Category Archives: US News

Eight is Enough actor Adam Rich died of fentanyl effects, autopsy report says

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Child actor known as ‘America’s little brother’ for his role on the hit family show died in Los Angeles home on 7 January at age 54

The effects of fentanyl are considered the cause of death for Adam Rich, the child actor known as “America’s little brother” for his role on the hit family dramedy Eight is Enough.

The former television star’s death this January has been ruled an accident by the Los Angeles county medical-examiner coroner’s office, according to an autopsy report.

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Abortion demonstrations expected across US to mark a year since Roe was overturned – live

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Campaigners set to hold events across the country on first anniversary of supreme court overturning constitutional right to abortion

Several reproductive rights organizations have announced their endorsement of the Biden-Harris administration in the upcoming 2024 presidential election.

The organizations include Planned Parenthood, NARAL (National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws) Pro-Choice America , and EMILYs List, a political action committee dedicated to electing Democratic pro-choice women into office.

“President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have been committed to fighting back against the onslaught of attacks against our reproductive freedom. And we need them to continue this critical work.

Abortion is health care… We need leaders who are committed to protecting our freedoms, not taking them away. That is why we must re-elect President Biden and Vice President Harris: people we can trust to keep rebuilding a path forward, because we know the journey to rebuilding our rights will be met with challenges,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

“President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are the strongest advocates for reproductive freedom ever to occupy the White House, and NARAL Pro-Choice America proudly endorses their reelection. It’s as simple as this: Abortion matters to Americans. In elections since the Supreme Court took away our right to abortion, voters have mobilized in massive numbers to elect Democrats who will fight to restore it...”

EMILYs List president Laphonza Butler released the following statement:

“When the Dobbs decision ended a constitutional right for the first time in this country’s history, we were grateful to have leaders in the White House like President Biden and Vice President Harris, who have been vocal advocates for abortion rights across the government and across the country… For her work as a groundbreaker, tireless advocate for reproductive freedom, and inspiring change-maker, EMILYs List is thrilled to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for reelection.”

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The fight over US abortion rights in the year without Roe – photo essay

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A look back on the year since the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade with the Dobbs decision, and the advocates who aren’t giving up

While the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade sent shockwaves around the country, many activists, physicians and advocacy groups closely engaged in the fight over abortion in the US were not surprised.

Since Roe’s establishment of the federal right to abortion in 1973, anti-abortion advocates and conservative lawmakers have been chipping away at it. Restrictions on abortion increased over the last decade, and by the mid-2010s, seven states had just one abortion clinic left. In Mississippi, where the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization case that ultimately ended Roe originated, the state’s one clinic did not provide abortions beyond 16 weeks of pregnancy, meaning many people already had to travel to find care.

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Record-breaking Texas heatwave enters third week as thousands lose power

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New Mexico, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas also face scorching temperatures as heat dome settles over US south-west

A record-breaking heat wave is entering its third week in Texas, as temperatures reach triple digits in the broader US south and tens of thousands of people in affected states are without power and lack air conditioning.

More than 40 million people in the US are under a heat alert.

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Why the Titan’s fate gripped us – even as all hope vanished

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Real stories of people in peril, the Titanic submersible trip to the Thai cave disaster, affirm a collective wish for human ingenuity and spirit to triumph

The discovery of wreckage from the Titan submersible last Thursday on the North Atlantic seabed close to the wreck of the Titanic brought to an end a five-day vigil of hope around the globe. The chances of rescuing the five occupants of the missing sub always appeared slight, but it was perhaps the very unlikeliness of that outcome that increased the appetite to see it realised.

In the era of 24-hour news, few events grab the public imagination quite as firmly as a real-time people-in-peril story. And it’s hard to imagine a more extreme or unpleasant peril than being trapped in deep sea in a craft the size of a minivan, as the oxygen supply runs out, and there is nothing to do but attempt to control your breathing in a situation that screams panic.

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Republicans scramble to limit electoral backlash against abortion bans

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Supreme court’s overturning of Roe v Wade sparked a slew of state-level restrictions but anti-abortion stance has proved a vote-loser

In the months since the supreme court voted to overturn Roe v Wade last year, the effects of the court’s decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization have become clear. Over a dozen states across the country have passed legislation limiting or outright banning access to abortions, severely restricting reproductive rights for millions of people and threatening to imprison abortion providers.

But as Republicans have pushed through these bills, voters have also taken every opportunity to rebuke them in elections – leading to defeats in midterms and emerging as one of the GOP’s largest vulnerabilities.

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‘We’re going to keep fighting’: delivery workers stand up to Amazon

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Unionized workers at delivery service partner in California fight company’s intent to terminate contract

Amazon is embroiled in a fight with workers at one of its delivery service partners in what union activists say is part of a longstanding anti-union drive by the retail giant which is now facing scrutiny in the US Senate for its anti-labor rights practices.

At Battle Tested Strategies, an Amazon delivery service partner in Palmdale, California, workers are currently fighting Amazon’s intent to terminate the delivery service partner’s contract on Saturday.

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US officials release bodycam video of man’s fatal shooting by border agents

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Raymond Mattia, 58, shot dead in remote corner of Tohono O’odham Nation in southern Arizona last month

Federal US officials have released body camera footage that shows border patrol agents were concerned that a tribal member they fatally shot last month may have been carrying a handgun during an encounter in a remote corner of the Tohono O’odham Nation in southern Arizona.

The man, Raymond Mattia, 58, died shortly after the shooting the night of 18 May outside a home in the reservation’s Menagers Dam community near the US-Mexico border.

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Biden puts abortion rights at center of campaign on Roe reversal anniversary

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President announces executive order to boost access to contraception as Republicans call for national restrictions

Joe Biden on Friday put reproductive rights squarely in the middle of his 2024 re-election campaign as the US president hosted a rally based around defending abortion rights, notched three high-profile endorsements from groups dedicated to the issue, and announced an executive order aimed at boosting access to contraception.

The moves came in stark contrast to the Republican field of candidates, many of whom were attending the Faith & Freedom Coalition annual conference in Washington DC.

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James Cameron calls Titan submersible design ‘critically flawed’

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Film-maker who has dived to Titanic wreckage more than 30 times says it was ‘only a matter of time’ before tragedy occurred

Veteran deep-sea explorer and film-maker James Cameron said on Friday that the design of the Titan submersible was “critically flawed”, and it was “only a matter of time” before the tragedy occurred – as Canada’s transportation safety board said it was launching an investigation.

“People in the deep sea submergence engineering community warned the company that this could lead to catastrophic failure,” Cameron told ABC’s Good Morning America show on Friday morning, referring to the carbon fiber hull of the 22ft (6.7m) vessel.

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Pence tells Republicans to take hard line on abortion despite electoral liability

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Former vice-president calls for federal 15-week ‘minimum’ ban in contrast to Trump who suggested issue cost party votes

Speaking one year since the US supreme court removed the federal right to abortion, Mike Pence said candidates for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination should stand firm on the electorally unpopular issue and take a hard line on bringing in national limits.

“For me, for our campaign, we’re going to stand where we’ve always stood, and that is without apology for the right to life,” the former congressman, Indiana governor and vice-president to Donald Trump told Politico.

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US charges Chinese individuals and firms over fentanyl chemical trafficking

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Four companies and eight individuals charged with shipping enough precursor chemicals into US to kill ‘25m Americans’

The US justice department has filed criminal charges against four Chinese chemical manufacturing companies and eight individuals over allegations they illegally trafficked the chemicals used to make fentanyl, a highly addictive painkiller that has fueled the opioid crisis in the United States.

It is the first time the United States has charged Chinese companies for trafficking fentanyl precursor chemicals inside the United States, rather than shipping them to Mexico, the origin of most of the fentanyl found in the country.

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Pennsylvania’s ‘road to hell’ reopens after fire-induced bridge collapse

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Biden hails ‘proud union workers’ for speedy reopening after stretch of I-95 collapsed following tanker fire earlier in June

Pennsylvania’s “road to hell” reopened on Friday less than two weeks after a tanker fire caused traffic misery for millions.

Joe Biden praised engineers, laborers and “many other proud union workers” for fulfilling his promise to “move heaven and earth” to reopen a busy stretch of the I-95 east coast interstate artery that had been closed since it collapsed in the incident earlier this month.

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Weather tracker: China issues heatstroke alert amid historic heatwave

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Tianjin reports all-time record of 41.4C, while Texas and Mexico break numerous temperature records

Parts of north-east China are in the grip of a historic heatwave, with hundreds of weather stations reporting record highs for the month of June. On 22 June the capital Beijing observed a temperature of 41.1C (106F), a record high for the month, and the first time a temperature higher than 40C had been observed since 2014. On the same date, the city of Tianjin reported 41.4C, a new all-time record for any month. Additionally, Dagang had its hottest day on record, with a temperature of 41.8C.

The national weather bureau in China issued an alert for heatstroke last week, almost two weeks earlier than is typical from previous years. Authorities have advised people to suspend outdoor work during the middle part of the day, when the temperatures are at their highest. The high temperatures have also led to increased pressure on the power grid, with a more than 20% increase in demand reported in Tianjin on 15 June compared with last year. Temperatures in north-east China will remain on the extreme side over the coming week, with highs of 40-42C forecast each day in places. The all-time Beijing temperature of 41.9C could be seriously under threat.

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Titan tragedy: Canada launches investigation; CEO of sub company ‘dismissed safety fears’ – as it happened

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Canadian transport watchdog to launch safety investigation; Stockton Rush reportedly emailed deep-sea expert saying concerns were ‘baseless cries’

William Kohnen, chairman of the Manned Underwater Vehicles Committee, said the regulations for building submersible vessels were “written in blood”.

Kohnen’s organisation, based in Los Angeles in the US, raised safety concerns in 2018 about OceanGate’s development of Titan.

We’re only smart because we remember what we wrote and what we did wrong last time.

The rules are written in blood – it is in there because it caused trouble before, and to say: ‘Well I think we’re just going to ignore that and go on our own way,’ suggests there might be a bit of input of wisdom that this might not be the best decision.

It’s too early to tell, there’s data that’s going to have to be collected over the coming days, weeks and months, and I’m sure the team will work with whoever is conducting the investigations to cooperate and provide as much information as possible.

At that point, we’ll be in a better position to tell (what went wrong).

There are regulations in place but as you can imagine there aren’t many subs that go that deep, so the regulations are pretty sparse and many of them are antiquated and designed for specific instances.

It’s tricky to navigate those regulatory schemes.

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Friday briefing: Life under an American abortion ban, told through one woman’s tragic story

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In today’s newsletter: On the anniversary of Roe v Wade’s overturning, one woman tells her story of being forced to carry a baby to term

Good morning. A year ago tomorrow, the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, and reproductive rights in America were thrown into turmoil. The landmark 1973 ruling had guaranteed a constitutional right to an abortion for almost 50 years. With its removal, the ability of tens of millions of women to make decisions about their own bodies was abruptly stripped away.

Twelve months on, the picture for many is grim.

Titanic sub | The US Navy has said it detected an “anomaly” that was likely the Titan’s fatal implosion, soon after the submersible went missing on its voyage to the wreck of the Titanic. Film director James Cameron has also claimed his sources in the deep-sea exploration industry detected a “loud bang”.

Mortgages | The government’s pledge to ease the cost of living crisis is in tatters after the unexpected leap in interest rates to 5%, a “shock and awe” move by the Bank of England which some fear will push the UK into recession.

London | Ministers have been accused of criminalising the flying of the European union flag on government buildings in England after London’s City Hall was told it could be prosecuted for displaying it on the anniversary of the Brexit referendum.

Covid | England’s chief medical officer, Sir Chris Whitty, said the UK “did not give sufficient thought” to stopping Covid in its tracks as he listed multiple problems with preparedness in his first cross-examination at the pandemic public inquiry. He added that the government’s “big weakness” was a lack of “radicalism” in thinking before the crisis took hold.

Diabetes | The number of adults living with diabetes worldwide will more than double by 2050, according to research that blames rapidly rising obesity levels and widening health inequalities. New estimates predict the number will rise from 529 million in 2021 to more than 1.3 billion in 2050.

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US honeybees suffer second deadliest season on record

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Nearly 50% of US bee colonies died off last year, although efforts have helped the overall bee population remain ‘relatively stable’

The US’s honeybee hives just staggered through the second highest death rate on record, with beekeepers losing nearly half of their managed colonies, an annual bee survey found.

But by using costly and herculean measures to create new colonies, beekeepers are somehow keeping afloat. Thursday’s University of Maryland and Auburn University survey found that even though 48% of colonies were lost in the year that ended 1 April, the number of US honeybee colonies “remained relatively stable”.

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China reportedly rebukes US ambassador after Biden called Xi a ‘dictator’

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US president sought to play down the impact of his comments, saying ‘I don’t think it’s had any real consequence’

The Chinese government has reportedly reprimanded the US ambassador to China over comments made by President Joe Biden in which he referred to President Xi Jinping as a “dictator”.

Nicholas Burns received the diplomatic note hours after Biden made comments about Xi at a fundraiser in California, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing three unnamed US officials.

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Rust film: weapons supervisor on Alec Baldwin movie charged with evidence tampering

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Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is accused of passing drugs to someone on the day of on-set fatal shooting

The weapons supervisor charged with involuntary manslaughter over the shooting death of a cinematographer on the set of the Alec Baldwin film Rust has been charged with evidence tampering for allegedly passing drugs to someone else on the day of the shooting.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed “did transfer narcotics to another person with the intent to prevent the apprehension, prosecution or conviction of herself”, the special prosecutors appointed in the case said in a court filing in Santa Fe county, New Mexico. They gave no further details.

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‘True explorers’: tributes paid to men killed in ‘catastrophic implosion’ of Titan sub

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Families, friends and colleagues remember Stockton Rush, Hamish Harding, Shahzada and Suleman Dawood and Paul-Henri Nargeolet

Tributes have been paid to the five people who are now believed to have been instantly killed in a “catastrophic implosion” of the Titan submersible during its dive to the Titanic.

On Thursday, after days of aerial and underwater searches, a robotic diving vehicle deployed from a Canadian ship discovered a debris field from the submersible Titan on the seabed 1,600 feet (488 metres) from the bow of the Titanic.

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