News & Current Events

[ad_1] Luigi Mangione, accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in what prosecutors describe as a politically motivated assassination, pleaded not guilty to federal murder charges on Friday during an arraignment in Manhattan federal court. US prosecutors are seeking the death penalty—marking the first such federal case since Donald Trump’s return to the White House.The 26-year-old, flanked by his attorneys and wearing a mustard-coloured jail uniform, responded "not guilty" when asked how he wished to plead. Judge Margaret Garnett confirmed that Mangione understood the charges, which include murder through use of a firearm, stalking, and a firearms offence. Prosecutors allege Mangione fatally shot Thompson from behind using a silenced pistol outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel on December 4, 2024, just as the CEO arrived for his company’s annual investor meeting.The courtroom was packed with onlookers, including activist Chelsea Manning, while […]

[ad_1] US President Donald Trump on Saturday claimed that Russia and Ukraine are nearing a ceasefire agreement, saying "most of the major points are agreed to" and urging both sides to hold high-level talks to "finish it off". Posting from Rome on Friday, where he is attending the funeral of Pope Francis, Trump took to Truth Social saying, “Just landed in Rome. A good day in talks and meetings with Russia and Ukraine. They are very close to a deal, and the two sides should now meet, at very high levels, to ‘finish it off.’ Most of the major points are agreed to. Stop the bloodshed, NOW. We will be wherever is necessary to help facilitate the END to this cruel and senseless war!”His remarks came shortly after his envoy, Steve Witkoff, held a three-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir […]

[ad_1] A 38-year-old man was fatally stabbed to death on a Manhattan subway platform Friday morning (local time) after an argument over a stepped-on shoe turned violent, police said.The victim, identified as John Sheldon of Brooklyn, was attacked around 8:30 am at the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall station. According to police, Sheldon and another man began arguing aboard a downtown No. 5 train after the assailant stepped on Sheldon’s shoes. The confrontation escalated, and Sheldon was stabbed once on the train and again after both men exited at the station.Officers responding to a 911 call found Sheldon unconscious on the platform with multiple stab wounds to his torso. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.The suspect, believed to be in his 20s or 30s and dressed in black with black headphones, fled the scene. Authorities said the […]

[ad_1] Representative image (Picture credit: X/@LindsayH4) Florida’s St Pete-Clearwater International Airport (PIE) received a bomb threat, after a note was discovered inside an Allegiant Air flight, prompting an evacuation and a temporary airport shutdown.After a thorough investigation, the airport returned to normal operations by Friday night.According to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office (PCSO), the Allegiant plane had landed from Cincinnati around 5:30 pm (local time) and was scheduled to return to the same destination. As the aircraft taxied from the gate, a flight attendant opened the rear lavatory door and found a written bomb threat, prompting the pilot to stop the plane and evacuate the passengers immediately.“Everyone was safely deplaned and there were no injuries,” Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said during a news briefing. The PCSO confirmed that the threat was "very broad" and appeared to extend beyond a single aircraft. […]

[ad_1] John Jessup, a former Hancock County commissioner in Indiana, was sentenced on Thursday to six to fifteen years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted sexual assault of his daughter during her 21st birthday trip to Las Vegas in January 2023.According to court documents, Jessup took his daughter Rachel Keesling to Harrah’s Las Vegas, where they drank and gambled. Prosecutors said Jessup encouraged her to continue drinking despite her feeling unwell and provided her with three Long Island iced teas. After taking her to a strip club, Keesling became so intoxicated that she had to be returned to the hotel in a wheelchair.Keesling later woke up in their hotel room to find her father sexually assaulting her. Jessup stopped when she began to move. He was initially charged with sexual assault but entered a plea agreement with the Clark […]

[ad_1] A Russian general was killed by a car bomb Friday, Russia's top criminal investigation agency said, in the second such attack on a top Russian military officer in four months that Moscow blamed on Ukraine. The committee said Lt Gen Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy head of the main operational department in the general staff of the Russian armed forces, was killed by an explosive device placed in his car in Balashikha, just outside Moscow. The committee's spokesperson said the explosive device was rigged with shrapnel. Russian media ran videos of a vehicle burning in the courtyard of an apartment building. The committee did not immediately mention possible suspects, but Russian a foreign ministry spokesperson said without offering evidence that "there are reasons to believe Ukrainian special services were involved in the killing." [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] Any clue about William Shakespeare's life usually excites scholars, but one piece of evidence had been neglected for decades. Now, a new analysis of that overlooked document seems to shatter a long-standing narrative about the Bard's bad marriage.Shakespeare was 18 in 1582 when he married Anne Hathaway, daughter of a family friend in Stratford-upon-Avon, in her mid-20s and pregnant. For centuries, it was thought he left his wife and children behind for a literary life in London, seeking to avoid "the humiliation of domestic feuds", as one 19th-century essayist put it. This view of Shakespeare's wife as a "distant encumbrance" suited scholars who thought "Shakespeare was far too interesting to be a married guy," said Matthew Steggle, a professor at University of Bristol, England. The perception was bolstered by the fact that Shakespeare had left her his "second best […]

[ad_1] NDP may lose party status in this election, as some polls indicated. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said the possibility that the party may collapse in this election does not frustrate him as he has always put Canada before the party. In an interview with the Toronto Star, Jagmeet said he stood by his decision to not go for an early election last fall when support for Justin Trudeau's Liberals plummeted as he wanted to stop Pierre Poilievre's seizure of power. “While we could have won lots of seats, it would have meant a Pierre Poilievre majority Conservative government, and I could not stomach that,” Singh said.“I love my party. I care deeply about it. I want us to win. I want us to up our seats. I know we’re good for people. But in that moment, I made a […]

[ad_1] ISLAMABAD: The manner of Pakistan’s tit-for-tat response to punitive diplomatic measures by India over the April 22 terrorist attack on tourists in J&K’s Pahalgam highlights deeper structural differences between the neighbours.India’s decision to slap a series of retaliatory costs on Pakistan for cross-border terrorism was framed at a meeting of elected representatives led by PM Narendra Modi, reflecting democratic consensus amid a groundswell of public outrage over the killing of 26 people, all but one of them tourists.In contrast, Pakistan’s response came through the National Security Committee, dominated by military generals and underscoring the army’s outsized role in what would normally be an elected government’s prerogative. That this comes amid increasing political instability, with ex-PM Imran Khan of Tehreek-e-Insaf behind bars, adds to the dichotomy.By rejecting India’s allegations of involvement in the attack as “baseless”, Pakistan sought to deflect […]

[ad_1] LONDON: Pakistan defence minister Khawaja Asif has admitted on Sky News that Pakistan harbours and funds terror organisations, saying that it has been “doing the West’s dirty work for decades”.He also said the Pakistan-based terror groups are “not multiple organisations” but “one single organisation religiously organised with different faces”.When asked by Sky’s Yalda Hakim on Thursday night whether he admitted Pakistan has a long history of backing, funding and training terror organisations, Asif replied: “We have been doing this dirty work for the USA for about three decades and for the West, including Britain. That was a mistake and we suffered for that. If we had not joined the war against the Soviet Union and the war after 9/11, Pakistan’s track record was unimpeachable.”Asif said that his country would respond “in kind” to any attack by nuclear rival New […]