Vladimir Putin bids for influence with African leaders, but the showing underwhelmed. Two Americans were kidnapped in Haiti amid civil unrest. And Ron DeSantis feels the heat from fellow Republicans on Florida’s Black history standards.
Here’s the biggest news you missed this weekend.
Drones target Moscow ahead of parade attended by Putin
Russian officials said they shot down three Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow early Sunday, hours before the start of a major military parade attended by President Vladimir Putin.
Images from a crash site in the Russian capital showed the façade of a skyscraper damaged on one floor, with glass shattered and structural beams snapped and deformed.
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The alleged attacks forced the closure of airspace over Moscow and an hour’s delay in takeoffs and and landings at Vnukovo International Airport, according to TASS. Read the full story here.
Putin in search of allies
Pakistan bombing kills 55, injures 135 more
A suspected suicide bombing in the Bajur District of Pakistan killed at least 55 people and wounded 135 more Sunday. A senior police officer told NBC News that a workers’ convention organized by the Jamiat Ulema Islam was underway when the explosion took place.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Cardi B throws mic at fan who doused her
Cardi B wasn’t having it with a fan who appeared to douse her with a drink during a performance in Las Vegas on Saturday. Video posted on TikTok shows the rapper performing her hit “Bodak Yellow” during a scheduled performance at Drai’s Beachclub, when someone holding a large cup near the stage flings the drink at her.
Cardi B looked stunned for a brief moment before the rapper threw her mic in the direction of the drink thrower.
The incident made Cardi B the latest in a recent spate of performers hit by objects thrown at them by concertgoers.
Two Americans kidnapped in Haiti
An American nurse and her child were kidnapped in Haiti on Thursday morning, a nonprofit connected to the woman said Saturday.
The kidnappings took place the same day the State Department ordered nonemergency U.S. government employees and families to leave Haiti, citing risks of kidnapping and civil unrest. The State Department said it’s aware of reports of the kidnapping and is in contact with Haitian authorities.
Parents speak out on teen daughter’s murder
The parents of Lily Silva-Lopez, a 15-year-old Colorado girl allegedly killed by her 16-year-old ex-boyfriend, say that police should have arrested him after their daughter filed a domestic violence complaint alleging that he punched her in the face six days before she died.
Alma Lopez and Hector Silva told NBC News in an exclusive interview they believe their daughter would still be alive if the police had done more. “They didn’t do much, and it’s not ok, and I lost my daughter because of that,” Lopez said.
Meet the Press
Florida’s new public school standards, which teach that some Black people benefited from slavery because it taught them useful skills, have come under fire from several Black Republicans. Three members of the work group that developed the standards told NBC News a majority opposed the sections that have drawn criticism.
On “Meet the Press” Sunday, former Texas Rep. Will Hurd, a Republican presidential contender, slammed Gov. Ron DeSantis for defending the curriculum.
“Real leadership would have stepped up and said, ‘Hey, there is no upside to slavery. Slavery was not a jobs program,'” Hurd said. “But this is one more part of a fact pattern of Ron DeSantis being mean and hateful.”
Hurd also responded to getting booed at a Republican event in Iowa Friday night. You can watch the full interview here.
Politics in Brief
2024 election: Out of the dozens of people who served in former President Donald Trump’s cabinet, only four have publicly supported his bid to return to the White House.
Trump’s rivals: Most of the 2024 Republican field has struggled to make the case against Trump to voters. But after validating, or turning a blind eye, to his false election claims, they may in part have themselves to blame.
Screaming on the Hill: Rep. Derrick Van Orden, a freshman Republican lawmaker, received bipartisan condemnation after he allegedly yelled at a group of high-school-age Senate pages. One source who witnessed the interaction told NBC News the congressman was “physically aggressive” and “screaming inches from the pages’ faces.”
Culture & Trends
Some online creators have embraced a concept called “race change to another,” or RCTA, purporting to be able to manifest physical changes in their appearance and even their genetics by tuning into subliminal videos that claim to be able to give then an “East Asian appearance” or “Korean DNA.”
Experts are troubled by the trend, contending that it’s impossible to change your race because race is a combination of inherited characteristics and cultural traditions passed down through generations. Some members of the East Asian community view RCTA as fetishistic and harmful.
In Case You Missed It
