Police say people had gathered at home in Florence for birthday party of 21-year-old son of homeowner
Four people were killed and three others were wounded in an early Saturday shooting at a home in northern Kentucky, police said.
The shooting suspect later died after fleeing the home and leading police on a vehicle pursuit that ended with the suspect’s car falling into a ditch, police said.
Continue reading...Andrew Fowler’s book reveals one of Australia’s most important requirements for its submarines was the ability to work alongside the US in South China Sea
One of Australia’s most important requirements for its new submarines is the ability to work alongside the United States in the South China Sea, a new book discloses.
The book by Andrew Fowler, a former investigative journalist for the ABC’s Four Corners and Foreign Correspondent programs, also predicts that Labor’s rush to embrace the Aukus pact “will haunt them for years to come”.
Continue reading...Earliest category 5 hurricane on record is 495 miles south-east of Corpus Christi, with winds near 60mph
Tropical Storm Beryl, which has already smashed its way across the Caribbean as a hurricane before slamming into the Yucatán peninsula, is intensifying once again and expected to make landfall as a hurricane for the third time along the Texas coast.
The powerful hurricane – Beryl is the earliest category 5 hurricane on record – was by early Saturday approximately 495 miles (797km) south-east of Corpus Christi, Texas. The storm is forecast to turn toward the north-west later Saturday and then north/north-westward by Sunday night.
Continue reading...Parkinson’s expert at Walter Reed medical center has visited White House eight times since August 2023 – report
Joe Biden’s doctor met with a leading Washington neurologist at the White House this year, it was reported on Saturday.
The report came after Biden on Friday ruled out taking an independent cognitive test and releasing its findings publicly, in an interview with ABC News arranged following his disastrous performance in last week’s presidential TV debate with Donald Trump.
Continue reading...Militant group gives initial backing to plan for phased deal after ‘verbal commitments’ from mediators
Hopes for a ceasefire in Gaza have risen further after reports that Hamas has given its initial approval of a new US-backed proposal for a phased deal.
Egyptian officials and representatives of the militant Islamist organisation confirmed Hamas had dropped a key demand that Israel commits to a definitive end to the war before any pause in hostilities, Reuters and the Associated Press reported.
Continue reading...House Democratic leader schedules virtual conference for Sunday as several members call for president’s withdrawal
Congressional Democrats are to hold an emergency weekend meeting to discuss Joe Biden’s tottering presidential candidacy, after a primetime television interview failed to dispel doubts triggered by last week’s debate fiasco.
Hakeem Jeffries, the Democrats’ leader in the House of Representatives, scheduled the virtual meeting for Sunday with ranking committee members, according to multiple reports, even as Biden struck a defiant posture in Friday’s interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
Continue reading...This blog has now closed. You can read our full story here
Joe Biden has cancelled his upcoming Sunday address to the National Education Association Staff Union after the country’s largest union announced a strike over unfair labor practice complaints including overtime nonpayments.
A statement released by Biden’s campaign team said:
President Biden is a fierce supporter of unions and he won’t cross a picket line. The president is still planning to travel to Pennsylvania this weekend, and we will have more details to share at a later point.
I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.
Continue reading...The president blamed his debate performance on a bad cold, said he was in fine cognitive shape, and doubled down on staying in the race
Joe Biden is pushing back against questions about whether he has the mental and physical stamina to serve another term is president, arguing, in a much-hyped Friday television interview, “I just had a bad night.”
In a pre-taped sit-down interview that aired on Friday evening, the 81-year-old president told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that he had been sick, exhausted, and had not prepared well for last week’s presidential debate with Donald Trump.
Continue reading...In appearance aimed at quelling nascent rebellion among Democrats, Biden made no big gaffes, but reviews are mixed
Joe Biden has insisted that only “the Lord almighty” could persuade him to exit the US presidential race in a potential make-or-break TV interview aimed at quelling a burgeoning rebellion in the Democratic party.
In an exchange free from major gaffes but unlikely to appease his critics, Biden was asked by George Stephanopoulos of ABC News how he would feel if he were to remain the nominee and lose to Donald Trump. “I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about,” the president replied.
Continue reading...Critics point out political roadmap for a potential second term created by ‘more than 20 officials Trump appointed’
Donald Trump is trying to claim he has “nothing to do” with Project 2025, a political roadmap created by people close to him for his potential second term.
The project, which is led by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative thinktank, seeks to crack down on various issues including immigration, reproductive rights, environmental protections and LGBTQ+ rights. It also aims to replace federal employees with Trump loyalists across the government.
Continue reading...Trump lawyer Will Scharf’s claims of prosecuting violent criminals conflicts with his record of mundane actions
A lawyer on the legal team that argued in favor of a US supreme court ruling granting Donald Trump broad criminal immunity has inflated his credentials as a violent crime prosecutor in a political beauty contest aimed at wooing the former president’s Maga supporters and becoming Missouri’s attorney general.
Will Scharf, who sat on the former’s president’s appellate team fighting charges of subversion brought by the special prosecutor Jack Smith, has burnished his crime-fighting credentials on his campaign literature as he seeks to unseat Missouri’s sitting attorney general, Andrew Bailey, in a GOP primary next month.
Continue reading...Hackers claim they obtained barcode data for hundreds of thousands of tickets to Eras tour and demand millions in ransom
Hackers claimed this week that they had obtained barcode data for hundreds of thousands of tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, demanding that Ticketmaster pay millions in ransom money or they would leak the information online.
The hacking group posted samples of the data to an online forum– ticket data on Swift’s shows in Indianapolis, Miami, and New Orleans – and alleged that it possessed an additional 30m million barcodes for other high-profile concerts and sporting events.
Continue reading...Ford F-150 came down a street ‘at a high rate of speed’, went past a stop sign, on to the sidewalk and into a park
Two people were killed and nine others injured, four critically, when a pickup truck drove into a group celebrating the Fourth of July holiday in New York City, authorities said.
A Ford F-150 came down a street “at a high rate of speed” shortly before 9pm Thursday. The truck went through an intersection and past a stop sign, drove on to the sidewalk and into Corlears Hook Park on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, said Jeffrey Maddrey, the New York police department chief, during a news conference.
Continue reading...Conservative party records its worst general election performance ever. Plus, Democratic backers pause donations
Good morning.
Labour has won a landslide UK election victory, bringing a crushing end to 14 years of rule by the Conservatives, who recorded the worst general election result in their near 200-year history. The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, will officially become prime minister later today after Rishi Sunak conceded.
A vote for Palestine. There were shock victories for several pro-Palestine independent candidates, with Jonathan Ashworth, one of Labour’s election chiefs, voted out in Leicester South, while the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn won in Islington North.
‘Will we get our money back?’ According to Reuters and the Associated Press, a call with about 40 top donors over the weekend turned tense after Biden’s campaign manager was asked whether the campaign would offer a refund if Biden does not run.
Don’t blame me, its just my brain. Hawaii’s governor, Josh Green, is reported to have asked Biden about his health yesterday. “It’s just my brain,” Biden said, in what some heard as a joke but at least one person found odd.
Continue reading...Jan Brewer has had it with election denialism – and she’s speaking out to defend poll workers across the political divide
The former governor of Arizona, once a Trump surrogate in the swing state, is now speaking up to defend the state’s elections as election denialism continues to grip Republican politics.
Jan Brewer, the Republican governor from 2009 to 2015, signed an infamous anti-immigration law, which reverberated in state politics and affected the state’s reputation for years. She was secretary of state, which oversees elections, before becoming governor.
Continue reading...Cassidy Grady’s Sunday reading series ‘Confessions’ seeks fresh avenues for creative expression in wake of pandemic
Reading nights and avant-garde literary groups are rapidly emerging as platforms for younger generations to foster community and creatively share personal narratives – and one new series is making waves in New York.
Literary events are on the rise across the US, with CNN citing that book club listings have grown 24% in 2023 from the previous year.
Continue reading...Hospitality union Unite Here hopes to do the same again in 2024 election – and this time the stakes may be even higher
America’s hospitality workers had it tough in 2020. Covid triggered mass layoffs and many wondered when – and even if – the industry would recover. But the turmoil didn’t stop the industry’s largest union from pulling off one of the most successful voter drives of the election.
As the 2024 election cycle gets into full swing, Unite Here is hoping to do the same again, and this time the stakes may be even higher.
Continue reading...Abigail Disney says choice to suspend donations is based on ‘realism, not disrespect’, and suggests Kamala Harris as an alternative
In the minutes after Joe Biden and Donald Trump stepped on to the stage for the first debate of the 2024 presidential campaign, the grand narrative of this election year shifted off its axis and, in the words of CNN’s veteran broadcaster John King, “a deep, wide and aggressive” panic set in among Democrats.
A week on, and Biden has said he isn’t going anywhere, but a trickle of major Democratic donors speaking out against the president has grown into a stream.
Continue reading...Category 3 storm with wind speeds of up to 120mph continues to wreak ‘utter devastation’ in Caribbean
Hurricane Beryl is barrelling through the Cayman Islands after causing death and destruction in Jamaica.
The British overseas territory is bearing the brunt of the hurricane, which has been causing “utter devastation” in the Caribbean since Monday, when it almost destroyed parts of Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Continue reading...President gives interviews with stations in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, calling on voters to look at his record
Joe Biden has told a radio show he “screwed up” and made a “mistake” in last week’s debate against Donald Trump, but vowed to stay in the election race, even as a series of polls show him now trailing the ex-president by about six points.
In two interviews with local radio stations in the battleground states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania on Wednesday, the president urged voters to judge him on his time in the White House.
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