House passes bill banning certain semi-automatic guns
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House passed legislation Friday to revive a ban on certain semi-automatic guns, the first vote of its kind in years and a direct response to the firearms often used in the crush of mass shootings ripping through communities nationwide.
Once banned in the U.S., the high-powered firearms are now widely blamed as the weapon of choice among young men responsible for many of the most devastating mass shootings. But Congress allowed the restrictions first put in place in 1994 on the manufacture and sales of the weapons to expire a decade later, unable to muster the political support to counter the powerful gun lobby and reinstate the weapons ban.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed the vote toward passage in the Democratic-run House, saying the earlier ban “saved lives.”
President Joe Biden hailed the House vote, saying, “The majority of the American people agree with this common sense action.” He urged the Senate to “move quickly to get this bill to my desk.”
However, it is likely to stall in the 50-50 Senate. The House legislation is shunned by Republicans, who dismissed it as an election-year strategy by Democrats. Almost all Republicans voted against the House bill, which passed 217-213.
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Governor: Search for Kentucky flood victims could take weeks
JACKSON, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky's governor said it could take weeks to find all the victims of flash flooding that killed at least 16 people when heavy rains turned streams into torrents that swamped towns across Appalachia.
More rainstorms were forecast to roll through in coming days, keeping the region on edge as rescue crews struggled to get into hard-hit areas that include some of the poorest places in America.
The rain let up early Friday after some areas of eastern Kentucky received between 8 and 10 1/2 inches (20-27 centimeters) over 48 hours. But some waterways were not expected to crest until Saturday and Gov. Andy Beshear warned the death toll could rise sharply.
“From everything we’ve seen, we may be updating the count of how many we lost for the next several weeks,” Gov. Andy Beshear said. “In some of these areas, it’s hard to know exactly how many people were there.”
Patricia Colombo, 63, of Hazard, Kentucky, got stranded after her car stalled in floodwaters on a state highway. Colombo began to panic when water started rushing in. Her phone was dead, but she saw a helicopter overhead and waved it down. The helicopter crew radioed a team on the ground that pulled her safely from her car.
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Blinken, Russian top diplomat speak about Griner, Whelan
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday in the highest-level known contact between the two sides since Russia invaded Ukraine, with Blinken urging Russia to accept a deal to win the release of American detainees Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.
Russian officials gave no public hint whether Blinken had made any headway, only issuing a chiding statement afterward urging the U.S. to pursue the Americans' freedom through “quiet diplomacy, without releases of speculative information."
U.S. officials have in recent days publicized their efforts to get back Griner, a WNBA star, and Whelan, a corporate security executive, whose cases have drawn widespread national attention. While the direct outreach to Russian officials allows the Biden administration to show it is going all out to try to free the two U.S. citizens, it also risks undermining a core U.S. message to allies abroad: that isolating Russia diplomatically and economically will ultimately force Russia to pull its troops from Ukraine.
Blinken did not provide details of Lavrov’s response to what he had previously called a “substantial proposal" for Russia to release Whelan and Griner. Blinken had publicly requested the call and revealed the existence of the offer to Russia. People familiar with the offer say the U.S. wants to swap Whelan and Griner for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
Blinken described the call as “a frank and direct conversation” centered primarily on the detained Americans.
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Russia, Ukraine trade blame for deadly attack on POW prison
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia and Ukraine accused each other Friday of shelling a prison in a separatist region of eastern Ukraine, an attack that reportedly killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war captured after the fall of Mariupol, the city where troops famously held out against a monthslong Russian siege.
Both sides said the assault was premeditated with the aim of covering up atrocities.
Russia claimed that Ukraine's military used U.S.-supplied rocket launchers to strike the prison in Olenivka, a settlement controlled by the Moscow-backed Donetsk People's Republic. Separatist authorities and Russian officials said the attack killed 53 Ukrainian POWs and wounded another 75.
Moscow opened a probe into the attack, sending a team to the site from Russia’s Investigative Committee, the country's main criminal investigation agency. The state RIA Novosti agency reported that fragments of U.S.-supplied precision High Mobility Artillery Rocket System rockets were found at the site.
The Ukrainian military denied making any rocket or artillery strikes in Olenivka, and it accused the Russians of shelling the prison to cover up the alleged torture and execution of Ukrainians there. An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the shelling as “a deliberate, cynical, calculated mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners.”
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WVa delays chance to pass 1st new bill since abortion ruling
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia lawmakers passed up the chance Friday to become the first state to approve new legislation restricting access to abortions since the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last month removing its protected status as a constitutional right.
The Republican-dominated Senate adopted its version of a bill along with amendments, one of which removes criminal penalties for physicians who perform illegal abortions. Late Friday night the House of Delegates, which passed its bill Wednesday, refused to concur with the Senate amendments, instead asking for a conference committee to iron out differences among the bills.
Both chambers then adjourned until they are called back sometime next month.
Several GOP-led states had “trigger” abortion bans in place in advance of the court ruling, but West Virginia lawmakers are taking action because of legal uncertainty over whether a ban from the 1800s that was upended by the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision could be enforced now.
As in other states dominated by socially conservative lawmakers, there's not much question about whether abortion will be banned generally now that states have the power to do so — but whether the ban will apply to pregnancies caused by rape or incest.
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Pope visits Nunavut for final apology of his Canadian tour
IQALUIT, Nunavut (AP) — Pope Francis traveled to the edge of the Arctic on Friday to deliver an apology to the Inuit people for the “evil” of Canada’s residential schools, wrapping up his week-long “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada with a dramatic visit to the remote territory of Nunavut to meet with school survivors.
Francis landed in Iqaluit, population 7,500, and met with former students at a primary school to hear first-hand their experiences of being torn from their families and forced to attend church-run, government funded boarding schools. The aim of the policy, which was in effect from the late 1800s to the 1970s, was to sever children from their Native cultures and assimilate them into Canadian, Christian society.
“How evil it is to break the bonds uniting parents and children, to damage our closest relationships, to harm and scandalize the little ones!” Francis told a gathering of Inuit youths and elders outside the school.
He thanked the school survivors for their courage in sharing their suffering, which he had heard for the first time this past spring when delegations of First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples traveled to the Vatican to seek an apology.
“This only renewed in me the indignation and shame that I have felt for months,” Francis said. "I want to tell you how very sorry I am and to ask for forgiveness for the evil perpetrated by not a few Catholics who contributed to the policies of cultural assimilation and enfranchisement in those schools.”
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House approves bill to help West fight wildfires, drought
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Friday approved wide-ranging legislation aimed at helping communities in the West cope with increasingly severe wildfires and drought — fueled by climate change — that have caused billions of dollars of damage to homes and businesses in recent years.
The measure combines 49 separate bills and would increase firefighter pay and benefits; boost resiliency and mitigation projects for communities affected by climate change; protect watersheds; and make it easier for wildfire victims to get federal assistance.
“Across America the impacts of climate change continue to worsen, and in this new normal, historic droughts and record-setting wildfires have become all too common,'' said Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., the bill's chief co-sponsor. Colorado has suffered increasingly devastating wildfires in recent years, including the Marshall fire last year that caused more than $513 million in damage and destroyed nearly 1,100 homes and structures in Boulder County.
“What once were wildfire seasons are now wildfire years. For families across the country who have lost their homes due to these devastating wildfires and for the neighborhoods impacted by drought, we know that we need to apply a whole-of-government approach to support community recovery and bolster environmental resiliency,” Neguse said. “This is a bill that we believe meets the moment for the West.”
The bill was approved, 218-199, as firefighters in California battled a blaze that forced evacuation of thousands of people near Yosemite National Park and crews in North Texas sought to contain another fire.
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US rules out summer COVID boosters to focus on fall campaign
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators said Friday they are no longer considering authorizing a second COVID-19 booster shot for all adults under 50 this summer, focusing instead on revamped vaccines for the fall that will target the newest viral subvariants.
Pfizer and Moderna expect to have updated versions of their shots available as early as September, the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement. That would set the stage for a fall booster campaign to strengthen protection against the latest versions of omicron.
The announcement means the U.S. won’t pursue a summer round of boosters using the current vaccines for adults under 50, as some Biden administration officials and outside experts previously suggested. They had argued that another round of shots now could help head off rising cases and hospitalizations caused by the highly transmissible omicron strains.
Currently, all Americans age 5 and over are eligible for a booster shot five months after their initial primary series. Fourth doses of the Pfizer or Moderna shots — a second booster — are recommended for Americans 50 and older and for younger people with serious health issues that make them more vulnerable to COVID-19.
The FDA urged eligible adults who haven’t been boosted to get their extra shot now: “You can still benefit from existing booster options and leave time to receive an updated booster in the fall,” the agency said in a statement.
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$1.28 billion Mega Millions jackpot on the line Friday night
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A giant Mega Millions lottery jackpot keeps getting larger as officials raised the massive prize to $1.28 billion on Friday, just hours before the next drawing.
The giant jackpot remains the nation's third-largest prize and is the result of 29 consecutive drawings without anyone matching all of the game's six numbers. That last time someone hit the Mega Millions jackpot was April 15.
If no one wins the Mega Millions jackpot Friday night, lottery officials expect the prize will grow to $1.7 billion for the next drawing Tuesday, making it the nation’s largest lottery prize.
Before rushing out to spend $2 on a ticket, keep in mind that the odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are a staggering 1 in 302.5 million.
The estimated $1.28 billion prize is for players who get their winnings through an annuity, paid annually over 29 years. Nearly all winners take the cash option, which for Friday’s drawing is an estimated $747.2 million.
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Review: Beyoncé escapes to dance world in 'Renaissance'
"Renaissance," Beyoncé (Columbia Records)
Beyoncé has been reborn again; this time it’s on a shimmering dance floor.
But in her seventh studio album, "Renaissance," she has subverted the public's perception of her hitmaking history. Six years since her Grammy award-winning“Lemonade,” people expect Beyoncé to consistently deliver. But she does not allow herself to be pigeonholed in her consistency, perfectionism and pop/R&B genre. She croons confidently in “Cozy," that she is “comfortable in my skin. Cozy with who I am," and it shows in this hour-long 16-track album.
Her voice glides with comfortability and ease in this cohesive dance-music album influenced by Black artists like disco queens Diana Ross and Donna Summer ("Summer Renaissance,") sampling Summer's “I Feel Love,” Afrobeats ("Move") and most surprisingly twinges of Generation Z's favorite fast-paced hyperpop ("All Up In Your Mind").
Each song is an adventurous, experimental journey into Beyoncé's pandemic psyche. In the album announcement posted on her Instagram, she said that creating this album has allowed her “to dream and to find escape during a scary time for the world.”
The Associated Press
