Category Archives: US News

Highland Park suspect’s father to be investigated for signing gun application

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Robert Crimo Jr denies any responsibility for the attack, saying ‘I had no – not an inkling, warning – that this was going to happen’

The father of the Highland Park gunman will be criminally investigated in connection with the Independence Day attack for signing an affidavit supporting his son’s application for a gun license, police said.

Robert Crimo Jr, the father of Robert Crimo III – who is suspected of killing seven people at a Fourth of July parade in a suburb of Chicago – sponsored his son’s firearm owner application in 2019.

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Colorado governor issues executive order to protect abortion access

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Jared Polis pledges that his state will not assist other states in criminal or civil investigations into abortions

The Democratic governor of Colorado has mandated that his state will not cooperate with any investigations into abortions led by other states.

Jared Polis signed an executive order on Wednesday pledging that the western US state will not assist other states in criminal or civil investigations used to prevent people from accessing abortions.

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Four bears killed at Alaska park reserved for homeless people

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Bears were stealing food from tents at campground in Anchorage that provides shelter but is also bear country

Alaska wildlife officials have killed four black bears in a campground recently reserved for people in Anchorage who are homeless after the city’s largest shelter was closed.

Employees from the Alaska department of fish and game on Tuesday killed a sow and her two cubs and another adult bear that was acting separately, stealing food from tents inside Centennial Park, which is managed by the city, officials said.

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Ex-Cheer star Jerry Harris sentenced to 12 years in prison for child sexual abuse images charges

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22-year-old breakout star on Netflix’s cheerleading show had pleaded guilty to crimes relating to child abuse images and soliciting sex from minors

Jerry Harris, the star of hit Netflix series Cheer, has been sentenced to 12 years behind bars in the US for crimes relating to child sexual abuse images and soliciting sex from minors.

Prosecutors had urged the lengthy sentence, saying that Harris’s status as a celebrity had enabled him to “persuade and entice” his young victims to engage in sexual conduct.

In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International

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FBI and MI5 leaders give unprecedented joint warning on Chinese spying

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Christopher Wray joins Ken McCallum in London, calling Beijing the ‘biggest long-term threat to economic security’

The head of the FBI and the leader of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency have delivered an unprecedented joint address raising fresh alarm about the Chinese government, warning business leaders that Beijing is determined to steal their technology for competitive gain.

In a speech at MI5’s London headquarters intended as a show of western solidarity, Christopher Wray, the FBI director, stood alongside the MI5 director general, Ken McCallum. Wray reaffirmed longstanding concerns about economic espionage and hacking operations by China, as well as the Chinese government’s efforts to stifle dissent abroad.

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Georgia monument dubbed ‘America’s Stonehenge’ damaged by explosives

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Attack turned one of four granite panels of structure, which some conservative Christians regard as satanic, into rubble


A rural Georgia monument that some conservative Christians have criticized as satanic and that others have dubbed “America’s Stonehenge” was bombed before dawn on Wednesday in an attack that turned one of its four granite panels into rubble.

The Georgia Guidestones monument near Elberton was damaged by an explosive device, the Georgia bureau of investigation said. The Elbert county emergency management agency said the explosion was seen on video cameras shortly after 4am. Pictures and aerial video show the destroyed panel on the ground.

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Uvalde police missed several chances to stop school gunman, report reveals

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One officer asked his supervisor if he could shoot the attacker but got no answer, despite penal code not requiring permission

A newly released report found Uvalde police missed multiple opportunities to take down the gunman that killed 21 people at Robb elementary in May.

The report, released by Texas State University’s Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center, said a Uvalde police officer asked his supervisor if he could shoot the gunman that killed students and teachers at Robb Elementary, but got no answer.

The report also found the police officer, who was armed and outside, requested to shoot the gunman before he entered the building. “Prior to the suspect’s entry into the building at 11:33:00, according to statements, a Uvalde police officer on scene at the crash site observed the suspect carrying a rifle outside the west hall entry. The officer, armed with a rifle, asked his supervisor for permission to shoot the suspect. However, the supervisor either did not hear or responded too late.”

But according to the Texas penal code, the officer did not need to seek permission because the use of deadly force is justified “to prevent the commission of murder”.

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Trump’s White House counsel Pat Cipollone agrees to testify to January 6 panel – as it happened

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Lawyer was subpoenaed last month by the House committee investigating the 2021 assault on the Capitol

A feud appears to be brewing between Biden and the top Democrats in Kentucky, including its governor Andy Beshear.

It began last week when the Courier-Journal reported that Biden intended to nominate an anti-abortion judge to a federal district court, in an apparent deal with Mitch McConnell, the state’s Republican senator who leads the party in Congress’s upper chamber. Now, the Courier-Journal has managed to obtain emails between the White House and Beshear’s office that elaborate on the deal, which the Biden administration has declined to talk about.

The governor’s office also turned over a follow-up email from a White House official sent June 29 — five hours before The Courier Journal first broke the story on the pending nomination of attorney Chad Meredith — clarifying that the original email was “pre-decisional and privileged information.”

White House aide Kathleen M. Marshall, a former lieutenant governor in Nevada who joined the White House in August as senior adviser to governors in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, sent the June 23 email that stated: “To be nominated tomorrow: … Stephen Chad Meredith: candidate for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.”

Mr. Shapiro, the sitting attorney general, will roll out the endorsements of 10 Republicans on Wednesday as part of a continued effort to label his candidacy a reach-across-the-aisle aficionado who will unify the parties to get things done.

The list includes two former U.S. representatives, Charlie Dent and Jim Greenwood; former state House Speaker Denny O’Brien; former Lt. Gov. and longtime state Sen. Robert Jubelirer; and former state Supreme Court Justice Sandra Schultz Newman.

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Juul can keep selling vaping products as it appeals ban, FDA says

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Regulators say ‘scientific issues’ warrant further review of its decision to bar products from sale in US

The Food and Drug Administration will continue to allow Juul to sell its products while the vaping company appeals a recent ban, the agency said on Tuesday.

The FDA wrote on Twitter that there were “scientific issues” warranting additional review of the agency’s ruling last month, which ordered the company to remove its e-cigarettes from the US marketplace.

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Tourist rescued after mission to investigate California family’s hiking deaths

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Michigan man entered area marked closed, reportedly saying he found official explanations of the deaths ‘odd’

A Michigan man who is said to have traveled to California’s Sierra national forest to investigate the heat-related deaths of a young family on a hiking trail last year had to be rescued last month, according to the Mariposa county sheriff’s office.

The tourist, whom authorities have not named but said is in his mid-60s, reportedly traveled to the area to research what happened to Ellen Chung, 30, her husband, Jonathan Gerrish, 45, their one-year-old daughter, Miju, and their dog, Oski, who all died on a hike last August.

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UK watchdog opens investigation into Amazon’s marketplace practices

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CMA looks into whether firm gives own sellers unfair advantage over third-party rivals

The UK competition watchdog has launched an investigation into whether Amazon has been giving its own brands and those using its logistics services unfair advantage over third-party rivals on its online marketplace.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it opened an investigation on Tuesday amid concerns the US tech corporation’s practices on its UK marketplace may be anti-competitive and could result in a worse deal for customers.

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50 Chinese students leave UK in three years after spy chiefs’ warning

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MI5 chief says Chinese communist party targeting intellectual property across west

Fifty Chinese students have left the UK in the past three years after Britain tightened its procedures to prevent the theft of sensitive academic research, the head of MI5 said in a speech about the espionage threat posed by Beijing.

Ken McCallum, the director general of the spy agency, also said that MI5 had “more than doubled” its effort against Chinese activity over the same timeframe, as part of an unprecedented joint warning with his counterpart at the FBI.

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James Cameron defends three-hour Avatar sequel: ‘I don’t want whining’

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Director rejects fears that the sequel to record-breaking 2009 blockbuster will be met with apathy, since ‘people binge-watch TV for eight hours!’

James Cameron has pre-empted fears that his forthcoming sequel to 2009’s Avatar will be met with apathy when it’s released in December.

Speaking to Empire, Cameron addressed the frequent criticism of the original film that few can remember the name – Jake Sully – of its protagonist, played by Sam Worthington.

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Highland Park shooting suspect charged with murder | First Thing

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Robert Crimo III, 21, faces seven counts of first-degree murder after Fourth of July massacre. Plus, why you shouldn’t mess with New York’s bodegas

Good morning.

The man alleged to have fatally shot seven people and wounded more than 30 others at an Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago managed to legally obtain five guns, including the murder weapon, after a 2019 suicide attempt and a threat to “kill everyone”, authorities revealed yesterday.

What do we know about the victims? The death toll increased to seven after a person who has yet to be named died in hospital. More details have emerged about those who have died.

What happened to the toddler found wandering alone after the shooting? A picture of two-year-old Aiden McCarthy went viral after the attack before he was reunited with his grandparents. It has now been reported that the child’s parents were both killed in the massacre.

What did the supreme court decide? In the 6-3 ruling, backed by the rightwing majority of justices, the supreme court did not completely negate the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ability to regulate emissions from coal plants. But it did side with Republican-led states because of the nebulous “major questions doctrine” that demands Congress explicitly decide on significant changes to the US economy.

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Global dismay as supreme court ruling leaves Biden’s climate policy in tatters

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Biden’s election was billed as heralding a ‘climate presidency’ but congressional and judicial roadblocks mean he has little to show

Joe Biden’s election triggered a global surge in optimism that the climate crisis would, finally, be decisively confronted. But the US supreme court’s decision last week to curtail America’s ability to cut planet-heating emissions has proved the latest blow to a faltering effort by Biden on climate that is now in danger of becoming largely moribund.

The supreme court’s ruling that the US government could not use its existing powers to phase out coal-fired power generation without “clear congressional authorization” quickly ricocheted around the world among those now accustomed to looking on in dismay at America’s seemingly endless stumbles in addressing global heating.

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Carlos Santana recovers after onstage collapse in Detroit

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74-year-old guitarist says he ‘forgot to eat and drink water so dehydrated and passed out’

The US guitarist Carlos Santana has recovered after collapsing on stage during a concert in suburban Detroit on Tuesday.

The audience was reportedly initially told of a serious medical issue and asked to pray for the 74-year-old musician, but Santana was treated swiftly and was seen waving to fans as he was wheeled off stage. He was taken to a local hospital for observation.

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After the long wait, US parents seeking under-5s’ vaccine face yet more hurdles

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Some local officials are unsure of how to order Covid vaccines or when they will arrive, while others are aiming to ignore federal guidelines completely

Ashley Comegys, a parent of two young children in Florida, was ecstatic when the Covid vaccines were authorized for children above the age of six months in the US. “We’ve been waiting for this for so long,” she said. “We can finally start to spread our wings again.”

But then she learned that Florida had missed two deadlines to preorder vaccines and would not make them available through state and local health departments, delaying the rollout by several weeks and significantly limiting access.

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US mass shootings are getting deadlier and more common, analysis shows

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The last five years have seen more mass shootings than any other comparable time span dating back to 1966, with 31 massacres from 2017 through 2021, compared with 24 from 2012 through 2016

On the morning of 4 July, President Joe Biden hailed the day as one to “celebrate the goodness of our nation”.

Less than an hour after his 9.25am EST tweet, a gunman on a rooftop opened fire into a crowd of spectators who gathered to enjoy a Fourth of July parade in a Chicago suburb. He killed seven people and injured dozens.

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Gun violence rattles US amid Independence Day celebrations – latest updates

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Suspect pre-planned Highland park attack and wore ‘women’s clothing’, police say

A new poll from Monmouth University has found that President Joe Biden remains unpopular, but for Democrats, that’s not its most troubling finding. The Biden administration has hoped that the supreme court’s recent rulings curtailing abortion access and expanding concealed weapons possession would fire up Democrats ahead of the midterm elections, but the poll instead shows that voters’ biggest issue remains the nation’s high rate of inflation - a trend that Biden has had little success in reversing.

First the bad news about Biden’s approval rating, which Monmouth reports actually worsened last month:

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Highland Park shooting: police say suspect used women’s clothing disguise

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YouTube has taken down page belonging to man in custody, while Instagram and Twitter have terminated his accounts

Seeking clues for a possible motivation, police were combing through the social media profile and published songs of the alleged attacker in the shooting that left at least six dead and 30 wounded in a Chicago suburb on the Fourth of July.

Robert E Crimo III, 22, was detained hours after the shooting Monday as a person of interest in the case, said the police chief of Highland Park, Illinois. Investigators have stopped short of calling Crimo a suspect, but on Tuesday they described finding evidence that he disguised himself in “women’s clothing” before opening fire on strangers with a high-powered rifle styled after an AR-15.

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