North America

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — On a few occasions, Sitaniel Wimbley’s mother grew manic in her front yard. When neighbors were met with screaming and cursing on their street in Natchez, Mississippi, they would dial 911.

CHICAGO (AP) — A federal lawsuit filed Thursday alleges Chicago police misused “unreliable” gunshot detection technology and failed to pursue other leads in investigating a grandfather from the city’s South Side and charging him with killing a neighbor.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Steve Bannon’s lawyer opened his defense Thursday, asking the judge for a direct acquittal, arguing that prosecutors had not proven their contempt-of-Congress case against the former adviser to then-President Donald Trump. Then the defense rested without bringing any witnesses.

Bannon lawyer Evan Corcoran said the prosecution’s case concerning Bannon’s resistance to the Jan. 6 committee’s subpoena rested on the testimony of Kristin Amerling, the panel’s chief counsel and it was “clear from her testimony that the dates were in flux.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee is headed back to prime time for its eighth hearing — potentially the final time this summer that lawmakers will lay out evidence about the U.S. Capitol insurrection and President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

Thursday’s hearing is expected to focus on what Trump was doing in the White House as the violence unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican who is one of two members leading the hearing, said he expects it will “open people’s eyes in a big way.”

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Former Minneapolis police Officer Thomas Lane was sentenced Thursday to 2 1/2 years in prison on a federal civil rights charge for his role in the killing of George Floyd.

U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson sentenced Lane for his February conviction of depriving Floyd of medical care as he lay dying under Officer Derek Chauvin’s knee in May 2020.

“Mr. Lane this is a very serious offense, in which a life was lost,” Magnuson said. “The fact that you did not get up and remove Mr. Chauvin when Mr. Floyd became unconscious is a violation of the law.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday and is experiencing “very mild symptoms,” the White House said, as new variants of the highly contagious virus are challenging the nation’s efforts to resume normalcy after two and a half years of pandemic disruptions.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden has begun taking Paxlovid, an antiviral drug designed to reduce the severity of the disease.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 20 (APP): Billions of people are facing the greatest cost of living crisis in a generation due to rising food and energy prices amid rapid inflation and increasing debt, leaving the most vulnerable consumers in a dire situation, according to the UN trade and development body, UNCTAD.

UNCTAD’s analysis shows that a 10 per cent increase in food prices will trigger a five per cent decrease in the incomes of the poorest families, roughly equivalent to the amount those families would normally spend on healthcare.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 20 (APP): Billions of people are facing the greatest cost of living crisis in a generation due to rising food and energy prices amid rapid inflation and increasing debt, leaving the most vulnerable consumers in a dire situation, according to the UN trade and development body, UNCTAD.

UNCTAD’s analysis shows that a 10 per cent increase in food prices will trigger a five per cent decrease in the incomes of the poorest families, roughly equivalent to the amount those families would normally spend on healthcare.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 20 (APP): The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), in a new report released on Wednesday, highlighted human rights abuses since the Taliban takeover of the country in August last year, pointing out they bear responsibility for extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary arrests and detentions, and violations of fundamental freedoms.

WASHINGTON, July 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Overdose deaths increased 44 percent for Black people and 39 percent for American Indians in 2020 compared to 2019, as the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted access to care and exacerbated racial inequality, an official report showed.

“Racism, a root cause of health disparities, continues to be a serious public health threat that directly affects the well-being of millions of Americans,” US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) acting principal deputy director Debra Houry said in a briefing.