Unbiased headline news for Wednesday May 22, 2024 – Funeral events for Iran’s president and foreign minister got underway Tuesday with a procession on the streets of the northwestern city of Tabriz.

Thousands of mourners lined the streets of Tabriz, the closest large city to the site of the crash, to kick off a three-day funeral for the 63-year-old hardline cleric who had been seen as a potential successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. Khamenei announced five days of mourning for the fallen president.

Pro-Palestinian protesters continually declared U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken a “war criminal” as he testified during separate Senate hearings.

Blinken testified before the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs regarding the Department of State’s $58.8 billion budget request for fiscal year 2025. “Blinken, you will be remembered as the butcher of Gaza,” one man yelled.

Technologies such as artificial intelligence and electric vehicles have increased demand on America’s power grid.

The demand is so much that members of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources said Tuesday that the grid will need to rely on fossil fuel longer than expected and delay a transition to cleaner energy.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and 10 co-defendants pleaded not guilty Tuesday to nine felony charges accusing them of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results in Arizona.

Giuliani remotely entered his plea during the arraignment hearing in Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix, which ordered him to pay a $10,000 bond after state officials tried to serve Giuliani for several weeks.

A former University of Arizona graduate student was convicted Tuesday of first-degree murder for fatally shooting a hydrology professor on campus, months after he was expelled.

A Pima County Superior Court jury deliberated for less than three hours before reaching a verdict against Murad Dervish, 48, in the death of Thomas Meixner, who was shot 11 times near his office in October 2022. Dervish also was convicted of five other felony counts, including aggravated assault for a bullet that grazed a building manager.

One person on a Singapore Airlines flight died and dozens of others were injured when the plane traveling from London to Singapore “encountered sudden extreme turbulence.”

Flight SQ321 from London’s Heathrow Airport was diverted to Bangkok and touched down at 3:45 p.m. local time Tuesday at Suvarnabhumi Airport, the carrier said in a statement posted to its Facebook page. “We can confirm that there are injuries and one fatality on board the Boeing 777-300ER,” an earlier statement said.

After failing in several U.S. states this year, global chemical manufacturer Bayer said that it plans to amplify efforts to create a legal shield against a proliferation of lawsuits alleging it failed to warn that its popular weedkiller could cause cancer.

Bayer, which disputes the cancer claims, has been hit with about 170,000 lawsuits involving its Roundup weedkiller and has set aside $16 billion to settle cases. But the company contends the legal fight “is not sustainable” and is looking to state lawmakers for relief.

It’s so hot in Mexico that howler monkeys are falling dead from the trees.

At least 83 of the midsize primates, who are known for their roaring vocal calls, were found dead in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco. Others were rescued by residents, including five that were rushed to a local veterinarian who battled to save them. “They arrived in critical condition, with dehydration and fever,” said Dr. Sergio Valenzuela. ”They were as limp as rags. It was heatstroke.”

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