Richard Jessee, who was searching for gold, said: ‘There was no doubt about it: the bear was trying to get into my cabin’
An Alaska gold prospector rescued from a sustained attack by a grizzly bear some compared to a famous scene in the movie The Revenant told a local newspaper: “The bear came out of nowhere.
“It rolled my bike and the trailer over like it was a toy car. I was in shock and hypothermic.”
Continue reading...A conservative radio host in Tennessee who urged listeners not to get vaccinated against Covid-19 has changed track and called on listeners to get the shot, after contracting the virus and ending up in hospital in “very serious condition”.
Related: Fox News backs Covid vaccination – a pity no one told Tucker Carlson
Continue reading...Americans are paying more for gas, hotels and used cars – and Republicans sense an opportunity to inflict a political wound upon the Democrats
Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats have been eager to celebrate America’s economic rebound as pandemic-related restrictions are relaxed and more businesses reopen. But there has been one sore spot in recent economic reports that Democrats have been less enthusiastic about: inflation.
Related: Republican governor says ‘time to start blaming unvaccinated’ for rise in cases
Continue reading...As the variant tears its way through the US and vaccination rates plateau in the state, hospitals are experiencing a new wave of cases
Nurse Matt Robinson braced himself before pushing the heavy doors to the recently reopened Covid-19 ward at Methodist University hospital in downtown Memphis, Tennessee.
This hadn’t been in the script. After over a year of continuous work with Covid-19 patients throughout the pandemic, the burnout brought on by constant exposure to death and trauma, Robinson had hoped his job might return to normal.
Continue reading...Firefighters have officially ended their efforts following one of the nation’s deadliest engineering failures
Firefighters have declared the end of their search for bodies at the site of a collapsed Florida condo building, concluding a month of painstaking work removing layers of dangerous debris that were once piled several stories high.
The collapse on 24 June at the oceanside Champlain Towers South killed 97 people, with at least one more missing person yet to be identified. The site has been mostly swept flat and the rubble moved to a Miami warehouse. Although forensic scientists are still at work, including examining the debris at the warehouse, there are no more bodies to be found where the building once stood.
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As the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony comes to an end, First Lady Jill Biden cheers from the stands. On Saturday, she is expected to attend the USA v France women’s 3x3 basketball game and the USA v Nw Zealand women’s soccer game.
. @FLOTUS stands to cheer as #TeamUSA enters the arena. pic.twitter.com/XM0xiSzqxb
First Lady @DrBiden will attend the following Olympic events in Tokyo on Saturday, per the White House:
- USA v France women's 3x3 basketball game
- Various swimming races
- USA v New Zealand women's soccer game
The bust of a man who was a Confederate general, Ku Klux Klan leader and slave trader was removed from the Tennessee state capitol this morning, a year after the governor said it was high time it was gone.
Nathan Bedford Forrest had been immortalized at the Tennessee capitol in Nashville since the late 1970s.
HAPPENING NOW: Crews are starting the process of removing the Nathan Bedford Forrest bust from the capitol. @WKRN #GMN pic.twitter.com/8HwOG3zsoY
The State Building Commission on Thursday gave approval for the relocation of the Forrest bust to the Tennessee State Museum, a final step in a process that has taken more than a year since Gov. Bill Lee first said it was time for the statue to be moved.
“It’s been a year long journey, and this is an appropriate step in that process,” Lee said prior to the Building Commission meeting Thursday morning. “It’s most important to me that we followed the process. We talked about that from the very beginning.”
The bust of Confederate Gen. and KKK leader Nathan Bedford Forrest is off its pedestal and being wheeled out of the Tennessee Capitol. pic.twitter.com/dgAg4isvxw
Continue reading...Alabama’s Kay Ivey says surge in new infections is due to a reluctance among many in state to get inoculated
The Republican governor of Alabama has said it is “time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks” for rising cases of Covid-19, amid concern that months of misinformation over the need and efficacy of vaccines is fueling a resurgence of coronavirus infections in several states.
Kay Ivey said that vaccines are “the greatest weapon we have to fight Covid” and added that a surge in new cases of the coronavirus in Alabama is due to a reluctance among many people in the state to get inoculated.
Continue reading...A hundred athletes are picked each year for the 135-mile race. This time the climate was especially brutal
In the Badwater Basin at the bottom of California’s Death Valley, the air feels like a giant hair dryer and the pavement can melt the soles of your shoes.
Yet on Monday night, 100 of the world’s top endurance runners set off on what has become known as “the world’s toughest foot race”, carving 135 miles of terrain through one of the planet’s most extreme climates at the most intense time of year.
Continue reading...The US is at another 'pivotal moment' in the pandemic as the Delta variant drives a big rise in new cases, said CDC director, Rochelle Walensky, who warned 'we are not out of the woods yet'. She added: 'The Delta variant is more aggressive and much more transmissible than previously circulating strains,' she said. 'It is one of the most infectious respiratory viruses that we know of and that I have seen in my 20-year career.'
The recent heatwave that broiled the US Pacific north-west not only obliterated temperature records in cities such as Seattle and Portland – it also put a torch to a comforting bromide that the region would be a mild, safe haven from the ravages of the climate crisis.
Unprecedented temperatures baked the region three weeks ago, part of a procession of heatwaves that have hit the parched US west, from Montana to southern California, over the past month. A “heat dome” that settled over the area saw Seattle reach 108F (42.2C), smashing the previous record by 3F (1.7C), while Portland, Oregon, soared to its own record of 116F (46.7C). Some inland areas managed to get up to 118F (47.8C).
Related: ‘Nowhere is safe’: heat shatters vision of Pacific north-west as climate refuge
Continue reading...Director William Burns has initiated a taskforce to investigate the syndrome and tripled the size of the medical team involved
About 100 CIA officers and family members are among about 200 US officials and kin sickened by “Havana syndrome”, the CIA director, William Burns, said on Thursday, referring to the mysterious set of ailments that include migraines and dizziness.
Burns, tapped by Joe Biden as the first career diplomat to serve as CIA chief, said in a National Public Radio interview that he had bolstered his agency’s efforts to determine the cause of the syndrome and what is responsible.
Continue reading...Kaseya’s universal key can free the files of hundreds of organizations, ending the worst of the attack’s fallout
The software company at the center of a huge ransomware attack this month has obtained a universal key to unlock files of the hundreds of businesses and public organizations crippled by the hack.
Nineteen days after the initial attack over the Fourth of July weekend, the Florida-based IT management provider, Kaseya, has received the universal key that can unlock the scrambled data of all the attack’s victims, bringing the worst of the fallout to a close.
Continue reading...Visit by deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman on Sunday follows reported standoff over diplomatic protocol
Amid escalating diplomatic tensions, the US deputy secretary of state, Wendy Sherman, will travel to China this Sunday to meet with senior Chinese diplomats in the highest-level visit since the US climate envoy John Kerry’s trip to Shanghai in April.
Sherman’s upcoming trip will not have the trappings of a fully fledged official visit. She will – according to a Chinese statement – “hold talks” with Xie Feng, a vice-minister in charge of the bilateral relations, and “meet” with Wang Yi, China’s state councilor and foreign minister.
Continue reading...Alaska man injured by bear that kept returning to his isolated hut in the wilderness
It reads like the plot of a thriller movie or page-turning novel.
A man in Alaska was rescued, injured but alive, after enduring repeated attacks by a grizzly bear that kept on returning to his isolated hut in the wilderness, from which he had no way of contacting the outside world.
Continue reading...The US is “at another pivotal moment in this pandemic” as rising Covid-19 cases show no signs of abating, driven by the Delta variant, and some hospitals are filling up, especially in areas with low vaccination rates, government officials warned on Thursday.
The US government did not change its guidance on mask wearing, despite debates going on in the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about whether those who have been vaccinated should once again be officially advised to wear masks indoors to prevent the spread.
Continue reading...Biden moves to pressure government over alleged human rights abuses amid biggest demonstrations in decades
The US has imposed sanctions on a Cuban security minister and an interior ministry special forces unit for alleged human rights abuses in a crackdown on anti-government protests this month.
The move marked the first concrete steps by Joe Biden’s administration to apply pressure on Cuba’s Communist government as it faces calls from US lawmakers and the Cuban American community to show greater support for the biggest protests to hit the island in decades.
Continue reading...Bereaved families’ stories are being used to criticize the movement to defund police: ‘It compounds the trauma’
William Gude spends his days trying to hold the police accountable. As the creator and outspoken monitor behind @filmthepolicela, a Twitter account that’s attracted thousands of followers, he regularly critiques the LAPD by filming and tweeting about their activity – from traffic stops to confrontations with protestors.
But one night in June, his tweets got personal. That night he told his followers that his son, Marcelis William-Gude, had been shot. After hitting send, Gude drove to the hospital where a doctor told him that his 22-year-old son died after being shot multiple times in South Los Angeles.
Continue reading...More Olympic athletes confirmed to have Covid; Seoul considering new restrictions amid one of worst outbreaks to date
In the UK, a record 618,903 alerts were sent to users of the NHS Covid-19 app in England and Wales in the week to July 14 telling then they had been in close contact with a person who had tested positive for coronavirus, according to NHS figures.
Angela Merkel has urged Germans to get vaccinated amid a worrying rise in cases, telling the nation: “The more we are vaccinated, the freer we will be.”
“We all want our normality back,” the German chancellor, who is preparing to step down later this year, said. “The more we are vaccinated, the freer we will be.”
Continue reading...The convicted rapist is serving a 23-year prison term in New York and now faces the possibility of another sentence in California
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty in a Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday to four counts of rape and seven other sexual assault counts.
The 69-year-old convicted rapist appeared in court in a wheelchair. He was wearing a brown jail jumpsuit and face mask. Attorney Mark Werksman entered the plea a day after Weinstein was extradited to California from New York, where he was serving a 23-year prison term.
Continue reading...Group of US states attorneys general unveil settlement including three largest US drug distributors and Johnson & Johnson
A group of US state attorneys general unveiled on Wednesday a landmark $26bn settlement with large drug companies for allegedly fueling the deadly nationwide opioid epidemic, but some states were cool on the agreement.
Under the settlement proposal, the three largest US drug distributors, McKesson Corp, Cardinal Health Inc and AmerisourceBergen Corp, are expected to pay a combined $21bn, while drugmaker Johnson & Johnson (J&J), which manufactures opioids, would pay $5bn.
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