Category Archives: US News

Ludacris sparks alarm by drinking unfiltered Alaska glacier water

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Glaciologist says ‘he’s totally fine’ after video of rapper tasting water goes viral and viewers warn of contamination

Chris “Ludacris” Bridges sparked concern from some social media followers when he knelt on an Alaska glacier, dipped an empty water bottle into a blue, pristine pool of water and drank it.

Video of the rapper-turned-actor tasting the glacial water and proclaiming: “Oh my God!” got millions of views on TikTok and Instagram. Some viewers expressed concern that he was endangering his life by drinking the untreated water, warning it might be contaminated with the parasite giardia.

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Gunman at Trump’s rally saw it as ‘target of opportunity’, FBI official says

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The shooter had done extensive research and had also searched online for events and targets

New details have come to light in the FBI’s investigation into the assassination attempt of Donald Trump, including how the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, researched and planned the attack.

In a call with journalists on Wednesday, a senior FBI official shared that the gunman had searched online for events of both the former president and Joe Biden and saw the Pennsylvania campaign rally where he opened fire last month as a “target of opportunity.”

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Australian PM caught on camera joking with senior US official over funding of Pacific policing plan

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Anthony Albanese tells journalists to ‘chill out’ over comments filmed in the wings of Pacific Islands Forum

The Australian prime minister has been caught on camera in Tonga joking with a senior US official about going “halvies” on the cost of a newly announced Pacific policing plan.

The deputy secretary of state, Kurt Campbell, appeared to suggest in the video that the US had been planning to pursue an unspecified security-related proposal but had been encouraged by Australia not to proceed.

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Joe Biden ordered Gaza pier to be built despite fears of aid experts

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Report by US Agency for International Development into $230m pier paints scathing picture of a failed project

Joe Biden declared the US intention to build a pier off the coast of Gaza as a means of delivering food despite advice to the contrary from aid experts in his administration, according to an official investigation into the ill-fated project.

A new report by the inspector general of the US Agency for International Development (USAid), which was responsible for delivering food to Gaza by the pier, paints a scathing picture of a failed project, in which political and security imperatives outweighed humanitarian considerations.

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Pulse nightclub owners will not face charges over 2016 mass shooting

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Police close investigation into Barbara and Rosario Poma over possible manslaughter linked to Florida massacre

The Orlando police department has closed its investigation into the former owners of the Pulse nightclub without filing any charges. Victims’ families and survivors of the mass shooting that killed 49 patrons at the LGBTQ+ club had asked law enforcement to investigate them for criminal culpability.

No charges will be filed against the former owners, Barbara and Rosario Poma, because probable cause did not exist for involuntary manslaughter by culpable negligence, the Orlando police said this week in an emailed statement.

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Vance attacks Biden-Harris economic record in Wisconsin rally – as it happened

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This blog is now closed. You can find all of our US elections coverage here

Mark Esper, a former defense secretary under Donald Trump, told CNN that he hoped the reported altercation between the former president’s staff and an official at Arlington national cemetery was investigated, while saying that the grounds should never be used for “partisan political purposes”:

Esper served under Trump from 2019 until shortly after the 2020 election, when Trump fired him. The former defense chief has since decried Trump as a “threat to democracy”.

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Colorado man left behind during office retreat survives night on mountain

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Injured hiker became stranded after co-workers descended without him before storm in Rocky mountains

A Colorado man survived a night on a mountain by himself – while injured – after being left behind by his co-workers during an office retreat, which rescue officials pointed out may lead to some “awkward encounters at the office in the coming days and weeks”.

Colorado’s Chaffee County Search and Rescue South (CCSAR-S) shared the hiker’s harrowing ordeal in a Facebook post earlier this week, saying that at about 9pm last Friday, it was “activated for a report of an overdue hiker”. The hiker was wearing all black on the standard route of Mount Shavano, a high mountain summit in the southern Sawatch range of the Rocky mountains.

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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway hits $1tn valuation on Wall Street

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Vast conglomerate becomes the first non-tech company to hit the major stock market milestone

The market value of Berkshire Hathaway surpassed $1tn on Wednesday, reflecting investor confidence in the conglomerate that Warren Buffett built over nearly six decades into what many consider a proxy for the American economy.

Berkshire joined six other companies, mainly from the technology sector, above $1trn: Apple, Nvidia , Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Amazon.com and Facebook parent Meta Platforms.

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‘Injured’ Missouri bald eagle actually ‘too fat to fly’ after gorging on raccoon

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X-rays show flightless bird found near Springfield was not wounded, but full of roadkill raccoon

Wildlife officials in Missouri rescued what they thought was an injured and flightless bald eagle, only to discover it had gorged itself on a roadkill raccoon and was “too fat to fly”.

The bird was spotted on the ground near the boundary of Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield in Springfield, site of the first major civil war engagement west of the Mississippi river in 1861.

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Swifties for Kamala rally raises nearly $140,000 for Harris

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Fan group holds Zoom call featuring Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand and ‘original cat lady’ Carole King

Taylor Swift has yet to publicly endorse a candidate, but some of her fanbase are already mobilizing for Kamala Harris. The Swifties for Kamala Coalition officially launched on Tuesday, raising more than $138,000 for the Democratic candidate in a virtual rally featuring Carole King and the senators Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand.

Swift, who has no affiliation with the group, was not present on the Zoom call nor involved in the event. The group has amassed about 250 million followers on social media platforms since Joe Biden dropped out of the race in late July and endorsed the vice-president.

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JD Vance attacks childless teachers in newly resurfaced remarks

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Republican vice-presidential candidate criticizes ‘leaders on the left’ and Randi Weingarten in 2021 clip

JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential candidate and US senator from Ohio, attacked teachers who do not have children in newly resurfaced remarks from 2021.

In the resurfaced clip, Vance, who was speaking at a forum held by the Center for Christian Virtue, attacks “leaders on the left” and Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, for not having children.

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Rare mosquito disease prompts Massachusetts to close public parks

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State also bug spraying in several communities due to virus that spreads to humans via bite of an infected mosquito

A rare but serious – and potentially lethal – mosquito-borne disease has prompted officials to close public parks as well as implement targeted bug spraying in several communities in Massachusetts.

Meanwhile, a resident of nearby New Hampshire has died after testing positive for the disease, eastern equine encephalitis, or EEE, according to the Associated Press.

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RFK Jr faces call for investigation into claim he chainsawed whale’s head off

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Activists say Kennedy could’ve committed felony violation for allegedly driving with whale skull strapped to car roof

His independent White House campaign has fizzled, but the flow of bizarre stories of Robert F Kennedy Jr’s unorthodox handling of the carcasses of wild mammals has experienced no similar suspension.

An environmental group is calling for a federal investigation into the former presidential candidate for an episode in which he allegedly severed the head of a washed-up whale with a chainsaw – and drove home with it strapped to his car’s roof.

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Corn sweat: crop moisture amplifies humidity and heat in US midwest

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Moisture from crops drives up already high humidity in areas where 55 million are under extreme heat alerts

You won’t believe your ears, but corn is making the extreme heat the US midwest is battling feel more intense, according to experts.

The moisture – or “sweat” – that corn and other crops release in high temperatures is contributing to the humidity in the air in the midwest US, where 55 million people have been under alerts for extreme heat in recent days. The increase in moisture pushes up dew points, making it harder for water vapor to condensate – and for it to feel cooler.

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Heat-related deaths have increased by 117% in the US since 1999 – report

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More than 21,500 US deaths over last two decades were connected to heat, top medical journal finds

As record-breaking heatwaves continue across parts of the US, a new report shows that heat-related deaths in the country rose by 117% between 1999 and 2023.

The report, released on Monday by the Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama), found that from 1999 to 2023, there have been more than 21,500 heat-related deaths recorded in the US.

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Republicans accuse Kamala Harris of flip-flopping on border wall policy

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Vice-president once called the border wall ‘un-American’ but now is trying to revive an immigration deal that funds it

Republicans have accused Kamala Harris of a policy flip-flop after she embraced an immigration crackdown that would involve expanding the controversial US southern border wall, which she once called “un-American” and “a medieval vanity project”.

Harris committed to reviving a bipartisan immigration deal that collapsed in the Senate earlier year at last week’s Democratic national convention.

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Francis Ford Coppola confirms he kissed extras on Megalopolis set

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While saying the Guardian’s report that he tried to kiss female extras was ‘totally untrue’, the director told Rolling Stone ‘they were young women I knew’

Francis Ford Coppola says that he did kiss film extras on the set of his forthcoming film Megalopolis but that “they were young women I knew”.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Coppola responded to a question about a report in the Guardian that said the director tried to kiss female extras during preparation for a “bacchanalian nightclub scene”, and that significant numbers of crew left the project during production.

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Japan says airspace violation by Chinese spy plane ‘utterly unacceptable’

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Two-minute incursion by military surveillance aircraft comes amid regional tensions in Asia-Pacific

Japan has condemned an unprecedented violation of its airspace by a Chinese military aircraft as “utterly unacceptable” and a threat to its security.

The incursion comes after repeated maritime provocations by Chinese vessels near disputed islands in the East China Sea in an escalation of regional tensions.

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Ex-Democrat Tulsi Gabbard endorses Donald Trump in 2024 presidential race

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Former 2020 Democratic candidate backs the Republican nominee and accuses Harris of ‘abuse of power’

Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman, has endorsed the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, in the US presidential election.

Gabbard, who served in the military in Iraq, ran for president in the Democratic primary in 2020. She quit the party two years later and has become a fixture at conservative conferences and in rightwing media.

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Democrats sue Georgia officials over election rules that could ‘invite chaos’

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Lawsuit alleges new rules that could let local state boards delay certification of presidential election are illegal

Democrats sued Georgia state election officials on Monday, alleging new rules that could allow local officials to delay certification of November’s presidential results were illegal.

The lawsuit was filed in the superior court of Fulton county by local Georgia Democratic politicians, the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic party of Georgia. It says the rules approved by the Republican-controlled Georgia state election board this month were intended to give individual county election officials the ability to delay or cancel the certification of votes.

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