Adam Toledo was killed in an ‘armed confrontation’, police say, as family calls for justice
A 13-year-old boy has been identified as a person shot dead by Chicago police on the city’s west side in what the department called an “armed confrontation”.
Adam Toledo died of a gunshot wound to his chest early on Monday, the Cook county medical examiner’s office said on Thursday.
Continue reading...Sgt David Pleoger tells trial that Chauvin and the other officers should have stopped using force once Floyd stopped resisting
Derek Chauvin’s police supervisor has told his murder trial that there was no justification for the officer to keep his knee on George Floyd’s neck for nine minutes.
Sgt David Pleoger, who arrived at the scene shortly after Floyd was taken away by ambulance, said that Chauvin and other officers holding down the 46-year-old Black man should have stopped using force once Floyd stopped resisting.
Continue reading...Biden’s first full cabinet meeting was a return to the staid old way of doing things – not worshipping the president like Trump’s cabinet
Poor old Joe Biden. He might have won the electoral college and the popular vote but he’ll never feel the love of his underlings like Donald Trump did.
The former president’s first full cabinet meeting in June 2017 remains an unparalleled opera of oleaginousness. Secretary after secretary all but flung themselves at his feet, sang songs of praise and paid homage to the divine emperor of the universe.
Continue reading...Statement following talks sparks optimism that unexpected progress has been made
A potential breakthrough in the apparently deadlocked efforts to bring the US back into the nuclear deal with Iran is on the horizon after secret diplomatic talks in Frankfurt this week.
The joint commission, the body that brings together the existing signatories to the deal, will meet virtually on Friday to discuss the outcome of Monday’s meeting amid growing optimism that unexpected progress has been made.
Continue reading...George Floyd’s girlfriend told the Derek Chauvin murder trial that the couple shared an addiction to opioid painkillers that they struggled to overcome in the weeks before his death.
Courteney Ross described meeting the man she called 'Floyd', but the bulk of her testimony on the fourth day of the trial focused on the pair’s opioid use
Discovery may explain escape of Capt Henry Every after murderous raid on Indian emperor’s ship
A handful of coins unearthed from a pick-your-own-fruit orchard in the US state of Rhode Island and other random corners of New England may help solve a centuries-old cold case.
The villain in this tale: a murderous English pirate who became the world’s most-wanted criminal after plundering a ship carrying Muslim pilgrims home to India from Mecca, then eluded capture by posing as a slave trader.
Continue reading...US has tallied on average 63,000 new cases daily over the past week while only five states have seen declines in new infections
The US could be in the early stages of a fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic that is taking renewed hold across the country, with coronavirus cases increasing in 25 states, according to reports.
The US has tallied, on average, 63,000 new cases daily over the past week–an increase of 17% from the week prior, news website Axios reported. Only five states have recently seen declines in new cases. The third wave of the pandemic, which peaked in January, saw about 250,000 people daily testing positive for Covid-19, the Hill reported.
Continue reading...Republicans seeking to restrict children’s lives claim trans youth are a ‘new phenomenon’. Jules Gill-Peterson explains how medical archives prove them wrong
Republican lawmakers pushing to restrict transgender children’s lives have repeatedly argued that trans kids are a “new phenomenon” and that gender-affirming treatments and policies are “experimental”.
But Jules Gill-Peterson, a professor of gender, sexuality and women’s studies at the University of Pittsburgh, has found extensive evidence of trans youth in the US living as themselves and fighting to transition in decades-old archival documents. The records from American hospitals and clinics date back to the early 20th century, with examples across the US well before the existence of contemporary language on trans identity.
Continue reading...Police arrived as shots were being fired; suspect taken to hospital after being shot by officers
Four people, including a child, have been killed and a fifth person injured in a shooting at a southern California office building, with the suspected shooter wounded by police.
It happened at around 5.30pm on Wednesday at a two-storey office building in Orange, south of Los Angeles.
Continue reading...Civil rights advocates celebrate bill’s passage, which comes just over a year after the fatal shooting
Georgia lawmakers have approved a bill that would overhaul the state’s citizen’s arrest law, rolling back a Civil War-era statute one year after the killing of Ahmaud Arbery.
The state’s governor, Brian Kemp, is expected to sign the bill into law, which would make Georgia the first state to move toward repealing a citizen’s arrest statute. Georgia’s citizen’s arrest law, which was enacted in 1863 to allow white citizens to capture slaves fleeing north, and was later used to justify hundreds of lynchings, was cited by a prosecutor last year who initially declined to arrest Arbery’s assailants.
Continue reading...Joe Biden unveiled what he called a 'once-in-a-generation' investment in American infrastructure, promising the nation his $2tn plan would create the 'strongest, most resilient, innovative economy in the world'. Biden’s proposal to the nation still struggling to overcome the coronavirus pandemic would rebuild 20,000 miles of roads and highways and repair the 10 most economically significant bridges in the country. Biden added other projects would confront the climate crisis, curb wealth inequality and strengthen US competitiveness
Christopher Martin tells court ‘this could have been avoided’, on third day of testimony in former officer Derek Chauvin’s trial
The cashier who served George Floyd in a Minneapolis store immediately before his arrest and death last May told a court on Wednesday of the “disbelief and guilt” he felt for allowing Floyd to pay with a suspected fake $20 bill when he later saw the police kneeling on him.
Testimony on the third day of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial continued in an atmosphere of tense emotions and harrowing evidence about Floyd’s death.
Continue reading...Former US president has been banned from the platform since early January after the violent insurrection of the Capitol
Facebook on Wednesday removed a clip of an interview with Donald Trump from its platform, according to the former president’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump.
In a post shared to her Instagram account, Lara Trump, who is a Fox News commentator, shared a message from Facebook officials alerting her they had removed a video teaser of an upcoming interview with her father-in-law on Fox News.
Continue reading...Authorities reportedly investigating if Republican congressman, 38, violated sex trafficking laws and had inappropriate relationship
The prominent Republican congressman Matt Gaetz’s reported relationship with a 17-year-old girl remained under scrutiny on Wednesday, despite his insistence in an appearance on Fox News that the allegation was “verifiably false”.
Related: Hunter Biden calls Trump 'vile' in new book and denies Ukraine allegations
Continue reading...Crystal Mason was sentenced to five years in prison for voting while inadvertently ineligible in 2016
Texas’ highest criminal appeals court said Wednesday it would hear an appeal from a Texas woman who was sentenced to five years in prison for voting while inadvertently ineligible in 2016.
Continue reading...Police say Brandon Elliot, who was previously convicted of killing his mother, faces assault charges for attacking 65-year-old woman
The suspect wanted in an attack of an Asian American woman near New York City’s Times Square has been arrested and charged with felony assault as a hate crime, police said early Wednesday.
The arrest comes after the man was seen on video kicking and stomping the woman on Monday.
Continue reading...In a nine-month investigation by the Guardian and Consumer Reports we found forever chemicals, arsenic and lead in samples taken across the US
In Connecticut, a condo had lead in its drinking water at levels more than double what the federal government deems acceptable. At a church in North Carolina, the water was contaminated with extremely high levels of potentially toxic PFAS chemicals ( a group of compounds found in hundreds of household products). The water flowing into a Texas home had both – and concerning amounts of arsenic too.
All three were among locations that had water tested as part of a nine-month investigation by Consumer Reports (CR) and the Guardian into the US’s drinking water.
Continue reading...German shepherd Major ‘nipped someone while on a walk’, according to first’s lady’s press secretary
Joe Biden’s dog Major has been involved in its second biting incident in a month, the White House has said.
The dog “nipped someone while on a walk” on Monday, according to Jill Biden’s press secretary, Michael LaRosa. The animal “is still adjusting to his new surroundings”, he said. The individual was seen by the White House medical unit “out of an abundance of caution” and returned to work without injury.
Continue reading...American Jobs Plan would rebuild roads, highways and bridges; confront the climate crisis and curb wealth inequality
Joe Biden on Wednesday unveiled what he called a “once-in-a-generation” investment in American infrastructure, promising a nation still struggling to overcome the coronavirus pandemic that his $2tn plan would create the “strongest, most resilient, innovative economy in the world”.
Speaking at a carpenters’ training center outside of Pittsburgh, where he launched his campaign two years ago, Biden returned as president to elaborate on his campaign pledge to “rebuild the backbone of America”.
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The Republican governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson, announced today that he is lifting the statewide mask mandate.
Hutchinson said recent data on coronavirus case numbers in the state had led him to conclude that the mandate was no longer necessary.
President Biden yesterday: Masks, please.
Gov. Asa Hutchison (R-AR) today: pic.twitter.com/m20KMNVedE
Related: 'I'm scared': top US official shares sense of 'doom' as Covid cases rise
During her press briefing this afternoon, Jen Psaki also criticized the World Health Organization’s report on the origins of coronavirus.
The White House press secretary said China had “not been transparent” about the early days of its coronavirus outbreak.
WATCH: @PressSec says the @WHO COVID-19 origins report "doesn't lead us to a closer understanding or greater knowledge than six months ago about the origins", adding that China has "not been transparent, they have not provided underlying data" on the virus. pic.twitter.com/6KRK7112zn
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