Lionel Messi says he’ll join Miami’s MLS team, the Iron Sheik dies at 81, and more of today’s trending news
Take a look at trending topics for today, June 7.
Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi has pulled off his latest stunning feat: He is headed to Major League Soccer and joining Inter Miami.
After months — years, even — of speculation, Messi on Wednesday finally revealed his decision to join a Miami franchise that has been led by another global soccer icon, David Beckham, since its inception but has yet to make any real splashes on the field.
That likely will soon change. One of Inter Miami’s owners, Jorge Mas, tweeted out a photo of a darkly silhouetted Messi jersey shortly before the Argentinian great revealed his decision in interviews with Spanish news outlets Mundo Deportivo and Sport.
It was widely believed that Messi eventually would choose to play for Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia, following longtime rival Cristiano Ronaldo to a nation where some clubs now are funded by the state’s sovereign wealth fund.
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Iron Sheik
The Iron Sheik, a former pro wrestler who relished playing a burly, bombastic villain in 1980s battles with some of the sport’s biggest stars and later became a popular Twitter personality, died Wednesday, the WWE said. He was 81.
The wrestling organization posted an article confirming his death, and a statement about his passing also was posted on his Twitter page giving details of his life. Neither statement mentioned a cause of death nor where he died, but the Twitter post said he “departed this world peacefully.”
The Iron Sheik, whose real name was Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, grew up in a small village in Iran where he embraced wrestling in his youth.
During his pro wrestling career, he donned curled boots and used the “Camel Clutch” as his finishing move.
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Two versions of The Flash (Ezra Miller) join a battle for Earth in “The Flash.”
The Flash
If it’s not one multiverse, it’s another.
Coming hot on the superhero heels of the mind-blowingly multidimensional animated work of art that is “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “The Flash” is an almost-as-excellent universe-hopping live-action extravaganza.
Almost always moving at what feels like the speed of light (but, ironically, not in theaters until next week), this first feature film featuring the subatomically fast DC Comics hero is a zippy and entertaining blast. And yet it nonetheless manages to serve up a few heartfelt moments amid all its carefully choreographed chaos.
As trailers have made very clear, among the familiar faces showing up in “The Flash” is Michael Keaton, who played the Dark Knight in Tim Burton’s 1989 megahit “Batman” and its 1992 sequel, “Batman Returns.”
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Two men were shot dead outside the Altria Theater near Monroe Park on Tuesday afternoon following a Richmond Public Schools graduation ceremony.
Police say two people have been killed and five more wounded in a shooting after a high school graduation ceremony in Virginia’s capital. Police also said Tuesday night that a 19-year-old is in custody and will be charged with two counts of second-degree murder. The city’s interim police chief said the two who died were an 18-year-old male student who had just graduated, and a 36-year-old man. The names of the dead and the suspect were not immediately released. But police said they believe the suspect knew at least one of the victims.
Pope Francis is going the hospital for surgery on his intestine, two years after he had 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his colon removed because of an inflammation and narrowing of the large intestine. He left the Vatican shortly after 11 a.m. The Vatican said Francis, 86, would be put under general anesthesia and would be hospitalized for several days. Earlier Wednesday, the pontiff presided over his weekly general audience. The 86-year-old pope spent three days at the hospital in late March. Initially, the Vatican said he had gone in for scheduled tests, but the pontiff later revealed he had felt pain in his chest and was rushed to the hospital, where bronchitis was diagnosed. He was put on intravenous antibiotics and was released April 1, quipping that he was “still alive.”
Ukrainian authorities are rushing supplies of drinking water to areas affected by flooding from a collapsed dam in southern Ukraine. They also are weighing where they might resettle residents who relied on the breached reservoir on the Dnieper River, which forms part of the front line of the 15-month war. More than 2,700 people have fled flooded areas on both the Russian and Ukrainian-controlled sides of the river, but it was not clear whether the true scale of the disaster had yet emerged in an area that was home to more than 60,000 people. The hydroelectric dam and reservoir is essential for the supply of drinking water and irrigation to a huge area of southern Ukraine.
Mike Pence has opened his presidential bid with an unusually forceful denunciation of former President Donald Trump over Jan. 6, Trump’s temperament and abortion. Pence told an audience in a Des Moines, Iowa, suburb on Wednesday, “Anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States, and anyone who asks someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president again.” And he accused Trump of abandoning conservative principles, particularly on abortion. Pence is the first vice president in modern history to challenge his former running mate. Trump leads the GOP 2024 presidential field in early polls.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is wasting no time going after Donald Trump while launching his presidential campaign. Christie is calling the former president and current Republican primary front-runner a “lonely, self-consumed, self-serving mirror hog” and arguing that he’s the only one who can stop him. Christie began his run with a town hall in New Hampshire Tuesday night. He ran for president and lost to Trump in 2016. The former governor and federal prosecutor went on to become a close off-and-on adviser before breaking with Trump over his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum touted his small-town roots and business experience as he announced his candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. The former software entrepreneur adds his name to a long list of contenders hoping to dent former President Donald Trump’s early lead. Burgum kicked off his campaign Wednesday in Fargo, near the tiny town where he grew up. Burgum said big cities can use more ideas and values from small towns. He’s known to few outside North Dakota, and faces enormous odds. He isn’t even the most notable candidate to announce a presidential campaign Wednesday. Former Vice President Mike Pence launched his White House bid in Iowa.
Federal prosecutors are using a grand jury in Florida as part of their investigation into the possible mishandling of classified documents at former President Donald Trump’s Palm Beach property. That’s according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press. The grand jury is in addition to a separate panel that has been meeting in Washington for months to consider charges against Trump over the retention of hundreds of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and potential obstruction of government efforts to reclaim the records. A spokesman for special counsel Jack Smith declined to comment.
Eleven House conservatives have staged a mini-revolt as part of the fallout from last week’s vote to lift the debt ceiling. They tanked GOP leadership’s efforts to proceed Tuesday on a mix of legislative priorities. The passage of the debt ceiling bill was hailed by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other members of GOP leadership, but dozens of GOP lawmakers voted against the measure, saying it didn’t do enough to restrict spending. Their dissatisfaction about the process spilled over into votes Tuesday on a measure establishing the rules for debate on various GOP priorities, which are now stuck until the impasse is resolved.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman amid strained relations between Riyadh and Washington. Blinken’s trip to Saudi Arabia that began Tuesday is his second since becoming America’s top diplomat. It also comes after Saudi Arabia under Prince Mohammed has become more willing to disregard the U.S. in striking its own decisions. However, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab nations still rely on the U.S. to be the security guarantor for the region as tensions over Iran’s nuclear program spill over. Blinken will also meet with other Saudi officials, attend an anti-Islamic State meeting in Riyadh and meet with foreign ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration says three dozen migrants whom the state flew from the southern border to California on private planes went willingly. The Tuesday comments by a spokeswoman from the Florida Division of Emergency Management dispute allegations by California officials that the individuals were coerced to travel under false pretenses. Two planes have arrived in Sacramento carrying asylum-seekers mostly from Colombia and Venezuela. California Attorney General Rob Bonta says he’s investigating whether any violations of criminal or civil law occurred. DeSantis has previously paid to relocate migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard.
The Marion County Sheriff’s Office says a white Florida woman accused of fatally shooting her Black neighbor last week has been arrested. It was a violent culmination of what the sheriff described as a 2½-year feud. Fifty-eight-year-old Susan Louise Lorincz was arrested Tuesday on charges of manslaughter, assault and more in the death of Ajike Owens. Authorities came under pressure Tuesday to arrest and charge the white woman who fired through her front door and killed a Black neighbor in a case that has put Florida’s divisive stand your ground law back into the spotlight. Jail records did not list a lawyer who could speak on Lorincz’s behalf.
