Italy legend Giorgio Chiellini said his team-mates were "destroyed and crushed" after losing to North Macedonia and failing to reach the 2022 World Cup.

The European champions will miss their second World Cup in a row after also failing to qualify for Russia 2018.

Aleksandar Trajkovski fired an injury-time winner, prompting contrasting scenes of jubilation and devastation in Palermo.

"A great void will remain within us," said Juventus defender Chiellini.

"We didn't concede anything tonight apart from the goal. We created plenty of chances, but unfortunately we didn't manage to score. There is a great disappointment. From September to today we have made mistakes and we have paid for them.

"I am proud of a team that has given everything. It is clear that we are destroyed and crushed. We hope that this void will give us the push to start again."

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/60869847

Speculation mounted over the whereabouts of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Thursday as the Kremlin spokesperson declined to comment on media reports that he had health problems.

Shoigu, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, has kept a low profile recently despite having a leading role in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The independent investigative Russian outlet Agentstvo reported Wednesday that Shoigu was in poor health, citing anonymous sources in the ministry.

Peskov dodged questions on Thursday about the health of Shoigu. "The Defense Minister has a lot on his plate at the moment," he said when CNN asked about Shoigu's reported absence. "The special military operation is going on. Naturally, now is not exactly the time for media activity, this is quite understandable."

The Kremlin spokesperson declined to disprove the report by Agentstvo when asked by CNN. "I can't. You shouldn't listen to the Agenstvo media outlet. Please address [these questions to] the Ministry of Defense."

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/24/europe/russia-sergei-shoigu-health-intl/index.html

Zuriel Hooks, who lives in Montgomery, Alabama, started receiving hormones when she was 17 years old. She said getting gender-affirming medical care helped her look forward to the future.

“This is something I know I need in my life,” Hooks, now 19, said. “It really helped shape who I am as a person. It makes me keep going in life. For that to be taken away from me, I can’t describe the feeling, because it’s just horrible.”

A bill being considered by the state Legislature could bar minors — or those 18 and under — from having access to transition-related health care as Hooks did.

The Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act states that sex is something that “cannot be changed” and describes transition-related care as “experimental.” It would bar medical professionals and parents from providing gender-affirming medical care for transgender people younger than 19, and it would carry a felony criminal penalty, which could include a prison sentence of up to 10 years and/or a fine up to $15,000.

In Senate debate this month, the bill’s primary sponsor, Shay Shelnutt, a Republican, said he disagrees with the medical definition of gender dysphoria — which is a conflict between a person’s assigned sex at birth and their gender identity — and said his definition is “someone thinks they should be a girl if they’re a boy or thinks they should be a boy if they’re a girl.” He said the bill seeks to “protect our children” and “stop these surgeries and these drugs on our children.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/doctors-advocates-brace-alabamas-inhumane-trans-health-care-ban-rcna21372

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside a federal courthouse in a South Dakota city Wednesday to cheer the filing of a federal lawsuit over a hotel owner’s pledge to ban Native Americans from the property.

The protesters held a rally and prayer meeting in a Rapid City park then walked the streets in response to a social media post by a Grand Gateway Hotel owner who said she would not allow Native Americans on the property. Demonstrators marched to sounds of drums and carried tribal flags and signs.

One banner that read, “We will not tolerate racist policies and practices” stood as a backdrop for tribal leaders and others to talk about the civil rights suit that cites “a policy, pattern, or practice of international racial discrimination against Native Americans.” The suit seeks class action status.

Brendan Johnson, a former U.S. attorney for South Dakota and lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the “rest of the world” needs to know what’s going on in Rapid City. The suit seeks unnamed general and punitive damages.

“We need to be clear. We don’t file this complaint to send a message. We file this complaint because we want justice,” Johnson said at a press conference.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/lawsuit-filed-threat-ban-native-americans-south-dakota-hotel-rcna21355

Leonard Peltier, the Native American activist who has been imprisoned for nearly half a century for the murders of two FBI agents he has always maintained he didn't commit, is hopeful he'll have a chance to clear his name before he dies.

Peltier, 77, wants President Joe Biden to review his case and grant him clemency so he won't die in prison.

He's not looking for a presidential pardon, because it would be granted for a crime he insists he is innocent of.

Instead, he wants a new trial.

“If I get into court, if the judge is fair, how are they going to answer all of that?” he said of evidence that was withheld from the 1977 proceedings. “I want to get a trial."

Recent calls from Peltier's supporters and family for him to be released have noted his failing health, including a recent bout of Covid-19.

"They're going to try and make me die here," Peltier said by phone Wednesday from his federal prison in Central Florida, his first media interview since 2016. "I have a last few years, and I got to fight."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/leonard-peltier-imprisoned-native-american-activist-new-message-biden-rcna19731
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Leonard Peltier is a political prisoner, IMNSHO

They are a staple of early spring and easy to spot: those puffy white Bradford pear trees. But once you get to know them, they are easy to hate.

Some central Virginia garden centers, like the Great Big Greenhouse and Cross Creek Nursery, don’t even carry them any more. But they carry on in our landscape.

1. The first thing that’s wrong with a Bradford pear is its structure.

They have huge heavy limbs that all radiate out from one point. That makes the tree exceptionally weak and prone to breakage once it matures. When high winds hit - or snow or ice - these trees come apart easily. That’s a lot of weight coming down on a person, car, roof, or even a power line.

2. The second (and biggest) problem? They are invasive and spreading.

Once you see the puffy white trees in early spring, you’ll see them everywhere. Originally from China, they don’t have any threats here.

https://www.nbc12.com/2022/03/23/three-reasons-you-should-chop-down-your-bradford-pear-trees/
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Chop them down and give them to a wood turner or carver. The wood is beautiful, and pear wood is pear wood.

A lead investigator in the criminal case against former Tennessee nurse RaDonda Vaught testified Wednesday that state investigators found Vanderbilt University Medical Center had a "heavy burden of responsibility" for a grievous drug error that killed a patient in 2017, but pursued penalties and criminal charges only against the nurse and not the hospital itself.

Vaught, 38, was stripped of her nursing license and is now on trial in Nashville, Tenn., for charges of reckless homicide and abuse of an impaired adult. If convicted, she faces as much as 12 years in prison.

Vanderbilt received no punishment for the fatal drug error.

This testimony – from a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent — appears to support defense arguments that Vaught's fatal error was made possible by systemic failures at Vanderbilt. Vaught's attorney, Peter Strianse, has described his client as a "disposable person" who was scapegoated to protect the invaluable reputation of the most prestigious hospital in Tennessee.

"We are engaged in a pretty high-stakes game of musical chairs and blame-shifting. And when the music stopped abruptly, there was no chair for RaDonda Vaught," Strainse said during opening statements. "Vanderbilt University Medical Center? They found a seat."

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/03/24/1088397359/in-nurses-trial-witness-says-hospital-bears-heavy-responsibility-for-patient-dea
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Typical--nurse gets blamed, hospital gets off. Happens every day

North Korea has tested a banned intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for the first time since 2017, South Korea and Japan say.

Japanese officials said it flew 1,100 km (684 miles) and fell in Japanese waters after flying for over an hour.

ICBMs, designed for nuclear arms delivery, could extend North Korea's strike range as far as the US mainland.

The test is being seen as a major escalation by the North and has been condemned by its neighbours and the US.

North Korea has launched a flurry of missile tests in recent weeks.

The US and South Korea have said some of those tests, which Pyongyang claimed were satellite launches, were in fact trials of parts of an ICBM system.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-60858999
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Nice missile you got there. Be a shame if anything happened to it.

Scientists at the National Weather Service are looking through the damage to figure out the scope of Monday’s tornadoes that ripped through Central Texas.

Since Central Texas saw multiple tornadoes along a complicated and long trek of populated areas, scientists say it may take a couple of days to come up with a scale for these storms.

Tornadoes are deciphered using an Enhanced Fujita scale (EF Scale). The EF Scale was developed based on damage intensity which can range from an EF-0 to an EF-5.

EF-3 damage would include destruction to roofs and some walls torn from well-constructed houses; trains overturned; most trees in forested areas uprooted; heavy cars lifted and thrown.

(skip)

Since Yura already knows the destruction did come from a tornado, he’s left with documenting its path from the ground and figuring out how strong the winds were.

“What we saw yesterday afternoon was not common for this region,” said Yura.

https://www.wate.com/news/national-world/why-do-scientists-believe-tornado-alley-is-shifting/

A Newport man who fled military service and lived under a stolen identity for more than 40 years was sentenced to prison on Monday.

Jerry Leon Blankenship, 65, had been dishonest about his name with almost everyone, including his girlfriend of thirty years and the mother of his three children, according to court records.

The story begins in 1976, when Blankenship enlisted in the United States Navy. Following basic training, he deserted to avoid future military service, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Blankenship assumed the identity another individual and established a new life under the stolen name in Newport.

A sentencing memo in Blankenship’s case, authored by his defense attorney, claims Blankenship stole this identity at the suggestion of his wife, who was in a child custody battle at the time. The identity Blankenship assumed is noted as “R.C.” or “Randy Clark” in court documents.

“When [redacted] discovered that Jerry was AWOL from the Navy, she suggested to Jerry that she knew enough of R.C.’s details that Jerry might easily lie and pass for R.C. in order to avoid further trouble with the Navy,” the sentencing memo states. “Jerry considered [redacted] offer, and accepted. Not long after, however, [redacted] too, left… Jerry’s choice to accept [redacted] offer profoundly altered the course of the rest of his life.”

Blankenship did not divorce this wife before becoming involved in a long-term relationship with her grown daughter and operating that business with the stolen identity, according to the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee.

https://www.wate.com/news/local-news/how-a-covid-19-vaccine-helped-investigators-find-a-us-navy-deserter-living-under-a-stolen-identity/
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But wait, there's more!