Olympic gymnastics champion Mary Lou Retton has returned home after a lengthy hospital stay because of pneumonia, her daughter said on Monday.
Shaley Kelley Schrepfer, the oldest of Retton’s four daughters, posted an update on Retton’s condition on Instagram nearly two weeks after the family disclosed that the former Olympic all-around champion was in intensive care.
Continue reading...Authorities have confirmed no motives and are ‘just short’ of naming one person a suspect in murder of Samantha Woll
Detroit police officials on Monday reiterated their belief that the killing of synagogue president Samantha Woll over the weekend does not appear to be a hate crime – but have yet to describe any theory or motivation for her murder.
“Right now the evidence doesn’t take us there,” said Detroit’s police chief, James White, at a press conference on Monday. “When we talk about hate crimes, there are certain tracks they take. We’re confident that we don’t have any indication of that at this point.”
Continue reading...Tax audits and land use inquiries follow company founder announcing run for Taiwan presidency
China’s tax authorities have launched multiple investigations into the company that makes the iPhone, months after its billionaire founder announced he would run in Taiwan’s presidential elections.
Foxconn faces tax audits of its operations in China, as well as investigations into land use in two Chinese provinces, according to reports by local media.
Continue reading...Daniel Duggan’s lawyer seeks classified government material to prove US request is politically motivated
An Australian former fighter pilot accused of breaking an arms embargo by training Chinese military pilots wants access to classified government documents to demonstrate that a US request to extradite him is politically motivated, his lawyer has said.
Daniel Duggan, who became an Australian citizen in 2012, is accused of breaching US arms trafficking laws by training Chinese pilots while working at a South African flight school in the early 2010s. Duggan faces up to 60 years in prison if he is convicted.
Continue reading...Ex-president lashes out at ‘fake news’ amid reports Pratt used wealth to cultivate close relationship between the pair
Donald Trump has described Anthony Pratt, one of Australia’s richest men, as a “red haired weirdo” as he lashed out at extraordinary reports about their personal conversations.
Earlier this month, reports suggested Trump had shared top-secret details of US nuclear submarines with Pratt, an Australian billionaire who runs the paper and packaging giant Visy.
In private conversation, Pratt claims Trump had told him in 2019 of ordering an airstrike on Iranian-linked militants in Iraq, before it hit the headlines, and said that Iraq’s president had called him to complain. Pratt says Trump responded: “I [Trump] said to him [Iraq’s leader], ‘OK, what are you going to do about it?’”
Pratt said Trump also told him about a phone call he made to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy asking for him to investigate Joe Biden’s son Hunter. Trump said: “You know that Ukraine phone call, that was nothing compared to what I usually do.”
Pratt also said Trump pushed the boundaries in his dealings as president and that “he knows exactly what to say and what not to say so that he avoids jail … but gets so close to it … that it looks like to everyone that he’s breaking the law”.
Pratt boasted of paying “about a million bucks” to Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer, to attend his birthday party. Giuliani didn’t attend but the pair spoke regularly on the phone. The recordings suggest Pratt said: “Rudy is someone I hope will be useful one day.”
Pratt had made a payment to then Prince Charles of $182,000 in 2021, according to documents cited by the Nine papers, and said: “My superpower is that I am rich. So I am useful to him [Prince Charles], right?” He also said of Charles: “What I’m trying to do is network with people who can be useful. Prince Charles said when he introduced me to Camilla, ‘He’s [Pratt] been very useful.’ And I thought, that’s an insult. And then I thought, it is better than being irrelevant” and “I see him as an undervalued political stock. It is just that he is a laughing stock now. But when he is king, [they] won’t be laughing.”
Pratt made consulting payments to former Australian prime ministers Tony Abbott and Paul Keating. Abbott was hired after losing his seat in 2019 on a retainer of $8,000 a month, the Nine newspapers reported, and Keating was receiving $25,000 a month.
Continue reading...Taylor Swift’s concert movie, now the biggest of all time, continues to dominate US box office despite release of Martin Scorsese’s anticipated crime drama
In a movie match-up almost as unlikely as Barbie and Oppenheimer, Martin Scorsese took on Taylor Swift in cinemas over the weekend. And while the US box office belonged for a second time to Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon got off to a strong start in Apple Studios’ first major theatrical gambit.
After a record-breaking opening weekend in North America of $92.8m, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour took in an estimated $31m over the weekend from 3,855 locations, according to AMC Theaters. In an unconventional deal, the theater chain is distributing Swift’s concert film, and playing it only Thursdays through Sundays.
Continue reading...Moderate, whose opposition to former president had cost her a congressional seat, considers a 2024 presidential run
Donald Trump is “the single most dangerous threat” the US faces as he seeks a return to the Oval Office, according to Liz Cheney, the moderate Republican whose opposition to her party leader’s presidency had cost her a congressional seat she held for six years.
“He cannot be the next president because if he is, all of the things that he attempted to do but was stopped from doing by responsible people … he will do,” Cheney – the daughter of former congressman, defense secretary and vice-president Dick Cheney – said on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. “There will be no guardrails. And everyone has been left warned.”
Continue reading...Officials say they have found no proof of antisemitism as Samantha Woll killing brings wave of grief to Jewish and Democratic circles
A funeral was held on Sunday for the president of a Detroit synagogue who was killed over the weekend, as police searched for a motive.
Samantha Woll, an adviser to Democratic politicians and president of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, was found stabbed to death outside her home in the Lafayette Park neighborhood of Detroit on Saturday.
Continue reading...Nine congressmen had registered by Sunday’s noon deadline following Jim Jordan’s failed bid to claim the gavel
After more than two weeks of failing to choose a speaker, Republicans in the US House plan to reconvene on Monday to begin the process of nominating a third candidate to try to get the 217 votes needed to secure the speakership.
So far, Steve Scalise, the No 2 Republican in the House, and Jim Jordan, the far-right congressman, have both failed in their bids.
Continue reading...The creator and producer of The Quiz Channel on YouTube, which includes Adolf Hitler’s image as part of a quiz Michigan State used on its videoboards before a game against Michigan, said the school didn’t ask for permission to use his content or pay him for it.
“It’s an absolutely normal trivia question, shown in an inappropriate setting,” Floris van Pallandt wrote on Sunday on his YouTube page. “Ignoring the dark facets of history is by no means the answer, on the contrary.”
Continue reading...Republican Senate minority leader says he and president are ‘in the same place’ on support linked to both conflicts
Mitch McConnell offered a strong endorsement on Sunday of the Joe Biden White House’s $106bn aid proposal to Israel and Ukraine, saying he and the president were essentially “in the same place” on the issue.
McConnell, the powerful Republican leader in the Senate, also rebuffed some of his GOP colleagues in the Senate who have called for a package separating assistance for the two countries, saying it would be “a mistake” during an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation.
Continue reading...A man has been arrested in Oregon over an alleged plot to carry out a mass shooting at a rock climbing event.
Samson Zebturiah Garner, 39, was taken into custody in Deschutes county after local police were informed by detectives in Portland, Oregon, that the suspect was “planning a violent attack during an event” in the area. According to the Bend Bulletin, Garner had told two acquaintances he intended to harm people at a climbing event in the county, most likely the Alpine Club Craggin’ Classic which is taking place this weekend.
Continue reading...John C Drake, 38, is estranged son of metro police chief; officers treated in hospital after incident in city of La Vergne
Authorities in Tennessee were searching on Sunday for the estranged son of Nashville’s police chief as the suspect in the shooting of two police officers outside a Dollar General store.
Officers in La Vergne, a city about 20 miles (32km) south-east of Nashville, were investigating a stolen vehicle outside the store on Saturday afternoon when they struggled with the suspect, who pulled a handgun and shot them, said the local police chief, Christopher Moews.
Continue reading...Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders shook hands, talked and prayed together after killing of Wadea Al-Fayoume
Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders shook hands, talked and prayed together as they gathered in Chicago to urge unity across divides and denounce hate, while the region continued to reel from the savage killing of a six-year-old Palestinian American boy in an alleged hate crime.
Imams and rabbis had already attended the funeral earlier in the week of Wadea Al-Fayoume, who had only recently celebrated his sixth birthday with his family in Plainfield, on the outskirts of Chicago, when the landlord, shouting Islamophobic curses, stabbed the boy and his mother last weekend.
Continue reading...Danny Serafini was one of two people arrested after investigation into fatal shooting of Robert Spohr and wounding of his wife
A former professional baseball player was one of two people arrested on Friday in connection to an infamous Lake Tahoe shooting that killed a man and badly wounded his wife in 2021.
After a two-year investigation, Danny Serafini, 49, and Samantha Scott, 33, were arrested separately in Nevada, hundreds of miles apart in Las Vegas and north-west of Reno.
Continue reading...US prosecutors allege Merl Hefferman, 54, illegally cremated up to four members killed by the group at a California funeral home
Federal prosecutors say that a former Hells Angels boss disposed of the bodies of up to four of the group’s members at a central California funeral home, known to the gang as “the pizza oven”.
US prosecutors set out in gruesome detail last week how they believe members of the gang used the Yost and Webb funeral home in Fresno, California, to cremate four men.
Continue reading...Conferences have been abruptly cancelled, media appearances suppressed and demands made to fire critics of Israeli policies
Widespread attempts to suppress pro-Palestinian views in the US after the Hamas attack on Israel have forced the cancellation of major conferences, prompted demands for the dismissal of workers who express support for Palestinians and led to intimidation campaigns against Arab American voices critical of Israeli policies.
Earlier this week, a leading US Jewish group forced the cancellation of a major Palestinian campaign organisation’s national conference by alleging it was a front for Hamas, which killed more than 1,400 Israelis and abducted about 200 people in its attack from Gaza.
Continue reading...Joe Biden and family voice joy at release of Natalie and Judith Raanan, as Israeli forces pound Gaza Strip, where millions are pinning hopes on aid delivery via Egypt border crossing
The US has said it will keep working to free all Americans seized by Hamas, against the backdrop of an expected ground assault on Gaza, as the first released hostages were reunited with family and Israeli forces pounded Gaza, where millions of people are still awaiting promised aid deliveries.
Late on Friday, after speaking of his joy at the US hostage release, President Joe Biden appeared to agree with a reporter’s suggestion that Israel should delay any ground invasion of the enclave in order to get more hostages out. About 200 remain in captivity, with 10 Americans still unaccounted for.
Continue reading...Street photographer known for ‘ordinary people’ portraits snaps Australian cricketer and partner without realising ‘he’s photographing royalty’
Australian cricket all-rounder Marcus Stoinis is causing a stir on and off the field after an impromptu Instagram video, shot recently on a New York street, went viral.
Stoinis helped Australia thrash Pakistan in the World Cup on Friday night. In a crucial match for Australia’s finals hopes in the international one day series, Stoinis helped Australia thump Pakistan and secure a 62-run win in Bengaluru.
Continue reading...Tom Gerbier was hiking the tallest mountain in the contiguous US in Sequoia national park when he fell to his death
A pilot from France who disappeared while hiking California’s towering Mount Whitney was found dead after falling about 1,000ft (305 meters) off a cliff, the National Park Service said Friday.
The hiker was identified as Tom Gerbier of Fontenay-sous-Bois, France, who was a pilot for Air France, the park service said in a statement.
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