This spring, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order forbidding businesses from making their patrons prove that they have been vaccinated against the coronavirus. He also signed into law a bill to give the ban more teeth, threatening violators with fines in the thousands of dollars.

One Florida concert promoter thinks he has a workaround: offer US$18 tickets to anyone who is vaccinated and charge US$999.99 for everyone else.

A 366-meter-long containership grounded in the Suez Canal on Friday, but was refloated and ship traffic was able to continue through the waterway.

The ship is identified as the 366-meter-long Maersk Emerald, registered in Singapore.

Leth Agencies, which offers transit services in the Suez Canal, reported on Twitter that the ship grounded at kilometer 98, on the northern end of the canal, after experiencing engine trouble. It was transiting as part of a southbound convoy and was number five in line. The vessel was refloated within a matter of hours and ship traffic was able to resume as normal.

Germany has formally acknowledged that its military committed 'genocide' against the African peoples who lived in what is now Namibia, and has announced that it will set up a fund to atone for its colonial-era crimes.

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement on Friday that Germany recognized the "atrocities" carried out by its colonial troops against the Herero and Nama people between 1904 and 1908, adding that Berlin wanted to "find a common path to genuine reconciliation in memory of the victims." He said that, going forward, Germany will in an official capacity refer to the events as a "genocide."

Maas also announced that as a "gesture of recognition of the immeasurable suffering," the German government would create a fund totaling €1.1 billion ($1.34 billion), which will go towards infrastructure, healthcare and training programs for the affected communities. The money will reportedly be paid out over 30 years.

The Herero and Nama tribes were nearly wiped out during a rebellion against German colonial forces in what was then known as German South West Africa. It's believed that 65,000 of the 80,000 Herero living in the Germany colony perished between 1904 and 1908, while 10,000 of an estimated 20,000 Nama people died during the same period. Many survivors of the rebellion were later captured and placed in concentration camps, where they were used as slave labor. Mistreatment and poor conditions at the camps led to countless deaths.

Butler County, Ohio, Sheriff Richard Jones is cutting ties with President Joe Biden's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to prevent the administration from releasing illegal aliens into his southwestern Ohio community.

Since 2003, the Butler County Sheriff's Department has been in a contract with DHS and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold illegal aliens in its county jail while they await their hearings before a federal immigration judge. This week, Jones said he is terminating that longheld contract because he suspects the Biden administration will begin releasing its illegal alien detainees out of the county jail and into the community.

Jones said in a statement:

"We operate an efficient correctional facility and federal officials continue to add unreasonable and cost prohibitive mandates to hold these illegal immigrants. With the crisis at the border getting worse, it concerns me that the feds will ship detainees to my facility, then release them to the streets of my community under some technicality. It's better to just end this arrangement now than to let that happen. Unlike this current administration, I'm still a firm believer that our government should strictly enforce the immigration laws and I will continue to promote that stance at every opportunity."

Two people died and an estimated 20 to 25 people were injured by gunfire in a shooting outside a banquet hall in South Florida, police said.

The gunfire erupted early Sunday at the El Mula Banquet Hall in northwest Miami-Dade County, police told news outlets.

The banquet hall had been rented out for a concert. Three people got out of an SUV and opened fire into a crowd outside with assault rifles and handguns, police director Alfredo "Freddy" Ramirez III said. Authorities believe the shooting was targeted.

"These are cold blooded murderers that shot indiscriminately into a crowd and we will seek justice," Ramirez said in a tweet.

Matt Hancock committed a "minor breach" of the ministerial code when a coronavirus contract was awarded to his sister's company in which he had share holdings, an independent report has found.

Lord Geidt, the independent adviser on ministers' interests, found that the health secretary had made a "technical" breach of the ministerial code of conduct by failing to declare that a firm run by a family member, which he has a 20% stake in, had won an NHS contract. However, he added that Mr Hancock had "a lack of knowledge" of the contract and that the conflict of interest was "in no way deliberate".

Lord Geidt, former permanent secretary to the Queen, also deemed that the health secretary acted with "integrity throughout", adding: "This event should in no way impugn his good character or ministerial record."

Boris Johnson has said that the health secretary would face no further action after the technical breach, defying Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner's call for the PM to "explain why the public should trust him to lead such a major government department".

Lord Geidt was investigating Mr Hancock's shares in Topwood Ltd, a firm run by his sister and brother-in-law, which was approved as a potential supplier for NHS trusts in England.

U.S. companies can mandate that employees in a workplace must be vaccinated against COVID-19, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said on Friday.

The EEOC, in a statement posted on its website explaining its updated guidance, said employees can be required to be vaccinated as long as employers comply with the reasonable accommodation provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act and other laws.

In addition, employers may offer incentives to workers to be vaccinated, as long as they are not coercive, it said.

The vast majority of employers have been reluctant to require workers to be vaccinated. A survey by management-side law firm Fisher Phillips earlier this year found that only 9% of the more than 700 employers surveyed said they were considering mandating vaccines.

The Black Panthers and a number of gun club members from across the US gathered in Tulsa, Oklahoma for a series of protest events. The city is currently marking the anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre.

The event, called the 'Second Amendment March for Reparations', took place on Saturday afternoon in the northern part of Tulsa. Hundreds of participants carrying weapons and dressed in paramilitary black and khaki clothes marched through the city chanting slogans including "Whose streets? Our streets" and "Black Power." The activists also carried a large banner demanding "Reparations now."

Scientists at the Chinese lab eyed as a possible source of the coronavirus pandemic were previously filmed getting bitten and spattered with blood while handling bats without protection, according to reports.

The state-run TV footage showed researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) disregarding gloves, masks and other PPE while handling bats and collecting feces in the field, Taiwan News first noted.

In one section, virus expert Cui Jie related how a bat's fangs once went right through his glove, describing it as feeling "like being jabbed with a needle," the outlet noted.

A month ago, I mailed a letter to all the parents of my daughter's New York City private school, Brearley, asking them to speak up against the school administration's illiberal and indoctrinating antiracism initiatives and divisive obsession with race. That letter went viral and has helped bring about much needed attention to the explosive adoption of critical race theory throughout our country. Having been unexpectedly thrust into the media spotlight, I feel an obligation to dispel several common misconceptions pertaining to this movement.

There appears to be widespread belief that opposition to critical race theory is a view held solely by the political right. This perception is wrong. It is certainly true that the conservative media has almost exclusively embraced viewpoints unfavorable to critical race theory while the liberal-oriented media has been overwhelmingly approving. But our polarized media does not seem to accurately reflect the view of most Americans.

Since my letter became public, I have received several thousand supportive emails and messages from people across this country, including many from self-described Democrats and liberals. The tone of most of the messages sent to me is not at all political in nature; instead, the tenor is one of desperation and powerlessness.

I have received emails from parents expressing devastation that their kids, as young as five years old, are coming home from school after being taught to feel guilty solely because of the color of their skin. I have received messages from grandparents feeling hopeless that their grandchildren are being brainwashed and turned against their own families. And I have received notes from teachers brought to tears because they are being required, day after day, to teach fundamentally divisive, racist doctrines and being forced to demonize their own students.

Perhaps the most powerful - and most frightening - of the notes I have received are the several dozen from those who identify themselves as having immigrated to America from the former Soviet Union or from countries in formerly communist Eastern Europe. These emails are never political in nature and are nearly identical in message: These first-generation Americans all write that they have "seen this movie before." They are familiar with the propaganda, the tactics of indoctrination and the pervasive fear of speaking up that plague today's United States. Simply put, they cannot believe this is happening here.