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Published by AlterNet By David Badash Herschel Walker, the Trump-endorsed GOP nominee to unseat Democratic U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, has drawn tremendous criticism from both Democrats and Republicans alike, as the former NFL star hides from debates after hiding three of his four children. Walker is being scrutinized as Fox News tries to prop him up, after The Daily Beast recently revealed he has three other children that he has all but never publicly acknowledged. Christian Walker, who does not identify as gay but says he is attracted to men, is the only Walker child most Americans know about. On Wed… Read More View the full article

Published by Radar Online MEGA Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who has become a target for liberals in the last few months, is out of his lecturing role at a prestigious law school, Radar has learned. Thomas, a staunch conservative, has been a leading voice in the overturning of Roe v. Wade. He has also come under fire for his wife’s text messages with White House officials to protest the 2020 presidential election results. Thomas has also called for the high court to look at cases involving gay marriage and contraceptives. According to the George Washington University student newspaper, The Hatchet, Thomas will not teach at the law school in the fall. He has been a lecturer since 2011 and an email went out to students to inform them. Thomas taught with Greggory Maggs in the program. “Unfortunately, I am writing with some sad news: Justice Thomas has informed me that he is unavailable to co-teach the seminar this fall,” Maggs said in an email, according to The Hatchet. “I know that this is disappointing. I am very sorry.” MEGA A University spokesman told the paper that Thomas was “unavailable” to teach in the fall but will offer a seminar. The move came after 11,000 people signed a petition on Change.org to remove Thomas from teaching at the school. The petition was started after the court overturned Roe and ended federal abortion protections. It is now up to each state to decide if they will allow the procedure. The decision has led to waves of protests and a massive drop in the court’s approval. “With the recent Supreme Court decision that has stripped the right to bodily autonomy of people with wombs, and with his explicit intention to further strip the rights of queer people and remove the ability for people to practice safe sex without fear of pregnancy, it is evident that the employment of Clarence Thomas at George Washington University is completely unacceptable,” the petition read. The effort had roughly 11,500 signatures as of Thursday morning. View the full article

Published by The Detroit News LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Supreme Court on Thursday ruled Michigan’s current laws against discrimination based on sex includes a ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation, a ruling that effectively stops businesses from denying services or employment opportunities to the gay community. The 5-2 decision written by Republican-nominated Justice Elizabeth Clement found that discrimination based on sexual orientation involves bias based on sex because the individual’s sexual orientation is “generally determined by reference to their own sex.” “For example, attraction to females in a fel… Read More View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Madonna was determined to make her upcoming biopic herself because “misogynistic men” were trying to make movies about her. The 63-year-old Queen of Pop has admitted she’s been “hacking off my limbs” working on the flick about her life and career. She told Variety: “I’ve been whittling away at it, but it’s like hacking off my limbs.” It’s been reported that ‘Inventing Anna’ star Julia Garner, 28, is to play the ‘Material Girl’ hitmaker, though nothing is confirmed yet. And Madonna has spilled that she came to make the movie because she was fed up with men wanting to tell her story in a misogynistic way. She said: “I’ve had an extraordinary life, I must make an extraordinary film. “It was also a preemptive strike because a lot of people were trying to make movies about me. Mostly misogynistic men. So I put my foot in the door and said, ‘No one’s going to tell my story, but me.’” The ‘Like a Virgin’ hitmaker also ruled out selling the rights to her back catalogue like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young have done lately. She told the outlet: “Because they’re my songs. Ownership is everything isn’t it?” In 2021, Madonna released a trap version of her 1998 hit ‘Frozen’ after it went viral on TikTok, and four remixes followed. It came after the music legend announced her plans to re-release her back catalogue. She said: “I’m just looking for interesting, fun ways to rerelease my catalogue and introduce my music to a new generation.” And the ‘Vogue’ singer hinted she’s planning to head out on tour again. Madonna added: “The whole thing with ‘Frozen’ was so fun, but I woke up one day and went, ‘I’m sick of living in the past!’ I want to go on tour again, I’m a creature of the stage. That is my happy place.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden’s campaign trail promise to increase taxes on corporations and the wealthy as part of a battle against glaring income inequality in the United States got an unexpected boost on Wednesday. Early proposals to increase tax rates from Biden and his fellow Democrats hit a brick wall in Congress after Republicans, and some Democrats, opposed them. But a sudden reversal by West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, a swing vote in the divided Senate, has given Biden’s tax agenda a new lease on life. The amount that U.S. companies contribute to tax revenue that funds roads and schools has plummeted https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-BIDEN/INVESTMENTS/xlbvgkbxlvq since the 1940s. Biden has often said in office that companies should instead pay a “fair share,” a contrast to deference to private markets begun by Republicans with Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980, and buoyed by rounds of tax cuts and deregulation, by both parties. The new compromise bill includes $430 billion in new spending on energy, electric vehicle tax credits and health insurance investments. It more than pays for itself by raising minimum taxes for big companies and enforcing existing tax laws, Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement. The bill would impose a 15% minimum tax on corporations with profits over $1 billion, raising $313 billion over a decade, they wrote. Companies could claim net operating losses and tax credits against the 15%. The U.S. corporate tax rate dropped to 21% from 35% after a 2017 tax cut pushed by then-President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans, but many companies pay much less than that, and some of the largest pay no federal taxes, research groups including the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy have found. Biden proposed raising that rate to 28% last year, as part of an infrastructure spending bill, but the tax component was struck from the bill. The new Manchin-Schumer bill also aims to close the so-called carried interest loophole, long a goal of Democrats. Carried interest refers to a longstanding Wall Street tax break that let many private equity and hedge fund financiers pay the lower capital gains tax rate on much of their income, instead of the higher income tax rate paid by wage-earners. Eliminating the loophole would raise $14 billion, the senators say. Schumer said he expected the Senate to vote on the legislation next week, to “lower prescription drug prices, tackle the climate crisis with urgency and vigor, ensure the wealthiest corporations and individuals pay their fair share in taxes, and reduce the deficit.” The Manchin-Schumer measure is substantially smaller than the multi-trillion-dollar spending bill Democrats had envisioned last year. But it still represents a major advance for Biden’s policy agenda ahead of midterm elections on Nov. 8 that could determine whether Democrats retain control of Congress. It came just as Biden celebrated Senate passage of a bill aimed at boosting the U.S. semiconductor industry, another key priority of his administration, and as he struggles with low job approval ratings and ebbing support from his own party after a series of conservative Supreme Court rulings. “This bill will reduce the deficit beyond the record setting $1.7 trillion in deficit reduction we have already achieved this year, which will help fight inflation as well,” Biden said in a statement. “And we will pay for all of this by requiring big corporations to pay their fair share of taxes, with no tax increases at all for families making under $400,000 a year,” he said. (Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Heather Timmons) View the full article

Published by Reuters MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Thursday that there were no agreements yet on a possible prisoner swap involving jailed U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, and Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25 year sentence in the U.S. CNN reported on Wednesday that the White House had offered to free Bout, whose release has been sought by Russia, in return for Griner and Paul Whelan, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran jailed in Russia on espionage charges. WNBC star Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport on Feb. 17 after cannabis-infused vape cartridges were found in her luggage. She has pled guilty to drugs charges that carry up to a ten year prison term in Russia. (Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge) View the full article

Published by Reuters MOSCOW (Reuters) – A former state TV journalist charged with discrediting Russia’s armed forces by protesting against Moscow’s actions in Ukraine told a court on Thursday that the charge against her was absurd. Marina Ovsyannikova defiantly repeated her protest and said she would not retract her words. “What’s going on here is absurd,” Ovsyannikova told the court. “War is horror, blood and shame.” Ovsyannikova gained international attention in March after bursting into a studio of Russian state TV, her then employer, to denounce the Ukraine war during a live news bulletin. At the time she was fined for flouting protest laws. She is now being tried over subsequent social media posts in which she wrote that those responsible for Russia’s actions in Ukraine would find themselves in the dock before an international tribunal. She faces up to 15 years in jail for discrediting the armed forces under a law passed in March, soon after President Vladimir Putin launched what he calls his “special military operation” against Ukraine. Addressing the court, Ovsyannikova said she did not understand why she was there and what she was being judged for. “Your accusations are like accusing me of spreading monkeypox,” she said. “The purpose of the trial is to intimidate all the people who oppose the war in the Russian Federation.” She described Russia as an aggressor country, saying: “The beginning of this war is the biggest crime of our government.” A lawyer for Ovsyannikova said she had the right to speak out under Article 29 of the Russian constitution which protects the right to freedom of expression. (Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge) View the full article

Published by The State (Columbia, S.C.) COLUMBIA, S.C. — Gov. Henry McMaster on Wednesday called exceptions to South Carolina’s six-week abortion ban a “reasonable” approach, clarifying earlier remarks he gave to reporters when asked whether he’d sign more restrictive legislation without exceptions. McMaster told reporters at the State Election Commission office that he wants the Legislature to send him a reasonable bill to ban abortions as legislators mull how restrictive to go following the overturn of Roe v. Wade. A Republican-led House panel recently proposed anti-abortion recommendations that removed rape and incest exceptions … Read More View the full article

Published by New York Daily News Dr. Anthony Fauci says that the government’s response against monkeypox must include combating anti-gay stigmas that could be associated with the disease. Speaking with NPR’s “All Things Considered” on Tuesday, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), highlighted the importance of treating the virus as one that can affect anybody, and not only a certain part of the population. There are currently 19,188 confirmed cases of monkeypox in the current outbreak, which the World Health Organization has recently classified as a public health emergency. Accordi… Read More View the full article

Published by AlterNet By David Badash Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis, continuing his months-long, fear-based attack on the LGBTQ community, appears to be claiming that elementary school teachers are “instructed” to tell children they they might be transgender, and insisting if anyone dares to disagree with him, they are “lying.” His claim, which appears in a clip posted by The Recount, is drawing massive outrage on social media. “This will be for elementary school kids, where they’re instructed to tell them, ‘You may have been born a boy, that may have been what you said, but maybe you’re really a girl.’ That’s … Read More View the full article

Published by Al-Araby An Egyptian social media star has been detained in Saudi Arabia under accusations of being immoral and sexually suggestive online. Tala Safwan – who creates content on TikTok and YouTube – allegedly appeared in a recent TikTok live broadcast, which has been accused of having homosexual, lesbian undertones. The influencer’s arrest in the conservative kingdom – where homosexuality is a potential capital offence – has stirred controversy across social media, as many expressed anger using a hashtag translating to ‘Tala Offends Society’, while others defended her. “The Riyadh police arrested a res… Read More View the full article

Published by Radar Online Mega Donald Trump trashed LeBron James over the weekend during a wild speech about gender transitioning and women’s basketball, Radar has learned. The outrageous incident took place while the ex-president addressed a crowd of right-wing teenagers during Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit in Tampa, Florida on Saturday. Mega Although Trump revealed he likes Michael Jordan “much better” than James, the former president suggested he would convince the 37-year-old Lakers star to transition into a woman to play on his women’s basketball team. “I’m not a fan of Lebron James at all… I don’t like him,” Trump told the crowd of students, “but I’d say: ‘LeBron, did you ever think of becoming a woman? Did you ever consider, because I’d like to have you on my team. I’d love to have you on our team, LeBron.’” “But think of it, it’s so crazy what’s happening,” Trump added as he criticized and mocked transgender athletes. Trump’s speech at Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit in Tampa over the weekend came just a few days before the ex-president returned to Washington, D.C. for the first time since leaving office in January 2021. Mega On Tuesday, while giving a speech at a conference hosted by the America First Policy Institute, Trump continued to ridicule transgender athletes while also slamming President Joe Biden, the drug epidemic and the homeless crisis taking place in D.C. and throughout the nation. “This guy comes along, he’s named Alice…world record, world record,” Trump joked about transgender weight lifters as he pretended to lift weights. “We could have put another couple hundred pounds on. It’s so unfair.” “You execute a drug dealer, you save 500 lives,” the ex-president also said while suggesting drug dealers should be put to death. As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Trump’s return to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday – and his speech in Tampa on Saturday – came amid rumors the former president is preparing to announce his plans to run for president again in 2024. Mega RadarOnline.com also exclusively learned that although Trump spoke considerately of his former vice president during his speech Tuesday, the ex-president slammed Mike Pence as “unelectable” while speaking to his supporters behind closed doors. “Mike is unelectable. He doesn’t have the gays’ support. The gays love me. They hate Mike,” Trump reportedly said, according to a source from within the ex-president’s orbit, regarding Pence’s plans to also run in 2024. View the full article

On July 23, the World Health Organization declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern. It was a contentious decision, with the WHO’s director-general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, making the final call and overruling the WHO’s emergency committee. The advisory committee’s disagreements mirrored debates that have been unfolding among public officials, on social media, and in opinion pages over the past several weeks. Is monkeypox a public health emergency when it’s spreading “just” among gay and bisexual men and trans women? To what degree do other populations need to worry? Behind those questions are concerns about stigma and how best to allocate scarce resources. But they also reflect an individualistic understanding of public health. Rather than asking what the monkeypox outbreak means for them now, the public could be asking how the monkeypox outbreak could affect them in the future and why and how it could be contained now. The longer monkeypox transmission goes unchecked, the more likely it is to spill over into other populations. There have already been a handful of cases among women and a couple of cases in children because of household transmission. In otherwise healthy people, monkeypox can be extremely painful and disfiguring. But in pregnant women, newborns, young children, and immunocompromised people, monkeypox can be deadly. Those groups would all be in danger if monkeypox became entrenched in this country. Stopping transmission among men who have sex with men will protect them in the here and now and more vulnerable populations in the future. But with a limited supply of monkeypox vaccine available, how can public health officials best target vaccines equitably for impact? It won’t be enough to vaccinate close contacts of people with monkeypox to stop the spread. Public health officials have been unable to follow all chains of transmission, which means many cases are going undiagnosed. Meanwhile, the risk of monkeypox (and other sexually transmissible diseases) isn’t evenly distributed among gay and bisexual men and trans women, and targeting all of them would outstrip supply. Such a strategy also risks stigmatizing these groups. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently expanded eligibility for monkeypox vaccination to include people who know that a sexual partner in the past 14 days was diagnosed with monkeypox or who had multiple sexual partners in the past 14 days in a jurisdiction with known monkeypox cases. But this approach depends on people having access to testing. Clinicians are testing much more in some jurisdictions than in others. Alternatively, public health officials could target monkeypox vaccinations to gay and bisexual men and trans women who have HIV or are considered at high risk for HIV and are eligible for preexposure prophylaxis, or PrEP (medication to prevent HIV infection). After all, there’s a lot of overlap between these populations and those at risk for monkeypox. But only 25% of people eligible for PrEP in the U.S. are prescribed it, and that proportion drops to 16% and 9% among Hispanic and Black people, respectively. This approach risks missing many people who are at risk and exacerbating racial and ethnic disparities. This is why some LGBTQ+ activists are advocating for more aggressive outreach. “We talk about two kinds of surveillance,” said Gregg Gonsalves, an epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health and a longtime AIDS activist. “Passive surveillance, where I show up to my doctor’s office. Active surveillance is where we go out and we seek cases actively by going where people are at. There are parties, social venues, sex clubs where we could be doing monkeypox testing.” This will be especially critical outside gay-friendly cities, where both patients and providers may be less informed and gay sex more stigmatized. In New York City, the epicenter of monkeypox in the U.S., disparities in access to monkeypox vaccines have already emerged. The city’s health department offered appointments for first doses of the vaccine through an online portal and promoted them on Twitter. Those initial doses were administered at a sexual health clinic in the well-to-do Chelsea neighborhood. “It was in the middle of the day,” Gonsalves said. “It was in a predominantly gay white neighborhood. … It really was targeted at a demographic that will be first in line for everything. This is the problem with relying on passive surveillance and people coming to you.” Michael LeVasseur, an epidemiologist at Drexel University, said, “The demographics of that population may not actually reflect the highest-risk group. I’m not even sure that we know the highest-risk group in New York City at the moment.” Granted, three-quarters of the city’s cases had been reported in Chelsea, a neighborhood known for its large LGBTQ+ community, but that’s also a reflection of awareness and access to testing. Although more labs are offering monkeypox testing, many clinicians are still unaware of monkeypox or unwilling to test patients for it. You have to be a strong advocate for yourself to get tested, which disadvantages already marginalized populations. The health department opened a second vaccination site, in Harlem, to better reach communities of color, but most of those accessing monkeypox vaccines there have been white men. And then New York City launched three mass vaccination sites in the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn, which were open for one day only. To get the vaccine, you had to be in the know, have the day off, and be willing and able to stand in line in public. How can public health officials do the active surveillance that Gonsalves is talking about to target monkeypox vaccination equitably and to those at highest risk? Part of the answer may lie in efforts to map sexual networks and the spread of monkeypox, like the Rapid Epidemiologic Study of Prevalence, Networks, and Demographics of Monkeypox Infection, or RESPND-MI. Your risk of exposure to monkeypox depends on the probability of someone in your sexual network having monkeypox. The study may, for example, help clarify the relative importance of group sex at parties and large events versus dating apps in the spread of monkeypox across sexual networks. “A network map can tell us, given that vaccine is so scarce, the most important demographics of folk who need to get vaccine first, not just to protect themselves, but actually to slow the spread,” said Joe Osmundson, a molecular microbiologist at New York University and co-principal investigator of the RESPND-MI study. During the initial phase of covid-19 vaccine rollout, when vaccines were given at pharmacies and mass vaccination centers, a racial gap emerged in vaccination rates. Public health officials closed that gap by meeting people where they were, in approachable, community-based settings and through mobile vans, for example. They worked hard with trusted messengers to reach people of color who may be wary of the health care system. Similarly, sexual health clinics may not be a one-size-fits-all solution for monkeypox testing and vaccination. Although sexual health clinics may feel welcoming to some, others may fear being seen there. Others may not be able to go to sexual health clinics because of their limited hours of operation, on weekdays only. It isn’t new for public health officials to meet members of the LGBTQ+ community where they are. During a 2013 outbreak of meningitis among gay and bisexual men and trans women, health departments across the country forged relationships with community-based LGBTQ+ organizations to distribute meningitis vaccines. Unlike New York, Chicago is now leveraging those relationships to vaccinate people at highest risk for monkeypox. Massimo Pacilli, Chicago’s deputy commissioner for disease control, said, “The vaccine isn’t indicated for the general public nor, at this point, for any [man who has sex with men].” Chicago is distributing monkeypox vaccines through venues like gay bathhouses and bars to target those at highest risk. “We’re not having to screen out when people present because we’re doing so upstream by doing the outreach in a different way,” Pacilli said. Monkeypox vaccination “is intentionally decentralized,” he said. “And because of that, the modes by which any individual comes to vaccine is also very diverse.” Another reason to partner with LGBTQ+ community organizations is to expand capacity. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is one of the biggest and best-funded health departments in the country, and even it is struggling to respond quickly and robustly to the monkeypox outbreak. “Covid has overwhelmed many public health departments, and they could use the help, frankly, of LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS organizations” in controlling monkeypox, Gonsalves said. But even as public health officials try to control the transmission of monkeypox among gay and bisexual men and trans women in this country, it’s important not to forget that monkeypox has been spreading in West and Central Africa for years. Not all of that transmission has been occurring among men who have sex with men. Strategies for controlling monkeypox will need to be informed by the local epidemiology. Social and sexual mapping will be even more critical but challenging in countries, like Nigeria, where gay sex is illegal. Sadly, wealthier nations are already hoarding monkeypox vaccine supply as they did covid vaccines. If access to monkeypox vaccine remains inequitable, it will leave all countries vulnerable to resurgences in the future. KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation. USE OUR CONTENTThis story can be republished for free (details). KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.Subscribe to KHN’s free Morning Briefing. View the full article

Published by AlterNet By Alex Henderson Dr. Anthony Fauci, now 81, has worked in the United States’ federal government under a long list of Republican and Democratic presidents — most recently, as President Joe Biden’s top White House medical adviser. Fauci was never considered controversial in the past, whether the president was Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or Barack Obama. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, MAGA Republicans developed an intense disdain for the veteran immunologist — and some far-right MAGA Republicans have promised Fauci-related investigations if they regain control of Congress in t… Read More View the full article

Published by Raw Story By Sky Palma The Republican National Committee has paid nearly $2 million to law firms representing Donald Trump, but now they’re warning the former president that they’ll stop paying his legal bills if he runs for president in 2024, ABC News reports. An RNC official speaking to ABC News said that the party’s “neutrality policy” prohibits it from taking sides in the presidential primary. As ABC News points out, this isn’t the first time Trump’s legal bill have been used as leverage over him. “According to the book ‘Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show,’ by ABC News Chief Washington Corres… Read More View the full article

Published by AFP Former Minneapolis police officers from left to right Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane in handout photos provided by the Hennepin County Jail Washington (AFP) – Two former Minneapolis police officers were sentenced to prison on Wednesday for their roles in the May 2020 killing of George Floyd, a Black man whose death sparked protests against racial injustice across the United States. US District Judge Paul Magnuson sentenced J. Alexander Kueng, 28, to three years in prison and 36-year-old Tou Thao to three and a half years on federal charges. Kueng and Thao were convicted in February of violating Floyd’s civil rights, showing “deliberate indifference” to his medical needs and failing to intervene to stop the use of “unreasonable force” by another officer, Derek Chauvin. Kueng, Thao and Chauvin were among four police officers involved in Floyd’s arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill to buy a pack of cigarettes. Chauvin, a 19-year veteran of the force, was videotaped by a bystander kneeling on the neck of a handcuffed Floyd for nearly 10 minutes until he passed out and died. He was found guilty of murder and is serving more than 20 years in prison. The fourth officer, Thomas Lane, was also convicted in February of violating Floyd’s civil rights and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. Lane’s lawyers had asked for a lighter sentence for him on the grounds that he had suggested placing Floyd on his side and tried to resuscitate him. “All four officers involved in the tragic death of George Floyd have now been convicted in federal court, sentenced to prison and held accountable for their crimes,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement. “The federal prosecution of all officers tied to the death of George Floyd should send a clear and powerful message that the Department of Justice will never tolerate the unlawful abuse of power or victimization of Americans by anyone in law enforcement,” Clarke said. Kueng and Lane helped to restrain Floyd while Thao kept away bystanders who were pleading with the officers to get off of Floyd as he lay face down on the ground complaining he could not breathe. Lane was new to the job when he and fellow rookie cop Kueng apprehended Floyd after a shopkeeper accused him of using a counterfeit bill in his store. As they struggled to get Floyd into their vehicle, the pair were joined by two experienced officers, Chauvin and Thao. Lane pleaded guilty in May to separate state charges of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. Kueng and Thao are to go on trial on state manslaughter charges in late October. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Sharon Bernstein MARIPOSA, Calif. (Reuters) -Firefighters on Monday finally started to control California’s largest wildfire so far this year, halting its eastward expansion toward nearby Yosemite National Park while thousands of people remained under evacuation orders. The Oak Fire had expanded rapidly after it began on Friday, overwhelming the initial deployment of firefighters, as extremely hot and dry weather fueled its galloping pace through dry forest and underbrush. But Monday was “a successful day for aircraft and firefighters” as helicopters dropped 300,000 gallons (1.4 million liters) of water on the fire, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said in a Monday night update. The fire grew to 17,241 acres (6,977 hectares) by Monday night, about a 3% increase from Monday morning, Cal Fire said, more than half the size of San Francisco. It was 16% contained, up from 10% contained on Monday morning, and 3,700 people had been evacuated. The report contrasted with comments on Sunday from several Cal Fire officials who said the fire initially behaved unlike any other they had seen and defied their best efforts at containment, with burning embers sparking smaller fires up to two miles in front of the main conflagration. The absence of other major fires in the region enabled Cal Fire to concentrate 2,500 firefighters on the blaze, and the lack of wind allowed for the continuous use of aircraft to drop water and fire retardant, officials said. “It was a perfect storm of a good kind,” said Hector Vasquez, a Cal Fire spokesperson, at the command post in Mariposa, California, about 150 miles inland from San Francisco. The northward direction of the fire was taking it into the Sierra National Forest but no longer in the direction of Yosemite, some 10 miles away. A grove of Yosemite’s giant, ancient sequoia trees did come under threat from another wildfire weeks ago. Temperatures in the area soared to 97 degrees Fahrenheit (36 Celsius) while scant chances for thunderstorms faded. The National Weather Service forecast 100-degree weather for much of the week. More than two decades of drought and rising temperatures have conspired to make California more vulnerable than ever to wildfires, with the two most devastating years on record coming in 2020 and 2021, when more than 6.8 million acres burned, an area greater than the size of Rwanda. (Additional reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by David Gregorio and Stephen Coates) View the full article

Published by Miami Herald MIAMI — Continuing to target what he calls “woke” corporations, Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to prohibit state investments that use “environmental, social and governance” ratings, which can include taking into account impacts of climate change. DeSantis plans to have the State Board of Administration, which oversees investments, direct pension-fund managers against “using political factors when investing the state’s money.” So-called ESG policies have drawn criticism from Republicans across the country. “We want them (fund managers) to invest the state’s money for the best interests of the benefici… Read More View the full article

Published by Miami Herald MIAMI — Miami’s city government is studying the possibility of taking people experiencing homelessness off the streets and moving them to a city-sponsored encampment on Virginia Key. Commissioners on Thursday will discuss a list of five locations where the city could build a “transition zone” that would include temporary shelters and access to social services for people living on the street. Commissioners have for years debated how to address homelessness in Miami. In recent years, the city has taken steps to make it harder for people to live in public spaces, outside of a shelter. The latest … Read More View the full article

Published by Orlando Sentinel A Ph.D. candidate at a Florida university discovered an ancient shark in a coral reef in the Caribbean. Devanshi Kasana, studying at Florida International University (FIU), made the discovery while working with local Belizean fisherman, according to a Monday press release from FIU. Kasana initially believed it was a six-gill shark. “I knew it was something unusual, and so did the fishers,” she said. “(They) hadn’t ever seen anything quite like it in all their combined years of fishing.” The shark turned out to be a Greenland shark, a half-blind animal thought to live mainly in the freezing Arc… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters By Simon Lewis and Humeyra Pamuk WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States has made “a substantial offer” to Russia to release U.S. citizens detained there, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday, adding that he would be pressing his Russian counterpart to respond in a conversation planned for the coming days. Washington offered Moscow a deal to bring home WNBA star Brittney Griner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan weeks ago, Blinken said at a State Department news conference, and hoped to advance the process when he speaks to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “There was a substantial proposal on the table weeks ago to facilitate their release. Our governments have communicated repeatedly and directly on that proposal. And I’ll use the conversation to follow up personally and I hope move us toward a resolution,” Blinken said. He declined to say what the United States was offering in return. CNN reported that Washington was willing to exchange Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25 year-prison sentence in the United States, as part of a deal to secure the release of the two Americans. A Russian lawyer for Whelan has previously said he believed Moscow wanted Bout to be part of a prisoner swap for Whelan. Blinken declined to characterize how Moscow has so far reacted to the proposal, which he said had U.S. President Joe Biden’s sign off. PRESSURE ON BIDEN Families of hostages and detainees have been increasing pressure on Biden, most recently in the case of two-time Olympic medalist Griner, who has been held since February. Griner, who was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage, was in the courtroom on Wednesday in the latest hearing of her ongoing trial on drug charges. The next hearing is set for Aug. 2. “From a legal point of view, an exchange is only possible after a court verdict,” Griner’s lawyer in Russia, Maria Blagovolina, said in a statement to Reuters. Whelan was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in prison in Russia, accused of spying. He denied spying and said he was set up in a sting operation. The plight of American detainees has gained visibility after Griner’s arrest and the release in April of former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed at a time when U.S. relations with Moscow are at their worst in decades over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Reed was detained for three years. In a prisoner exchange, the United States commuted the prison sentence of Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was convicted of cocaine smuggling. Blinken said his planned call with Lavrov, the first such conversation between the two diplomats since before the start of Russian invasion of Ukraine in Feb. 24, will not be a negotiation about Ukraine. The White House also declined to go into the details of the U.S. proposal but said that Biden directed his national security team to pursue every avenue to bring Griner and Whelan home safely to their loved ones. “We believe that this is a serious proposal and we want the Russians to take it seriously as well,” said White House spokesperson John Kirby. Kirby declined to say if Washington was offering a prisoner swap but said the administration was balancing the “need to get these Americans home” with U.S. national security and “that we’re not encouraging hostage taking in the future.” Whelan’s family welcomed news of the U.S. offer. “We hope the Russian government responds to the U.S. government and accepts this or some other concession that enables Paul to come home to his family,” David Whelan, Paul’s brother, said in a statement. “The sooner the better,” he added. (Reporting by Simon Lewis and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Grant McCool and Alistair Bell) View the full article

Published by AFP Felix Rubio and Kimberly Rubio hold a photograph of their late daughter Alexandria Rubio, who was killed during the Uvalde, Texas mass shooting, as they attend a House Oversight Committee hearing with gun manufacturers Washington (AFP) – US gun makers earned $1 billion in the past decade from sales of AR-15-style semiautomatic weapons, a House committee said Wednesday as lawmakers grilled firearms manufacturers after a series of grim mass shootings. “The gun industry has flooded our neighborhoods, our schools and even our churches and synagogues with these deadly weapons and has gotten rich doing it,” Democratic Representative Carolyn Maloney said. “They are choosing their bottom line over the lives of their fellow Americans,” the New York lawmaker told a tense day-long hearing of the House Oversight and Reform Committee. “This is beyond irresponsible.” Maloney and other Democrats accused the gun manufacturers of using “dangerous” marketing tactics to sell firearms to young people and of failing to “acknowledge their role in the violence plaguing our nation.” “We know the power of marketing, especially the power of marketing to young people, whether it’s cereal or cigarettes, or in this case, guns,” said Bradley Schneider, a Democratic congressman who lives in Highland Park, where a young man shot dead seven people during a July 4 parade. At a hearing attended by several relatives of victims of recent mass shootings, Democrats called for a lifting of the immunity from lawsuits enjoyed by gun makers so they can be held accountable. Under a 2005 law, gun manufacturers are not liable in the United States for the use of their firearms in the commission of a crime. Marty Daniel, chief executive officer of Daniel Defense — maker of the gun used by a young man to kill 19 school children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas — defended his company’s business practices. “The stated implied purpose of this hearing is to vilify, blame and try to ban over 24 million sporting rifles already in circulation that are lawfully possessed and commonly used by millions of Americans to protect their homes and loved ones,” Daniel said. “I believe our nation’s response needs to focus not on the type of gun but on the types of persons who are likely to commit mass shootings,” he said. Christopher Killoy, president and CEO of Sturm, Ruger & Co., said it would be “wrong to deprive citizens of their constitutional right to purchase a lawful firearm they desire because of the criminal acts of wicked people.” Bill to ban assault weapons Republican lawmakers also pushed back against their Democratic colleagues. “Gun manufacturers do not cause violent crime,” said Representative James Comer of Kentucky. “Criminals cause violent crime.” “We’ll continue to protect the rights of all law-abiding gun owners who safely use, store and carry firearms including the AR-15,” Comer said. According to a report by the House Oversight and Reform Committee, five major gun manufacturers reaped more than $1 billion from the sale of assault rifles over the last decade. Daniel Defense’s revenue from AR-15-style rifles tripled from $40 million in 2019 to more than $120 million in 2021, the report said. Ruger’s earnings from AR-15-style rifles rose from $39 million to $103 million during the period while Smith & Wesson’s revenue from long guns, including AR-15-style rifles, doubled, from $108 million to $253 million. The Democratic-controlled House is moving forward for the first time in nearly 20 years with a bill that would ban the sale, import, manufacture or transfer of certain types of semi-automatic weapons. The “Assault Weapons Ban of 2021” would likely be doomed to fail in the Senate, however. Democrats have 50 seats in the 100-member Senate and 10 Republican votes would be needed to bring the measure to the floor. Congress passed a 10-year ban on assault rifles and certain high-capacity magazines in 1994. But lawmakers let it expire in 2004, and sales of those weapons have soared since then. After the Uvalde massacre, President Joe Biden appealed to lawmakers to again ban assault rifles or at least raise the minimum age for buying them from 18 to 21. But Republican lawmakers, who see such a restriction as going against the constitutional right to bear arms, have refused to go along with Biden’s proposal. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Kevin Bacon says the cast of ‘They/Them’ gives him “hope” for positive change in the campaign for queer rights. The 64-year-old star features in the new LGBTQ+ horror movie and explained that he has been left feeling optimistic that the US Supreme Court will have a tough time reversing queer rights. Kevin told ET Canada at the film’s premiere: “It’s tough to find hope sometimes these days, but we have to hope still. “The one thing that we can be hopeful about is that there are young people like the people in this movie who are the future.” The ‘Footloose’ actor’s comments come after the United States House of Representatives passed legislation that requires states to recognise same-sex marriages that have taken place elsewhere in the country and Bacon hopes that the film can help others recognise the traumas that conversion camps put LGBTQ+ people through as he only discovered the extent of the issue during his research for the part. He explained: “I just kind of thought, ‘Well, is that really going on?’ And, it is for 50,000 kids a year, in 20 states where it’s 100 per cent legal. “That’s just not cool and the idea that somebody would want to tell Theo, that Theo can’t be who Theo is, is just kind of sickening to me.” Kevin revealed that he felt emotional when he started working with his co-stars on the film. He said: “The first day that I walked out for the very first scene in the movie and I looked out across everybody, all these beautiful faces standing there, I just felt it was very moving for me. I was very, very proud and very moved. “John Logan (the director) did a very exhaustive search to find the best possible people to play these very specific roles and they can now be represented in this movie with a lot of authenticity and a lot of honesty.” View the full article

Published by AlterNet By David Badash Cassidy Hutchinson, seen as one of the most credible witnesses the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack put before the public to testify, is now cooperating with the Dept. of Justice in its Jan. 6 investigation, according to ABC News. Hutchinson is the former top aide and advisor to then-Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. “The Justice Department reached out to her following her testimony a month ago before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack,” ABC News reports in its breaking news story. READ MORE: Fox News could be subject to … Read More View the full article