Category Archives: US News

Florida to end vaccine mandates for children as surgeon general likens them to ‘slavery’

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Joseph Ladapo, a long-time vaccine skeptic, says that every state vaccine requirement would be repealed

Children in Florida will no longer be required to receive vaccines against preventable diseases including measles, mumps, chicken pox, polio and hepatitis said Joseph Ladapo, the state’s surgeon general, on Wednesday in a speech during which he likened vaccine mandates to “slavery”.

Ladapo, hand-picked for the role by Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, is a long-time skeptic of the benefit of vaccines, and has previously been accused of peddling “scientific nonsense” by public health advocates.

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Democrats call for firing of January 6 defendant who works at justice department

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Jared Wise, a DoJ senior adviser, urged fellow rioters to kill police officers during the 2021 Capitol attack

A January 6 defendant who urged fellow rioters to kill police officers should be fired from his job at the justice department, three senate Democrats wrote in a letter to US attorney general Pam Bondi on Wednesday.

Earlier this year, the defendant, Jared Wise, was hired as a counselor to Ed Martin, a prominent January 6 defense lawyer who is leading a so-called weaponization working group inside the justice department that is targeting Trump’s political rivals. The scope of Wise’s role remains unclear.

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Democrats blast state department for lack of ‘basic oversight’ of controversial Gaza food organization

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Letter by senior Democrats asks state department to reveal details behind financing of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

Senior Democratic senators have called on the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, to reveal details behind the financing and oversight of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) amid concerns over rising death tolls near aid sites, the group’s apparent coordination with the Israeli army and its reported use of private military contractors linked to intelligence operations.

The letter, co-signed by senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen and Peter Welch, accuses the state department of an “inability to answer basic questions about GHF in a timely manner” and said that the department’s “overriding of internal protocol and staff warnings is particularly concerning given it is unlikely to be able to conduct basic oversight of the funds it provided to GHF”.

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Shein opens investigation after shirt listing displayed image resembling Luigi Mangione

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Company removed image on website that appeared to show Mangione in a white shirt reportedly priced just under $10

The clothing company Shein said it has opened an internal investigation after its website briefly displayed a shirt listing featuring an image resembling Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, in New York last year.

The image appeared to show Mangione in a short-sleeved white shirt, and the top was reportedly priced at just under $10.

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Trump’s aid cuts in east Africa led to unwanted abortion and babies being born with HIV – report

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Doctors, nurses, patients and other experts describe the loss of decades of progress in beating the virus in 100 days after Pepfar was disrupted

Aid cuts in east Africa have led to cases of babies being born with HIV because mothers could not get medication, a rise in life-threatening infections, and at least one woman having an unwanted abortion, according to interviews with medical staff, patients and experts.

A report by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) sets out dozens of examples of the impact of disruption to Pepfar – the president’s emergency plan for aids relief – in Tanzania and Uganda.

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California bill requires families to be alerted of immigration agents on school campuses

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Bill says state and community colleges must have ‘early warning systems in place’ amid Trump’s deportation push

California lawmakers have passed a bill requiring schools to alert families and teachers when immigration enforcement authorities are on campuses as the Trump administration continues its aggressive mass deportation campaign.

Under the bill, K-12 schools, state universities and community colleges must notify students, faculty and staff, “similar to early warning systems in place for other campus emergencies”, according to a statement from state senator Sasha Renée Pérez, who authored the legislation.

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US House committee releases more than 33,000 pages of Jeffrey Epstein files

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Files appear to contain information already in public domain as calls grow for release of all pertinent documents

The US House of Representatives oversight committee on Tuesday released thousands of pages of records related to the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein from the department of justice.

The release comes as the Trump administration has been embroiled in months of controversy over its decision not to release additional files in the case. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges and was alleged to have abused hundreds of girls.

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US appeals court reinstates FTC commissioner fired by Trump

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Win for Rebecca Slaughter as court rules commissioners may not be dismissed by a president without cause

A divided US appeals court on Tuesday allowed US Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, a Democrat, to resume her role at the agency, as Donald Trump tries to remove her from office.

In a 2-1 decision, the District of Columbia circuit court of appeals allowed a lower court decision in favor of Slaughter to take effect, rejecting the Trump administration’s request to delay the ruling during its appeal.

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Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano erupts, shooting lava 330ft from its crater

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North vent in Halemaʻumaʻu crater started releasing the molten rock in 32nd such episode since December 2024

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano resumed erupting on Tuesday, firing lava 330 ft (100 meters) into the sky from its summit crater.

It’s the 32nd episode of the volcano releasing molten rock since December 2024, when its current eruption began. So far, all the lava from this eruption has been contained within the summit crater inside Hawaii Volcanoes national park.

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US conducts ‘kinetic strike’ against drug boat from Venezuela, killing 11, Trump says

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Trump says ‘we took it out’ referring to the operation in international waters, amid US-Caracas tensions

The US military has killed 11 drug traffickers from Venezuela during a “a kinetic strike” in the Caribbean Sea, the US president, Donald Trump, has claimed amid growing tensions between Washington and Caracas.

Trump trailed the announcement during an address at the White House on Tuesday afternoon, telling reporters the US had “just, over the last few minutes, literally shot out … a drug-carrying boat”.

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Lawyers say men deported by US to Eswatini are being imprisoned illegally

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The men, who had been released after serving criminal sentences, are from Laos, Vietnam, Cuba, Jamaica and Yemen

Lawyers for five men deported by the US to Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, said they are being denied proper access to their clients, who they said are being imprisoned illegally.

The men from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Yemen and Cuba have criminal convictions, but had all served their sentences and been released in the US, their lawyers said. The US deported them to the small southern African country without warning in July, claiming they were “depraved monsters”.

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Trump illegally deployed national guard during LA Ice protests, judge rules

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Judge said administration violated federal law by sending troops to accompany Ice agents on immigration raids

A judge has ruled the Trump administration’s use of national guard troops during southern California immigration enforcement protests is illegal.

Judge Charles Breyer ruled Tuesday that Donald Trump’s administration violated federal law by sending troops to accompany federal agents on immigration raids. The judge did not require the remaining troops withdrawn, however.

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Texas man charged after 11-year-old boy shot dead while playing doorbell prank

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Leon Gonzalo Jr, 42, was arrested and charged with murder in connection with the Houston shooting

A 42-year-old man in Texas has been charged with murder after the fatal shooting of an 11-year-old boy who was playing a doorbell prank in Houston on Saturday night, authorities said.

The shooting occurred at around 11pm on Saturday, according to Houston authorities, when the boy and his friends were in their neighborhood reportedly playing a game of “ding dong ditch” – an old childhood prank involving ringing a doorbell and running away.

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University of Kentucky athlete charged after dead infant found hidden in closet

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Laken Ashlee Snelling, a 21-year-old cheer team member, faces charges of corpse abuse and evidence tampering

A University of Kentucky athlete allegedly placed her dead infant inside a trash bag later found in a closet while trying to hide the baby’s birth, leading to her being jailed, according to local authorities and media reporting.

Laken Ashlee Snelling, 21, faces charges of corpse abuse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant after her arrest on Sunday in the markedly grisly case, police in Lexington, Kentucky, said in a statement.

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Boy, 11, shot dead after playing doorbell-ringing prank in Houston, police say

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Boy struck several times as he and friends played ‘ding-dong ditch’ which involves ringing doorbell and running

An 11-year-old boy playing a common prank game of ringing doorbells in Houston, Texas, was shot dead on Saturday as he ran away from a house.

Authorities said the boy was struck several times as he and some friends were buzzing doorbells in an Eastside neighborhood.

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Doctors find bullet fragment in neck of 10-year-old Minnesota school shooting survivor

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Shrapnel found perilously close to carotid artery in Weston Halsne’s neck who survived after a friend shielded him

Doctors have found a bullet fragment lodged perilously close to the carotid artery in the neck of a 10-year-old boy who narrowly survived the mass shooting in Minneapolis last week after a friend shielded him from the gunfire.

Fifth-grader Weston Halsne recounted running under a pew and covering his head while shots fired by the alleged shooter, Robin Westman, came through the stained-glass windows during the shooting at Annunciation Catholic school last Wednesday. He described how his friend Victor Greenawalt had jumped on top of him to shield him.

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Florida State linebacker Ethan Pritchard in intensive care after being shot

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  • Player was shot inside car while visiting family

  • Freshman listed as in critical but stable condition

A Florida State linebacker is in critical but stable condition after being shot while visiting family, the Seminoles said on Monday.

Ethan Pritchard, a freshman from Sanford, Florida, was in intensive care at a Tallahassee-area hospital. He was shot Sunday evening while inside a vehicle outside apartments in Havana, about 15 miles northwest of Tallahassee, according to the Gadsden County Sheriff’s Office.

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Iran accuses Europe of stepping aside and letting Trump dictate nuclear deal terms

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Foreign ministry official says US will be dictating what happens once UN-wide sanctions are reimposed

Europe is on the verge of abandoning its role as a mediator between the US and Iran and instead handing the Iran nuclear file over to Donald Trump’s veto, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson has said in an interview with the Guardian in Tehran.

Esmail Baghaei said that as soon as UN-wide sanctions were reimposed at Europe’s demand in less than 30 days’ time, the US would regain its security council veto over what happens next, including the continuance of sanctions.

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Weinstein accuser Kaja Sokola: ‘It is very important for people to speak out’

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Woman who testified at producer’s trial says despite mixed verdict she is proud to have stood up and told her story

Victims of sexual crimes and #MeToo harassment have, on multiple fronts, seen setbacks in the US in recent months.

The movie mogul Harvey Weinstein is now looking at a third trial on sexual assault charges after previous cases delivered mixed results for his victims. A high-profile case of federal racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking against the rapper Sean Combs returned a verdict only on lesser charges.

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