Multiverse fantasy picks up seven awards including best picture and best actress while All Quiet on the Western Front wins four. Plus, long shadow of US invasion of Iraq still looms 20 years onDon?t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.Everything Everywhere All at Once has dominated this year?s Oscars, winning seven awards including best picture in a big night for Asian and Asian American representation.How did Everything Everywhere All At Once sweep the Oscars? A combination of old-fashioned star power and zeitgeisty marketing captured Oscar voters (and audiences) across the board.Did anyone bring up the slap? Yes. Host Jimmy Kimmel laid into Will Smith, saying: ?If anyone in this theater commits an act of violence at any point during the show, you will be awarded the Oscar for best actor and permitted to give a 19-minute-long speech.?Where can I find the full list of winners? All the winners and losers from the 95th Academy Awards are here.Is Fox standing by its stars? So far, yes. On Thursday, Lachlan Murdoch, the eldest son, heir apparent and executive chair and chief executive of Fox Corporation, expressed support for management, its roster of stars and backed Fox News?s editorial standards.What else is happening? As Rupert Murdoch?s Fox Corporation battles to contain the Dominion lawsuit scandal that has engulfed its top executives and stars, another crisis is building that has the potential to cause further turbulence for the media empire. Continue reading...

Environmentalists and some Alaskan Native communities had opposed the plan over climate, wildlife and food-shortage fearsThe Biden administration has approved a controversial $8bn (?6bn) drilling project on Alaska?s North Slope, which has drawn fierce opposition from environmentalists and some Alaska Native communities, who say it will speed up the climate breakdown and undermine food security.The ConocoPhillips Willow project will be one of the largest of its kind on US soil, involving drilling for oil and gas at three sites for multiple decades on the 23m-acre National Petroleum Reserve which is owned by the federal government and is the largest tract of undisturbed public land in the US. Continue reading...

Girl killed sibling in family home with semi-automatic pistol but unclear if any of five adults present will face chargesIn a case that starkly illustrates the deadly consequences that the US?s permissive gun culture has on the country?s youth, a three-year-old girl accidentally shot her four-year-old sister to death in their Texas home late on Sunday, according to authorities.First responders found the slain girl while responding to an emergency call at 7.30pm about an injured minor at an apartment in suburban Houston, the local sheriff?s office said in a statement. She was there with five adults ? including her mother and stepfather ? when her younger sister grabbed a loaded semi-automatic pistol and shot her, first responders learned. Continue reading...

Police used genetic genealogy analysis of evidence collected after the body was found to find the alleged killers ? her parentsFor more than three decades, answers surrounding the grisly death of a baby girl known to them simply as Baby Doe eluded Mississippi authorities. The infant?s body was discovered inside a garbage bag in the south-western Mississippi community of Picayune on 17 April 1992.Authorities determined that someone had smothered Baby Doe and deemed her untimely death a homicide. Picayune police started to investigate, collecting evidence ? some tying the infant to neighboring Louisiana, reportedly including local newspapers ? but the case went cold. Continue reading...

Since Christmas the state has faced an exceptionally wet winter after being plagued far more by drought in recent yearsCalifornians are bracing for the arrival of another ?atmospheric river? storm on Monday after a weekend of heavy rainfall and flooding forced thousands to evacuate, washed out roads and knocked out power.Among areas hardest hit were riverfront communities in central California where numerous streams engorged by runoff of rain and melting snow from surrounding mountains were transformed into raging torrents. More than 1,500 people were ordered to evacuate from Pajaro, a northern California agricultural community, on Saturday after waters from the swollen Pajaro River breached a levee. Continue reading...