Floods, tornadoes, heat: more extreme weather predicted across US

Over a third of Americans under extreme heat warnings as Vermont, still recovering from historic flooding, prepares for more storms

The US is bracing for more extreme weather from coast to coast, with a heatwave hitting California, tornados in the midwest and the east expecting more rain as it continues to reel from historic flooding.

Residents of Vermont, still suffering from an onslaught of dangerous weather in recent days, are preparing for another round of severe storms in the area beginning as early as Thursday night.

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US army grounds all aviation units for training after fatal helicopter crashes

Suspension comes after 12 soldiers die within a month in two crashes in Alaska and Kentucky

The US army has grounded aviation units for training after 12 soldiers died in helicopter crashes in Alaska and Kentucky in the last month.

The suspension was effective immediately, with units being grounded until they complete the training, the army spokesperson Lt Col Terence Kelley said.

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Mayor says Louisville shooter’s rifle ‘will be back on the streets’ under state law

Kentucky law requires officers to send assault-style rifle used in shooting to state police officials to sell at auction

The mayor of Louisville has said Kentucky law would make him a criminal if he destroys the assault-style rifle used by a gunman in Monday’s killing of five bank employees in his city.

An emotional Craig Greenberg was speaking Tuesday at a lunchtime press conference during which police revealed the killer – an employee at the Old National Bank who also wounded eight others, including two critically – bought the weapon legally six days previously.

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Fifth victim dies in Louisville bank shooting

The attacker, who livestreamed the shooting, was killed by police but not before he injured eight others

A Louisville bank employee armed with a rifle opened fire at his workplace on Monday morning, killing five people – including a close friend of Kentucky’s governor – while livestreaming the attack on Instagram, authorities said.

Police arrived as shots were still being fired inside Old National Bank and killed the shooter in an exchange of gunfire, Louisville metro police department chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said. The city’s mayor, Craig Greenberg, called the attack “an evil act of targeted violence”.

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Two US army Black Hawk helicopters crash on training mission in Kentucky

Status of crew members not immediately known but Kentucky governor says deaths are expected

The governor of Kentucky has said deaths are expected after two US army Black Hawk helicopters crashed during a routine training mission over the state.

The status of the crew members was not immediately known, the US army’s Fort Campbell said in a statement to Reuters, without providing the number of people who were onboard.

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Louisville police discriminate against Black people: report’s key findings

Officers used excessive force and failed to protect Black residents, a report launched following the death of Breonna Taylor has found

A report published by the US justice department following the botched police raid that killed Breonna Taylor has found that Louisville’s Metro police department routinely engaged in a pattern of excessive force that deprived people of their rights.

The litany of abuses revealed in the report comes amid a reckoning in the US with the brutality and racism of American policing.

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Louisville singer born in refugee camp wins Nepal’s The Voice

Karan Rai prepares for international tour after victory on TV singing competition

Capping off a remarkable journey that began with his birth in a refugee camp in Nepal, a man from Louisville, Kentucky, recently emerged as champion of the Nepali version of the singing competition The Voice.

Karan Rai’s dramatic rise as the south Asian nation’s latest singing sensation was chronicled Friday in the Louisville Eccentric Observer alternative weekly newspaper, which declared his story “a classic humble-beginnings epic”.

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US barber hailed as ‘hero’ for rescuing man from car that burst into flames

The Kentucky man was on vacation in Las Vegas when he laid it all on the line to help a man in a car crash

Justin Mouser had left behind his barber shop in western Kentucky to vacation in Las Vegas last week when he ended up risking it all to pull a man out of a crashed car that burst into flames.

Now, the Sin City’s police department is hailing the tourist as a hero.

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‘It never stops’: killings by US police reach record high in 2022

Law enforcement killed at least 1,176 people or about 100 people a month last year, making it the deadliest for police violence

US law enforcement killed at least 1,176 people in 2022, making it the deadliest year on record for police violence since experts first started tracking the killings, a new data analysis reveals.

Police across the country killed an average of more than three people a day, or nearly 100 people every month last year according to Mapping Police Violence. The non-profit research group maintains a database of reported deaths at the hands of law enforcement, including people fatally shot, beaten, restrained and Tasered.

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Man who plays dead on TikTok gets new life as corpse on TV crime show

Josh Nalley specialized in pretending to be a lifeless body on social media – then CSI: Vegas came calling

A man from Kentucky who plays dead on TikTok has finally caught the attention of CSI: Vegas after the crime show decided to cast him as an “un-alive body”.

Josh Nalley from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, is the owner of the TikTok account @living_dead_josh where, since last October, he has featured hundreds of videos in which he mimics a corpse.

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Kentucky man seeking parole says he still hears voices that led to school shooting

Michael Carneal was 14 years old in 1997 when he fired on a prayer group, killing three; his request has been delayed until Monday

A Kentucky man who killed three students and wounded five in a school shooting 25 years ago told a parole panel on Tuesday he was still hearing voices like the ones that told him to steal a pistol and shoot into a high school lobby in 1997.

The two-person panel hearing Michael Carneal’s testimony deferred a decision until Monday, when the entire state parole board could grant his parole request, defer his next parole decision or determine that he must spend the rest of his life in prison.

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Breonna Taylor death: former detective to plead guilty to federal charges

Kelly Goodlett plea means prosecutors to secure first conviction in case that ignited widespread protests following March 2020 killing

A former Louisville detective is planning to plead guilty to federal charges filed against her in the police killing of Breonna Taylor, leaving prosecutors on the verge of securing their first conviction in a case that ignited months of racial justice protests in Kentucky’s largest city.

The ex-detective in question, Kelly Goodlett, is one of four white current and former Louisville police officers the US justice department last week charged with civil rights violations in the 2020 shooting death of Taylor, who was Black.

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White House warns of ‘intensifying impacts of climate change’ as Biden tours flood-hit Kentucky – live

On Joe Biden’s visit to flood-ravaged eastern Kentucky today he is not just viewing the effects through the lens of a disaster needing federal assistance but also through the lens of the climate crisis that is making events like this more intense, more common and more deadly, in America and around the world.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre addressed the issue in her media briefing aboard Air Force One en route to Lexington with the US president and first lady Jill Biden a little earlier.

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Kentucky death toll rises to 35 from devastating flooding as hundreds still missing

More heavy rains pummel mountain communities, as Kamala Harris announces $1bn to deal with disasters from climate crisis

Heavy rain has pummeled Kentucky once again, raising fears of further devastating flooding that has already killed 35 people, with hundreds more still missing.

Another round of rainstorms hit inundated mountain communities on Monday as more bodies emerged from the sodden landscape, and the state’s governor warned that high winds could bring falling trees and utility poles.

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Kentucky grapples with effect of climate crisis as floods leave trail of devastation

Heatwaves are getting ‘more dangerous and deadly’ from climate change as catastrophic flash flooding leaves at least 28 people dead

As the flash floods in Kentucky claim lives and continue to leave behind a trail of devastation, residents and officials in the state are increasingly grappling with the costly impacts of the climate crisis.

Earlier this week, the state saw eight to 10 inches of rainfall in a 24-year period, marking what experts are calling a 1-in-1,000 year rain event. Amid the onslaught of rain and catastrophic flash flooding, at least 28 people have died while dozens more are reported injured.

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Catastrophic flash flooding kills 25 in Kentucky and at least a dozen missing

Kentucky governor says he expects death toll to rise and warns officials still cannot reach certain areas

Catastrophic flash flooding in eastern Kentucky has now claimed 25 lives, with at least a dozen more people reported missing, as officials in the Appalachian region attempt to calculate the cost of the worst natural disaster there in decades.

The Kentucky governor, Andy Beshear, said he expected the death toll to continue to rise in the state and warned officials still could not reach certain areas.

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At least 16 people dead after flash flooding in Kentucky

Governor Andy Beshear says he expects death toll to ‘more than double’ after record floods wipe out entire towns in state’s east

Kentucky’s governor said it could take weeks to find all the victims of flash flooding that killed at least 16 people when heavy rains turned streams into torrents that swamped towns across Appalachia.

More rainstorms were forecast to roll through in coming days, keeping the region on edge as rescue crews struggled to get into hard-hit areas that include some of the poorest places in America.

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Heavy rains in Appalachia cause flash flooding and ‘catastrophic’ damage

Rescue crews search for stranded people amid flooding, mudslides and power outages across the mountainous region

Rescue workers plucked people off rooftops above fast-rising waters on Thursday in central Appalachia, where torrential rains unleashed what Kentucky’s governor described as some of the worst flooding in state history.

One emergency official in hard-hit eastern Kentucky described the situation as “catastrophic” as water rescue crews searched for stranded people.

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Joe Biden scraps plan to nominate anti-abortion lawyer to Kentucky judgeship

Senator Rand Paul announced Friday he would not consent to Chad Meredith’s nomination, vetoing the president’s effort

After weeks of criticism from fellow Democrats and abortion advocacy groups, Joe Biden has deserted plans to nominate an anti-abortion lawyer to be a federal judge in Kentucky.

The White House said on Friday that Republican Kentucky senator Rand Paul would not be consenting to the nomination of Chad Meredith, effectively vetoing Biden’s move to put him on the bench.

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Three police die in Kentucky shooting while serving domestic violence warrant

Officers encountered ‘pure hell’ at scene, sheriff says, before man taken into custody after hours-long standoff

Three law enforcement officers were killed and five others wounded in eastern Kentucky when a man with a rifle opened fire on police attempting to serve a warrant, authorities said.

An emergency management official was also injured and a police dog was killed during the confrontation at a home in Allen, a small town in the hills of Appalachia.

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