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Reigning Miss USA Noelia Voight and Miss Teen USA UmaSofia Srivastava both abdicated their posts this week, citing mental health concerns and a conflict of values with the parent organization. In explaining her decision on Monday, Voigt, who won the Miss USA title in September 2023 and who had planned to participate in the Miss Universe pageant later this year, said in an Instagram post that she “values the importance of making decisions that feel best for you and your mental health.” Then on Wednesday, Srivastava wrote in her own, similarly styled Instagram post that she was prematurely stepping away from her 2023 Miss Teen USA title...

The mother of a German woman, who was paraded half-naked in the back of a terrorist pickup truck after being captured from the scene of a Hamas massacre at a music festival in Southern Israel, has claimed to have reason to believe that her daughter is still alive in Gaza. [snip] Despite initial rumours from pro-Palestinian sources claiming that Shani was an Israeli soldier, her aunt said that Shani was, in fact, a peace campaigner and a conscientious objector. Shani, her aunt told Der Spiegel, refused to enter into the mandatory military service in Israel because of her belief in pacifism...

Lego has abandoned plans to make its famous bricks from recycled plastic bottles, saying that the manufacturing process would be more polluting than the current production of oil-based bricks. [snip] The toymaker has pledged to use only sustainable materials in its products by 2032 and, two years ago, unveiled a prototype brick made from recycled PET. The plastic was sourced from bottles that are typically used for water or soda. Since then, however, Lego has found that making bricks from the recycled material would require investing in new equipment and involve more steps, which would ultimately lead to more planet-heating pollution than the status quo...

David McCallum has died. The actor, best known for his role as Ducky on NCIS, died on Monday of natural causes while surrounded by family at New York Presbyterian Hospital. [snip] "After returning from the hospital to their apartment, I asked my mother if she was OK before she went to sleep. Her answer was simply, 'Yes. But I do wish we had had a chance to grow old together.' She is 79, and dad just turned 90."

New reports shed light on nearly $1 billion in land purchases by a mysterious company near a California Air Force base that raised national security concerns. Since 2018, a group called “Flannery Associates” invested more than $800 million on almost 54,000 acres of agriculture-zoned land surrounding the Travis Air Force base in Solano County, California, public records show. [snip] Now, reports from The New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle reveal Flannery is comprised of a group of ultra-wealthy Silicon Valley investors acquiring vast parcels of land northeast of San Francisco with the mission to build a new California city “from scratch.”

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s ongoing medical struggles have raised a sensitive political question with no easy answer: Who would California Gov. Gavin Newsom pick to replace her if the seat becomes vacant? [snip] “Newsom must honor his promise to appoint a Black woman” if Feinstein resigns, said Democratic Assemblymember Lori Wilson, who heads the Legislative Black Caucus in Sacramento. “I trust him at his word. We currently have zero Black women in the Senate, so if the opportunity becomes available the governor must act to help remedy this lack of representation.”

Rear Admiral Yvette Davids has been nominated to become the first female superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy. [snip] She is the first Hispanic woman to command a Navy warship, the frigate USS Curts. She later commanded the USS Bunker Hill, a guided missile cruiser, and Carrier Strike Group 11. But her promotion and appointment likely will be added to the list of more than 100 vacant Pentagon positions that are on hold. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, Alabama Republican, has blocked the nominations to protest new, more expansive accommodations for service members seeking abortions set by the Pentagon last summer.

A San Francisco district supervisor is calling for more policing in the crime-ridden city – despite advocating to defund the police in 2020. Hillary Ronen, Democrat, represents District 9 on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. [snip] "I want to make it clear that I believe strongly in defunding the police and reducing the number of officers on our force," Ronen wrote. "For decades we’ve had an imbalance in our city’s budget, with hundreds of millions of dollars going to SFPD to have them do work they are not qualified to do."

The world’s skies will be a little less sexy starting next year. The Air Force on Sept. 1, 2024, will retire its fleet of KC-10A Extenders, aerial refuelers that can also transport troops or cargo, an Air Force news release said. [snip] The KC-10 can carry 170,000 pounds of cargo and 356,000 pounds of fuel with a maximum takeoff weight of 590,000 pounds, compared with 212,299 pounds of fuel and 65,000 pounds of cargo for the KC-46, according to Air Force fact sheets.

The College Football Playoff's long-awaited expansion is set to happen in 2024. The CFP officially announced Thursday that it would expand in two seasons. [snip] Under the new system, the Playoff field will be composed of the top six conference champions among the 10 active conferences, plus six wild-card teams, guaranteeing a spot for a Group of Five team. The top four conference champions will get byes into the quarterfinals, while the remaining eight teams will play first-round games at the home stadiums of the higher-seeded teams.

Rioters have started fires and pelted cars with bricks in Brussels following Belgium's shock 2-0 loss to Morocco at the World Cup. Police had to seal off parts of the city centre, deployed water cannons and fired tear gas to disperse crowds as violence broke out following the match. [snip] The victory was celebrated by Moroccan immigrants in Belgium this afternoon, where more than 11.5 million people, including around 500,000 from Morocco, are of foreign origin.

The man accused of killing two people and wounding six others in an "unprovoked" attack on the Las Vegas Strip went into a fit of rage after a group of showgirls refused to take a picture with him, according to officials and a local report. Yoni Barrios, 32, approached the group of women on the famous Las Vegas Strip on Thursday and said he was a chef, local news station KTNV reported. Holding what police described as a "large knife with a long blade," he asked the women if they would pose for a photograph with him – then began attacking when they rebuffed him, the outlet reported.