Category: News Daypop

Pope Francis made his first trip outside Rome in seven months on Sunday, visiting a prison for women in Venice ahead of a mass in the city.  The Pope has not travelled since visiting the French city of Marseille in September 2023.

Amid concerns over his health, the 87-year-old pontiff arrived by helicopter at 8:00am local time to the courtyard of the women’s prison on the island of Giudecca, and greeted one by one the approximately 80 inmates, staff and volunteers. The pope met with female prisoners who are stars of the Vatican’s pavilion at the Biennale contemporary art show, urging the women to rebuild their lives in the first ever papal visit to one of the world’s biggest art gatherings.

The pope encouraged the women to reconstruct their lives “brick upon brick, together, with determination” during their time in prison, saying: “Prison is a harsh reality, and problems such as overcrowding, the lack of facilities and resources, and episodes of violence, give rise to a great deal of suffering there. But it can also become a place of moral and material rebirth.”  The Pontiff called on the prison system to “offer detainees the tools and room for human, spiritual, cultural and professional growth, creating the conditions for their healthy reintegration”.

Pope Francis also toured an art exhibition housed at the prison which examines the daily lives of the inmates through the work of 10 different artists. The exhibit is the Vatican’s entry for this year’s Biennale festival of art, which began last weekend.

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Authorities confirmed on Sunday that a four-month-old baby was among two people killed in Oklahoma, in the wake of severe storms and multiple tornadoes that spread across four states. The Oklahoma tornadoes Saturday night were the latest in a series of tornadoes that have battered the Midwest beginning last week and into the weekend.

According to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, at least 30 people were injured and one remains unaccounted for as authorities continued a search and rescue mission Sunday. Emergency officials in Hughes County, Oklahoma, said the baby was one of two people killed in storms that struck Holdenville.

Sunday marked the third day of the severe weather outbreak across the heartland states, with more than 22 million people under threat of violent storms in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas and Illinois. A powerful pair of twisters that touched down in Nebraska, officials said. Twenty-seven million people remain at risk of severe weather into Sunday, including wind gusts, hail, flood risk and potentially more tornadoes.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said in a statement Sunday: “My prayers are with those who lost loved ones as tornadoes ripped through Oklahoma last night. Thank you to Oklahoma Emergency Management and those who have worked through the night to keep Oklahomans safe and have worked to clear debris and assess damage.”  Stitt declared a state of emergency in a dozen counties.

A destructive tornado also hit Sulfur, Oklahoma, in Murray County, destroying buildings and scattering debris for miles with at least four other people injured in the area.  Tornadoes were also reported Saturday across Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas and Nebraska, officials said, and according to the National Weather Service there were nearly 120 tornado reports in the last two days.

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Police have arrested a 17-year-old in the shooting death of a high school student on the campus of an Arlington, Texas, high school.

Arlington Police Chief Al Jones said 18-year-old Etavion Barnes was found unresponsive with multiple gunshot wounds on Wednesday afternoon outside portable buildings on the campus of Bowie High School. According to police, detectives still are working to determine a motive but said it appeared the two knew each other. Authorities have not yet recovered a weapon in the killing, and no other injuries were reported.

The suspect, identified as Julian Howard according to Arlington Jail records, was charged with murder, with police saying it appears that Barnes was targeted. Police Chief Jones said the shooting was reported about 2:50 p.m., shortly before classes were scheduled to be dismissed, and the school was placed on lockdown for about two hours before students were allowed to leave, adding: “we’re still early on in our investigation, our detectives are working to determine a motive.”

A press release from the Arlington PD read: “We, as a community, cannot tolerate this kind of violence. Not in our neighborhoods and not in our schools. Violence is never the right answer. We will continue to work in lock step with our partners at Arlington ISD to ensure our schools are safe spaces where students can learn.”

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The New York State Court of Appeals has overturned Harvey Weinstein‘s rape conviction from 2020, making the 4-3 decision on Thursday, April 25 on the basis that the judge on the trial prejudiced Weinstein with “egregious” improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case.

According to the Associated Press, the decision also stated: “We conclude that the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes. The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial,” and also noted that testimony “served no material non-propensity purpose” and “portrayed defendant in a highly prejudicial light.”  The court claimed that there was “an abuse of judicial discretion to permit untested allegations of nothing more than bad behavior that destroys a defendant’s character but sheds no light on their credibility as related to the criminal charges lodged against them.”

Weinstein was charged after being accused of forcibly performing oral sex on a woman in 2006 and raping another women in 2013; he was found guilty in February 2020 of criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree in a New York City courtroom, and was subsequently sentenced to 23 years in prison.

PEOPLE reports that it is unclear at this time if Weinstein, 72, will face another trial in connection with these charges. The former Hollywood mogul will be transferred to the custody of prison authorities in California and will remain imprisoned, stemming from his Los Angeles conviction in 2022 on other rape charges, where he was sentenced to 16 years in prison. (Weinstein was acquitted in Los Angeles on charges involving one of the women who testified in New York.).

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After months of negotiations, President Biden signed into law a foreign aid package on Wednesday that includes tens of billions of dollars in assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, along with a measure that could lead to a ban on TikTok in the U.S.

The White House first sought the foreign aid more than six months ago, but was met with conservative opposition to Ukraine aid. However an unexpected turn from House Speaker Mike Johnson led the House to approve legislation over the weekend. with the Senate passing the package in a bipartisan vote Tuesday evening. Biden said in remarks from the White House: “It’s a good day for America, it’s a good day for Europe and it’s a good day for world peace. It’s going to make America safer, it’s going to make the world safer and it continues America’s leadership in the world and everyone knows it.”

The aid package, worth $95 billion in total, includes $60.8 billion in aid for Ukraine; $26.4 billion to support Israel, along with humanitarian aid for Gaza; and $8.1 billion for allies in the Indo-Pacific. The legislation also features provisions to allow the sale of frozen assets of Russian oligarchs, and a measure that could eventually lead to the ban of TikTok in the United States – giving Chinese parent company ByteDance roughly nine months to sell it or else it will be banned from app stores in the United States.

The Pentagon announced a new round of military aid for Ukraine worth roughly $1 billion, with the president adding that the U.S. would begin sending weapons and military equipment to Ukraine “in the next few hours. We are going to begin sending equipment to Ukraine for air defense munitions, for artillery, for rocket systems and armored vehicles.”

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it has discovered fragments of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) — more commonly referred to as bird flu — in some samples of dairy milk products.

An update from the FDA said they tested milk samples by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and found the presence of fragments of the virus, which is not the same as infectious virus and that findings “do not represent actual virus that may be a risk to consumers.” The FDA stated, “we have seen nothing that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe” and expect new results from multiple studies “in the next few days to weeks. Based on available information, pasteurization is likely to inactivate the virus, however the process is not expected to remove the presence of viral particles.” The agency said it is continuing to investigate the outbreak, along with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state partners.

The FDA’s statement continued: “Nearly all (99%) of the commercial milk supply that is produced on dairy farms in the U.S. comes from farms that participate in the Grade ‘A’ milk program and follow the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO), which includes controls that help ensure the safety of dairy products.

Avian influenza A(H5N1) virus, or bird flu, is a disease that’s caused by an avian influenza Type A virus infection, according to the CDC.  The virus has recently infected herds of dairy cows in several states, including Texas, Kansas and Michigan. Herds in New Mexico and Idaho are presumed infected.  Both the FDA and the USDA said the current commercial milk supply is safe because of the pasteurization process and the “diversion or destruction of milk from sick cows.”

Bird flu is very contagious among birds, and some of the viruses can sick or kill certain domesticated species, including chickens, ducks and turkeys. According to the CDC, the disease primarily spreads through contact with infected birds, which can infect their respiratory track and intestines. Infected birds can shed viruses in their saliva, nasal secretions and feces.

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Google confirmed it has fired 20 additional workers that it says were involved in protests last week in NYC and Sunnyvale, CA, denouncing the tech giant’s cloud computing deal with the Israeli government, bringing the total number of workers fired to 50 (per CNN).

The group organizing the demonstrations, No Tech for Apartheid, told The Washington Post that Google had fired an additional 20 workers, on top of the 30 workers terminated last week, claiming that some of the workers fired were “non-participating bystanders” during last Tuesday’s sit-in protests at Google’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California, and not actively involved in the workplace activism. The statement decried the mass firings as “an aggressive and desperate act of retaliation” by the tech giant. Jane Chung, a spokesperson for No Tech for Apartheid, charged Google with trying to quash dissent within the company. The group has led demonstrations over Google and Amazon’s contracts with the Israeli government since 2021.

Google did not give specific numbers of how many were fired, it accused them of being involved in “disruptive activity,” with a spokesperson telling The Hill: “To reiterate, every single one of those whose employment was terminated was personally and definitively involved in disruptive activity inside our buildings. We carefully confirmed and reconfirmed this .. Google values its profits, and its $1.2 billion contract with the Israel government and military more than people.”  Google said it took longer to learn about others participating in the protests because masks partially concealed their identities and they were not wearing badges.

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The Department of Justice (‘DOJ’) announced on Wednesday said that a civil settlement had been reached with the victims of ex-Team USA doctor Larry Nassar, who was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison for sexually assaulting gymnasts — resolving their claims of wrongdoing against the FBI in its failures to investigate allegations of sexual abuse.

ABC News reported that the claims were filed after the department said it was declining to pursue criminal charges against agents whom the DOJ’s inspector general found failed to properly investigate allegations of abuse by Nassar. The watchdog report found the FBI was notified of Nassar’s behavior but failed to act for more than 14 months, a period where Nassar is alleged to have abused at least 40 more girls and women.

Nassar had sexually abused hundreds of victims under the guise of performing medical treatments over the course of nearly two decades, ending in 2016. Once the settlement is finalized, it will resolve 139 tort claims filed against the DOJ and the FBI in 2022 by the long list of athletes and patients who reported abuse by Nassar, including Maggie Nichols, Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney.

Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer said in a press release: “for decades, Lawrence Nassar abused his position, betraying the trust of those under his care and medical supervision while skirting accountability. These allegations should have been taken seriously from the outset. While these settlements won’t undo the harm Nassar inflicted, our hope is that they will help give the victims of his crimes some of the critical support they need to continue healing.”

Nassar, 61, pleaded guilty in 2017 in connection with crimes against several victims and was sentenced to 60 years behind bars for child pornography and other charges, and again pleaded guilty in 2018 and was sentenced to an additional 40 to 175 years.  He is currently serving a prison term of between 40-175 years for multiple cases of sexual assault involving gymnasts at the school, as well as with USA Gymnastics.

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President Joe Biden marked Earth Day by announcing $7 billion in federal grants for residential solar projects serving 900,000-plus households in low- and middle-income communities while visiting Prince William Forest Park in Virginia on Monday to mark Earth Day.

The White House also plans to also expand Biden’s New Deal-style American Climate Corps green jobs training program, saying that it hopes its ‘Solar for All’ grants will help more than 900,000 households in low-income and disadvantaged communities get solar power. It said solar power could save about $400 per household in electricity costs and prevent 30 million metric tons of carbon pollution over 25 years.

The grants are being awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency, which unveiled the 60 recipients on Monday. The White House said: “the selectees will provide funds to states, territories, tribes, municipalities, and nonprofits across the country to develop long-lasting solar programs that enable low-income and disadvantaged communities to deploy and benefit from distributed residential solar.”

2,000 jobs were revealed as ‘just the beginning’ of what is expected to be about 20,000 positions that will be available for young people to get involved in conservation, renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure to address climate change. The White House said: “These positions are hosted by hundreds of organizations advancing clean energy, conservation, and climate resilience. The website, which is launching in beta form, will be regularly updated with new American Climate Corps positions. Its goal is to make it easy for any American to find work tackling the climate crisis while gaining the skills necessary for the clean energy and climate resilience workforce of the future.”. According to the White House, the jobs on ClimateCorps.gov will be located in 36 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.

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Clothing retailer Express, the parent of the Bonbons and UpWest brands, announced on Monday that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will be closing 95 stores (including all of its UpWest stores) with closing sales spanning across more than 30 states and Washington, D.C. to begin on Tuesday. Express said its remaining stores will operate as usual during the mass closing.

The retailer – based in Columbus, Ohio, and founded in 1980, was a shopping mall staple; the company said it made the move to file for bankruptcy as a strategic move to sell most of its operations to investment group WHP Global, an indirect subsidiary of shopping outlet giant Simon Property Group. Express also announced that it received a non-binding letter of intent from a group led by consumer brand acquisition and management firm WHP Global to potentially purchase the majority of its stores and operations. Express said that it had filed for Chapter 11 protection “to facilitate the sale process” (per ABC NEWS).

According to Express’ website, the company operates about 530 Express retail and Express Factory Outlet stores in the United States and Puerto Rico, in addition to roughly 60 Bonobos Guideshop locations as well as online operations for these brands.  Express reported nearly $1.2 billion in total debts and $1.3 billion in total assets as of March 2 in its Chapter 11 petition, which was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

Stewart Glendinning, CEO of Express, said in a statement: “We continue to make meaningful progress refining our product assortments, driving demand, connecting with customers and strengthening our operations. We are taking an important step to strengthen our financial position and enable Express to continue advancing our business initiatives. WHP has been a strong partner to the company since 2023, and the proposed transaction will provide us additional financial resources, better position the business for profitable growth and maximize value for our stakeholders.”

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