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Man who stabbed author Salman Rushdie convicted of terrorism charges Man who stabbed author Salman Rushdie convicted of terrorism charges

After being found guilty of federal "terrorism" charges, a man who is already serving a jail sentence in New York for attempting to assassinate novelist Salman Rushdie is now facing the risk of spending the rest of his life behind bars. A knife attack on Salman Rushdie in 2022, which took place during a public engagement in New York, led in Rushdie being half blind. Hadi Matar, who is now 28 years old, is currently serving a sentence of 25 years for his crime. In May of the previous year, Matar was given a sentence of twenty-five years in prison. A New York jury found Matar guilty on all charges, including an effort to offer material support to Hezbollah in Lebanon, after deliberating for tw…
Texas homeowner charged with murder after killing armed intruder Texas homeowner charged with murder after killing armed intruder

The story begins in Texas, a state long associated with strong protections for gun owners and expansive interpretations of self-defense. According to reports, a homeowner confronted an armed intruder inside his residence. Shots were fired, and the intruder was killed. What might seem, at first glance, like a textbook case of “castle doctrine”—the legal principle that allows homeowners to use deadly force against unlawful entry—quickly became more complicated. Prosecutors filed murder charges against the homeowner, arguing that the circumstances did not justify lethal force. The decision shocked many Texans, who assumed the law would shield the homeowner. It also sparked outrage among gun rig…
Kids Used To Walk Home Alone Kids Used To Walk Home Alone

It was late afternoon when the school doors opened and the children spilled into the street like a sudden bright tide. Their uniforms flashed white and blue in the sun, their voices rose and fell in quick laughter, and in a moment the quiet pavement was alive with movement. Some mounted bicycles that seemed almost too large for them; others set off on foot in loose wandering groups, swinging their schoolbags as though the weight of the day had already been forgotten. My daughter stood beside me watching them. She is seven years old, an age at which the world is still full of small astonishments. A stray cat slipping beneath a plastic chair can hold her attention as firmly as any grand specta…
Rebecca Grossman murdered 2 boys when she sped through a crosswalk Rebecca Grossman murdered 2 boys when she sped through a crosswalk

This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here. Rebecca Grossman murdered two young brothers when she sped through a Westlake Village crosswalk, a jury found two years ago. Now, a state appeals court has upheld that verdict. Grossman, the co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation, is serving 15 years to life in state prison for the second-degree murders of 11-year-old Mark Iskander and 8-year-old Jacob Iskander. On Tuesday, the California 2nd District Court of Appeal upheld the Feb. 23, 2024, conviction of the wife of renowned surgeon Peter Grossman. Rebecca Grossman’s six-week trial was filled with dramatic testimony and evidence that she struck the bo…
The First Years of Elvis Presley with his Parents The First Years of Elvis Presley with his Parents

Exclusive Feature The church in Tupelo was quiet that morning, sunlight spilling through tall windows. Gladys Love Smith sat near the front, hands folded, eyes were soft, her posture shy. Vernon Elvis Presley entered late, shoulders bent from the weight of small burdens, his clothes plain, his steps uncertain. Yet when he looked up, his gaze caught hers, and their feelings soared. Gladys lowered her eyes quickly, cheeks warm. “Don’t stare,” she whispered to herself, though her heart beat faster. Vernon lingered in the aisle, hesitant, then slid into the pew across from her. His voice was low, almost unsure, when he leaned slightly and said, “Do you come here often?” Her lips parted, but her …
AI Cameras Are Watching School Children AI Cameras Are Watching School Children

The camera in the corner of the classroom used to be a rumor, something whispered about after a substitute teacher mentioned “district policy” and nobody quite believed it. Now it’s not just real—it’s multiplying, quietly, efficiently, and with almost no resistance. Across the United States, school districts are installing AI-powered surveillance systems that track student behavior, monitor facial expressions, flag “suspicious” movement, and in some cases analyze tone of voice or written language. The stated goal is always the same: safety. Prevent violence. Identify threats early. Protect children. And here’s the uncomfortable truth: it sounds reasonable. That’s exactly why it’s dangerous. …
Lost in the Flood they Found Each Other Years Later Lost in the Flood they Found Each Other Years Later

Human Interest They met the way people used to meet before algorithms pretended to know our hearts better than we did—by proximity and boredom and youth. Two teenagers in New Orleans, same neighborhood, different schools, running into each other at a corner store that smelled like dust and sugar and summer. There was nothing cinematic about it at first. He made her laugh. She remembered what he ordered every time. They walked streets that would later be mapped by disaster, unaware they were standing on a fault line between before and after. They dated for a year. Long enough to feel permanent. Short enough to believe permanence was guaranteed. Then, in August 2005, the city broke open. When …
Kristi Noem and the politics of cruelty Kristi Noem and the politics of cruelty

Kristi Noem’s defense of the ICE agent who killed Renee Nicole Good has ignited one of the most explosive political firestorms of her career. Her remarks—branding Good a “domestic terrorist” and standing behind a podium emblazoned with a Nazi-era slogan—have drawn condemnation from lawmakers, activists, and ordinary citizens who see her as emblematic of authoritarian excess. The controversy is not a passing headline; it is a defining moment that reveals the deeper instincts of a politician who has built her career on toughness, loyalty, and spectacle, but who now finds herself accused of weaponizing cruelty into policy. The reaction to her stance has been visceral because it touches a raw ne…
Nine-year-old Girl Killed After She Left Her Classroom Nine-year-old Girl Killed After She Left Her Classroom

A Child’s Ordinary Day, Interrupted Forever On a November afternoon in Tucson, Arizona, nine-year-old Arlette Chavira left her classroom with the same joy she carried every day. She was an honor student, known for her kindness and eagerness to help. Walking with her seven-year-old sister, she headed toward her mother, who was waiting nearby. It was supposed to be routine—the kind of moment parents treasure: the daily reunion after school. Instead, a heavy rolling gate—long neglected, reportedly “busted” and awaiting repair—collapsed. It crushed Arlette in front of her sister. The gate did not fall because of chance. It fell because adults responsible for its upkeep failed to act. A lawsuit l…
Energy Realism.  Physics Over Slogans Energy Realism. Physics Over Slogans

Opinion | Feature Editorial Energy Realism: Physics Over Slogans The Grid at Midnight Picture a city at midnight. The wind has calmed, solar panels are dark, and the grid leans heavily on backup power. Politicians speak of “green revolutions,” but engineers know the reality: electrons obey physics, not slogans. The global conversation about energy has become strangely unserious for something so foundational to modern life. We cling to absolutes, divide into camps, and prefer moral certainty over physical reality. The result is passion without progress. Part I: Energy as Physics, Not Branding Energy systems are not ideological constructs. They are physical networks governed by constraints: st…
Karaoke And The Death Of Public Shame Karaoke And The Death Of Public Shame

Opinion There are few sounds more spiritually exhausting than a drunk man discovering a microphone near water. The river carries everything. That is the problem. A terrible singer inside a small bar is survivable. The walls absorb part of the damage. Alcohol softens the rest. But once speakers are dragged outdoors and pointed broadly at civilization itself, the laws of acoustics become instruments of psychological warfare. Somewhere across the dark water, usually male, usually already shouting before the music even begins, a man decides that what the entire neighborhood needs at 11:47 p.m. is his interpretation of “Sweet Caroline.” Interpretation is perhaps too generous a word. What follows …
18-year-old girl killed in fiery crash 18-year-old girl killed in fiery crash

A a teenage girl was among the teens killed in a violent incident that occurred early Sunday morning. Near Farley, Missouri, on State Highway 45, an overturned automobile carrying 18-year-old Tessa Walker caught fire and killed her. The accident injured four other teenagers. Tessa Walker, a Park Hill School senior, was preparing to start her college career in the autumn at Northwest Missouri State. Besides being an accomplished athlete, Tessa was a hard worker in the classroom. She participated in track, girls' flag football, and volleyball. She participated in the AVID college-readiness program for all four years, and her dedication paid off with many awards, including academic scholarships…
At least three dead with a dozen injured in prison riot in Georgia At least three dead with a dozen injured in prison riot in Georgia

Early Sunday afternoon, Sheriff Joel Cochran told local station WRDW that several fights broke out inside the facility in Davisboro in Washington County, Georgia, which resulted in 13 inmates being taken to the hospital. The prison is located around 50 miles southeast of Augusta. While the fight was between inmates, one guard was potentially injured, according to Cochran. The Washington County Coroner confirmed two deaths had occurred initially from the fight, and a third individual died later on Sunday evening. “It’s not uncommon for these things to happen at correctional facilities; however, I think it has been quite some time since we’ve had to come to an incident this large,” Cochran sai…
Three Family Lives Brutally Taken in a Single Night Three Family Lives Brutally Taken in a Single Night

The small Alabama town of Wilmer has been plunged into grief after the discovery of three lives brutally taken in a single night. Inside a modest home, investigators found a mother, her young son, and a pregnant teenager—all bound with zip ties, all slain in acts of chilling precision. The silence of that house now echoes with the weight of tragedy, a place once filled with love now marked forever by violence. It was a phone app alert that led loved ones to the scene, a digital whisper that revealed horror beyond imagination. Lisa Ferguson, 46, her 17-year-old daughter Keziah Luker, who was eight months pregnant, and 12-year-old Thomas Cordelle were each confined to separate rooms, their fin…
MSN Deteriorates Into A Pool Of Garbage MSN Deteriorates Into A Pool Of Garbage

Editorial / Consumer Investigative Let’s be honest: MSN isn’t a news site anymore. It’s a digital dumpster fire where the "editors" have been replaced by a script that has the IQ of a doorstop and the ethics of a looter. It used to be a gateway to the world; now, it’s just a gateway to a 40-slide gallery about what some C-list reality star’s knees look like today. Microsoft decided that human editors—people who actually know how to spot a lie or a hack—were too expensive. So, they pushed them out the window of the Empire State Building and replaced them with an algorithm that would sell its own mother for a $0.02 ad impression. The result? A "click-and-fuck" ecosystem where the reader is the…
A Big Win For A Lonely Woman A Big Win For A Lonely Woman

Human Interest Opinion / Perspective For forty years, a stoneware crock sat on a porch in New York, a silent sentry against the biting winters and the humid, heavy summers of the Northeast. It was, for all intents and purposes, a piece of lawn debris. It held no flowers; it served no function. To the woman who lived behind the screen door, it was simply "there"—a familiar shape in a life that had slowly become a series of familiar, quiet shapes. When her birthday approached, she looked at the heavy salt-glazed vessel and allowed herself a modest, almost apologetic hope: perhaps it was worth a hundred dollars. A hundred dollars for a birthday treat, or perhaps a utility bill, or just the smal…
Spielberg and Coppola and Lucas is the toxic friendship that built modern Hollywood Spielberg and Coppola and Lucas is the toxic friendship that built modern Hollywood

A new book captures how Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg went from allies to rivals, driving a filmmaking revolution in the process. By Patrick Smith Removed from bookmarks I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice George Lucas should have died. It was 1962; the 17-year-old had just crashed his yellow Autobianchi convertible into a walnut tree, in Modesto, California. The car rolled, bounced and came to rest – it was “beyond mangled, flipped upside down and twisted like a crushed Coke can against the tree”, writes Paul Fischer in his new book, The Last Kings of Hollywood: Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg and the …
Will Marco Rubio Last As Secretary Of State Will Marco Rubio Last As Secretary Of State

Editorial A cabinet room is not built for silence. Cameras hum, chairs shift, the choreography of agreement unfolds before anyone speaks. Praise is currency there, but it is never free. When Donald Trump turned toward Marco Rubio after the Munich speech, smiling, approving, and joking that he was doing so well he might be fired, the line landed the way these lines always do—laughter first, interpretation later. The remark lived in that peculiar space Trump has mastered, where humor is both shield and message, where admiration carries a reminder about gravity: the center must remain the center. Rubio smiled. Politicians learn that smile early, the one that acknowledges the joke while absorbin…
The New Face of American Power The New Face of American Power

Opinion | Editorial America’s Doctrine of Power in 2026 The opening week of 2026 has stripped away any lingering illusions about the trajectory of U.S. foreign policy. In Caracas, a military raid removed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power. Days later, Washington floated the possibility of acquiring Greenland by force. These are not isolated provocations. They clearly show a belief that control over land can be bargained for, valuable resources are seen as rewards, and military power is used as a way to gain economic advantage. Venezuela: Justice or Oil? Officials framed the Caracas operation as a crackdown on corruption and narcotics trafficking. Maduro and his wife were flown to…
How OC Innovators Are Winning the Last Mile of Artificial Intelligence How OC Innovators Are Winning the Last Mile of Artificial Intelligence

For years, the artificial intelligence conversation was dominated by a handful of technology giants investing billions into massive data centers, specialized chips and large language models. But a different story is unfolding in Orange County, where a growing wave of “AI-native” startups is proving that innovation doesn’t always require building the foundation models themselves. Instead, local entrepreneurs are focusing on what many industry observers call the “last mile” of AI: applying increasingly accessible open-source and commercial AI models to solve highly specific business problems. The result is a surge in enterprise workflow automation and industry-specific AI applications that are…