20 June 22
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Robert Smigel, the voice for Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, was among those charged with unlawful entry at a congressional office building.
The people identified themselves as being affiliated with CBS’ “Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
Another person familiar with the matter provided the AP with a list of nine people who had been stopped by Capitol Police. They included several producers, along with Robert Smigel, the voice behind Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.
The two people who spoke with the AP could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The incident Thursday night followed the third public hearing by the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.
Capitol Police said they received a call about a disturbance in the Longworth House Office Building around 8:30 p.m. “Responding officers observed seven individuals, unescorted and without Congressional ID, in a sixth-floor hallway,” the agency said in a statement. “The building was closed to visitors, and these individuals were determined to be a part of a group that had been directed by the USCP to leave the building earlier in the day.”
In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, CBS said the production team was at the Capitol Wednesday and Thursday to record a comedy segment featuring Triumph.
“Their interviews at the Capitol were authorized and pre-arranged through Congressional aides of the members interviewed,” the network said. “After leaving the members’ offices on their last interview of the day, the production team stayed to film stand-ups and other final comedy elements in the halls when they were detained by Capitol Police.”
The USCP statement said the case remains “an active criminal investigation, and may result in additional criminal charges.” Capitol Police, departing from standard practice, refused to provide the names of the people who were arrested.
Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of Melitopol. (photo: Ukrayinska Pravda)
Source: Ivan Fedorov on Telegram
Quote from Fedorov: "Today, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have made significant progress and are already on the borders of Kherson. I am confident that in the near future, in the coming weeks, the city of Kherson will be liberated [from Russian occupiers] by our heroic military.
The situation is the same in the area of Melitopol. Our Armed Forces have already advanced more than 10 kilometres from Zaporizhzhia toward Melitopol".
Details: Fedorov hopes that Western weapons will help Ukraine liberate the territories occupied by the Russians.
The mayor of Melitopol also said that Russians continue to abduct people, including pastors and activists, not realising that "99.9% of people do not support them."
Mark Warner. (photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
"Directing women towards fake clinics that traffic in misinformation and don't provide comprehensive health services is dangerous to women's health and undermines the integrity of Google's search results," the lawmakers wrote. CCDH also found that 37 percent of results on Google Maps for the same search terms lead people to anti-abortion clinics. The lawmakers argue in the letter that Google should not be displaying those results for users searching for abortion and that if the company's search results must continue showing them, they should at least be properly labeled.
In addition, CCDH found that 28 percent of ads displayed at the top of Google search results are for crisis pregnancy centers. Google added a disclaimer for those ads, "albeit one that appears in small font and is easily missed," the lawmakers note, after getting flak for them a few years ago. "The prevalence of these misleading ads marks what appears to be a concerning reversal from Google’s pledge in 2014 to take down ads from crisis pregnancy centers that engage in overt deception of women seeking out abortion information online," the letter reads.
Warner, Slotkin and the letter's other signees are asking Google what it plans to do to limit the appearance of anti-abortion clinics when users are explicitly searching for abortion services. And, if Google chooses not to take action to prevent them from appearing in results, the group is asking whether Google would add user-friendly disclaimers clarifying whether the clinic is or isn't providing abortion services. You can read the whole letter below:
A Supreme Court draft obtained by Politico in May showed that SCOTUS justices have voted to reverse Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that protected the federal rights to abortion across the country. Senator Ron Wyden and 41 other Democratic lawmakers also previously asked Google to stop collecting and keeping users' location data. They said the information could be used against people who've had or are seeking abortions in states with trigger laws.
NEW: @RepSlotkin and I are leading a group of lawmakers to push on the Google CEO to crack down on manipulative search results that lead to scammy “crisis pregnancy centers.”
— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) June 17, 2022
It’s time for them to limit or label results and ads that lead to fake abortion clinics. pic.twitter.com/LlkTueI2QP
The Apple Inc logo is seen hanging at the entrance to the Apple store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, New York, United States, October 16, 2019. (photo: Mike Segar/Reuters)
Workers in Maryland become the first retail employees of Apple Inc to unionize in the US.
More than 100 workers in Towson near Baltimore “have overwhelmingly voted to join” the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), the union said on its website on Saturday.
The local workers, forming the Coalition of Organized Retail Employees (CORE), “have the support of a solid majority of our coworkers”, they wrote in a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook.
“This is something we do not to go against or create conflict with our management,” they wrote, stressing that their driving motivation was to seek “rights we do not currently have”.
IAM welcomed CORE’s “historic victory” and urged Cook to let the unionizing employees fast-track efforts to secure a contract at the Towson location.
“I applaud the courage displayed by CORE members at the Apple store in Towson for achieving this historic victory,” said IAM International President Robert Martinez Jr. “They made a huge sacrifice for thousands of Apple employees across the nation who had all eyes on this election.”
He added: “This victory shows the growing demand for unions at Apple stores and different industries across our nation.”
An Apple spokesperson, responding to the Reuters news agency request for comment, said by email that the company had “nothing to add at this time”.
Unionization efforts are gaining momentum at some large US corporations, including Amazon.com Inc and Starbucks Corp.
Apple workers in Atlanta who were seeking to unionize withdrew their request last month, claiming intimidation.
Some current and former Apple workers last year began criticizing the company’s working conditions online, using the hashtag #AppleToo.
Gustavo Petro is a former guerrilla and mayor of the capital city of Bogota. (photo: Reuters)
Gustavo Petro, the former mayor of Bogota and ex-rebel fighter, has become Colombia's first left-wing president.
Figures show he took 50.5% of votes, defeating his millionaire rival by a close margin of around 700,000 ballots.
The result marks a major change for the country, which for decades has been led by moderates and conservatives.
The vote was held amid widespread discontent at the way the country has been run, and there were anti-government protests last year in which dozens of people died.
The 62-year-old Mr Petro hailed what he called a "victory for God and for the people".
"May so much suffering be cushioned by the joy that today floods the heart of the homeland," Mr Petro wrote on Twitter. "Today is the day of the streets and squares."
His running mate Francia Marquez, a single mother and former housekeeper, will become the country's first black woman vice-president.
In a video posted to social media, Mr Hernandez, who ran a non-traditional campaign that relied heavily on TikTok and other social media, conceded to Mr Petro.
"I accept the results of this election," he said. "I hope that Mr Gustavo Petro knows how to run the country and is faithful to his discourse against corruption," he added.
President Ivan Duque, who was barred from seeking re-election by Colombia's term limits, said on Twitter that he had called Mr Petro to congratulate him. He added that they had "agreed to meet in the coming days to initiate a harmonious, institutional and transparent transition".
Mr Petro was a member of the now disbanded M-19 movement in the 1980s. The rebel left-wing group was one of many guerrilla organisations that waged war against the state.
He spent time in jail for illegal arms possession, before joining the political opposition where he served as both a senator and congressman as well as mayor of Bogota.
Mr Petro ran on a radical manifesto and pledged during the campaign to fight inequality by providing free university education, pension reforms and high taxes on unproductive land.
He also pledged to fully implement a 2016 peace deal that ended a 50-year long conflict with the communist guerrilla group, Farc, and to seek negotiations with the still-active ELN rebels.
At Gustavo's results party, the atmosphere is electric. On stage, and in the crowds, people here are dancing salsa - enjoying every moment of an election like no other.
In a country that experienced decades of civil conflict, Gustavo Petro's critics highlighted his role as a former rebel, arguing his economic plans would spell disaster for the country.
But his promises of inclusion and addressing poverty resonated with this deeply unequal country.
For Ana Beatriz Acevedo, who represents displaced Afro-Colombian women, the election marks a major change for the country.
"One of the problems this country has is inequality - in black and indigenous communities, among women," she said. "And they (Petro and Marquez) represent that difference - one is mixed race, one is black - and both believe in inclusion."
It's often a cliché to call elections historic but these really are - it's a huge departure for this conservative country and says a lot about how much the country has changed.
Now Colombia will have its first ever leftist leader and alongside him, the first ever black vice-president - and that speaks volumes about the desire for a different political path.
The campaign marked Mr Petro's third run for the presidency. He finished fourth in 2010, and was comfortably defeated in a run-off by Mr Duque in 2018.
While some of his proposals have startled investors - including a planned ban on new oil projects - many voters said they voted for him to tackle some of Colombia's intractable problems, such as corruption, widespread poverty and a surge in political violence.
But Mr Petro will face challenges from a fragmented congress, which includes representatives of more than a dozen parties.
"Given current levels of polarisation and existing political, economic, social and humanitarian crises, the Petro government will face significant challenges," Prof Arlene Tickner, an international relations lecturer at Bogota University, told the BBC.
"An important first step that has already been taken by the president-elect is to initiate efforts to build a broad national coalition in order to enhance his governability."
Water. (photo: Capelle.r/Getty Images)
In response, the EPA released stricter standards for PFAS levels in drinking water.
Polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are a group of chemicals that are used in many industrial activities and consumer products. Their properties made them popular additives in stain-resistant and non-stick inventions, despite the fact that they do not break down easily and can persist for hundreds of years under standard environmental conditions.
PFAS began sparking health concerns after scientists found they were bioaccumulating – building up in soils, drinking water, and even livestock. In fact, PFAS are now so widespread that nearly all Americans have detectable concentrations of at least one one PFAS compound in their blood.
Past studies have raised concerns that PFAS could impact cardiovascular health or even lower birth weights – a risk factor associated with higher rates of infant mortality. Now, a new study from researchers at the University of Michigan has found a stronger link between PFAS blood levels and high blood-pressure in a cohort of middle-aged women.
The long-term study looked at initial PFAS levels in a group of over a thousand women ranging in age from 42 to 52 years old, comprised of various ethnic backgrounds. After 18 years, nearly 45 percent of the women in the study developed high blood-pressure. Those who did tended to have much higher blood PFAS concentrations at the outset of the study. In fact, women with the highest levels of one particular PFAS compound – perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA – had an almost 50 percent higher chance of developing high blood-pressure than women with the lowest PFOA blood-level concentrations.
“We have known for some time that PFAS disrupt metabolism in the body, yet, we didn’t expect the strength of the association we found,” said Sung Kyun Park, one of the study’s senior authors. “We hope that these findings alert clinicians about the importance of PFAS and that they need to understand and recognize PFAS as an important potential risk factor for blood pressure control.”
High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is the leading cause of death and disability in the world. When taken together, women in the study who were in the highest one-third of PFAS blood concentrations across all seven contaminants measured had a 71 percent higher chance of developing hypertension. (While it’s possible this association is also true of other groups, such as middle-age men or younger people, the researchers limited their findings to the demographics of the cohort.)
Acknowledging concerns about PFAS contamination in drinking water, the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, released new PFAS drinking water standards on Wednesday. The agency drastically reduced the health advisory level for contaminants like PFOA from 70 parts per trillion to a nearly undetectable 0.004 parts per trillion.
Radhika Fox, EPA Assistant Administrator for Water, said that this move is part of the agency’s “commitment to use the best available science to tackle PFAS pollution, protect public health, and provide critical information quickly and transparently.” These new drinking water standards rely on manufacturers to mitigate their waste streams. Park highlighted that this might require companies to change which compounds they use in their products.
“Our findings make it clear that strategies to limit the widespread use of PFAS in products need to be developed,” he said. “Switching to alternative options may help reduce the incidence of high blood pressure risk in midlife women.”
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