‘Unabomber’ Ted Kaczynski died by suicide in prison – report

Harvard-educated mathematician carried out a 17-year solitary bombing spree that killed three people and injured 23 others

Ted Kaczynski, known as the “Unabomber”, who carried out a 17-year bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others, died by suicide, four people familiar with the matter told the Associated Press.

Kaczynski, who was 81 and suffering from late-stage cancer, was found unresponsive in his cell at the federal medical center in Butner, North Carolina, around 12.30am on Saturday. Emergency responders performed CPR and revived him before he was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead later on Saturday morning, the people told the AP.

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Travel encounters show how US treats Puerto Ricans as ‘second-class citizens’

Prejudice abounds in spate of Puerto Ricans being denied services in contiguous US despite being American citizens

They were denied prepaid car rentals, blocked from buying drinks at a grocery, and prohibited from boarding their flight in different parts of the US.

All were from Puerto Rico, whose residents have been American citizens since 1917. But all were recently mistaken for international travelers lacking proper identification and denied services for which they had already paid, highlighting the prejudice that people from the largely Spanish-speaking island – and Spanish speakers in general – face in the US.

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American citizen arrested in Moscow on drugs charges

Michael Travis Leake, described in Russian state media as a former paratrooper and musician, faces two months of pre-trial detention

An American citizen who has lived in Russia for more than a decade has been arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking, according to local state media.

The reports said Michael Travis Leake, 51, is accused of selling mephedrone, whose effects are similar to those of cocaine and MDMA, and that a court in Moscow has ordered for him to be held for two months in pre-trial detention.

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‘I will never be detained’: Trump defiant in first speech since federal indictment

Former president, who faces 37 charges related to retention of secret documents, addresses Republican conventions in Georgia and North Carolina

Donald Trump delivered his first public address following the announcement of his federal indictment this week in Columbus, Georgia, on Saturday.

The former president took the stage at state Republican conventions in Georgia and North Carolina where he lashed out against the Department of Justice, the FBI and the Biden administration, called his recent indictment “a travesty of justice” and repeated unsupported conspiratorial claims that Joe Biden had stashed secret documents in the Chinatown neighborhood of Washington DC.

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Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, 81, dies in US prison cell

Harvard-educated mathematician waged 17-year bombing campaign from isolated shack in Montana wilderness

Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski, the Harvard-educated mathematician who retreated to a dingy shack in the Montana wilderness and ran a 17-year bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others, died on Saturday. He was 81.

Branded the “Unabomber” by the FBI, Kaczynski died at the federal prison medical center in Butner, North Carolina, Kristie Breshears, a spokesperson for the federal Bureau of Prisons, told the Associated Press. He was found unresponsive in his cell early on Saturday morning and was pronounced dead around 8am, she said. A cause of death was not immediately known.

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FDA advisers say new Alzheimer’s drug lecanemab slows cognitive decline

Panel’s opinion could pave way for full regulatory approval next month for treatment of disease that affects 6.5m Americans

A panel that advises the Food and Drug Administration agreed that a new drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease was beneficial for slowing cognitive decline, paving the way for full regulatory approval next month.

Earlier this year, the drug, known as lecanemab, was granted partial, or accelerated, approval, but that restricted it to people who could pay $26,500 a year or were enrolled in a clinical trial. Under its current status, it is not available under the public health programs Medicare and Medicaid.

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Anger and anxiety as DeSantis’s asylum-seeker flights return to US skies

Mission of ‘Air DeSantis’ to transport migrants to other states gives Florida governor chance to burnish hardline reputation

The already congested skies over the western US became a little more crowded this week after Florida’s rightwing Republican governor Ron DeSantis ordered the return to flight of one of America’s most notorious transport airlines.

Air DeSantis, as supporters colloquially refer to the state’s unauthorized alien transportation program, doesn’t even exist as an official entity. It isn’t registered as a company, or with the Federal Aviation Authority, is mired in legal troubles, and has been grounded for months.

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Trump left with few defenses for hoarding top secret documents

The sprawling indictment targeting the former president is set out like chapters in a novel easily digested by a trial jury

By laying out Donald Trump’s own admissions and incriminating eyewitness accounts from his employees, the indictment unsealed on Friday provided compelling evidence that could be exceedingly difficult for the former president to overcome and avoid a conviction.

The sprawling, 38-count indictment (in which Trump’s valet was also charged) revealed the previously unknown extent of Trump’s blatant efforts to retain the country’s most sensitive secrets and obstruct the government’s attempts to get them back.

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San Francisco shooting leaves nine wounded after ‘targeted’ incident

Police say all victims are expected to survive their injuries after incident in Mission District on Friday night

Multiple victims were struck by bullets during a mass shooting in San Francisco’s Mission District on Friday night, but authorities said there were no fatalities.

“We can confirm there are 9 shooting victims – all are expected to survive their injuries,” the San Francisco police department said in a tweet.

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Donald Trump uses his legal woes to plead for money from supporters – again

Following his indictment, Trump asked supporters to ‘make a contribution to peacefully defend our movement from the neverending witch hunts’

Federally indicted Donald Trump, newly charged with multiple counts over his mishandling of classified documents, is using his legal woes to plead for money – again.

The sweeping 37-count felony indictment paints a damaging portrait of Trump’s treatment of sensitive documents, accusing him of defying justice department demands to return papers he had taken to his Florida home of Mar-a-Lago, and even storing some of them in a shower.

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‘Help me’: South Carolina woman shops passenger to police with silent message

Driver of Jeep stopped for running red light helps police jail man – her own passenger – suspected of attempted murder and kidnap

By mouthing the words “help me” to an officer who had pulled her over for a traffic stop, a woman in South Carolina helped authorities jail a man suspected of a shooting and a kidnapping: her own passenger, according to authorities.

The unusual encounter began when officer Kayla Wallace pulled over a woman behind the wheel of a Jeep that ran a red light during the early evening of 28 May, the North Myrtle Beach police department said in a statement this week. Wallace noticed the woman was in distress while seated alongside 29-year-old Collin Bates, the police’s statement added.

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A million good lucks: California family finds over 1m copper pennies

John Reyes and his family were cleaning out his father-in-law’s home when they made the surprise discovery

Cleaning out a house for renovation can oftentimes produce some unsavory surprises, but a family in Los Angeles got lucky – a million times over – with one of their finds.

John Reyes, a realtor in the Inland Empire area, was helping his wife, Elizabeth, clean out her father’s 1900s-era home last year when they discovered more than 1m copper pennies in a cramped crawlspace in the basement, according to KTLA news. The trove has a face value of at least $10,000, but could be worth more than $1m.

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Donald Trump kept boxes with US nuclear program documents and foreign weapons details, indictment says – as it happened

Indictment accuses former president of risking national security, foreign relations, safety of US military and intelligence gathering

The US senate judiciary committee chairman, Dick Durbin, has said the investigation led by special counsel Jack Smith should be allowed to continue “without interference”.

In a statement on Friday, Durbin added that Donald Trump “should be afforded the due process protections that he is guaranteed by our constitution, just like any other American”.

I think before the sun sets today, the attorney general of the United States should be standing in front of the American people, should unseal this indictment, should provide the American people with all the facts and information here.

And the American people be able to judge for themselves whether this is just the latest incident of weaponization and politicization at the justice department or it’s something different.

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Indictment charging Trump with mishandling classified documents unsealed

Trump took steps to retain classified documents subpoenaed by the justice department, according to a sprawling 38-count indictment

Donald Trump twice disclosed national security information in separate incidents in 2021 and took steps to retain classified documents that he knew he could not keep because they had been subpoenaed by the justice department, according to a sprawling 38-count indictment unsealed Thursday.

The charging papers also revealed Trump hoarded materials of the highest sensitivity after he left the White House, including documents on US nuclear programs, potential military vulnerabilities of the US and allies, and plans for US retaliation in the event of an attack.

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Nuclear weapon secrets in the bathroom: five revelations from Trump’s unsealed indictment

Trump took classified documents including information on nuclear weapons and secret plans to attack a foreign country

Donald Trump took classified documents including information on nuclear weapons in the US and secret plans to attack a foreign country, according to a 49-page federal indictment unsealed Friday afternoon.

The former US president, alongside a military valet, now faces a sweeping 37-count felony indictment related to the mishandling of classified documents.

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Smoke from Canadian wildfires hits Norway and flows to southern Europe

Researchers used a model to predict how the smoke would move through the region and said it wouldn’t pose a health risk

Smoke from Canadian wildfires that has descended upon parts of the eastern US and Canada in a thick haze has drifted over Norway and is expected to hit southern Europe, Norwegian officials said on Friday.

Using a climate forecast model, atmosphere and climate scientists with the Norwegian climate and environmental research institute (NILU) predicted how the smoke would travel through the atmosphere, flowing over the Scandinavian country before moving further south. The smoke was not expected to pose a health risk there.

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Outcry as Texas to install ‘buoy barrier’ in Rio Grande to deter border crossings

Rightwing governor Greg Abbott unveils new measures at US-Mexico border condemned by critics as ‘chilling’

The governor of Texas announced the state will install a barrier made of buoys along a section of the Rio Grande where people often wade or swim across the treacherous river from Mexico seeking refuge in the US, as the state committed $5.1bn towards ramping up plans to thwart border crossings.

Greg Abbott said a “new, water-based barrier of buoys” will be placed in the river. At a press conference he showed a line of large red buoys floating in the center of the Rio Grande.

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Mercedes-Benz beats Tesla for approval of automated driving tech in California

German carmaker becomes first to gain permit for offering self-driving cars in California, but with strict conditions

The California department of motor vehicles has approved Mercedes-Benz’s automated driving system on designated highways under certain conditions without the active control of a driver.

California is one of Tesla’s largest markets, accounting for 16% of the carmaker’s global deliveries last year, according to Reuters calculations.

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Weather tracker: Canada wildfires rage in what could be worst season to date

Plumes of smoke move southwards across US east coast. Elsewhere, Japan hit by remnants of Typhoon Mawar

Wildfires in Quebec, Canada, continue to rage, following a spring that was drier and warmer than normal, creating perfect conditions for wildfires to develop. As of 7 June, at least 150 fires remained active across the province, with more than 400 across the country according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. Officials warned this could be the country’s worst wildfire season to date, with at least 9.4m acres of land destroyed so far.

Plumes of smoke from the fires have been moving southwards across the US east coast, delaying thousands of flights. The US National Weather Service also issued air quality alerts for many states, with air quality index levels above 400 – a level of 300 is considered “hazardous” – in some states. A fairly static weather pattern this weekend will mean further plumes of smoke moving towards eastern parts of the US.

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US reviewed defence training ties with Australia after Brereton inquiry into alleged war crimes

Exclusive: US embassy says review ended with a decision that no training restrictions needed ‘at this time’

The United States says the Brereton inquiry into alleged war crimes by Australian special forces sparked “a bilateral training review” that ended with a decision not to suspend security cooperation between the two countries.

The US embassy in Canberra moved to clear up unanswered questions about the issue on Friday, insisting that the Australian government’s actions to address the allegations had allayed any concerns.

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