Neely, 30, whose subway death was ruled a homicide by New York’s medical examiner, remembered as kind and loving
Jordan Neely had a fan club.
The 30-year-old Michael Jackson impersonator had amassed a following within New York City and beyond, with thousands online admiring the young man’s aptitude for dance and creating a Facebook group to share his performances.
Continue reading...Arizona high court found no evidence of the failed gubernatorial candidate’s claim of 35,000 fraudulent votes in election
Lawyers for Kari Lake, the failed Republican gubernatorial candidate, were sanctioned $2,000 on Thursday by the Arizona supreme court in their unsuccessful challenge of her defeat in the governor’s race last year to Democrat Katie Hobbs.
In an order, the state’s highest court said Lake’s attorney made “false factual statements” that more than 35,000 ballots had been improperly added to the total ballot count, imposing 10 days to submit payment.
Continue reading...Banks seek to calm markets as investors fear repeat of First Republic and SVB failures
[NEW]Trading in shares of the California-lender PacWest have been suspended after plummeting 42% amid wider fears about the health of the US’s regional bank sector.
PacWest had sought to calm markets on Wednesday and said it was in talks with several potential investors after its shares plummeted by as much as 60%. But the sell-off continued on Thursday and affected other regional banks.
Continue reading...Supreme court justice did not report Crow’s tuition payments on his annual financial disclosures, ProPublica reports
A new investigation by ProPublica revealed that billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow paid the tuition of Mark Martin, a grandnephew of supreme court justice Clarence Thomas.
According to ProPublica, Mark Martin, whom Thomas obtained legal custody over when Martin was 6-years old, attended a private boarding school in northern Georgia called Hidden Lakes Academy for about a year.
“Harlan Crow has long been passionate about the importance of quality education and giving back to those less fortunate, especially at-risk youth… he and his wife have supported many young Americans through scholarship and other programs at a variety of schools…
Harlan and Kathy have particularly focused on students who are at risk of falling behind or missing out on opportunities to better themselves… Tuition and other financial assistance is given directly to academic institutions, not to students or to their families. These scholarships and other contributions have always been paid solely from personal funds, sometimes held at and paid through the family business.”
A New York judge has thrown out Donald Trump’s 2021 lawsuit that accused the New York Times of an “insidious plot” to obtain his tax records.
Vice president Kamala Harris will meet with Google and Microsoft CEOs today to discuss AI risks.
Iowa lawmakers have passed a Republican-led bill that allows teenagers to work longer hours and take previously banned jobs.
Continue reading...Medical examiner confirmed on Wednesday that 30-year-old Black man died from compression to the neck
Pressure was mounting on police, prosecutors and the New York mayor, Eric Adams, on Thursday as protesters, advocates and even Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez criticized the lack of action over the death of Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old Black man and Michael Jackson impersonator who was placed in a chokehold by another subway rider.
Adams has heightened police presence in subway stations in an attempt to curtail crime, while endorsing involuntarily hospitalizing people experiencing homelessness with mental illness and using police to remove people suffering from mental illness from subway stations.
Continue reading...Ukraine downs 18 drones, two of which are found to carry pro-Russian slogans, as Ukrainian residents prepare for curfew after night of heavy shelling. Plus, the dazzling, troubling history of California superbloom tourism
Good morning.
There’s been another night of substantial Russian missile attacks and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities, which has become something of a pattern in the last week or so after a period of relative calm. In the aftermath of Russia’s claims that Ukraine targeted the Kremlin with its own drones and tried to assassinate Vladimir Putin, Moscow launched a wave of kamikaze drones mainly targeting Kyiv and Odesa.
What has Volodymyr Zelenskiy said about the Kremlin attack? He has denied Russian claims that Ukraine was involved in a drone attack on the Kremlin that Russia says was intended to kill Vladimir Putin. Zelenskiy said on Wednesday: “We don’t attack Putin or Moscow, we fight on our territory and defend our towns and cities. We leave it to the tribunal.”
What else is happening? Zelenskiy will have a meeting at the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague during a visit to the Netherlands today, the court has said, Reuters reports.
What did Sandy Senn say? “We told them: ‘Don’t take us down this path again for the third time in six months – you will regret it.’ And so we made them regret it,” said the state senator of the male Republican senators continuously pushing abortion restrictions in her state – including in an earlier attempt this year to make abortion a crime punishable by the death penalty. Abortions remain legal until 22 weeks in the state, which has become a safe haven for abortion in a region with increasingly limited options.
Continue reading...Human Rights Watch follows lead of Pentagon, FBI and CIA to insert its messages into popular film and TV culture
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has decided to take on Hollywood to improve the visibility and awareness of humanitarian issues in popular culture.
As part of the move, the advocacy group has signed up with a talent agent firm, Activist Artists Management (AAM), to provide “scripted and unscripted content in film and television”, an HRW statement said.
Continue reading...As consumers turn to renewable and recyclable products, protests over industry’s use of misleading terms have proliferated
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is taking aim at greenwashing by big business with an update to its “Green Guides”, which would give the agency stronger legal cases against polluters by clarifying when companies’ deceptive marketing around sustainability and environmental responsibility violates federal law.
The move follows years of formal complaints filed with the FTC about often highly questionable claims made by fossil fuel companies, big agriculture, major food producers and other polluting industries.
Continue reading...World’s biggest grain trader accused of ‘shoddy due diligence’ on deforestation and alleged rights violations
The world’s largest grain trader, Cargill, is facing a first-ever legal challenge in the United States over its failure to remove deforestation and human rights abuses from its soya supply chain in Brazil.
ClientEarth, an environmental law organisation, filed the formal complaint on Thursday, accusing Cargill of inadequate monitoring and a laggard response to the decline of the Amazon rainforest and other globally important biomes, such as the Cerrado savannah and the Atlantic Forest.
Soya beans bought from third-party traders, which make up 42% of all Brazilian soya Cargill purchases.
Soya beans owned by other companies that passes through Cargill ports.
Indirect land use change.
Soya sourced from the Cerrado savannah.
Soya sourced from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.
Continue reading...Lawsuit alleged newspaper sought out niece Mary Trump and persuaded her to join ‘insidious plot’ to obtain Trump’s tax records
A judge in New York has thrown out Donald Trump’s 2021 lawsuit accusing New York Times reporters of an “insidious plot” to obtain his tax records.
The former president has also been asked to pay all attorneys’ fees and legal expenses the Times has incurred. The lawsuit alleged that the newspaper sought out Trump’s niece Mary Trump and persuaded her “to smuggle the records out of her attorney’s office”.
Continue reading...David Breaux would lend an ear to people over the years, asking for their insights into what compassion means
Residents of the California university town of Davis are mourning the loss of a man they say was known for spreading compassion and love to anyone he came across.
David Breaux, dubbed “Compassion Guy” by his neighbors, was stabbed to death on the morning of 27 April on the same park bench he sat on for years, lending an ear and his heart to people who would talk with him.
Continue reading...Jurors shown tape of deposition taken before case came to court in which Trump dismissed ‘the most ridiculous, disgusting story’
Donald Trump has described the accusation he raped the advice columnist E Jean Carroll as “ridiculous” in a deposition played to a New York jury on Wednesday.
The former president also said he could not remember when he was married to his various wives, but could find out. Asked if he had affairs while married, Trump said: “I don’t know.”
Continue reading...Police are actively searching for the suspect and additional victims after incident inside building in commercial area
One person was fatally shot and at least four injured on Wednesday in a shooting in a midtown Atlanta building, police said.
Atlanta police, who were still searching for the suspect on Wednesday afternoon, said there had been no additional shots fired since the initial shooting unfolded just after 12.30pm in a waiting room on the 11th floor of the Northside Hospital in midtown Atlanta, a commercial area with office buildings and high-rise apartments.
Continue reading...Actor shared a message on Instagram three weeks after he was hospitalized in Atlanta for an unknown ‘medical complication’
Jamie Foxx has released his first public statement since his hospitalization nearly three weeks ago for an unknown “medical complication”.
“Appreciate all the love!!! Feeling blessed,” the Oscar-winning actor posted on Instagram along with a prayer hands, heart and fox emoji.
Continue reading...Brazilian government has accused Alphabet of interference after it placed advertising on its search homepage and YouTube
Brazil’s government is taking a stand against major tech companies over a new internet regulation that is shaping up to be one of the world’s strongest legislations on social media.
Bill 2630, also known as the ‘fake news’ law, puts the onus on the internet companies, search engines and social messaging services to find and report illegal material, instead of leaving it to the courts, charging hefty fines for failures to do so.
Continue reading...Fired Fox host allegedly described Trump supporters assaulting a man, while finding himself ‘rooting for the mob’
A racist text message allegedly sent by the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson set off alarm bells at the top of the network and ultimately contributed to his firing, the New York Times reported.
The text, which remains redacted in court filings in Dominion Voter Systems’ defamation case against Fox News, included the line: “It’s not how white men fight.”
Continue reading...World Press Freedom Index report warns disinformation and AI pose mounting threats to journalism. Plus, the shocking history of British royal crowns
Good morning.
Media freedom is in dire health in a record number of countries, according to the latest annual snapshot, which warns that disinformation, propaganda and artificial intelligence pose mounting threats to journalism.
Are things bad everywhere? The environment for journalism today is considered “bad” in seven out of 10 countries, and satisfactory in only three out of 10, according to RSF. The UN says 85% of people live in countries where media freedom has declined in the past five years.
Why has it never been harder to be a journalist? On World Press Freedom Day, readers can make a difference to struggling independents via supporter models that beat the censors. Here nine journalists from around the world describe the realities of trying to do their job and what they are doing differently.
Who is behind the course? The course is the creation of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the beef industry’s main lobby group, and on after completing it I can tell you that you do not actually get a master’s degree, despite its name.
Continue reading...Measure will also help shift utilities away from private companies to make them publicly owned
New York state has passed legislation that will scale up the state’s renewable energy production and signals a major step toward moving utilities out of private hands to become publicly owned.
The bill, included in the state’s new budget, will require the state’s public power provider to generate all of its electricity from clean energy by 2030. It also allows the public utility to build and own renewables while phasing out fossil fuels.
Continue reading...Dangerous chemicals that can cause cancer and air pollution are often found in cosmetics, personal care products and cleaners
Some of the most common consumer products probably release 5,000 tons of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in American homes annually, new research on the dangerous class of chemicals finds.
The research, which analyzed ingredient lists across dozens of product categories, found the most concerning levels in general purpose cleaners, art supplies and laundry detergents, while the individual product that emitted the most VOCs was mothballs.
Continue reading...Rudy Lazo, who immigrated to the US from El Salvador in the 1980s, would regularly deliver clothes, food and toys to Tijuana
A 79-year-old American man who transported clothes, food and toys into Mexico to donate to the poor was beaten to death during a delivery trip in Tijuana, family members and authorities said.
Rudy Lazo’s killing during an apparent robbery in mid-April happened a couple of months after the US state department warned Americans to avoid Mexico, citing elevated kidnapping and homicide risks in areas including Baja California, the state Tijuana is in.
Continue reading...