⚡ US puts Kaspersky Lab, 2 Chinese companies on national security threat list

🎢 Teen falls to death from Florida amusement park ride

A 14-year-old boy fell to his death late at night from a free-fall amusement park ride that is taller than the Statue of Liberty along a busy street in the heart of Orlando’s tourist district.

The Florida Department of Agriculture, which oversees amusement ride inspections with the exception of the state’s largest theme parks, has launched an investigation and inspectors were at the site Friday, spokesperson Caroline Stoneciper said.

In 2021, a maintenance technician who was not properly hooked up to a safety device plunged 225 feet (68.5 meters) to his death at a neighboring ride at the park, the 450-foot-tall (137-kilometer-tall) StarFlyer swing ride.

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💵 Texas jury awards $10M to family of man killed by deputies

A federal jury in San Antonio has awarded more than $10 million to the family of a man who was fatally shot by two deputies in 2015 while he had his arms raised.

A grand jury in 2015 declined to indict the deputies, Greg Vasquez and Robert Sanchez, on criminal charges. Flores’ family filed a civil lawsuit and the jury on Thursday found the two deputies violated Flores’ constitutional rights.

An attorney for Flores’ family, Robert Wilson, told jurors that the deputies were not in danger when they opened fire on Flores. “You just don’t shoot somebody when they are standing still and surrendering,” Wilson said. The deputies declined to comment after the jury’s decision.

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🦠 Experts worry about how US will see next COVID surge coming

The World Health Organization this week reported that the number of new coronavirus cases increased two weeks in a row globally, likely because BA.2 COVID-19 spreads more easily.

BA.2 accounts for a growing share of US cases, the CDC said — more than one-third nationally and more than half in the Northeast. Small increases in overall case rates have been noted in New York.

If the federal government lifts its public health emergency declaration, officials will lose the ability to compel hospitals to report COVID-19 data, a group of former CDC directors recently wrote. They urged Congress to pass a law that will provide enduring authorities “so we will not risk flying blind as health threats emerge.”

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🚫 Minneapolis teachers celebrate tentative deal to end strike

Teachers in Minneapolis reached a tentative agreement early Friday to end a more than two-week strike over pay and other issues that idled some 29,000 students and around 4,500 educators and staff in one of Minnesota’s largest school districts.

Across the country, unions are seizing the opportunity posed by tight labor markets to recover some of the power they lost in recent decades. And experts expect to see more labor gains as the country emerges from the pandemic.

US President Joe Biden’s administration is considering changes that could make it easier for federal workers and contractors to unionize.

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📉 A third of Americans polled expect their finances to get worse this year

Between slowing wage growth, widespread supply chain problems and sky-high inflation, it's no surprise most Americans aren't feeling great about the economy. The reading comes after government data showed the average hourly wage rising by just $0.01, or 0.03%, in February

Thirty-two percent of surveyed adults in a poll expect their finances to worsen over the next 12 months, the University of Michigan's Surveys of Consumers said in a Friday report. That's the largest-recorded share since the survey started in the mid-1940s.

The only two periods to feature bleaker financial sentiments since the survey was first conducted were the recession of the early 1980s and the 2007-2009 Great Recession.

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🎵 Spotify suspends services in Russia

Spotify removed content from RT and Sputnik News and closed its office in Russia earlier in March, but this new step goes further by shutting down the streaming service across the entire country. The company also said in March that its paid subnoscription service would no longer be available in Russia.

“After carefully considering our options and the current circumstances, we have come to the difficult decision to fully suspend our service in Russia.” The company expects for service to be fully-suspended by early April, a spokesperson said.

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❌ YouTube has blocked the channel of Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus.

▪️ Recently, the pranker channel published several videos with British Secretary of Defence Ben Wallace, as well as Home Secretary Priti Patel. Both conversations were conducted by the pranksters on behalf of Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal.

▪️ While Wallace revealed that the UK was running out of NLAW missiles amid deliveries to Ukraine, Patel suggested that Britain was ready to deprive Russians of basic rights.

▪️ The prankers have already confirmed the blocking and provided a link to their Rutube account.

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❗️ The Russian MoD's latest statements on the Ukraine crisis:

▪️ The Russian armed forces are fighting for the liberation of Novomikhailovka and Novobakhmutovka, striking strongholds and reservists.

▪️ Kalibr missiles destroyed a warehouse with ammunition and weapons in the Zhitomir region of Ukraine on March 25.

▪️ An "Onyx" cruise missile destroyed a fuel base in the Nikolaev region, supplying a grouping of Ukrainian troops in the south of the country with fuel.

▪️ 117 military installations of Ukraine were hit over the past 24 hours, including command posts, one S-300 air defence system, and three installations of multiple launch rocket systems.

▪️ Russian air defences shot down two Ukrainian Su-25s and one Su-24, as well as 6 drones in the air over Vishnevo.

▪️ A tactical Tochka-U missile complex was destroyed by the Russian armed forces in the air over the village of Vasilievka.

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⚡️ One civilian dead, 54 injured, including four children, in DPR over past day - People's Militia

📹 The Russian armed forces delivered more than seven 7 tonnes of humanitarian aid to the residents of a settlement near Chernigov.

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📹 Footage depicting a strike by Kalibr missiles from the Black Sea on Ukrainian military depots in the Zhitomir region.

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