Category Archives: Florida

One dead after boat crashes into ferry carrying more than 40 people in Florida

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Police declare ‘mass casualty incident’ due to the number of injuries, and say boat that caused accident fled the scene

A boat crashed into a ferry transporting 45 people on the final day of a sand-sculpting festival in Florida, killing one person and injuring at least 12 others, officials said.

The crash late on Sunday in calm waters off Clearwater on the western Florida coast set off an emergency response due to the high number of possible casualties.

“We were just enjoying the ride and all of a sudden we heard the first mate yelling: ‘Hey, hey, hey,’” Marco Vacheco, who was on the ferry with Brenda Alvarez and their two young children, told WFTS. “And we looked back behind us and this big yacht just came through the boat.”

The boat then fled the scene, authorities said.

The Clearwater police department posted on X that there were multiple injuries and the crash had been declared “a mass casualty incident” by the Clearwater fire & rescue department due to the number of injuries.

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Trump golf club to host speaker who markets bleach as health treatment

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Andreas Kalcker, prominent peddler of chlorine dioxide remedy, to appear at ‘Truth Seekers Conference’ in Miami

Donald Trump’s private golf resort in South Florida will next week host one of the world’s leading purveyors of chlorine dioxide, a potentially life-threatening form of industrial bleach that is claimed without evidence to be a cure for cancer, Covid and autism.

Andreas Kalcker is among 50 listed speakers at the “Truth Seekers Conference”, a two-day event opening on Thursday at the US president’s resort, Trump National Doral Miami. The event features several anti-vaxxers and other conspiracy theorists who have been brought together by the far-right commentator Charlie Ward.

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Florida students lobby to keep 2018 gun control law in wake of recent shooting

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Students traumatized by Parkland and Florida university shootings urge lawmakers not to roll back restrictions

Florida students who were traumatized by the 2018 Parkland school shooting – and last week’s deadly shooting at Florida State University – are urging lawmakers in the Republican-controlled statehouse not to roll back gun restrictions they passed in the wake of the killing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school.

Gun rights activists have been fighting to unravel the 2018 law since it was passed, including a provision that raised the state’s minimum age to buy a gun to 21. Governor Ron DeSantis and some Republican lawmakers have argued that if an 18-year-old Floridian can serve in the military, they should be able to purchase a firearm.

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‘Completely out of touch’: golf and dinners for ‘king’ Trump as economy melts down

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Casual attitude as markets fall suggests man detached from anxieties of ordinary voters – and surrounded by yes men

After lighting a fuse under global financial markets, Donald Trump stepped back – all the way to a Florida golf course. A week later, having just caved to pressure to ease his trade tariffs, the US president defended the retreat while hosting racing car champions at the White House.

Trump had spent the time in between golfing, dining with donors and making insouciant declarations such as “this is a great time to get rich”, even as the US economy melted down.

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Protest planned after Florida student deported following traffic stop

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Politicians and student activists decry ‘outlandish’ deportation of Felipe Zapata Velázquez to Colombia

A campus protest is planned at the University of Florida on Wednesday in support of a Colombian student deported by the Trump administration following his arrest for alleged traffic violations.

The family of Felipe Zapata Velázquez, 27, said on Tuesday he was “undergoing a physical and emotional recovery process” in his home country after police arrested him in Gainesville on 28 March for offenses including having an expired tag and suspended driver’s license, then turned him over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).

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Florida executes man convicted of killing woman he abducted

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Michael Tanzi, who received lethal injection at Florida state prison for killing Janet Acosta in 2000, declared dead at 48

A man convicted of killing a woman who was carjacked on her lunch break from her job at the Miami Herald was executed Tuesday evening.

Michael Tanzi was pronounced dead at 6.12pm following a three-drug injection at Florida state prison for the April 2000 strangling of Janet Acosta, a production worker at the South Florida paper. The victim was attacked in her van, beaten, robbed, driven to the Florida Keys and then strangled before her body was left on an island.

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Democratic senator Cory Booker holding marathon speech to highlight ‘recklessness’ of Trump policies – US politics live

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New Jersey Democrat began talking on Monday night to highlight ‘a nation in crisis’ and is still going

US voters are headed to the polls on Tuesday in Wisconsin and Florida in elections that some see as a test of Donald Trump’s popularity and the political clout of his billionaire ally Elon Musk.

The most closely watched contest is a battle for a seat on Wisconsin’s seven-member supreme court. Conservatives are trying to flip ideological control of the court, which currently has a 4-3 liberal majority. The contest, which features liberal judge Susan Crawford facing off against conservative Brad Schimel, will have huge consequences in the state.

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Rightwing groups across US push new bans to limit ‘obscene’ books in libraries

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Critics say bans would hinder rights as proponents would impose their beliefs on others who don’t share their views

Rightwing groups around the US are pushing legislation that would place new limits on what books are allowed in school libraries in a move that critics decry as censorship often focused on LGBTQ+ issues or race or imposing conservative social values.

Caught up in the attempts at suppressing books are classics like The Color Purple and Slaughterhouse Five.

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Wisconsin and Florida voters head to polls in test of Trump’s popularity

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Conservatives bid to overturn liberal majority on Wisconsin supreme court while Florida votes to replace Mike Waltz

US voters are headed to the polls on Tuesday in Wisconsin and Florida in elections that some see as a test of Donald Trump’s popularity and the political clout of his billionaire ally Elon Musk.

The most closely watched contest is a battle for a seat on Wisconsin’s seven-member supreme court. Conservatives are trying to flip ideological control of the court, which currently has a 4-3 liberal majority. The contest, which features liberal judge Susan Crawford facing off against conservative Brad Schimel, will have huge consequences in the state.

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Special elections to deliver voters’ verdict on Trump’s chaotic first months

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Key elections in Florida, Texas, Arizona and Wisconsin could offer a glimmer of hope to Democrats

Several elections on Tuesday will be a crucial test of the popularity of the chaotic and extremist first two months of Donald Trump’s second term and the clout of his close ally, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man who has been tasked with radically reforming the US federal government.

They could also offer a glimmer of hope to Democrats – fresh off a surprise upset win in a local race in Pennsylvania last week – that their divided political party could be seeing a resurgence in its fortunes. Or, if they fail to land further blows on Republicans, it will be yet another sign that the party is destined for a long period in the wilderness amid historic lows of its popularity in recent polls.

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More US states report measles cases amid vaccine misinformation

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Ohio, Maryland and Alabama among states to report new cases, with 378 confirmed in first few months of 2025

More US states are reporting measles cases as the Texas outbreak expands, surpassing last year’s total, amid vaccine misinformation and hesitancy.

The Texas outbreak could take a year to get under control, one health official said – during which time it may spread to more states. Yet the parents of the six-year-old girl who died of measles in Texas have spoken against measles vaccination as misinformation continues to proliferate, including from figures such as the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.

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Scientists identify ‘tipping point’ that caused clumps of toxic Florida seaweed

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Giant blobs along 5,000-mile-wide sargassum belt has killed animals, harmed human health and discouraged tourism

Scientists in Florida believe they have identified a “tipping point” in atmospheric conditions in the Atlantic Ocean they say caused giant clumps of toxic seaweed to inundate beaches around the Caribbean in recent summers.

Previous theories for the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt that has killed marine animals, harmed human health and plagued the tourism industry in several countries include a surfeit of nutrients in the water, such as nitrogen and phosphorus in runoff from intensive farming and carried into the ocean in the Congo, Amazon and Mississippi rivers.

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Florida man executed for killing eight-year-old girl and her grandmother

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Edward James received three-drug lethal injection under death warrant signed in February by governor Ron DeSantis

A Florida man who killed an eight-year-old girl and her grandmother on a night in which he drank heavily and used drugs was executed on Thursday.

Edward James, 63, was pronounced dead at 8.15pm after receiving a three-drug injection at Florida state prison outside Starke under a death warrant signed in February by Governor Ron DeSantis. The execution was the second this year in Florida, which is planning a third in April.

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US women’s justice group launches campaign to get Andrew Tate extradited

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UltraViolet attacks Trump administration for reportedly influencing Romanian officials to allow him to fly to Florida

A prominent women’s justice organization launched a campaign on Thursday to have the accused rapist and human trafficker Andrew Tate extradited from the US.

The group, UltraViolet, also attacked the Trump administration for reportedly influencing Romanian officials to allow Tate to fly to Florida last month.

This story was updated on 20 March 2025 to correct that the women’s justice group is attempting to have Andrew Tate extradited, not deported; Tate is a US citizen and cannot be deported.

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Man charged in US Capitol attack announces run for Senate in Florida

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Jake Lang, charged with attacking police during riot and pardoned by Trump, seeks to fill seat Marco Rubio’s old seat

A man accused of battling police with a baseball bat and shield during the January 6 riot at the US Capitol announced a run for the US Senate in Florida.

“WE ARE TAKING OVER THE CAPITOL AGAIN,” Jake Lang, a prominent January 6 defendant, wrote on X, announcing he is seeking the seat vacated by now secretary of state Marco Rubio in 2026.

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No Other Land director calls Florida mayor’s campaign against his film ‘very dangerous’

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Israeli Oscar-winner Yuval Abraham speaks out after Miami Beach mayor proposed evicting a local cinema for screening the Palestinian-focused documentary

The Israeli director of No Other Land has criticised a Florida mayor’s efforts to evict a local cinema after it screened his Oscar-winning documentary about Palestinian displacement in the West Bank, saying: “Banning a film only makes people more determined to see it.”

Steven Meiner, the mayor of Miami Beach, has issued a draft resolution calling for the termination of the city’s lease agreement with O Cinema, and withdrawing $40,000 in promised grant funding for the nonprofit that runs the independent cinema.

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Florida attorney general opens criminal investigation into Andrew Tate and brother

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Inquiry launched after pair was able to fly into state despite facing trial in Romania on rape and trafficking charges

The attorney general of Florida has opened a criminal investigation of Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan after the pair were able to fly into the state last week despite facing trial in Romania on charges of rape, sex with a minor, people trafficking and money laundering.

James Uthmeier, appointed to be the state attorney general by Florida governor Ron DeSantis, said on Tuesday he had begun an “active criminal investigation” of the brothers and was prepared to use the “full force of law” in his examination of their conduct.

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Backyard chickens: Floridians start raising hens to combat rising egg prices

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Despite conflicting laws, a wave of amateur homesteaders have started keeping fowl in the spirit of self-sufficiency

Katie Whalen’s backyard in the Florida city of Port St Lucie is testament to her journey towards a life of self-sufficiency. She grows mangoes, avocados, starfruit, jackfruit and coconuts. She is cultivating a tropical tree spinach known as chaya.

What she really wants, however, is a chicken coop and hens to provide eggs that are becoming increasingly unaffordable in stores. As bird flu worsens across the US and commercial suppliers struggle to keep up with demand, the keeping of fowl and production of eggs in home environments, has surged in popularity, and Whalen is keen to join the revolution.

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Jewish man mistakes two Israeli tourists for Palestinians and opens fire on them in Miami

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Victims reportedly posted ‘death to Arabs’ on social media after shooting while suspect held on attempted murder charges

A Jewish man in Miami Beach is facing charges of attempted murder following accusations that he opened fire on two men he believed were Palestinians but reportedly turned out to be Israeli visitors.

According to arrest documents, at 9.30pm on Saturday surveillance video appeared to show Mordechai Brafman, 27, getting out of his truck and opening fire with a semiautomatic handgun at a vehicle as it passed. Brafman allegedly fired 17 times, striking one victim in the left shoulder and grazing the other’s left forearm.

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DeSantis urged to declare emergency over toxic red tide algae off Florida coast

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Harmful algae bloom off south-west coast blamed for deaths of marine life and poses threat to beaches

Environmentalists in Florida are calling on the governor, Ron DeSantis, to declare an emergency as a worsening “red tide” algae bloom off the state’s south-west coast threatens popular tourist beaches and is being blamed for the deaths of wildlife including fish and dolphins.

Several counties have issued health alerts in response to the outbreak, which scientists say began in the Gulf of Mexico last year when Hurricanes Helene and Milton tore up nutrient-rich waters that feed the algae.

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