Unbiased headline news for Tuesday April 16, 2024 – Russia and Ukraine traded blame before the United Nations Security Council for the attacks on Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said have put the world “dangerously close to a nuclear accident.”

Without attributing blame, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said his agency has been able to confirm three attacks against the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant since April 7. “These reckless attacks must cease immediately,” he told the Security Council.

The White House carefully avoided weighing in on any possible Israeli response to Iran’s attack over the weekend but also stressed the U.S. didn’t want to see further escalation in the region.

“This is an Israeli decision to make — whether and how they’ll respond to what Iran did on Saturday,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the daily press briefing. “And we’re going to leave it squarely with them.”

“Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez was given the maximum sentence of 18 months in prison for involuntary manslaughter in the 2021 fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

Gutierrez’s attorneys asked for probation in a sentencing memorandum filed last week, citing her “complete lack of prior criminal history” and “relative youth.” Prosecutors meanwhile requested a sentence of 18 months with the designation of serious violent offender due to her “extreme recklessness” while working as an armorer on the “Rust” set in New Mexico.

Rudy Giuliani has lost his bid to dismiss the 148 million dollar defamation judgment against him from late last year.

The judgment was won by former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss. The mother and daughter were accused by Giuliani of committing election fraud while the two were counting ballots in Georgia’s Fulton County on Election Day in 2020.

A divided Supreme Court allowed Idaho to proceed with broad enforcement of a new law aimed at prohibiting gender-affirming care for minors.

The decision overrides two lower federal courts that had upheld an injunction against the law as litigation over its constitutionality continues. The decision was backed by all six of the high court’s conservative members.

A couple who owned a Colorado funeral home where authorities last year discovered 190 decaying bodies were indicted on federal charges that they misspent nearly $900,000 in pandemic relief funds on vacations, cosmetic surgery, jewelry and other personal expenses, according to court documents unsealed Monday.

The indictment reaffirms accusations from state prosecutors that Jon and Carie Hallford gave families dry concrete instead of cremated ashes and alleges the couple buried the wrong body on two occasions. The couple also collected more than $130,000 from families for cremations and burial services they never provided, the indictment said.

NASA confirmed that a mystery object that crashed through the roof of a Florida home last month was a chunk of space junk from equipment discarded at the International Space Station.

The cylindrical object that tore through the home in Naples on March 8 was subsequently taken to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral for analysis. The space agency said it was a metal support used to mount old batteries on a cargo pallet for disposal.

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban has revealed how much he owes in taxes to the IRS. Cuban has to pay a total of $275,900,000, according to a social media post from Monday.

Cuban had shared a $288 million estimate on Sunday, after being asked by a writer if he or his “corporations pay more than the required taxes in order to pay your fair share.” Cuban replied that he pays what he owes. “This country has done so much for me, I’m proud to pay my taxes every single year,” Cuban said.

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