Consumer price index rose 3.3% in May, as Federal Reserve is due to announce latest decision on interest rates
Inflation cooled slightly in the US last month, as consumers’ frustration over high prices continues to loom over November’s presidential election.
The consumer price index rose at annual pace of 3.3% in May, slipping back from the previous month’s reading of 3.4%.
Continue reading...Nathan’s Famous, sponsor of event, had no stomach for Chestnut’s sponsorship by plant-based meat company
America’s top professional eater, Joey Chestnut, has been excluded from entering New York City’s annual hotdog eating competition after he signed a deal with a plant-based meat company.
Chestnut, 40, the defending champion, said on X that he “was gutted to learn from the media that after 19 years” he had been “banned” from the competition, held every summer on Independence Day at Nathan’s Famous original hotdog outlet in Coney Island. “I love celebrating America with my fans all over this great country on the 4th and I have been training to defend my title,” he added.
Continue reading...Parallel reports describe serious crimes during Hamas attack and Israel’s subsequent offensive in Gaza
A UN investigation has accused Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity on and since 7 October, the date of Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel.
The allegations were contained in two parallel reports prepared by a commission of inquiry formed in 2021 by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate human rights violations in Israel and the Palestinian territories, chaired by the former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay.
Continue reading...Republicans double down on conspiracy theories after conviction of president’s son. Plus: the new forms of toxic masculinity dominating social media
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Hunter Biden was found guilty Tuesday on three felony counts relating to buying a handgun while being a user of crack cocaine. He now faces up to 25 years in prison, though such a sentence would be highly unusual given that he is a first-time offender.
How has Joe Biden responded? The president has previously said he would not pardon his son if he was convicted. On Tuesday, he said: “I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal.” He went on to deliver a gun-safety speech just hours after the verdict.
Did Hunter Biden have his family’s support during the trial? Even as Joe Biden’s presidential campaign and the White House attempted to distance themselves from the case, Hunter’s family and close friends attended the trial en masse to show their support. The first lady, Jill Biden, was seated in the Delaware courtroom behind her stepson for the first three days of the trial until leaving to attend a D-day commemoration ceremony in France.
Continue reading...Food 4 Less workers to vote on action if new deal is not reached, as employees say wages and benefits lag behind
About 6,000 grocery store workers are set to vote on strike action after the expiration of their union contract with the Kroger-owned Food 4 Less chain.
The contract with United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) expired on Saturday. Members are voting on whether to authorize a strike if a new deal is not reached, and results expected late on Friday.
Continue reading...Jonas Brothers star revealed he has had surgery for basal cell carcinoma, advising followers to get moles checked
Pop singer Kevin Jonas, a member of chart-topping trio the Jonas Brothers, has received treatment for skin cancer.
In an Instagram video, the 36-year-old singer, guitarist, actor and reality TV star said he had been diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma.
Continue reading...President sought to rally support around issue but speech was briefly interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters
Joe Biden, facing a backlash from young voters over the war in Gaza, has sought to rally support around the issue of gun safety just hours after his son Hunter was convicted of lying about his drug use to illegally buy a firearm.
Contrasted his record with election rival Donald Trump, the US president brought an audience that included many students to its feet at the Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund’s annual Gun Sense University conference in Washington on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Thousands of academic workers returned to the job after weeks-long strike and vowed more actions to come
Thousands of University of California academic workers who went on strike across six campuses protesting administrators’ response to pro-Palestinian protests returned to the job on Monday under court order, but their union vowed more protests to come.
An Orange county superior court judge late on Friday granted a temporary restraining order sought by the university, which asserted that the walkout stemmed from non-labor issues and that it violated the no-strike clause in the union’s contract.
Continue reading...Group, known as Florida Freedom Fund, launched in May and will also be involved in school board races
The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, has launched a political action committee that is targeting popular ballot amendments on abortion access and marijuana legalization that will be voted on in November.
The group, known as the Florida Freedom Fund, launched in May, Politico first reported. The committee is chaired by James Uthmeier, DeSantis’s chief of staff who was previously the Republican’s campaign manager during his unsuccessful presidential primary run.
Continue reading...Police say all four victims conscious and alert after attack at Peachtree Center, and suspect believed to be one of the four
Four people were shot at a food court in downtown Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon, including the initial shooter, the city’s mayor said.
Mayor Andre Dickens said on X that the shooting happened at the Peachtree Center food court.
Continue reading...Rightwing politicians repeat unfounded theories that gun trial verdict is a ‘distraction’ from worse Biden crimes
Republicans responded to Hunter Biden’s conviction on Tuesday of lying about his drug use to buy a gun by doubling down on conspiracy theories that many senior party figures have been using to try and damage his president father.
Despite the fact that Joe Biden’s son could now face a hefty jail sentence, Donald Trump’s election campaign and its surrogates repeated unfounded attack lines that the conviction was part of a conspiracy to deflect attention from more serious crimes and represented the use of the Department of Justice (DoJ) as a political weapon.
Continue reading...Rescue helicopter hoists man to top of cliff after a private helicopter spots sign in remote area and alerts authorities
A kite surfer was rescued after using rocks to spell out the word “help” when he became stranded on a northern California beach last weekend, authorities said.
The kite surfer got stuck Sunday on a narrow beach at the base of towering bluffs with the tide coming in, according to the California department of forestry and fire protection’s Santa Cruz unit.
Continue reading...Landmark verdict against Chiquita marks first time major US company held liable for funding human rights abuses abroad
A Florida court has ordered Chiquita Brands International to pay $38m to the families of eight Colombian men murdered by a paramilitary death squad, after the US banana giant was shown to have financed the terrorist organisation from 1997 to 2004.
The landmark ruling late on Monday came after 17 years of legal efforts and is the first time that the fruit multinational has paid out compensation to Colombian victims, opening the way for thousands of others to seek restitution.
Continue reading...Hamas was reportedly seeking some amendments to the proposal, as Antony Blinken puts pressure on both sides to accept the deal
The US has said it is “evaluating” Hamas’ formal response to its Gaza ceasefire proposal, as the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, attempts to channel global support for a UN security council resolution backing the proposal into pressure on the Palestinian militant group and Israel.
Late on Tuesday, a Hamas official said they had submitted a response to Egyptian and Qatari mediators, seeking some “amendments”, and that their priority was to bring a “complete stop” to the war. A separate Hamas spokesperson, Jihad Taha, said the response included “amendments that confirm the ceasefire, withdrawal, reconstruction and [prisoner] exchange”.
Continue reading...Group from Cornell College and a Chinese person who tried to help have non life-threatening injuries after attack in Jilin province
Four US college instructors teaching in China have been stabbed while visiting a public park, US officials have said.
The tutors from Cornell College in Iowa were at the park in Jilin province, north-eastern China, with a faculty member from Beihua University on Monday when the attack occurred, the college president Jonathan Brand said in a statement. The private college in Iowa partners with the university near Jilin City.
Continue reading...FBI chief condemns Peltier, 79, who denies killing agents on Pine Ridge reservation in 1975, as ‘remorseless killer’
Leonard Peltier, a Native American activist who has served nearly 50 years in prison for the killing of two FBI agents, was due to have his first parole hearing since 2009 on Monday, his lawyer said.
Peltier, 79, has maintained that he did not kill the FBI special agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams in 1975 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Advocates, including figures such as the late Nelson Mandela and a former prosecutor and judge involved in his case, have long said he should be freed because of what they call legal irregularities in his trial.
Continue reading...Reverend, pastor and professor, who was a close adviser to Martin Luther King Jr, dies in Los Angeles after short illness
The Rev James Lawson Jr, an apostle of nonviolent protest who schooled activists to withstand brutal reactions from white authorities as the civil rights movement gained traction, has died, his family said on Monday. He was 95.
His family said Lawson died on Sunday after a short illness in Los Angeles, where he spent decades working as a pastor, labor movement organizer and university professor.
Continue reading...Only Russia abstains in vote on plan calling for hostage and prisoner swap in six-week ceasefire leading to wider deal
The UN security council has adopted a resolution calling for Hamas to agree to a three-phase hostage-for-ceasefire proposal outlined by Joe Biden, the first time the body has endorsed a comprehensive peace deal to end the Gaza war.
A Hamas statement said the group welcomed the resolution, though it was not immediately clear if that meant the leadership in Gaza accepted the ceasefire plan.
Continue reading...Police investigating after packages worth nearly 55lb (25kg) discovered on Dauphin Island, south of Mobile
Nearly 55lb (25kg) of what appears to be cocaine recently washed up on the shores of Alabama, local police said.
The police department in the community of Dauphin Island made the discovery, saying the recovered amount was worth about $450,000. Officers then contacted the Mobile county sheriff’s office, which also has jurisdiction in the area and is investigating the situation.
Continue reading...Supporters hospitalized following rallies in Las Vegas and Phoenix, where temperatures have broken records
Dozens of Donald Trump’s supporters have been requiring medical help at his rallies in the scorching US south-west but it seems lost on him that his plans to reverse climate policies and “drill, baby, drill” for fossil fuels will only worsen extreme weather, campaigners say.
A total of 24 people at a Trump rally in Las Vegas on Sunday required medical attention due to the heat, according to the Clark county fire department, with six taken to hospital for treatment. The hospitalizations come after a further 11 people needed to be admitted to hospital for heat exhaustion as they waited for Trump to speak at a rally in Phoenix on Thursday.
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