 |
| |
 | | | Gas tax holiday | | The president will propose a three-month federal gas tax holiday to ease soaring prices at the pump more news to start your Wednesday. | | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| President Joe Biden will ask Congress today to eliminate a federal tax of 18.4 cents per gallon of gas through September. Authorities say officers could have stopped the gunman three minutes after he entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. A deadly earthquake in Afghanistan kills hundreds. Members of Congress share their abortion stories. A sunspot isn't cause for panic. The meaning behind Pride events in rural communities. |
| 🙋🏼♀️ I'm Nicole Fallert, and here's Wednesday's news. |
| 🌅 Up first: ''AGT'' judge Simon Cowell was ''stunned'' by a performance Tuesday night he deemed was "arguably the best dance act we're likely to have ever seen.'' The group, the Mayyas, from Lebanon, spoke about the struggles they face in their country as female dancers before delivering a hypnotic, dreamy performance, moving their arms and dancing with long feathers in perfect synchronicity. Read more |
 | | AMERICA'S GOT TALENT -- "Auditions" Episode 1704 -- Pictured: Mayyas -- (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC) | | NBC, Trae Patton/NBC | |
More news to know now: |
| ⛽ President Joe Biden will ask Congress today for a three-month federal gas tax holiday. |
| 🏈 NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will testify before a House committee hearing on a "toxic workplace culture" at the Washington Commanders. |
| 🗻 Yellowstone National Park will partially reopen portions to the public today after destructive flooding. |
| 🟡 Ukraine live blog: Some are questioning whether the West's alliance and strategy in the war are splintering. |
| ⭕ Recap: In the latest hearing by the Jan. 6 committee, state election officials spoke of pressure and threats from Donald Trump and his allies. |
 | | Wandrea "Shay" Moss, a former Georgia election worker, becomes emotional as she testifies before the committee to investigate the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol. Left is Ruby Freeman, Moss' mother. | | Jack Gruber, Jack Gruber-USA TODAY | |
Afghanistan earthquake kills at least 920 people, authorities say |
| A powerful earthquake struck a rural, mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border early Wednesday, killing at least 920 people and injuring 600 others, authorities said. Officials warned the death toll would likely rise. Information remained scarce on the magnitude 6.1 temblor that damaged buildings in Khost and Paktika provinces. Rescue efforts are likely to be complicated since many international aid agencies left Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover of the country last year and the chaotic withdrawal of the U.S. military from the longest war in its history. Neighboring Pakistan's Meteorological Department said the quake's epicenter was in Afghanistan's Paktika province, just near the border and 31 miles southwest of the city of Khost. The European seismological agency, EMSC, said the earthquake's tremors were felt over 310 miles by 119 million people across Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Read more |
 | | In this photo released by a set-run news agency Bakhtar, Afghans look at destruction caused by an earthquake in the province of Paktika, eastern Afghanistan, Wednesday, June 22, 2022. | | AP | |
Top cop: Uvalde response put officers' lives ahead of children's survival |
| Police had enough officers on the scene of the Uvalde school massacre to have stopped the gunman three minutes after he entered the building, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety testified Tuesday, calling the police response an "abject failure" that ignored lessons from previous shootings and put the lives of officers ahead of the lives of children. There were enough officers "to isolate, distract and neutralize the subject," DPS Director Steve McCraw told a state Senate committee. Police officers with rifles waited for more than an hour before they stormed the classroom and killed the gunman, putting an end to the attack May 24 that left 19 children and two teachers dead. Read more |
| ⚫ The Senate gun bill was introduced Tuesday and the text includes mental health funding, enhanced background checks and closes that ''boyfriend loophole.'' |
| ⚫ Congress could pass Senate gun deal — but a larger, fractious impasse is unlikely to shift. |
 | | Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw shows how an interior door in Robb Elementary School failed to lock securely to the Texas Senate Special Committee to Protect All Texans during the hearing at the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. | | Sara Diggins/American-Statesman, AP | |
Just for subscribers: |
| 🛑 ''Start locally'': How some U.S. political candidates with ties to extremist groups have sought office. |
| 👩⚖️ Supreme Court justices don't have a code of ethics. Hundreds of judges say that's a problem. |
| ✍ ''Like a voice from Heaven'': 15 years after his death, a boy's message in a bottle finds its way home. |
| 📚 USA TODAY's bestselling books of the last 10 summers: How many have you read? |
| These articles are for USA TODAY subscribers. You can sign up here. |
| Are you already a subscriber and want all of the subscriber-only content emailed to you directly every day? We can do that! Sign up for the Your Day newsletter. |
Seven members of Congress, seven personal stories of abortion as Roe v. Wade hangs in balance |
| Seven lawmakers make up a unique caucus on Capitol Hill: those who have shared publicly that they or their partner have had an abortion and are now fighting an uphill battle to protect the right to choose in their roles as members of Congress. The seven have different stories but share commonalities: All are Democrats, all are parents and all are furious about the prospect that the Supreme Court will overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion. In separate interviews with USA TODAY, all of the lawmakers said they were reluctant to share their trauma and intimate stories with the public but felt it necessary to do so given the looming anticipated reversal of abortion rights. USA TODAY is the first news organization to conduct interviews with all seven about their abortions since the draft ruling leaked. Read more |
| 🟣 Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards signed a bill to criminalize abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest. |
| 🟣 Want to live in a state that bans abortions? Some Americans say ''no'' in poll. |
| 🟣 Lawmakers asked Google to fix abortion searches that mislead users to ''anti-abortion fake clinics.'' |
| 🟣 A Supreme Court decision overturning Roe is poised to trigger a maze of state abortion laws. |
| 🟣 Nicole Carroll, editor-in-chief of USA TODAY, found a manuscript her mother wrote about a legal abortion she had in Texas in 1975. This is the story of that abortion and the conversation the family had. |
 | | USA TODAY Editor-in-Chief Nicole Carroll, right, with her siblings Chris, center, and Alice, left. | | Illustration: Andrea Brunty, USA TODAY Network; Photos: Courtesy of Nicole Carroll | |
| 🎧 On today's 5 Things podcast, USA TODAY Editor in Chief Nicole Carroll reflects on her mother's decision to have an abortion almost 50 years ago. You can listen to the podcast every day on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on your smart speaker. |
'No need to panic' as sunspot with potential for solar flares doubles in size overnight, scientists say |
| Most people won't need to lose sleep over a sunspot, called AR3038, that has been doubling in size each day for the past three days, a NASA scientist said. As sunspots grow, there's a higher chance of solar flares. Solar flares can disrupt radio communications and power grids on Earth. But this sunspot is not particularly likely to cause intense flares, experts told USA TODAY. The flares also have little effect on most people on Earth, experts reassured, saying "there is no need to panic." Read more |
| 🔥 Deeper dive: A planet-size sunspot is pointed toward Earth. What happens if there are solar flares? |
| 🔥 A Texas boy is the 5th child to die in a hot car in 2022. Experts say the deaths are ''100% preventable.'' |
| 🔥 Video: Wildfire explodes to more than 7,000 acres in New Jersey. |
 | | A sunspot, dubbed Active Region 3038 or AR3038, has the potential to cause solar flares. | | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Forecast Office | |
ICYMI: Some of our top stories yesterday |
| 🎭 Theatergoers: Broadway has dropped its masks mandate. Face coverings will be optional in theaters starting in July. |
| 🏫 Schools offering religious instruction may be entitled to state tuition aid, according to a new Supreme Court ruling. |
| ✔ Browns QB Deshaun Watson settled all but four of 24 lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct. |
| 🔵 A civil jury found Bill Cosby sexually abused a teen in 1975. |
| ⛳ What we know: More PGA Tour players have defected to LIV Golf Invitational as it preps for second event. |
| 💉 Tuesday was the first day COVID-19 vaccines were available to children under 5, but many parents are taking a wait-and-see approach. |
 | | Ellen Fraint holds her daughter, seven-month-old Jojo, as she receives the first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for children at Montefiore Medical Group in the Bronx borough of New York City on Tuesday June 21, 2022. | | Ted Shaffrey, AP | |
'Rednecks 4 Rainbows': Surge in small-town Prides helps LGBTQ folks find home. Is it enough? |
| While LGBTQ Pride events have long been mainstay celebrations in big cities, their presence in rural and small-town America has grown in recent years, experts said, claiming recognition in some of the more conservative areas of the country. The new crop of rural Pride events carries heightened significance at a time of midterm election rhetoric, transgender legislation, a Florida measure that restricts classroom discussions about LGBTQ people and acts of violence against transgender Americans, advocates said. Read more |
| 🌈 Sports leagues were unprepared for avalanche of anti-LGBTQ legislation. Advocates say they should have been ready. |
| 🌈 A center dedicated to LGBTQ history will open next to the Stonewall Inn in 2024. |
| 🌈 From our product experts at Reviewed, here are 43 brands that are giving back for Pride Month 2022. |
| 🌈 Elon Musk's child seeks name change to reflect gender identity, cut ties with father. |
 | | A drag queen performs at a pride festival in Pulaski, Tenn. | | Chris Kenning | |
| Did you hit a paywall? Daily Briefing is free, and made possible by financial support for our journalism. This story about Pride events in rural communities is subscriber-only. Please consider subscribing to support our vital reporting. |
📷 Photo of the day: How celebs are helping Ukraine 📷 |
 | | Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) welcoming to US actor and UN Goodwill Envoy Ben Stiller (L) during their meeting in Kyiv. | | UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE / AFP | |
| Global influencers are using their resources to support Ukraine, which has been at war with Russia since Feb. 24. On Tuesday, actor Ben Stiller visited Ukraine as a United Nations goodwill ambassador marking World Refugee Day. "War and violence are devastating people all over the world," Stiller said. "Nobody chooses to flee their home. Seeking safety is a right and it needs to be upheld for every person." Read more |
| Click here to see more photos of stars stepping up to help Ukraine's war effort. |
| Associated Press contributed reporting. |
| |
| |
| |
No comments:
Post a Comment