The ‘Aquaman’ actress, Amber Heard, was involved in a blockbuster legal trial with her ex-husband Johnny Depp last year

Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has suspended another elected Democratic prosecutor from office on accusations that she failed to impose mandatory sentences for certain crimes and let juvenile offenders avoid incarceration. Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Monique Worrell, who was elected in 2020 and took office in 2021, has been “clearly and fundamentally derelict” in her duties, Mr DeSantis alleged in a press conference on 9 August. Ms Worrell – the only Black women serving as a state prosecutor in Florida – had recently announced her intention to run again in 2024. An executive order signed by the governor and Republican Secretary of State Cord Byrd accuses the Democratic state attorney of “systematically” allowing people to avoid jail time, either by dropping charges or declining to allege provable facts. He acknowledged that prosecutors like Ms Worrell “do have a certain amount of discretion about which cases to bring and which not” but he claimed that she has “abused” that discretion and “effectively nullified certain laws in the state of Florida”. Last year, Mr DeSantis suspended Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren after he criticised the governor’s positions on abortion care and gender-affirming care for transgender people. A federal judge affirmed the suspension but admonished the governor for falsely accusing Mr Warren of relying on a blanket policy to avoid prosecuting certain cases with which he disagreed. “The allegation was false,” US District Judge Robert Hinkle said in a ruling issued on 20 January. “Mr Warren’s well-established policy, followed in every case by every prosecutor in the office, was to exercise prosecutorial discretion at every stage of every case. Any reasonable investigation would have confirmed this.” Mr DeSantis has appointed Orlando-area judge Andrew Bain to replace Ms Worrell. She had recently come under fire from Republican officials following a shooting that left three dead in February, with a suspect with an alleged history of criminal offenses on the streets at the time of the shooting; 19-year-old Keith Melvin Moses is charged with three counts of first-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty. Democratic officials in Florida have accused the governor of using politically motivated removals of elected prosecutors to elevate his national profile as he campaigns for the 2024 Republican nomination for president. “This is absolutely disgusting,” Orlando-area state Rep Anna Eskamani said in a statement. “Her removal is a complete slap in the face to Orange and Osceola County residents and another example of Governor DeSantis eroding our local control and democracy,” she added. “This politically motivated action by the governor in a predominantly Democratic part of the state should alarm everyone. DeSantis is extreme, unfit to serve, and must be held accountable.” Read More Ron DeSantis replaces campaign manager as 2024 bid falters The presidential candidates who have so far met criteria to join first RNC debate DeSantis once again defends slavery curriculum: Enslaved people ‘showing resourcefulness’ developed ‘skills’ DeSantis won’t rule out national abortion ban but suggests there’s no ‘mileage’ left in Congress

Mike Francesa ripped the Giants for their loss to the Jets.

Some 1,500 law enforcement officers from several states were among 3,000 mourners paying their final respects to a Wisconsin sheriff’s deputy who was fatally shot by a suspected drunken driver during a traffic stop

Israel’s parliament approved a bill that will reduce judges’ ability to overrule government decisions and appointments. The move

Under the intense desert sun, hundreds of migrants crossed the Rio Grande river from Mexico last week following a rumor the United States would let them enter --...

BRUSSELS The European Commission is working on a proposal to pool some of the profits derived from frozen

(Reuters) -Car companies with production facilities in the United States are bumping up pay for their non-union workers after the

Summer Rios has been singing, song-writing, and playing instruments since she was a child

In 2020, philosopher Toby Ord published The Precipice, a book on the risk of human extinction. The chances of "existential catastrophe" for humanity in the next century according to Ord? One in six. It was a shocking number that alarmed many. After years of being flooded with warnings over climate change, rogue AI, nuclear weapons and pandemics, it's hard to disagree that humans face worrying chances. In his book, Ord discusses a number of potential extinction events, some of which can be examined through history. His research involved looking at the number of space rocks that have hit the moon over its history to figure out the likelihood than an extinction-sized asteroid hitting Earth. This was, in fact, looked at in 2022 by French scientists Jean-Marc Salotti, he calculated the odds of an extinction-level hit in the next century to be roughly one in 300 million. By contrast, Ord estimated the risk to be one in a million, although he does point out a considerable degree of uncertainty. Probabilities can be hard to understand in this context. Traditional probability, for example, relies on observations and a collection of repeated events, but human extinction would be a one-off. But there is another way to think if, called Bayesianism, after the English statistician Thomas Bayes. It sees probabilities as a ranking system of sorts. Specific number predictions shouldn't be taken so literally, but rather compared to other probabilities to understand the likelihood of each outcome. Ord's book contains a table of potential causes of extinctions, accompanied by his personal estimates of their probability. From a Bayesian perspective, we can view these as relative ranks. Ord thinks extinction from an asteroid strike (one in a million) is much less likely than extinction from climate change (one in a thousand). However, even using Bayesianism traditionally requires the incorporation of observational evidence. So, what do we make of Ord's "one in six"? Well it's better to take it less literally but to think of it as a warning, to jump start action on issues such as climate change to hopefully reduce the risk of human extinction in the next century. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Russian missiles have hit an apartment block and a Ukrainian security service building in Dnipro, leaving two children injured, officials have said. President Vladimir Putin’s forces injured at least nine people, including two teenagers aged between 14 and 17, in the strike on the central city on Friday evening, according to Serhii Lysak, the head of the region’s military administration. Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov said it was the third time the SBU security service building had been targeted. Both buildings were largely empty - the residential building because it had just been completed and units were being put up for sale. Pictures posted on social media showed part of one building reduced to rubble and debris strewn across a large courtyard. Russia says it does not target civilian sites. Its troops have intensified evening and night-time missile attacks on a variety of targets - focusing in particular on port facilities around the city of Odesa after Moscow pulled out of an agreement allowing grain shipments from Ukraine's ports. Meanwhile, Kyiv has made progress in driving back Russian troops, the commander on the southern front said on Friday, as its counteroffensive appears to be ramping up. Read More Even Putin admits Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russia’s forces – but progress will be slow Putin promises grain aid to Africa despite withdrawing from Ukraine deal Ukrainian fencer disqualified from world championships for refusing handshake with Russian opponent Russian defence minister meets Kim Jong-un during visit to arms exhibition in North Korea

MOBILE, Ala.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 31, 2023--