News Contents Archive

For the past eight weeks, thousands of people in the United Kingdom have tested a four-day schedule — with no cut to their pay — that could help usher in a new era of work.⁠ ⁠ Link in bio.⁠ ⁠ 📸: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The first U.S. Capitol riot defendant convicted at trial was sentenced to more than seven years in prison Monday, the longest punishment handed down to date in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress. Guy Reffitt, a recruiter for the right-wing Texas Three Percenters movement, was convicted March 8 of five felony offenses, including obstruction of Congress as it met to certify the 2020 election result, interfering with police and carrying a firearm to a riot, and threatening his teenage son, who turned him in to the FBI. Prosecutors said Reffitt led a mob while armed at the Capitol and asked a judge to sentence him to 15 years after applying a terrorism sentencing penalty. U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich condemned Reffitt’s conduct in handing down an 87 month sentence, saying at a five-hour hearing that his views espousing political violence were “absurd,” “delusional” and “way outside of the mainstream.” Read more through the link in our profile.

An indigenous Australian senator referred to Queen Elizabeth—who is also Australia's head of state—as a colonizer as she took her oath of office. The senate president informed her she was required to recite the oath as written.

A fast-growing wildfire fueled by strong winds from thunderstorms and high temperatures in Northern California has grown to 55,000 acres, becoming the state’s largest wildfire so far this year and forcing evacuations in rural neighborhoods. The blaze, named the McKinney fire, began burning through dry timber on Friday in the Klamath National Forest in Siskiyou County, California, near the Oregon state line, the authorities said. On Monday, the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office said two people had been found dead over the weekend in a vehicle in a driveway, west of the Klamath River, the first fatalities that have been associated with the fire. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California declared a state of emergency for Siskiyou County on Saturday, and nearly 3,000 people have been ordered to evacuate since then. Read the latest updates on the wildfires in the U.S. at the link in our bio.

There is probably a Richter scale out there which measures the exuberance of sporting celebrations: quite pleased, really happy, absolutely delirious. If there is, it may well have to be recalibrated after the England women’s team put on a performance of such unfettered joy in Trafalgar Square that it was like beating Germany all over again #lionesses

The United States has killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda and one of the world’s most-wanted terrorists, who oversaw the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, alongside the group’s founder, Osama bin Laden, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter. Both men escaped U.S. forces in Afghanistan in late 2001, and Zawahiri’s whereabouts had long been a mystery. Bin Laden was killed in a raid by U.S. forces in Pakistan in 2011. It was not immediately clear where and when Zawahiri died and what element of the U.S. government had carried out the mission. The Central Intelligence Agency carried out a drone strike over the weekend in Kabul, Afghanistan, according to officials familiar with the matter. The White House said on Monday that President Biden would give remarks in the evening about “a successful counterterrorism operation,” but did not mention Zawahiri. This is a developing story and will be updated. For the latest, tap the link in our bio.

JUST IN: A federal judge on Monday sentenced the first Capitol rioter convicted at trial to 87 months, or just over seven years in prison — the longest term of incarceration thus far for a defendant in the Justice Department's criminal investigation of the Jan. 6 assault on Congress.⁠ ⁠ Guy Wesley Reffitt, 49, of Wylie, Texas, was convicted by a federal jury in March of five felony counts, including obstruction of justice as well as entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a firearm.⁠ ⁠ Federal prosecutors with the U.S. Department of Justice had asked that Reffitt be sentenced to 15 years in prison. Prosecutors had also — for the first time — asked a federal district court judge to apply a terrorism enhancement, which would effectively define under law that a rioter's actions amounted to domestic terrorism.⁠ ⁠ Read more at LINK IN BIO.

✍️"The moment we switch from July to August, I have to accept that, in the grim-faced words of the Game of Thrones character Jon Snow, winter is coming. It is coming, and I’ve failed to achieve a single one of my New Year’s resolutions, which I’m sure I only made a few days ago," writes bryonygordon.⁠ ⁠ "It is that ominous Sunday-night feeling, only eked out over an entire month. How is it August already? What have I been doing with my life for the past seven months?"⁠ ⁠ "Studies have shown that looking forward to things is far better for our wellbeing than looking back at them – which might explain why I am in an August slump already, and it’s only day one."⁠ ⁠ "We’ve all heard of the January blues, and yet I think August anxiety is far worse."⁠ ⁠ 🔗Read how Bryony Gordon is trying to beat her August anxiety at the link in bio.⁠ ⁠ #mentalhealth #august #anxiety #winter

Young Ukrainians are spending weekends hosting “clean-up raves” to rebuild communities that were destroyed under Russian occupation. The group, repair.together, has more than 200 volunteers who rely on donations and personal funds to make their restorations possible. Video journalist Whitney Leaming (whitneyleaming) attended one of these gatherings in Yahidne, Ukraine. Here’s what she saw.

📽️Police in Arizona have released a video of personnel rescuing a woman who was trapped in her car by rising floodwaters in Apache Junction, Arizona, US on Thursday.⁠ ⁠ The body camera video released by the Apache Junction Police Department shows officers telling the trapped motorist to “hurry” and “grab the rope” so that they can pull her out of the car as the water was rising.⁠ ⁠ The woman shouts back that her dog is also trapped with her in the vehicle: “Did you get my do? Get my dog!”⁠ ⁠ The rescuers pull her out, shouting, “Come on, hurry the water is coming ma’am, give me your other hand, I will get your dog, get out of the car now.” #floods #arizona #rescue

Khalid Mehdiyev was charged with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number after he was seen lurking outside the home of Masih Alinejad, who was targeted last year in a kidnapping plot allegedly organized by Iranian nationals.⁠ ⁠ Over two days last week, Mehdiyev was seen in a gray Subaru Forester with an Illinois license plate in front of Alinejad's home for several hours, according to the criminal complaint.⁠ ⁠ In those hours, the complaint said, Mehdiyev "behaved suspiciously" by approaching the residence, attempting to look inside the windows of the residence and attempting to open the front door.⁠ ⁠ Last July, a federal court unsealed an indictment charging four Iranian nationals with conspiring to kidnap Alinejad for "mobilizing public opinion in Iran and around the world to bring about changes to the regime's laws and practices."⁠ ⁠ Read the full story at LINK IN BIO.

The first ship carrying grain departed a Ukrainian port early Monday under a United Nations-brokered deal to ease a global food crisis sparked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The cargo vessel, loaded with more than 26,000 metric tons of corn, left Odessa amid fears that the deal, signed in Istanbul in late July, would fall apart after a Russian missile strike on the port a day after the signing. Ukraine’s minister of infrastructure, Oleksandr Kubrakov, said in a message on Twitter that the vessel was the first to depart the port of Odessa since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February. A Russian naval blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports halted grain exports, contributing to global food shortages. Sixteen additional vessels are waiting to depart, according to the minister, who noted that the expected resumption of grain shipments would provide at least $1 billion in much-needed foreign currency reserves for cash-strapped Ukraine. Read more through the link in our bio.

The cyclists were participating in the Make-A-Wish Michigan 35th Annual Wish-A-Mile Bicycle Tour, a three-day endurance ride throughout most of Michigan, when they were struck, officials say.⁠ ⁠ More at LINK IN BIO.

With a heat wave hanging over the region, it took only a weekend for a wildfire raging near California’s northern border to swell into the state’s largest blaze this year and turn deadly. Two people were found dead in a vehicle that burned in the fire’s path Sunday. Officials found the vehicle in a residential driveway near Highway 96, west of Klamath River community, according to the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office. The McKinney Fire has burned more than 55,000 acres since it was reported Friday afternoon in the eastern reaches of the Klamath National Forest. The blaze has been fueled by “above normal temperatures and low relative humidity,” according to fire officials. The fire was completely uncontained as of Monday morning, with a fire watch in effect through Monday “for abundant lightning on dry fuels” from thunderstorms that were forecast to hit the area. “Probability of ignition,” fire officials forecast, was “100%.” Read more through the link in our bio.

John Eliff wasn’t sure about painting a horse. Eliff, 91, stood beside Stetson, an 11-year-old palomino. He picked up a foam paintbrush, dipped it into a cup of purple paint and gingerly laid it on the horse’s pale-gold flank. Painting is not mandatory in this equine-assisted learning program, but it is one of the many ways participants are taught to engage with horses, with the goal of stimulating their minds and bodies. Since 2017, Simple Changes Therapeutic Riding Center in Mason Neck, Va., has teamed up with Goodwin Living, a senior living and health-care facility in Alexandria, to introduce residents with cognitive impairment and anxiety to the residents of its barn. Read the whole story through the link in our bio.