council President Donald Tusk, formally triggering a two-year countdown to the final split. “Today the government acts on the democratic will of the British people,” Prime Minister Theresa May told lawmakers in the House of Commons nine months after Britain shocked investors and world leaders by unexpectedly voting to quit the bloc. “This is an historic moment from which there can be no turning back.”
Efforts among North Carolina leaders to take the state’s “bathroom bill” off the books before a deadline to stem further economic losses evaporated late Tuesday. House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger held an early evening news conference to announce they had agreed in principle on a four-point plan they said was proposed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. But they said Cooper backed out of the offer minutes before the news conference. The proposal would have repealed HB2. But it also left the authority to address public restroom policy in the hands of legislators and only allowed nondiscrimination ordinances by local governments to match federal protections, which currently don’t cover LGBT rights. Another provision would have allowed individuals to sue alleging that their constitutional rights to religious liberty had been infringed by government policy.
“Straight Outta Compton” — the groundbreaking album from rap group N.W.A. and a one-time flashpoint in the nation’s culture wars — has been selected for the prestigious National Recording Registry. Plenty of standards will join it, including Judy Garland’s version of “Over the Rainbow,” the Eagles’ 1976 greatest-hits collection, and Don MacLean’s elliptical 1971 folk song “American Pie.” Recordings picked for the registry are preserved at the library’s vast audio-visual vault in Culpeper, Virginia. If they have already been preserved elsewhere, the library collaborates with those studios or archives to ensure they will be available to future generations. More than two dozen additions to the registry were announced Wednesday by the Library of Congress. Other additions to the registry include Barbra Streisand’s 1964 recording of the song “People,” from the musical “Funny Girl”; the late David Bowie’s 1972 concept album “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars”; the original-cast recording of the musical “The Wiz” (1975); and Sister Sledge’s inclusive anthem “We are Family” (1979). Baseball play-by-play from Vin Scully, who retired last year after calling Dodgers games for 67 years, will also join the national library’s trove of recordings, which are selected for their historical, artistic or cultural significance.
Two anti-abortion activists who secretly recorded conversations with Planned Parenthood about fetal tissue each face more than a dozen felony charges. California’s new attorney general, Xavier Becerra, filed 15 counts apiece Tuesday against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt of the Center of Medical Progress, saying the videos showing discussions of fetal tissue were made without the consent of the people in them, which violates state law. California prosecutors say Daleiden, of Davis, Calif., and Merritt, of San Jose, filmed 14 people without permission between October 2013 and July 2015 in Los Angeles, San Francisco and El Dorado counties. One felony count was filed for each person recorded, and the 15th was for criminal conspiracy to invade privacy.
Congress has sent President Trump draft legislation that would kill an online privacy regulation — a move that could allow Internet providers such as Comcast, AT&T and Verizon to sell the browsing habits of their customers. The Federal Communications Commission rule, which was issued in October, was designed to give consumers greater control over how Internet service providers share information, but critics said it stifles innovation and picks winners and losers among Internet companies. The Trump-appointed chairman of the FCC, Ajit Pai, is a critic of the broadband privacy rules and wants a different federal agency, the Federal Trade Commission, to police privacy for both broadband companies like AT&T and Internet companies like Google. The effort is being met with support and criticism on both sides of the aisle.
Environmental groups said they’ll take their first battle against a sweeping executive order from President Trump to the court of public opinion. The president’s order, signed on Tuesday, eliminates many restrictions on fossil fuel production and rolls back his predecessor’s plans to curb global warming. It includes initiating a review of restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants and lifts a 14-month-old moratorium on new coal leases on federal lands. Advocates said they plan to work together to mobilize a public backlash against the order. But the groups have also hired scores of lawyers in recent months and are prepared to go to court as well.
Facebook is giving the camera a central place on its smartphone app for the first time, encouraging users to take more pictures and edit them with digital stickers that show the influence of camera-friendly rival Snapchat. With the update coming Tuesday, Facebook will allow users to get to the app’s camera with one swipe of a finger and then add visual details such as filters and animations. They also will be able to share a picture privately with a friend and employ a new “stories” feature that allows the posting of photos and videos that stay live for 24 hours. Facebook, the world’s largest social media network with some 1.86 billion users, says it did not take its new camera function from Snapchat, but rather from Facebook users.
The cast of the hit 1990s sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” were reunited on Monday. Alfonso Ribeiro, who played Will Smith’s Tom Jones-loving cousin, Carlton, on the series, posted a picture on Instagram of the cast’s get-together. Joining Smith and Ribeiro were Tatyana Ali, Karyn Parsons, Daphne Reid and Joseph Marcell. James Avery, who had the role of Smith’s Uncle Phil, died in 2013. Ribeiro writes in the caption that it’s “always amazing to spend an afternoon with my Fresh Prince family.” He says he wishes that Avery were there “to make this complete.” Fans of the show may not want to get their hopes up for a series revival, though. Smith told E! News last year that a reboot of the show, which aired for six seasons on NBC, will happen “pretty close to when hell freezes over.”
President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday to undo a slew of Obama-era climate change regulations that Trump’s administration says is hobbling oil drillers and coal miners — a move environmental groups have vowed to take to court. The decree’s main target is former President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which required states to slash carbon emissions from power plants — a critical element in helping the U.S. meet its commitments to the Paris Agreement, a global climate change accord signed in 2015. Although the administration has still not decided whether it intends to withdraw from the agreement, the order could make it more difficult for the U.S. to achieve its carbon reduction goals.
A recent spike in civilian casualties in Mosul suggests the U.S.-led coalition is not taking adequate precautions as it helps Iraqi forces battle the Islamic State, Amnesty International said Tuesday. The rights group’s allegations came after the U.S. military acknowledged carrying out a March 17 airstrike in an area of western Mosul where residents say an explosion killed more than 100 civilians. U.S. officials did not confirm there were civilian casualties, but said a probe is underway. Unlike previous battles against ISIS in urban settings in Iraq, the government instructed Mosul civilians to remain in their homes, to prevent large-scale displacement.
Wells Fargo said Tuesday it had agreed in principle to pay $110 million to settle a lawsuit by customers challenging its opening of accounts without their permission — a practice that led to a scandal that cost the bank’s chief executive his job. It’s the first private settlement that Wells Fargo has reached since the company paid millions to federal and local authorities late last year. Regulators said a high-pressure culture drove branch workers needing to meet sales quotas to open unauthorized accounts, including forged signatures. Customers said this saddled them with accounts they did not need or want, and fees they knew nothing about. The first settlement prompted national outrage and led to the departure of the bank’s longtime chief executive, John Stumpf, in October 2016. Wells Fargo’s new CEO, Tim Sloan, told analysts in January that the bank still has “a lot of work to do” to rebuild trust with customers, employees and other stakeholders.
This week, Space X and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has launched a company called Neuralink, which aims to investigate technology that connects human brains and computers. Neuralink is pursuing what Musk calls “neural lace” technology, implanting tiny brain electrodes that may one day upload and download thoughts. In the end, such “brain-computer interfaces” may see human beings implant devices in their brain — and “merge” with artificial intelligence.
Ignoring fresh threats from the White House, city leaders across the U.S. are vowing to intensify their fight against President Trump’s promised crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities despite the financial risks. During a gathering in New York on Monday, officials of several sanctuary cities promised to continue blocking cooperation between city police departments and federal immigration authorities. They also vowed to prevent federal agents from accessing their schools and school records, and they openly contemplated employing cities’ rarely used oversight and subpoena powers to investigate federal immigration practices.
Scientists have published details of the world’s biggest dinosaur footprints found in what has been dubbed “Australia’s Jurassic Park.” A team of paleontologists identified an unprecedented 21 different types of dinosaur tracks, including the only confirmed evidence for stegosaurs in Australia, on a 16-mile stretch of a remote coastline north of Broome. The 5.5-foot-long tracks likely belonged to a long-necked, small-headed sauropod. They’re part of an unusually diverse array of dinosaur tracks imprinted into the rocks on Australia’s Dampier Peninsula. “Nowhere else has as many different types of dinosaurs represented by tracks than Walmadany has,” said Steve Salisbury, the lead author of the study, using the name given to the area by its traditional owners.
NFL owners, by 31 to 1, approved the Raiders’ move to Las Vegas on Monday. Miami was the lone dissenter. Owner Mark Davis insisted that the club that his father, Hall of Fame owner Al Davis, had built into a champion — in Oakland and Los Angeles — should still be considered a part of the Bay Area community. Davis said any season ticket holders who have already paid for next season will get full refunds if they seek them, and added that he is trying to put together a concrete plan for the 2019 season, including finding a training facility and a stadium.
President Trump is expected to sign an executive order today that will review or roll back parts of former President Barack Obama’s comprehensive plan to curb global warming. Among the initiatives up for reconsideration is the Clean Power Plan, which restricts greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants. Chipping away at other regulations, the order also scraps language on the “social cost” of greenhouse gases and initiates a review of efforts to reduce the emission of methane in oil and natural gas production. It rescinds Obama-era executive orders and memoranda, including one that addressed climate change and national security and one that sought to prepare the country for the impacts of climate change. Although Trump’s team is still in discussion about whether it intends to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change, today’s order will make it more difficult for the U.S. to participate.
Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, has agreed to answer questions before the Senate intelligence committee about arranging meetings with the Russian ambassador and other officials, the White House confirmed Monday. The panel is conducting an investigation into Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 election, including whether there were any ties between Trump associates and the Kremlin, the White House said. Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign and transition, Kushner served as the main contact with foreign governments and officials, the administration added.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was sentenced to 15 days behind bars and fined Monday for staging the country’s biggest anticorruption protests in years, an act branded as a “provocation” by the Kremlin. The U.S. and the EU voiced deep concern after Navalny and more than 1,000 others were detained in the Moscow protest on Sunday, with the State Department calling the arrests an “affront to democracy.” The 40-year-old Navalny, a lawyer turned activist who has announced plans to run for president next year, called for Sunday’s protests after publishing a report accusing Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of controlling a property empire through a shadowy network of nonprofit organizations.
The statue of a “Fearless Girl” in the heart of New York’s financial district will continue to inspire people for at least another year. The artwork was originally placed in front of Wall Street’s famous “Charging Bull” on International Women’s Day to advocate for more gender diversity on corporate boards. The figure of a ponytailed girl in a windblown dress immediately became a tourist draw and Internet sensation, prompting calls to make her presence permanent. Mayor Bill de Blasio says the statue has fueled many beneficial conversations about women and will be allowed to remain through February 2018.
The Trump administration is continuing its tough talk against “sanctuary cities,” which shelter people living in the country illegally by refusing to help the federal government enforce immigration laws. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Monday the Justice Department will require compliance with immigration laws in order for the cities to receive grants through the Office of Justice Programs. He added the federal government could also “claw back” existing grants to jurisdictions refusing to work with the federal government. President Trump had threatened during his campaign that he would “defund” sanctuary cities by taking away their federal funding.
Michigan and the city of Flint have agreed to replace thousands of home water lines under a sweeping deal to settle a lawsuit over lead-contaminated water in the troubled city. A court filing Monday says Flint will replace at least 18,000 lead or galvanized-steel water lines by 2020, and the tab will be paid with state and federal money. The settlement will be presented to a federal judge in Detroit on Tuesday for approval. Flint’s water was tainted with lead for at least 18 months, as the city tapped the Flint River but didn’t treat the water to reduce corrosion. As a result, lead leached from old pipes and fixtures.
At least two girls wearing leggings were barred from boarding a United Airlines flight on Sunday because they were not in compliance with a dress code for passengers, the company said in a statement on Twitter. According to a series of tweets by another passenger, Shannon Watts, who identified herself as the founder of a gun control advocacy group, the girls were required to change or put dresses on over their leggings before they were allowed to board their flight from Denver to Minneapolis. Watts described one of the barred passengers as a 10-year-old girl wearing gray leggings.
Open-wheel racing star Dave Steele was killed in a crash Saturday night at Desoto Speedway in Florida. According to racing website SpeedSport.com, Steele crashed while trying to get around lapped traffic in a winged sprint car race in the Southern Sprint car Shootout Series event. The local sheriff’s office reported the left front wheel of Steele’s vehicle struck the right rear wheel of another car, causing Steele’s vehicle to go up in the air, spin 180 degrees and hit the retaining wall. Medics attempted to treat him but he was pronounced dead. He was 42.
Frank Martin never got caught up in wins and losses, the highs and the lows, as he worked to build South Carolina into a contender for conference championships. Gonzaga’s Mark Few dismissed questions of whether his Bulldogs would be a failure as long as they failed to get to a Final Four after so many great regular seasons. And Oregon’s Dana Altman focused on turning one deep NCAA Tournament run into something more. Whatever their differences in personality, playing style and approach, that trio now shares something in common after all that work: each is headed to his first Final Four.
Despite Republican assurances that North Carolina’s “bathroom bill” isn’t hurting the economy, the law limiting LGBT protections will cost the state more than $3.76 billion in lost business over a dozen years, according to an Associated Press analysis. Over the past year, North Carolina has suffered financial hits ranging from scuttled plans for a PayPal facility that would have added an estimated $2.66 billion to the state’s economy to a canceled Ringo Starr concert that deprived a town’s amphitheater of about $33,000 in revenue. The NAACP has also initiated a national economic boycott, and the state stands to lose millions because the NCAA is leaving North Carolina off its game roster as long as the law is in place.
In a speech to the pro-Israel U.S. lobbying group AIPAC on Sunday, Vice President Mike Pence hinted that the United States might relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In saying that President Trump is seriously considering the move, Pence revived a campaign trail promise that had appeared, until now, to sit on the back burner. Israel regards Jerusalem as its capital and wants all countries to base their embassies there, but such a decision is strongly opposed by many U.S. allies because Palestinians also claim the city as their capital.
Iran on Sunday sanctioned what it described as 15 American companies, alleging they support terrorism, repression and Israel’s occupation of land Palestinians want for a future state, likely in retaliation for sanctions earlier announced by the U.S. The wide-ranging list from an American real estate company to a major arms manufacturer appeared more symbolic than anything else as the firms weren’t immediately known to be doing business anywhere in the Islamic Republic. A Foreign Ministry statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency said the sanctions barred companies from any agreements with Iranian firms and that former and current directors would not be eligible for visas. It also said any of the company’s assets in Iran could be seized.
The candidate favored by China’s Communist leadership was chosen as Hong Kong’s new leader on Sunday, in the first such vote since huge pro-democracy protests erupted over the semiautonomous Chinese city’s election system in 2014. A committee dominated by pro-Beijing elites selected Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s former No. 2 official, as the financial hub’s chief executive even though she was far less popular than her main rival. Her victory was hardly a surprise. China’s leaders had lobbied heavily behind the scenes for the 59-year-old Lam, who will become Hong Kong’s first female leader and its fourth since British colonial control ended in 1997. Democracy supporters called Sunday’s vote a “fake election” and blasted Beijing for meddling in Hong Kong’s affairs.
Technology companies must cooperate more with law enforcement agencies and should stop offering a “secret place for terrorists to communicate” using encrypted messages, British interior minister Amber Rudd said on Sunday. Local media have reported that British-born Khalid Masood sent an encrypted message moments before killing four people last week by plowing his car into pedestrians and fatally stabbing a policeman as he tried to get into Parliament in an 82-second attack that struck terror in the heart of London.
Thousands of people crowded into Moscow’s Pushkin Square on Sunday for an unsanctioned protest against the Russian government, the biggest gathering in a wave of nationwide protests that were the most extensive show of defiance in years. Alexei Navalny, the anti-corruption campaigner who is leading the opposition to President Vladimir Putin, was arrested while walking from a nearby subway station to the demonstration at Moscow’s iconic Pushkin Square. The protests, reckoned to be the biggest since a wave of anti-Kremlin demonstrations in 2011 and 2012, come a year before a presidential election, which Putin is expected to contest, running for what would be a fourth term. Opinion polls suggest the liberal opposition, which Navalny represents, has little chance of fielding a candidate capable of unseating Putin, who enjoys high ratings. But Navalny and his supporters hope to channel public discontent over official corruption to attract more support.
President Trump on Sunday laid blame for the failure of the Republican bill to replace Barack Obama’s health care law squarely at the feet of conservative lawmakers as his aides pledged to court moderate Democrats on upcoming initiatives from health care to tax cuts. The Freedom Caucus, a hard-right group of House members, was largely responsible for blocking the bill to undo the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare.” Trump — who campaigned for the White House on what he said were his skills as a dealmaker — failed to win over the group despite courting it intensively. The bill was pulled from the House floor Friday in a humiliating political defeat for the president. After a day of stock-taking and behind-the-scenes consultations over the lessons of the embarrassing setback, Trump appeared to be returning Sunday to his customary bravado.
Utah’s governor signed legislation on Saturday that would require doctors to inform women that medication-induced abortions can be halted after taking just one of two pills, despite doctors’ groups saying there is little evidence to back up that idea. Proponents of the idea said doctors can give a woman the hormone progesterone to stop an abortion after she has taken the first of two medications needed to complete the abortion. Republican Rep. Keven Stratton of Orem, who sponsored Utah’s measure, said that the plan would give women more information about their options. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has said that there is no medically accepted evidence that a drug-induced abortion can be interrupted. Since 2015, Arkansas and South Dakota have enacted laws requiring doctors to tell women about stopping an abortion. Bills are under consideration in Indiana and North Carolina. Colorado also considered a similar proposal this year, but it was killed in a committee in the House earlier this month. Arizona passed a similar law in 2015, but it was repealed after Planned Parenthood took the issue to court, arguing that the new law violates abortion providers’ First Amendment rights by forcing them to repeat a state-mandated message against their medical judgment.
A northern Idaho woman told police she crashed into a deer because she was distracted by a sasquatch in her rearview mirror. Local media reported that the 50-year-old woman was driving south on U.S. Highway 95 on Wednesday when she struck a deer. The woman told county sheriff’s officials that she saw a sasquatch chasing a deer on the side of the road while driving. She says she checked one of her mirrors to get a second look at the beast and when she looked up, the deer ran in front of her. Sheriff’s officials marked the incident as a vehicle versus deer collision but did not report any evidence of Bigfoot.
A scuffle broke out on a Southern California beach where supporters of President Trump were marching when counter-protesters doused organizers with pepper spray, authorities said Saturday. Three people were arrested on suspicion of illegal use of pepper spray and a fourth person was arrested on suspicion of assault and battery. The fights appeared to start in the early afternoon when around a dozen anti-Trump protesters dressed in all black refused to move from a bike path to allow a larger group of pro-Trump supporters taking part in the Make America Great Again rally to pass. The confrontation escalated into a fight with more skirmishes quickly breaking out.
Tens of thousands of pro-European Union protesters took to London’s streets Saturday, in defiance of the terror threat, to mark the bloc’s 60th anniversary just days before Brexit begins. Organizers said around 80,000 people joined the march calling for Britain to stay in the European Union, even as Prime Minister Theresa May prepares to start the withdrawal process on Wednesday. The anniversary of the EU’s founding treaty was marked by a special summit in Rome, where at least 10,000 people also marched in support of the bloc. Rallies were also held across Poland, one of the EU’s newest and most enthusiastic members. Around 4,000 people also gathered in Berlin, reflecting fears that Brexit may cause irreparable harm to the 27-nation bloc.
Americans who have benefited from the Affordable Care Act are feeling some relief at the failure of Republican efforts to repeal it, but they face new anxieties with President Trump tweeting that “ObamaCare will explode.” Premiums have risen and major insurers have backed out of the state markets where people can buy insurance online under Obama’s signature health care law. But people who say it saved their lives or helped them start a business want lawmakers to fix these problems, not encourage them. Republican promises to repeal and replace the law foundered on Friday when House Speaker Paul Ryan abruptly pulled the party’s health care bill to avoid almost certain defeat.
A man who police said was inspired by false internet rumors dubbed “pizzagate” to fire an assault weapon inside a Washington pizzeria pleaded guilty Friday to two charges. Edgar Maddison Welch of Salisbury, North Carolina, said during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington that he had agreed to plead guilty to interstate transportation of a firearm and assault with a dangerous weapon. As part of the guilty plea, prosecutors will drop a third charge, possessing a firearm during a crime of violence, which had carried a mandatory minimum prison term of five years. Authorities say the 28-year-old Welch fired multiple shots from an AR-15 assault rifle inside the Comet Ping Pong restaurant Dec. 4, after driving from North Carolina to investigate a conspiracy theory about Democrats harboring child sex slaves there. No one was injured.
Las Vegas police say the gunman in a fatal shooting on the Strip who barricaded himself inside a public bus has surrendered peacefully after shutting down the busy tourism corridor for hours. The standoff began about 11 a.m. Saturday with a shooting that killed one person and injured another. It happened on a double-decker bus on Las Vegas Boulevard near the Cosmopolitan hotel-casino. University Medical Center spokeswoman Danita Cohen said two people were taken to the hospital after the shooting. She said one died and the other was in fair condition. Las Vegas Police officer Larry Hadfield said just before 3:30 p.m. that the man had a handgun and surrendered without incident. Police did not open fire. Crisis negotiators, robots and armored vehicles were on the scene. Police said they believe the armed man on the bus is the only suspect and that they have ruled out terrorism or any relationship to an earlier robbery nearby that shut down a part of the Bellagio hotel-casino. Hadfield said the casino properties in the area have been co-operating by keeping people from exiting through their front doors onto the Strip.
Devin Booker is only 20 and already has a place alongside Wilt Chamberlain, Kobe Bryant and just a few others in NBA history. Booker scored 70 points , becoming the sixth different player to reach that total, even as the Boston Celtics outlasted his Phoenix Suns 130-120 on Friday night. Phoenix has already been eliminated from playoff contention, and had only eight available players because of injuries. Younger than some lineups in the NCAA Tournament, the tanking Suns have lost seven straight and nine of their last 10, and they were out of this one early before Booker’s explosive performance made it interesting.
House Republicans’ failure to repeal Barack Obama’s health care law deals a serious blow to another big part of President Donald Trump’s agenda: tax reform. Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., say they will soon turn their attention to the first major re-write of the tax code in more than 30 years. But they will have to do it without the momentum of victory on health care. House Republicans couldn’t round up enough votes Friday to repeal and replace a law they collectively despise, raising questions about their ability to tackle other tough issues. Just as important, the loss on health care will deprive Republicans of $1 trillion in tax cuts. The GOP health plan would have repealed nearly $1 trillion in taxes enacted under Obama’s Affordable Care Act. The bill coupled the tax cuts with spending cuts for Medicaid, so it wouldn’t add to the budget deficit. Without the spending cuts, it will be much harder for Republicans to cut taxes without adding to the federal government’s red ink.
An airstrike on the Iraqi city of Mosul that witnesses say killed at least 100 people was in fact launched by the U.S. military, American officials said Saturday. U.S. officials did not confirm the reports of civilian casualties but opened an investigation. In the days following the March 17 airstrike, U.S. officials had said they were unsure whether American forces were behind the attack. The statement issued by the U.S.-led coalition said the airstrike had been requested by Iraqi security forces to target ISIS fighters and equipment. The coalition said it takes all allegations of civilian casualties seriously and a formal Civilian Casualty Credibility Assessment had been opened to determine the facts surrounding this strike and the validity of the allegation of civilian casualties.
In what might be the final chapter in the child sexual abuse scandal at Penn State University, former university President Graham Spanier was convicted Friday of hushing up the allegations in 2001 against Jerry Sandusky. The jury found Spanier guilty of one misdemeanor count of child endangerment over his handling of a complaint against the retired assistant football coach but acquitted him of conspiracy and a second child endangerment count. Spanier, 68, showed no emotion when the verdict was read after 13 hours of deliberations.
House Speaker Paul Ryan admitted in a surprisingly candid Friday press conference that his caucus was experiencing “growing pains” that caused him to fall short of delivering long-promised votes to repeal and replace Obamacare. It was a stunning admission from the leader of a party that has been promising to repeal the Affordable Care Act for seven years and now controls the White House and both houses of Congress.
The U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group is investigating reports of an airstrike in a western neighborhood in the Iraqi city of Mosul that reportedly left more than 100 civilians dead last week. The deaths underscore the difficulties that Iraqi troops face in the weeks-long fight to route the Sunni militant group from the densely urban part of the city, Iraq’s second-largest. Residents of the neighborhood known as Mosul Jidideh told reporters at the scene that scores of residents are believed to have been killed by a pair of airstrikes that hit a cluster of homes.
It wasn’t easy, but Florida made sure New York City would become the unofficial tournament home of the Southeastern Conference, beating Wisconsin 84-83 in overtime on the buzzer-beating shot of the tourney to advance to the Elite Eight. After blowing a double-digit lead in regulation, Florida stunned the Badgers thanks to a game-winning 3-pointer from Chris Chiozza, his only 3-point shot on the night and it came after Nigel Hayes made a pair of free throws to put Wisconsin ahead 83-81 with just four seconds remaining.
President Trump’s first major foray into legislating imploded Friday when House Republicans abandoned a White House-backed health care bill, resisting days of cajoling and arm-twisting from Trump himself. Aides who had confidently touted Trump as the deal’s “closer” were left bemoaning the limits of the presidency. Not only was the bill’s collapse a stunning rejection of a new president by his own party, for Trump it came with an especially strong sting after he campaigned by promising “so much winning,” has so far been beset by a steady parade of the opposite.
President Trump formally greenlighted TransCanada Corporation’s Keystone XL oil pipeline Friday, ending a years-long battle between environmentalists and the industry over whether Washington should approve it. The pipeline linking Canadian oil sands to U.S. refiners had been blocked for years by President Barack Obama, who said it would do nothing to reduce fuel prices and contribute to emissions linked to global warming. Environmental groups have forcefully opposed the pipeline. Trump, however, campaigned on a promise to approve it, saying it would create thousands of jobs and help the oil industry, and he signed an executive order soon after taking office in January to advance the project. It marks one of the biggest steps taken to date by the Trump administration to prioritize economic development over environmental concerns.
Twitter has begun surveying members on a paid subscription service that would give frequent users more tools for using the social network for marketing, journalism and other fields. The survey this week showed Twitter is looking at building a more powerful version of TweetDeck, the dashboard that many use to manage their accounts. An upgraded TweetDeck would put Twitter in competition with third-party services for social media accounts such as Hootsuite and Social Flow, which allow users to manage multiple accounts and measure the impact of their messages.
Kendrick Lamar called out rappers by name in his infamous “Control” verse, released in 2013, but the Internet is playing the guessing game about his target in a new song. Lamar released “The Heart Part 4” on Friday and caused a frenzy on social media as fans and listeners tried to figure out whom the rap prince was referring to in the buzzed track. Drake, Big Sean and J. Cole were some of the rappers speculated to be Lamar’s target on the song, which starts with the line, “Don’t tell a lie on me/I won’t tell the truth about you.” On the second verse he raps, “Tiptoeing around my name … you lame/And when I get at you, homie, don’t you just tell me you was just playing.” The 29-year-old Compton rapper also name-drops President Trump in the song, calling him a “chump.”
Two spacewalking astronauts ventured outside the International Space Station on Friday on the first of three outings to prepare a new parking spot for commercial crew capsules. NASA is making the retrofits in the hope that private companies can begin flying astronauts to the station by the end of 2018. This would break Russia’s monopoly on crew transportation, a service that costs NASA more than $80 million per person. The 250-mile-high complex already has one docking port in place for the SpaceX Crew Dragon and the Boeing Starliner, which should start carrying up astronauts as early as next year.
In a humiliating setback, President Trump and GOP leaders pulled their Obamacare repeal bill off the House floor Friday after it became clear the measure would fail badly. It was a stunning defeat for the new president after he had demanded House Republicans vote on the legislation Friday, threatening to leave Obamacare in place and move on to other issues if the vote was lost. Instead the bill was withdrawn minutes before the vote was to occur, with a House leadership aide telling Yahoo News that Trump asked Ryan to drop the vote. “We were very close,” Trump said from the Oval Office late Friday afternoon. “We learned a lot about loyalty,” he later mused. The president’s gamble failed, and Trump, who campaigned as a master dealmaker and claimed that he alone could fix the nation’s health care system, saw his ultimatum rejected by Republican lawmakers who made clear they answer to their own voters, not to the president.
We finally have some insight into how Disney will address the death of its “Star Wars” star, Carrie Fisher, as it prepares to release the next movie in the saga, “Episode VIII,” aka “The Last Jedi,” on December 15. Disney CEO Bob Iger, in a new interview, revealed that Fisher’s General Leia role will not undergo any tweaking, nor will there be any reviving of the actress along the lines of what we saw in “Rogue One.”
Today, judges at the International Criminal Court are expected to unveil the first compensation awards to victims of war crimes. The reparations, for 304 victims of former Congolese warlord Germain Katanga, would be a landmark step for the tribunal, which was established in 2002 to prosecute the world’s worst crimes. The judges could decide to try to help the community as a whole, as well as award individual damages to victims. Katanga, 38, now on trial in the Democratic Republic of Congo on other charges of war crimes and insurrection in the mineral-rich Ituri region, is liable for paying any designated compensation.
Before he sped across Westminster Bridge on Wednesday, plowing into pedestrians with a rented SUV before running onto Parliament grounds and fatally stabbing an unarmed policeman, Khalid Masood was considered by intelligence officers to be a criminal who posed little serious threat. A British-born Muslim convert, Masood had shown up on the periphery of previous terrorism investigations that brought him to the attention of Britain’s MI5 spy agency. His personal connections included people suspected of being keen to travel to join jihadi groups overseas, but Masood never joined them and was not being watched for terrorism, according to an anonymous U.S. government source.
In what might be the ultimate test of wills, President Trump and GOP lawmakers will proceed this morning with a vote in the House on the American Health Care bill, not sure if they have the votes to pass it. The risky move was presented to GOP lawmakers behind closed doors Thursday night after a long and intense day that saw a planned vote on the health care bill scrapped as the legislation remained short of votes amid cascading negotiations among conservative lawmakers, moderates and others. Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney, told lawmakers the president had had enough and was ready to move on.
If you’ve ever thought of your smartphone as your second brain, the analogy may not be far off. A new study shows that when we follow navigational instructions, such as those given by GPS devices, the parts of our actual brains that normally perform navigation remain quiet. And, over time, this could mean humans will get worse at using their brains for pathfinding, said the study’s main author, Amir-Homayoun Javadi, a neuroscientist at the University of Kent in the United Kingdom.
President Trump says he doesn’t necessarily need facts before making such evidence-free claims as, say, former President Barack Obama’s wiretapping the phones at Trump Tower, because they’ve later been proved right. “I’m a very instinctual person,” Trump told Time magazine’s Michael Scherer in a phone interview from the Oval Office on Wednesday. “But my instinct turns out to be right.” The president offered a list of things he says he “predicted,” including Brexit, Anthony Weiner’s sexting scandal, Bernie Sanders’ loss in the Democratic primary. He even regarded as upheld his false suggestion that a terror attack had occurred in Sweden the night before. Trump said such predictions are why he believes other unsubstantiated claims, like 3 million undocumented people voted illegally in the 2016 presidential election, will be proved right too.
Tyrannosaurus rex and his buddies could be on the move as a new study proposes a massive shakeup of the dinosaur family tree. Scientists who took a deeper look at dinosaur fossils suggest a different evolutionary history for dinosaurs, moving theropods such as T. rex to a new branch of the family tree and hinting at an earlier and more northern origin for other dinosaurs. The revised dinosaur tree makes more sense than the old one, initially designed more than a century ago based on hip shape, said Matt Baron, a paleontology doctoral student at the University of Cambridge in England. He is the lead author of the study in Wednesday’s journal Nature.
Researchers have found that vitamin D seems to play an important role in the development — and prevention — of autism. A study at the Queensland Brain Institute found that giving vitamin D supplements to mice during pregnancy completely prevented autism traits in their offspring. Previous research showed a link between pregnant women with low vitamin D levels and the increased likelihood of having a child with autistic traits. Sun exposure is the major source of vitamin D — which skin cells manufacture in response to UV rays — but it is also found in some foods. A new injection of funding has opened the field for researchers to take next steps in determining how much vitamin D supplement is necessary to reproduce these results in humans, says Dr. Wei Luan, a postdoctoral researcher involved in the study.
Taliban fighters have captured the strategic district of Sangin in the southern Afghan province of Helmand after security forces pulled out, leaving the district center to the insurgents, officials said on Thursday. The capture of the town in the opium-rich region of Helmand, where U.S. and British forces suffered heavy casualties until it was handed over to Afghan personnel, underscores the Taliban’s growing strength and the scale of the challenge facing the western-backed Afghan government and its international partners. Afghan forces have struggled to contain the spreading insurgency since international troops ended combat operations in 2014, leaving the Afghans to fight largely alone. With warmer spring weather beginning, increased fighting is expected across Afghanistan, and security officials have warned that 2017 may be even tougher than last year.
After seven years of fervent promises to repeal and replace “Obamacare,” President Donald Trump and GOP congressional leaders buckled at a moment of truth Thursday, putting off a planned showdown vote in a stinging setback for the young administration. The White House insisted the House vote would still happen — Friday morning instead — but with opposition flowing from both strongly conservative and moderate-leaning GOP lawmakers, that was far from assured. The delay was announced after Trump, who ran for president as a master deal-maker, failed to close the deal with a group of fellow Republicans in the first major legislative test of his presidency. Still, leaders of the conservative Freedom Caucus said they were continuing to work with the White House late Thursday on their demands to limit the requirements on insurance companies now in place under former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
Under legislation inspired by former “Jersey Shore” reality TV star Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, no more than $10,000 of state money could go to pay speakers at New Jersey’s public universities. The Democrat-controlled Assembly is scheduled to vote on the bill Thursday. If approved, it will go to Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s desk. Republican Assemblyman John DiMaio says he was inspired to write the measure after Polizzi earned $32,000 to speak at Rutgers’ commencement in 2011.
U.S. wireless carriers Verizon and AT&T said on Wednesday that they have suspended advertising on Google’s YouTube and other platforms not related to search. AT&T is removing ads from the nonsearch inventory on Google because its “ads may have appeared alongside YouTube content promoting terrorism and hate,” the company wrote in an email. Verizon said it had suspended all advertising not related to search on Google’s nonsearch platforms after its ads were appearing on “non-sanctioned websites,” a spokeswoman wrote said.
As President Trump, a self-proclaimed master dealmaker, tries to push a health care bill through Congress, he is encountering an entrenched Republican political culture that for years has been rewarded for saying no. Over the last decade, Republicans who wanted to raise money or their profile could simply oppose then-President Barack Obama and get re-elected based on the success of their efforts to obstruct him. Meanwhile, outside groups such as Heritage Action, FreedomWorks and the Club for Growth — who are now opposing Trump’s health care replacement proposal, saying it does not go far enough — have followed this arc, too.
The United States is on top of the baseball world. Behind a brilliant, 1-hit performance from starter Marcus Stroman and a relentless offensive attack, Team USA defeated previously unbeaten Puerto Rico 8-0 to win its first World Baseball Classic. Stroman’s dominance quieted a Puerto Rico offense that had racked up 55 runs over its previous seven wins and earned him the honor of tournament MVP.
British police have made seven arrests in armed raids after an attack near Parliament that left four people dead and around 40 injured, the country’s top antiterrorism officer said on Thursday. In what police called a terrorist incident, authorities worked around the clock to piece together what happened when the attacker drove an SUV into several pedestrians on nearby Westminster Bridge, then charged at a policeman at the Parliament gates, stabbing him to death with a large knife before being gunned down by officers. Parliament was locked down for several hours, and police evacuated hundreds of MPs and visitors to nearby Westminster Abbey and the Metropolitan Police headquarters.
International researchers say they have found a way to assess a person’s genetic risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease by a given age, a tool that could lead to better diagnosis and treatment. The report in the journal PLOS Medicine was based on genetic data from more than 70,000 Alzheimer’s patients and elderly people without the disease participating in several major global studies on dementia. Most people with the disease begin to show symptoms in their 60s, but rarer cases of early onset Alzheimer’s can begin as early as the 30s.
Chicago police said Wednesday they were looking for up to six suspects who allegedly raped a teenage girl and broadcast the assault on Facebook Live. The victim was a 15-year-old girl, who went missing Sunday and was reunited with her family on Tuesday morning. It was the latest in a series of troubling incidents in which violent acts have been streamed live on Facebook, including two fatal shootings and the kidnapping and torture of a disabled 18-year-old.
As the godfather of the NBA’s modern player rest movement, San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has long championed the importance of limiting the wear and tear on players’ bodies in order to prolong their careers and increase the chances of deep runs in the postseason. Commissioner Adam Silver has long been sympathetic to Popovich’s point of view, acknowledging the science that proves what a difference rest can make. But now that Silver is ramping up the pressure to consider more than just X’s and O’s when deciding when to rest players en masse, Popovich and other coaches around the league say they are eager to have dialogue with the league and its television partners to address an approach that is drawing the ire of fans and business partners.
On Wednesday, the professional networking site launched a section on its network dedicated to business news, seeking to draw users onto the service more frequently to read and talk about current events, company officials said. The addition of “Trending Storylines” is the latest attempt by LinkedIn, which was acquired by Microsoft last year, to grow beyond its roots as a job-hunting service and to add features associated with social media.
A knife-wielding man went on a deadly rampage at the heart of Britain’s seat of power Wednesday, mowing down pedestrians with a car on London’s Westminster Bridge before stabbing an armed police officer to death inside the gates of Parliament. Five people were killed, including the attacker, and about 40 others were injured. Lawmakers, lords, staff and visitors were prevented from leaving as the area was put on lockdown. The man was shot by police within the perimeter of Parliament and just yards from entrances to the building itself. He died, as did two pedestrians on the bridge and a police officer. A doctor who treated the wounded said some had “catastrophic” injuries. Police said they were treating the attacks as a terrorist incident and had launched a full counterterrorism investigation. Prime Minister Theresa May condemned the attack as “sick and depraved.”
Despite a push in recent years to make the U.S. education system more competitive and effective, foreign exchange students continue to view American high school experience as much less stimulating, according to a study published Wednesday. In the survey conducted last spring, 259 teenagers from various countries compared their experience in American schools to that in their home countries. Of the responses, 44 percent said U.S. students spend “much less” time on schoolwork, and asked how difficult their classes are in the U.S., 66 percent said they are “much easier.”
For the first time in World Baseball Classic history, Team USA will play in the championship game, taking on the undefeated Team Puerto Rico on Wednesday. Seth Lugo will take the hill for Puerto Rico, and Toronto Blue Jays starter Marcus Stroman is expected to start for the U.S. Thus far, Puerto Rico is a perfect 7-0 during the tournament. One of those wins came against Team USA. Puerto Rico narrowly walked away with a win, picking up a 6-5 victory during the second round of tournament play. However, that result won’t matter going into Wednesday. The championship game is a winner-take-all affair, so everything will be on the line when the two teams get together for what promises to be an exciting rematch.
Hollywood fixture Chuck Barris, whose game show empire included “The Dating Game,” “The Newlywed Game,” and “The Gong Show,” has died at 87 of natural causes, his representative confirmed. The grinning, curly-haired Barris became a familiar face as creator and host of “The Gong Show,” which aired from 1976 to 1980. Patterned after the “Major Bowes Amateur Hour,” a radio hit in the 1930s, the program featured performers who had peculiar talents and, often, no talent at all. When the latter appeared on the show, Barris would strike an oversize gong, the show’s equivalent of vaudeville’s hook. At one point Barris was supplying the television networks with 27 hours of entertainment a week, mostly in five-days-a-week daytime game shows. Eventually, as “The Gong Show” and Barris’ other series were slipping, he sold his company and went into films, directing and starring in “The Gong Show Movie,” which stayed in theaters only a week. Afterward, a distraught Barris checked into a New York hotel and wrote his autobiography, “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” in two months and in it, he claimed to have been a CIA assassin. Eventually craving an escape from the Hollywood rat race, Barris moved to a villa in the south of France in the 1980s and made few returns to his old haunts over the next two decades.
North Korea fired a test missile Wednesday morning, but the launch failed, U.S. and South Korean officials have confirmed. The missile was launched in the eastern Wonsan Province, where North Korea has previously attempted to launch its mobile-launched Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile. Believed to have a minimum range of 1,500 miles, the missile is of concern to U.S. officials because mobile-launched missiles are hard to track and can be fired on short notice. The failure might mean that the missile is newly developed, according to South Korean media. The reported launch failure comes as the North angrily reacts to ongoing annual U.S.-South Korean military drills that it views as an invasion rehearsal.
Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch enters the third day of his nomination hearings largely unscathed by Democratic attacks, while Republicans predict his confirmation. Democrats are divided on how hard to fight his nomination to the court, as illustrated by a palpable political intensity during the questioning that stretched beyond 11 hours. A growing number of Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, are calling for Gorsuch’s confirmation to be delayed because of the FBI investigation of ties between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia.
A bite from an Australian funnel web spider can kill a human in 15 minutes — but its venom could prove to be the world’s first treatment for brain damage caused by a stroke. Scientists were sequencing the DNA of the venom when they stumbled upon a compound that they believe may have far-reaching benefits for stroke sufferers. The protein, Hi1a, can protect brain cells from being destroyed by a stroke, even when administered hours later, according to researchers. Clinical trials on humans, which scientists hope to begin within two years, will now assess the compound, which could be rolled out to become the first treatment of its type.
President Trump signed a bill into law Tuesday that updates NASA’s mission to add exploration of Mars and authorizes $19.5 billion in spending for the U.S. space agency for the current budget year. It’s the first time in seven years that there has been an authorization bill for NASA, said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a chief sponsor of the bill.
Conservative commentator Tomi Lahren was absent from the air of Glenn Beck’s digital network the Blaze just days after declaring her support for abortion rights. During an appearance on ABC’s “The View” on Friday, Lahren explained that she was for abortion because as a proponent of limited government, it would be hypocritical of her to say she thinks the government “should decide what women do with their bodies.” The comments drew criticism from colleagues, including Beck. Beck took issue with Lahren’s argument on his radio show Monday, suggesting it lacked “intellectual honesty.” Lahren didn’t host her show on the Blaze on Monday night, and on Twitter she alluded to her absence.
Apple unveiled an updated version of its iPad tablet with a brighter screen on Tuesday, at the cheapest price ever for a full-sized tablet. The California-based company is widely expected to unveil an update to its flagship iPhone this fall that might have new features such as wireless charging, 3-D facial recognition and a curved display. In the meantime, along with the new iPad, Apple announced a variety of incremental updates and releases, including a new app for creating videos and sharing them with friends. The new app, along with extra iMessage features released in recent years, pushes Apple closer to competing with the features in social networking apps like Snapchat. It’s rare for Apple to release a full-sized iPad at such a low price. The new edition differs from its pricier sibling in several ways. It isn’t compatible with accessories like the Apple Pencil or SmartKeyboard; it’s missing the iPad Pro’s sharper camera and 4K video capabilities, offering a smaller camera, but it’s still plenty powerful for those who intend to browse the Web, check email, stream Netflix and play games. The discounted tablet could be a move to boost sales in an Apple product line that’s been steadily declining. In its most recent earnings report, Apple revealed that total iPad shipments dropped by 19 percent, while revenue from the tablets was down by 22 percent. Offering a cheaper option could give Apple fans and tablet shoppers a more compelling reason to upgrade from an older model or a mini.
With a crucial vote on the GOP’s Obamacare replacement looming, President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell warned that Republican legislators who don’t support the bill would face electoral consequences. But opponents, including some prominent Republican senators, disagree — and public opinion polling, which is running strongly against the bill, is on their side. “I honestly think many of you will lose your seats in 2018 if you don’t get this done,” said Trump after a Tuesday meeting with Republican legislators, according to multiple sources in the room. The president was on Capitol Hill to lobby for votes for the American Health Care Act, the GOP’s Obamacare replacement bill. The House plans to vote on the AHCA Thursday. The top Republican in the Senate agreed with the president.
Former MMA fighter Jonathan Koppenhaver, also known as War Machine, was found guilty of kidnapping and sexually assaulting his ex-girlfriend by a Las Vegas jury on Monday. Jurors deadlocked on two attempted-murder charges, but Koppenhaver was convicted on 29 other counts related to the beating and sexual assault of Christine Mackinday, a porn actress who goes by the adult film name Christy Mack, in August 2014. Koppenhaver was also found guilty of assaulting a male, Corey Thomas, who was in Mackinday’s apartment the day of the attack. He could face up to life in prison.
Fox News Channel has pulled legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano from the air after disavowing his on-air claim that British intelligence officials had helped former President Barack Obama spy on President Trump. On Monday, Napolitano was absent during the network’s coverage of the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. The judge hasn’t been seen on the network since his column ran last Thursday. Sources say Napolitano has been benched and won’t be appearing on the air in the near future.
In response to an unspecified terrorism threat, officials are reportedly ready to announce that passengers on some U.S.-bound foreign airline flights will have to check electronic devices larger than a cell phone. The new rule, which has been under consideration since the government learned of a threat several weeks ago, is slated to be announced today by the Department of Homeland Security. Affected airports and countries have yet to be named, but CNN reported that the ban is related to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and that some information came from a recent U.S. special forces raid in Yemen. The ban was revealed Monday in statements from Royal Jordanian Airlines and the official news agency of Saudi Arabia. A congressional aide speaking to AP anonymously said that Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly phoned lawmakers over the weekend to brief them on the aviation security issues that prompted the impending electronics ban. Spokesmen for the Homeland Security Department and the Transportation Security Administration declined to comment.
Hollywood actor Ben Stiller has teamed up with social media stars to raise $2 million for people facing starvation in Somalia amid a devastating drought. The “Zoolander” actor is trying to recruit other celebrities to support the Love Army for Somalia initiative, which has already raised over $1.8 million since Friday. An initial flight full of food will take off next Monday for Somalia, where more than 6 million people — about half the population — need help. The United Nations has warned that Somalia risks slipping back into famine as worsening drought leaves millions without food, water or health care; famine last struck pockets of Somalia in 2011, killing 260,000 people.
James Comey’s testimony on Monday that a counterintelligence investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russian government began last summer enraged Democrats, who already blamed him for rattling the 2016 campaign’s closing days. The FBI director confirmed that the Trump campaign was probed in July, the same month Comey announced that the agency had finished its investigation into whether Hillary Clinton mishandled classified information — and three months before he announced that the Clinton probe was continuing, just days before the election. Comey said during his testimony that Russia “hates” Clinton and wanted her to lose the election, adding that only Democratic emails were released during the political hacks.
The mystery of Tom Brady’s missing Super Bowl jersey led police all the way to Mexico, and authorities were investigating a former tabloid newspaper executive’s possible role in the theft. Police and the NFL announced Monday that Brady’s jersey, which disappeared from the locker room after the Patriots beat the Atlantic Falcons in overtime last month, was in the “possession of a credentialed member of the international media.” The missing jersey — and the subsequent investigation — captivated fans and social media for several days after the Super Bowl.
Billionaire philanthropist David Rockefeller, former head of Chase Manhattan bank and patriarch of one of the most famous and influential American families, died on Monday, a family spokesman said. He was 101. Rockefeller, who reportedly gave away nearly $2 billion in his lifetime, died in his sleep of congestive heart failure at his home in Pocantico Hills, N.Y., spokesman Fraser Seitel said in a statement.
Neil Gorsuch, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, on Monday emphasized the need for judicial independence at the opening of his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, under the shadow of Trump’s tweets against jurists who have ruled against him. Republicans praised the conservative federal appeals court judge from Colorado as highly qualified for a lifetime appointment as a justice, with the ideological balance of the Supreme Court at stake. Despite slim chances of blocking his confirmation in the GOP-led Senate, Democrats raised questions about Gorsuch’s suitability, suggesting he’s favored corporations over “the little guy” while serving at the bench, while Republicans accused Democrats of trying to turn Gorsuch’s confirmation hearing into a referendum on the GOP president. Committee Democrats contend that Gorsuch only has a shot at the position because Republicans refused last year to consider then-President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland.
At least 18 were killed when a large tree fell into the pool they were swimming in at the base of a waterfall in Ghana, according to police. The tree crushed or drowned people enjoying a day out at a popular beauty spot. The waterfall, near the town of Kintampo, was busy with weekend day-trippers, many of them high school students, when the freak accident happened on Sunday.
The head of the FBI publicly challenged President Trump on Monday, denying the president’s claim that former President Barack Obama wiretapped his 2016 election campaign and confirming his agency had launched a criminal investigation into any collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia. Trump created a controversy in early March when he accused Obama on Twitter of wiretapping his campaign. The tweet, written without supporting evidence, pulled attention away from the claims of Russian interference in the election. Last week, Trump’s team expanded the accusations when press secretary Sean Spicer cited Fox News commentator Andrew Napolitano’s claim that Britain’s spy agency was behind the surveillance, drawing ire from one of America’s closest allies.
Spring, which officially begins Monday, should bring more of the balmy weather that the U.S. East Coast and much of the South have enjoyed this winter, forecasters say. As the East luxuriated in mild temperatures and Texas and Louisiana had the warmest winter in more than a century, the West Coast enjoyed a welcome stretch of wet weather after years of drought. But winter returned with a vengeance last week in New York City and other parts of the Northeast, with a paralyzing snowstorm and a sustained stretch of subfreezing temperatures. And a final twist of winter weirdness will play out for the East before the region basks in the warmth again.
A new report reveals that Norway is the happiest country on earth. The nation edged out the previous winner, Denmark, which fell to second place. Iceland, Switzerland and Finland round out the top 5. The United States was 14th in the latest ranking, down from No. 13 last year, continuing a downward trend. Over the years, Americans have steadily been rating themselves as less happy.
A judge is scheduled to hear new arguments today from Roman Polanski’s lawyer about why the fugitive director’s long-running underage sex case should be drawn to a close. The hearing will be the first one in seven years. Polanski’s lawyer has asked the judge to unseal testimony and also signal whether the Oscar winner would face any additional time if he were to return to Los Angeles for sentencing. The proceedings date back to 1977, when Polanski plied a 13-year-old girl with champagne and half a sedative before raping her at actor Jack Nicholson’s house.
The madness is back in March. A scintillating Sunday of games jolted the tournament to life like a triple shot of espresso. North Carolina, the South Region No. 1 seed, had the most frenetic finish, blowing a 17-point lead and then scoring the game’s final 12 points to hold off Arkansas. Kentucky had its hands full until the end against Wichita State, needing two blocked 3-pointers in the final minute to beat the Shockers 65-62. South Carolina, the No. 7 seed in the East, had the biggest takedown, knocking off No. 2 Duke 88-81 in what was essentially a home game in Greenville.
FBI Director James Comey, as well as National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers, will testify before the House intelligence committee today in one of several congressional panels exploring allegations of Russian meddling in last year’s U.S. presidential election. Also of interest to the committee are any connections between Russia and associates of President Trump and the question of whether any surveillance of Trump was conducted for political reasons. The top two lawmakers on the House committee said Sunday that documents delivered by the Justice Department and FBI late last week offer no evidence that the Obama administration had wiretapped Trump Tower, the president’s New York City headquarters. Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the panel’s ranking Democrat, says the material does offer circumstantial evidence that U.S. citizens colluded with Russians to interfere in the election.
U.S. lawmakers from both parties said on Sunday they had seen no proof to support the claim by President Trump that his predecessor Barack Obama had wiretapped him last year, adding pressure on Trump to explain or back off his repeated assertion. Several Republicans last week urged Trump to apologize for the allegations he made in a series of tweets on March 4. The maelstrom also caused tension with key U.S. allies after spokesman Sean Spicer suggested last week that Britain’s intelligence services aided the Obama administration in the alleged wiretap. Though the charges were somewhat retracted, the spiraling claims threaten to distract Republicans from campaign promises on health care and taxes.
Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” the studio’s latest live action update of a cartoon classic, waltzed its way to a towering $170 million debut this weekend, setting a new record for a March opening and solidifying the Mouse House’s status as the dominant player in the film business. The makeover of the 1991 Oscar-winning film follows previous live-action remakes such as “Alice in Wonderland,” “Cinderella,” “Maleficent” and last year’s “The Jungle Book.” Many more are on the way, including those for “Dumbo,” “Mulan,” “Aladdin” and “The Lion King.”
German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday rejected President Trump’s claim that Germany owes NATO and the United States “vast sums” of money for defense. Trump took to Twitter on Saturday – a day after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Washington – to say that Germany “owes vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!” “There is no debt account at NATO,” von der Leyen said in a statement, adding that it was wrong to link the alliance’s target for members to spend 2 percent of their economic output on defense by 2024 solely to NATO.
An Afghan soldier opened fire Sunday inside a base in southern Helmand province, wounding three U.S. soldiers before being shot dead. No insurgent group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, which highlights long-simmering tensions between Afghan and foreign forces. So-called insider attacks — when Afghan soldiers and police turn their guns on their colleagues or on international troops — have been a major problem during the more than 15-year war but now occur less frequently after security measures were improved and the number of foreign troops in the country fell sharply.
Thirteen months after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the Senate is finally holding confirmation hearings to fill the vacancy, considering President Trump’s choice of Neil Gorsuch for the high court. Republicans refused to even grant a hearing to former President Barack Obama’s choice, Merrick Garland, insisting the next president should decide. Now Democrats are under pressure to reject Gorsuch. When Gorsuch is sworn in for his hearing on Monday, Democrats on the Judiciary Committee will try to make the case that he is a pro-business, social conservative insufficiently independent of the president.
President Trump has chosen the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway to head the civil division of the Justice Department, The Wall Street Journal reported. George Conway is a partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. He has represented Philip Morris International Inc, Cardinal Health Inc and the National Football League among many corporate clients. The civil division defends U.S. agencies against thousands of lawsuits filed annually over government policies, laws, domestic and foreign operations, entitlement programs, law enforcement and military actions, and counter-terrorism efforts. The White House and the Justice Department would not confirm the pick Saturday. The division also sues on behalf of the government to recoup money lost through fraud, loan defaults and the abuse of federal funds.
Days after Kendall Jenner’s Hollywood Hills home was burglarized, Jaime Pressly house in Sherman Oaks was also broken into. According to multiple reports, Pressly reported the burglary to LAPD on Friday night, after returning home from an evening out to discover missing belongings. Allegedly, the burglar got in through a side window that was forced open, and made off with jewelry and a laptop.
The United States upset defending champion Dominican Republic 6-3 to reach the semi-finals of the World Baseball Classic where they will face two-time winners Japan. The team is going to the WBC for the second time thanks to another impressive home run by Giancarlo Stanton at Petco Park and a spectacular catch at the fence by hometown favorite Adam Jones. The Dominican Republic, the reigning champs after winning all eight of its games in 2013, took a 2-0 lead in the first inning Saturday but could not keep pace with the U.S. They overcame a 5-0 deficit to beat the U.S. 7-5 in first-round play last week.
A Louisiana sheriff’s deputy was fatally shot late Saturday night while conducting an investigation, the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office and Louisiana State Police confirmed. The deputy was conducting an investigation near a barber shop when shots were fired, Louisiana state police said early Sunday morning. The deputy’s name has not yet been released. The suspect was also shot, and is being treated at local hospital.
An individual who drove up to a Secret Service checkpoint near the White House Saturday night has been detained after his vehicle was determined to be “suspicious,” the Secret Service said in a statement. CNN reported that the driver claimed to have a bomb. The network, citing two law enforcement sources, said there was no confirmation of any device in the vehicle but that security at the White House had been upgraded. Several streets around the White House were closed.
President Donald Trump said Saturday that Germany owes “vast sums of money” to NATO and the U.S. “must be paid more” for providing defense, reiterating his stance that European allies need to meet their end of the bargain if they are to continue benefiting from the military alliance. Trump’s tweet from his Florida resort, where he is spending the weekend, came the day after his first meeting with Germany’s leader. Trump and Merkel tried to sidestep their differences in their meeting at the White House on Friday, but it was punctuated by some awkward moments as the two leaders showed little common ground over a host of thorny issues, including NATO and defense spending.
The U.S. and China pledged on Saturday to work together in addressing the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear program, as US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned regional tensions had reached a “dangerous level.” The language from Tillerson and his Chinese counterpart after talks in Beijing was notably conciliatory after a run-up in which President Trump accused China of doing nothing to control its rogue neighbor while Beijing blamed Washington for fueling hostilities. Neither side indicated any concrete next steps, and Tillerson did not explicitly back Beijing’s calls for negotiations with North Korea, which Washington has rejected.
The world’s top economic powers on Saturday failed to get the U.S. to renew an anti-protectionist pledge and a vow to fight climate change, in the face of Donald Trump’s “America First” push. After a two-day meeting, ministers from G20 developed and emerging nations said they were “working to strengthen the contribution of trade to our economies” but failed to spell out a pledge to reject protectionism in a closing statement. An entire section on action against climate change was also dropped from the final document, sparking dismay among America’s partners as well as environmental activists.
The defending national champions are done. Done before their title defense could even really get started. Top-seeded Villanova was upset by eighth-seeded Wisconsin in the second round of the NCAA tournament Saturday, the first major upset of this year’s March Madness. Nigel Hayes, after a year of struggles on offense, won the game for the Badgers with a nifty move on the baseline with 11 seconds left to break a 62-62 tie. Wisconsin then sealed the game with a stop on the other end. Villanova, the top overall seed, went 32-3 on the season, won a fourth consecutive Big East championship, and took home the Big East tournament title a week ago. But the Badgers came in hot after a run to the final of the Big Ten tournament, and, after seeing off Virginia Tech on Thursday, stunned the Wildcats. Wisconsin is on to its sixth Sweet 16 in seven years.
The question of who exactly invented rock and roll may never be conclusively decided. But few did more to shape and popularize the genre than Chuck Berry, who died Saturday in Missouri. He was 90. Berry’s onstage showmanship, guitar-playing, song arrangements, and lyrics were hugely influential on artists such as Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Beach Boys. The latters’ “Surfin’ USA” so directly copied Berry’s song “Sweet Little Sixteen” that the rock pioneer cried foul and was given a co-writing credit. Berry scored his biggest hit in 1972 with the novelty single “My Ding-a-Ling” but it was the records he released in the ’50s — from “Johnny B. Goode" to “Maybellene” — for which he will be best remembered.
Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who was removed from his post by the Trump administration last week, was overseeing an investigation into stock trades made by the president’s health secretary, according to a person familiar with the office. Tom Price, head of the Department of Health and Human Services, came under scrutiny during his confirmation hearings for investments he made while serving in Congress. The Georgia lawmaker traded hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of shares in health-related companies, even as he voted on and sponsored legislation affecting the industry.
In 2007, a 15-year-old hacker was told he was safe to talk. “As a member of the Press, I would rather not know who you are as writers are not allowed to reveal their sources.” But this was no reporter; he was FBI agent Norman Sanders Jr., and the whole conversation was a trap. The FBI busted the teen, but in doing so, raised a troubling question that is unanswered to this day: How often do FBI agents impersonate members of the news media? The answer is important because sources need to know journalists won’t turn them in.
Trumpism is slowly taking hold on your phone and computer, as newly installed federal regulators begin chipping away at hard-fought protections on privacy and competition. These protections, put in place during the Obama administration, had upset the phone and cable industries. The new regime at the Federal Communications Commission says consumers win if businesses face less regulation and have more incentives to invest. But consumer advocates worry these changes give broadband providers that own media businesses more power to favor their own services, among other things.
Most years, the NCAA tournament is defined by three different stages that unfold over three weekends: Chaos and upsets define the first, marquee matchups define the second and a champion ultimately defines the third. We enjoy each for what it is, and have come to expect each to give what it typically gives. We root for the upsets over the first four days, soak up the quality of the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, and cherish the Final Four. But the popular take on the first stage of the 2017 tournament is that it has disappointed.
Susan Rogers, a poet and attorney in California, is “hurtling through space with no direction” on a plane that, she discovers with horror, has no pilot. Allison Graham, a Los Angeles publicist, is in a hotel suite near her old Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood in Manhattan, being interviewed by Donald Trump for a job as a supervisor on one of his big construction projects. And, then they wake up from their Trump nightmares. Blue America is having trouble with sleep — tossing and turning as they lie awake, then falling into nightmares. They tend to blame the 45th president of the United States.
Former British Treasury chief George Osborne has been appointed editor of the Evening Standard newspaper, touching off a torrent of criticism about whether a sitting lawmaker should be able to run a London-based daily. Osborne, who lost his job as chancellor of the Exchequer last year after helping lead the doomed campaign to stay in the European Union, will become editor of London’s main metropolitan daily paper despite possessing virtually no journalism experience and indicating he would keep his job as a member of Parliament — together with a smattering of other advisory roles in private industry that are supplementing his income.
A long-acting cholesterol medicine cut the risk of having a heart attack or some other serious problems by 15 to 20 percent in a big study that’s likely to spur fresh debate about what drugs should cost. Statins such as Lipitor and Crestor are cheap and lower LDL or bad cholesterol, but some people can’t tolerate or get enough help from them. The new drug, Amgen’s Repatha, is given as a shot once or twice a month and is part of a novel class of medicines that drop LDL to unprecedented levels. It costs more than $14,000 a year, and insurers have balked at paying without proof that it lowers heart risks, not just the cholesterol number. The new study gives that evidence, but the benefit is not as great as some doctors had hoped.
Sean Hannity says he “never pointed” a gun at Fox News colleague Juan Williams, despite a CNN report to the contrary. CNN reported Thursday that Hannity pointed a gun directly at Williams and turned on the laser sight off-air following a heated segment last year. But Hannity told the New York Daily News that he had been discussing guns and “showed my good friend Juan Williams my unloaded firearm in a professional and safe manner for educational purposes only.” CNN’s Dylan Byers tweeted back that he stands by “Every word” of his reporting.
The first naturally fluorescent frog was discovered recently in Argentina — almost by chance. Argentine and Brazilian scientists at the Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum made the discovery while studying the metabolic origin of pigments in a tree-frog species common to South America. Under normal light, the frog’s translucent skin is a muted yellowish-brown color with red dots, but when the scientists shone an ultraviolet light on it, it turned a bright green. According to one of them, Carlos Taboada, the case is “the first scientific record of a fluorescent frog.”
President Trump on Friday stood by his unproven claim that his predecessor wiretapped his phones, suggesting that he was the victim of the same sort of surveillance that the Obama administration was once alleged to have used to monitor German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s calls. “At least we have something in common, perhaps,” Trump said during a joint news conference with Merkel. Trump’s allegations have sparked reactions ranging from bafflement to anger in Washington, with lawmakers from both parties saying they have no evidence to support his claim. But the White House’s refusal to back down has created more problems for the new administration. On Thursday, spokesman Sean Spicer defended the president’s comments by repeating a Fox News analyst’s report that British intelligence had helped Obama wiretap Trump. The U.K. vigorously denied the charge, and Britain’s ambassador to Washington complained directly to White House officials. Trump tried to distance himself from the report Friday.
Federal law gives the president broad authority over immigration. Jimmy Carter used it to deny some Iranians entry to the U.S. during the hostage crisis, Ronald Reagan to bar Cubans who didn’t already have relatives here, and Barack Obama to keep out North Korean officials. So why does President Trump keep running into legal trouble with his efforts to freeze immigration by refugees and citizens of some predominantly Muslim nations? When federal courts in Hawaii and Maryland blocked Trump’s revised travel ban from taking effect, the judges spelled out their major concern: the unusual record of statements by the president and his advisers suggesting the executive order’s real purpose was to discriminate against Muslims, in violation of the Constitution’s ban on officially favoring or disfavoring any religion.
The U.S. said it carried out an air strike in Syria against an al-Qaida meeting but denied deliberately targeting a mosque where a monitor said 46 people were killed. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said most of the dead in the Thursday evening raid on Al-Jineh, in the northern province of Aleppo, were civilians. The U.S.-led coalition has been bombing jihadist groups in war-torn Syria since 2014, with hundreds of civilians unintentionally killed in the country and in neighboring Iraq.
It’s still early, but Vanderbilt may have already made the worst play of this year’s NCAA tournament. In the dying seconds of its first-round game against Northwestern, Vanderbilt guard Matthew Fisher-Davis made a crucial mistake. For some reason, he intentionally fouled a Northwestern player while Vanderbilt was up by one. The bizarre foul handed the ball back to Northwestern’s Bryant McIntosh, who made both free throws to take the lead. A last-ditch long-ball from Vanderbilt’s Riley LaChance with one second remaining failed to go in, and Northwestern walked away with its first-ever March Madness win. Fisher-Davis went from hero to zero quickly. He led his team in points with 22, keeping Vanderbilt in a game that was dominated by Northwestern, but it’s his final misstep that will be remembered. Although the critical mistake gave Vanderbilt an early exit, the March Madness tournament has seen worse. Michigan’s Chris Webber famously called a timeout when his team had no timeouts remaining, drawing a technical foul with 11 seconds left in the championship game. Michigan would go on to lose 77-71 to North Carolina.
President Trump welcomes German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday for a White House meeting that could help determine the future of the trans-Atlantic alliance and shape the working relationship between two of the world’s most powerful leaders. The new U.S. president and the long-serving stateswoman, whose country is Europe’s largest economy, will discuss funding for NATO and relations with Russia in their first meeting since Trump took office in January. Merkel, who officials say has prepared carefully for the encounter, is likely to press Trump for assurances of support for a strong European Union and a commitment to fight climate change. Trump, who as a presidential candidate criticized Merkel for allowing hundreds of thousands of refugees into Germany.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer had a heated exchange with a pair of reporters during his daily briefing on Thursday about President Trump’s allegation that he was wiretapped by his predecessor, Barack Obama. It devolved into shouting, repeated interruptions and an accusation from Spicer that the media is attempting to “perpetuate a false narrative” about Trump’s relationship with Russia. The first question in Spicer’s briefing on Thursday came from ABC News’ chief White House correspondent, Jonathan Karl, who pointed out that, on Tuesday, Spicer said the president was “extremely confident” that the Department of Justice would bring evidence to Congress that would vindicate his allegation of wiretapping. Karl said the Senate intelligence committee’s conclusion that Trump’s claim was unwarranted “seems to be a pretty blanket statement.”