Unbiased headline news for Thursday February 8, 2024 – The U.S. killed a senior leader of the Iran-backed group Kataib Hezbollah in a strike in Iraq, a senior official confirmed.
The individual targeted was a commander who was in charge of operations in Syria. U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for the Middle East, said in a statement that the targeted commander was “responsible for directly planning and participating in attacks on U.S. forces in the region.”
—
Following nearly five years of litigation and three trials, a 49-year-old man has been sentenced by a judge in far eastern Russia to eight years’ imprisonment for practicing his Jehovah’s Witnesses faith.
Dmitriy Barmakin of Vladivostok was sentenced in a Primorye Territory courtroom, according to his church and the Moscow-based think tank SOVA Center for Information and Analysis, making it the second time in his three trials that he has been sentenced to a penal colony, after his original sentence was overturned last April.
—
Former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson confirmed Tuesday that he will be interviewing Russian President Vladimir Putin. He claimed to be the first person from Western media to do so since the start of Moscow’s invasion into Ukraine nearly two years ago, although the Kremlin disputed that he was the first one to try.
In a statement posted to social media, Carlson said he will interview Putin “because it’s our job. We’re in journalism. Our duty is to inform people.” “Western governments will certainly do their best to censor this video … Because that’s what they do,” Carlson adds in the video.
—
Minnesota has reached a settlement with Eli Lilly and Co. in a price gouging lawsuit against the country’s three biggest insulin manufacturers that guarantees that Minnesotans can now buy Lilly-produced insulin for only $35 a month for the next five years, Attorney General Keith Ellison announced.
The settlement is likely to benefit as many as 500,000 residents whether they have insurance or not, and it covers all Lilly brand-name insulin products, Ellison said at a news conference. Litigation remains pending against two other manufacturers named in the 2018 lawsuit, Sanofi-Aventis and Novo Nordisk.
—
Two officers were shot while responding to an emergency call about an injured minor at a Pennsylvania residence, officials said Wednesday. A 911 caller reported that an 11-year-old girl had been shot at the residence in East Lansdowne, according to Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer.
While responding to the home Wednesday afternoon, the officers were “immediately met by gunfire,” Stollsteimer told reporters during a press briefing. The two male officers, who were with the East Lansdowne and Lansdowne police departments, each sustained a single gunshot wound, Stollsteimer said.
—
The ride-sharing company Uber has posted a profit for the first time since going public in 2019, the company announced.
The company posted a net income of $1.43 billion in the fourth quarter after the benefit of $1 billion from investors, Uber said in a statement. This marks the first time that Uber has earned money from its operations. The company reported $595 million in profit during the same period last year, and the profit announcement was higher than Wall Street had anticipated.
—
American and Chinese officials committed Tuesday to working together to stem the flow of fentanyl into the United States, the head of a visiting U.S. delegation said. Their meeting was a hopeful sign of cooperation as the two global powers try to better manage their contentious ties.
The U.S. is seeking more information sharing and law enforcement cooperation and the designation and control of made-in-China chemicals that are ingredients for fentanyl made elsewhere, said Jen Daskal, a deputy homeland security advisor in the White House.
—
For the first time in more than two decades, Mexico last year surpassed China as the leading source of goods imported to the United States.
The shift reflects the growing tensions between Washington and Beijing as well as U.S. efforts to import from countries that are friendlier and closer to home. Figures released Wednesday by the U.S. Commerce Department show that the value of goods imported to the United States from Mexico rose nearly 5% from 2022 to 2023, to more than $475 billion.
—
Motorists on a Nevada highway encountered an uncommon traffic disruption as an overturned truck scattered cans and bottles of Dr. Pepper and 7Up across the roadway.
According to the Nevada State Police, the incident occurred on Interstate 80, between Mogul and Garson in the Reno area. The truck, overturning on its side, spilled crates filled with Dr. Pepper and 7Up containers onto the road.
Fortunately, there were no reported injuries resulting from the truck crash or the subsequent soda spill.
