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Allowing controversial ‘fortress Europe’ policies to become mainstream puts the EU’s cohesion and world standing at riskEuropean Union leaders want to reinforce their controversial “fortress Europe” policies by clamping down even harder on inward migration. This reveals a deep and self-defeating disconnect between the 27-nation bloc’s internal actions and its international aspirations.The EU’s self-image is that of a benign power and a force for global good. European leaders spend a lot of time telling the world about the virtues of “European values”. There is even an EU commissioner whose sole task it is to promote the “European way of life”. Other countries are constantly taken to task, often through the imposition of sanctions, for their failure to align with international human rights standards. Continue reading...

Democrats attempted to advance bills requiring secure storage of firearms and expanding background checks for gun buyersLess than a year before a gunman attacked Michigan State University’s campus on Monday, killing three students and injuring five, Republican legislators in the state rejected an opportunity to change gun regulations.In the aftermath of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, Michigan Democrats attempted to advance bills requiring secure storage of firearms and expanding background checks for gun buyers. Six months earlier, a shooting at Oxford high school near Detroit had also reinvigorated Democratic efforts to change Michigan gun laws. But the gun bills were blocked by Republicans, who controlled both chambers of the state legislature. Continue reading...

Police killings of any sort account for nearly 5% of all homicides, with at least 1,192 people killed by law enforcement in 2022In the US, an estimated one in 20 gun homicides are committed by police, as law enforcement killings have failed to decrease despite years of nationwide protests.Law enforcement officers killed at least 1,192 people in 2022, the highest number recorded in a decade, according to Mapping Police Violence, a prominent non-profit database of police killings. More than 1,100 people were killed by the police in both 2020 and 2021. The vast majority of these deaths were police shootings. Continue reading...

Female farmers represent an increasing share of Golden State cultivators – and grow a wider variety of ‘specialty crops’ than done in traditional monocultureAt Radical Family Farms, Leslie Wiser recently planted bitter melons, what she refers to as “one of our most beloved crops”, a staple in many types of Asian cuisine that grows on a vine and is related to zucchini, squash and cucumber. It was a warm day on her three-acre farm, yet the cloud cover made it just right to be working on what Wiser says is her “dreamy but expensive” mixed-Asian vegetable farm that she started in 2018.“Regenerative climate, smart farming takes a lot of time,” said Wiser, the child of Chinese-Taiwanese, German and Polish-Jewish immigrants who came into farming in her early 40s. She dreamed about growing vegetables that reflect her heritage and teach her children where their food comes from, and this is exactly what she’s doing. Continue reading...

Former South Carolina governor and daughter of Indian immigrants aims to be standard bearer of party fired by race and gender fights while not alienating Trump supportersAs the Republican governor of South Carolina in 2015, Nikki Haley stood shoulder to shoulder with political leaders from across the state to call for the removal of the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds. Days before, an avowed white supremacist who posed with the flag in photographs massacred nine Black parishioners at a church in Charleston.As her state – and the nation – reeled from the heinous act, Haley argued that the flag embraced by many southerners as a symbol of “noble” traditions was for too many others “a deeply offensive symbol of a brutally oppressive past”. Continue reading...

Tal Hanan, the mastermind of the ‘Team Jorge’ unit, claims covert involvement in 33 presidential elections. Plus, the truth about caffeineGood morning.A team of Israeli contractors who claim to have manipulated more than 30 elections around the world using hacking, sabotage and automated disinformation on social media has been exposed in a new investigation.How did undercover reporters catch “Team Jorge” disinformation operatives on camera? For more than six months, undercover reporters posed as consultants working on behalf of a businessman who wanted to delay an African election.How does the unit spread disinformation? Advanced Impact Media Solutions, or Aims, which controls more than 30,000 fake social media profiles, can be used to spread disinformation at scale and at speed. It is sold by “Team Jorge”.What’s happening in France? France’s most-watched news channel, the 24-hour BFMTV, has suspended one of its longest-serving presenters and launched an internal investigation into news packages linked to an Israeli disinformation unit calling itself “Team Jorge”.What else did Whitmer say? “We know this is a uniquely American problem … Our children are scared to go to school. People feel unsafe in their houses of worship, or local stores. As parents, we tell our kids it’s going to be OK. But the truth is words are not good enough. We must act and we will.”Who were the victims? They have been named as Alexandria Verner, Brian Fraser and Arielle Anderson. All three came from the suburban Detroit area. Continue reading...

Republican-proposed jurisdiction fuels allegations of ‘apartheid in Jackson’Eighty per cent of the white residents in Mississippi’s majority-Black capital city would be included in a proposed new judicial district with hand-selected prosecutors and judges, an analysis by the Guardian has found, leading to further allegations of deliberate racial prejudice in a Republican-backed bill.The measure would increase the geographic size of an improvement district in the downtown area of the city of Jackson from 7.8 square miles to 25 square miles. It would create a new unelected judicial district within the city, with two judges, two prosecutors and two public defenders. Continue reading...

Former Labor prime minister says incident has created ‘diplomatic clouds’ that may overshadow efforts to stabilise relationshipThe incoming Australian ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, has warned the Chinese balloon saga has created new “diplomatic clouds” that put at risk recent efforts to ease tensions between Beijing and Washington.In a speech in Brisbane on Wednesday, Rudd also warned against expecting any “softening in China’s ideological cleavage with the west”. Continue reading...

Black longtime residents fear the economic boost from the $500m project will not reach them and that it could make their communities unaffordableFor five years, Kiera Hardin lived on the 15th floor of an apartment building along South Shore Drive, within eyeshot of the Obama Presidential Center, a sprawling 19-acre area that will be home to a public library branch, playground, community centers and a museum.It was her first apartment. She could smell Lake Michigan when she stepped outside and see the purple and orange skies as the sun rose and fell. But last summer her rent dramatically rose following renovations, and suddenly the 30-year-old program coordinator could no longer afford to live in her building. Hardin suspected that the building’s owners saw projections of how the neighborhood would change. Continue reading...

Clip released on day of Republican’s announcement that she will challenge Donald Trump for nominationShortly after Nikki Haley announced her campaign for president on Tuesday, footage was released showing the Republican former South Carolina governor saying states have the right to secede from the union.“I think that they do,” Haley said in the footage, which Patriot Takes, an anonymously run social media account and fundraising Pac which claims to “monitor and expos[e] rightwing extremism and other threats to democracy”, said came from 2010 and featured an unnamed neo-Confederate group. Continue reading...

Edwin Castro won record-breaking Powerball jackpot on 8 November – and opted to take the over $997.6m lump sumThe winner of the largest ever lottery jackpot described himself as “shocked and ecstatic” as officials revealed his identity, satisfying a law in his state, California.Edwin Castro bought the ticket that won the record-breaking $2.04bn Powerball jackpot on 8 November. Instead of choosing to collect the full prize through an annuity over 29 years, he opted for an immediate lump sum of more than $997.6m – the more common path for people in his position. Continue reading...

Lamar Johnson, sentenced to life for the killing, was released after judge found ‘reliable evidence of actual innocence’A Missouri judge on Tuesday overturned the conviction of a man who has served nearly 28 years of a life sentence for a killing that he has always said he didn’t commit.Lamar Johnson, 50, closed his eyes and shook his head slightly as a member of his legal team patted him on the back when Judge David Mason issued his ruling. In coming to his decision, Mason explained that there had to be “reliable evidence of actual innocence – evidence so reliable that it actually passes the standard of clear and convincing”. Continue reading...

Attorneys were involved in compiling subpoenaed documents and have searched Mar-a-LagoThree lawyers for Donald Trump recently appeared before a federal grand jury as part of the special counsel investigation into his possible retention of national security materials at his Mar-a-Lago resort, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

University students Alexandria Verner, Brian Fraser and Arielle Anderson were all from suburban Detroit areaOne was a fraternity chapter president. Another was a science student with fond memories of her days as a high-school athlete, and the third was a frequent volunteer who wanted to become a surgeon.Family and friends mourned the deaths of three Michigan State University students killed in a Monday night shooting that critically wounded five others. Continue reading...

Flying objects could be commercial- or research-linked, while US military admits first shot at object over Lake Huron missedThree unidentified objects shot down by US fighter jets since Friday may turn out to be balloons connected to “benign” commercial or research efforts, a White House official said on Tuesday.The US has not found any evidence to connect the objects to China’s balloon surveillance program nor to any other country’s spy program, national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, told reporters. Continue reading...

We will have only ourselves to blame for the evaporation of humanity in medicine if we keep narrowing the role of doctorsFor the short time I have known the patient, I have only seen him in bed. On a good day, he has sat up but my defining memory of him will be his sheer inability to go from bed to chair without gasping for breath, as intolerable to witness as it must be to bear. His usual doctor has run out of options. So it falls to my inpatient team to broach the subject of what next, a difficult conversation for any terminally ill patient no matter how well prepared.“How are you?” I ask. Continue reading...

Professor says his selection was dropped for describing Israel as an ‘apartheid state’ and accusing Jeffries of being ‘bought’ by AipacThe Biden administration has withdrawn the nomination of a leading law professor to an international human rights post, for describing Israel as an “apartheid state” and accusing the top Democrat in Congress of being “bought” by pro-Israel groups.James Cavallaro, of Wesleyan and Yale universities, said he was told by the US state department on Tuesday it had dropped his selection to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) “due to my statements denouncing apartheid in Israel/Palestine”. Continue reading...

Gretchen Whitmer calls for action on ‘uniquely American problem’ after gunman kills three Michigan State students and wounds fiveThe governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, denounced the “uniquely American problem” of gun violence on Tuesday, after a gunman murdered three students in a mass shooting at Michigan State University the night before.Whitmer spoke at a press conference in East Lansing at which authorities identified the shooter, who died by suicide, and revealed other details about the attack that left five students critically wounded. Continue reading...

Feinstein, who has sat in US Senate since 1992, sets off race among Democrats to succeed to vacant seatDianne Feinstein , the 89-year-old senator from California who has served in the chamber for three decades, said she will not seek re-election in 2024.“I am announcing today I will not run for re-election in 2024 but intend to accomplish as much for California as I can through the end of next year when my term ends,” Feinstein said in a statement. Continue reading...

Daniel Rodriguez, 40, from California, admitted his part in violent assault of then Metropolitan police officerA California man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to using a stun gun to attack Michael Fanone, the Washington DC police officer who was seriously injured while trying to defend the US Capitol from Donald Trump’s supporters on 6 January 2021.Daniel Rodriguez, 40, of Fontana, admitted to taking part in the violent assault on Fanone, now a former Metropolitan police officer, after another rioter dragged Fanone into a crowd outside a tunnel where police were trying to beat back the mob. Continue reading...

Franchise company, with more than 37,000 restaurants in over 100 countries, could be valued at more than $10bnFast-food chain Subway has put itself on the menu – announcing on Tuesday it is exploring a possible sale of its business after 58 years of family control.After years of rapid growth, rising costs and mounting competition from rivals have taken their toll on the company in recent years, but it still has more than 37,000 restaurants in over 100 countries – making it one of the largest chains in the world. Continue reading...

The Canadian territory is an aircraft graveyard – now the difficult search is on for a downed unidentified craft in its vast environsThe rugged, “unpeopled” landscape of Canada’s Yukon territory is a graveyard for aircraft, with more than 500 planes crashing in its forests, mountains and lakes over the years.Now, Canada’s military and police, alongside their US counterparts, are searching the unforgiving landscape in midwinter for a mysterious object recently shot on Saturday by a fighter plane. Continue reading...

Attorney general says state will be ‘digging deep to find out’ why Anthony McRae, who killed three students, was carrying gunMichigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, said on Tuesday she was demanding answers about the probation served by a gunman who killed himself after shooting dead three students and wounding five others in a mass shooting at Michigan State University on Monday night.Anthony McRae, 43, served the probation after admitting to possession of a concealed weapon without a permit in 2019. Continue reading...

Letitia James celebrates court ruling ordering ex-president to pay $110,000 fine for refusing to comply with subpoenasDonald Trump is “not above the law”, the attorney general of New York state said on Tuesday, celebrating an appeals court ruling which said the former president must pay a $110,000 fine for refusing to comply with subpoenas in a fraud investigation of his company and financial affairs.In a statement, Letitia James said: “Once again, the courts have ruled that Donald Trump is not above the law. Continue reading...

Gen Mark Milley said the Russians were 'paying an enormous price on the battlefield'. The chair of the joint chiefs of staff was speaking on Tuesday at a joint press conference with the defence secretary, Lloyd Austin. Milley said the majority of fighting was occurring around the city of Bakhmut, which he described as a 'significant grinding battle of attrition'

At least two students caught up in deadly attack that killed three on Monday went to high school where shooting occurred in 2021At least two students caught up in the deadly mass shooting at Michigan State University (MSU) on Monday night were living through their second such nightmare in a little over a year, having endured a shooting that killed four at their high school in November 2021.Jennifer Mancini said that her daughter had lost two of her closest friends during the shooting at Oxford high school near Detroit in 2021 and, now a freshman at Michigan State, found herself hiding from a gunman on Monday night and calling home in terror saying: “Mom, get me out of here.” Continue reading...

Scandal-ridden New York Republican congressman restates his determination not to resign as investigations continueThe scandal-ridden New York Republican congressman George Santos has restated his determination not to be forced out of the US House, vowing: “I’m not leaving, I’m not hiding and I am NOT backing down.”Santos broadcast his defiance on Twitter on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Donald Trump's former ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has announced her candidacy for the White House in a video she released on Tuesday. Haley, also a former South Carolina governor, said it was 'time for a new generation of leadership', blaming the 'Washington establishment' for failing the American people.Haley, 51, initially said she had no plans to run against her former boss but said the state of the US economy spurred her into action. She also liaised with Trump, who claimed he told her: 'Look, you know, go by your heart if you want to run … You should do it.' Her bid, which could see her become the first female US president, threatens to split the vote between her and Trump's main GOP rival Ron DeSantis, according to a poll last week.

Mitt Romney has called the US congressman a ‘sick puppy’. But, more broadly, the GOP has made itself a home for those who mock honesty and decencyThere are lies, there are damned lies, and then there is George Santos’s CV. In the short time that he has been in the public eye, the 34-year-old Republican congressman from New York has been accused of fabricating almost every facet of his life. During his election campaign, Santos claimed to be a “proud American Jew” whose grandparents “survived the Holocaust”. After being challenged on this, however, Santos clarified that he was raised Catholic and argued that he had always said he was “Jew-ish”. Emphasis on the ish.What else has he lied about? Well, how long have you got? His education and work history appear to be fabrications. He has said his mother was working in the World Trade Center on 9/11, yet records show she was in Brazil. He has said that he “lost four employees” in the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida, but the New York Times has not been able to verify these claims. He has also claimed to have been a college volleyball star (unlikely) and a producer on Spider-Man (untrue). No one is even sure what Santos’s real name is. Continue reading...

Former South Carolina governor to challenge her one-time boss, Donald Trump, for nominationThe former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley is challenging her one-time boss for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.“I’m Nikki Haley, and I’m running for president,” Donald Trump’s former United Nations ambassador said in a video released on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Before the season began we predicted the strugglers, the winners and the best players in the league. There were successes … and there was Russell WilsonPeeking back at your preseason predictions can be like looking at pictures of yourself from junior high: absolutely horrifying. But as professional journalists we’re up for the challenge of peeling the onion and learning from past mistakes. Strap in: we struck gold in a couple of categories … but others weren’t so pretty (you can read them here before we go). Continue reading...

At least three people were killed and several more injured in a shooting at Michigan State University, campus police said. The suspected attacker died from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. University police tweeted on Monday that shots were fired in two locations: near an academic building called Berkey Hall and an athletic facility known as IM East.While appealing for information from the public, the police said it was unclear what the motive for the attack may have been and that work to identify the suspect was ongoing

There is shockingly little debate about the assaults on democracy happening in Israel right nowIsraeli democracy is under unprecedented attack from within. Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government is following the playbook written by authoritarians in Hungary, Poland and other self-declared beacons of “illiberalism”: subordinate the judiciary and other independent bodies like public broadcasting to government control, all in the name of “the people”.In the US, there is shockingly little debate about this brazen assault on what the US political class unfailingly celebrates as “the only democracy in the Middle East”. It is particularly disappointing that Democrats seem to be holding back. They have every reason – moral and political – to oppose Netanyahu’s autocracy-in-the-making. If recent history holds any lessons, they might want to go as far as making aid to Israel conditional on the preservation of proper checks and balances in the country.Jan-Werner Müller teaches at Princeton and is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Rightwing pundits target knowledge found in critical race theory because they know it leads to actionOn the first day of Black History Month this year, the College Board announced significant changes to its Advanced Placement African American studies course. The billion-dollar company made this move after widespread rightwing pushback against the inclusion of liberal, progressive and radical books by Black authors in the curriculum (they have since apologized). The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, currently leads the fascist charge on banning books and silencing ideas for students and schools. But he has fascist friends.During the 2020-2021 school year, over 900 districts nationwide suffered “an intentional campaign to restrict or ‘ban’” anything deemed “critical race theory”, according to The Conflict Campaign. These districts represent 35% of all students in elementary, middle and high school. While we should organize to eliminate the elitist, profit-driven College Board from their schools, they ought to fight to introduce, protect and proliferate Black studies on campus. Continue reading...

Sassie Smith’s husband, Takar, was fatally shot by the Los Angeles police while he was having a mental health crisis: ‘I won’t let this get swept under the rug’Sassie Smith had run out of options.On 2 January, her husband, Takar Smith, was talking to himself and making nonsensical remarks, a sign he was having another episode of schizophrenia, which had long strained their relationship. She was scared and wanted him to get treatment in a facility, so she walked a few blocks to a nearby Los Angeles police station for help. Continue reading...

Sensors and electronics pulled from waters off South Carolina, says military. Plus, how AP African American studies became the most controversial course in the USGood morning.The US military has recovered “significant debris” from a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon shot down this month, the Pentagon has said, after the White House claimed China had been operating a high-altitude balloon program spying on the US and its allies for many years.What did John Kirby say? “It was operating during the previous administration, but they did not detect it,” Kirby said. “We detected it, we tracked it. And we have been carefully studying to learn as much as we can.”What’s happening in Canada? An object roughly the size of a small car was shot down over a rugged section of Canada’s Yukon territory. Canadian crews are searching the vast and bitterly cold landscape for any debris. Residents along the coast of Lake Huron have found themselves at the centre the search for unidentified flying objects.What have the police said? While appealing for information from the public, the police said it was unclear what the motive for the attack may have been and work to identify the suspect was ongoing. Earlier in the evening, police released images of the suspect, describing him as a short male wearing a mask. Continue reading...

Almería was an off-grid paradise, but I like to think I’ve brought part of it back to the city with meI take one last look at the lush valley below me. A tall palm tree sways in the soft warm breeze. A group of young people are working on one of the many vegetable and fruit terraces, their laughter mixing with the sound of water in the riverbed below. I tell myself that one day I will be back. But for now, it is goodbye. I’m leaving the eco-village in southern Spain, this cluster of old, whitewashed houses set in a green valley where I’ve spent the past six years.My partner and I first arrived in Los Molinos – in Almería province, the driest part of Spain – in 2006, after a long spell in north London. Our experience of eco-living was limited to regular recycling and buying biodegradable laundry and bathroom products. In Spain, we had to learn how to live completely off-grid. All our electricity came from the array of solar panels in the garden, which meant we couldn’t have energy-hungry devices such as toasters and electric kettles. We even had to forgo the internet because there was no connection. Continue reading...

‘Outraged’ senator Ron Wyden urges agency to explain tactics from 2020 protests reminiscent of rogue behaviour from decades pastThe FBI’s use of an informant to infiltrate Black Lives Matter in Denver during the wave of protests over the 2020 police killing of George Floyd has prompted concern in Congress that the federal agency is once again abusing its powers to harass and intimidate minority groups.Ron Wyden, the Democratic senator from Oregon, is calling for the FBI to explain how it came to recruit a violent felon as an informant who then went on to gain prominence among Denver racial justice activists. The informant is alleged to have encouraged protesters to engage in increasingly violent demonstrations while trying to entrap them in criminal misdeeds. Continue reading...

The Oscar Mayer crew didn’t relish their time in Las Vegas after the vehicle had to be towed to an auto body shopOne of the US’s most easily recognizable vehicles is back on the road after it fell victim to a crime that has grown more common in recent years: catalytic converter theft. While parked in Las Vegas ahead of a Super Bowl weekend appearance, the Wienermobile, a 27ft-long bright yellow-and-red hotdog on wheels, was disabled after someone took the vehicle’s hardware.The Wienermobile is actually a fleet of six vehicles used as a promotional tool for the celebrated Wisconsin-based hotdog brand Oscar Mayer. The Wienermobiles are driven across the nation by “hotdoggers” who claim the job for a one-year assignment. The morning after the converter was taken, the Wienermobile was towed to a nearby auto repair shop where mechanics installed a temporary converter that would allow the Wienermobile’s crew to drive it. Continue reading...

Online misinformation exploits victims’ traumatic experiences, and factcheckers need support as they work to debunk itA video shared on social media shows a column of thick smoke billowing from a harbour-side building before a cataclysmic explosion. The caption says it is, incredibly, footage of a nuclear power plant in Turkey exploding after the earthquake that ravaged the country.Except Turkey doesn’t have any operational nuclear power plants. The footage actually shows a fertiliser storage facility in the port of Beirut, Lebanon, exploding in 2020.Abbas Panjwani is assistant editor at Full Fact, an independent charity of factcheckers and campaignersDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

I lose time and burn up mental energy in pursuit of a dopamine rush that, as with all addictions, is a diminishing return. If only everyone else would join meThe problem with Wordle isn’t that some people use it to show off to strangers or that it’s especially time-consuming, or even that it’s a bit of a waste of brain, but the minuscule feeling of emptiness once you have done it. All that thrill of the chase collapsed into the meagre satisfaction of arriving at something you’re not even sure is a word, like “caulk”. That is how I got hooked on Quordle – a four-word grid – just to delay the inevitable anticlimax. I cycled through Heardle (guessing a song, way too hard) and Worldle (guessing a country, in which I was mainly hamstrung by not being able to instinctively tell east from west). I had just enough discipline to avoid Octordle, in which you have 13 guesses to reach eight words. Then I discovered Phrazle, in which you have to find a whole phrase. I’ll just have one quick go, I thought. I definitely won’t commit.This enterprise is just daft. The world is absolutely rammed with phrases. I had one easy win – “Beware the Ides of March” on the first try – and then I was hooked. Now I can lose a sizeable proportion of my mental energy for the entire day, getting to “until the cows come home”. It doesn’t even mean anything! The whole experience is one of aching meaninglessness, chasing some combination of words that are either platitudes, demonstrably untrue, or long ways to say a thing that could be shorter. There’s no skill in it at all that I can make out. It’s not unusual for the phrase to contain so many weird combinations of letters that you have gone down a rabbit hole of whether there are any well-known axioms pertaining to the Balearic islands, before you finally land on “my birthday suit”. I can’t even bear to time how long it takes me, this daily three-act theatre of puzzling. “Word games” was not the addiction I expected so incredibly early in middle age. And the post-victory flatness, the diminishing dopamine returns, are still exactly the same – I’m just taking a more scenic route.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The media’s framing of measures like Florida’s African American studies ban is a dangerous falsification of realityA wave of Republican enthusiasm for banning concepts, authors and books is sweeping across the United States. Forty-four states have proposed bans on the teaching of “divisive concepts”, and 18 states have passed them.Florida’s Stop Woke Act bans the teaching of eight categories of concepts, including concepts that suggest that “a person, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, bears personal responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish or other forms of psychological distress because of actions, in which the person played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, national origin, or sex”. Many of the laws also target Nikole Hannah-Jones’s influential 1619 Project. Continue reading...

Suspected shooter found dead off-campus with self-inflicted gunshot woundAt least three people were killed and several more injured in a shooting at Michigan State University, according to campus police. The suspected attacker died from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.University police tweeted on Monday that shots were fired in two locations: near an academic building called Berkey Hall and an athletic facility known as IM East. Continue reading...

Sensors and electronics pulled from waters off South Carolina, says military, after White House says Beijing’s surveillance program dates back yearsThe US military has recovered “significant debris” from a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon shot down this month, the Pentagon has said, after the White House claimed China had been operating a high-altitude balloon program spying on the US and its allies for many years.The US Northern Command said in a statement: “Crews have been able to recover significant debris from the site, including all of the priority sensor and electronics pieces identified as well as large sections of the structure.” Continue reading...

Nearly 2,000 balloons are launched into the sky daily, to monitor everything from the weather to specific phenomena in spaceMystery still surrounds the latest flying objects shot down by the US over northern Alaska, Canada’s central Yukon territory and Lake Huron in Michigan in the last week.Unlike the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina on 4 February, US authorities have been mostly unwilling to speculate on where the last three objects originate from – or even to characterise what they are. Continue reading...

I like to be booked with my emotional support keyboard player – but it’s not unusual to meet band members for the first time when you arrive at the venueLook for me on a Saturday night and chances are you’ll find me in front of the band at a wedding. And it’s not just Saturdays; thanks to Covid postponements people are booking their big day any time their dream venue can fit them in: Sundays, Fridays, even Tuesdays.Yep, you can call me Adam Sandler because I am a wedding singer. Continue reading...