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Ethiopia dismisses evidence of war crimes verified by CNN investigation

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“The Ethiopian government has indicated its open will for independent investigations to be undertaken in the Tigray region,” the office of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told CNN in a statement Friday.

The statement added: “Social media posts and claims cannot be taken as evidence, regardless of whether Western media report it or not. Hence why investigations into allegations are welcome for remedial action and accountability. Resultantly the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission together with the UN Office for the High Commissioner of Human Rights are already in the pipeline to carry out investigations.”

A CNN investigation, carried out with Amnesty International and published Thursday, verified footage of soldiers executing a group of at least 11 unarmed men before disposing of their bodies near the Tigrayan town of Mahibere Dego.

The Ethiopian government did not respond to CNN’s request for comment until after the investigation was published and broadcast.

A BBC-led investigation also published Thursday corroborated the same massacre near Mahibere Dego.
The Mahibere Dego execution was not an isolated incident, with CNN’s investigation revealing that a number of mass killings have been reported over the course of the five-month-old conflict.

A previous CNN investigation compiled eyewitness testimonies claiming that soldiers from neighboring Eritrea had crossed the border and were carrying out massacres, extrajudicial killings and deploying rape and sexual violence as a weapon.

Video by Barbara Arvanitidis and Mark Baron. Emmet Lyons contributed to this report.

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US

Matt Gaetz showed nude photos of women he said he’d slept with to lawmakers, sources tell CNN

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Gaetz allegedly showed off to other lawmakers photos and videos of nude women he said he had slept with, the sources told CNN, including while on the House floor. The sources, including two people directly shown the material, said Gaetz displayed the images of women on his phone and talked about having sex with them. One of the videos showed a naked woman with a hula hoop, according to one source.

“It was a point of pride,” one of the sources said of Gaetz.

There’s no indication these pictures are connected to the DOJ investigation.

Gaetz, 38, who was elected to Congress in 2016, has been at the center of a number of controversies in his four-plus years in Congress. But he’s now embroiled in easily his biggest scandal yet, after the Justice Department began investigating him in the final months of the Trump administration under then-Attorney General William Barr as part of a larger investigation into another Florida politician. Federal investigators are examining whether Gaetz engaged in a relationship with a woman that began when she was 17 years old and whether his involvement with other young women broke federal sex trafficking and prostitution laws, two people briefed on the matter said.

Gaetz has denied the allegations, saying “no part of the allegations against me are true,” and he claimed Tuesday that he was the victim of an extortion plot, which the FBI is separately investigating.

“Over the past several weeks my family and I have been victims of an organized criminal extortion involving a former DOJ official seeking $25 million while threatening to smear my name. We have been cooperating with federal authorities in this matter and my father has even been wearing a wire at the FBI’s direction to catch these criminals,” Gaetz said in a statement.

Gaetz and a spokesperson for Gaetz did not respond to requests for comment on the images and videos he allegedly showed to lawmakers.

After the DOJ investigation into Gaetz surfaced this week, there were a handful of Republicans in Congress who defended him, speaking out on his behalf, including both Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. But many House Republicans stayed quiet.

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy said Wednesday there were “serious implications” involving the DOJ allegations, adding that he would remove Gaetz from the Judiciary Committee if they were proven true.

“I haven’t heard anything from the DOJ or others, but I will deal with it if anything comes to be true” McCarthy said in response to a question from CNN at a town hall event in Iowa.

Gaetz made a name for himself on conservative television soon upon his arrival to Congress in 2017, where he’s often been a thorn in the side of House Republican leadership while aligning himself closely with the Freedom Caucus and Trump during his presidency. Gaetz has been a constant presence on both Newsmax and Fox News — much more than any typical rank-and-file House member — and he turned to Fox soon after the allegations surfaced Tuesday.

At one point during Gaetz’s first term, staff for then-House Speaker Paul Ryan held a short meeting with Gaetz in the Capitol, where they had a discussion with Gaetz about acting professionally while in Congress, according to two sources with knowledge of the meeting. One source said the conversation wasn’t tied to a specific incident. Ryan didn’t directly have a conversation with Gaetz.

Gaetz’s spokesperson denied that he was ever reprimanded by Ryan or his staff. “That did not happen, no meeting with the speaker or his staff,” the spokesperson said.

Hours before the news broke Tuesday of the investigation involving Gaetz, Axios reported he was considering leaving Congress for a job at the conservative television station Newsmax.

On Capitol Hill, Gaetz has a number of headline-grabbing incidents to his credit, both at the Capitol and on Twitter.

Gaetz was one of the most vocal backers of Trump’s lie after the 2020 election that the election was stolen from him. After 10 Republicans voted to impeach Trump in January, Gaetz personally took up the task of trying to oust the House’s GOP conference chair Liz Cheney, the highest-ranking Republican to support impeachment, traveling to Wyoming to hold a rally against Cheney in her home state.

In March 2020, when the scale of the Covid-19 pandemic was not yet clear, Gaetz wore a gas mask on the floor of the House during the first vote on an emergency funding bill for the coronavirus response.
Gaetz was admonished last year by the House Ethics Committee for a tweet threatening Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen ahead of his 2019 testimony before the House Oversight Committee. The committee found the tweet “did not violate witness tampering and obstruction of Congress laws” but did not “reflect creditably” upon the House. The Florida bar also investigated the case and cleared Gaetz. He apologized for the tweet.
Later that year, Gaetz led a band of House Republicans who barged into a closed-door House impeachment inquiry interview, occupying the House Intelligence Committee spaces for several hours in a publicity stunt to protest the investigation that would lead to Trump’s first impeachment.
Gaetz has also found himself in hot water over his spending practices. Politico reported last year that Gaetz improperly sent $28,000 to pay an LLC affiliated with a speech-writing consultant. Gaetz’s office returned the funds to the House and said it was a “glorified clerical error.”
One of Gaetz’s official actions as a member of Congress is also gaining fresh scrutiny in the wake of the DOJ investigation. In 2017, Gaetz was the one member of Congress to vote against a bill designed to create a coordinator in the Department of Transportation responsible for helping states develop policies to prevent human trafficking.

At the time, Gaetz did a Facebook Live broadcast defending his vote. He said he voted no because he felt the existing Transportation Department staffing should’ve been able to handle the task, and he was sent to Washington to stop the expansion of the federal government.

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US

Trump lashes out at Fauci and Birx after CNN documentary

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Fauci said the decision “to go all out and develop a vaccine” was “the best decision that I’ve ever made with regard to an intervention as director of the institute,” referring to his role at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The agency’s vaccine research center helped develop a key component of ultimately successful shots from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech.

But Fauci’s characterization drew Trump’s ire. In his statement on Monday, the ex-president called the vaccines authorized for emergency use “American vaccines,” even though the first vaccine to be authorized in the U.S. by the Food and Drug Administration was developed by the Turkish immigrants who founded BioNTech in Germany, and later collaborated with Pfizer to bring it to market. Pfizer, which manufactures the vaccine, did not receive development money from the government.

“Dr. Fauci was incapable of pressing the FDA to move it through faster. I was the one to get it done, and even the fake news media knows and reports this,” Trump said, even though Fauci, in his capacity as NIAID director, did not have the authority to pressure the FDA to make such decisions.

Fauci also told CNN that Trump’s social media use ran counter to what the administration’s response should have been. Birx also criticized the inconsistent messaging from the federal government as “fault number one.”

“The thing that hit me like a punch to the chest was then all of a sudden he got up and says, ‘Liberate Virginia, liberate Michigan,’ and I said to myself, ‘Oh my goodness, what is going on here?’” Fauci told CNN, referring to a series of Trump tweets. “It shocked me because it was such a jolt to what we were trying to do.”

In his statement, Trump labeled Fauci as “the king of ‘flip-flops’ and moving the goalposts to make himself look as good as possible,” while adding that he ignored the recommendations of both Fauci and Birx. Because the coronavirus was unknown to the world before late 2019, scientists and health officials fighting the pandemic frequently revised their advice as they have learned more about the virus and the disease it causes. And one official who worked inside the Trump White House said the former president’s criticisms were off the mark.

“Bit of revisionist history from the former president. We all had our issues with Fauci and his media marathons but very few people — including President Trump — had anything negative to say about Dr. Birx,” said the former White House official.

Birx told CNN that the Trump administration could have done more to prevent hundreds of thousands of Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. So far, nearly 550,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus.

“I look at it this way — the first time, we have an excuse. There were about 100,000 deaths that came from that original surge,” she said. “All of the rest of them, in my mind, could have been mitigated or decreased substantially.”

Trump criticized Birx for not following her own advice, citing a family trip she took the day after Thanksgiving, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was advising Americans not to travel over the holidays. Birx later announced that she would retire from her position.

In the past, Birx has said that she “always” thought of quitting the Trump administration over the hyperpartisan nature of the workplace.

“Dr. Birx was a terrible medical advisor, which is why I seldom followed her advice,” Trump said in his statement.

In the interview that aired Sunday, Birx also spoke about a phone call she received from Trump after speaking publicly on CNN in August about the spread of Covid-19.

“Everybody in the White House was upset with that interview and the clarity that I brought about the epidemic,” she said. “I got called by the president. It was very uncomfortable, very direct and very difficult to hear.”

Trump denied that there was a “very difficult” phone call, and criticized Birx for her policies, which he said “would have led us directly into a COVID caused depression.”

“Time has proven me correct,” he said. “I only kept Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx on because they worked for the U.S. government for so long — they are like a bad habit!”

Gabby Orr contributed to this report.

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Health

CNN correspondent’s big reveal. Stephanie Elam finds out vaccine trial results

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But this appointment is going to be different. Since my last check-up, Johnson & Johnson has been granted emergency use authorization for its single-shot Covid vaccine. As a thank you for those of us who participated in the randomized, phase three vaccine trial, the company is unblinding participants and administering the vaccine to the placebo group.

I am looking forward to this unblinding with the same exuberance I had as a kid the week of Christmas. All of those presents under the tree just waiting to be opened! But this time, my present is protection against a deadly virus — an inoculation that is literally saving lives.

My goal from day one has been to help the nation overcome vaccine hesitancy and to encourage people — particularly people of color — to trust the vaccines. Since I joined the trial, my efforts have been highlighted on People.com and in Essence magazine. I’ve had a few friends tell me that my participation encouraged them to get vaccinated. On social media, some people have said they would consider getting a shot now. I count all of these as wins, but I know there are some minds that will be harder to change.

Jamecka Britton, a 35-year-old Black woman living in Atlanta, is one of these people hesitant to get the vaccine. Originally from Memphis, TN, she has a bright smile that she says is consistently hidden behind a N95 mask everywhere she goes. She also has a warm sense of humor. I know because we have continued to message each other about the nation’s push to vaccinate as many people as possible — one making a point, the other countering. The messages are often dotted with goodhearted GIFs. What makes her stance more noteworthy to me is that she also happens to be a registered nurse.

Britton, who’s been treating Covid-19 patients since the pandemic began, says the virus has touched every part of her community.

“It’s been extremely, extremely difficult,” Britton told me. “When it first started, I remember I would come home just crying.”

She told me of the myriad of people she knows who have died from the coronavirus — beyond the patients she’s treated in the hospital. Their loss has also impacted her.

“To see patients in their twenties with no preexisting health conditions,” she said, adding, “…they walked into the hospital, thought they had a cold and the next day there was a ventilator and the doctor said basically there’s nothing else that they can do.”

Yet despite all she’s experienced because of Covid, she is still not vaccinated.

“I’m not against vaccines,” Britton clarified right away. “I just feel like there needs to be more testing done on the vaccine to ensure that it’s safe.”

As I’ve reported on vaccine hesitancy, I’ve spoken to many people of color about their fears and I’ve done some research to fully understand why this hesitancy persists. On my morning walks, I listened to Isabel Wilkerson’s “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” and from 2007, Harriet A. Washington’s “Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present.”

From the decades long Tuskegee experiment where doctors withheld treatment for syphilis from unwitting Black men to the harvesting of a piece of a cancerous tumor from Henrietta Lacks in the 1950s — tissue that came to be known as HeLa cells that continued to be the focus of study and medical breakthroughs for years — all without her knowledge, there are undoubtedly some high-profile examples of medical professionals using Black Americans for experimentation without their consent.

However, while speaking with Britton and thinking back to what I gleaned from my research, I realize that it’s likely that a less sensational and more personal history of individual infractions of the doctor/patient contract may really be the base for the suspicion of the science behind these new vaccines.

It is the myriad of surgeries, amputations and tests endured on a case-by-case basis by Blacks and other people of color that ultimately may have disrupted a relative’s quality of life in order for the doctors to study or perfect a technique before offering the improved skill or medicine to their White patients. Oral histories of medical wrongdoing and disrespect have been shared in many Black families, leading to generations of fear and mistrust.

“I talk about it daily with my family actually. And to be quite honest, we’re all very, very hesitant about getting the vaccine given the history of the malpractice and negligence in the African American community,” Britton shared, acknowledging this reality in her own roots. “I do have, you know, relatives who have expressed their concern to me about, testing and being, quote unquote, lab rats as Black people for vaccines.”

“I guess it would probably be shocking to you to know that I enrolled in a vaccine trial,” I told her, interested in how she would respond.

“No, seriously?” she replied, genuinely surprised. “I’m impressed. I’m honestly impressed.”

I told her that I joined the trial to help neutralize the fear — a fear I understand and that needs to be acknowledged. “But I also know that this is a different time. And the one thing that has happened in America that is the good is that we have lots of health professionals that look like you, that look like me, that look like our cousins, who are now at the forefront of designing and understanding the research and technology into making these vaccines,” I explained.

What I’m trying to figure out, I tell Britton, is what, if anything, could be done to get people to get their shots.

“I have seen many of my colleagues who have received the vaccine and that does sway me more toward being vaccinated. However, I would still like to see a large, number of African Americans receive the vaccine,” Britton explained. “A lot of physicians of color that I know are not willing to receive the vaccine so that still makes me hesitant.”

“So, if you saw doctors across the country and we got a lot of Black doctors, that would help?” I asked.

“That would help,” she replied.

This is an angle being addressed by the Black Coalition Against Covid and the Kaiser Family Foundation, which is highlighting Black scientists, doctors and nurses endorsing the vaccines in a question-answering montage of on-camera interviews and testimonials with comedian and host of CNN’s “United Shades of America” W. Kamau Bell.

“When the vaccine went in, I felt this intense amount of honor,” says Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, president of Morehouse School of Medicine, in the video.

Of course, I sent the video to Nurse Britton — followed by a picture of one of my doctors, who happens to be a Black woman, getting her inoculation.

The whole point is to add more voices to the mix from people of color who are proudly letting the world know that they got their shot and encourage others to do the same. The goal is to get more people vaccinated so we can live long and healthy lives and move on past this pandemic.

‘This is the big moment!’

As for me, as I wait to find out if I got the real vaccine or placebo in December, I go back and forth in my head about which category I think I fall in. The animals in the framed prints on the wall — and ode to Ark Clinical’s name — stare back at me. I hope the rising tide of vaccinations help lift us all.

“This is the big moment!” said Dr. Kenneth Kim, medical director and CEO of Ark Clinical Research, as he entered the room. Neither of us know my vaccination status yet. Nurse practitioner Amber Mottola hands him a sheet of paper. “Ok, so we will look at this together,” Dr. Kim said to me. “So what does it say?”

“I got the placebo!” I read out loud, Dr. Kim echoing the same words. I thought I had gotten the real thing.

While it turns out I wasn’t vaccinated before, I was about to be. Mottola already had a needle ready.

My Covid vaccine trial experience has been all upside. I got to see up close how these trials work; I feel better informed to have conversations about vaccine hesitancy and now I get the gift of inoculation. “Either way, today is a good day,” I tell them.

“Thank you for being a pioneer because if it wasn’t for people like you who volunteer we would never have gotten this vaccine approved,” Dr. Kim said in response before giving me the game plan. “We are going to mark down the time we administer your dose and then after that there will be an observation of 15 minutes.”

“Okay! I’m still very excited,” I exclaimed, the smile on my face evident even with my mask on.

“You waited a long time for this, and you deserve it!” Mottola said to me as she cleaned a spot on my arm and glided the needle in. “One, two — Full dose!”

“Oh yeah! That definitely felt differently,” I said, noting that the vaccine felt heavier going into my arm than the placebo had.

“Vaccinated!” both Amber and Dr. Kim said with cheer.

With just one shot, I’m now getting the protection I wish for all Americans. Over the next two weeks, my body will fully build up its response against the deadly coronavirus.

Under my mask, I still can’t stop smiling.

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US

Multiple people killed at supermarket shooting in Boulder, Colorado

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Multiple people were killed at a Colorado supermarket on Monday, including a police officer, and a suspect was in custody, authorities said.Boulder police Cmdr. Kerry Yamaguchi said at a news conference that the suspect was being treated but didn’t give more details on the shooting or how many people were killed. Officers escorted a shirtless man with blood running down his leg out of the store in handcuffs but authorities would not say if that was the suspect.Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said authorities know how many people were killed and suggested they are not releasing the number because they need to notify families of the victims.Yamaguchi said police were still investigating and didn’t have details on motive.A man who had just left the store in Boulder, Dean Schiller, told The Associated Press that he heard gunshots and saw three people lying face down, two in the parking lot and one near the doorway. He said he “couldn’t tell if they were breathing.” Video posted on YouTube showed one person on the floor inside the King Soopers store and two more outside on the ground, but the extent of their injuries wasn’t clear. What sounds like two gunshots are also heard at the beginning of the video.One person was taken from the shooting scene to Foothills Hospital in Boulder, said Rich Sheehan, spokesman for Boulder Community Health, which operates the hospital. Sheehan said he could not provide additional details but did say that “we have been notified we will not be receiving any additional patients.”Video: Witness speaks about active shooter at Boulder supermarketLaw enforcement vehicles and officers massed outside the store, including SWAT teams, and at least three helicopters landed on the roof in the city that’s home to the University of Colorado and is about 25 miles northwest of Denver.Some windows at the front of the store were broken. At one point, authorities over a loudspeaker said the building was surrounded and that “you need to surrender.” They said to come out with hands up and unarmed.Sarah Moonshadow told the Denver Post that two shots rang out just after she and her son, Nicolas Edwards, finished buying strawberries. She said she told her son to get down and then “we just ran.”Once they got outside, she said they saw a body in the parking lot. Edwards said police were speeding into the lot and pulled up next to the body.”I knew we couldn’t do anything for the guy,” he said. “We had to go.”James Bentz told the Post that he was in the meat section when he heard what he thought was a misfire, then a series of pops.”I was then at the front of a stampede,” he said.Bentz said he jumped off a loading dock out back to escape and that younger people were helping older people off of it.Colorado Gov. Jared Polis tweeted a statement that his “heart is breaking as we watch this unspeakable event unfold in our Boulder community.” He called it “very much an active situation” and said the state was “making every public safety resource available to assist the Boulder County Sheriff’s Department as they work to secure the store.”Boulder police had told people to shelter in place amid a report of an “armed, dangerous individual” about 3 miles away from the grocery store but later lifted it and police vehicles were seen leaving the residential area near downtown and the University of Colorado. They had said they were investigating if that report was related to the shooting at the supermarket but said at the evening news conference that it wasn’t related.The FBI said it’s helping in the investigation at the request of Boulder police. White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted that President Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting.In a statement, the King Soopers chain offered “thoughts, prayers and support to our associates, customers, and the first responders who so bravely responded to this tragic situation. We will continue to cooperate with local law enforcement and our store will remain closed during the police investigation.”Kevin Daly, owner of Under the Sun Eatery and Pizzeria Restaurant a block or so from the supermarket, said he was in his shop when he saw police cars arriving and shoppers running from the grocery store. He said he took in several people to keep them warm, and others boarded a bus provided by Boulder police and were taken away.___Nieberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

BOULDER, Colo. —

Multiple people were killed at a Colorado supermarket on Monday, including a police officer, and a suspect was in custody, authorities said.

Boulder police Cmdr. Kerry Yamaguchi said at a news conference that the suspect was being treated but didn’t give more details on the shooting or how many people were killed. Officers escorted a shirtless man with blood running down his leg out of the store in handcuffs but authorities would not say if that was the suspect.

Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said authorities know how many people were killed and suggested they are not releasing the number because they need to notify families of the victims.

Yamaguchi said police were still investigating and didn’t have details on motive.

A man who had just left the store in Boulder, Dean Schiller, told The Associated Press that he heard gunshots and saw three people lying face down, two in the parking lot and one near the doorway. He said he “couldn’t tell if they were breathing.”

David Zalubowski / AP Photo

Police work on the scene outside of a King Soopers grocery store where a shooting took place Monday, March 22, 2021, in Boulder, Colo.

Video posted on YouTube showed one person on the floor inside the King Soopers store and two more outside on the ground, but the extent of their injuries wasn’t clear. What sounds like two gunshots are also heard at the beginning of the video.

One person was taken from the shooting scene to Foothills Hospital in Boulder, said Rich Sheehan, spokesman for Boulder Community Health, which operates the hospital. Sheehan said he could not provide additional details but did say that “we have been notified we will not be receiving any additional patients.”

Video: Witness speaks about active shooter at Boulder supermarket

Law enforcement vehicles and officers massed outside the store, including SWAT teams, and at least three helicopters landed on the roof in the city that’s home to the University of Colorado and is about 25 miles northwest of Denver.

Some windows at the front of the store were broken. At one point, authorities over a loudspeaker said the building was surrounded and that “you need to surrender.” They said to come out with hands up and unarmed.

David Zalubowski / AP Photo

Windows appear damaged at a King Soopers grocery store where a shooting took place Monday, March 22, 2021, in Boulder, Colo.

Sarah Moonshadow told the Denver Post that two shots rang out just after she and her son, Nicolas Edwards, finished buying strawberries. She said she told her son to get down and then “we just ran.”

Once they got outside, she said they saw a body in the parking lot. Edwards said police were speeding into the lot and pulled up next to the body.

“I knew we couldn’t do anything for the guy,” he said. “We had to go.”

James Bentz told the Post that he was in the meat section when he heard what he thought was a misfire, then a series of pops.

“I was then at the front of a stampede,” he said.

David Zalubowski / AP Photo

Police work on the scene outside a King Soopers grocery store where a shooting took place Monday, March 22, 2021, in Boulder, Colo.

Bentz said he jumped off a loading dock out back to escape and that younger people were helping older people off of it.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis tweeted a statement that his “heart is breaking as we watch this unspeakable event unfold in our Boulder community.” He called it “very much an active situation” and said the state was “making every public safety resource available to assist the Boulder County Sheriff’s Department as they work to secure the store.”

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Boulder police had told people to shelter in place amid a report of an “armed, dangerous individual” about 3 miles away from the grocery store but later lifted it and police vehicles were seen leaving the residential area near downtown and the University of Colorado. They had said they were investigating if that report was related to the shooting at the supermarket but said at the evening news conference that it wasn’t related.

The FBI said it’s helping in the investigation at the request of Boulder police.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted that President Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting.

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You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

In a statement, the King Soopers chain offered “thoughts, prayers and support to our associates, customers, and the first responders who so bravely responded to this tragic situation. We will continue to cooperate with local law enforcement and our store will remain closed during the police investigation.”

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You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Kevin Daly, owner of Under the Sun Eatery and Pizzeria Restaurant a block or so from the supermarket, said he was in his shop when he saw police cars arriving and shoppers running from the grocery store. He said he took in several people to keep them warm, and others boarded a bus provided by Boulder police and were taken away.

___

Nieberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.



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Technology

A company will pay you $2,400 to stay away from screens for 24 hours

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Video above: Tips to avoid screen-time headaches while working from homeDoom-scrolling getting you down?Put the phone away for an hour. Or, better yet, make it 24 hours — you might just get $2,400 out of it.Reviews.org, a company that tests home services and products, is holding a 24-hour digital detox challenge. They’ll pay their chosen challengers over two grand to survive a whole day without screens.”If you’ve got the desire to ditch your devices for a day but still need to get paid, this is the perfect opportunity for you,” the company wrote on its website where aspiring digital detoxers can go to apply.Glued to social media? Perfect (for the contest)To help determine who should apply, the company asks some discerning questions.”Have you always wanted to win reality competitions like American Ninja Warrior, but you’ve been too busy trying to beat Mario Kart and Mortal Kombat instead?” Reviews.org asks potential applicants.”Do you know a little too much about your old acquaintances from social media?”According to the company, the ideal candidate is someone who is “definitely into tech” and up for a challenge. And while it might seem easy to take an Instagram detox for a day — the challenge is a bit more involved.It’s not as easy as it soundsThose selected for the challenge will not only have to swear off their phones for the day, but television, gaming, computers, smart watches and smart home devices (think smart speakers) are also off limits.But, the company clarifies, microwaves are still OK.The challengers will receive safes to store their electronics in for the 24 hours, along with a $200 Amazon gift card to put together a tech-free “survival kit,” the company wrote.Some survival kit suggestions from Reviews.org include a typewriter to replace computers, writing paper to replace texts, and paints and brushes to replace the fine art of the selfie.Challengers will have to review the survival kit and give feedback on the experience after completing the challenge — but they’ll do so while holding the coveted “2021 Digital Detox Challenger” title.Screen time is a growing health riskThe company’s challenge comes at a time when “screen time” has taken on new meaning.The pandemic has forced many people to work remotely and students to study online, making screens more of a necessity than ever before.According to a 2019 report from nonprofit Common Sense Media, U.S. teens were spending an average of more than seven hours per day on screen media for entertainment alone.”We have a feeling someone out there needs a break,” Reviews.org wrote.To apply, the company requests a bit of personal information and a 100-word question about why you’re right for the challenge. Applications will be open until March 26 and winners will be announced on the company’s YouTube page on March 29.

Video above: Tips to avoid screen-time headaches while working from home

Doom-scrolling getting you down?

Put the phone away for an hour. Or, better yet, make it 24 hours — you might just get $2,400 out of it.

Reviews.org, a company that tests home services and products, is holding a 24-hour digital detox challenge. They’ll pay their chosen challengers over two grand to survive a whole day without screens.

“If you’ve got the desire to ditch your devices for a day but still need to get paid, this is the perfect opportunity for you,” the company wrote on its website where aspiring digital detoxers can go to apply.

Glued to social media? Perfect (for the contest)

To help determine who should apply, the company asks some discerning questions.

“Have you always wanted to win reality competitions like American Ninja Warrior, but you’ve been too busy trying to beat Mario Kart and Mortal Kombat instead?” Reviews.org asks potential applicants.

“Do you know a little too much about your old acquaintances from social media?”

According to the company, the ideal candidate is someone who is “definitely into tech” and up for a challenge. And while it might seem easy to take an Instagram detox for a day — the challenge is a bit more involved.

It’s not as easy as it sounds

Those selected for the challenge will not only have to swear off their phones for the day, but television, gaming, computers, smart watches and smart home devices (think smart speakers) are also off limits.

But, the company clarifies, microwaves are still OK.

The challengers will receive safes to store their electronics in for the 24 hours, along with a $200 Amazon gift card to put together a tech-free “survival kit,” the company wrote.

Some survival kit suggestions from Reviews.org include a typewriter to replace computers, writing paper to replace texts, and paints and brushes to replace the fine art of the selfie.

Challengers will have to review the survival kit and give feedback on the experience after completing the challenge — but they’ll do so while holding the coveted “2021 Digital Detox Challenger” title.

Screen time is a growing health risk

The company’s challenge comes at a time when “screen time” has taken on new meaning.

The pandemic has forced many people to work remotely and students to study online, making screens more of a necessity than ever before.

According to a 2019 report from nonprofit Common Sense Media, U.S. teens were spending an average of more than seven hours per day on screen media for entertainment alone.

“We have a feeling someone out there needs a break,” Reviews.org wrote.

To apply, the company requests a bit of personal information and a 100-word question about why you’re right for the challenge. Applications will be open until March 26 and winners will be announced on the company’s YouTube page on March 29.

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Julia Letlow wins Louisiana’s 5th District special election while 2nd District goes to runoff, CNN projects

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Letlow will take the seat that her late husband Luke, who won last year’s election but died in December after being diagnosed with Covid-19, was never able to hold.

She will make history as the first Republican woman to represent the state in Congress.

A number of prominent Republicans rallied behind her after she announced her campaign for the seat. Former President Donald Trump, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and Louisiana GOP Rep. Steve Scalise — the No. 2 House Republican — all endorsed her out of the nine Republicans running for the seat.

Letlow, a first-time candidate, will avoid a runoff because she secured a majority among the 12-person field.

Runoff in 2nd District

Democrats Troy Carter and Karen Carter Peterson will advance to an April 24 runoff in the special election for Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District, CNN projects.

The winner of the runoff will fill the seat vacated by Democrat Cedric Richmond, who resigned in January to join the Biden administration.

Carter and Carter Peterson, who are not related, are both Louisiana state senators representing New Orleans.

Carter is the senate minority leader and received Richmond’s endorsement before he resigned from Congress. Carter Peterson served in the Louisiana House for a decade before joining the Senate in 2010 and has also served as vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Carter Peterson finished with the second-most votes, receiving about 1,400 more votes than Democrat Gary Chambers, Jr., as of late Saturday night.

This story has been updated with a projection for the 2nd District.

CNN’s Tina Paul contributed to this report.

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CNN, MSNBC erupted over Trump’s ramp walk — but virtually ignore Biden’s staircase stumble

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After sounding the alarm over President Trump’s use of a ramp at the U.S. Military Academy during the 2020 presidential election, both CNN and MSNBC on Friday virtually ignored President Biden’s intense fall while climbing the stairs onto Air Force One. 

Biden fell three separate times while boarding the presidential plane for a trip to Atlanta. The White House later issued a statement saying he was fine and suggesting that the “wind” at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland was to blame for the ordeal. 

According to Grabien transcripts, CNN spent just 15 seconds on how Biden “struggled to find his footing” on the “windy” morning and how he “left the plane with ease” upon his arrival in Atlanta. 

FLASHBACK: BIDEN FALL CONJURES MEMORIES OF MEDIA HYSTERIA WHEN TRUMP WALKED SLOWLY DOWN A RAMP

That pales in comparison to the whopping 22 minutes and 13 seconds CNN dedicated to the ramp Trump used while speaking at West Point’s commencement ceremony in June 2020, fueling speculation of a health decline, according to a study from NewsBusters. 

While MSNBC spent roughly a minute on Biden’s incident, the liberal network was far more sympathetic to the Democrat than to Trump. 

“Meet The Press” anchor Chuck Todd asked NBC News correspondent Monica Alba if Biden was doing “OK.” Alba responded by calling the fall a “human moment that happened to a human who happens to be, of course, the president of the United States.”

“We’ve all run up stairs and had that moment ourselves,” Todd said. “And if you haven’t, you aren’t a human being.”

“We’ve all run up stairs and had that moment ourselves. And if you haven’t, you aren’t a human being.”

— Chuck Todd, NBC News

Former President Donald Trump speaks to U.S. Military Academy graduating cadets during commencement ceremonies, June 13, 2020, in West Point, N.Y. (Associated Press)

REPORTERS SPECULATE ABOUT TRUMP’S HEALTH AFTER HIS SLOW WALK DOWN RAMP AT WEST POINT COMMENCEMENT

MSNBC’s 28 minutes and 42 seconds bashing Trump’s ramp usage — as tallied by NewsBusters — was way less charitable, with numerous hosts and guests also speculating the Republican’s fitness to serve.  

Critics on Twitter also pointed out the jarring differences in the coverage from The New York Times and The Washington Post. 

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The Times ran “Trump’s Halting Walk Down Ramp Raises New Health Questions” for its headline in 2020 but on Friday went with “Biden is ‘doing 100 percent fine’ after tripping while boarding Air Force One.”

The Post, meanwhile, ran with “Trump tries to explain his slow and unsteady walk down a ramp at West Point” last year while simply going with Friday’s headline, “Biden stumbles climbing stairs on Air Force One.”

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At the border, migrant teens tell CNN hurricanes destroyed their homes

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They are in Texas, less than a mile north of the US-Mexico border, trying to find their way.

It’s a scene that’s playing out more and more here in this desolate stretch of thick brush in the Rio Grande Valley, where a growing number of migrant children are taking their first steps in United States. Border authorities are encountering about 1,000 migrants a day here — many of them unaccompanied minors.

CNN spent the late hours of Wednesday night following a team of Texas deputy constables and watched their encounter with the teens.

This moment when migrants and authorities crossed paths — and other details we learned on that journey into the wilderness — gave us a window in to a fast-moving situation that’s sparking fierce political debate in different corners of the country but is rarely seen up close by most Americans.

The people we met weren’t concerned with any conversations in Washington. But they had a lot to say. Here’s what we saw and heard from them.

Some are fleeing hurricanes

When a deputy constable asks where they’re from, all seven teens answer almost in unison: Guatemala.

They tell CNN that they met for the first time on their long journey north. Some say smugglers helped them along the way. Others say they had no help.

Many of the teens, who CNN is only identifying by their first names to protect their safety, are emotional as they talk about the journey that brought them here, and what they left behind.

Kevin, 16, begins to cry, saying that sometimes along the way he hasn’t had food to eat or water to drink. He hasn’t seen his father in two years and hopes to reconnect with him in Pennsylvania.

“I’ve been on this path for a month,” he says, wiping his eyes, “and now I’m here.”

All the teens say they have family members or acquaintances they’re hoping to reunite with in different parts of the United States — Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Florida and Idaho. They say they hope to study here and eventually to work.

Denis, 17, tears up as he describes a devastating storm — Hurricane Eta — that he says destroyed and flooded his home and left his family with nothing.

“There is no work,” he says. “There is no money to study.”

Edgar, 17, shares a similar experience. “The house fell down around us,” he says. “Thank God my mom is still alive.”

He’s making this journey for her, he says — to help her survive.

A sergeant’s view: ‘We’re not the bad guys’

It’s a scene like many Reserve Sgt. Deputy Constable Dan Broyles has witnessed before. In his 37 years in law enforcement, many of which have been spent patrolling this very stretch of the border, Broyles is familiar with what happens when migrants first arrive in the United States.

The deputy constables’ job, he says, isn’t to decide anyone’s fate. When they come across groups here, they escort them to meet up with Border Patrol.

“We’re not the bad guys,” he says. “We just want to make sure they’re safe and receive the medical attention they need.”

As he drives us along a rugged dirt road winding along the banks of the Rio Grande, Broyles points to a place where he recalls finding a man’s remains eight years ago.

“He hurt himself. He got abandoned by a group, and he died,” Broyles says, shaking his head. “It’s sad.”

The trek across the border has always been a dangerous journey. But in recent years, the people who are making it have been changing. There are far more families and children coming. And for Broyles, it’s hard to see.

As we walk with him near the Rio Grande, Broyles points to diapers on the ground.

“There’s one, two, three,” he says. “What does that tell you? They’re bringing infants across. As a father, I don’t know if I’d want to put my children through that.”

The landscape is littered with hints that children and families are passing through

The diapers aren’t the only signs that children and families have been here. We also see children’s clothing and small masks littered on the ground.

Documents left behind by some of the migrants who’ve past through tell part of their story. One piece of paperwork we spotted in the brush describes a 34-year-old mom from Honduras and her 2-year-old son. The document says they both tested negative for Covid before leaving their country.

There are also other signs here that hint at the new realities of the border. A handwritten note taped onto a tree, inside a bag that says “Department of Homeland Security,” says “ASILO” in block letters, Spanish for “asylum.”

That’s a type of protection many migrants who cross the border are seeking. It’s gotten harder to win, but it’s legal to ask for it — and that’s one reason it’s common for families and children to look for authorities after they’ve crossed the border and turn themselves in.

That’s where Broyles and other deputy constables come in. Tonight, it only takes them a few minutes to briefly question each of the teens.

Then they send them walking along a path, leading them to a Border Patrol processing center under a nearby bridge, which comes into focus as flood lights illuminate it in the distance.

For the teens we met, it’s just another step in an already uncertain journey.

CNN’s Rosa Flores and Sara Weisfeldt reported this story in Hidalgo County. CNN’s Catherine E. Shoichet wrote the story in Arlington, Virginia.

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