Trump accepts RFK Jr endorsement and vows to release JFK assassination files

Ex-president takes stage with Kennedy in Arizona, hours after independent candidate suspends White House bid

Hours after being endorsed by the third-party candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr, Donald Trump said he would release “all of the remaining documents pertaining to the assassination of John F Kennedy” if he were elected president in November, as part of a proposed new commission on presidential assassination attempts, including the one that targeted him.

Speaking at a rally in Glendale, Arizona, Trump also pledged that, if elected, he would “establish a panel of top experts” that would work with Kennedy, a prominent anti-vaccine advocate, to investigate childhood health problems. The 13 July assassination attempt on Trump is already being officially investigated, including by the Secret Service and the FBI.

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Man accused of threatening to kill Trump arrested in Arizona

Ronald Syvrud, 66, taken into custody over alleged social media threat as Trump pays visit to border state

An Arizona man who was wanted after threatening over social media to kill Donald Trump was arrested on Thursday, the Cochise county sheriff’s office said.

Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, was in Cochise county on Thursday when he visited the US border with Mexico as part of his campaign.

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US pilot who took magic mushrooms and tried to cut engines says behavior ‘unfathomable’

Joseph Emerson charged with 83 counts of reckless endangerment over incident on flight to San Francisco

An Alaska Airlines pilot who attempted to shut off the engines of a passenger plane mid-flight after ingesting magic mushrooms said his actions were “unfathomable”, in some of his first public remarks after he was indicted on 83 counts of reckless endangerment.

In an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America, Joseph Emerson described the events of 22 October as “30 seconds of my life that I wish I could change, and I can’t”.

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Florida police officer charged with manslaughter over Black airman’s killing

Eddie Duran charged over death of Roger Fortson, who was shot multiple times when he opened apartment door

A Florida sheriff’s deputy is facing a charge of manslaughter with a firearm in connection with the fatal shooting of a US air force member who opened his apartment door while holding a gun.

The former Okaloosa county deputy Eddie Duran was charged on Friday in the 3 May shooting death of senior airman Roger Fortson, assistant state attorney Greg Marcille said. That is a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

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High levels of fluoride in drinking water linked to lower IQ in children

US government study finds association between high levels of fluoride exposure and potential neurological risk

A US government report expected to stir debate concluded that fluoride in drinking water at twice the recommended limit is linked with lower IQ in children.

The report, based on an analysis of previously published research, marks the first time a federal agency has determined – “with moderate confidence” – that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in children. While the report was not designed to evaluate the health effects of fluoride in drinking water alone, it is a striking acknowledgment of a potential neurological risk from high levels of fluoride.

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US and 10 Latin American states reject Nicolás Maduro’s vote certification

‘I have no doubt this election has been stolen,’ says Chile’s leftwing president after Venezuelan supreme court ruling

Ten Latin American governments and the US have said they “categorically reject” the Venezuelan supreme court’s decision to confirm Nicolás Maduro’s widely contested claim to have won re-election, with Chile’s president declaring: “I have no doubt this election has been stolen.”

Thursday’s verdict from Venezuela’s top court, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, has been widely questioned internationally from across the political spectrum.

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Modi tells Zelenskiy he is ready to work ‘as a friend’ to bring about peace deal

Indian PM says he respects and supports ‘sovereignty and territorial integrity’ of Ukraine during historic visit

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, made a historic visit to Kyiv on Friday and told Volodymyr Zelenskiy he was ready to work “as a friend” to bring about a peace deal that would end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Modi said he respected and supported Ukraine’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity”. “It is our highest priority,” he said, adding that he had told Vladimir Putin during their meeting in July that “problems cannot be resolved on the battlefield”. The war could only end through “dialogue and diplomacy”, he stressed.

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Baby in Gaza partly paralysed from polio in territory’s first case for 25 years

WHO says infant in stable condition as it prepares to vaccinate more than 640,000 children amid war

A Palestinian baby in Gaza has been partly paralysed from polio in the first case there for 25 years, amid preparations for a difficult and dangerous vaccination campaign in the midst of war.

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, confirmed that the affected infant had lost movement in his lower left leg, but was in a stable condition.

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Russian special forces free hostages taken by four men linked to Islamic State

Prisoners who carried out attack that left several guards dead at high-security jail ‘liquidated’, says national guard

Russian special forces have freed hostages taken by four men linked to the Islamic State who carried out an attack at a high-security prison in the southern Volgograd region, resulting in the deaths of several prison guards.

Russia’s national guard announced in a statement that special forces snipers “liquidated” all four hostage-takers before the colony was stormed and the hostages were freed.

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‘She was easy to love’: friends and family pay tribute to Hannah Lynch

Daughter, 18, of tech tycoon Mike Lynch was one of seven people to die when the Bayesian sank off Sicily

The 18-year-old daughter of the British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, whose body was recovered on Friday from the wreck of her father’s yacht, was “fiercely intelligent and genuinely kind” and had a promising future, friends and teachers have said.

Hannah Lynch was described as “one of the best English students in the country”. She was one of seven people, including her father, who died after his yacht Bayesian sank during a storm off the coast of Sicily on Monday.

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French leftwing leaders ‘extremely satisfied’ after Macron talks

Meeting with president in bid to break political deadlock hailed as positive even if Macron has yet to name a PM

Leaders of France’s leftwing coalition declared they were “extremely satisfied” after Emmanuel Macron launched the first of a series of tense consultations aimed at pulling together a new government.

The New Popular Front (NFP) wants the president to name its candidate prime minister to break a six-week political deadlock.

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Manslaughter charges considered as final body recovered from Sicily yacht

Coastguard confirms body of Hannah Lynch, 18, found after four-day search, bringing number of dead to seven

Prosecutors in Italy are investigating potential manslaughter charges relating to the sinking of the superyacht Bayesian as the body of Mike Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, was recovered.

The Bayesian sank off the coast of Sicily early on Monday morning when the area was hit by violent storms. Seven people died, including the British tech entrepreneur Lynch.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskiy says India supports Ukraine’s sovereignty with ‘history made’ in meeting with Modi – as it happened

Indian PM calls on Ukraine and Russia to open dialogue as soon as possible to find way out of conflict

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser in the Ukrainian president’s office, has told Reuters that Narendra Modi’s visit to Kyiv is significant because New Delhi “really has a certain influence” over Moscow.

“It’s extremely important for us to effectively build relations with such countries, to explain to them what the correct end to the war is - and that it is also in their interests,” he said.

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India should consider ban on microbeads in personal care products, researchers say

Type of microplastics used in skin exfoliators and banned in UK and US found in 45% of Indian products studied

India should consider a ban on microbeads in personal care products, in line with many other countries in the world, say researchers.

Microbeads are a type of microplastic used in cosmetic products to exfoliate the skin. After a public uproar when the plastics were highlighted in Europe a decade ago, they were banned in the Netherlands in 2014, with many other countries following, including the US in 2015 and the UK in 2018.

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Woman missing after falling into sinkhole in Kuala Lumpur

Excavator brought in as search continues for woman buried when eight metre hole opened in pavement

A woman is missing after falling into an eight metre (26ft) deep sinkhole in the Kuala Lumpur city centre on Friday after the pavement caved in, burying her, Malaysian authorities said.

It happened in the Dang Wangi area of the Malaysian capital. The local police chief, Sulizmie Affendy Sulaiman, said that based on witness accounts, the woman was walking along the pavement when the earth suddenly collapsed beneath her.

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Israeli security chief condemns ‘terrorism’ of militant settlers

Ronen Bar sparks row with letter to Netanyahu about actions of ‘hilltop youth’ being a ‘large stain on Judaism’

The head of Israel’s security agency, Shin Bet, has warned the country’s leaders that Jewish terrorism in the West Bank is out of control and has become a serious threat to national security.

Ronen Bar issued the warning in a letter to the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the attorney general and members of the Israeli cabinet, some of whom are outspoken backers of the extremist settlers responsible for the escalating violence.

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Weather tracker: 10 dead and 34,000 displaced in north-east India floods

Schools and university shut down in Tripura state after persistent heavy rain, and situation expected to worsen

Incessant rain across Tripura, a state in north-east India, has created what has been described as the state’s worst flood situation in the last three decades. Persistent heavy rain from Monday to Wednesday resulted in several rivers exceeding danger and extreme danger marks, leading to widespread flooding that has caused the deaths of 10 people as well as displacing more than 34,000.

The southern Tripura districts had the worst of the floods and the 34,000 displaced people were being sheltered in the north of the region. There were 24-hour rainfall totals on Wednesday of 375.8mm recorded in Bagafa and 324.4mm in Belonia. The flooding and heavy rain led schools to shut down on Wednesday and Thursday, while Tripura University suspended all regular classes on Wednesday. The heavy rain was caused by a low pressure system situated over Bangladesh that is slowly moving westwards into north-east India. The situation is therefore only expected to worsen, with a further 100-150mm falling through Thursday and Friday as rivers continue to remain at breaking point.

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Canadian government moves to ends nationwide rail strike

Staff to return to work and trains expected to start running in days after ministers intervene

Canada’s federal government has moved to end a nationwide rail strike that threatened to grind supply chains to a halt, less than a day after it began.

With the government saying it would force the union and rail companies into binding arbitration, picket lines came down and workers at Canadian National Railway (CN) were ordered to return to work on Friday, the Teamsters union said.

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Five children a week killed or injured in Haiti’s gang warfare

Analysis of UN data shows rising toll on children who are being caught in the crossfire, as well as recruited to kidnap, loot and murder, say aid groups

Five children have been killed or injured in Haiti for every week of the first six months of 2024, caught in the crossfire of warring gangs.

At least 131 children have been killed or injured so far this year, according to analysis of UN Data by Save the Children – up 47% on the final six months of 2023 when 89 cases were documented.

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Swedish hunters kill more than 150 brown bears in first days of annual cull

Campaigners denounce ‘pure slaughter’, which could threaten survival of entire Scandinavian population

More than 150 brown bears have been killed in the opening days of Sweden’s annual bear hunt, as controversy mounts over what conservationists have called “pure slaughter”.

The Swedish government issued 486 licences to shoot bears in this year’s hunt, equivalent to about 20% of the remaining brown bear population. This follows a record-breaking cull of 722 bears last year. By Thursday afternoon – the second day of the hunt – 152 bears had already been shot, according to Sweden’s Environmental Protection Agency.

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