News

TechCrunch reports: Apple today unveiled a revamped Apple News app which now includes a premium tier called Apple News+, offering access to over 300 magazines and newspapers for $9.99 per month. At launch, the subscription includes magazine titles like Bon Appétit, People, Vogue, National Geographic Magazine, ELLE, Glamour, and others, along with top publishers like The Wall Street Journal and …

CNBC reports: Celebrity lawyer Michael Avenattii has been arrested on charges related to an alleged $20 million extortion of the athletic apparel company Nike, federal authorities said Monday. A press conference is scheduled to discuss the charges against Avenatti in Los Angeles on Monday afternoon. Avenatti had represented porn star Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against President Donald Trump and …

Two Parkland survivors also took their lives last week. The Hartford Courant reports: The father of Avielle Richman, one of 20 first-grade students and six educators killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook School shooting, was found dead of an apparent suicide at Edmond Town Hall early Monday, police said. Jeremy Richman, 49, was found by an electrician working in the …

Slate reports: One of Germany’s richest families is coming to terms with a disturbing past. The family that owns a controlling stake in Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and Panera Bread, among others, will donate $11 million to charity after learning that their ancestors were staunch supporters of Adolf Hitler and extensively used forced labor. The family announced its planned charitable donation …

ABC News reports: A second survivor of the Parkland shooting has died by suicide, the Coral Springs Police Department in Florida confirmed to the Miami Herald on Sunday. Police told the newspaper that a current Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student died in “an apparent suicide” on Saturday night. The death of this student follows that of 19-year-old Sydney Aiello, …

The Washington Post reports: Facing mounting criticism over her comments about two men who say they were molested as children by Michael Jackson, legendary singer and actress Barbra Streisand rushed Saturday to explain that she felt “nothing but sympathy” for Jackson’s accusers and tweeted that she was “profoundly sorry for any pain or misunderstanding I caused.” Streisand said in a …

Axios reports: Almost 25,000 people had by Sunday morning signed two petitions calling for New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to get the Nobel Peace Prize. Ardern has been widely praised for her leadership in response to last week’s terrorist attack on two Christchurch mosques. The New York Times published an editorial Thursday, titled “America Deserves a Leader as Good …

From the Hollywood Reporter: Asked whether she believes Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who accused Jackson of sexually abusing them for a number of years when they were children, Streisand replied, “Oh absolutely. That was too painful.” The singer and actress went on to describe Jackson as “very sweet, very childlike” when she met him a couple of times in …

NBC News reports: On the day a gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Sydney Aiello escaped with her life. However, the grief of losing 17 of her classmates and teachers, as well as the long-lasting effects of enduring such a traumatic event, weighed heavily on her. And this weekend, at the age of 19, Aiello took her …

Axios reports: One week on from the Christchurch mosque attacks, many New Zealanders showed their support for Muslim communities by wearing headscarves during the country’s national day of reflection Friday. Headscarf for Harmony organizers said their initiative was a “very simple gesture of support for our Muslim communities grieving the loss of 50 amazing mothers, fathers, children, friends and colleagues …

Religion News Service reports: According to newly released General Social Survey data analyzed by Ryan P. Burge of Eastern Illinois University, Americans claiming “no religion” — sometimes referred to as “nones” because of how they answer the question “what is your religious tradition?” — now represent about 23.1 percent of the population, up from 21.6 percent in 2016. People claiming …

CNN reports: Mount Everest expedition operators are finding increasing numbers of climbers’ dead bodies on the world’s highest peak as high temperatures melt glaciers and snow. More than 200 mountaineers have died on the peak since 1922, when the first climbers’ deaths on Everest were recorded. The majority of bodies are believed to have remained buried under glaciers or snow. …

ABC News reports: Jimmy Carter is now the oldest-living former president in U.S. history at 94 years and 172 days old, surpassing George H.W. Bush.  Bush, the 41st president, died on Nov. 30 at 94 years, 171 days old. America’s founding president, George Washington, was the youngest former president to die — at 57 years and 67 days — in …

Bloomberg reports: Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) promised when McCain died that he would deliver a “whipping” to anybody — including Trump — who impugned McCain’s good name moving forward. And now he’s made good on that promise. “It’s deplorable what he said,” Isakson told George Public Broadcasting in an interview Wednesday afternoon. Before the appearance, he previewed his comments in …

The Hill reports: Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that he will introduce a resolution to rename the Russell Senate Office building after Sen. John McCain amid a growing backlash against President Trump’s recent comments about the late Arizona Republican. Trump, while speaking at the White House on Tuesday, said he “was never a fan of John McCain, and …

Finland’s YLE reports: Finland has once again been ranked as the happiest country in the world. The Nordic nation received the accolade for the second year in succession in the annual survey of global happiness from the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Finland beat out 155 other countries for the title in the 2019 report, released Wednesday. The report …

The New York Daily News reports: Patti Davis, the daughter of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, said her father would be “horrified” and “heartbroken” by the state of the country as well as the GOP and President Trump in a new interview. “There’s no resemblance to the Republican Party of my father’s time,” Davis said. “He talks like an autocrat,” …

WUT. Howard Kurtz reports at Fox News: Michael Sanchez, the brother of Jeff Bezos’ girlfriend, is acknowledging for the first time that he made a “deal with the devil”—meaning the National Enquirer. In an interview, Sanchez told me he did cooperate with the tabloid while it was investigating whether his sister, Lauren, and the Amazon founder were having an extramarital …

Deutsche Welle reports: Wolfgang Kubicki, the deputy chairman of the opposition Free Democrats (FDP), said Richard Grenell’s repeated interference in German sovereignty should prompt Foreign Minister Heiko Maas to immediately declare Grenell persona non grata. “Any US diplomat who acts like a high commissioner of an occupying power must learn that our tolerance also knows its limits,” said Kubicki, who …

WHSV-TV reports: On Tuesday, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey [photo] filed a lawsuit alleging the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese and former Bishop Michael J. Bransfield knowingly employed pedophiles. The suit also alleges they failed to conduct adequate background checks for those working at the diocese’s schools and camps. The Wheeling-Charleston Diocese encompasses the entire state of West Virginia. The complaint alleges …