Category Archives: US News

Florida teen who faces losing leg after shark attack says: don’t fear the ocean

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Addison Bethea, 17, insisted ‘I’m still going to do what I love’ as she faces amputation following Fourth of July incident

A teenager who was in hospital to have her right leg amputated on Tuesday after a shark bit her off Florida’s coast said she had no intention of abandoning her love for the water.

“Don’t be scared of the ocean,” Addison Bethea told Miami’s CBS affiliate from her bed when asked to send a message to the public. “I’m still going to do what I love – don’t just let fear overtake your life.”

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Texas death row inmate asks to delay execution so he can donate kidney

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Lawyers for Ramiro Gonzales, who is set to die by lethal injection on 13 July, requested 30-day reprieve so he can provide donation

A Texas man set to be executed in less than two weeks asked to delay his execution so he can donate a kidney.

Ramiro Gonzales, 39, who is set to die by lethal injection on 13 July, has submitted formal requests to postpone his execution so he can provide a kidney donation for someone urgently needing a transplant.

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Distributors didn’t fuel opioid epidemic in West Virginia, judge rules

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Doctors’ ‘good faith’ prescribing decisions drove volume of painkillers shipped to pharmacies, says district judge David Faber

The US’s three largest pharmaceutical distributors were not responsible for fueling an opioid epidemic in a part of West Virginia, a federal judge ruled on Monday.

District judge David Faber rejected efforts by the city of Huntington and Cabell County to force McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health to pay $2.5bn to address a drug crisis prompted by a flood of addictive pills in their region.

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Director Paul Haggis released from hotel detention following sexual abuse claim

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Director’s lawyer says prosecutors in Italy are deciding whether to investigate allegation he had sex with a woman without consent

A judge in southern Italy on Monday ordered the film director Paul Haggis released from detention at his hotel while prosecutors decide whether to pursue their investigation of whether he allegedly had sex with a woman without her consent over two days, his lawyer said.

Michele Laforgia told the Associated Press that his client Haggis, who is also a screenwriter and an Academy Award winner, was still in Italy. The ruling was made by Judge Vilma Gilli, based in Puglia, which is the region that forms the “heel” of the Italian peninsula.

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Details emerge about victims of Highland Park Fourth of July shooting

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Shooting injured dozens and killed six, including 76-year-old grandfather Nicolas Toledo and teacher Jacki Sundheim

The first details have begun to emerge of the victims of the mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, after a lone gunman fired into a crowd of people watching the Chicago suburb’s Fourth of July parade.

The shooting killed six and injured dozens, triggering panic and shock across the US as yet another attack disrupted what is usually a day of patriotic celebration.

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Anger as families of US detainees in Middle East left off Blinken call

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‘Infuriating’ exclusions made just weeks before Joe Biden’s Saudi visit and expected rapprochement with the crown prince

Family members of several US nationals who are being held in Saudi Arabia and Egypt were not invited to attend a recent call with Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, in a move that was called “infuriating and discriminatory” by one critic.

The apparent decision to exclude the families from a 22 June call between Blinken and relatives of US nationals who are hostages or otherwise wrongfully detained in Russia, Venezuela, Rwanda and other countries, was made just weeks before Joe Biden’s controversial trip to the Middle East and an expected rapprochement between the US president and Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince.

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Police arrest person of interest in mass killing that targeted Chicago-area Fourth of July parade – latest updates

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At least six killed and 30 injured after shooting in Highland Park just after 10am local time

In a new statement, Biden condemned the shooting in Highland Park as a “senseless act of violence” and vowed to deliver the “full support of the federal government to assist.” As the search continues for the gunman, Biden said he had “surged” the federal law enforcement response and was monitoring the situation closely.

Jill and I are shocked by the senseless gun violence that has yet again brought grief to an American community on this Independence Day. As always, we are grateful for the first responders and law enforcement on the scene. I have spoken to Governor Pritzker and Mayor Rotering, and have offered the full support of the Federal government to their communities. I also surged federal law enforcement to assist in the urgent search for the shooter, who remains at large at this time.

Members of the community should follow guidance from leadership on the ground, and I will monitor closely as we learn more about those whose lives have been lost and pray for those who are in the hospital with grievous injuries.

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Person of interest in custody after shooting at Chicago-area Fourth of July parade

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At least six killed and 30 injured in Highland park attack amid string of recent mass shootings

A person of interest in the mass killing that targeted a Fourth of July parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park has been taken into custody, the Highland Park police chief said on Monday evening.

More than 100 law enforcement officers had scoured the suburb and surrounding areas after at least six people were killed and 30 injured when a lone gunman rained down bullets on the town’s independence celebrations on Monday morning.

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At least six dead in shooting at Chicago suburb’s Fourth of July parade

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Gunman apparently opened fire on paradegoers from rooftop, police say, as authorities still searching for suspect

At least six people are dead and 30 wounded in yet another mass killing in the US after a shooting at a Fourth of July parade in a Chicago suburb.

The attack in the affluent town of Highland Park disrupted the annual parade that celebrates American independence just after it began at 10am. It brought a scene of blood-soaked carnage to one that usually features flags, floats and marching bands.

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Newsom airs Florida ad urging people to fight for freedom – or move to California

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‘Freedom is under attack in your state,’ California governor says in ad paid for by his re-election campaign that aired on Fox News

Governor Gavin Newsom of California has aired a commercial in Florida over the Fourth of July holiday weekend urging residents there to fight for freedom, or move to his state in order to find it.

The ad – which pits blue state California against currently red state Florida – exemplified the growing divides in the US as Republican-led state legislatures have pursued rightwing policies on a slew of issues from banning abortion to attacking LGBTQ+ rights and voting issues.

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‘This isn’t freedom’: Fourth of July shooting rocks Chicago and shocks US

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Leaders and activists demand change after shooter targets Highland Park parade celebrating Independence Day

The shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park that left at least six dead and 24 wounded has rocked the small, well-off community in suburban Chicago, and shocked the US as a whole.

It is the latest in a slew of mass killings that have recently included a shooting at a school in Texas and the racist massacre of Black shoppers at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.

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Oklahoma to execute death row prisoners nearly every month

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State set execution dates on Friday for six inmates and plans for executions to take place about once a month through 2024

Oklahoma is planning to execute a prisoner on death row nearly every month starting in August through 2024 in a move that is likely to cause outrage among opponents of the death penalty.

The Oklahoma court of criminal appeals set the execution dates on Friday for six inmates, who have all exhausted their appeals, and plans for executions to take place about once a month. The inmates’ capital punishments were on hold because of a lawsuit over botched lethal injections, which led to a more than five-year execution moratorium.

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Akron police release body-cam video in fatal shooting of Jayland Walker

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Officials brace for fresh protests after 25-year-old Black man was killed running from officers during a traffic stop

Authorities in Akron, Ohio, have released chilling police body-camera video in the shooting death of Jayland Walker, a Black motorist who was gunned down after running from officers during a traffic stop on Monday.

The video, which shows a fast police chase of Walker’s vehicle, culminates with several officers surrounding the 25-year-old in a parking lot, attempting to Taser him and then opening fire. Walker was accused of firing a handgun at police from his vehicle before leaving the pistol in the driver’s seat and trying to run from officers.

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10-year-old rape victim forced to travel from Ohio to Indiana for abortion

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Case places prominent anti-abortion figures in position of balancing rights of women and girls while defending restrictions

The case of a 10-year-old child rape victim in Ohio who was six weeks pregnant, ineligible for an abortion in her own state, and forced to travel to Indiana for the procedure has spotlighted the shocking impact of the US supreme court ruling on abortion.

The story of the girl came to light three days after the court overturned a nationwide right to terminate pregnancy, and Ohio’s six-week “trigger ban” came into effect.

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Liz Cheney won’t rule out criminal referral against Donald Trump

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January 6 committee vice-chairwoman says ‘a man as dangerous as [him] can never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again’

The vice-chairwoman of the congressional committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol is not ruling out a criminal referral against Donald Trump, saying “a man as dangerous as [him] can never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again”.

Liz Cheney’s remarks Sunday came after the committee’s chairman, Bennie Thompson, once said he did not expect the panel to indicate whether or not it would make a recommendation for federal prosecutors to charge the former president with an alleged role in the Capitol attack.

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Judge puts Biden on the spot over immunity for Saudi crown prince

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Court invitation to clarify prince’s status comes as president faces criticism for ditching promise to turn Saudi Arabia into a ‘pariah’

A US judge has asked the Biden administration to weigh in on whether Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, should be granted sovereign immunity in a civil case brought against him in the US by Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist who was killed by Saudi agents in 2018.

John Bates, a district court judge, gave the US government until 1 August to declare its interests in the civil case or give the court notice that it has no view on the matter.

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Fresh row as Israel to conduct forensic tests on bullet that killed Shireen Abu Aqleh

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Dispute threatens to derail apparent breakthrough in standoff over investigation into Al Jazeera reporter’s death

Israel has said it will conduct forensic tests on the bullet that killed the Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh, a day after Palestinian officials handed over the evidence to a US security coordinator for examination on what they said was the condition that Israel would not be involved.

The testing will be carried out by Israeli investigators in the presence of US observers, the Israeli military spokesperson Brig-Gen Ran Kochav told Army Radio on Sunday.

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‘People want me dead’: abortion providers fear violence after Roe overturned

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Danger is a daily reality for the health workers, and moments of upheaval raise the risk, expert says

Boulder, Colorado, has for decades made its abortion providers feel welcome. The city council passed one of the country’s first laws regulating how close demonstrators could get to patients seeking reproductive care, and residents took to the streets in protest when it became clear that the supreme court was ready to overturn the constitutional right to abortion, as it did last month.

“Boulder is probably the most pro-choice community in the country,” said Warren Hern, director of the Boulder Abortion Clinic. “But there are people in the community who want me dead.”

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Next up: voting rights, as US supreme court set to tear up more protections

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The ideologically driven conservative majority is likely to further weaken key civil rights legislation after a term of radical rulings

The final days of the US supreme court’s term offered a clear look at the way its new 6-3 conservative majority is bluntly using its power to reshape American life, but its next term is also set to hear cases that could prove equally, or even more, consequential.

“This really is the ‘Yolo’ [you only live once] court,” said Leah Litman, a law professor at the University of Michigan who closely follows the court. “I don’t think people fathom just how much more they will do.”

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Mickey Mouse could soon leave Disney as 95-year copyright expiry nears

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The beloved character was created in 1928 and the cartoon is widely regarded as a pioneer in animation

As a consequence of US copyright law, entertainment giant Disney could soon lose the exclusive rights to some of the characters most responsible for the brand’s universal recognition, including the mouse that acts as its mascot.

Mickey Mouse will enter the public domain in the year 2024, almost 95 years after his creation on 1 October 1928 – the length of time after which the copyright on an anonymous or pseudo-anonymous body of artistic work expires.

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