Arbery killers get life in prison; no parole for father, son
Three white men convicted of murder for chasing and killing Ahmaud Arbery were sentenced to life in prison Friday, with a judge denying any chance of parole for the father and son who armed themselves and initiated the deadly pursuit of the 25-year-old Black man.
Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley said Arbery left his home for a jog and ended up running for his life for five minutes as the men chased him until they finally cornered him. The judge paused for a minute of silence to help drive home a sense of what that time must have felt like for Arbery, whose killing became part of a larger national reckoning on racial injustice.
“When I thought about this, I thought from a lot of different angles. I kept coming back to the terror that must have been in the mind of the young man running through Satilla Shores,” he said, mentioning the neighborhood where Arbery was killed.
Hospitalizations skyrocket in kids too young for COVID shots
Hospitalizations of U.S. children under 5 with COVID-19 soared in recent weeks to their highest level since the pandemic began, according to government data released Friday on the only age group not yet eligible for the vaccine.
The worrisome trend in children too young to be vaccinated underscores the need for older kids and adults to get their shots to help protect those around them, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Since mid-December, with the highly contagious omicron variant spreading furiously around the country, the hospitalization rate in these youngest kids has surged to more than 4 in 100,000 children, up from 2.5 per 100,000.
The rate among children ages 5 to 17 is about 1 per 100,000, according to the CDC data, which is drawn from over 250 hospitals in 14 states.
Supreme Court skeptical of Biden’s workplace vaccine rule
Fully vaccinated and mostly masked, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared skeptical Friday of the Biden administration’s authority to impose a vaccine-or-testing requirement on the nation’s large employers. The court seemed more open to a separate vaccine mandate for most health care workers.
The arguments in the two cases come at a time of spiking coronavirus cases because of the omicron variant, and the decision Friday by seven justices to wear masks for the first time while hearing arguments reflected the new phase of the pandemic.
An eighth justice, Sonia Sotomayor, a diabetic since childhood, didn’t even appear in the courtroom, choosing to remain in her office at the court and take part remotely. Two lawyers, representing Ohio and Louisiana, argued by telephone after recent positive COVID-19 tests, state officials said.
Sidney Poitier changed movies, and changed lives
We go to movies not just to escape, but to discover. We might identify with the cowboy or the runaway bride or the kid who befriends a creature from another planet.
To see yourself on screen has long been another way of knowing you exist.
Sidney Poitier, who died Thursday at 94, was the rare performer who really did change lives, who embodied possibilities once absent from the movies. His impact was as profound as Method acting or digital technology, his story inseparable from the story of the country he emigrated to as a teenager.
“What emerges on the screen reminds people of something in themselves, because I’m so many different things,” he wrote in his memoir “The Measure of a Man,” published in 2000. “I’m a network of primal feelings, instinctive emotions that have been wrestled with so long they’re automatic.”
Kazakh president: Forces can shoot to kill to quell unrest
Kazakhstan’s president authorized security forces on Friday to shoot to kill those participating in unrest, opening the door for a dramatic escalation in a crackdown on anti-government protests that have turned violent.
The Central Asian nation this week experienced its worst street protests since gaining independence from the Soviet Union three decades ago, and dozens have been killed in the tumult. The demonstrations began over a near-doubling of prices for a type of vehicle fuel and quickly spread across the country, reflecting wider discontent with authoritarian rule.
In a televised address to the nation, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev used harsh rhetoric, referring to those involved in the turmoil as “terrorists,” “bandits” and “militants” — though it was unclear what led the peaceful protests to first gather steam and then descend into violence. No protest leaders have emerged so far.
Iran says it has begun paying families over downed Ukraine plane
Iran has said it is ready to hold bilateral talks with all the countries whose citizens were among the 176 victims when an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) air defence battery shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 on January 8, 2020.
The Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday that Iran has begun the process of paying the $150,000 compensation its government promised to victims’ families at the end of 2020, and will continue to hold court sessions with families present to bring to account the 10 unnamed people it has indicted.
In its statement, the foreign ministry said Iran has been transparent and accused other countries of trying to “take advantage of this painful incident” in order to advance their political agendas.
‘Criminal and barbaric’: Two Haitian journalists killed by gang
Journalists and press freedom advocates have strongly condemned the killing of two Haitian journalists by a gang on the outskirts of the capital, Port-au-Prince, as the Caribbean nation continues to reel amid a surge in violence.
Wilguens Louissaint and Amady John Wesley were killed in a shooting on Thursday, Radio Ecoute FM told the AFP news agency. A third journalist, who was with them at the time, escaped.
In a statement posted late on Thursday on the radio station’s Facebook page, Director General Francky Attis said Wesley was beaten and burned alive by “armed bandits” in the Boule 12 neighbourhood as he was reporting on the security situation in the area.
Biden comforts families in fire-devastated Colorado
Some asked to hug, others got hugged without asking and one man, wearing the only clothes he had left, just clasped hands with Joe Biden as the US president made an emotional tour ON Friday of a devastating wildfire in the state of Colorado.
Surrounded by apocalyptic damage from the inferno, Biden sought to comfort locals.
The 79-year-old Democrat has long been famous for his ability to show empathy with the suffering and his powers were on full display as he moved along a line of families and firefighters in Louisville, which burned to cinders in the December 30 Marshall Fire.
“We lost everything,” a man told Biden and his wife, First Lady Jill Biden.
See the Stunning Winners of the Northern Lights Photographer of the Year Competition
The stunning beauty of one of nature’s most spectacular events has been captured in this series of spell-binding images.
On special nights far from the equator, the sky is illuminated by a dazzling, celestial light show.
The aurora borealis and aurora australis are caused when cosmic radiation hits electrically charged particles in Earth’s atmosphere.
The spectacular results have been captured in a series of 25 winning images selected in the Capture the Atlas Northern Lights photography competition.
Winners includes images taken in countries including the United States, Russia, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Australia, Canada, and Antarctica.
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