The news can often be hard to follow, but this week in particular has been a doozy.
There’s the seemingly endless staff changes in the Trump administration, the reported privacy breach and misuse of millions of Facebook users’ data, the death of the bombing suspect in Austin and the police shooting in Sacramento. It’s been a lot.
Here’s a rundown of some of the biggest news that happened in the last seven days.
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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Protesters march in Sacramento, California, on March 22, 2018, after two police officers shot and killed Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man.
Stephen Hawking died Wednesday after complications due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a progressive neurodegenerative disease. He was 76.
The world-renowned theoretical physicist and cosmologist was best known for his work on black holes. Hawking theorized that, contrary to the prevailing scientific belief that black holes were inescapable for all forms of matter and energy, they actually emitted a form of radiation ― now known as Hawking radiation. He also played a key role in the mathematical effort to unify Einstein’s general theory of relativity with the emergent field of quantum physics.
Hawking used his position as one of the world’s most famous scientists as a platform to discuss a wide range of issues, from the existence of extraterrestrial life to the nature of philosophy. He skyrocketed to public prominence in 1988, when he published his first general-audience book, A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. The cosmology treatise has sold approximately 10 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling science books of all time.
In 1963, when he was just 21 years old, Hawking was famously diagnosed with the debilitating motor neuron disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Though 80 percent of those with ALS die within five years of diagnosis, and Hawking’s own doctors gave him roughly two years to live, he survived for decades, perhaps longer than any other patient with the disease in medical history. Hawking used a wheelchair to move around and a sophisticated computer system to speak for much of his time as a public figure.
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Fred Duval/FilmMagic via Getty Images
Stephen Hawking, Jane Wilde Hawking and family attend the British Academy Film Awards at The Royal Opera House on Feb. 8, 2015 in London.
Despite widespread opposition from medical and mental health organizations, tens of thousands of LGBTQ youth in the U.S. will be subjected to anti-gay “conversion therapy” during their lifetime, a new report estimates.
Released this month by the Williams Institute at University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, the report estimates that 698,000 LGBTQ Americans between the ages of 18 and 59 have undergone conversion therapy at some point in their lives. About 350,000 of those received that treatment as adolescents.
The report also estimates that 20,000 LGBTQ youths currently between the ages of 13 and 17 will be subjected to conversion therapy from a licensed health care professional before they turn 18. An additional 57,000 will be subjected to the controversial practice from a religious or spiritual adviser before age 18.
The study’s lead author, Christy Mallory, believes the results may surprise many Americans in the wake of marriage equality and other social strides made on behalf of the LGBTQ community.
According to the documents, it appears that Mr. Paddock relied on the internet to buy many of the items used in the attack, including guns and ammunition, during the 12 months before the attacks.
He spent “significant time and expense prior to the attack purchasing and caching weapons” and other items such as glass cutters and suitcases. Authorities have said he used the glass cutters so he could fire out of his hotel window into the crowd below attending a music concert.
Much of what investigators found in the hotel room is known, but the search warrants add additional details. The F.B.I. said there were hundreds of rounds of spent ammunition as well “preloaded high-capacity magazines” found in suitcases that Mr. Paddock had brought to room. There was also body armor, range finders and a homemade gas mask.
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The shots began at 10:05. Twelve bursts of gunfire later, the police broke down Stephen Paddock’s door at the Mandalay Bay. The Times mapped 30 videos to draw perhaps the most complete picture to date of what happened.Published On
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Click link below for article and 30 mapped videos:
A day after powerful mudslides swept through the Southern California community of Montecito, rescue crews continued to search the wreckage for missing people on Wednesday.
The disaster left at least 15 people dead, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office tweeted Wednesday. At least 25 people have been injured in the mudslides, while more than 50 people were rescued by air, officials said. Over two dozen people were unaccounted for as of Wednesday morning, The New York Times reported.
And those numbers will likely rise, as authorities told the AP flash floods have destroyed 100 single-family homes and damaged 300 more in Santa Barbara County.
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Powerful mudslides swept through the Southern California
The man who launched a deadly attack on four police officers inside a Colorado apartment was a former Army Reservist who was deployed in Iraq for a year, a spokesperson for the military said Monday.
Authorities identified the gunman — who was killed in Sunday’s shooting — as 37-year-old Matthew Riehl.
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Riehl barricaded himself in a bedroom in his apartment in a Denver suburb before suddenly opening fire with a rifle and shooting four deputies who were in the apartment responding to a complaint.
One of the deputies died. Five law enforcement officers and two civilians were injured in shooting exchanges before the suspect was killed by a police tactical team, authorities said.
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Riehl served with the Wyoming National Guard from 2006-2012, according to Deidre Forster with the Wyoming National Guard’s office of public affairs.
A 16-year-old boy is in custody after four people, including his parents and sister, were shot to death in a Long Branch, New Jersey, home on New Year’s Eve, authorities said Monday.
Officers responded to a 911 call about shots fired at the home about 15 minutes before midnight on Sunday, according to a news release from Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.
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The bodies of 42-year-old Linda Kologi, 44-year-old Steven Kologi, 18-year-old Brittany Kologi and Mary Schultz, a 70-year-old friend who lived with the family, were found inside.
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Authorities said the teen — who they did not immediately name — was taken into custody without incident. It’s unclear whether anyone else was in the house at the time of the shooting.
Investigators believe a “Century Arms semiautomatic rifle” was used in the deadly shooting, according to the news release.
Five Sherpas surrounded the frozen corpse. They swung axes at the body’s edges, trying to pry it from its icy tomb. They knocked chunks of snow from the body, and the shattered pieces skittered down the mountain. When they finally freed a leg and lifted it, the entire stiff and contorted body shifted, down to its fingertips.
The sun was shining, but the air was dangerously cold and thin at 27,300 feet above sea level. A plume of snow clouded the ridge toward the summit of Mount Everest, so close above. When the Sherpas arrived — masks on their faces, oxygen tanks on their backs — the only movement on the steep face came from the dead man’s frayed jacket pockets. They were inside out and flapping in the whipping wind.
More than a year of exposure to the world’s wickedest elements had blackened and shriveled the man’s bare face and hands. His hydrant-yellow summit suit had dulled to the hue of a fallen leaf. The bottom of his boots pointed uphill. His frozen arms were bent at the elbows and splayed downhill over his head. It was as if the man sat down for a rest, fell backward and froze that way.
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Subhas Paul, left, and his guide, Lakpa Sherpa, at the summit.Subhas Paul
The world-renowned resort community here is a ghost town. No one sits by the three-tiered pool even though it’s high tourist season. At the area’s largest hospital, four of the five floors are closed. Long lines still form for ice and water. Livelihoods have disappeared. “No hay luz” (there is no power) is a repeated refrain from almost everyone.
It has been three months since Hurricane Maria entered Puerto Rico like a battering ram through Humacao, sweeping through this southeastern coastal city and into the island’s history as its worst natural disaster.
But the catastrophe continues. Still largely without electricity and clean water, people who withstood the hurricane’s force feel abandoned and question whether the U.S. government cares about their survival.
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The Punta Santiago beachfront neighborhood in Humacao, Puerto Rico. Ricardo Arduengo / for NBC News
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
Conversion Therapy
Powerful mudslides swept through the Southern California
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James' World 2 