NEWS

Unbiased headline news for Thursday March 15, 2024 – Israel’s Knesset endorsed a 2024 military funding plan in a divisive session Wednesday with a 62-55 vote. The war cabinet and National Unity Coalition could disband as the right-wing New Hope party withdraws. As per Ynet, Minister Gideon Sa’ar declared Tuesday night that he has chosen to terminate the partnership with Israel’s Blue and White Party to re-establish the right-wing New Hope faction independently because, he stated, the perspectives of the right are not being heeded in the current war cabinet. Russian President Vladimir Putin articulated Wednesday he would redeploy military forces along the border with Finland in response to the country joining the NATO alliance in April. Putin voiced the threat in an interview with state media in reaction to what he termed Finland and Sweden’s “utterly senseless move from the viewpoint of securing their own national interests.” He remarked, “It is up to them to decide. That’s what they decided. But we didn’t have troops there, now we will.” Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in five U.S. cities commenced wearing body cameras Wednesday as mandated by an executive order from President Joe Biden. ICE agents in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington, Buffalo and Detroit are sporting the cameras in the first deployment phase for the devices. The cameras are initially being donned by Homeland Security Investigations officers and Enforcement and Removal Operations agents. The judge overseeing Hunter Biden’s felony gun case in Delaware has tentatively set his trial for June 3 — just weeks before his Los Angeles-based tax trial is scheduled to begin on June 20. At a brief scheduling conference, Judge Maryellen Noreika proposed the parties request the California-based federal judge overseeing the tax case to consider rescheduling a June 3 pretrial hearing to accommodate the commencement of the Delaware case. The U.S. and Japanese militaries will resume flights of Osprey aircraft in Japan after completing necessary maintenance and training following a fatal crash in southern Japan last November, officials said. The Osprey aircraft, which can take off like a helicopter and then fly like an airplane, has had a troubled history, including numerous crashes. The entire U.S. Osprey fleet was grounded Dec. 6, a week after that crash. Japan’s military also grounded all of its 14 Ospreys. Independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr. has confirmed that among his potential vice-presidential prospects is New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who in private conversations shared deranged conspiracy theories about the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting not being real. CNN knows of two people with whom Rodgers has enthusiastically shared these stories, including with Pamela Brown. Brown was covering the Kentucky Derby for CNN in 2013 when she was introduced to Rodgers, then with the Green Bay Packers, at a post-Derby party. A landslide reduced a Los Angeles house under renovation to a jumble of lumber, pulled the pool and deck away from a second home, and left the pool at a third residence on the edge of a huge fissure. The slide occurred just before 3 a.m. in Sherman Oaks, a neighborhood of expensive homes about 12 miles (19 kilometers) northwest of downtown. An initial search found no victims, but several people were evacuated from one house, the Los Angeles Fire Department said in a statement. Doors are closing for 1,000 Dollar Tree and Family Dollar locations after the discount variety store chain announced an unexpected surprise fourth-quarter loss in its earnings report Wednesday. Dollar Tree plans to shutter 600 Family Dollar stores in the first half of fiscal 2024. Over the next several years, the company intends to close 370 more Family Dollar locations, as well as 30 Dollar Tree stores. At the opening bell Wednesday on Wall Street, Dollar Tree shares fell 14% in value on the news.

Unbiased headline news for Wednesday March 13, 2024 – A retired Boeing worker who voiced numerous worries about the organization’s manufacturing norms passed away from what a coroner’s report termed a “self-inflicted” gunshot injury on Saturday. Authorities discovered John Barnett, aged 62, by police officers on the morning of March 9 seated in a vehicle parked at a Holiday Inn along Savannah Highway “grasping a silver handgun in his right hand,” as stated by the Charleston Police Department. On Tuesday, Ghislaine Maxwell petitioned a federal appeals court to overturn her conviction and 20-year prison sentence for recruiting and grooming underage girls who Jeffrey Epstein sexually exploited. Maxwell contends that an agreement federal prosecutors in Florida arranged with Epstein in 2007 provided her immunity. “The plea deal applies to preclude this prosecution,” defense attorney Diana Fabi Samson told a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. With fresh aid for Ukraine stalled in Congress since December, the White House revealed it had cobbled together another $300 million in military assistance to utilize as an interim measure. “The package comprises munitions and rounds to assist Ukraine in holding the line against Russia’s brutal attacks for the next couple of weeks,” President Joe Biden stated in a meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Donald Tusk at the White House. Poland’s president urged other NATO alliance members to increase their defense spending to 3% of their gross domestic product as Russia puts its economy on a war footing and presses forward with its invasion of Ukraine. President Andrzej Duda made his call in remarks directed at home and abroad. His appeal came on a visit to the White House, where U.S. President Joe Biden received both Duda and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Tuesday. One man and one woman were found deceased at the scene of a house explosion and fire in Pennsylvania Tuesday morning, authorities stated. The explosion in Crescent Township, just outside of Pittsburgh, was reported at 8:54 a.m., local officials said. The blast completely leveled the home, and the fire was throughout the house’s foundation and along the hillside, authorities stated. Daniel Rodriguez, the police chief of Uvalde, Texas, announced his resignation and said it will take effect on April 6th. “I believe it is time for me to embrace a new chapter in my career,” Rodriguez said in a statement Tuesday. Rodriguez was out of town when the May 24th, 2022 school shooting occurred, though his officers were among the first to respond to the scene, according to the independent report. A 19-year-old Michigan man who lost his right eye after being shot with a firearm made from a ghost gun kit filed a lawsuit Tuesday against his former best friend who accidentally shot him and the Pennsylvania company that sold his friend the kit. The lawsuit, which was filed in Washtenaw County Circuit Court, alleges that JSD Supply sold two ghost gun kits in April 2021 to Guy Boyd’s then-17-year-old friend without verifying the friend’s age or whether he could legally possess a pistol. Airbnb has made the decision to prohibit the use of indoor security cameras to “prioritize the privacy of our community,” according to a statement from the company. The ban, which is a global one across all of their listings, is an effort to “simplify our policy on security cameras and other devices,” according to a statement released by the company announcing the new change in policy.

Unbiased headline news for Tuesday March 12, 2024 – Ukraine will need more than a billion dollars to rebuild scientific infrastructure that was ravaged or decimated during two years of Russia’s aggressive assault on its neighbor, the United Nations’ cultural and scientific agency reported. More than 1,443 scientific facilities, many affiliated with the country’s universities, have been damaged or destroyed along with 750 crucial technical equipment pieces, most of which are beyond repair, the agency stated in a report released on Monday. U.S. intelligence officials testified before a Senate committee on the state of global security threats facing the United States, including artificial intelligence, election security, and misinformation by U.S. adversaries. In addition to threats related to terrorism, cybercrime, corruption, narcotics trafficking, and climate change; Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines warned of threats posed by regionalized conflicts, as well as major authoritarian powers who are “actively working to undermine the United States”. President Joe Biden on Monday unveiled a $7.3 trillion budget proposal featuring significantly bolstered spending for security at the U.S.-Mexico border, as well as higher taxes aimed at profitable corporations. Responding to political pressures from both the right and left amid an election year, Biden’s budget proposes $2.9 billion for the Department of Homeland Security to handle the surge of asylum-seekers at the southern border. Former President Donald Trump’s White House trade adviser, Peter Navarro, has been ordered to report to federal prison in Miami by March 19th, following his conviction on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress, his lawyers revealed in a court filing on Sunday. Navarro was found guilty by a jury last year of defying a subpoena for documents and testimony from the now-defunct House select committee that investigated the January 6th twenty-twenty-one Capitol attack. Two 18-year-old men have been taken into custody in connection with a mass shooting at a SEPTA bus stop in Philadelphia last week, authorities announced. Charges against the two 18-year-olds include criminal attempted murder, aggravated assault, and conspiracy, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said. At about 3 p.m. Wednesday, three masked gunmen exited a car parked near the bus stop and fired more than 30 rounds toward high schoolers who were attempting to board a bus, Philadelphia police said. Three children and two adults perished after a school bus collided with a semitruck on U.S. Route 24 in Illinois on Monday, authorities said. The fatal collision between the school bus and the semitruck carrying sand happened on the highway at 11:30 a.m., local time, in Rushville, Illinois State Police said during a press briefing. Both vehicles erupted into flames after the collision, according to authorities. An avalanche forecaster lost his life in a snowslide he triggered while skiing in eastern Oregon last week, officials said. Nick Burks, 37, and a friend, both experienced and carrying avalanche air bags and beacons, were backcountry skiing the chute on Gunsight Mountain on Wednesday, near Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort. His friend skied down first and witnessed as the avalanche was triggered and overtook Burks. Eric Carmen, the singer/songwriter known for hits like “Hungry Eyes” and “All By Myself,” has died, his wife Amy announced on his official website. Carmen was 74. “It is with tremendous sadness that we share the heartbreaking news of the passing of Eric Carmen,” she wrote. “Our sweet, loving and talented Eric passed away in his sleep, over the weekend. It brought him great joy to know, that for decades, his music touched so many and will be his lasting legacy.

Unbiased headline news for Monday March 11, 2024 – Over the weekend, voters rejected two amendments to Ireland’s constitution that aimed to provide more inclusive language around family and caregivers. Some 67% of voters said “no” to the Family referendum, which proposed changes to the 39th Amendment, expanding the definition of family in the constitution to recognize “durable relationships” such as unmarried couples with children. A Moscow court has sentenced a student to 10 days in jail for naming his Wi-Fi network with a pro-Ukrainian title. The Moscow State University student named the Wi-Fi network “Slava Ukraini” which means “Glory to Ukraine,” according to the database of the Nikulinsky District Court. The phrase has become the rallying cry of Ukraine’s forces. The court called the act a “public demonstration of Nazi symbolics or symbols of extremist organizations,” according to the BBC. Ukrainian and allied officials criticized Pope Francis for saying that Kyiv should have the “courage” to negotiate an end to the war with Russia, a statement many interpreted as a call for Ukraine to surrender. The foreign ministers of Ukraine and Poland, a vocal ally of Kyiv, condemned the pope’s remarks. And a leader of one of Ukraine’s Christian churches said that only the country’s determined resistance to Moscow’s full-scale invasion, launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin had prevented a mass slaughter of civilians. The U.S. Air Force and the Royal Jordanian Air Force teamed up in the latest mission to airdrop desperately needed humanitarian aid into northern Gaza to “alleviate human suffering” there, according to a statement from the U.S. Central Command. The equivalent of more than 11,500 meals, including rice, flour, pasta and canned goods, that were provided by the Jordanian Air Force were loaded on U.S. Air Force C-130 planes that dropped pallets of aid attached to parachutes over northern Gaza, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement. Four adults and one child were killed when a small plane crashed near Ingalls Airport in Virginia, the Virginia State Police said Sunday. The plane, a twin-engine IAI Astra 1125, crashed near the airport in Bath County around 3 p.m. local time, according to the FAA. The plane, described by police as a private jet, crashed into the woods in the 6200 block of Airport Rd. It caught fire on impact, the authorities said. A suspect in a weekend shooting that killed two people and injured another at a North Carolina home died in a shootout with deputies hours afterward outside another house, a sheriff said. In a social media post, Iredell County Sheriff Darren Campbell said that Justin Michael Strawser was wearing a bulletproof vest and firing at deputies when he was killed in the shootout outside a home in Mooresville. Thousands of women took to the streets of Istanbul, Turkey, to mark International Women’s Day Friday despite a ban by the government. Waving purple flags as a sign of International Women’s Day, they filled the air with slogans and rallying cries despite a ban on rallies by authorities. “The world would shake if women were free,” “Resist for rebellion, resist for freedom,” and “Woman, Life, Freedom,” they chanted. Eight children and an adult died after eating sea turtle meat on Pemba Island in the Zanzibar archipelago and 78 other people were hospitalized, authorities said. Sea turtle meat is considered a delicacy by Zanzibar’s people even though it periodically results in deaths from chelonitoxism, a type of food poisoning. The adult who died late last Friday was the mother of one of the children who succumbed earlier, said the Mkoani District medical officer, Dr. Haji Bakari. He said the turtle meat was consumed last Tuesday.

Unbiased headline news for Saturday March 9, 2024 – Torrential rains have triggered flash floods and a landslide on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, resulting in at least 10 fatalities and leaving 10 others unaccounted for, officials reported on Saturday. Massive amounts of mud, rocks and uprooted trees cascaded down a mountain late on Friday, reaching a river that overflowed its banks and ravaged through villages situated on the mountainside in Pesisir Selatan district of West Sumatra province, according to Doni Yusrizal, who heads the local disaster management agency. * * * Three individuals lost their lives and one person sustained injuries in a helicopter crash near the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday evening, as stated in a release by Joint Task Force North. The aircraft involved was a National Guard Lakota UH-72 helicopter, according to a defense official. The helicopter, assigned to the federal Southwest border support mission, crashed at approximately 2:50 PM Friday while conducting aviation operations near Rio Grande City, Texas, JTF-N said. The cause of the accident is currently under investigation. * * * ‘No Labels’ may finally have identified a potential candidate for its third-party “unity ticket” in the 2024 presidential election. Sources privy to the group’s efforts to field a third-party ticket revealed that ‘No Labels’ representatives have held meetings with former Georgia GOP Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan about the possibility of him running as the group’s presidential candidate. Duncan refrained from commenting on this report but did not dismiss the speculation. * * * Haitian gangs launched a large-scale assault against multiple government buildings in or near downtown Port-au-Prince, according to a law enforcement source who participated in the fighting. The source stated that the attack was coordinated and swift, with different groups simultaneously targeting multiple government buildings including the Presidential Palace, the Interior Ministry, and a police headquarters for Haiti’s western district which includes Port-au-Prince. * * * Five children were allegedly killed in the Gaza Strip by a humanitarian aid airdrop from an unidentified foreign country on Friday, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. Several Palestinian civilians were also injured in the airdrop, the Government Media Office in Gaza reported, calling the airdrop “random.” Bystander footage of Friday’s airdrop showed an aircraft dropping dozens of packages via parachutes, as people ran toward them upon landing. * * * Local officials in Hawaii plan to open an office that will expedite Maui County’s notoriously slow processing of building permits to aid the town of Lahaina in its recovery from last year’s deadly wildfire. Keanu Lau Hee, the county’s deputy managing director, informed a community meeting in Lahaina that a County Expedited Permitting Center will open in April. She said the county has selected a vendor to assist in reviewing applications. * * * A United Airlines jetliner en route to Mexico City from San Francisco made an emergency landing in Los Angeles after the crew reported a hydraulics issue, marking the fourth emergency involving a United Airlines flight this past week. The plane landed safely at Los Angeles International Airport around 4:30 p.m. and none of the 110 people on board were injured, United Airlines stated. Fire engines were on standby at the airport but were not needed, said Nicholas Prange, a spokesperson with the Los Angeles City Fire Department. * * * Sam Altman will remain as CEO of OpenAI and rejoin its board of directors following an “extensive” external investigation into his temporary ouster last year, the company’s board announced on Friday. The OpenAI Board said it has “full confidence” in the continued leadership of Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman following a monthslong review by the law firm WilmerHale. Nearly all 800 employees at OpenAI signed a letter calling for the resignation of the company’s board and the return of Altman as CEO.

Unbiased headline news for Thursday March 7, 2024 – A Russian missile detonated in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa on Wednesday, exploding just a few hundred feet from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was engaged in a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, sources and officials confirmed. “It hit in a couple of hundred meters from us, while the meeting was going,” disclosed a source. After showing the Greek prime minister around the port, Zelenskyy and Mitsotakis returned to their car. While preparing to depart, they heard the air raid siren, swiftly followed by the missile striking and hitting the port. — Israeli authorities reportedly obstructed the World Food Program’s crucial aid delivery into Gaza, leading to concerns of starvation among Palestinian civilians, as reported by the United Nations. A convoy of 14 trucks carrying food to northern Gaza was denied entry by the Israel Defence Forces after a three-hour wait at a checkpoint in Wadi Gaza. Subsequently rerouted, the trucks encountered a large crowd of desperate people who confiscated approximately 200 tons of food. — In the aftermath of the shooting death of a cinematographer during the filming of the western “Rust” in 2021, a New Mexico jury found Hannah Gutierrez-Reed guilty of involuntary manslaughter. As an armorer on the set, Gutierrez-Reed faces a potential sentence of up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine. The jury acquitted her of evidence tampering, a charge stemming from the alleged transfer of a small bag of cocaine to another individual after the shooting. CNN and ABC News provided this information. — The assailant who fatally shot 88-year-old Air Force veteran Richard Butler in Philadelphia during daylight hours remains unidentified, according to police sources. Butler, also a retired driver for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, was killed after dropping off a friend at her home on Tuesday. His family and the police expressed bewilderment, with Butler’s niece, Minette Finn, questioning, “Why? What is the why? This man did nothing to anyone and he gave to everyone.” — Gunfire erupted at a SEPTA bus stop in Philadelphia on Wednesday afternoon, resulting in eight students being shot, with one student in critical condition, as reported by Philadelphia police. During the incident at around 3:00 p.m. local time, multiple individuals fired shots while the students were attempting to board a bus. Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, in a press conference, revealed that three people exited a parked vehicle near the SEPTA bus stop, unleashing over 30 rounds toward the students as they tried to board the bus. — To enhance the sense of security among subway riders following a surge in transit crime, Governor Kathy Hoakle announced the deployment of New York National Guard troops and New York State Police troopers into the subway system. This move is an addition to the 1,000 New York City police officers previously assigned to patrol subway lines and conduct security checks on bags in the nation’s largest transit system. The decision to increase security measures comes after an attack on a conductor and other high-profile crimes. — A Chinese national, Linwei Ding, was arrested in California and charged with allegedly stealing confidential trade secrets from Google’s Artificial Intelligence program while clandestinely working for two AI startup companies in China, according to an unsealed indictment. Ding, a 38-year-old resident of Newark, joined Google as a software engineer in 2019 and was responsible for developing the software used in the tech giant’s supercomputing data centers, according to court records. — A Connecticut-based testing company, Valisure, raised concerns about the presence of benzene, a known carcinogen, in commonly used topical acne treatments. In a citizen petition submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Valisure reported “high levels of benzene” in acne products containing benzoyl peroxide, including popular brands such as Proactiv, Clearasil, and PanOxyl.