NEWS

Unbiased headline news for Saturday February 17, 2024 – Allies of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny are urging Russian authorities to release his body to his mother and lawyer, claiming intentional withholding. Despite initial skepticism, Navalny’s team confirmed his death, alleging murder. Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokesperson, stated that Russian investigative authorities took away his body for further examination. Ukraine’s military chief announced the withdrawal of troops from Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine, where defenders faced a prolonged Russian assault. The move aims to prevent encirclement and safeguard servicemen’s lives amid Russia’s search for a morale boost ahead of the second anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine and the upcoming Russian presidential election. Five patients in intensive care died after Israeli troops stormed southern Gaza’s main hospital, cutting off oxygen. The raid, linked to the search for hostages abducted by Hamas, followed a week-long siege of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, leaving staff, patients, and others struggling under heavy fire and diminishing supplies. The House Ethics Committee subpoenaed the testimony of a former girlfriend of Representative Matt Gaetz in its ongoing investigation. The committee demands her appearance over a Zoom call on February 29th. Previously contacted for a voluntary interview, the woman informed the committee of her intention to “plead the fifth” on questions related to the congressman. Police in Birmingham, Alabama, are conducting an investigation into a quadruple homicide. Responding to reports of multiple shots fired, officers found four victims near an open lot. The Birmingham Police Department identified the deceased as Terrell Edwards, 38; Kevin McGhee, 38; Cortez Ray, 32; and Talton Tate, 36. Edwards, Ray, and Tate were pronounced dead at the scene, while McGhee was transported to UAB Hospital with life-threatening injuries and later pronounced dead. The cause of death for a 5-year-old Venezuelan boy who died in a Chicago migrant shelter in December has been revealed. The autopsy released by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office indicates that Jean Carlos Martinez died as a result of sepsis due to streptococcus pyogenes group A infection, which can lead to strep throat and other life-threatening illnesses. In Compton, a 35-year-old man potentially breeding pit bulls was mauled to death in his backyard, as reported by Los Angeles County authorities. The incident occurred Thursday night, with the man’s girlfriend discovering his body in a kennel area on Friday morning. It is believed that the man was attacked while feeding the dogs, leading to a fatal mauling. The victim’s identity has not been immediately released. Two people have been found shot dead in a dorm room at the University of Colorado – Colorado Springs, according to authorities. The campus dispatch center received a call of shots fired just before 6 a.m. Friday, prompting campus officers to respond to the dorm room. Upon arrival, they discovered two individuals dead from gunshot wounds. Authorities have stated that this incident does not appear to be a murder-suicide, and both deaths are being investigated as homicides, as confirmed in a police update. — A Nebraska resident, Lucas Swarthout of North Platte, had a surprising discovery while cleaning out his vehicle’s glove compartment: a scratch-off lottery ticket purchased last year turned out to be a winner, earning him a brand-new truck. Swarthout recounted that he bought the Truck$ & Buck$ scratch-off ticket from the Kwik Stop on South Jeffers Street in North Platte during the early autumn and stashed it in his glove box for future use. During a recent cleanup of his glove box, Swarthout stumbled upon the unscratched ticket while searching for a VIN number in his other vehicle. Taking a chance, he scratched off the ticket and was astonished to find that he had secured the top prize: a 2023 Ford F-150 XLT 4×4 Crew Cab Flex Fuel truck. Initially uncertain about keeping the prize, Swarthout made his decision after learning that the lottery covers the taxes and registration fees for the vehicle, making the unexpected win even more appealing.

Unbiased headline news for Thursday February 15, 2024 – Special counsel Jack Smith filed a brief Wednesday urging the Supreme Court to deny former President Donald Trump’s request to stay his federal election subversion case from moving forward as Trump appeals his claim that he should be immune from prosecution. Smith requested that if the Supreme Court does intend to hear Trump’s appeal, they grant the review now and go into an expedited briefing schedule, issuing their ruling during this term. The Supreme Court had asked for the special counsel to file his response by the afternoon of Feb. 20. After more than four months of war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and despite mounting international pressure to limit the devastating impact on Palestinian civilians, Prime Minister Benjamin Net-In-Yahoo says Israel’s goal remains the same — to destroy Hamas. But in the other Palestinian territory, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the seemingly endless war in Gaza is having exactly the opposite effect: It is fuelling Palestinian rage, and that rage is finding a receptive home in thousands of young Palestinians who are increasingly disenchanted and increasingly defiant. A former top U.S. diplomat who is accused of spying for Cuba for decades pleaded not guilty. Victor Manuel Rocha, the former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Dec. 5 on charges that he allegedly spied for Cuba’s intelligence agency for four decades. In a court document filed Wednesday saying he intends to plead not guilty, Rocha asked that he not have to appear in court for his arraignment on Friday. The initial court appearance to hear the charges against him has been postponed twice since December. Twelve accusers of Jeffrey Epstein, the sex offender and billionaire whose trafficking charges made international headlines, sued the FBI for failure to protect them, according to a complaint filed Wednesday in federal court in the Southern District of New York. The lawsuit, which was filed under the pseudonym Jane Doe to protect the plaintiffs’ identities, alleges the FBI had specific information about Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 in a New York City federal detention center. He was awaiting trial in New York on federal charges of sex trafficking conspiracy and a count of sex trafficking. The family of Marissa Carmichael say they are devastated as they’ve marked one month since her disappearance and police in Greensboro, North Carolina, are sharing new information about the search for the missing mother of five. Carmichael, 25, vanished on Jan. 14 from an Exxon gas station in the 800 block of E. Market St. in Greensboro shortly after making a distressed call to 911, according to police. Police said in a statement that they have reviewed surveillance footage that shows Carmichael getting into the car of a man at the Exxon gas station. An avalanche on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula killed one backcountry skier and injured two others, prompting warnings for people to stay away from steep slopes as warm weather and high winds raise the risk of more snowslides around the state. The avalanche occurred Tuesday afternoon between the communities of Cooper Landing and Moose Pass in the Chugach National Forest, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) south of Anchorage. It occurred as the three men hiked up a mountain about a mile east off the Seward Highway. COVID-19 patients are at least four times more likely to develop chronic fatigue than someone who has not had the virus, a new federal study published Wednesday suggests. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at electronic health records from the University of Washington of more than 4,500 patients with confirmed COVID-19 between February 2020 and February 2021. They were followed for a median of 11.4 months. A GOP legislative effort to prevent Virginia children from using the popular video-sharing app TikTok — an idea backed by Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin — died this week in the Democratic-controlled Legislature. The bill, sponsored by Republican Jay Leftwich of Chesapeake, was left in a House of Delegates committee after concerns were raised about how the ban would be enforced. Lawmakers also questioned whether singling out just one company was the right approach at a time of broad and rising concern from parents and lawmakers about the effect of social media on youth.

Unbiased headline news for Wednesday February 14, 2024 – Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand is set to be released from prison, as confirmed by the nation’s justice minister. This development comes just months after his imprisonment upon returning to the country from 15 years of self-imposed exile this summer. Justice Minister Tawee Sodsong stated on Tuesday that Thaksin, aged 74, is among the 930 inmates whose parole applications have been approved, as reported by the Bangkok Post. According to Tawee, Thaksin qualifies for parole due to his age, serious illnesses, and having served over six months of his one-year sentence. — Officials report progress in negotiations between Israel and Hamas toward another cease-fire and hostage-release deal. Talks persist as Israel contemplates expanding its offensive to Gaza’s southern edge, where around 1.4 million Palestinians have sought refuge. Discussions continue in Egypt following an Israeli forces operation in Rafah, resulting in the rescue of two captives but also claiming the lives of at least 74 Palestinians, according to local health officials. The potential escalation raises concerns about the impact on the densely populated southern region. — A massive landslide struck a gold mine in eastern Turkey, trapping a minimum of nine workers underground, according to officials. The Copler mine, near the town of Ilic in Turkey’s mountainous Erzincan province, experienced the landslide around 2:30 p.m. A worker nearby captured footage showing a significant wave of earth rushing down a gully, engulfing everything in its path. As of now, nine workers remain unaccounted for, with fears that they are buried beneath the ground, stated Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya. — South Korea’s military reports detecting North Korea firing multiple cruise missiles into waters off its northeastern coast, marking its fifth test of such weapons since January. The exact number of missiles fired and their distance were not immediately disclosed by South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. Both South Korea and U.S. intelligence agencies are conducting a detailed analysis of the launches, which represent the sixth missile-launch event by North Korea this year. — A murder suspect, wanted in the fatal shooting of a Tennessee deputy, has been apprehended following a nearly weeklong manhunt, authorities confirmed. Kenneth DeHart was detained in Knoxville on Tuesday, with the Blount County Sheriff’s Office sharing a photo of a significant police presence outside a residence. The 42-year-old fugitive faced first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder charges in connection with the shooting of two Blount County deputies last Thursday. — The Georgia Association of Educators and two educators filed a lawsuit against Cobb County School officials on Tuesday, alleging education “censorship” due to two bills restricting certain topics teachers can address in the classroom. The Protecting Students First Act, enacted in 2022, prohibits educators from expressing “personal political beliefs” regarding “divisive concepts.” These concepts, defined by a list, involve topics such as race, unconscious bias, racial privilege, and the role of racism in American history. Supporters argue the bills give parents a greater say in their children’s education. — A suspect has been arrested and charged in connection with the theft and destruction of a statue of baseball legend Jackie Robinson, stolen from a Kansas park last month, authorities announced. The statue disappeared from McAdams Park in Wichita on Jan. 25, with only Robinson’s feet remaining. Pieces of the statue were found on Jan. 30 in a burning trash can in Garvey Park. The suspect in the incident, 45-year-old Ricky Alderete, faces felony theft and aggravated criminal damage to property charges, according to the Sedgwick County district attorney. — Dole Fresh Vegetables, Inc. issued a voluntary recall of a “limited number” of Dole-branded and private label salad kits due to potential cross-contamination with cheeses recalled for possible listeria contamination. The recall, posted on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Dole’s websites, states that the salad kits were processed on the same line as a cheese product from Rizo-Lopez Foods. Customers and retailers with questions regarding the recall can contact the Dole Consumer Response Center at 800-356-3111.

Unbiased headline news for Tuesday February 13, 2024 – Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee is set to proceed with an evidentiary hearing on Thursday to examine a motion from a co-defendant of Donald Trump. The motion aims to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office from prosecuting the 2020 election interference case in Georgia and to drop all charges against the defendant. Michael Roman, a former Republican National Committee staffer, alleges that Willis had an improper relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade. Roman claims that Willis paid Wade over $650,000 for his work for the D.A.’s office and benefited financially from their relationship, alleging that Wade took her on cruises and trips. — President Joe Biden met with Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House, where disagreements over key issues in Israel’s war in Gaza were evident. While Biden reiterated his opposition to a permanent cease-fire, Abdullah called for an immediate end to the war, expressing concern about a potential Israeli attack on Rafah. Abdullah emphasized the humanitarian impact, stating that it could lead to another catastrophe for over a million people who have been pushed into Rafah since the war began. — Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister declared a “national emergency” due to a significant oil spill near the twin-island nation in the eastern Caribbean. Crews are struggling to contain the oil that has already coated numerous beaches on Tobago’s southwest coast. The vessel responsible for the spill, which overturned near Tobago last week, has not been identified by the government. The extent of the spill and the cause of the vessel overturning remain unclear. — The U.S. government seized a Boeing 747 cargo plane, alleging that it was sold by a sanctioned Iranian airline to a state-owned Venezuelan firm in violation of American export control laws. The Justice Department announced that the plane, previously transferred from Mahan Air to Emtrasur, a Venezuelan cargo airline, would be disposed of. Mahan Air has faced allegations of supporting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force. — Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen reversed his decision and announced that the state will accept approximately $18 million in federal funding to help feed hungry children over the summer break. Pillen initially rejected the funding in December, citing his opposition to welfare. However, he faced pressure to reconsider, including from some members of his party. Pillen’s change of stance comes after meeting with a group of high school students from around Nebraska. — A Republican lawmaker in Michigan, Representative Josh Schriver, lost his committee assignment and staff after posting an image of a racist ideology on social media. House Speaker Joe Tate, a Democrat, emphasized that the House would not tolerate “racist, hateful, and bigoted speech.” Schriver shared a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) displaying a map with Black figures outnumbering white figures, accompanied by the phrase, “The great replacement!” — North Korea conducted a test of a new “controllable shell and ballistic control system” for multiple rocket launchers, according to state media. The test-firing of 240mm-caliber rocket shells using the new system was carried out by the North’s Academy of Defense Science. The state-run Korean Central News Agency reported that the launcher’s role in battlefields would be increased after a re-evaluation. — Bob Edwards, the anchor of National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” for nearly 25 years, passed away at the age of 76. Edwards, known for his baritone voice, played a pivotal role in informing Americans about current events. He co-hosted “All Things Considered” with Susan Stamberg in 1974 and was the founding anchor of “Morning Edition” in 1979. Edwards left NPR in 2004 after being replaced on the show.

Latest News Headlines for Monday February 12, 2024 – Israel’s neighbors and key mediators caution of disaster if its military launches a ground invasion in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, where Israel states remaining Hamas strongholds are located — along with over half the besieged territory’s population. Israeli airstrikes killed at least 44 Palestinians — including more than a dozen children — in Rafah, hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he asked the military to plan for the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people ahead of an invasion. He gave no details or timeline. The death toll from a massive landslide that hit a gold-mining village in the southern Philippines has risen to 54 with 63 people still missing, authorities said. The landslide hit the mountain village of Masara in Davao de Oro province on Tuesday night after weeks of torrential rains. Davao de Oro’s provincial government said in a Facebook post that 54 bodies had been recovered. At least 32 residents survived with injuries but 63 remained missing, it said. Among those missing were gold miners who had been waiting in two buses to be driven home when the landslide struck and buried them. Russian forces launched 45 drones over Ukraine Sunday in a five-and-a-half-hour barrage, officials said, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy continued the reshuffle of his war cabinet as the war enters its third year. In a statement, the Ukrainian air force said it had shot down 40 of the Iranian-made Shahed drones over nine different regions, including on the outskirts of the country’s capital, Kyiv. The five-and-a-half-hour attack targeted agricultural facilities and coastal infrastructure, officials for Ukraine’s southern defense forces wrote on Telegram. A Brazilian judge has determined that a warrant should be sent to Interpol for the arrest of a man accused of hiring another man to kill his ex-husband, the prominent New York gallerist Brent Sikkema. Judge Tula Correa de Mello, the head of the third criminal court in Rio de Janeiro, officially ordered the arrest of Daniel Sikkema, the ex-husband of gallerist Brent Sikkema, the Folha de São Paulo newspaper reported. The news was confirmed by broadcaster Globo. A mother in Kansas City, Missouri, has been arrested and charged in the death of her 1-month-old infant after allegedly mistakenly placing the baby in an oven instead of a crib, the prosecutor’s office said. Mariah Thomas, 26, has been charged with a Class A felony, first-degree endangering the welfare of a child, in the death of her baby, Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced Saturday. Thomas alleged she was putting the child down for a nap and accidentally mistakenly placed the child in the oven instead of the crib, according to the court documents. A man was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to killing four workers at an Oklahoma marijuana farm in 2022. Chen Wu pleaded guilty at a court hearing Friday to four counts of first-degree murder and to one count of assault and battery with a deadly weapon in connection with the Nov. 20, 2022 killings, according to court records. Prosecutors say Wu, also known as Wu Chen in jail records, fatally shot three men and a woman in a garage at the farm west of Hennessey. A man whose family’s gender reveal photo shoot sparked a Southern California wildfire that killed a firefighter in 2020 has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, prosecutors said. Angelina Jimenez pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of recklessly causing fire to property of another. She was sentenced to a year of summary probation and 400 hours of community service. The couple was also ordered to pay over one point 7 million dollars in restitution. Off-duty officers responded as a woman began shooting inside pastor Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston on Sunday, killing the suspect. Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said at a news conference that a child was left in critical condition following the incident and a 57-year-old man was also shot in the leg. Finner said the woman, between the ages of 30 and 35 years old, entered the Lakewood Church on the west side at approximately 1:53 p.m. local time. Finner says she was armed with a long rifle and was accompanied by a 5-year-old boy. — Guinness World Records reignited a French man’s dreams by reversing its decision and conferring upon him the title for the world’s tallest matchstick sculpture. Richard Plaud invested eight years building a 23.6-foot model of the Eiffel Tower, crafted from 706,900 matchsticks. Despite initial disqualification for using matchsticks deemed not commercially available, the organization revisited the decision this week. The director of central records services, revealed that Plaud has now been granted the title. McKinley explained that they corrected inconsistencies within the rules, allowing matchsticks to be snipped and shaped according to the modeler’s vision.

Latest news headlines for Saturday February 10, 2024 – Israeli airstrikes resulted in the deaths of at least 44 Palestinians, including over a dozen children, in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Saturday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for the military to plan the evacuation of hundreds of thousands before a potential ground invasion heightened panic and drew diplomatic warnings. With more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents concentrated in Rafah, following Israeli evacuation orders covering two-thirds of the territory, the next safe destination remains uncertain. — At least seven people lost their lives in Russian drone strikes on a gas station in the frontline city of Kharkiv overnight Saturday. The attack sparked a massive fire, destroying 15 homes. Among the casualties were three children from the same family, including a 4-year-old boy and a 6-month-old baby. Kharkiv Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported three additional injuries, prompting the establishment of an emergency operations center. The governor appealed for building materials, clothes, and personal hygiene products to aid the victims. — Amid public outcry over a controversial pardon, Hungary’s conservative president, Katalin Novák, resigned. The pardon, granted to a man convicted as an accomplice in a child sexual abuse case, triggered a political scandal for the long-serving nationalist government. Novák, 46, announced her resignation in a televised message, succumbing to over a week of public outrage following revelations about the pardon issued in April 2023. — Joel Greenberg, a former close associate of Rep. Matt Gaetz sentenced to 11 years in prison, is cooperating with the House Ethics Committee probe into the Florida congressman. Greenberg, a key witness in the Justice Department’s probe into Gaetz, which concluded without charges, has been in contact with the Ethics Committee for weeks. He has provided documents related to the case, according to sources familiar with the committee’s work. — A small plane crashed onto a Florida highway Friday afternoon, resulting in at least two confirmed fatalities. The crash occurred near Naples around 3:15 p.m. ET, following reported dual engine failure. The aircraft collided with a vehicle on Interstate 75, as stated by the Federal Aviation Administration and confirmed by the Florida Highway Patrol. The Collier County Sheriff’s Office reported the two fatalities. — An illness outbreak aboard a Cunard Cruise Line ship has affected at least 154 people with symptoms like vomiting and diarrhea, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On the Queen Victoria cruise, 129 passengers and 25 crew members reported illness during the voyage, marking an increase of 15 since the initial report on Feb. 1. The cause of the gastrointestinal disease outbreak is currently unknown. — New data from the New York Federal Reserve Bank reveals that strong financial market performance, particularly in the stock market in 2021, further entrenched wealth inequality during the pandemic. The report indicates that the real net worth of white individuals outpaced that of Black and Hispanic individuals by 30 and 9 percentage points, respectively, from the first quarter of 2019 through the second quarter of 2023. — Nominees for the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction include Mariah Carey, Cher, Lenny Kravitz, the late Sinéad O’Connor, and Ozzy Osbourne, dubbed heavy metal’s Prince of Darkness. The diverse list also features Britpoppers Oasis, pop-soul sensation Sade, and others. Osbourne, a solo artist this time, had previously entered the hall with Black Sabbath. Ten of the 15 nominees are on the ballot for the first time, including Carey, Cher, Foreigner, Frampton, Kool & the Gang, Kravitz, Oasis, O’Connor, Sade, and Osbourne. — In Britain, a doctor experienced a heartwarming reunion with her diamond ring after the valuable item embarked on an unexpected nearly 100-mile journey tucked away in the pocket of a pair of scrubs. Suraj Shah, an anesthetics registrar at the Royal Free Hospital in London, shared that he wore a freshly-laundered set of scrubs as he prepared for his shift. The hospital’s facilities team reached out to its laundry service and made a surprising discovery – a doctor had reported a missing ring after inadvertently leaving it in the pocket of her scrubs at the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust in Bury St. Edmunds, nearly 100 miles away. Radhika Ramasamy, a consultant anesthetist, explained that she had placed the ring in her pocket approximately five days before its serendipitous discovery by Shah. Overjoyed at the reunion, Ramasamy expressed gratitude for the incredible team effort involved in tracking her down and returning the ring. “I know it’s been an incredible team effort, and I am so appreciative of how so many people have gone the extra mile to track me down and return it to me,” she said.