Landlord kills six-year-old Muslim boy and stabs mother in Illinois hate crime

Joseph Czuba, 71, charged with murder after stabbing tenants over a dozen times, was reportedly fueled by Israel-Hamas war

A 71-year-old man in Plainfield, Illinois, has been charged with murder and a hate crime after stabbing a child and his mother because they were Muslims.

“Detectives were able to determine that both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis,” the Will county sheriff’s office said.

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Chicago’s plan to hire controversial firm to house migrants alarms critics

GardaWorld has been investigated for safety violations and is also the same company that bussed migrants in from Texas

The mayor of Chicago is at loggerheads with fellow progressives and his own Democratic state governor over the city’s choice of a vexed company to erect controversial tents for asylum seekers during the bitter midwest winter – as wider tensions rise on the left at the local and national level over migration policy chaos.

While the city’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, and the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, are divided over how to house thousands of migrant families currently sleeping inside and outside Chicago police stations, the two are united in fury at lack of emergency funding coming from Joe Biden’s White House.

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At least 1,000 birds died from colliding with one Chicago building in one day

McCormick Place, the largest convention center in North America, is largely covered with glass, making it a lethal obstacle for birds

At least 1,000 birds died from colliding into a single building in Chicago on Thursday, 5 October, as they migrated south to their wintering grounds. Volunteers are still recovering bird carcasses within 1.5 miles of McCormick Place, the largest convention center in North America, which is largely covered with glass.

“It’s the tip of an iceberg but it’s it’s a huge, huge amount of birds we found both dead and injured,” said Annette Prince, director of Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, adding that this was the highest number of bird strikes that the group recorded from the grounds of one building in a single day.

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Five people killed after truck carrying toxic substance overturns in Illinois

Two children among confirmed dead as authorities evacuate area and work to contain anhydrous ammonia leaking from tanker

Five people, including two children, are confirmed to have died after a semitruck carrying a toxic substance overturned in Illinois, releasing a cloud of ammonia that prompted the evacuation of area residents, authorities said on Saturday.

Kim Rhodes, the Effingham county coroner, confirmed to the station WCIA that the fatalities were a result of Friday night’s accident in Teutopolis, Illinois.

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Three-year-old asylum seeker dies after being bussed from Texas to Chicago

From Venezuela, the child died at a local Illinois hospital on Thursday evening after showing signs of illness

A three-year-old girl from Venezuela being transported to Chicago from Texas by bus with other migrants died at a local Illinois hospital after showing signs of illness, the Texas department of emergency management said on Friday.

“Once the child presented with health concerns, the bus pulled over and security personnel on board called 9-1-1 for emergency attention,” the TDEM said in a written statement.

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Millions on alert as wildfire smoke from Canada to spread to US

Officials issue air quality advisories across US and with nearly 900 forest fires – many of them ‘out of control’ – burning to the north

As they did last month, wildfires in Canada are again expected to spread increased air pollution to the US this week, as millions in the country are under air quality advisories.

About 70 million people could be under air quality alerts as wildfire smoke from western Canada spreads to parts of the northern US and as far south as Alabama, CNN reported.

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Tornadoes halt Chicago air traffic as residents urged to seek shelter

At least eight tornadoes hit north-eastern Illinois, with no immediate reports of injuries

Tornadoes and thunderstorms battered the Chicago area on Wednesday, forcing airports to halt air traffic and prompting officials to advise residents to seek shelter as tornado sirens echoed through the third largest US city.

The National Weather Service reported that a tornado touched down near Chicago’s O’Hare international airport on Wednesday evening – one of at least eight tornadoes to hit north-eastern Illinois, including four in Cook county.

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Biden decries gun violence as shootings across US mar Fourth of July festivities

At least 15 people shot dead across the country in mass shootings so far on the holiday weekend celebrating the US’s independence

A long holiday weekend of bloodshed has intensified after a heavily armed gunman in a bulletproof vest opened fire on the streets of Philadelphia on the eve of Fourth of July celebrations, in yet another mass shooting in the US, killing five people and wounding two boys before surrendering to the police.

Across the country, Texas was entering the holiday to news that another shooting had killed three people, in Fort Worth, occurring just before midnight amid a gathering in a parking lot that also wounded eight.

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Millions swelter under extreme heat as climate crisis tightens grip on US – live

Heat dome of high pressure hovers over Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma as thousands remain without power in Chicago with heavy rains knocking down trees and power lines

The heating of the earth’s atmosphere and oceans by the burning of fossil fuels made the current extreme heatwave across the us at least five times more likely, according to a recent analysis by Climate Central, a climate science non-profit.

The rolling heatwave marks the latest in a series of recent extreme “heat dome” events that have scorched various parts of the world.

If you have this sort of high-pressure system sitting stationary over a region, you can have these really impressive heatwaves.

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At least 38 people shot, including two fatally, at weekend in US

There have been more than 305 mass shootings in the US so far this year as of Sunday morning

At least 38 people were shot – including two fatally – in three different mass shootings reported Saturday and Sunday in separate parts of the US, according to officials.

One minor was killed and nine others were wounded in a shooting in a building in downtown St Louis, Missouri, about 1.45am Sunday, the local television station KMOV reported. The name of the slain victim wasn’t immediately available, and information on the conditions of the wounded wasn’t released right away either.

Associated Press contributed reporting

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Deadly storms and tornadoes kill at least 29 people in several US states

Monster storm system struck at least eight states over the weekend, prompting at least 50 preliminary reports of tornadoes

As many as 29 people have been killed after a slew of tornadoes tore through parts of the southern and midwestern US in recent days, leaving immense destruction and debris in its path, according to officials.

A monster storm system struck at least eight states over the weekend, prompting at least 50 preliminary reports of tornadoes. The states affected include Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Delaware and Alabama.

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Mississippi tornado: death toll of 25 highest in the state in 21st century

Fatalities from tornado the worst in 50 years, with more severe storms expected in the region on Sunday

Devastating storms and at least one large tornado which ripped through rural Mississippi on Friday night left 25 people dead in the state, dozens injured and rescue workers hauling people from rubble throughout Saturday, as the state reeled from its highest tornado-related death toll in decades.

Severe weather pounded several southern states overnight as the centers of destruction emerged on Saturday morning as the small, majority Black towns of Rolling Fork and Silver City in the Mississippi delta.

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Highland Park shooting suspect’s father faces charges for sponsoring son’s gun license

Robert Crimo Jr was charged with seven felony counts of reckless conduct for helping his son obtain a license in December 2019

The father of the 19-year-old accused of killing seven people at a July 4 parade near Chicago has been charged with seven felony counts of reckless conduct, as a result of sponsoring his son’s application for a gun license in 2019.

The charges against Robert Crimo Jr were announced on Friday, and the Lake county state’s attorney, Eric Rinehart, said he surrendered to police and will have a bond hearing Saturday.

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Florida governor Ron DeSantis will fly migrants to Illinois and Delaware

Spokesperson confirms plan to continue with immigration stunts which have attracted investigations and lawsuits

The Republican governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, plans to continue flying undocumented migrants to Democratic strongholds, his spokeswoman said on Saturday, a day after released records showed the state paid nearly $1m to arrange two sets of flights to Delaware and Illinois.

Documents released on Friday showed that the planned flights will transport about 100 migrants. They were scheduled for before 3 October but were halted or postponed. The contractor hired by Florida extended the window for the trips until 1 December, according to memos released by the state transportation department.

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Tylenol murders: daughter tells of toll of unsolved killings, 40 years on

Seven people died in 1982 after taking painkillers from bottle someone – police do not know who – had slipped cyanide pills into

Forty years after the infamous Tylenol murders killed her father and two other close relatives, a Wisconsin woman refuses to take the popular pain pills.

Kasia Janus also always verifies products are properly sealed before she buys anything at stores, she said in a recently published series of interviews with CNN that described the gut-wrenching legacy left behind for her by the unsolved Tylenol killings, which made tampering with medications as well as other consumer goods a federal crime but remain unsolved.

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Taliban release American engineer Mark Frerichs in prisoner swap

Navy veteran exchanged for Bashir Noorzai, who had been held in US since 2005 on drugs charges

The Taliban have freed an American engineer in exchange for an Afghan tribal leader linked to the group whom the US had held on drugs charges since 2005.

Mark Frerichs was exchanged at Kabul airport for Bashir Noorzai, the acting Taliban foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, told a news conference in the Afghan capital.

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Monkeypox cases appear to be declining in some large US cities

Experts say the trend in New York, Chicago and San Francisco appears to be linked to immunity and behavior changes

Monkeypox cases in some large US cities appear to be declining, matching trends seen in Europe, and experts are cautiously optimistic the outbreak may have peaked in places hit hardest by the virus.

The optimism comes just as US officials on Friday said there’s enough of a supply of monkeypox vaccine available now – though the shots aren’t getting to some of the people who need the protection the most.

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Highland Park mass shooting suspect charged with 117 felony crimes

Robert Crimo, 21, accused of killing seven and wounding dozens in Fourth of July attack in Chicago suburb, indicted by grand jury

The man accused of opening fire on an Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago, killing seven, has been indicted by a grand jury on 117 felony charges.

The indictment included 21 first-degree murder counts, 48 counts of attempted murder and 48 counts of aggravated battery, representing the seven people killed and dozens wounded in the attack on the Fourth of July event in Highland Park, Illinois.

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Highland Park suspect’s father to be investigated for signing gun application

Robert Crimo Jr denies any responsibility for the attack, saying ‘I had no – not an inkling, warning – that this was going to happen’

The father of the Highland Park gunman will be criminally investigated in connection with the Independence Day attack for signing an affidavit supporting his son’s application for a gun license, police said.

Robert Crimo Jr, the father of Robert Crimo III – who is suspected of killing seven people at a Fourth of July parade in a suburb of Chicago – sponsored his son’s firearm owner application in 2019.

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Highland Park shooting: police say suspect used women’s clothing disguise

YouTube has taken down page belonging to man in custody, while Instagram and Twitter have terminated his accounts

Seeking clues for a possible motivation, police were combing through the social media profile and published songs of the alleged attacker in the shooting that left at least six dead and 30 wounded in a Chicago suburb on the Fourth of July.

Robert E Crimo III, 22, was detained hours after the shooting Monday as a person of interest in the case, said the police chief of Highland Park, Illinois. Investigators have stopped short of calling Crimo a suspect, but on Tuesday they described finding evidence that he disguised himself in “women’s clothing” before opening fire on strangers with a high-powered rifle styled after an AR-15.

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