By Steve Holland DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Delaware U.S. President Joe Biden departed on Sunday on a three-nation

San Francisco Mayor London Breen suggested remaking the city's struggling downtown neighborhood by tearing down abandoned retail space. Breed argued that a shift to online shopping has contributing to declining foot traffic in the area.

Republican lawmakers in North Carolina voted to override the governor’s veto of a bill that outlaws abortion at 12 weeks of pregnancy, restricting abortion access in a state that has been a haven for abortion care in the year after the US Supreme Court’s decision to reverse Roe v Wade. In neighbouring South Carolina, lawmakers have continued debate before voting on a more-restrictive measure that would ban nearly all abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy, before many people know they are pregnant, adding to a streak of abortion restrictions across the US South. More than a dozen states, mostly in the South, have outlawed most abortions or severely restricted access within the year after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which revoked a constitutional right to abortion care that was affirmed for nearly half a century. Abortion rights restrictions in North Carolina and a six-week ban in South Carolina would dramatically change the map for abortion access in the US, where abortions are banned in most cases from Texas to West Virginia and along the Gulf Coast. “In the more than a dozen states with bans, women have been turned away from emergency rooms, left with no choice but to travel hundreds of miles for the care they need, and faced complications that put their lives and health at risk. Like those laws, the North Carolina ban will harm patients and threaten doctors for providing essential care,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement on 17 May. She called the North Carolina measure a “dangerous bill that is out of touch with the majority of North Carolinians and will make it even more difficult for women to get the reproductive health care they need.” “We’ve already seen the devastating impacts that state abortion bans have had on the health and lives of Americans living under these draconian laws,” she added. Health workers joined protesters at the North Carolina Capitol in Raleigh on 17 May as lawmakers in the Republican-controlled state legislature convened to override a veto from Democratic Governor Roy Cooper, who has spent the last several days campaigning for GOP lawmakers to break from the party and drop the challenge to his veto. In a video posted online, the governor named four Republican lawmakers who he said made campaign promises to protect access to abortion. “They say this is a reasonable 12-week ban. It’s not,” he said in the video. “The fine print requirements and restrictions will shut down clinics and make abortion completely unavailable to many women at any time, causing desperation and death.” Much of the coverage surrounding the North Carolina legislation has centred around a now-Republican lawmaker who previously campaigned against abortion restrictions when she was a Democrat, up until April. State Rep Tricia Cotham joined the Republican Party last month after campaigning for her seat as a Democratic candidate and earning the endorsement of EMILY’s List, an influential abortion rights organisation. Her party switch delivered Republicans a veto-proof majority in the House. Ms Cotham has spent years campaigning against abortion restrictions, with powerful testimony about abortion rights and her own medically necessary abortion experience, saying in one widely shared 2015 speech that “my womb and my uterus is not up for your political grab.” In a statement following the vote, the governor said that “North Carolinians now understand that Republicans are unified in their assault on women’s reproductive freedom, and we are energized to fight back on this and other critical issues facing our state.” Lawmakers in the House and Senate voted on party lines to reverse the governor’s veto. The bill includes exceptions for pregnancies from rape or incest or if there is a “life-limiting anomaly” in the fetus. It also will require in-person physician visits at least 72 hours before a procedural abortion, and doctors must also make real-time views of fetuses available and allow patients to listen to embryonic cardiac activity. North Carolina lawmakers approved the anti-abortion law while lawmakers in Nebraska debated a measure that coupled a 10-week abortion ban with a bill targeting gender-affirming care for trans youth, a proposal that inspired a nearly three-month-long filibuster in an effort to block it. Republican lawmakers ultimately broke through the filibuster on Tuesday night and voted in favour of the combined bill, which will head to a final round of votes before it heads to the desk of Republican Governor Jim Pillen, who intends to sign it into law. Meanwhile, in Louisiana, lawmakers recently refused to add rape and incest exceptions to its anti-abortion law, one of the most restrictive in the country. State lawmakers also overwhelmingly rejected attempts to clarify medical exceptions in the law, including a measure that would specifically allow providers to remove an ectopic or molar pregnancy, which cannot result in a successful birth. Read More Nebraska Republicans approve combined gender-affirming care ban and anti-abortion bill after epic filibuster Anti-abortion laws harm patients facing dangerous and life-threatening complications, report finds

Kyle Tucker hit a pair of RBI triples in eight-run sixth inning, Jose Altuve homered and drove in three runs, and the AL West-leading Houston Astros routed the San Diego Padres 12-2

TL;DR: Through May 31, you can score a Seido Hakai Cleaver Knife for just $59.97

Steve Bannon and Michal Flynn have been subpoenaed by voting software firm Smartmatic as part of its defamation lawsuits against Fox News and Newsmax for spreading lies about the 2020 election. Smartmatic served the two Trump allies with orders to sit for interviews under oath that could happen as soon as this week, according to court filings in Delaware and New York seen by CNN. Mr Bannon, a senior White House adviser during Donald Trump’s presidency, must also turn over documents related to Smartmatic’s lawsuit, including any communications he had about the 2020 presidential election with Fox News, the Trump re-election campaign and the Trump administration. Smartmatic is suing Fox News for $2.7bn for spreading lies that it manipulated voting machines during the 2020 presidential election to flip votes in favour of President Joe Biden. The weeks-long claims by Fox personalities and guests represented a “continuous stream of falsehoods that harmed Smartmatic and negatively impacted the company’s business,” it said. Smartmatic is also suing Fox hosts Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro, and Mr Trump’s lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. The lawsuit bears strong parallels with the Dominion Voting Systems case against Fox, which resulted in a $787.5m settlement by the right-wing news network in April. Mr Flynn, a former Trump administration national security adviser, and Mr Bannon played prominent roles in efforts by the former president to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Mr Flynn was fired by Mr Trump after he admitted lying to FBI agents about his contact with Russian officials before the 2016 election. He later reversed his guilty plea, and was pardoned by Mr Trump after the Justice Department dropped the charges agains him. Meanwhile, Mr Bannon is facing fraud charges in New York for allegedly stealing money for personal use from the We Build the Wall charity, a fundraising effort to build a border wall along the US-Mexico border. According to Bob Woodward and Robert Costa’s 2021 book Peril, Mr Bannon was in regular contact with the former president between his election loss in November and the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol. On Tuesday, Mr Trump revealed on his Truth Social website that he has received a “target letter” from special prosecutor Jack Smith for alleged offences related to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol and attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Read More Steve Bannon confronted about ‘We Build the Wall’ fraud campaign at right-wing conference Trump news – live: Trump could be indicted for a third time as soon as this week in Jan 6 probe Jesse Watters’ mother just summed up everything wrong with Fox News Steve Bannon confronted about ‘We Build the Wall’ fraud campaign at conference Steve Bannon ordered to pay nearly $500K in unpaid legal bills Ex-Congressman suggests Hunter Biden alleged laptop data fabricated

By Niket Nishant (Reuters) -Annuities provider American Equity Investment Life Holding said on Tuesday it has received a takeover offer

Red alerts for extreme heat have been issued in 16 cities across Italy as the Mediterranean country and swathes of Europe are gripped by blistering hot temperatures. Tourist hotspots Rome, Florence and Bologna are among some of the cities affected, with people there told to take extra care as the mercury climbs towards 40C amid the Cerberus heatwave. Temperatures are set to peak at around 36C (96.8F) in most Italian cities, though Puglia, Sicily, and Sardinia may reach up to 41C. Next week temperatures are predicted to climb as high as 48C in Puglia, Sardinia and Sicily as a second heatwave - named Cheron - hits the country. On Friday Greece introduced emergency measures for workers and zoo animals in Madrid were fed fruit ice-lollies in a bid to cool them do. The Cerberus heatwave is set to get worse over the weekend with the mercury expected to reach as high as 45C in parts of Greece and Spain with temperatures forecast to break all-time records. Read More Land temperatures in Spain surpass 60C as deadly heatwave sweeps Europe UK weather: Met Office issues two yellow warnings as Britons brace for ‘unusual’ winds Europe heatwave: Is it safe to travel to Italy, Spain, Greece and Croatia?

Japan’s finance minister issued his second salvo of warnings to players in foreign-exchange markets in a day after

The City of Brotherly Love has perfected the Brotherly Shove.

After having a goal waved off in overtime, Bryan Rust quickly made sure it didn’t happen twice

Republican Senator Ron Johnson amplified a number of Covid-19 conspiracy theories in a Fox Business Network segment bloated with false claims about the disease amid a growing number of hospitalisations and infections. While public health officials are urging Americans to stay up to date with vaccinations, the Wisconsin senator and Fox personality Maria Bartiromo falsely refuted vaccine efficacy and safety while wrongly stating that ivermectin is an approved treatment. The senator also revived baseless conspiracy theories circulated by anti-vaccine influencers like Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has faced ongoing scrutiny for his bogus suggestion that the virus is a biological weapon used to target certain demographics and spare Jewish and Chinese people. “This was all pre-planned by an elite group of people,” Mr Johnson said on the network on 11 August. “We’re up against a very powerful group of people … We are going down a very dangerous path, but it’s a path that is being laid out and planned by an elite group of people that want to take total control over our lives, and that’s what they’re doing bit by bit.” Mr Johnson and Ms Bartiromo also falsely claimed that the US Food and Drug Administration has approved ivermectin to treat Covid-19. Their bogus claims follow a recent appeals court hearing in a lawsuit from three doctors who have accused the federal agency of overstepping its authority by telling people not to take the drug. A federal judge appointed by Donald Trump dismissed the lawsuit last year. FDA attorneys argued that the agency did not prohibit doctors from prescribing the drug but had issued guidance recommending against its use. Right-wing media falsely interpreted those statements to mean that the agency now is endorsing the drug. Ms Bartiromo also admitted to taking ivermectin – which still is not authorised or approved for use in preventing or treating Covid-19 – before falsely stating that the FDA says it’s “fine” to use. “It was hard to find my doctor to finally, you know, address this and prescribe ivermectin,” she said. “He did, my Covid was gone in a day when I took ivermectin. And now three years later, the FDA says, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s fine. Take ivermectin.’” The FDA has not said that. The segment aired as Covid-related hospitalisations begin to surge across the US, increasing 12.5 per cent over the last week to more than 9,000, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. EG.5, an offshoot of the omicron variant that sparked waves of new infections, has been circulating in the US since April, now accounting for more than 17 per cent of Covid infections, according to the CDC. Last month, Mr Kennedy – a prominent anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist who is seeking an extremely long-shot bid for the Democratic nomination for president – revived an antisemitic conspiracy that blames Jewish people for the emergence of the disease. He baselessly stated during a press event that “there is an argument to be made” that the disease is “ethnically targeted”. The Independent has requested comment from Fox and a spokesperson for Mr Johnson. Read More Everything we know about EG. 5, the Covid subvariant dominating the US Data from pharmacy chain suggests Covid cases in California have nearly doubled since June RFK Jr’s ‘horrific antisemitic and xenophobic views’ detailed in explosive report Fox News promotes conspiracy theory linking Bronny James collapse to Covid vaccine