A growing body of research suggests that we are a nation divided not only by partisanship or how we view various issues, but also by dramatically different cognitive styles. Sociologists and psychologists are getting a better understanding about the…
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Facebook-owner Meta said Thursday it had kicked one of the most influential US anti-vaccination groups off the social media network for spreading Covid-19 misinformation.
The Children's Health Defense (CHD), which has been a critic of Covid vaccines, immediately accused Meta of stifling its free speech rights.
"Facebook is acting here as a surrogate for the federal government's crusade to silence all criticism of draconian government policies," CHD founder Robert Kennedy Jr., nephew of late president John F. Kennedy, said in a press release.
Meta spokesperson Aaron Simpson told AFP that the group's accounts at Facebook and Instagram were shuttered on Wednesday. The ban came after repeated violations of Meta's misinformation rules.
CHD said its social media accounts were followed by hundreds of thousands of people, and claimed the action by Meta came as a surprise.
In a release, the group shared a screen capture showing messages stating the accounts were suspended for violating Meta policies regarding "misinformation that could lead to real world harm."
CHD contended that the ban could be related to a lawsuit it filed against Meta accusing the tech giant of infringing free speech rights by relying on US Centers for Disease Control regarding what Covid-19 information is scientifically backed.
The anti-vaccine group has appealed a lower court ruling against it in the litigation, according to legal filings.
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A member of the notorious Islamic State kidnap-and-murder cell known as the "Beatles," is to be sentenced in a US court on Friday for the deaths of four American hostages in Syria.
El Shafee Elsheikh, 34, faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison after being convicted in Alexandria, Virginia, in April of hostage-taking, conspiracy to murder US citizens and supporting a terrorist organization.
The grueling two-week trial of the former British national, which featured emotional testimony from former hostages and parents of the victims, was the most significant prosecution of an IS militant in the United States.
The 12-person federal jury deliberated for less than six hours over two days before finding Elsheikh guilty for his role in the deaths of four Americans -- journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.
Elsheikh and another former "Beatle," Alexanda Amon Kotey, were captured by a Kurdish militia in Syria in January 2018 and handed over to US forces in Iraq.
They were flown to the United States in 2020 to face trial.
Kotey, 38, pleaded guilty in September 2021 and was sentenced to life in prison in April by US District Court Judge T.S. Ellis, who will also deliver the sentence on Friday against Elsheikh.
Another alleged "Beatle," Aine Davis, 38, was deported to Britain last week from Turkey and was remanded in custody on terrorism charges.
The fourth "Beatle," executioner Mohammed Emwazi, was killed by a US drone in Syria in 2015.
The hostage-takers, who grew up and were radicalized in London, were nicknamed the "Beatles" by their captives because of their distinctive British accents.
Active in Syria from 2012 to 2015, they are accused of abducting more than two dozen journalists and relief workers from the United States and other countries.
Ten former European and Syrian hostages testified at Elsheikh's trial accusing the "Beatles" of months of brutal treatment including beatings, electric shocks, waterboarding and mock executions.
Foley, Sotloff and Kassig were beheaded by Emwazi, and videos of their deaths were released by IS for propaganda purposes.
Mueller was initially held by the "Beatles" but was later turned over to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who reportedly raped her repeatedly.
IS announced Mueller's death in February 2015. The group said she was killed in a Jordanian airstrike, a claim disputed by US authorities.
Baghdadi died during a US special forces raid in 2019.
Ahead of Elsheikh's sentencing, British police revealed details on Wednesday of the years-long effort to identify the hostage-takers and bring them to justice.
Richard Smith, the head of London police's counter-terrorism unit, compared it to "putting together very small pieces of a jigsaw" and following a "trail of breadcrumbs."
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US detectives investigating a possible decades-old mob murder said Thursday they had found a gun near the spot on an evaporating Las Vegas lake bed where a body inside a barrel was discovered.
Numerous bodies have been revealed this year at rapidly receding Lake Mead, with Mafia-watchers speculating the body in the barrel was the handiwork of gangsters from the gambling haven's crime-ridden past.
Police have revealed few details about the finds, but the victim discovered in May had been shot in the head and stuffed in a barrel before being thrown overboard -- a trademark of the hitmen who stalked Las Vegas in the 1970s and 1980s.
"A firearm has been recovered in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area on August 17, 2022, in close proximity to where one of the human remains were found," police in Las Vegas tweeted.
They added, however, that it was too early to determine whether it was connected to the current investigation.
A police spokesman confirmed the weapon, which was discovered by a journalist, had been located near the spot where the barrel was found.
Days after the body in the barrel surfaced, another corpse was reported. A third was discovered in July.
Two more sets of skeletal remains were found this month in the Swim Beach area.
A historic drought gripping much of the western United States is putting a strain on water sources, with reservoirs and lakes falling to record low levels.
Lake Mead once sat 1,200 feet (365 meters) above sea level. But after more than two decades of drought, it is rapidly shrinking.
On Thursday it was at only 1,042 feet -- close to its lowest level since the reservoir was filled in the 1930s.
Scientists say human-caused climate change, fueled by the unchecked burning of hydrocarbons for energy, is exacerbating the natural drought cycle.
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