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Former McDonald’s workers who alleged rampant sexual harassment at their Michigan restaurant have reached a $1.5 million settlement agreement with the restaurant’s former owner.

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Former McDonald's workers who alleged rampant sexual harassment at their Michigan restaurant have reached a $1.5 million settlement agreement with the restaurant's former owner

Former McDonald's workers who alleged rampant sexual harassment at their Michigan restaurant have reached a $1.5 million settlement agreement with the restaurant's former owner.

The American Civil Liberties Union's Women's Rights Project, which helped represent the employees, announced the settlement deal Monday. It must still be approved by a federal judge.

Former McDonald's worker Jenna Ries sued the Michigan-based franchisee, which operated under the names MLMLM Corp. and Maaks Inc., and Chicago-based McDonald's Corp. in 2019.

Ries, who worked at a Mason, Michigan, McDonald's for three years, alleged that a general manager ignored her male co-worker's repeated harassment of her and other female workers, including groping, physical assault and verbal epithets.

Ries said she often cried on her way to work and felt physically ill. Eventually she transferred to another location, but the co-worker who allegedly harassed her remained at the original location.

Ries said she sued so that other women wouldn't have to go through what she endured.

"No one should have to put up with sexual harassment to get a paycheck," Ries said in a statement.

Last year, a federal judge granted class-action status to the lawsuit, based on evidence showing that the same male worker consistently and severely harassed approximately 100 women and teen girls who worked at the store. If the settlement is approved, workers will be eligible to claim an average award of $10,000 depending on the extent of the harassment they endured.

Ries initially sought at least $5 million in damages for herself and other female employees. But McDonald's Corp. successfully argued that it didn't employ the women directly. Around 95% of McDonald's 14,000 U.S. stores are owned and operated by franchisees.

Attorneys for Ries said they had hoped McDonald's would accept more responsibility.

"It is unconscionable that McDonald's continues to say 'not it' when it comes to sexual harassment of workers at its franchise locations," said Darcie Brault, an attorney for Ries and other plaintiffs.

Email and phone messages seeking comment were left with attorneys for the franchisee, who no longer owns the Mason, Michigan, restaurant.

McDonald's said it had no comment on the proposed settlement.

The lawsuit came amid a larger reckoning for McDonald's over sexual harassment in its stores and corporate offices.

Since 2016, at least 100 formal complaints and lawsuits have been filed alleging workplace harassment in McDonald's restaurants, the ACLU said. In 2019, the company also fired its former CEO Steve Easterbrook for violating a policy forbidding relationships between supervisors and their subordinates.

Last April, the company announced that it would mandate worker training and reporting procedures to combat harassment, discrimination and violence in its restaurants worldwide starting this year.

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McDonald’s workers reach settlement deal over harassment

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Former McDonald’s workers who alleged rampant sexual harassment at their Michigan restaurant have reached a $1.5 million settlement agreement with the restaurant’s former owner

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Over 300 Civilian found died from the Battle of Bucha is now being labeled as a war crime

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During the Battle of Bucha in Ukraine over 367 Civilians were found died due to the Russian Armed Forces indiscriminately killing and is now being labeled as one of Russia's many war crime in Ukraine.

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The critics have spoken. And it’s not looking good for “Morbius,” now in theaters as a showcase for Jared Leto as Marvel’s “living vampire.” Such adjectives as “boring,” “disjointed” and “incoherent” have been tossed at Sony’s big-screen debut for a minor-league villain created by Marvel Comics in 1971 to pester Spider-Man.

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The critics have spoken.

The critics have spoken. And it's not looking good for "Morbius," now in theaters as a showcase for Jared Leto as Marvel's "living vampire." Such adjectives as "boring," "disjointed" and "incoherent" have been tossed at Sony's big-screen debut for a minor-league villain created by Marvel Comics in 1971 to pester Spider-Man.

Come on, this movie is much worse than that. And none of it matters. "Morbius" is the third film in the studio's spin into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, following "Venom" and "Venom: Let There Be Carnage," which raked in over a billion bucks despite a burn from reviewers.

Audience appetite for comic-book antiheroes means you're going to line up for "Morbius" no matter what anyone says. From Loki to Thanos, bad boys are big box office. And Leto, an Oscar winner who played the Joker in "The "Suicide Squad," always goes the extra mile.

The actor never condescends to the role of Dr. Michael Moribus, a scientist who accidentally turns himself into a vampire after combining his DNA with that of a Costa Rican vampire bat to cure a rare blood disease that put him on crutches and sapped his strength.

Having finished shooting nearly three years ago, "Morbius" feels like it's been tinkered with during the period when the pandemic pushed the release dates of mega-budget epics that wanted to wait for theaters to reopen in a big way. That time seems to be now. Look at "The Batman."

At its core, "Morbius" is a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ripoff about a good doctor who heals himself thorough illegal experiments that turn him into a monster with pointy teeth. Yes, he gains super strength and speed, but the urge to kill people leaves him feeling guilty afterwards.

And that's a problem right there because it allows Matt Smith, a former Doctor Who who crushed it as a young Prince Phillip on "The Crown," to steal the movie right out from under Leto's star spot. Smith plays Milo, a Morbius friend since childhood who suffers from the same blood disease but has no interest in stewing in brooding misery. Milo is a natural-born party boy.

The minute Milo steals a dose of bat blood serum from Morbius, he's off to the races. Milo is a billionaire who's been living large in Manhattan from the outset. But the serum brings out the delicious worst in him, within PG-13 limits. Milo doesn't wear a t-shirt saying, "What's So Bad About Feeling Good," but he could. Whenever Milo is off screen, the air goes out of this movie.

Truth to be told, "Morbius" never had much helium to begin with. Director Daniel Espinosa ("Life," "Safe House") dutifully connects the dots of the story without taking any flights of imagination that might have lifted it past the merely generic. Espinosa needed a dose of Milo.

"Morbius" comes in under two hours, but it feels much longer. The hot romance between Morbius and his colleague Martine (Adria Arjona) is barely lukewarm. Tyrese Gibson and Al Madrigal are strictly pro forma as FBI agents in over their heads. Even the great Jared Harris doesn't add much as the father figure to these fang boys.

What we're left with in "Morbius" is the ghost of an effective horrorfest overwhelmed by an elephantine budget, botched suspense and the need to brag, especially during the shameless, sequel-begging end credits, that it is Spider-Man adjacent. Even the creepily charismatic Leto and Smith can't sell a vampire epic that would profit most from a stake through its heart.

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'Morbius' review: Jared Leto goes the extra mile but the film falls flat

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The critics have spoken. The critics have spoken. And it's not looking good for "Morbius," now in theaters as a showcase for Jared Leto as Marvel's "living vampire." Such adjectives as "boring," "disjointed" and "incoherent" have been tossed at Sony's big-screen debut for a minor-league villain created by Marvel Comics in 1971 to pester Spider-Man.

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A new covid variant has been found and people are suggesting to be careful. Deltacron has different covid variants packed inside one virus cell

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A hybrid variant of the coronavirus that has characteristics of both the delta and omicron strains has been detected in the United States and several European countries, scientists say.

The delta-omicron hybrid, informally dubbed "deltacron," is what's known as a recombinant virus, meaning it has melded-together genetic information from both variants. Cases are thought to be rare, but researchers say studying the hybrid and tracking other potential recombinants is crucial for understanding how the coronavirus is changing as the pandemic grinds on.

Here's what to know about deltacron.

Recombinants can emerge when a cell is infected with two different strains of a virus at the same time - in this case, the delta variant and the omicron variant. As the viruses invade the cell and replicate, they can, in rare cases, swap parts of their genome and pick up mutations from each other.

"The genomes get a bit acrobatic, and pieces can jump and then recombine together," said Jeremy Kamil, an associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Louisiana State University Health Shreveport. "It's like if you had 70 printouts of an identical manuscript on your desk and then an office fan turns on and blows things around, and you're trying to put everything back in order. Viruses are no different from that."

Most of the delta-omicron hybrid samples found so far feature a genetic code that looks very similar to the original delta variant, but with one key addition.

"Delta basically grabbed omicron's spike protein," Kamil said. "This is essentially delta trying to hang on by plagiarizing from omicron."

Recombinant viruses are not unheard of, and a few other coronavirus recombinants have been reported before, including one that involved the alpha variant. But in the same way that not all mutations will be beneficial to the virus and give rise to new variants, not all recombinant swaps will be advantageous and help a virus compete against the dominant strains circulating at the time.

The World Health Organization credited extensive genetic sequencing efforts around the world with detecting the hybrid variant and said it will continue to track its spread.

"As we look more, as we do more sequencing, it is possible that this recombinant virus will be detected in other countries, but it is circulating as we understand at very low levels," Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on Covid-19, said Wednesday in a news briefing.

Recombinants can occur whenever more than one strain of the coronavirus is circulating widely within a population, Kamil said. For instance, deltacron likely emerged in places where the delta and omicron waves overlapped for a time.

Kamil likened deltacron to the delta variant getting a software upgrade. It's thought that mutations to omicron's spike protein, which covers the outside of the virus and is the main target of vaccines and treatments, helps the variant spread more easily and allows it to better evade protective antibodies. As such, the hybrid is essentially the delta variant borrowing omicron's invisibility cloak, Kamil said.

It's too soon to know for sure if deltacron affects humans differently than the delta variant or the omicron variant. Because the hybrid's spike protein comes from omicron, Kamil said it's likely that it would behave similarly to that variant.

"That's not to say it's not dangerous, because omicron is dangerous," he said, "but my strong supposition is that it would match what we see with omicron."

Deltacron cases are also thought to be rare, and there's no indication yet that the hybrid is fueling big spikes in infection, said Scott Nguyen, a bioinformatician at the Washington, D.C., Public Health Laboratory, who was the first to piece together instances of the deltacron hybrid from European data.

"You wouldn't expect this to be the next big wave because antibody responses and other immune responses against omicron should work on this recombinant, since it's the exact same spike," Nguyen said.

Researchers in France, where samples of deltacron were first identified, are conducting lab experiments on tissue cultures to assess how the hybrid affects human cells and to compare its severity to the delta and omicron strains.

So far, samples of deltacron have been identified mostly in Europe. As of Wednesday, there have been 36 samples of deltacron reported in France, eight in Denmark and one each in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, according to GISAID.

An unpublished report by the genetic sequencing company Helix identified two deltacron cases in the U.S., as Reuters first reported.

Nguyen said he is also working to confirm potential deltacron cases in the U.S., separate to what has already been reported. He added that while he doesn't expect deltacron to fuel a new wave of infections, it's important to monitor and track these developments.

"Not only is it scientifically interesting to learn about these recombinants, but it also provides us clues about how the virus is changing over the course of the pandemic," he said.

Nguyen said he first took note of potential deltacron cases in mid-February and began sifting through GISAID, a public repository of coronavirus genomes, to find samples with characteristics from both the delta and omicron variants. He found a small cluster of potential recombinants that had been reported in January in France, along with a few in Denmark and one in the Netherlands.

"What struck me was that they were all genetically very, very similar," Nguyen said, suggesting that researchers across the three countries were picking up on real recombinants rather than laboratory anomalies.

He posted what he found to an online forum known as cov-lineages, which allowed other researchers to investigate the claim. Etienne Simon-Loriere, a virologist at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, whose lab had submitted some of the genetic sequences identified by Nguyen, was subsequently able to check his raw data to confirm that these were real recombinants.

Nguyen said this is likely the first time recombinants have been discovered between two major coronavirus variants, unlike the three previous recombinants that involved mostly lesser known variants and petered out quickly.

Identifying a true recombinant requires a stringent burden of proof, he added. A supposed delta-omicron hybrid that was reported by researchers in Cyprus in January wound up being the result of contamination in the lab.

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A hybrid Covid variant has been detected. Here's what scientists know about 'deltacron.'

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A hybrid variant of the coronavirus that has characteristics of both the delta and omicron strains has been detected in the United States and several European countries, scientists say. The delta-omicron hybrid, informally dubbed "deltacron," is what's known as a recombinant virus, meaning it has melded-together genetic information from both variants.

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Tornado occured in Central Virginia Thursday evening causing severe damage.

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RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) - As severe weather came through the Commonwealth Thursday, many Virginians heard tornado sirens and saw damage in their area. Below are videos and pictures from around the area during the tornado warning. If you have more footage or images of the effects of these storms, email them to us at News@WRIC.com.
Tornado sirens can be heard in the Fan neighborhood of Richmond, as seen in this video from Kristopher Goad, an independent journalist in Richmond. (Video Courtesy of @GoadGatsby) Tornado sirens in the Tuckahoe area of Henrico County. (Video by Hugh Ellwood @HenricoWXGeek on Twitter) Storm clouds moving through Central Virginia (Video by Kim Bradbury)

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VIDEO: Tornado warning, severe storms hit Central Virginia

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RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) - As severe weather came through the Commonwealth Thursday, many Virginians heard tornado sirens and saw damage in their area. Below are videos and pictures from around the area during the tornado warning. If you have more footage or images of the effects of these storms, email them to us at News@WRIC.com.

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US astronaut Mark Vande Hei made a new record of time spent in space at 355 days. He also became the 3rd person in time spent in space total.

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STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei joined two Russian cosmonauts aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, undocked from the International Space Station and plunged back to Earth Wednesday, landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan to close out a U.S.-record 355-day stay in space.

Despite a break in East-West relations following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, station operations have continued normally and Vande Hei was ferried home as planned with Soyuz MS-19/65S commander Anton Shkaplerov and flight engineer Pyotr Dubrov.

Descending under a billowing orange-and-white parachute, the Soyuz descent module made a jarring rocket-assisted touchdown near the town of Dzhezkazgan at 7:28 a.m. EDT (5:28 p.m. local time).

Russian recovery crews and NASA support personnel quickly converged on the spacecraft to help the crew members out one by one for initial medical checks. All three were carried to nearby recliners where they appeared in good spirits as they began readjusting to the unfamiliar tug of gravity.

For Shkaplerov, who chauffeured a Russian actress and her director to the space station last October, touchdown closed out a 176-day flight, his fourth.

Vande Hei, completing his second flight, and first-time flier Dubrov took off aboard a different Soyuz last April. During their stay in orbit, the two men travelled 150 million miles over 5,680 orbits, logging 355 days seven hours and 45 minutes off planet.

That set a new single-flight record for a U.S. astronaut, moving Vande Hei past retired astronaut Scott Kelly's 340-day mark and Christina Koch's 329 days aloft.

"I think it's great," Kelly said in a recent interview with CBS News. "What's the saying, records are made to be broken? And that means we're doing things better than we did it before. So yeah, congratulations to him."

Including a previous station visit, Vande Hei's total time in space now stands at 523 days, moving him up to third on the list of most experienced NASA astronauts behind Peggy Whitson and Jeff Williams. Kelly moved down a spot to fourth.

But the Russians hold the records for most time in space overall and with Wednesday's landing, Shkaplerov had logged 708 days off planet over four flights, making him the world's seventh most experienced space flier. In comparison, Vande Hei ranks 23rd on the world list.

In any case, Vande Hei downplayed the new U.S. record before leaving the space station, saying "I don't think it's a record that I would even attribute to me, it's a record for our space program."

The Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft carrying Russian commander Anton Shkaplerov, cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov, and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei just undocked from the International Space Station, heading for landing in Kazakhstan later today. https://t.co/zodwTxbOhw pic.twitter.com/KRwqpPdXOB

- Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) March 30, 2022

"I have a tremendous amount of respect for Scott and Christina, both," he said in a NASA interview. "And I know they would both be extremely happy, as the explorers that they are, to see that we're furthering exploration, we're getting people into space for longer and longer periods of time."

After a two-hour flight aboard a Russian helicopter to an airport in Karaganda, Vande Hei faced a long flight back to his home in Houston aboard a NASA jet while Shkaplerov and Dubrov headed home to the cosmonaut training center in Star City near Moscow.

Like all space station astronauts, Vande Hei spent two hours a day working out with resistive weights, strapped onto a zero-gravity treadmill or riding in place on an exercise bike.

Even so, astronauts returning from long-duration stays in space need several months to readjust to gravity.

"You know, 355 days is a long time," Kelly said. "I know 340 days is a long time. I hope he feels good when he gets back but yeah, it's challenging when you've been up there that long."

Landing confirmed!

Mark Vande Hei is back on Earth after a 355-day mission on the International Space Station, the longest single mission by a US astronaut.

Crewmates Anton Shkaplerov & Pyotr Dubrov are also aboard. Dubrov also logged 355 days in orbit. https://t.co/zodwTxbOhw pic.twitter.com/UpzfcI1YI9

- Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) March 30, 2022

Facing months of physical rehabilitation to regain his "land legs," Vande Hei told a NASA interviewer last week he was especially looking forward to "making a cup of coffee for my wife and myself and then sitting in bed and talking to each other while we're either reading or catching up on the news."

"Just having relaxing Saturday mornings is a wonderful thing," he said. "And then after that, I'd probably say guacamole and chips."

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NASA astronaut back on Earth after record-setting flight

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STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei joined two Russian cosmonauts aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, undocked from the International Space Station and plunged back to Earth Wednesday, landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan to close out a U.S.-record 355-day stay in space.

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Russia attakes ukrain and it hits fuel depot in russian territory.

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Russia accuses Ukraine of helicopter strikes on fuel depot in Russian territory | CNN

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Russia accused Ukraine of mounting a helicopter attack on a fuel depot inside Russian territory Friday, as footage surfaced of the facility engulfed in flames.

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A team tried to get into Mariupol to save civilians but couldn't get in. 100,000 still remain trapped in the leveled city.

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What we're covering

Russian forces said they will reopen the evacuation corridor from the besieged city of Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia on Friday at the request of French and German leaders. More than 100,000 civilians are trapped in the southern city, officials say.

A Ukrainian minister said some evacuation buses en route to Mariupol were held at a Russian checkpoint and 14 tons of humanitarian aid bound for Melitopol was confiscated.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said he has removed two generals for being "antiheroes" who did not support their homeland. He did not give specifics.

NATO's chief warned Russian forces are not withdrawing, but are repositioning as they maintain pressure on Kyiv and other cities. Ukrainian and US officials say Russians may be regrouping in Belarus. Heavy shelling, meanwhile, has been reported in eastern Ukraine amid an apparent shift by Russia to redirect military efforts to the Donbas region.

Having connection issues? Bookmark CNN's lite site for fast connectivity.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov - who arrived in New Delhi on Thursday - is set to meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, according to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia.

A senior Indian government official familiar with preparations for the talks said Modi will reiterate and stress the need for a cessation of hostilities and sovereignty as inviolable.

Lavrov will also meet Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar.

View from the US: Ahead of Lavrov's visit to India, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters that every country has its own relationship with Russia.

The US was not seeking to change that, but was looking for countries to speak "loudly against (Russia's) unjustified, unprovoked, premeditated aggression, calling for an end to the violence, using the leverage that countries, including India, have to those ends," Price said.
"There are countries that by dent of their long-standing relationships with the Russian Federation are going to have in some ways even more leverage than countries closer to us will."

UK Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss also met with Jaishankar on Thursday, repeatedly pointing out how countries across the world have stepped up in denouncing Russia's attack on Ukraine.

Some context: India has declined to take a stance on the conflict in Ukraine and has abstained from multiple United Nations votes. India has welcomed several foreign leaders to the country this week with various discussions on Ukraine.
Read more about Lavrov's visits to China and India here:

Australia will send locally produced armored vehicles to Ukraine after a request from President Volodymyr Zelensky, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday.

Morrison did not say when or how many vehicles - known as Bushmasters - would be sent to Ukraine.

"We're not just sending our prayers, we're sending our guns, we're sending our munitions, we're sending our humanitarian aid, we're sending all of this and body armor," Morrison said.
"We're going to be sending our armored vehicles, our Bushmasters as well. And we're flying them over there on our C-17s."

Zelensky appealed for the armored vehicles while speaking to Australia's parliament via video link on Thursday, saying "we have to keep those who are fighting against this evil armed."

"You have very good armed personnel vehicle, Bushmaster, that could help Ukraine substantially, and other pieces of equipment that could strengthen our position in terms of armament," Zelensky said. "If you have an opportunity to share this with us we would be very grateful."

Zelensky also called for further sanctions on Russia.

Some context: Australia has previously provided military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine and also announced a ban on exports of alumina and aluminum ore to Russia. Russia relies on Australia for nearly 20% of its alumina needs, according to the Australian government.

34 min ago
It's 7 a.m. in Kyiv. Here's what you need to know

Fourteen tons of food and medicine were confiscated by Russian forces along a humanitarian corridor on Thursday, a Ukrainian minister said, as focus remains on efforts to get aid in -- and Ukrainians out -- of bombarded areas.
Here are the latest developments in the war on Ukraine:

Confiscated aid: Iryna Vereshchuk, the Ukrainian minister of reintegration of temporarily occupied territories said some evacuation buses en route to Mariupol were held at a Russian checkpoint and 14 tons of humanitarian aid bound for Melitopol was confiscated by Russian troops on Thursday.

Evacuation corridors: Russian forces said they will reopen the evacuation corridor from besieged Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia on Friday at the request of French and German leaders. More than 100,000 civilians are trapped in the southern city, Ukrainian officials say, which has suffered weeks of Russian bombardment.

Shift to the east: Ukrainian officials reported heavy shelling in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, particularly in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of the Donbas and around the northeastern city of Kharkiv, amid an apparent shift by Russia to redirect military efforts to the Donbas region. NATO's chief warned that Russian forces are not withdrawing, but are repositioning as they maintain pressure on Kyiv and other cities. Ukrainian and US officials say Russians may be regrouping in Belarus.

Troops from Georgia: Russia is redeploying some of its forces from the country of Georgia to reinforce its invasion of Ukraine, British military intelligence said. Russian troops have been stationed in Georgia following Russia's 2008 invasion of the former Soviet republic on its southwestern border.

Talks to resume Friday: Ukraine's next round of negotiations with Russia will resume online on April 1, the head of the Ukrainian delegation said. But Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told CNN he has a "very, very small portion of optimism" following diplomatic negotiations in Istanbul earlier this week.

EU-China Summit: Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang will meet with European Union leaders in an online summit on Friday, as China faces pressure to condemn the Russian invasion. The war in Ukraine will be a "main focus" of the summit, the European Council said.

Rubles for Russian gas: According to a newly signed decree, gas buyers from "unfriendly countries" will need to open and pay from ruble accounts in Russian banks, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Thursday. France, Germany and the UK said they will not pay for Russian gas in rubles.

1 hr 21 min ago
Ukrainian officials say humanitarian convoys were stopped and raided by Russian forces. Here's what we know

Russian forces said they will reopen the evacuation corridor from the besieged city of Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia on Friday. According to Ukrainian officials, the convoys ran into several issues on Thursday, including Russian troops confiscating aid and blocking buses.
Here's what we know:

The Russian Defense Ministry said the military will reopen the humanitarian corridor from the southern city of Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia on April 1 at the request of the leaders of France and Germany.

The corridor will open from 10 a.m. Moscow time and Russian troops will set up an intermediate point in the southern city of Berdiansk, the ministry said.

France said the evacuation corridor on Thursday was "insufficient" to allow rescue from Mariupol.

Ukrainian minister Iryna Vereshchuk said about 100,000 civilians remained trapped in the city, which has suffered weeks of bombardment from Russian forces.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is preparing to facilitate the safe passage of civilians from Mariupol.

"It is desperately important that this operation takes place. The lives of tens of thousands of people in Mariupol depend on it," the ICRC said.
Aid confiscated, buses stopped:

Russian forces on Thursday confiscated 14 tons of humanitarian aid from buses bound for Melitopol in southern Ukraine, according to Vereshchuk, the Ukrainian minister of reintegration of temporarily occupied territories.

Vereshchuk said the food and medication was loaded on 12 buses.

Russian forces also blocked 45 buses going to Berdiansk on Thursday en route to Mariupol, she added.

"We are negotiating for the buses to be returned and for the Melitopol residents tomorrow to evacuate using these buses," she said.

Evacuations:

1,458 people reached Zaporizhzhia in their own cars on Thursday, Vereshchuk said.

631 of them escaped from Mariupol.

827 were from Berdiansk, Enerhodar, Melitopol, Polohy, Huliapole and Vasylivka in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he removed two top Ukrainian generals, calling them "antiheroes" in his nightly address posted to social media on Thursday night.

"Today another decision was made regarding antiheroes. Now I do not have time to deal with all the traitors. But gradually they will all be punished," he said.

The generals - former chief of the Main Department of Internal Security of the Security Service of Ukraine, Naumov Andriy Olehovych, and the former head of the Office of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Kherson region, Kryvoruchko Serhiy Oleksandrovych - have been stripped of their rank.

"Those servicemen among senior officers who have not decided where their homeland is, who violate the military oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people as regards (to) the protection of our state, its freedom and independence, will inevitably be deprived of senior military ranks. Random generals don't belong here!" Zelensky said.

Russian forces on Thursday confiscated 14 tons of humanitarian aid from buses bound for Melitopol in southern Ukraine, according to Iryna Vereshchuk, the Ukrainian minister of reintegration of temporarily occupied territories.

Vereshchuk said the food and medication was loaded on 12 buses.

"This is the price for the agreed corridors and for the Red Cross' guarantees that the corridors will be provided and working," Vereshchuk said. "We are negotiating for the buses to be returned and for the Melitopol residents tomorrow to evacuate using these buses."

Vereshchuk said 1,458 people reached Zaporizhzhia in their own cars on Thursday, with 631 of them escaping the besieged city of Mariupol and 827 coming from Berdiansk, Enerhodar, Melitopol, Polohy, Huliapole and Vasylivka in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Russian forces also blocked 45 buses going to Berdiansk on Thursday en route to Mariupol, she added.

Russia will reopen the evacuation corridor from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia on Friday at the request of French and German leaders, the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday.

Russian forces have withdrawn from Chernobyl, the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster, the state enterprise overseeing Ukraine's nuclear power plants said on Thursday.

"It was confirmed that the occupiers, who seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and other facilities in the Exclusion Zone, marched in two columns towards the Ukrainian border with the Republic of Belarus," said Energoatom in a statement published on Telegram.

On April 26, 1986, an explosion ripped through the No.4 reactor at Chernobyl, killing 30 people immediately. Countless others died from radiation symptoms in the years that followed.

In late February, during the first week of the war, the plant and its surrounding territory fell into the hands of Russian troops.

On Thursday Russian troops announced their intention to leave and hand over control to Ukrainian personnel, said Energoatom.

It also posted the copy of a formal letter purportedly signed by a representative of Russia's National Guard, a representative of Russia's state nuclear energy company Rosatom and a Chernobyl plant shift manager, with the heading, "The act of acceptance and transfer of protection of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant."

The letter states that "the administration of the protected facility makes no claims in relation to the troops of the National Guard of the Russian Federation."

Radiation claims: The Telegram statement from Energoatom said that a small number of "rashists" - a Ukrainian slur for Russians that combines the words "fascist" and "racist" - remained at the station.

"It should be noted that the information about fortifications and trenches that the rashists built right in the Red Forest, the most polluted in the entire Exclusion Zone, was also confirmed," Energoatom said.
"So it is not surprising that the occupiers received significant doses of radiation and panicked at the first sign of illness. And it manifested itself very quickly. As a result, almost a riot broke out among the military, and they began to gather from there," continued the statement.

CNN was not immediately able to verify those claims.
Read more:

Russia has reiterated its threat to cut off natural gas supplies to Western countries that refuse to pay in rubles, raising new concerns about an energy supply crunch and rationing in Europe.

Moscow said last week it wanted to be paid in rubles, rather than US dollars or euros, and senior Russian lawmakers said supplies could be cut if customers refused. Germany, Russia's biggest energy customer in Europe, had described the plan as "blackmail" and a breach of contract.

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree Thursday that requires buyers of natural gas from "unfriendly countries" to hold accounts at Gazprombank - Russia's third-largest bank - and settle contracts in rubles. It takes effect on Friday.

"If these payments are not made, we shall deem this as non-performance on the part of the buyers and that will lead to consequences," Putin said in a televised address. "Nobody gives us anything for free and we're not about to be charitable," he added.

Putin had given the Russian central bank and state-owned gas giant Gazprom until Thursday to come up with detailed proposals to switch the payment currency for gas to rubles.

According to the decree, Gazprombank would open accounts on behalf of Western gas buyers, purchase rubles on their behalf and then transfer the cash to Gazprom's accounts.

Europe's leading economies rejected any change to the terms of existing supply agreements, and said they were prepared for all scenarios including disruption to flows of natural gas.

"The contracts are in euros and must be paid in euros and will be paid in euros," French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said during a joint press conference with his German counterpart Robert Habeck. "We will not accept the method of payment for [Russian] gas in any other currency than stated in the contract," Le Maire added.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also said that Berlin will make payments for Russian gas only in euros.
Read more:

What we're covering

Russian forces said they will reopen the evacuation corridor from the besieged city of Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia on Friday at the request of French and German leaders. More than 100,000 civilians are trapped in the southern city, officials say.

A Ukrainian minister said some evacuation buses en route to Mariupol were held at a Russian checkpoint and 14 tons of humanitarian aid bound for Melitopol was confiscated.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said he has removed two generals for being "antiheroes" who did not support their homeland. He did not give specifics.

NATO's chief warned Russian forces are not withdrawing, but are repositioning as they maintain pressure on Kyiv and other cities. Ukrainian and US officials say Russians may be regrouping in Belarus. Heavy shelling, meanwhile, has been reported in eastern Ukraine amid an apparent shift by Russia to redirect military efforts to the Donbas region.

Having connection issues? Bookmark CNN's lite site for fast connectivity.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov - who arrived in New Delhi on Thursday - is set to meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, according to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia.

A senior Indian government official familiar with preparations for the talks said Modi will reiterate and stress the need for a cessation of hostilities and sovereignty as inviolable.

Lavrov will also meet Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar.

View from the US: Ahead of Lavrov's visit to India, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters that every country has its own relationship with Russia.

The US was not seeking to change that, but was looking for countries to speak "loudly against (Russia's) unjustified, unprovoked, premeditated aggression, calling for an end to the violence, using the leverage that countries, including India, have to those ends," Price said.
"There are countries that by dent of their long-standing relationships with the Russian Federation are going to have in some ways even more leverage than countries closer to us will."

UK Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss also met with Jaishankar on Thursday, repeatedly pointing out how countries across the world have stepped up in denouncing Russia's attack on Ukraine.

Some context: India has declined to take a stance on the conflict in Ukraine and has abstained from multiple United Nations votes. India has welcomed several foreign leaders to the country this week with various discussions on Ukraine.
Read more about Lavrov's visits to China and India here:

Australia will send locally produced armored vehicles to Ukraine after a request from President Volodymyr Zelensky, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday.

Morrison did not say when or how many vehicles - known as Bushmasters - would be sent to Ukraine.

"We're not just sending our prayers, we're sending our guns, we're sending our munitions, we're sending our humanitarian aid, we're sending all of this and body armor," Morrison said.
"We're going to be sending our armored vehicles, our Bushmasters as well. And we're flying them over there on our C-17s."

Zelensky appealed for the armored vehicles while speaking to Australia's parliament via video link on Thursday, saying "we have to keep those who are fighting against this evil armed."

"You have very good armed personnel vehicle, Bushmaster, that could help Ukraine substantially, and other pieces of equipment that could strengthen our position in terms of armament," Zelensky said. "If you have an opportunity to share this with us we would be very grateful."

Zelensky also called for further sanctions on Russia.

Some context: Australia has previously provided military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine and also announced a ban on exports of alumina and aluminum ore to Russia. Russia relies on Australia for nearly 20% of its alumina needs, according to the Australian government.

34 min ago
It's 7 a.m. in Kyiv. Here's what you need to know

Fourteen tons of food and medicine were confiscated by Russian forces along a humanitarian corridor on Thursday, a Ukrainian minister said, as focus remains on efforts to get aid in -- and Ukrainians out -- of bombarded areas.
Here are the latest developments in the war on Ukraine:

Confiscated aid: Iryna Vereshchuk, the Ukrainian minister of reintegration of temporarily occupied territories said some evacuation buses en route to Mariupol were held at a Russian checkpoint and 14 tons of humanitarian aid bound for Melitopol was confiscated by Russian troops on Thursday.

Evacuation corridors: Russian forces said they will reopen the evacuation corridor from besieged Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia on Friday at the request of French and German leaders. More than 100,000 civilians are trapped in the southern city, Ukrainian officials say, which has suffered weeks of Russian bombardment.

Shift to the east: Ukrainian officials reported heavy shelling in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, particularly in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of the Donbas and around the northeastern city of Kharkiv, amid an apparent shift by Russia to redirect military efforts to the Donbas region. NATO's chief warned that Russian forces are not withdrawing, but are repositioning as they maintain pressure on Kyiv and other cities. Ukrainian and US officials say Russians may be regrouping in Belarus.

Troops from Georgia: Russia is redeploying some of its forces from the country of Georgia to reinforce its invasion of Ukraine, British military intelligence said. Russian troops have been stationed in Georgia following Russia's 2008 invasion of the former Soviet republic on its southwestern border.

Talks to resume Friday: Ukraine's next round of negotiations with Russia will resume online on April 1, the head of the Ukrainian delegation said. But Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told CNN he has a "very, very small portion of optimism" following diplomatic negotiations in Istanbul earlier this week.

EU-China Summit: Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang will meet with European Union leaders in an online summit on Friday, as China faces pressure to condemn the Russian invasion. The war in Ukraine will be a "main focus" of the summit, the European Council said.

Rubles for Russian gas: According to a newly signed decree, gas buyers from "unfriendly countries" will need to open and pay from ruble accounts in Russian banks, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Thursday. France, Germany and the UK said they will not pay for Russian gas in rubles.

1 hr 21 min ago
Ukrainian officials say humanitarian convoys were stopped and raided by Russian forces. Here's what we know

Russian forces said they will reopen the evacuation corridor from the besieged city of Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia on Friday. According to Ukrainian officials, the convoys ran into several issues on Thursday, including Russian troops confiscating aid and blocking buses.
Here's what we know:

The Russian Defense Ministry said the military will reopen the humanitarian corridor from the southern city of Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia on April 1 at the request of the leaders of France and Germany.

The corridor will open from 10 a.m. Moscow time and Russian troops will set up an intermediate point in the southern city of Berdiansk, the ministry said.

France said the evacuation corridor on Thursday was "insufficient" to allow rescue from Mariupol.

Ukrainian minister Iryna Vereshchuk said about 100,000 civilians remained trapped in the city, which has suffered weeks of bombardment from Russian forces.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is preparing to facilitate the safe passage of civilians from Mariupol.

"It is desperately important that this operation takes place. The lives of tens of thousands of people in Mariupol depend on it," the ICRC said.
Aid confiscated, buses stopped:

Russian forces on Thursday confiscated 14 tons of humanitarian aid from buses bound for Melitopol in southern Ukraine, according to Vereshchuk, the Ukrainian minister of reintegration of temporarily occupied territories.

Vereshchuk said the food and medication was loaded on 12 buses.

Russian forces also blocked 45 buses going to Berdiansk on Thursday en route to Mariupol, she added.

"We are negotiating for the buses to be returned and for the Melitopol residents tomorrow to evacuate using these buses," she said.

Evacuations:

1,458 people reached Zaporizhzhia in their own cars on Thursday, Vereshchuk said.

631 of them escaped from Mariupol.

827 were from Berdiansk, Enerhodar, Melitopol, Polohy, Huliapole and Vasylivka in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he removed two top Ukrainian generals, calling them "antiheroes" in his nightly address posted to social media on Thursday night.

"Today another decision was made regarding antiheroes. Now I do not have time to deal with all the traitors. But gradually they will all be punished," he said.

The generals - former chief of the Main Department of Internal Security of the Security Service of Ukraine, Naumov Andriy Olehovych, and the former head of the Office of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Kherson region, Kryvoruchko Serhiy Oleksandrovych - have been stripped of their rank.

"Those servicemen among senior officers who have not decided where their homeland is, who violate the military oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people as regards (to) the protection of our state, its freedom and independence, will inevitably be deprived of senior military ranks. Random generals don't belong here!" Zelensky said.

Russian forces on Thursday confiscated 14 tons of humanitarian aid from buses bound for Melitopol in southern Ukraine, according to Iryna Vereshchuk, the Ukrainian minister of reintegration of temporarily occupied territories.

Vereshchuk said the food and medication was loaded on 12 buses.

"This is the price for the agreed corridors and for the Red Cross' guarantees that the corridors will be provided and working," Vereshchuk said. "We are negotiating for the buses to be returned and for the Melitopol residents tomorrow to evacuate using these buses."

Vereshchuk said 1,458 people reached Zaporizhzhia in their own cars on Thursday, with 631 of them escaping the besieged city of Mariupol and 827 coming from Berdiansk, Enerhodar, Melitopol, Polohy, Huliapole and Vasylivka in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Russian forces also blocked 45 buses going to Berdiansk on Thursday en route to Mariupol, she added.

Russia will reopen the evacuation corridor from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia on Friday at the request of French and German leaders, the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday.

Russian forces have withdrawn from Chernobyl, the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster, the state enterprise overseeing Ukraine's nuclear power plants said on Thursday.

"It was confirmed that the occupiers, who seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and other facilities in the Exclusion Zone, marched in two columns towards the Ukrainian border with the Republic of Belarus," said Energoatom in a statement published on Telegram.

On April 26, 1986, an explosion ripped through the No.4 reactor at Chernobyl, killing 30 people immediately. Countless others died from radiation symptoms in the years that followed.

In late February, during the first week of the war, the plant and its surrounding territory fell into the hands of Russian troops.

On Thursday Russian troops announced their intention to leave and hand over control to Ukrainian personnel, said Energoatom.

It also posted the copy of a formal letter purportedly signed by a representative of Russia's National Guard, a representative of Russia's state nuclear energy company Rosatom and a Chernobyl plant shift manager, with the heading, "The act of acceptance and transfer of protection of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant."

The letter states that "the administration of the protected facility makes no claims in relation to the troops of the National Guard of the Russian Federation."

Radiation claims: The Telegram statement from Energoatom said that a small number of "rashists" - a Ukrainian slur for Russians that combines the words "fascist" and "racist" - remained at the station.

"It should be noted that the information about fortifications and trenches that the rashists built right in the Red Forest, the most polluted in the entire Exclusion Zone, was also confirmed," Energoatom said.
"So it is not surprising that the occupiers received significant doses of radiation and panicked at the first sign of illness. And it manifested itself very quickly. As a result, almost a riot broke out among the military, and they began to gather from there," continued the statement.

CNN was not immediately able to verify those claims.
Read more:

Russia has reiterated its threat to cut off natural gas supplies to Western countries that refuse to pay in rubles, raising new concerns about an energy supply crunch and rationing in Europe.

Moscow said last week it wanted to be paid in rubles, rather than US dollars or euros, and senior Russian lawmakers said supplies could be cut if customers refused. Germany, Russia's biggest energy customer in Europe, had described the plan as "blackmail" and a breach of contract.

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree Thursday that requires buyers of natural gas from "unfriendly countries" to hold accounts at Gazprombank - Russia's third-largest bank - and settle contracts in rubles. It takes effect on Friday.

"If these payments are not made, we shall deem this as non-performance on the part of the buyers and that will lead to consequences," Putin said in a televised address. "Nobody gives us anything for free and we're not about to be charitable," he added.

Putin had given the Russian central bank and state-owned gas giant Gazprom until Thursday to come up with detailed proposals to switch the payment currency for gas to rubles.

According to the decree, Gazprombank would open accounts on behalf of Western gas buyers, purchase rubles on their behalf and then transfer the cash to Gazprom's accounts.

Europe's leading economies rejected any change to the terms of existing supply agreements, and said they were prepared for all scenarios including disruption to flows of natural gas.

"The contracts are in euros and must be paid in euros and will be paid in euros," French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said during a joint press conference with his German counterpart Robert Habeck. "We will not accept the method of payment for [Russian] gas in any other currency than stated in the contract," Le Maire added.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also said that Berlin will make payments for Russian gas only in euros.
Read more:

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By Simone McCarthy, Travis Caldwell and Helen Regan, CNN

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What we're covering Russian forces said they will reopen the evacuation corridor from the besieged city of Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia on Friday at the request of French and German leaders. More than 100,000 civilians are trapped in the southern city, officials say.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Democrats, with some Republican support, voted 220-204 to remove marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances, moving to catch up to the states.

Supporters of marijuana decriminalization, including some Republicans who voted against the Democratic legislation, said on Friday that the vote was a necessary first step toward building consensus on legislation that can become law. Credit... Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times

WASHINGTON - The House passed legislation on Friday to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level, as Democrats and three Republicans banded together to capitalize on the political resonance of legalized cannabis as an issue of economic growth, racial justice and states' rights.

The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, which passed 220-204, is unlikely to secure 60 votes to pass the Senate, despite the backing of the majority leader, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York. But supporters of marijuana decriminalization - even some Republicans who voted against the Democratic legislation - said on Friday that the vote was a necessary step toward building consensus on something that can become law.

The Democrats' bill would remove marijuana from the federal government's list of controlled substances, impose an 8 percent tax on cannabis products, allow some convictions on cannabis charges to be expunged and press for sentencing reviews at the federal and state levels. It would also make Small Business Administration loans and services available to cannabis businesses while setting standards for them.

"I'm respecting the process that the Democrats want to go through," said Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina, a Republican who has made marijuana decriminalization a central issue but voted against the Democratic bill. She added: "You can save the federal government $600 million over five years, and it saves lives. It's an important issue. People care about it; the vast majority of Americans care about it."

By lowering law enforcement and incarceration costs and imposing new taxation, the bill would save the government hundreds of millions of dollars. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the act would reduce the federal deficit by nearly $3 billion over the next decade.

Similar legislation passed in 2020 but went nowhere in the Republican-controlled Senate. The vote on Friday was the first since Mr. Schumer elevated the issue in that chamber.

Ms. Mace, backed by four other Republicans, has her own bill, with a lower tax rate to discourage an illicit cannabis trade and other measures to discourage youth consumption. And the Democratic senators Cory Booker of New Jersey and Ron Wyden of Oregon have written a marijuana decriminalization measure with Mr. Schumer.

Representative Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina, is using marijuana to distinguish herself from her Trump-endorsed primary opponent. Credit... Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

With 47 states and the District of Columbia having relaxed marijuana laws in some way, the federal government is far behind. Thirty-seven states have legalized cannabis for medical use, and 15 have granted adults legal access for purely recreational purposes.

But because cannabis remains a federally controlled substance on par with heroin, banks insured by the federal government have been loath to make their services available to the burgeoning marijuana industry.

Sales in that industry totaled $20 billion in 2020 and are projected to more than double by 2025, according to the bill. But those transactions are by and large in cash, without banking services.

"If states are the laboratories of democracy, it is long past time for the federal government to recognize that legalization has been a resounding success, and that the conflict with federal law has become untenable," said Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

Even as states move forward with legalization, people convicted on marijuana offenses - disproportionately people of color - remain imprisoned. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bill's provision to expunge marijuana convictions and lower sentences would reduce time served by current and future inmates by 37,000 years.

"Make no mistake, this is a racial justice bill," said Representative Barbara Lee, Democrat of California.

During the debate on Friday, House Republicans raised concerns that the bill would expose more children to cannabis and that it ignored mental health issues in adult users. Representative Andy Biggs, Republican of Arizona, mocked a Democratic colleague, Representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee, for mistaking today's potent strains with those of his youth.

"He's thinking pot is a drug where people get goofy and eat Cheetos," Mr. Biggs said of Mr. Cohen.

But they generally skirted the issue, which is broadly popular in both parties, accusing Democrats of failing to address more pressing topics.

"The left will not let the Democrats do what needs to be done with the inflation problem, the energy problem, the illegal immigration problem on the southern border," said Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee. "So what do they do? They legalize drugs. Wow."

That opposition belied the issue's popularity with Democratic and Republican voters. Some deeply Republican states like Oklahoma have become marijuana boom states. Kansas is the latest state on the verge of legalizing cannabis for medical use.

Federal law is far out of step.

"This is an issue of individual freedom and basic fairness that clearly transcends party lines," Mr. Schumer, Mr. Wyden and Mr. Booker wrote in a letter to fellow senators in February. "However, one major hurdle continues to stand in the way of states' ability to make their own decisions about cannabis - the continued prohibition of marijuana at the federal level."

Ms. Mace said the Democrats with whom she had been negotiating needed to pass their version of a legalization bill before getting serious about talks on a bipartisan bill, with buy-in from the Senate. She has used the issue to distinguish herself from her Republican primary opponent, Katie Arrington, whom President Donald J. Trump has endorsed.

"I hope that I can be forgiven for voting against it," Ms. Mace said on Friday, before casting her vote against the Democrats' bill. "Because I want to continue. I want to work on this issue, but we have to work on it together."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Democrats, with some Republican support, voted 220-204 to remove marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances, moving to catch up to the states. WASHINGTON - The House passed legislation on Friday to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level, as Democrats and three Republicans banded together to capitalize on the political resonance of legalized cannabis as an issue of economic growth, racial justice and states' rights.

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Fans are wonering if they shoud see sonic 2 because Jim Carrey maybe retirement.

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Jim Carrey fans might want to get their tickets now for " Sonic the Hedgehog 2," as it could be the last acting role of the iconic comedian's career.

Speaking to "Access Hollywood" this week, Carrey said he is planning to retire from acting following his reprisal of the villainous Robotnik in the upcoming "Sonic" sequel. How serious is Carrey about leaving acting behind? "Fairly serious," he said.

"Well, I'm retiring. Yeah, probably. I'm being fairly serious," Carrey said. "It depends. If the angels bring some sort of script that's written in gold ink that says to me that it's going to be really important for people to see, I might continue down the road, but I'm taking a break."

Carrey added, "I really like my quiet life and I really like putting paint on canvas and I really love my spiritual life and I feel like - and this is something you might never hear another celebrity say as long as time exists - I have enough. I've done enough. I am enough."

Fans of Carrey are used to the actor taking extended acting breaks. The release of "Sonic the Hedgehog" in 2020 marked Carrey's first major role in a studio movie since the 2014 sequel "Dumb and Dumber To."

In between, the actor appeared in the indie films "The Bad Batch" and "Dark Crimes." Carrey's recent roles also include Showtime's comedy series "Kidding," which ran for 20 episodes across two seasons before being canceled. The comedian also guested on "Saturday Night Live" as Joe Biden for six episodes in 2020.

With the release of "Sonic the Hedgehog 2," Carrey returns to the franchise opposite Ben Schwartz, Tika Sumpter, James Marsden and Natasha Rothwell.

The first "Sonic" movie opened right before the pandemic in February 2020 and grossed just under $320 million worldwide. The sequel adds the voice of Idris Elba to the mix as Knuckles, a character that will be getting a spinoff series at Paramount Plus in the future.

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Jim Carrey 'fairly serious' about retiring from acting: 'I've done enough'

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Jim Carrey fans might want to get their tickets now for " Sonic the Hedgehog 2," as it could be the last acting role of the iconic comedian's career. Speaking to "Access Hollywood" this week, Carrey said he is planning to retire from acting following his reprisal of the villainous Robotnik in the upcoming "Sonic" sequel.

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Democrats decided on friday to decriminalize cannibas in the states

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Democrats, with some Republican support, voted 220-204 to remove marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances, moving to catch up to the states.

Supporters of marijuana decriminalization, including some Republicans who voted against the Democratic legislation, said on Friday that the vote was a necessary first step toward building consensus on legislation that can become law. Credit... Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times

WASHINGTON - The House passed legislation on Friday to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level, as Democrats and three Republicans banded together to capitalize on the political resonance of legalized cannabis as an issue of economic growth, racial justice and states' rights.

The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, which passed 220-204, is unlikely to secure 60 votes to pass the Senate, despite the backing of the majority leader, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York. But supporters of marijuana decriminalization - even some Republicans who voted against the Democratic legislation - said on Friday that the vote was a necessary step toward building consensus on something that can become law.

The Democrats' bill would remove marijuana from the federal government's list of controlled substances, impose an 8 percent tax on cannabis products, allow some convictions on cannabis charges to be expunged and press for sentencing reviews at the federal and state levels. It would also make Small Business Administration loans and services available to cannabis businesses while setting standards for them.

"I'm respecting the process that the Democrats want to go through," said Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina, a Republican who has made marijuana decriminalization a central issue but voted against the Democratic bill. She added: "You can save the federal government $600 million over five years, and it saves lives. It's an important issue. People care about it; the vast majority of Americans care about it."

By lowering law enforcement and incarceration costs and imposing new taxation, the bill would save the government hundreds of millions of dollars. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the act would reduce the federal deficit by nearly $3 billion over the next decade.

Similar legislation passed in 2020 but went nowhere in the Republican-controlled Senate. The vote on Friday was the first since Mr. Schumer elevated the issue in that chamber.

Ms. Mace, backed by four other Republicans, has her own bill, with a lower tax rate to discourage an illicit cannabis trade and other measures to discourage youth consumption. And the Democratic senators Cory Booker of New Jersey and Ron Wyden of Oregon have written a marijuana decriminalization measure with Mr. Schumer.

Representative Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina, is using marijuana to distinguish herself from her Trump-endorsed primary opponent. Credit... Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

With 47 states and the District of Columbia having relaxed marijuana laws in some way, the federal government is far behind. Thirty-seven states have legalized cannabis for medical use, and 15 have granted adults legal access for purely recreational purposes.

But because cannabis remains a federally controlled substance on par with heroin, banks insured by the federal government have been loath to make their services available to the burgeoning marijuana industry.

Sales in that industry totaled $20 billion in 2020 and are projected to more than double by 2025, according to the bill. But those transactions are by and large in cash, without banking services.

"If states are the laboratories of democracy, it is long past time for the federal government to recognize that legalization has been a resounding success, and that the conflict with federal law has become untenable," said Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

Even as states move forward with legalization, people convicted on marijuana offenses - disproportionately people of color - remain imprisoned. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bill's provision to expunge marijuana convictions and lower sentences would reduce time served by current and future inmates by 37,000 years.

"Make no mistake, this is a racial justice bill," said Representative Barbara Lee, Democrat of California.

During the debate on Friday, House Republicans raised concerns that the bill would expose more children to cannabis and that it ignored mental health issues in adult users. Representative Andy Biggs, Republican of Arizona, mocked a Democratic colleague, Representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee, for mistaking today's potent strains with those of his youth.

"He's thinking pot is a drug where people get goofy and eat Cheetos," Mr. Biggs said of Mr. Cohen.

But they generally skirted the issue, which is broadly popular in both parties, accusing Democrats of failing to address more pressing topics.

"The left will not let the Democrats do what needs to be done with the inflation problem, the energy problem, the illegal immigration problem on the southern border," said Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee. "So what do they do? They legalize drugs. Wow."

That opposition belied the issue's popularity with Democratic and Republican voters. Some deeply Republican states like Oklahoma have become marijuana boom states. Kansas is the latest state on the verge of legalizing cannabis for medical use.

Federal law is far out of step.

"This is an issue of individual freedom and basic fairness that clearly transcends party lines," Mr. Schumer, Mr. Wyden and Mr. Booker wrote in a letter to fellow senators in February. "However, one major hurdle continues to stand in the way of states' ability to make their own decisions about cannabis - the continued prohibition of marijuana at the federal level."

Ms. Mace said the Democrats with whom she had been negotiating needed to pass their version of a legalization bill before getting serious about talks on a bipartisan bill, with buy-in from the Senate. She has used the issue to distinguish herself from her Republican primary opponent, Katie Arrington, whom President Donald J. Trump has endorsed.

"I hope that I can be forgiven for voting against it," Ms. Mace said on Friday, before casting her vote against the Democrats' bill. "Because I want to continue. I want to work on this issue, but we have to work on it together."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Democrats, with some Republican support, voted 220-204 to remove marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances, moving to catch up to the states. WASHINGTON - The House passed legislation on Friday to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level, as Democrats and three Republicans banded together to capitalize on the political resonance of legalized cannabis as an issue of economic growth, racial justice and states' rights.

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Democrats have voted for cannabis to not be illegal anymore

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Democrats, with some Republican support, voted 220-204 to remove marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances, moving to catch up to the states.

Supporters of marijuana decriminalization, including some Republicans who voted against the Democratic legislation, said on Friday that the vote was a necessary first step toward building consensus on legislation that can become law. Credit... Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times

WASHINGTON - The House passed legislation on Friday to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level, as Democrats and three Republicans banded together to capitalize on the political resonance of legalized cannabis as an issue of economic growth, racial justice and states' rights.

The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, which passed 220-204, is unlikely to secure 60 votes to pass the Senate, despite the backing of the majority leader, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York. But supporters of marijuana decriminalization - even some Republicans who voted against the Democratic legislation - said on Friday that the vote was a necessary step toward building consensus on something that can become law.

The Democrats' bill would remove marijuana from the federal government's list of controlled substances, impose an 8 percent tax on cannabis products, allow some convictions on cannabis charges to be expunged and press for sentencing reviews at the federal and state levels. It would also make Small Business Administration loans and services available to cannabis businesses while setting standards for them.

"I'm respecting the process that the Democrats want to go through," said Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina, a Republican who has made marijuana decriminalization a central issue but voted against the Democratic bill. She added: "You can save the federal government $600 million over five years, and it saves lives. It's an important issue. People care about it; the vast majority of Americans care about it."

By lowering law enforcement and incarceration costs and imposing new taxation, the bill would save the government hundreds of millions of dollars. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the act would reduce the federal deficit by nearly $3 billion over the next decade.

Similar legislation passed in 2020 but went nowhere in the Republican-controlled Senate. The vote on Friday was the first since Mr. Schumer elevated the issue in that chamber.

Ms. Mace, backed by four other Republicans, has her own bill, with a lower tax rate to discourage an illicit cannabis trade and other measures to discourage youth consumption. And the Democratic senators Cory Booker of New Jersey and Ron Wyden of Oregon have written a marijuana decriminalization measure with Mr. Schumer.

Representative Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina, is using marijuana to distinguish herself from her Trump-endorsed primary opponent. Credit... Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

With 47 states and the District of Columbia having relaxed marijuana laws in some way, the federal government is far behind. Thirty-seven states have legalized cannabis for medical use, and 15 have granted adults legal access for purely recreational purposes.

But because cannabis remains a federally controlled substance on par with heroin, banks insured by the federal government have been loath to make their services available to the burgeoning marijuana industry.

Sales in that industry totaled $20 billion in 2020 and are projected to more than double by 2025, according to the bill. But those transactions are by and large in cash, without banking services.

"If states are the laboratories of democracy, it is long past time for the federal government to recognize that legalization has been a resounding success, and that the conflict with federal law has become untenable," said Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

Even as states move forward with legalization, people convicted on marijuana offenses - disproportionately people of color - remain imprisoned. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bill's provision to expunge marijuana convictions and lower sentences would reduce time served by current and future inmates by 37,000 years.

"Make no mistake, this is a racial justice bill," said Representative Barbara Lee, Democrat of California.

During the debate on Friday, House Republicans raised concerns that the bill would expose more children to cannabis and that it ignored mental health issues in adult users. Representative Andy Biggs, Republican of Arizona, mocked a Democratic colleague, Representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee, for mistaking today's potent strains with those of his youth.

"He's thinking pot is a drug where people get goofy and eat Cheetos," Mr. Biggs said of Mr. Cohen.

But they generally skirted the issue, which is broadly popular in both parties, accusing Democrats of failing to address more pressing topics.

"The left will not let the Democrats do what needs to be done with the inflation problem, the energy problem, the illegal immigration problem on the southern border," said Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee. "So what do they do? They legalize drugs. Wow."

That opposition belied the issue's popularity with Democratic and Republican voters. Some deeply Republican states like Oklahoma have become marijuana boom states. Kansas is the latest state on the verge of legalizing cannabis for medical use.

Federal law is far out of step.

"This is an issue of individual freedom and basic fairness that clearly transcends party lines," Mr. Schumer, Mr. Wyden and Mr. Booker wrote in a letter to fellow senators in February. "However, one major hurdle continues to stand in the way of states' ability to make their own decisions about cannabis - the continued prohibition of marijuana at the federal level."

Ms. Mace said the Democrats with whom she had been negotiating needed to pass their version of a legalization bill before getting serious about talks on a bipartisan bill, with buy-in from the Senate. She has used the issue to distinguish herself from her Republican primary opponent, Katie Arrington, whom President Donald J. Trump has endorsed.

"I hope that I can be forgiven for voting against it," Ms. Mace said on Friday, before casting her vote against the Democrats' bill. "Because I want to continue. I want to work on this issue, but we have to work on it together."

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Democrats, with some Republican support, voted 220-204 to remove marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances, moving to catch up to the states. WASHINGTON - The House passed legislation on Friday to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level, as Democrats and three Republicans banded together to capitalize on the political resonance of legalized cannabis as an issue of economic growth, racial justice and states' rights.

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12 year old kid taken into custody after he shot a classmate at 12:30. The 12-year-old was rushed to the hospital where he later died that day from the gunshot.

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GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - The Greenville County Sheriff's Office said a student is hospitalized and a suspect is in custody after a shooting at Tanglewood Middle School.

A school resource officer at Tanglewood Middle School requested emergency backup just before 12:30 p.m. when deputies said a student was shot. The student victim was transported to the hospital in unknown condition.

Just after 1:45 p.m., deputies said a person believed to be the shooter was in custody. Deputies said the suspect is a minor. He was detained in close proximity to the school. The sheriff's office said deputies are not looking for any additional suspects.

All students from Tanglewood Middle School are being taken to Brookwood Church. Families can pick up their students at Brookwood Church, but they will need to provide identification to pick up their child.

The Greenville County School District released the following statement:

"At approximately 12:30 pm, Greenville County Schools had reports of shots fired inside the building at Tanglewood Middle School. The school resource officer immediately responded and notified law enforcement. Multiple law enforcement agencies have responded. One student has been transported to the hospital, and their condition is unknown at this time. All students will be transported at Brookwood Church at 580 Brookwood Point Place, Simpsonville, SC 29681, where parents will be reunited with their student. Parents will not be able to pick up their student at Tanglewood. Parents will need to have identification in order to pick up their student. We will share more information as soon as possible."

The sheriff's office said over 100 deputies responded to the scene. The sheriff's office helicopter was also seen over the scene.

This is a developing situation. Stay with FOX Carolina for updates on this story.

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Suspect in custody after student shot at Greenville County school

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GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - The Greenville County Sheriff's Office said a student is hospitalized and a suspect is in custody after a shooting at Tanglewood Middle School. A school resource officer at Tanglewood Middle School requested emergency backup just before 12:30 p.m. when deputies said a student was shot.

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A 14 year old boy suddenly fell off a free fall ride in Orlando Flordia and people still don't know what have caused him to fall out. Many people think that the worker didn't check the ride before sending it up.

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ORLANDO, Fla. - The cause of death into a 14-year-old's fall from an Orlando drop tower attraction last week has not yet been determined as an investigation continues, according to the state agency leading the investigation.

Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Nikki Fried was joined Friday by Director Rick Kimsey and Rep. Geraldine Thompson to discuss the investigation into Orlando FreeFall, the thrill ride from which Tyre Sampson fell from his seat and died last week.
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Fried said a forensic engineering firm, which will look back at the ride's calibrations and mechanisms in the movement, was hired to assist in the investigation and analyze what may have caused the boy's fatal fall.

"We are fully committed to finding out what happened so we can better prevent such tragedies from happening in the future. And that's why we will not be jumping to any conclusions before the information is provided to us and we know all the facts," she said.

We commend the diligence and thoroughness that Commissioner Fried and the team at the Florida Department of Agriculture have shown as they investigate the operation of the Slingshot Group's Orlando FreeFall ride.

ICON Park looks forward to working with elected officials, regulators, and the amusement industry to ensure that a tragedy like this never happens again.

As the landlord at ICON Park, our mission is to provide safe family entertainment. We rely on our tenants to be experts at what they do.

In the interests of public safety, ICON Park has demanded that the SlingShot Group suspend not only the operation of Orlando FreeFall, but also the operation of Orlando SlingShot.

Thompson, whose district contains ICON Park and the amusement parks, said she has been in touch with Sampson's family attorneys - prominent attorneys Ben Crump and Bob Hilliard - and getting input from the family.

"They're not interested so much in fixing blame as in fixing the problem. And I'll be working with them to fix the problem. And if there is legislative action that's needed to give more authority to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, that's what we'll be focused on. Whether that is about training, whether it's about insurance ... all of the things that they do now, but a lot of that authority is given to the vendor to the company that actually operates the ride," she said.

She reiterated that without the result of a thorough investigation, it is not possible to conclude what needs to happen moving forward.

"We don't have all of the facts, so we can't, in terms of a knee-jerk reaction, say this is what needs to happen, but once we have the investigation, I'll be working on the Tyre Sampson bill to address whatever the problems are," Thompson said.

In terms of what FDACS inspects, Fried said the department looks at the "rides itself," adding that there is no oversight on employee trainings based on current protocol. Manufacturers of attractions provide a suggestion on trainings for employees, but the department ensures training records are up to date.

"We are doing everything that's per the statute authority that's been given to us, and a vast majority of the statutory oversight refers back to following the manufacturing guidelines. So our power is limited on following the manufacturer," Fried said.

Records show the ride operators who were working the night of Sampson's death filled out a generic training form provided by FDACS. Both were trained roughly four to five weeks prior to the accident and each individual checked and signed all the training boxes on the form on the same day.

The Orlando FreeFall, alongside the Orlando SlingShot and the StarFlyer, are closed indefinitely pending further investigation. The rides are operated by the SlingShot Group, which leases from ICON Park, which released a statement after Fried's news conference:

Fried said the investigation will take "as long as we need to."

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Cause of death still unknown in teen's fall from Orlando thrill ride

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ORLANDO, Fla. - The cause of death into a 14-year-old's fall from an Orlando drop tower attraction last week has not yet been determined as an investigation continues, according to the state agency leading the investigation. Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Nikki Fried was joined Friday by Director Rick Kimsey and Rep.

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The men's NCAA final four is set and all four teams are top programs with history of winning in the tournament.

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Good morning, I'm Dan Gartland. Too bad yesterday's Elite Eight games weren't as dramatic as the Oscars.
If you're reading this on SI.com, you can sign up to get this free newsletter in your inbox each weekday at SI.com/newsletters.
The name brands are left standing

Regardless of what happens next weekend in New Orleans, the 2022 NCAA men's tournament will always be remembered for the improbable run of Saint Peter's to the Elite Eight as a No. 15 seed. Everybody loves a good Cinderella story, but we also love to see the biggest programs in the sport duke it out-and that's exactly what the Final Four will give us.

North Carolina sent the Peacocks packing yesterday to set up a showdown with Duke on Saturday, while Kansas came from behind to blow out Miami and advance to face Villanova.

As enjoyable as a Saint Peter's trip to the Final Four would have been, I think everyone recognizes the Tar Heels' and Blue Devils' facing each other in the NCAA tournament for the first time (and the final time with Coach K) will be a much better game.

Pat Forde writes this is "one of the bluebloodiest men's Final Fours ever":

"Kansas, North Carolina and Duke are first, third and fourth in all-time victories. North Carolina is in its record-21st men's Final Four; Duke in its 17th; Kansas in its 16th; Villanova in its seventh (but third in the last six tournaments).

"They have a combined 17 NCAA tournament championships. The last time every Final Four program came in having already won at least three national titles? Never. These are serious pedigrees."

You know the programs left standing are the biggest in the sport when Villanova is a lightweight by comparison.

The story is pretty much the same on the women's side. Though there are two more Elite Eight games left to play tonight, all four No. 1 seeds are still alive. South Carolina and Stanford have already advanced to the Final Four, while Louisville and North Carolina State will look to punch their tickets tonight. UConn, a No. 2 seed, is also still in contention (and will face the Wolfpack tonight). The closest thing to a Cinderella on the women's side is No. 3 seed Michigan, which hadn't advanced to the Elite Eight before this year and will play the Cardinals tonight in a bid to reach the Final Four.

The best of Sports Illustrated

Michael Pina checks in on one of the stars of the NBA's impressive rookie class. After a slow start, Cade Cunningham has emerged as a "phenom" who some close observers are already comparing "to all-time greats."

Greg Bishop writes this Villanova team might not be your typical Wildcats, but it might not matter. ... Kansas is the last No. 1 seed standing in the men's tournament, and Jeremy Woo writes yesterday's comeback win over Miami proved why it's worthy of that distinction. ... South Carolina put on a dominant show in the women's Elite Eight, writes Emma Baccellieri. ... Guards Lexie Hull and Haley Jones kept Stanford alive in their quest to defend their national title with a win over Texas.

Around the Sports World

The USMNT moved one step closer to the 2022 World Cup by cruising to a 5-1 win over Panama. ... The Cardinals are reportedly signing Albert Pujols to a one-year deal. ... The Lakers are clinging to a spot in the play-in tournament after blowing a 23-point lead to the Pelicans. ... LeBron James twisted his ankle in the game and said afterward that it felt "horrible." ... The Canada men's national team clinched its first World Cup appearance since 1986. ... Yale's Jake Gehri hit four homers (including two grand slams) yesterday against Princeton.

The top five...

... things I saw over the weekend:

5. Capitals fans littering the ice with foam apples after Niklas Backstrom's 1,000th career point

4. Texas Tech's Kurt Wilson stealing home for a walk-off win over Texas

3. Wilson's walk-off grand slam the very next day

2. Hubert Davis's emotional reaction to leading UNC to the Final Four in his first season in charge

1. This Nikola Jokić pass

SIQ

I'm fully aware that I'll get some angry emails for even mentioning pro wrestling, but I wanted to kick off WrestleMania week with a WWE question. Wrestling icon Paul "Triple H" Levesque announced Friday that he was retiring from in-ring competition as the result of a heart ailment. I think most wrestling fans know that Triple H is an abbreviation of his earlier moniker Hunter Hearst Helmsley, but what was Levesque's very first ring name?

Friday's SIQ: In which round of the 1984 NHL draft was Tom Glavine selected?

Answer: Fourth. In just 23 games as a senior at Billerica Memorial High School outside Boston, Glavine scored 44 goals and added 41 assists. That kind of offensive output is enough to turn any scout's head, and so the Kings picked him 69th in the 1984 draft. He was taken two rounds before future Hall of Famer Brett Hull and five rounds before future Hall of Famer Luc Robataille.

That same month, he was drafted in the second round by the Braves and opted to pursue baseball over hockey. He was in the majors three years later.

Glavine told Sports Illustrated in 1992 that even if he had picked hockey, he wouldn't have turned pro right away. He was choosing between playing baseball and accepting a hockey scholarship at UMass Lowell.

SI writer Leigh Montville got his hands on a copy of Glavine's NHL scouting report for that 1992 story. The report had been obtained from the NHL's office in Toronto by a reporter based there and passed from writer to writer until it ended up in Montville's hands. Here's how it described Glavine's game:

"Good skating ability ... long stride with good balance ... good acceleration ... excellent scorer, smart around net ... has several moves and can finish off ... excellent slap and wrist shots with a quick release ... tough and durable, will not be intimidated ... excellent competitor."

The unnamed scout ranked Glavine the 56th-best player available in his draft class. It's quite possible he would have gone on to have a very good NHL career, but he definitely made the right call by picking baseball and becoming one of the greatest pitchers ever.

From the Vault: March 28, 1966

James Drake/Sports Illustrated

After reading the first few paragraphs of Frank Deford's story about Texas Western's 1966 NCAA championship, I noticed a glaring omission and did a ctrl + F search for "Black." No results. So I tried searching for other antiquated adjectives for race. No results. Somehow, the entire 2,600-word story doesn't directly mention the fact that Texas Western was the first NCAA championship team to play an all-Black starting five. Deford does hint at it, though:

"[Texas Western] had arrived on Thursday, St. Patrick's Day. ... Somebody gave [Miners coach Don Haskins] a 20-peso gold piece made into the shape of a money clip, and all the players received green string ties, which they looped about their necks. 'My name's not Mick Shed, but I'll wear one anyway,' said Forward Nevil (The Shadow) Shed. At their motel in College Park, which they shared with Duke, the Miners were like interlopers. The Duke fans overran the place. A huge banner, LET'S GO, DUKE, hung across the front windows.

"A few minutes down the Beltway in Silver Spring, the Kentucky Wildcats already were ensconced in a motel. Pat Riley wore a fuzzy little shamrock in his lapel. 'Conley's Irish, too,' he said, 'but he doesn't make as much of it as I do.' If Riley resembled a happy Hibernian, Larry Conley didn't. He was a sick Hibernian. 'The only green I've got is down in here,' he said, coughing and pointing to his chest."

It seems like an oversight all these years later, but readers picking up the magazine 56 years ago might not have needed to be reminded about the significance of the Miners' win. The difference between Texas Western and all-white Kentucky would have been clear as day to readers. Wildcats coach Adolph Rupp wouldn't sign a Black recruit until Tom Payne in 1969.

Texas Western (now UTEP) wasn't a blueblood like Kentucky, but it wasn't exactly a Cinderella. The Miners ran through the regular season undefeated until losing their final game before the tournament to Seattle on the road by two points. They entered the tournament ranked No. 2 in the AP poll. The road to the Final Four wasn't easy for the Miners, though. They beat Cincinnati in overtime in the Midwest Region semifinals and Kansas in double overtime in the regional final.

Texas Western didn't have a single future NBA player on its roster but still managed to slay a Kentucky team led by Pat Riley and future ABA All-Star Louie Dampier in the championship game. The final score was 72-65, and that's what the focus was on after the game.

According to a 1991 SI article, Haskins wasn't asked once during his postgame press conference about the sociopolitical implications of his team's win. That same article quotes Texas Western guard Orsten Artis as saying race relations "never crossed our minds." Whether that's true, all these years later, the significance is undeniable.
Check out more of SI's archives and historic images at vault.si.com.

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SI:AM | Bluebloods Take Center Stage at Men's Final Four

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Good morning, I'm Dan Gartland. Too bad yesterday's Elite Eight games weren't as dramatic as the Oscars. If you're reading this on SI.com, you can sign up to get this free newsletter in your inbox each weekday at SI.com/newsletters.

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At the Oscars premiere 2022 actor Will Smith slapped Chris Rock after he made a joke about his wife, she is loosing hair because of her illness. A few minutes later Will Smith apologized for his behavior.

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Oscars 2022 producer Will Packer is opening up about what happened behind the scenes on Hollywood's biggest night, after actor Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock on stage.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News' TJ Holmes, airing Friday on "Good Morning America," Packer said the Los Angeles Police Department was ready to arrest Smith at the 94th Academy Awards on Sunday night after he got up from his seat, walked on stage and slapped Rock for telling a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith's hair

A longtime friend of Rock said that he was unaware of Pinkett Smith's alopecia.

'I thought it was a bit'

Packer, who led the first all-Black production team for the Oscars, said he wasn't worried when Rock first took the stage to present the award for best documentary feature.

"I said: 'Watch this, he's gonna kill.' Because I knew he had an amazing lineup of jokes that we had -- we had him in the prompter," Packer recalled. "He didn't tell one of the planned jokes, but you can't make it up. He was just immediately freestyling. But I tell you, if there's anybody that you don't worry about going out in front of a live audience and riffing off the cuff, [it's] Chris Rock. Nobody's better."

Packer said he had no concerns because he knew Rock would make the crowd laugh. But when things suddenly took a turn, Packer said his "heart dropped."

"Once I saw Will yelling at the stage, [it] was such vitriol," he said. "I remember thinking: 'Oh no, no no, not like this. Not like this.' But I've got people, everybody's still in my ear, you know, saying: 'OK, what are we doing on camera two? Is he still up there? Are we doing the best documentary category?' And Chris was keeping his head when everybody was losing theirs."

'But my heart at that point was just in my stomach, because of everything about it and what it represented and what it looked like and who was involved," he added. "All of that was just -- I never felt so immediately devastated like I did in that moment."

Initially, Packer said he "thought it was a bit," like many did in the audience and at home. But when Rock walked off stage, the producer was able to ask Rock directly about what had transpired.

"I said: 'Did he really hit you?" Packer recalled asking Rock off-stage just moments after the incident. "And he looked at me and he goes: 'I just took a punch from Muhammad Ali.' It's exactly what he said, as only Chris can, you know. He was immediately in joke mode, but you could tell that he was very much still in shock."

Behind the curtain

"I made that clear, like, 'Rock, you tell me, whatever you want to do, brother,'" Packer said. "The LAPD came and needed to talk to Chris. And so they came into my office and they were laying out very clearly what Chris' rights were. They were saying: 'This is battery. We will go get him. We will go get him right now, you can press charges, we can arrest him.'"

Still, Packer said Rock was "dismissive" of the options police presented, insisting he was "fine." While Packer didn't speak to Smith, his co-producer, Shayla Cowan, informed him that the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences was about to remove Smith from the ceremony. The Academy said in a statement Wednesday that they had asked Smith to leave, but he refused.

Smith's apology

Smith ended up winning best actor that night for his performance as Richard Williams, the father of tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams, in the film "King Richard." It was his first-ever Academy Award.

Packer says he has a "different perspective" on the standing ovation Smith received following his best actor win.

"I was in the room and I know a lot of those people, and so it wasn't like this was somebody they didn't know," Packer said. "It doesn't make anything that he did right, it doesn't excuse that behavior at all. But I think that the people in that room who stood up, stood up for somebody who they knew, who was a peer, who was a friend, who was a brother, who has a three-decades-plus-long career of being the opposite of what we saw in that moment."

"I don't think that these were people that were applauding anything at all about that moment, and all these people saw their friend at his absolute worst moment and were hoping that they could encourage him and lift him up and that he would somehow try to make it better," Packer added.

When giving his acceptance speech on stage, a tearful Smith seemingly referenced the confrontation without mentioning or apologizing to Rock directly. Instead, Smith apologized to the Academy and his fellow nominees.

The following day, Smith formally apologized to Rock and the Academy for his actions in an Instagram post. Packer said Smith also reached out to him that morning.

"He apologized and he said: 'You know, this should have been a gigantic moment for you,'" Packer recalled. "He expressed his embarrassment and that was the extent of it."

Smith reportedly also apologized to the other Oscars producers in a six-minute Zoom call on Tuesday. The Academy's Board of Governors announced Wednesday that they are beginning disciplinary procedures against the actor.

The Academy said it is holding its next board meeting on April 18, during which members may decide to take disciplinary action against Smith, such as suspension, expulsion or other sanctions.

Rock handled the moment with 'grace and aplomb'

While Rock hasn't said much about what occurred between him and Smith, he did tell the audience at his first comedy show since the Oscars on Wednesday night that he is still "processing what happened" and that he'll talk about it at some point.

But in the days since the Oscars, many have weighed in and are still shaken by the incident, including one of this year's co-hosts, comedian Wanda Sykes, who told Ellen DeGeneres in an interview to air April 7 that she is "sickened" by what went down on stage.

"For them to let him [Smith] stay in that room and enjoy the rest of the show and accept his award, I was like: 'How gross is this?' Sykes said. "This is just the wrong message. You assault somebody, you get escorted out the building and that's it."

Meanwhile, Packer is still praising Rock for handling the moment how he did, especially as the energy in the room died down.

"Chris handled the moment with such grace and aplomb -- it allowed the show to continue," Packer said. "Because Chris continued the way that he did, he completed the category. He handed the trophy to Questlove, who I feel like was really robbed of their moment. It gave us license in a way to continue the show, which is what we were trying to do."

"It was such a huge moment, and such a sad and disappointing moment that it wasn't something that we were going to come back from within that night, within this week," he added. "I don't know when we'll come back and people will be talking about anything else other than the show."

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Oscars producer Will Packer opens up about what happened behind the scenes after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock

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Oscars 2022 producer Will Packer is opening up about what happened behind the scenes on Hollywood's biggest night, after actor Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock on stage.