High-level meditation talks on South Sudan were launched Thursday in Kenya with African presidents calling for an end to a conflict that has crippled the country's economy for years. “We hope that the opposition groups have a similar conviction and desire for peace in South Sudan, which, when fully achieved, will bring everlasting stability and economic development in the region, not just South Sudan,” he said. The talks are between the government and rebel opposition groups that were not part of an 2018 agreement that ended a five-year civil war that left 400,000 people dead.
The Cuban sugar harvest is winding down at the lowest tonnage since 1900, forcing the government to import and putting more pressure on its domestic rum, soft drink and pharmaceutical industries, according to official reports, two economists and a rum industry source. President Miguel Diaz-Canel said at the end of April that the state-run industry had produced 71% of the 412,000 metric tons planned, or just shy of 300,000 metric tons, and would mill into May. Cuba produced 350,000 metric tons in the last harvest and while some sugar mills remain open, yields drop sharply in May as hot, humid weather sets in, accompanied by summer rains.
A Black airman in the US Air Force was shot and killed in an "excessive" use of force by a Florida sheriff's deputy who burst into the wrong apartment, a lawyer retained by his family said Thursday."He was in his apartment, his sanctuary, his castle, where he had every right to be, and they forcefully entered into his apartment," Crump said, in an "excessive" use of force.
A newly released ad promoting Apple's new iPad Pro has struck quite a nerve online. “The most powerful iPad ever is also the thinnest,” a narrator says at the end of the commercial. Apple's intention seems straightforward: Look at all the things this new product can do.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday reinforced the power of law enforcement authorities to retain seized property belonging to people not charged with a crime, ruling in favor of Alabama officials who were sued by two women whose cars were held for more than a year. In a 6-3 ruling powered by its conservative majority, the justices affirmed a lower court's dismissal of the lawsuits by the two plaintiffs, who were denied prompt hearings to reclaim vehicles seized by police in crimes committed by other people. The three liberal justices in a dissent called the majority's reasoning "deeply flawed," and a libertarian legal group called the ruling a major blow to private property rights.
Pope Francis on Thursday confirmed that a once every quarter century holy year would be held in 2025, setting off a race against time for Rome and the Vatican to prepare for more than 30 million pilgrims from around the world.Organisers say 32 million people are expected in Rome and the Vatican over the year for the many special masses, conferences and exhibitions that will be put on.
The United States warned on Thursday that Israel will be dealing a strategic victory to Hamas if it carries out plans for an all-out assault on Rafah, the militants' last major stronghold in Gaza. The warning was backed by a new threat from President Joe Biden: He says he will pause more offensive military assistance to Israel if it goes through with the operation in a city where more than 1 million civilians are sheltering. Biden last week put on hold a shipment of large bombs to Israel over concerns the weapons are of the type that has caused significant civilian casualties in Gaza and would almost certainly do more such damage if Israel conducted a major offensive in Rafah.
The price of a McDonald's Quarter Pounder with Cheese meal has more than doubled since 2014, data show.
The Biden administration is expected to propose a new rule Thursday that would accelerate the pace at which certain migrants could be processed and barred from asylum after crossing the southern border, according to two sources familiar with the decision.
Thousands of protesters gathered Thursday in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan over his government's decision to hand over control of border villages to Armenia's long-time rival Azerbaijan. Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars since the Soviet Union collapsed and Armenia said in April that it would return the villages to Azerbaijan.
In a stunning show of unity in the often divided House, Democrats joined a majority of Republicans on Wednesday to save the GOP speaker from an attempt by fellow Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to remove him from his post. The episode highlights the increasingly precarious situation for Johnson, who faces the same conservative forces that took down his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, but with an even smaller majority that has forced him to continuously rely on Democratic support to carry out the most basic functions of legislating. Republicans control the House by the barest of margins, 217-213.
The competition among beer giants is still brewing.
Elon Musk’s brain technology startup Neuralink said Wednesday that an issue cropped up with the company’s first human brain implant weeks after it was inserted into a patient.
Former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry has been charged with lying to federal authorities about a foreign billionaire's illegal $30,000 contribution to his campaign, reviving a case that was derailed by an appellate court. A federal jury convicted the Nebraska Republican in 2022, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Fortenberry's conviction last year, ruling that the case should not have been tried in Los Angeles. A grand jury in the nation's capital indicted Fortenberry on Wednesday on two counts: falsifying and concealing material facts and making false statements.
Two cases of bacterial infection shared identical genetic material even thought the procedures took place hundreds of miles apart.
“There’s no dignified way to be pregnant or to parent when you’re under these conditions," says an American volunteer.
Citing the recent overturning of Harvey Weinstein’s sex crimes conviction in New York, members of the New York State Assembly are introducing a bill this week that would amend the state’s criminal procedure law to allow evidence of a defendant’s prior sexual assault to be admissible as evidence in a sexual assault proceeding.
Israel's closure of key crossings into Gaza has cut off the main entry point for aid, and particularly fuel, rendering humanitarian operations all but impossible, a senior UN official warned Thursday."We lost the main entry point for all humanitarian aid," said Andrea De Domenico, who heads the United Nations humanitarian office, OCHA, in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Panamanian lawyer Ramon Fonseca, co-founder of the now-defunct law firm at the center of the "Panama Papers" scandal, died while awaiting sentencing in his money-laundering trial, his lawyer said Thursday.Former Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli, who has taken asylum at the Nicaraguan embassy after being sentenced to almost 11 years in prison for money laundering, paid tribute to Fonseca, an ex-classmate.
Record numbers of these strange inbred fish were counted in the hellscape they call home.