A shooting at an elementary school in Bend on Thursday left three children and one teacher dead
For three long hours on Thursday afternoon, Joe Camarlinghi waited at a Bend, Oregon, church for word about his daughter.
Camarlinghi had received an alert about a shooting at Silver Rail elementary, heard sirens and quickly headed to campus, where he was directed to the church along with other parents. Parents and teachers cried and hugged, and waited.
Continue reading...State has confirmed six measles-related deaths and county at center of outbreak lacks its own health department
The county at the center of Pennsylvania’s measles outbreak is at a clear disadvantage because, local officials say, it lacks its own health department and it will now get special assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
As of Wednesday, Pennsylvania had confirmed 1,222 measles cases, up from 86 the week before. Six measles-associated deaths have also been confirmed by the state.
Continue reading...Canada’s planned surveillance law is the latest grim step in a series of threats to encryption that are spreading around the world.
Westminster appears to be waking up to warnings over AI safety, with concerns over its use by extremist groups and bad actors
“I have this sense that, within a few months, AI is going to be all anyone is talking about,” said one cabinet minister, with an ominous stare.
It was Labour conference, with everyone from ministers to activists jubilant at Andy Burnham’s takeover and a bounce in the polls after the change of leader.
Continue reading...President has hit red states to drum up Republican support – and his increasingly strange performances are on full display
Montana, Tennessee, Alaska. In the run-up to an election, a Republican president typically wouldn’t be campaigning in these traditionally red states.
These aren’t normal times, however, and Donald Trump, an unpopular president leading an unpopular party, has held rallies in those states in the last week, seeking to drum up support. But a series of eccentric performances from the president means his behavior has been the focus, rather than any of the candidates he is backing.
Continue reading...Ryan Amacher, who played role in bid to damage campaign, has also made antisemitic and racist posts on social media
An influencer who played a key role in hoax claims that James Talarico was in a mental health facility has a long history of social media posts that favorably invoke Nazi Germany, express antisemitism and anti-Black racism, criticize miscegenation and call for “remigration” of refugees.
On X, the Lake Oswego, Oregon, resident Ryan Amacher, known online as Rhein Amacher, has described Muslims as “sub-human”, claimed that Black Africans are “monkeys” with low IQ, characterized immigrants as “vermin” and expressed support for the far right, including Germany’s AfD and the UK’s Tommy Robinson.
Continue reading...The organization We Are the Seeds began planting as part of a push to return land sovereignty to Indigenous people
Xiao Hui Star kneeled on her haunches, with her hands in the dirt as she cleared a spot to plant a flowering perennial in late summer. Surrounding her was a native garden replete with golden sunflowers, beans, squash, pawpaw and corn. She ruffled tufts of sweetgrass, which emitted a vanilla-like fragrance. Birds fluttered by and swooped down into a small bath filled with hard clam shells. Sandwiched between a brick home and a playground in west Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, the native garden featured plants endemic to the region.
“These are very special endangered varieties that we are rematriating back to the soil,” said Star, who is part of Rhode Island’s Narragansett tribe. She is also the manager of new initiatives at the Philadelphia-based organization We Are the Seeds, which hosts public events and education on Indigenous arts and culture. “Who knows how many centuries it’s been since a Lenape corn or a Nanticoke squash have grown in this soil.”
Continue reading...How a string of bizarre events led writer Linda Geddes to don her sleuthing cap and dig into a world of shadowy impersonators
It started with an entirely ordinary interaction on LinkedIn. Someone had tagged me in a post, saying how much they’d enjoyed contributing to a New York Post article I’d written about “chronoworking”. As the author of a book about circadian rhythms, it was exactly the sort of subject I might write about. Except I’d never heard of this person, let alone interviewed them.
I clicked on the link and my stomach dropped. There, above an article about people who organise their working lives around their biological clocks, was my name: Linda Geddes.
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Peter Ricketts calls for more resilience in protecting banking, energy and water systems from cyber-assaults
Ministers need to be honest with the British public about the immediate threat posed by Russia, which could soon lead to lives being lost, a former national security adviser has said.
Peter Ricketts, who advised David Cameron when he was prime minister, became the latest figure to warn about the scale of the threat posed by “hybrid attacks” from Vladimir Putin’s forces.
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