US winter is likely to be wetter and warmer, forecasters say, with more snow in the south

El Niño will likely shift weather patterns to bring more rain, but much snow still isn’t forecast for the northern sates

Winter in the United States looks like it will generally be wetter and warmer, but not necessarily snowier, according to the federal government’s seasonal outlook and other meteorologists’ forecasts. You can thank or blame El Niño.

El Niño is likely to shift weather patterns to bring more moisture, but with it higher temperatures. That should help erase persistent western drought, but it is unlikely to make northern snow-lovers happy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said on Thursday.

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Hurricane Isaias barrels toward Gulf coast as category 3 storm

States of emergency declared in Alabama, Florida and Mississippi, where residents prepare for ‘long-duration power outages’

Isaias strengthened into a category 3 hurricane on Friday morning as it barreled toward the US Gulf coast, where states of emergency have been declared in Alabama, Florida and Mississippi.

The hurricane, the first in the Atlantic in what has turned into a very late 2026 season, is expected to cause a “life-threatening storm surge”, officials said. Isaias is forecast to make landfall on Friday night, somewhere along the Alabama-Florida line with surging seas up to 7ft (2.1 meters) and waves as high as 30ft (9.1 meters).

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Shop clerk and son charged with selling illegal kratom after two Ole Miss students die from suspected overdoses

Aidan Hamilton and Robert Strang died after apparently ingesting kratom product last month

Federal authorities investigating the recent deaths of two University of Mississippi students have charged a store clerk and his son with selling an illegal kratom product, prosecutors announced on Friday.

A drug taskforce in Mississippi had previously urged people to avoid kratom, an herbal substance that acts as a stimulant at low doses and a sedative at high doses, after authorities found packages of kratom derivatives while investigating the deaths on 21 September.

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Third person arrested in death of Tasia Fortune, as police say hanging was staged

Eric Clark, 45, charged with murder as autopsy concludes Fortune was dead days before body discovered in tree

A third person has been arrested in the death of 29-year-old Tasia Fortune in Mississippi’s capital city, while investigators said they had determined the scene where her body was found hanging had been staged.

Eric Clark, 45, surrendered to authorities on Friday and was charged with murder, according to the Jackson police department (JPD). Clark was scheduled to make a court appearance on Monday.

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Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump releases data from Nolan Wells’ cellphone

Messaging ‘very telling’, says Crump after grand jury said it found no evidence of criminal conduct in teen’s death

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump released information from a forensic examination of Nolan Wells’ cellphone as well as details of the official autopsy on Thursday, just days after a Mississippi grand jury said it found no evidence of criminal conduct in the teen’s death.

Attorneys representing the 18-year-old Black college student’s family have called for transparency, asking that the grand jury investigative materials and the official autopsy report be publicly released.

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Mississippi police say more arrests to come in death of woman found hanging from tree

Officials still investigating death of Tasia Fortune, a Black woman, a day after man’s arrest in relation to killing

Mississippi police said on Saturday they were still investigating the death of Tasia Fortune, a Black woman found hanging from a tree last month, a day after a man was arrested in connection with the killing.

Loved ones also painted a picture of Fortune as a mother, athlete and woman of faith who they hoped would not solely be remembered for her horrific death.

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US federal court says no constitutional right to clean water in Mississippi case

Appeals court dismisses lawsuit from Jackson residents claiming that tainted drinking water violated their rights

A US appellate court has decided that the federal constitution does not guarantee a right to clean water.

That legal opinion came in the form of a decision on Friday from the fifth circuit court of appeals to uphold a lower court’s dismissal of a 2022 lawsuit from several Jackson, Mississippi, residents claiming that tainted drinking water violated their constitutional rights.

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Cassandra Wilson, Grammy-winning jazz singer, dies aged 70

Mississippi-born Wilson, who worked across folk, pop, R&B and country, was once dubbed America’s best singer

Cassandra Wilson, the two-time Grammy-winning jazz singer, songwriter and producer has died. She was 70.

Dubbed America’s best singer by Time magazine in 2001, Wilson was best known for her genre-bending voice, which expanded the boundaries of traditional blues-based jazz and worked effortlessly across folk, pop, R&B, country and beyond. At the heart of all her work was her idiosyncratic contralto, a soulful sound distinctly tied to her roots.

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Massive egg recall in US south and south-west due to salmonella outbreak

About 1.6m dozen eggs from Texas recalled amid one of the largest recorded foodborne illness outbreaks in US history

A massive egg recall affecting nearly 1.6m dozen eggs has been elevated to the US Food and Drug Administration’s highest-risk warning as officials investigate a salmonella outbreak that has sickened nearly 100 people.

The FDA on 12 August reclassified the recall of nearly 1.6m dozen white and brown cage-free eggs over concerns they may be contaminated with salmonella.

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Tropical Storm Bertha expected to weaken as it moves toward US

Storm warnings stretch from Florida to Louisiana as Bertha brings heavy rain, flooding risk and possible tornadoes

Tropical Storm Bertha strengthened in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday but was expected to weaken this week as it chugs closer to the US, potentially bringing coastal flooding and heavy rain from the Florida Panhandle to Louisiana.

Those areas along the northern Gulf coast were under a tropical storm warning through Wednesday and could see rain and flooding into Thursday morning, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said. New Orleans also was under a tropical storm warning.

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What happened to Nolan Wells? Family seeks answers two weeks after 18-year-old’s death

Investigation continues after college freshman was found dead on Mississippi island after 4 July boat trip with friends

Two weeks after Nolan Xavier Wells was found dead, his family is still searching for answers.

On 4 July, Wells, an 18-year-old Mississippi college freshman, and a group of friends took a boat out to Horn Island, a barrier island a few miles off the Mississippi Gulf coast.

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Family pleads for answers in death of young Black man in Mississippi

Body of Nolan Wells, 18, found after he traveled to Horn Island over Fourth of July weekend with three white friends

A mother on Friday pleaded for anyone to come forward with information about what happened to ⁠her son, Nolan Wells, a young Black man whose body was found on an island off the coast of Mississippi after he traveled there over the Fourth of July weekend with three white friends.

“We just want ⁠to know what happened and ⁠why our baby ​didn’t come home,” Christine Wonsley, choking back tears, said at a news conference about her son.

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At least 25 people die in US as record heatwave scorches swaths of country

More than 20 states reported temperatures above 100F as heat dome sits over eastern US during holiday weekend

At least about two dozen people have died amid the perilous climate crisis-driven heatwave that has scorched swaths of the US with record temperatures.

As a huge heat dome sits over the county’s eastern half, extreme heat gripped millions of people in the days leading up to the US’s semiquincentennial on Saturday – and beyond it. More than 20 states experienced have reported stifling temperatures more than 100F (38C), marring celebrations. And more than 140 million people remained under active heat alerts across the US on Sunday.

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One-year-old killed and woman injured after Mississippi police shoot at car

Child was fatally shot and his mother’s friend is wounded after Senatobia police responded to shoplifting call

A one-year-old boy is dead and another person wounded after a northern Mississippi police officer shot at a vehicle while responding to a shoplifting call, according to authorities and the child’s grandfather.

Kohen Wiley, the slain child, was in the car at the center of the shooting on Sunday alongside his mother and her friend, said Marquell Bridges, a local community advocate.

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Lab monkeys on loose after Mississippi crash were disease-free, university says

Three monkeys remain at large and are being searched for, officials said after initially reporting they were infectious

A group of monkeys being transported on a Mississippi highway that escaped captivity on Tuesday after the truck carrying them overturned did not carry a dangerous infectious disease, a university has said.

The truck was carrying rhesus monkeys, which typically weigh around 16lb (7.7kg) and are among the most medically studied animals on the planet.

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Potentially diseased lab monkey on the loose after truck crash in Mississippi

Several rhesus monkeys escaped after the interstate crash, but all but one were reportedly ‘destroyed’ by late Tuesday

A group of potentially diseased lab monkeys escaped after a vehicle crash on a main interstate highway in Mississippi.

A truck carrying rhesus monkeys was involved in a wreck on Interstate 59 on Tuesday afternoon, according to a Facebook post from the Jasper county sheriff’s department.

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Four people arrested after shooting in Mississippi town that left six dead

Three charged with murder and one with attempted murder following shooting in Leland after school football game

Three people have been arrested on murder charges – and a fourth person on an attempted murder charge – in a weekend shooting that left six dead and more than a dozen injured in a small Mississippi town, the FBI announced on Monday.

Teviyon L Powell, 29, William Bryant, 29, and Morgan Lattimore, 25, have been charged with capital murder, while Latoya A Powell, 44, has been charged with attempted murder in the mass shooting, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Jackson field office said.

Guardian staff contributed reporting

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Gun used in Emmett Till’s lynching is on display at museum 70 years later

Mississippi museum announces display on anniversary of boy’s murder, a pivotal moment in civil rights movement

The gun used in the lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till is now on display for the public to see, 70 years after the killing.

The Mississippi Department of Archives and History unveiled the .45-caliber pistol and its holster during a news conference on Thursday, which is the 70th anniversary of Till’s murder.

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Novelist Greg Iles, ‘master of southern US gothic crime-writing’, dies aged 65

Author of Natchez Burning trilogy had battled blood cancer for decades, according to his literary agent

Greg Iles, the Mississippi author of the Natchez Burning trilogy and other works, has died. He was 65.

Iles died on Friday after a decades-long battle with the blood cancer multiple myeloma, his literary agent, Dan Conaway, posted on Saturday on Facebook.

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Eastern US swelters from heatwave as high temperatures affect half of country

Heat and humidity are stretching east from the Mississippi River valley, and some areas could see heat indices of 120F

The eastern half of the US is facing a significant heatwave, with more than 185 million people under warnings due to intense and widespread heat conditions on Monday.

The south-east is likely to endure the most dangerous temperatures as the extreme heat spread across the region on Monday, spanning from the Carolinas through Florida. In these areas, heat index values (how hot it feels once humidity is accounted for) are forecast to range between 105 and 113F (40.5 to 45C).

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