Family of US man who died on Six Flags ride question if death was preventable

Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem died after reportedly ‘passing out’ and falling off Goliath rollercoaster in Georgia

The family of a man who was ejected from a rollercoaster at a Six Flags amusement park in Georgia and died has publicly questioned whether the death could have been prevented.

Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem was riding the Goliath rollercoaster at Six Flags Over Georgia near Atlanta alongside his niece during a family trip to celebrate her birthday when he was thrown from the ride. His niece witnessed her uncle’s death, a relative told the Atlanta ABC News affiliate WSB-TV.

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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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Thousands without power in Florida and Alabama as Isaias moves north

At least four deaths linked to storm amid warnings of flash flooding that could stretch into Appalachians

As what was left of Hurricane Isaias moved north on Sunday, bringing moderate to heavy rainfall across the central Appalachians and the mid-Atlantic region, nearly 396,000 customers across the Florida Panhandle and southern Alabama remained without power.

Heavy rainfall associated with the storm could bring isolated flash flooding and strong wind gusts and remain a threat across the south-eastern US, especially near the southern Appalachians, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). That could bring scattered power outages and downed trees and power lines. Life-threatening surf and rip current conditions were expected to continue along the Gulf and south-eastern Atlantic coasts.

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Key things to know about Hurricane Isaias as millions under evacuation orders

The hurricane is first in the Atlantic in what has turned into a very late season. Here’s what forecasters are saying about where Isaias will hit and how hard

Hurricane Isaias, which made landfall on the US Gulf coast Friday night, was forecast to bring a dangerous storm surge, significant rainfall, flooding and strong winds across the US Gulf coast this weekend. Millions of people across several states, including Florida, Georgia and Alabama, were under evacuation orders as officials prepared for the storm. All three states issued states of emergency.

The hurricane, the first in the Atlantic in what has turned into a very late 2026 season, made landfall as a category 2 storm, with sustained winds of 105 mph.

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Mass shootings leave two people dead in Georgia and 12-year-old girl dead in Baltimore

At least 25 injured at block party shooting in Georgia and three wounded in Baltimore park shooting, officials say

Two people were killed and at least 25 others injured when a shooting erupted at a homecoming block party in Vienna, Georgia, early on Sunday, according to authorities.

In another high-profile mass shooting in the US over the weekend, a 12-year-old girl was shot and killed and three other people were wounded after gunfire evidently broke out over a parking spot in a Baltimore park on Saturday, officials said.

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As AI images become common, the threat to elections draws alarm: ‘How will voters know what’s true?’

Deepfakes and misinformation driven by artificial intelligence have become a point of deep concern for legislators, advocates and the public

An image of College Park, Georgia mayor Bianca Motley Broom kissing a man – who was not her husband – in a bar spread far and wide on Facebook. The fact that it’s fake is spreading faster, now, but only after it had been seen by thousands of people.

“I think this is a sad commentary about where we are in our democracy, and where we are in our political discourse,” Motley Broom said. “It also seeks to reinforce really tired stereotypes about women in leadership.”

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Two giant pandas arrive in Atlanta from China after Xi-Trump summit

Ping Ping and Fu Shuang to live at Atlanta zoo in Georgia as part of loan deal between Chinese and US governments

Two giant pandas from China arrived in Atlanta, Georgia, on Sunday morning as part of an agreement between the Chinese and American governments.

While in Washington DC for a three-day summit with Donald Trump, Chinese president Xi Jinping announced that the pandas would arrive in Atlanta in the coming days. The loan of the pandas to the Atlanta zoo was one of the few concrete outcomes to come out of Xi’s state visit with the US president, which saw expressions of goodwill between the leaders, but no fixes to any of the longstanding differences between the two countries.

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Texas kills man by lethal injection in state’s fifth execution this year

LeJames Norman, 40, killed at Huntsville penitentiary while scheduled execution in Georgia halted by judge

A man convicted over the shooting deaths of three people was executed on Wednesday in Texas, while another execution scheduled for the same time in Georgia was halted by a judge.

It’s the fifth execution in Texas this year. Georgia has yet to put anyone to death this year. The nation’s busiest death chamber is in Florida, which accounted for more than half the 25 executions already carried out in the US this year.

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Georgia city removes 23-year-old mayor after sexting and municipal funds scandal

Jayden Williams of Stockbridge alleged to have made inappropriate texts to teen and using city funds improperly

City leaders in a suburb outside Atlanta have voted to remove the youngest mayor in their community’s history amid allegations of questionable spending of municipal funds and inappropriate communications with an 18-year-old high school student.

Over the weekend, the Stockbridge, Georgia, city council voted to remove Jayden Williams, 23, from office after an hours-long hearing into allegations that included inappropriate exchanges with an 18-year-old in high school, improper purchases on a municipal government-issued credit card and mistreatment of employees.

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US man dies while discarding body of girlfriend he fatally strangled, officials say

Police found man, who died of a heart attack, next to his girlfriend by abandoned vehicle in wooded area of Alabama

A man recently died in Alabama from a heart attack while trying to discard his girlfriend’s body after fatally strangling her, according to authorities.

At the center of the unusually macabre case was Daniel Robbins, 44, and Jessica Folds, 47.

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Revolt in small Georgia town appears to ward off ICE detention center

Social Circle announces homeland security has canceled plans to convert warehouse to detain up to 10,000 people

The small town of Social Circle in rural Georgia has announced that the Department of Homeland Security has cancelled plans to turn a warehouse into what would have been one of the largest immigration detention centers in the country.

The cancellation appears to be one of seven around the country, according to reporting elsewhere, and part of a reversal under new homeland security director Markwayne Mullin in the Trump administration’s plans to buy up warehouses and boost detention capacity – after spending $1bn on the effort in recent months.

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Trump Tower in Georgia to be built on land part-owned by son of US sanctions-hit leader

Links between Trump Organization and Ivanishvili family for Tbilisi skyscraper raise new conflict of interest concerns

A Trump Tower planned for the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, is to be built on land currently part-owned by the son of the US-sanctioned leader of the country, according to official records.

The proposed skyscraper, a joint venture between a local consortium and the Trump Organization, which is managed by the US president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, will be on a plot whose current registered owner is the International Charity Fund Cartu.

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Six US states hold primaries as Trump urges Kentucky voters to oust Massie

Republican critic of president faces challenge from Ed Gallrein, while Georgia and Pennsylvania hold key contests

The biggest day of primaries yet arrives Tuesday, with voters in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Alabama, Oregon and Idaho, heading to the polls to select candidates ahead of November’s midterm elections.

While many primaries will be resolved with little drama, some have shaped up to be among the most contentious elections of the year so far, serving as gauges of Donald Trump’s control of Republicans, and the direction Democratic voters are looking to steer their party as they seek to retake control of Congress.

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Royal Opera House calls for release of Georgian bass singer jailed over democracy protests

Casting director urges Keir Starmer to intervene in case of Paata Burchuladze, 71, jailed for seven years after singing at anti-regime demonstrations

The Royal Opera House in London has urged Keir Starmer to intervene in the case of Paata Burchuladze, a world-renowned bass singer who has been imprisoned in Georgia since October on a charge of leading a coup against the country’s authoritarian leader.

The 71-year-old has performed at the Royal Opera House and the Metropolitan Opera House in New York and collaborated with the likes of Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo and José Carreras. He was arrested after joining a protest outside the presidential palace in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. Last week he was given a seven-year jail sentence which Burchuladze suggested to the court was equivalent to a life sentence given his age.

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‘Flailing’ Georgia attorney general condemned over charges for Cop City protesters

Republican Chris Carr accused of trying to revive bid for governor with indictment – ‘the last gasp of a dying man’

Georgia’s top law enforcement official has drawn accusations of using the weight of his office to lift his own political fortunes by bringing a new indictment against protesters of the Atlanta police training center known as Cop City.

Amid bluster about “holding the line against antifa”, Georgia attorney general Chris Carr announced charges against three activists late last week even as his bid to become Georgia’s Republican nominee for governor limps along, with less than double-digit support in polling ahead of a 19 May primary.

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After destroying more than 120 homes, wildfires still a danger, Georgia officials say

Blazes in US south-east have blown smoke over a wide area, and contributed to at least one death in Florida

Two wildfires in south-eastern Georgia that have destroyed more than 120 homes continued to threaten property and lives on Saturday as officials warned that strong winds could spread the flames.

The Brantley county manager, Joey Cason, called it a “dynamic situation” in a Saturday-morning video posted to social media and begged residents to “please evacuate” if they are ordered to do so.

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Massive tornado tears through homes in Oklahoma, injuring at least 10

Homes were reduced to rubble as twister touched down for 30 minutes and carved out a trail of destruction

At least 10 people were injured after a tornado hit northern Oklahoma, as a strong weather system produced a dozen reported twisters that tore destructively through parts of the central US overnight.

Emergency services began assessing the most extensive damage in the rural town of Enid as dawn broke on Friday. Homes were reduced to rubble and splintered wood in the city of about 50,000 people near the state’s northern border. A number of videos showed terrifying wind funnels touching down and roaring across the land towards settlements. The largest tornado was reported to have stayed on the ground for 30 minutes, carving a snaking trail of damage.

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Georgia man charged over attacks that killed DHS worker and another woman

Killings of Lauren Bullis and woman not yet identified in ‘random’ Monday attacks draw attention of Trump officials

An Atlanta man has been charged in a string of attacks over a matter of hours that left two women dead and a man in critical condition, drawing the Trump administration’s attention after one of the victims was identified as a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employee who was walking her dog.

The killing of the DHS worker, Lauren Bullis, and shootings of the two other victims on Monday led the homeland security secretary Markwayne Mullin to issue a statement raising concerns that the 26-year-old suspect, British native Olaolukitan Adon Abel, was granted US citizenship in 2022.

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Republican to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene, but Democrats hail gains in vote

Voters pick Clay Fuller for US House over Democrat who opposes Iran war, but by smaller margin than in the past

Republican Clay Fuller supports the war in Iran. Democrat Shawn Harris opposes it. Voters in Marjorie Taylor Greene’s former district in north-west Georgia decided that this distinction was not enough to propel a Democrat into a conservative-leaning House seat on Tuesday night.

But Fuller won with 56% of the vote, against Harris’s 44%, according to the Associated Press, a result that comes after Greene secured the district by 28 points in 2024 and 32 points two years earlier. Democrats claim the swing to the left in the north-western corner of Georgia is a notable shift that’s worth celebrating.

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Luke Kornet says Atlanta Hawks’ theme night with strip club Magic City objectifies women

  • Club is popular with athletes and rappers

  • Kornet says night helps objectify women

San Antonio Spurs center Luke Kornet has called on the Atlanta Hawks to abandon their collaboration with a famous strip club.

Magic City is an Atlanta institution and been mentioned in a string of hip-hop records, as well as hosting rappers such as Drake, Lil Yachty, Migos, Jack Harlow and Future. It is also popular with athletes: past visitors have included Michael Jordan, while MLS’s Atlanta United celebrated their title at the club in 2018. The club gained widespread attention in 2020 when the Los Angeles Clippers’ Lou Williams visited the club after leaving the NBA’s quarantine bubble during the Covid pandemic.

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