Новости за 12.08.2023

Louisville schools will remain closed early next week to allow for more time to fix bus routes whose redesign left some children at home on the first school day this year and others getting home hours late. The Jefferson County Public Schools announced on Saturday that there will be no classes Monday and Tuesday but extracurricular activities will continue. The system had already canceled classes Thursday and Friday in response to Wednesday’s route fiasco. The district used a company to map out courses and stops to deal with a driver shortage. Читать дальше...

Illinois is the first state in the U.S. to ensure child social media influencers are compensated for their work. That's according to Sen. David Koehler, of Peoria, who sponsored the bill signed into law Friday that will go into effect on July 1, 2024. Besides coordinated dances and funny toddler comments, family vlogs nowadays may share intimate details of their children’s lives for countless strangers to view. Brand deals featuring the internet’s darlings can reap tens of thousands of dollars per video. Читать дальше...

Supporters of Niger's deposed President Mohamed Bazoum have pleaded with the United States and others for weeks to restore the democratically elected leader to power. Now they're making a simpler plea: Save his life. Aides say Niger's new military rulers have cut off food resupplies to the presidential palace. Niger's ambassador to the U.S. tells The Associated Press that the president and his family are sitting in an unlit basement, hungry. He's asking the U.S. and other allies to help. A presidential... Читать дальше...

As wildfires tear through the Hawaiian island of Maui, residents of a Northern California town are reliving their own harrowing experience with a similar conflagration. The town of Paradise was mostly destroyed by a wildfire in 2018 that bears many similarities to the blaze that devastated the town of Lahaina in Hawaii this week. The two places will be forever linked after undergoing the deadliest U.S. wildfires in more than a century. Some Paradise residents are organizing fundraising drives to support victims in Hawaii. Читать дальше...

Researchers are howling with delight after discovering a new pack of endangered gray wolves in California. The state Fish and Game Department says a reported sighting of a wolf in Sequoia National Forest last month led to the discovery of tracks and DNA samples that indicate at least five wolves are living in Tulare County. That's 200 miles from the next-nearest known pack in northeastern California. Gray wolves are a native species but they were hunted to extinction in California in the 1920s. Authorities... Читать дальше...

Western-backed maritime forces in the Middle East have warned shippers traveling through the strategic Strait of Hormuz to stay as far away from Iranian territorial waters as possible to avoid being seized. The stark advisory Saturday comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. A similar warning went out to shippers earlier this year ahead of Iran seizing two tankers traveling near the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of the world’s oil passes. Iran did... Читать дальше...

In the hours before a wildfire engulfed the town of Lahaina, Maui County officials failed to activate sirens that would have warned the entire population of the approaching flames and instead relied on a series of sometimes confusing social media posts that reached a much smaller audience. Power and cellular outages further stymied communication efforts. Radio reports were scarce, even as flames began to consume the town. Road blocks then forced fleeing drivers onto one narrow downtown street, creating a bottleneck. Читать дальше...

On and off the big screen, it’s Barbie’s world and Ken is just living in it. As reflected in Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster movie that tackles the legacy Mattel’s famous doll, Barbie has always been more popular than Ken. For every Ken doll sold today, there’s generally eight to 10 Barbies sold, according to one toy expert. It’s unclear if Warner Bros’ “Barbie,” which was also co-produced by Mattel, will increase Ken production and sales down the line but some expect there to be increased interest. According to market research firm Circana... Читать дальше...

Despite this past week’s thrashing at the polls, Republican lawmakers in Ohio have vowed to try again to pass a measure making it harder to change the state's constitution. It’s the latest example of how Republicans across the U.S. have become increasingly antagonistic to direct democracy as it threatens their lock on power. Ohio was among six states that have either passed, attempted to pass or are working to pass expanded supermajority requirements. Other restrictions being pursued include increasing... Читать дальше...

U.S. officials say the Pentagon is developing plans to restructure the National Guard in Washington, D.C. The goal is to address problems highlighted by the chaotic response to the Jan. 6 riot and safety breaches during the 2020 protests over the murder of George Floyd. Officials say the changes under discussion would transfer aviation units from the District of Columbia. Those units came under sharp criticism during the protests when a helicopter flew dangerously low over a crowd. The district could get more military police... Читать дальше...

As smoke cleared from the fires in Maui that killed at least 80 people and wiped out a historic town, the firestorm left hundreds of people searching desperately for missing loved ones. But amid the tragedy, glimmers of joy and relief broke through as mothers, brothers and fathers reached safety and finally got in touch. After the fires raced through parched brush covering this week, names of people missing after the calamitous fires filled spreadsheets. Desperate pleas for information peppered social... Читать дальше...

Police say a new fire burning on the Hawaii island of Maui has triggered an evacuation of a community northeast of the area that burned earlier this week. The Maui Police Department says the fire prompted the evacuation of Kaanapali in West Maui on Friday night. No details of the evacuation were immediately provided. The number of confirmed deaths from the Maui wildfires has increased to 67. Maui County officials on Friday confirmed an additional 12 deaths. Officials say the fire is not yet contained. Читать дальше...

As the heat rises in Texas, law enforcement is working to untangle a mystery involving the disappearance of a life-saving measure for migrants traveling through an arid region. The Jim Hogg County sheriff’s office is investigating what happened to about a dozen water barrels. They have no leads, but human rights groups worry someone may have taken them maliciously. Migrants take a route through the county to try to circumvent a Border Patrol checkpoint on a busier highway, It can take several days... Читать дальше...

All along the booming South Carolina coast, developers looking to profit on vacation getaways and new homes are targeting land owned by the descendants of enslaved people. From Myrtle Beach to Hilton Head, Black landowners who inherited land have been embroiled in disputes with skilled investors seeking to capitalize on rising property values. Recent state reforms helped stem the tide. But skyrocketing tax assessments remain a threat and the pressure keeps building. Stakeholders and residents are... Читать дальше...

Authorities say a 3-year-old child riding one of Texas’ migrant buses died while on the way to Chicago. 

A judge's order requiring “religious-liberty training” by a conservative Christian group is stirring debate among legal scholars. A federal judge in Dallas this week ordered the training for three Southwest Airlines lawyers. The judge blames the lawyers for Southwest defying a previous order he issued in a case involving a flight attendant who said she was fired for expressing opposition to abortion. The religious-liberty training will be done by Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal group... Читать дальше...

Italy is celebrating the return of 266 antiquities that were looted and sold to museums and private collectors in the United States. The returned items include artifacts recently seized in New York from a storage unit belonging to a British antiquities dealer. The art unit of Italy’s Carabinieri paramilitary police said the haul that arrived Friday in Rome also included 65 objects that a collector had offered Houston’s Menil Collection but were declined. The museum said the collector approached the... Читать дальше...

Louisville school district officials say an overhaul of bus routes created too steep a learning curve for the system. The logistical meltdown forced classes to be canceled for two days this week as district officials tried to untangle the mess. Parents are outraged and state legislators are calling for changes. The Jefferson County Public Schools superintendent said Friday it could take until the middle of next week to fix the problems enough to resume classes. The overhauled plan caused some children to arrive home hours late Wednesday... Читать дальше...

A U.S. judge has dismissed a lawsuit from the state of Utah challenging President Joe Biden’s restoration of two sprawling national monuments that were downsized by former President Donald Trump. U.S. District Judge David Nuffer said Friday that Biden acted within his authority when he issued proclamations restoring Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments 2021. The monuments in southern Utah are on land sacred to many Native Americans. Nuffer said Biden could issue such proclamations... Читать дальше...

The wife of a man charged with killing at least three women found dead on New York's Long Island is living a “surreal nightmare.” That's according to her lawyer, who spoke to reporters Friday. Rex Heuermann was charged last month in the deaths of three women and is the prime suspect in a fourth. He has pleaded not guilty. Attorneys for his wife, Asa Ellerup, say authorities left the family home “in shambles” while seeking evidence in the case. The Suffolk County district attorney has said police... Читать дальше...

The chief legal officer at Fox Corp. who oversaw a $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over defamation allegations against Fox News is leaving the company. Fox said Friday that Viet Dinh will leave the post effective Dec. 31. The company said Dinh will remain a “special advisor” to Fox Corp. Fox agreed to the settlement with the voting-machine producer in mid-April following weeks of pretrial disclosures that revealed Fox had aired false claims about the 2020 U.S. presidential election... Читать дальше...