Category Archives: US News

Philadelphia, Tennessee and Michigan shootings leave at least nine dead and 27 wounded

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Gunfire erupted Saturday night in Philadelphia’s downtown area and near a Chattanooga nightclub and north-west of Detroit on Sunday morning

Gunfire killed three people and wounded at least 11 in one of downtown Philadelphia’s most popular entertainment districts late on Saturday night, hours before separate shootings in Tennessee and Michigan left six dead and at least 16 wounded, authorities said.

The violence erupted as many, including US president Joe Biden, call on Congress to enact meaningful gun control measures, especially in the wake of deadly mass shootings last month in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.

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Biden gives far fewer interviews than his predecessors – could his caution backfire?

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With op-eds and speeches but no one-on-ones, observers say the president risks losing the public’s trust and reporters’ good will

He delivered a primetime address to the nation. He wrote two columns in leading newspapers. And he took some off-the-cuff questions from reporters. But once again Joe Biden did not this week sit down for an interview with a broadcaster or newspaper. Nor did he hold a press conference.

The US president, who promised to rebuild trust and transparency after Donald Trump’s adversarial tenure, is facing criticism as Sunday marks 116 days since his last press interview.

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Bilderberg reconvenes in person after two-year pandemic gap

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The Washington conference, a high-level council of war, will be headlined by Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary general

Bilderberg is back with a vengeance. After a pandemic gap of two years, the elite global summit is being rebooted in a security-drenched hotel in Washington DC, with a high-powered guest list that includes the heads of NATO, the CIA, GCHQ, the US national security council, two European prime ministers, a healthy sprinkle of tech billionaires, and Henry Kissinger.

What a difference those two years have made. The western world order, which the Bilderberg group has been quietly nudging into shape for the best part of 70 years, is in all kinds of flux.

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Suspected shooter who killed retired Wisconsin judge in ‘targeted’ attack identified

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John Roemer, who sat on the Juneau county circuit court bench for 14 years, was found dead in his home by police

A retired Wisconsin judge was gunned down and killed in his home on Friday, and his suspected killer – a former defendant in his courtroom – shot himself in the basement, a government official familiar with the investigation said Saturday.

The official confirmed John Roemer, 68, who sat on the Juneau county circuit court bench for 14 years beginning in 2004, was found shot dead in his home in the community of New Lisbon about 6.30am Friday. His alleged killer, identified Saturday as 56-year-old Douglas Uhde, was then discovered in the basement with a self-inflicted bullet wound, and was brought to a hospital.

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Woman testifies that in 1975 Bill Cosby grabbed her and kissed her aggressively

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The woman, now 61, took the stand during the civil trial over the lawsuit of Judy Hoth, who alleges she was assaulted during the same time

A woman testified Friday that she was 14 when Bill Cosby took her into a trailer on a movie set in 1975, grabbed her so she couldn’t move her arms, and kissed her aggressively.

“I was struggling to get away,” she said. “It was very shocking.”

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How Texas boys’ dream trip ended in family massacre at hands of fugitive

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Mark Collins took his four grandsons to his ranch but within hours they fell victim to an escaped prisoner on a murderous rampage

Mark Collins had brought his four grandsons Waylon, Karson, Hudson and Bryson up to his ranch north-west of Houston on Thursday for what sounded like a southern boy’s dream: shooting guns, taking boats on big ponds and fishing.

While Collins knew authorities had been looking in the general area for a convicted murderer with ties to a Mexican drug cartel who had broken free from a prison bus three weeks earlier, he may not have known that the fugitive had apparently burglarized a home next door to the ranch, according to family friend David Crain.

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Mariah Carey being sued for $20m over All I Want for Christmas Is You

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Songwriter Andy Stone claims he co-wrote song with the same name and did not give permission for it to be used

Mariah Carey is being sued for $20m (£16m) for alleged copyright infringement over her festive megahit All I Want for Christmas Is You – nearly three decades after it was released.

Since it came out in 1994, the song, which features on her album Merry Christmas, has become a global classic and a firm favourite in the pop Christmas canon.

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Japanese man, 83, becomes oldest person to sail solo non-stop across Pacific

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Yachtsman Kenichi Horie repeats trick after becoming first person to successfully take on feat in 1962

Before he set off, Kenichi Horie said his only fear about sailing solo non-stop across the Pacific Ocean was his age. But on Saturday, the 83-year-old – known as “Japan’s most famous yachtsman” – proved it was not an obstacle after all as he became the world’s oldest person to complete the challenge.

After more than two months at sea, the record-breaking octogenarian, who in 1962 also became the first person to successfully take on the feat, arrived in the waters off the Kii peninsula in western Japan at 2.39am local time.

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US justice department declines to charge former Trump officials Meadows and Scavino with contempt of Congress

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Decision marks major blow for House committee investigating US Capitol attack

The US Department of Justice will not pursue charges of criminal contempt of Congress against top former Trump White House officials Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino for refusing to comply with subpoenas in the congressional investigation into the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

The decision – communicated to the counsel for the House of Representatives on Friday morning – marks a major blow for the House select committee investigating January 6, which had sought prosecutions for the two Trump aides in criminal referrals.

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Pennsylvania Republican primary conceded to Trump-backed Mehmet Oz

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Two weeks after the election, David McCormick acknowledged that the statewide recount will not make up the deficit of votes

David McCormick has conceded the Republican primary in Pennsylvania for US Senate to the celebrity heart surgeon Dr Mehmet Oz, ending his campaign more than two weeks after the election as he acknowledged an ongoing statewide recount wouldn’t give him enough votes to make up the deficit.

McCormick, a former hedge fund CEO, said on Friday evening that he had called Oz to concede.

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Wisconsin man killed in what officials say was a ‘targeted act’ to those in the judicial system

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Officers found a 68-year-old man fatally shot in his home and a suspect in the basement with an apparent self-inflicted wound


A man was fatally shot at his home in Wisconsin on Friday and a suspect was discovered in the basement with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in what may have been a plan to target people connected to the judicial system, Wisconsin’s attorney general said.

Josh Kaul, the attorney general Josh Kaul refused to name the victim or the suspect, but said the shooting appeared to be a “targeted act” and that the gunman had selected targets who were “part of the judicial system”.

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Ex-Trump adviser Peter Navarro indicted for defying Capitol attack panel

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Navarro in custody after indictment on two counts of contempt of Congress after he defied subpoena issued by January 6 committee

Peter Navarro, a top former White House adviser to Donald Trump, was taken into custody after being indicted by a federal grand jury on Friday on two counts of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena issued by the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack.

The indictment against Navarro marks the first time that the justice department has pursued charges against a Trump White House official who worked in the administration on January 6 and participated in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

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Ron DeSantis blocks funds for Tampa Bay Rays after team’s gun safety tweets

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  • Florida governor defends vetoing funds for training facility
  • Rays had joined Yankees in tweeting about gun safety

The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, has defended his veto of $35m in funding for a potential spring training site for the Tampa Bay Rays, after the Major League Baseball team used social media to raise awareness about gun violence after mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas.

“I don’t support giving taxpayer dollars to professional sports stadiums,” DeSantis said on Friday, when asked about the veto of the sports complex funding.

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Democrats and Republicans at an impasse over US gun control as Biden demands action – as it happened

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Peter Navarro, a top former White House adviser to Donald Trump, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Friday on two counts of contempt of Congress after he defied a subpoena issued by the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack.

The justice department said in a news release that Navarro was indicted with one count for refusing to appear at a deposition and another for refusing to turn over documents as required by the panel’s subpoena.

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Texas police kill fugitive who shot dead four children and their grandfather

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Gonzalo Lopez, who had links to a Mexican drug cartel, had been on the run since escaping prison bus and stabbing driver

A convicted murderer with ties to a Mexican drug cartel killed four Houston-area children and their grandfather before police shot him dead on Thursday, more than three weeks after he escaped a prison bus in Texas and went on the run, authorities said.

Officers said Gonzalo Lopez, 46, who escaped from custody while serving two life sentences, killed the five family members – all strangers to him – and stole their truck while they were at their weekend cabin.

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Kelly Joe Phelps, blues and country musician, dies aged 62

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Musician celebrated for slide guitar playing and soulful voice released a string of acclaimed albums between 1994 and 2012

Kelly Joe Phelps, the celebrated singer and guitarist whose music traversed blues, country and jazz, has died aged 62. A post on his Facebook page said he died “quietly at home in Iowa”.

Born in Washington state, Phelps was raised in a musical family and first trained as a jazz musician, but broadened his playing after being inspired by artists such as Mississippi Fred McDowell. “I wanted to figure out a way to improvise like a jazz musician would, but at the same time play a style of music that was more closely linked to folk forms,” he explained.

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Elon Musk seeks 10% job cuts at Tesla over ‘super bad feeling’ about economy

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Email to executives also calls for hiring freeze at electric car maker, which has 100,000 staff worldwide

Elon Musk is considering a hiring freeze and job cuts of up to 10% of staff at Tesla because he has a “super bad feeling” about the state of the economy, according to an internal email seen by Reuters.

Tesla currently has about 5,000 job openings advertised worldwide, and 100,000 employees. The email was sent to Tesla executives late on Thursday with the subject line “pause all hiring worldwide”, and comes days after Musk ordered all employees to return to the office for at least 40 hours a week or face immediate termination.

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US Justice Department could be zeroing in on Trump lawyers, experts say

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Subpoenas for information on Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman’s roles in the fake electors scheme were issued in April

Legal experts believe the US Justice Department has made headway with a key criminal inquiry and could be homing in on top Trump lawyers who plotted to overturn Joe Biden’s election, after the department wrote to the House panel probing the January 6 Capitol attack seeking transcripts of witness depositions and interviews.

While it’s unclear exactly what information the DoJ asked for, former prosecutors note that the 20 April request occurred at about the same time a Washington DC grand jury issued subpoenas seeking information about several Trump lawyers including Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, plus other Trump advisers, who reportedly played roles in a fake electors scheme.

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Florida supreme court declines to rule gerrymandered voting map unconstitutional

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Governor Ron DeSantis’ map dismantles the state’s largely Black fifth congressional district into four new ones

Florida’s supreme court has declined to hear a request to rule on whether the state’s new congressional map was unconstitutional, a decision that means it will probably be more difficult for Black voters in north Florida to elect their preferred candidates to represent them.

The state’s congressional map, drawn by Governor Ron DeSantis, dismantles the state’s fifth congressional district, which stretches from Jacksonville to Tallahassee and is 46% Black.

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Iowa: man kills two women and then himself in latest US shooting

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The women were shot dead outside a church in Ames moments after Joe Biden urged Congress to ban assault weapons

A man has shot and killed two women in the parking lot of a church in Iowa and then turned the gun on himself, police said, adding three more dead to the national toll from a series of recent shootings that have rocked the United States.

The Iowa shooting took place on Thursday shortly after president Joe Biden delivered a major address on gun violence in the wake of mass shootings in Buffalo, New York; Uvalde, Texas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, in recent weeks.

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