Category Archives: US News

Police kill suspect wanted in shooting deaths of four people in Georgia

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Andre Longmore, 40, was shot by police as they tried to take him into custody after weekend killings of four people south of Atlanta

Authorities in Georgia hunted Saturday for a man who remained at large hours after he was suspected of gunning down three men and a woman in a suburban neighborhood south of Atlanta.

Andre Longmore, 40, is believed to be armed and dangerous, Hampton police chief James Turner said during a news conference. The shootings happened late Saturday morning in a subdivision in Hampton, a city of roughly 8,500 people.

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In a first, Colorado names hiking trail after Black guide and outdoorsman

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Dedication of the 3-mile loop to Winston Walker comes after a push to make national parks more inclusive

As a nature loving little girl, Jessica Newton never understood why the faces on information boards in the state and national parks she visited looked nothing like her.

“My parents would take me to these places and the platforms would tell you about a trail, or a person, but I’d never see anyone that looks remotely close to my color,” she said.

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Hollywood actors’ strike: entertainment desert looms and pain will spread wider

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The walkout by writers and screen stars won’t affect just the US film industry but production in UK and Europe

There will be no fresh helpings of The White Lotus, The Last of Us or even Emily in Paris beaming into front rooms when summer fades. Nor will a screen version of the musical Wicked, starring Ariana Grande, be showing in your local cinema in the spring. And all shooting on Gladiator 2 in Morocco is likely to be indefinitely paused. Already, the wails are almost audible.

On this, the first weekend of the American screen actors’ strike, the level of frustration registered by film and TV drama fans around the world has dwarfed earlier reactions to the equivalent writers’ strike, running since the beginning of May.

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US south-west bakes under potentially deadly record high temperatures

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Phoenix, Arizona, logged its 16th day above 110F, and California’s Death Valley reached 122F as cities offered cooling centers

A dangerous heatwave threatened a wide swath of the south-west with potentially deadly temperatures in the triple digits on Saturday as some cooling centers extended their hours and emergency rooms prepared to treat more people with heat-related illnesses.

“Near record temperatures are expected this weekend!” the National Weather Service in Phoenix warned in a tweet, advising people to follow its safety tips such as drinking plenty of water and checking on relatives and neighbors.

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How Britain became the G7’s inflation outlier – in one chart

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This week’s CPI figures look set to highlight a trend: that prices in the UK seem to rise faster than they do elsewhere

The UK has a longstanding problem with inflation. Since the 2008 banking crash, bouts of inflation felt across the world have sent prices higher in the UK than its G7 rivals.

In July 2009, during the recession that followed the banking crisis, UK inflation was 3.1 points above the G7 average. Two years later, when recovery sent oil prices soaring, it stood about 2% above the G7 average. In March this year, however, it stood a full 3.5 points above the G7 level.

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Obscure Iowa non-profit produces new flyer calling Trump ‘trailblazer for trans’

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Second flyer sent to households in state by mysterious political group seeks to portray former president as LGBTQ+ advocate

An obscure non-profit political group in Iowa that has been attempting to portray Donald Trump as an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community is doubling down on its unlikely claim, producing a second flyer condemning the former president for “fighting conservatives” over trans rights.

The mailer repeats the messaging from the original communication that the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for next year’s election is a “trailblazer for trans”.

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James Cameron denies rumors he is working on film about Titan sub

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Titanic director and deep-sea expert tweets he is not in talks about OceanGate movie after report published in the Sun

James Cameron has debunked the rumors that he is working on a film about the recent implosion of the OceanGate submersible, an accident that took the lives of all five people on board, and called the claims “offensive”.

The director and noted deep-sea expert tweeted an impassioned note to followers on Saturday after the Sun published a report titled: “DIVE DEEP Titanic director James Cameron in talks with major streaming network to create drama series on doomed Titan sub.” The piece claimed that an “insider” told the publication that Cameron “is first choice for director” of a film about the events on the Titan submersible.

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State guard set up by DeSantis is being trained as personal militia, veterans say

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Veterans resign from force established as civilian disaster relief, citing concerns over ‘militaristic’ training and ‘abuse’

A Florida state guard established by the rightwing governor, Ron DeSantis, under the guise of a civilian disaster relief force is instead being trained as an armed, combat-ready militia under his personal command, according to military veteran recruits who have quit the program.

Several veterans resigned after an encampment last month having become concerned at the “militaristic” training and “abuse” one disabled veteran suffered at the hands of instructors, according to an investigation by the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times.

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Firefighters battle California wildfires amid blistering heatwave

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Three brush fires burning in rural areas across Riverside county, where 1,000 homes are under evacuation orders

Firefighters in southern California were battling three separate brush fires that started on Friday afternoon amid a blistering heatwave.

The fires were all within 40 miles (65km) of each other in mostly rural areas across Riverside county, south-east of Los Angeles.

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Key judge orders leak inquiry over New Orleans archdiocese cover-up report

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Inquiry ordered following Guardian investigation into retired priest who confessed decades ago to child molestation

A high-ranking federal official has ordered an investigation after the Guardian exposed how New Orleans’s Roman Catholic archdiocese went to extreme lengths to conceal a retired priest who confessed decades ago to child molestation, is still living and has never been prosecuted.

Yet the investigation recently ordered by federal judge Jane Triche Milazzo is not designed to aid efforts to criminally charge the cleric or hold the church administrators who hid his past accountable. Instead, the inquiry is aimed at determining whether anyone violated broad confidentiality rules governing the New Orleans archdiocese’s pending bankruptcy protection filing and related litigation before the Guardian’s report on 91-year-old Lawrence Hecker was published on 20 June.

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Florida rocked by home insurance crisis: ‘I may have to sell up and move’

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Soaring hurricane-cover premiums are bad news for the state’s homeowners – and Ron DeSantis is accused of dragging his feet

Households in Florida, the third most populous state in the US, have been grappling for some time with a property insurance crisis that is making home ownership unaffordable for many. After at least six insurers went insolvent in Florida last year, Farmers on Tuesday became the latest to pull out of the Florida market, saying in a statement that the decision was based on risk exposure in the hurricane-prone state.

Climate change is threatening the very existence of some parts of Florida. And the costs are already being felt by Floridians. At the end of 2022, average annual property insurance premiums had already risen to more than $4,200 in Florida – three times the national average.

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In America’s ‘Voltage Valley’, hopes of car-making revival turn sour

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EV manufacturer Lordstown Motors, lauded by Trump in 2020, has gone bankrupt – what now for the once-proud auto-making region?

When Lordstown Motors, an electric vehicles (EV) manufacturer in Ohio’s Mahoning Valley, declared bankruptcy last month, it was the latest blow to a region that has seen decades of extravagant promises fail to deliver.

The 5,000 new jobs executives vowed to create in 2020 generated fresh hope for the shuttered General Motors Lordstown plant, which once functioned as an economic engine for the area and a critical piece of the nation’s industrial heartland.

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Invasive snake wrestled into submission by hunters is Florida’s longest

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Video of capture of Burmese python measured at 19ft – as long as an adult giraffe is tall – was posted on Instagram

A snake believed to be the longest invasive Burmese python ever recorded was captured by two Florida hunters after a mighty struggle.

Stephen Gauta and Jake Waleri caught the humungous reptile in Big Cypress national preserve near the Everglades in southern Florida earlier this week after it lunged at Waleri, 22, who then wrestled it back to the ground.

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Biden stability beats Trump volatility in 2024 match-up, experts suggest

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Political scientists read the Republican runes and suggest Trump will win the nomination – but how would he fare in a 2020 rematch?

As it stands, political scientists expect Donald Trump to win the Republican nomination for president. Most GOP candidates are in lockstep with Trumpist policies and culture wars, failing to differentiate in an already scattered field; despite the appearance of a united front, factions within the party cannot agree on when and how to pass hardline legislation. Traditional conservative forces are looking for a less volatile alternative with a more viable path to win the general election, and as that concern mounts, some experts say Biden could be narrowly re-elected if the race is a rematch of 2020.

“Trump is the mainstream,” said Allan Lichtman, distinguished professor of history at American University, pointing out that “so-called mainstream Republicans” such as Liz Cheney are now out of office.

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Jesse Jackson to step down as head of civil rights organisation

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Retirement from Rainbow PUSH Coalition follows several health problems in recent years

The US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson is to step down down as head of the Chicago-based Rainbow PUSH Coalition he founded.

The organisation announced on Friday that the civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate would be celebrated this weekend at the coalition’s annual convention.

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Burner phones and search history led police to Long Island killings suspect

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Charging documents released on Friday show how investigators have tied architect Rex Heuermann to 11 sets of human remains

A New York architect, who allegedly made taunting calls to the relative of a victim police investigators suspected he murdered, is in custody facing accusations that he is the so-called Long Island serial killer.

Rex Heuermann’s arrest and indictment on Friday, on six charges of murder, marks a key moment in a case that has captivated the public and confounded authorities for more than a decade.

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Donald Trump’s legal team urges Georgia court to block 2020 election investigation – as it happened

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Lawyers for former US president ask Georgia’s highest court to prevent district attorney from prosecuting him

Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy condemned congressman Eli Crane for using an outdated and offensive term to refer to African Americans on the House floor:

Politico reports that Crane has apologized for using the language:

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Suspect in Long Island serial killer case arrested and charged with murder

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Police arrest Rex Heuermann in significant breakthrough in decade-old Gilgo Beach case which gripped country

A man who appears to have been hiding in plain sight in a small seaside community for more than a decade while a serial killing gripped the nation was arrested and on Friday charged with murder in connection with several grisly deaths.

Police in Suffolk county, New York, arrested the 59-year-old local architect Rex Heuermann, in a significant breakthrough in the so-called Gilgo Beach case in Long Island.

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Lisa Marie Presley died from weight-loss surgery complications, autopsy finds

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January death of Elvis Presley’s daughter, 54, ruled as being from natural causes due to effects of small bowel obstruction

Lisa Marie Presley died from complications from bariatric surgery she had several years ago, authorities have said.

The 12 January death at age 54 of the singer, songwriter, daughter and heir of Elvis Presley was ruled as being from natural causes due to effects of a small bowel obstruction.

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