Category Archives: US News

Taylor Swift becomes first woman to have four albums in US Top 10 at once

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Singer is just third artist in history to have four albums in top 10 concurrently, with Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) becoming her 12th album to reach No. 1

Taylor Swift has become the first woman, and only the third artist ever, to have four albums in the Top 10 of the US album chart simultaneously, while also beating a record set by Barbra Streisand to become the female artist with the most No 1 albums in history.

The 33-year-old’s latest album, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), has debuted at the top spot on the Billboard 200 with 716,000 album-equivalent units – a figure that combines physical sales with digital sales and streaming figures. It is the largest week for any album in 2023 and the best since her previous album, Midnights, was released last October.

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Microsoft agrees to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation ahead of Activision buy

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Software giant acquiesced after US trade commission expressed concern that Activision Blizzard acquisition would hurt gamers

Microsoft has signed a binding agreement to ensure that the Call of Duty video game franchise remains available on Sony’s PlayStation platform after Microsoft’s $69bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the tech company said on Sunday, easing concerns from Sony and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

A tweet from Phil Spencer, Microsoft Gaming’s CEO, read: “We are pleased to announce that Microsoft and @PlayStation have signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. We look forward to a future where players globally have more choice to play their favorite games.”

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Alabama woman missing after reporting lost child on highway returns home

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‘Carlee’ Nichole Russell went missing for two days after she stopped to check on a toddler walking on side of highway

An Alabama woman who went missing after calling 911 about a child she reported spotting on a highway has returned home after a two-day search.

On Thursday, the Hoover police department received a call at 9.34pm from 25-year-old Carlethia “Carlee” Nichole Russell on I-459 south near mile marker 11. According to the police, Russell reported that she saw a toddler walking on the side of the interstate.

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At least three killed and four missing after flash floods in Pennsylvania

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Torrential rainstorm swept through township in south-eastern Pennsylvania, killing several and leaving behind a slew of damage

At least three people have been killed by a sudden flash flood in Pennsylvania while four others remain missing.

On Saturday evening, flash floods as a result of a torrential rainstorm swept through Upper Makefield township in south-eastern Pennsylvania, killing several and leaving behind a slew of damage including submerged buildings.

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Millions in US under warnings as record heat expected to continue next week

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South-west and parts of the west hardest hit amid warnings to ‘take heat seriously’ as Phoenix temperature to rise to 118F Sunday

More than 100 million people, around a third of Americans, were under extreme heat advisories this weekend and that record-breaking heat was expected to continue into the new week.

There were advisories from coast to coast, with the south-west and parts of the west hard hit and officials warning that conditions could get worse in Arizona, California and Nevada.

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Progressives press Chicago mayor over pledge to end controversial policing tool

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Brandon Johnson vowed to drop controversial gunshot detection system but approved a $10m payment for contractor ShotSpotter

Progressives have vowed to hold the new Chicago mayor, Brandon Johnson, to his campaign pledge that as part of crime-control efforts in the city he will break with the controversial gunshot detection contractor ShotSpotter.

Johnson gave the keynote speech this week at Netroots, the largest annual gathering of progressives in the country, taking place in Chicago, and amplified his campaign talk about a wider approach to safer streets.

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DeSantis reduces staff as campaign struggles to meet fundraising goals – report

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Fewer than 10 staffers were laid off, Politico reports, as more shake-ups within campaign are expected in coming weeks

Florida Governor and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has reduced campaign staff as his campaign has struggled to meet fundraising goals.

Fewer than 10 staffers were laid off, according to an anonymous staffer, reported Politico. The staffers were involved in event planning and may be picked up by the pro DeSantis super-Pac, Never Back Down. Two senior campaign advisers, Dave Abrams and Tucker Obenshain left the campaign this past week to assist a pro-DeSantis nonprofit group.

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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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