US news | The Guardian

No one would attempt a crossing in the flimsiest of boats if they had a better option. Now our job is to provide them with oneIt was the kind of boat, a French politician said, that you blow up like a paddling pool.Not much more than a toy, of the kind many families will have bought this summer for their children to play in on the beach. But this winter, flimsy inflatables may be all that stand between other people’s children and a watery grave. Smugglers charge a small fortune for places in boats so dangerously overloaded that some begin to sink while still in sight of land, while others drift in darkness through one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. Refugee charities had long warned of a tragedy waiting to happen, and so it has proved. At least 27 human beings, including a pregnant woman and three children, lost their lives in the freezing November sea this week, in the worst such incident since human traffickers began using this route three years ago. Continue reading...

Analysis: Moscow presents Washington with a no-win situation: capitulate on Ukrainian sovereignty or risk all-out warJoe Biden is preparing for a virtual summit with Vladimir Putin with the aim of fending off the threat of another Russian invasion of Ukraine.The summit has been previewed by the Kremlin. The White House has not confirmed it, but Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, said that “high-level diplomacy is a priority of the president” and pointed to the teleconference meeting with Xi Jinping earlier in November. Continue reading...

Ana María Wahrenberg and Betty Grebenschikoff, whose families fled Vienna in 1939, each feared the other had died in the HolocaustChildhood best friends Ana María Wahrenberg and Betty Grebenschikoff said goodbye to each other in a German schoolyard in May 1939.Now the school pals, who were separated aged just nine when their Jewish families were forced to flee the Nazis, have hugged each other in person once again after spending more than eight decades fearing the other had died in the Holocaust. Continue reading...

FBI advises employees on how to respond if they show signs of mysterious ailment which manifests as a brain injuryThe FBI has warned its employees about Havana Syndrome, a mysterious ailment that appears to have affected US diplomats and spies in several countries in recent years and manifests as a brain injury.More than 200 US officials, from the state department, CIA and national security council (NSC), have suffered from some form of symptoms – including dizziness, nausea and headaches. The phenomenon was first identified in Cuba but has happened elsewhere. Continue reading...

Ex-president’s daughter-in-law tells Fox News leftwing Americans ‘don’t want us to have any shared traditions’Lara Trump, the Fox News contributor and wife of Eric Trump, has bizarrely claimed that the rising cost of the Thanksgiving turkey is part of a liberal plot to “chip away” at American traditions.During a discussion on Fox News about inflation and its impact on Thanksgiving-related purchases, the former president’s daughter-in law claimed leftwing Americans “want to fundamentally transform America” and were using the humble Thanksgiving turkey as a vehicle for their nefarious plot. Continue reading...

This is not about me. It’s about the rights of all women and the obstacles that stop us playing a full role in our politicsAny parent of a newborn knows it’s hard to stay awake, let alone focus on anything else. Maternity leave matters – it’s good for our health, our children and our economy.It is a peculiarity of our legislature that as an MP, I don’t have any employment rights – we might make laws, but we don’t impose these particular ones on ourselves. Consequently, I found myself high on morphine speaking to ministers about Afghanistan, having just given birth to my second child, to ensure my constituents’ concerns could be heard. Although it is illegal to require a woman to work in the first two weeks after childbirth, no maternity cover meant that, with three murders, heavy flooding and a cost-of-living crisis, it was simply not possible to switch off my email or my phone. Continue reading...

Roman Rain Tree has tried to convince local officials to do away with a name that ‘memorializes sexualized and genocidal acts’In September, the popular Lake Tahoe ski resort Squaw Valley announced it would change its name, recognizing that the term was “derogatory and offensive”. It became official with a press release and a new sign.But that’s not the end of the name in California. Hundreds of miles south in Fresno county, near Kings Canyon national park, there is another Squaw Valley. The central California town of about 3,500 people dates back to the 19th century, and is one of nearly 100 places in California to use the controversial term in its name. Continue reading...

One day after the deadline for compliance, 92% of workers covered by the mandate reported they were at least partially vaccinatedThe Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for millions of federal workers seems to be working, with no apparent disruption to law enforcement, intelligence-gathering or holiday travel.One day after the deadline for compliance, 92% of the 3.5 million federal workers covered by Biden’s mandate on Tuesday reported to the government that they were at least partially vaccinated, according to White House officials. Continue reading...

The jury reached the right verdict – even as the criminal justice system did everything it could to exonerate the three menIt’s shocking that Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael, and William Bryan were found guilty of murdering Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia. Yet the shock doesn’t stem out of any miscarriage of justice. On the contrary, the jury in Glynn county deliberated and reached the correct decision. Stalking an innocent Black man, chasing him, cornering him, and then killing him must come with criminal consequences in this country, and each of the three murderers now faces the possibility of a life sentence.But the shock is that justice was served in a case where it seemed the criminal justice system and substantial portions of media coverage were doing all they could to exonerate these men. In fact, everything about this case illustrates how difficult it is to get justice for Black people in this country, starting with how often Fox News and other media outlets referred to the case as “the Arbery trial”, as if Ahmaud Arbery were the perpetrator here and not the victim. Continue reading...

Still America’s sports-broadcasting gold standard more than a decade since called his final NFL game, John Madden’s absence never looms larger than on ThanksgivingFor the 19th time since 1934 the Chicago Bears will square off against the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving in a game that could charitably be dubbed the Tryptophan Bowl. On one side, you have a listless Bears team that just broke their best quarterback prospect in 40 years. On the other, a dismal Lions squad seemingly hellbent on booking their second winless season in little more than a decade. The only upset possibility here is to our stomachs.But if there were one man who could make this matchup halfway appetizing it was John Madden, still the NFL’s most colorful commentator more than a decade after he called his last game. Before the Minnesota native was synonymous with the league’s star-crossed video game franchise Madden was football’s fun uncle – a two-way lineman who found his way to coaching after a training camp knee injury nipped his pro career in the bud, only to wind up leading the Oakland Raiders to victory in Super Bowl XI at the record young age of 40. That he never suffered a losing season and remains the franchise’s most successful coach, with a career win percentage that tops Vince Lombardi’s, is as much a testament to Madden’s sharp mind as the Raiders fickle leadership. Continue reading...

Displaced people have a right to seek safety in Britain – the government must rethink its punitive policy and find some compassionThere are moments when the heartbreaking tragedy of those much less fortunate than us should act as a wake-up call to make the world a better place. Yesterday afternoon was one of those.At least 27 men, women and children who, through no fault of their own, were seeking safety in the UK, perished in the cold, unforgiving seas of the Channel – the busiest shipping lane in the world. They had packed themselves into a flimsy unseaworthy dinghy on the French cost on the final leg of what they hoped would be a journey to a new life where they could do what we all take for granted – work, make friends, have fun and be safe from any harm. Continue reading...

For many exonerees the struggle for justice carries on long after the prison gates have been flung openEvery year Dontae Sharpe braces himself for the pardoning of the Thanksgiving turkey.It’s not that he objects to turkeys being spared the butcher’s knife. It’s that, from where he’s sitting, there are far more urgent candidates for a reprieve from the governor of North Carolina than a bird. Continue reading...

Verdict caps almost two years of anguish for the Arbery family, marked by allegations of corruption, bias and racism both inside and outside the courtroomAs the guilty verdicts were read aloud, one after the other, Ahmaud Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, could be seen in the courthouse with tears in her eyes.The three white men who murdered her son back in February 2020, claiming they had acted in self-defense during an attempted citizen’s arrest, expressed little emotion. Continue reading...

Holiday retail sales are expected to increase up to a record 10.5%, despite supply chain issues and employee shortagesIsabella Burrows, 19, started working at PetSmart in Michigan just ahead of the holiday shopping season in 2020. “It was one of the worst things I’ve had to work through. We didn’t have enough people to deal with those crowds. We had three registers and there were lines around and out the doors for how much traffic we had,” said Burrows.This year, Burrows is scheduled to work from 3 to 11.30pm on Black Friday at a store one hour away from where she lives. She was transferred from a closer store in May after complaining to human resources that her manager downplayed and dismissed the tragic death of her 12-year-old brother two days after it happened. Continue reading...

Some members of the Wampanoag Nation mark Thanksgiving as their National Day of MourningIn 1970, Massachusetts was preparing to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers on the Mayflower.The 53 surviving men, women and children who had left England in search of “religious freedom” are credited with starting America’s first successful colony, in Plymouth, in 1620. Their voyage to the so-called New World is celebrated by many Americans still as a powerful symbol of the birth of the United States. Continue reading...

Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael and William ‘Roddie’ Bryan, all white, pursued 25-year-old Black man in Georgia neighborhood

Statewide infection rate is one of country’s lowest but in region resistant to masks and vaccines, hospitals are over capacityAhead of the Thanksgiving holidays, California officials are raising the alarm about a winter Covid surge as hospitals in some parts of the state remain overwhelmed with patients, despite overall progress.California’s coronavirus infection rate is one of the lowest in the country but the burden of infection remains unevenly distributed. In central California, a region that struggled with resistance to masks and vaccines throughout the pandemic, the strained public health system has been pushed to the brink. Hospitals this week are over-capacity and officials are seeking to transfer more patients out of the region for treatment in Los Angeles. Continue reading...

The verdict is welcome, but it rings hollow given the underlying systems of white supremacy that have long justified the vigilante actions of Arbery’s attackersThe three white men who hunted down Ahmaud Arbery in a neighborhood in Glynn county, Georgia, have been found guilty in court. The US held its breath as the jury deliberations entered their second day this Wednesday. Travis McMichael, who fired the shots that killed the 25-year-old Black man, his father, Greg, and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan were all convicted of the 23 February 2020 murder. While the verdict is a welcome one, it rings somewhat hollow given the recent not guilty verdict in the case of Kyle Rittenhouse and the underlying systems of white supremacy that have long justified the vigilante actions of Arbery’s attackers.Despite the trial’s outcome, the actual process of the case was steeped in various justifications of the killers’ actions, from the racially-tinged fearmongering of the defense attorneys to the fact that the killers were arrested 74 days after Arbery’s murder. Justice cannot be served as long as the current system remains, and it seems unlikely that even this verdict will dissuade future vigilantes. Continue reading...

The shooting of a man who was ‘running while Black’ has prompted calls for racial justice in the USFor many observers, the high-profile case of the three white men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was out jogging, revealed the racist ways the American legal system has been designed to treat Black people differently.Arbery was killed in February 2020 in the coastal town of Satilla Shores, Georgia. None of the men involved were charged until eyewitness footage was made public months later, shortly before the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, prompting widespread protests. Continue reading...

Ahmuad Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, addressed crowds of supporters outside the Georgia court that convicted her son's killers of murder.'I never saw this day, back in 2020. I never thought this day would come,' she said. 'But God is good and I just want to tell everybody thank you. Thank you for those who marched, for those who prayed - most of all the ones who prayed. Thank you.'Three white men were convicted of murdering Arbery, a black man, as he ran in their neighborhood. The jury rejected a self defense claim in a trial that once again probed America's divisive issues of race and guns.

‘I never thought this day would come,’ says Ahmaud Arbery’s mother as some say it’s ‘not true justice’Relief, emotion and a sense of hope came flooding out in Brunswick, on social media, from the White House and across the US as the nation came to terms with the Ahmaud Arbery verdicts and their place in history.Outside the Georgia courthouse, a joyous, flag-waving crowd repeatedly chanted: “Ahmaud Arbery! Say his name!” as the Arbery family, surrounded by their attorneys, emerged to address them. Continue reading...

Utility companies consider cutting power to 5m households as weather conditions threaten fast-moving wildfiresSouthern California is bracing for what might be the most dangerous fire weather event of the year.Utility companies are considering shutting off power to hundreds of thousands of residents as warm temperatures, howling winds and low humidity descend on the region, increasing ignition risks during the holiday weekend. Continue reading...

Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael and William ‘Roddie’ Bryan all face the possibility of life in prison

Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael and William Bryan have been found guilty of murdering Ahmaud Arbery.The three men pursued Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, through their neighborhood on 23 February 2020, before Travis McMichael shot and killed him.The men were also found guilty on several other charges, including aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and criminal attempt to commit a felony.

Physicians for Human Rights release first analysis on mental health effects of former president’s ‘zero tolerance’ policyChildren and parents forcibly separated at the US-Mexican border under Donald Trump’s policy of “zero tolerance” are showing signs of severe psychological trauma and mental health disorders that have endured even after they were reunited, a new study has found.Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) have released the first qualitative analysis to be carried out on the mental health effects of Trump’s highly contentious policy of enforced family separation which provoked outrage and condemnation around the world. Continue reading...

A jury returned guilty verdicts in the trial of three white men accused of murdering Ahmaud Arbery in 2020.Allegedly believing him to be a burglar, Travis McMichael, his father Greg McMichael and their neighbour William 'Roddie' Bryan pursued Arbery through a south Georgia neighbourhood in their pickup trucks, before a confrontation in which Travis McMichael shot Arbery dead.In a case that has become part of the campaign for racial justice in the US, the defendants have pleaded not guilty to all charges claiming they acted in self-defense.Prosecutors have argued the men had no legal right to attempt to detain Arbery, who was unarmed and described by his family as an avid runner.The three men face life in prison if found guilty of murder.

The trial sheds light on how the legal system treats Black Americans and experiences they face when doing ordinary thingsThe conviction of the three white men accused of murdering Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year old Black man who was killed while out jogging in Georgia, came after nearly a month of a closely watched trial.Like the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, the trial of Gregory McMichael, 67, his 35-year old son Travis McMichael and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, 52, has shed light on the fierce debate over the boundaries of self-defense and gun rights across the United States. Continue reading...

Strickland, 62, who was a teenager when he was accused of three murders, saw news of his release as he watched a TV soap operaA Kansas City man who was jailed for more than 40 years for three murders was released from prison on Tuesday after a judge ruled that he was wrongfully convicted in 1979.Kevin Strickland, 62, has always maintained that he was home watching television and had nothing to do with the killings, which happened when he was 18 years old. Continue reading...

The budget retailer is raising its signature prices to $1.25, with third-quarter income having taken a hitDollar Tree, a popular store among bargain shoppers in the US, has a small name problem in these inflationary times.It plans to raise its prices from a dollar for typical items to $1.25, the company announced on Tuesday. Continue reading...

On Working Lunch, I once went completely blank and uttered perhaps the longest ‘er’ in television history. I am always aware that it could happen againThe first time it happened to me I was staring at a blank wall. It was nearly 30 years ago now and I was presenting a new live programme called Working Lunch on BBC Two, my first on-screen gig. After each of the first few shows I’d literally had to wring out my sweat-soaked shirts, but now I was past the terror stage; I thought I knew what I was doing. Fatal.I was interviewing two people. One of them was in the studio with me. The other was elsewhere; to the viewer it looked as if he was on a giant screen behind me but, as this was one of the first virtual reality studios, all I could see was a featureless wall. I can’t now remember who the interviewees were; crucially, I couldn’t remember then either. Continue reading...

For a few months, Brigid Delaney devoted each weekday to one artist only – exploring their full back-catalogue, and making some discoveriesAll the jigsaws, craft projects and home-based hobbies of lockdown are now gathering dust, forgotten; a product of a cursed time that we don’t want to think about again.But there was one pandemic pastime that I was really fond of, and hope to continue through: listening to music. Like properly, deeply listening to it. Continue reading...

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump makes remark over lawyer Kevin Gough’s call to ban Black pastors from courtroomThe civil rights attorney Ben Crump on Wednesday accused a lawyer defending the killers of Ahmaud Arbery of displaying “the essence of white supremacy” for his call to ban Black pastors from the courtroom.Crump was speaking as a jury in Georgia began its second day of deliberations in the trial of three white men accused of murdering Arbery, 25, who was Black, as he jogged along a road near Brunswick in February 2020. Continue reading...

Anthony Broadwater, who spent 16 years in prison, was cleared of rape at center of author’s memoir LuckyA rape conviction at the center of a memoir by award-winning author Alice Sebold has been overturned because of what authorities determined were serious flaws with the 1982 prosecution and concerns the wrong man had been sent to jail.Anthony Broadwater, who spent 16 years in prison, was cleared on Monday by a judge of raping Sebold when she was a student at Syracuse University, an assault she wrote about in her 1999 memoir, Lucky.Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html Continue reading...

The teenager who was acquitted after killing two people in Kenosha visited the former president at his Mar-a-Lago resortA teenager acquitted of murdering two men and wounding another last year during racially based protests in Wisconsin reportedly visited Donald Trump at his Florida resort, with the former president describing Kyle Rittenhouse as “really a nice young man”.Trump revealed the visit in an interview with the TV show host Sean Hannity that aired on Fox News on Tuesday night. It was accompanied by a photograph of the pair together at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, where the former president lives. Continue reading...

Florida man’s disappearance sparked a nationwide hunt after the murder of Gabby Petito. Plus, wild turkeys create havoc in US cities

Kathleen Belew says Rittenhouse’s acquittal signals an approval for growing militant vigilantism against racial justice protestersWhen Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of murdering two men during anti-racism protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last week, the verdict was celebrated by far-right politicians and pundits across the US. Several Republican lawmakers offered Rittenhouse an internship and Fox News host Tucker Carlson called him “a sweet kid”.Kathleen Belew, a historian of American white power movements and author of Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America, argues that the fact that Rittenhouse’s trial is being read as a victory by more mainstream components of the right has the potential to serve as a rallying cry for increased militant vigilantism against US racial justice protesters. Continue reading...

The Democratic congresswoman talks about her effort to censure Paul Gosar, her retirement and the shifting dynamics of the HouseFor Jackie Speier, the growing threat of political violence in America is personal.Before becoming a member of the House of Representatives in 2009, Speier served as a staffer to congressman Leo Ryan. When Speier joined Ryan for a 1978 trip to Guyana to investigate the Jonestown settlement, she was shot five times. Continue reading...

A former Michigan State athlete has written a memoir about his time playing with autism in one of college basketball’s most venerable programsOne day in the weight room, Michigan State University basketball player Anthony Ianni couldn’t take any more ribbing from his teammate, future NBA champion Draymond Green. Although Green had intended it as a good-natured joke about Ianni supposedly needing extra conditioning, Ianni took it seriously. Green said if Ianni couldn’t take a joke, he shouldn’t be on the team. A shoving match ensued. That’s when the team’s strength and conditioning coach, Mike Vorkapich, explained to Green that Ianni is on the autism spectrum, which makes it hard for him to understand when someone is joking and when they are not. Ianni had kept his autism from most of his teammates. He was initially upset about the disclosure, but it cemented lasting understanding and friendship. The first college basketball player in Division I identified as being on the autism spectrum, Ianni is now a Michigan State graduate and a motivational speaker. He shares his life story in a new memoir, Centered: Autism, Basketball, and One Athlete’s Dreams, written with Rob Keast.“A couple days later, [Green] came back to me,” Ianni remembers. “He asked, ‘Why didn’t you tell me about it?’ I said I did not know how he was going to respond. So often, people in my life, they found out and treated me differently. He looked at me and said, ‘Kudos to you, look at how far you’ve come.’ From that day forward, it changed our relationship forever, not just as teammates but friends.” Continue reading...

Scott Atlas resigned after four months but blames Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx for ‘headline-dominating debacles’In a new book, former Trump adviser Scott Atlas blames Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci for “headline-dominating debacles” about quack cures for Covid-19 – but omits to mention the chief proponent of snake-oil treatments, including hydroxychloroquine and disinfectant, was the US president he loyally served.Atlas, a radiologist, is a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, California, specializing in healthcare policy. He became a special adviser to Donald Trump in August 2020, five months into the pandemic, but resigned less than four months later after a controversial spell in the role. Continue reading...

As an economist I know it makes financial as well as ethical sense to get this world-first vaccine to the millions who need itI vividly remember the day I learned a harsh lesson in the tragic burden of malaria that too many of us from the African continent have endured. I was 15, living amid the chaos of Nigeria’s Biafran war, when my three-year-old sister fell sick. Her body burning with fever, I tied her on my back and carried her to a medical clinic, a six-mile trek from my home.We arrived at the clinic to find a huge crowd trying to break through locked doors. I knew my sister’s condition could not wait. I dropped to the ground and crawled between legs, my sister propped listlessly on my back, until I reached an open window and climbed through. By the time I was inside, my sister was barely moving. The doctor worked rapidly, injecting antimalarial drugs and infusing her with fluids to rehydrate her body. In a few hours, she started to revive. If we had waited any longer, my sister might not have survived. Continue reading...

Watchdogs and ex-prosecutors have strongly criticised the Republican Attorneys General Association’s $150,000 donationA key group of Republican attorneys general that donated $150,000 to co-sponsor the 6 January rally where Donald Trump pushed his false claims of election fraud before the Capitol attack could draw scrutiny from a House committee investigating the events on or in the lead-up to the riot.The group – a part of the Republican Attorneys General Association (Raga) called the Rule of Law Defense Fund – has attracted strong criticism from watchdogs and ex-prosecutors even as Raga looks forward to next year’s midterm elections and many of its members are fighting on numerous fronts against Joe Biden’s agenda. Continue reading...

About 20 million passengers expected to fly this holiday as cases begin surging againAs cases begin surging once more in the US, millions of people are expected to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday, and health workers and hospital systems are now preparing for an influx of Covid patients after having little time to recover from the summer surge.Last year, there was a major surge in cases around the holidays. But this year, new tools could blunt the spread – if they are taken up quickly. Continue reading...

The Democratic ex-senator preaches a deeply unfashionable gospel of compromise in a country paralysed by civil warA friend once joked to Joe Lieberman, former senator and vice-presidential nominee, that the Democratic party was like his appendix: it was there but not doing much for him.“It’s a funny line,” he says by phone from his law office in New York, “but the truth is that it’s more than that because I feel good physically when the Democrats do well – in my terms – and I do get pain when they go off and do things that I don’t agree with.” Continue reading...

Stores in several San Francisco Bay area cities were targeted by groups of people smashing glass cases and stealing merchandiseCalifornia’s governor announced there would be greater police presence around “highly trafficked” shopping malls after a series of mass thefts at high-end stores throughout the San Francisco Bay area.The governor’s announcement came after groups of people, some carrying crowbars and hammers, smashed glass cases and window displays at luxury stores in several Bay Area cities over the weekend, stealing jewelry, sunglasses, suitcases and other merchandise before fleeing in cars. Continue reading...

The announcement comes five years after the demobilised rebel group signed a peace deal with the Colombian governmentThe US is expected to remove the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) from its international terrorist list, five years after the demobilised rebel group signed a peace deal with the Colombian government and formed a political party.The announcement is expected to bolster the struggling peace process, which has been implemented haltingly as violence from dissident rebel groups and drug traffickers continues to trouble the South American nation. Continue reading...

New subpoenas aim to uncover whether there was any coordination between the groups and the White HouseThe House select committee investigating the Capitol attack on Tuesday issued subpoenas to the leaders of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers militia, directly focusing for the first time on the instigators of the violence at the 6 January insurrection.The subpoenas demanding documents and testimony targeted both the leaders of the paramilitary groups on the day of the Capitol attack that sought to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election win, as well as the organizations behind the groups. Continue reading...

Nine people who were physically or emotionally injured during the two days of demonstrations will receive paymentA jury has awarded more than $25m in damages against white nationalist leaders for violence that erupted during the deadly 2017 far-right rally in Charlottesville.The defendants were accused of promoting and then carrying out racially motivated violence during the “Unite the Right” rally. After a nearly monthlong civil trial, a jury in US district court in Charlottesville deadlocked on two claims but found the white nationalists liable on four other counts in the lawsuit that was filed by nine people who suffered physical or emotional injuries during the two days of demonstrations. Continue reading...

Ohio’s Trumbull and Lake counties sued five pharmacy chains for causing overdose deaths costing each of the two counties about $1bnThree retail pharmacy chains recklessly distributed vast amounts of pain pills in two Ohio counties, a federal jury said on Tuesday, in a verdict that could set the tone for US city and county governments that want to hold pharmacies accountable for their roles in the opioid crisis.Lake and Trumbull counties blamed pharmacies operated by CVS, Walgreens and Walmart for not stopping the flood of pills that caused hundreds of overdose deaths and cost each of the two counties about $1bn, their attorney said. Continue reading...

23-year-old Florida man’s disappearance sparked a nationwide hunt after the disappearance and death of Gabby PetitoBrian Laundrie, whose disappearance sparked a nationwide manhunt in September after his fiancee, Gabby Petito, went missing and was later found murdered, killed himself, an autopsy report released on Tuesday revealed.Laundrie’s remains were found in a Florida nature preserve last month, one month after Petito, 22, was found strangled to death on the edge of Wyoming’s Grand Teton national park, where the couple had been travelling together in a van.In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 800-273-8255 and online chat is also available. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org Continue reading...