List of All Articles with Tag 'america'

Democrat Dianne Feinstein has denied that she was ever absent from the Senate after having spent months away recovering from shingles. Last week the 89-year-old California senator, the longest-serving Democrat in the current Senate, returned after her bout with shingles and cast a vote on the floor looking noticeably thinner and using a wheelchair, reported Associated Press. Her office said she would operate on a reduced schedule as she continued to recover. However, while interacting with reporters from the Slate and Los Angeles Times Ms Feinstein denied that she was ever absent. “No, I haven’t been gone,” she said to LA Times’s Ben Oreskes on Tuesday when asked how her Senate colleagues have responded to her return, reported Slate. “....I haven’t been gone, I’ve been working,” she said. Mr Oreskes then asked her whether she had been working from home. “No, I’ve been here. I’ve been voting,” she said. “Please, you either know or don’t know.” Ms Feinstein faced calls to resign from her party colleagues due to questions around her cognitive abilities. With Feinstein back in the Senate, and voting in the committee, the panel approved three federal district court judge nominations that had been stalled. Her 10-week absence meant that the committee’s votes were tied along party lines and Democrats could not move forward with any nominees without Republican support. Party colleagues including Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ro Khanna of California had called for her to resign. Ms Feinstein announced earlier this year that she would not seek re-election. She has more than a year and a half left until her term expires in January 2025. She also did not assume the role of Senate President Pro Tempore earlier this year, which is usually reserved for the senior most senator of the majority party. Read More With Feinstein back in Senate, 3 of Biden's judicial nominees move forward California's Feinstein returns to Senate after monthslong absence Chuck Schumer ‘forced to have serious and painful talks’ with Dianne Feinstein over apparent cognitive decline What should Democrats do about Dianne Feinstein? Republican abortion debate inches toward resolution in South Carolina Trump fumes over Durham report as Giuliani accused of pardon scheme - live

A man who was severely injured and whose wife was killed in an auto accident on the night of their wedding in South Carolina is describing his experience. “My body’s getting back to where I can manage, I guess,” Aric Hutchinson told WCSC on Saturday during a memorial for his wife Samantha Miller, 34, held in Folly Beach, South Carolina. “It’s just as good as I can feel with the situation, but obviously, today and the outpouring of people was just amazing,” he added. “I know Sam would love it.” The beach on the island off the coast of Charlotte North Carolina was where the couple was married. On 28 April, Mr Hutchinson, Miller, and two others were leaving their wedding reception in a golf cart equipped with lights and licensed to drive at night. Police say Jamie Lee Komoroski, 25, slammed into the cart from behind, sending Mr Hutchinson flying 100 yards away from the vehicle. He suffered a brain injury and broken bones as a result of the crash, and was in a wheelchair at Saturday’s memorial. Ms Komoroski, who was allegedly drunkenly driving 65mph in a 25mph zone in a rental car, was arrested and charged with one count of reckless homicide and three counts of felony DUI resulting in great bodily harm. Witnesses told police the crash was like a “loud explosion going off,” while another described Ms Komoroski saying aloud, "I did nothing wrong”. Ms Komoroski had a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit in South Carolina, according to police, and told police she had multiple drinks the night of the crash after refusing to perform a field sobriety test. "Words cannot express how devastated we are by her loss," XenTegra, the North Carolina IT company where Miller worked, said in a statement to NBC News. “She carried a light about her, one that shined so brightly upon everyone with whom she interacted. Simply put, Samantha brought an abundance of joy and laughter to the workplace.” Read More Drunk driver who killed bride on wedding day had blood alcohol level three times over the legal limit Newlywed bride killed after drunk driver hits her golf cart immediately after wedding Family of dead bride urges drivers not to drive drunk

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has ruled out a so-called Quad summit taking place in Sydney without President Joe Biden, saying the four leaders will talk at the Group of Seven meeting this weekend in Japan. Albanese said Wednesday he understands why Biden pulled out of the summit to focus on debt limit talks in Washington since they are crucial to the economy. The summit including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had been scheduled for May 24. “The blocking and the disruption that’s occurring in domestic politics in the United States, with the debt ceiling issue, means that, because that has to be solved prior to 1st June — otherwise there are quite drastic consequences for the U.S. economy, which will flow on to the global economy — he understandably has had to make that decision,” Albanese told reporters. Biden “expressed very much his disappointment” at being unable to come to the Sydney summit and to the national capital Canberra a day earlier to address Parliament, Albanese said. The four leaders will soon be together in Japan for the G-7 summit in Hiroshima and are planning to meet there, he said. “The Quad is an important body and we want to make sure that it occurs at leadership level and we’ll be having that discussion over the weekend," Albanese said. He suggested Modi still might visit Sydney next week, noting the Indian leader was scheduled to give an address to the Indian diaspora at a sold-out 20,000-seat stadium on Tuesday. “We’ll make further announcements about that, but Prime Minister Modi would certainly be a very welcome guest here next week,” Albanese said. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide

For three months, a group of Nebraska lawmakers have ground nearly all legislative business in the state to a halt, grabbing the nation’s attention with a remarkable filibuster to stifle a bill that would end gender-affirming care for young transgender people. Late Tuesday 16 May, Republican lawmakers broke through, advancing a bill that not only bans gender-affirming care for trans people under 19 years old but also tacks on an amendment to outlaw abortion at 10 weeks of pregnancy and hands the state’s GOP-appointed medical officer the authority to set the rules for affirming care for trans youth. Lawmakers approved the amended version of legislative bill 574 by a vote of 33-14. The measure will go to a final round of votes before it heads to the desk of Republican Governor Jim Pillen, who intends to sign it into law. Hundreds of protesters filled the capital in Lincoln, standing outside the doors and in the gallery above lawmakers while chanting “one more vote to save our lives”; only one senator would have had to defect from supporters of the bill to kill the legislation. The vote – on the 78th day of a 90-day session – followed a series of maneuvers that opponents argued were bending and breaking the rules of the state legislature to hammer through the legislation and avert the filibuster, which would allow opponents to occupy their allotted time to speak the bill to death. “What you are attempting to do today is the lowest of the absolute lows,” state Senator Machaela Cavanaugh, who spearheaded the filibuster, told Republican lawmakers. “You literally have to cheat at every moment of this debate in every possible way. … You are allowing it to happen,” she added. “You do literally have blood on your hands, and if you vote for it, you will have buckets.” State Senator Megan Hunt, the first openly LGBT+ member of the state legislature and the mother of a trans child, lambasted lawmakers for their “escape routes” from the capitol to avoid facing protesters. “If you can’t go out and face them, you are not worthy,” she said. “Your legacy is filth.” In a statement following the vote, Governor Jim Pillen called the bill “an important step” to “protect” the future of the state’s children. Opponents of the bill forcefully opposed the inclusion of an abortion ban in a bill targeting gender-affirming care, two wholly separate issues combined into one, “but you all don’t care,” Ms Cavanaugh told Republican lawmakers. “You don’t care about due process, you don’t care about the people of Nebraska,” she added. “All you care about is the governor.” Abortion rights advocates and transgender rights advocates have frequently underscored the fact that anti-abortion measures and legislation targeting LGBT+ people are driven by the same lawmakers and activist groups, relying on similar arguments to restrict access to healthcare, with measures that have dominated state capitals across the country over the last few years. Lawmakers initially were set to only debate the gender-affirming care bill, which already went through two of three rounds of debate and votes. But legislative rules prohibit amendments on a final round, and opponents of the bill planned to filibuster through all two hours of debate to continue to block it. Last month, the filibuster blocked a measure from anti-abortion lawmakers to ban abortion at roughly six weeks of pregnancy. Attaching another anti-abortion measure, this time at roughly 10 weeks, gave proponents of the bill a second chance of both advancing an anti-abortion law and the gender-affirming care ban, marrying two controversial measures to get to the necessary 33-vote threshold to advance. In February, Ms Cavanaugh vowed to “burn the session to the ground” if the ban on gender-affirming care advanced, launching an epic filibuster that blocked every bill until the measure was withdrawn or defeated. State Senator Kathleen Kauth, an Omaha Republican who proposed the bill targeting gender-affirming care, said the amended version would protect children from what she called a “social contagion.” “Kids deserve the right to grow up and not deal with this until they are adults and can make informed decisions,” said Ms Kauth, who did not mention the fact that such decisions are made with families and their doctors. The anti-abortion measure provides no exceptions for pregnancies with fatal fetal anomalies and does not explicitly protect doctors who perform abortions from criminal prosecution. “What is wrong with you?” said Ms Hunt, calling the combined bill a “desperate attempt to institute an abortion ban that is unpopular, unnecessary, and unsafe.” More than a dozen states, mostly in the US South, have severely restricted or effectively outlawed abortion in the year after the US Supreme Court struck down Roe v Wade, which affirmed a constitutional right to abortion access. Nebraska’s legislation also joins a nationwide campaign that has seen hundreds of bills aimed at LGBT+ people, particularly at young trans people, filed in nearly every state within the last two years. At least 15 states have enacted laws or policies banning gender-affirming care for young trans people, and more than a dozen others are considering similar measures. Court injunctions have blocked bans from going into effect in three states. More than half of all trans youth in the US between the ages of 13 and 17 are at risk of losing access to age-appropriate, medically necessary and potentially life-saving gender-affirming healthcare in their home state, according to the Human Rights Campaign. The onslaught of legislation and volatile political debate surrounding the bills have also negatively impacted the mental health of an overwhelming majority of young trans and nonbinary people, according to polling from The Trevor Project and Morning Consult. A separate survey from The Trevor Project found that 41 per cent of trans and nonbinary youth have seriously considered attempting suicide over the last year. Read More Inside the ‘mentally exhausting’ protest shutting down Nebraska’s anti-trans legislation Inside Montana’s ‘disturbing’ attack on trans kids and the campaign to silence lawmaker Zooey Zephyr Exclusive: Zooey Zephyr responds to her political silencing and Montana’s attacks on trans children: ‘I show up with my head held high’ Anti-abortion laws harm patients facing dangerous and life-threatening complications, report finds

Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernández made it official Tuesday that she will not be running for president again, putting the brakes on an effort by members of her party to push her to become a candidate in the October election. Fernández, who was president 2007-2015, made her decision public through a statement published on her website in which she slammed the judiciary, accusing the courts of trying to forbid her from running for office again as part of an alliance with the opposition. With her decision, the center-left Fernández throws the ruling Peronist party into disarray amid uncertainty over who could be its candidate in this year’s presidential elections. President Alberto Fernández, whose tenure has been marked by an ongoing economic crisis that has included a sharp devaluation of the local currency and annual inflation of more than 100%, already said last month he would not be seeking reelection. “I will not be a puppet of those in power for the sake of any candidacy. I have demonstrated, like no one else, that I prioritize the collective project over personal ambitions,” Cristina Fernández said. The 70-year-old vice president said she’s prevented from running for office by a prison sentence of six years and a lifelong ban from holding public office she received late last year as part of a case involving corruption through public works during her presidency. She has denied all charges and the ruling still has to be confirmed by higher courts before it becomes effective. “I will not engage in the perverse game they impose on us under the guise of democracy,” she wrote. Allies of the vice president have been pushing for her to run for the presidency and regularly chant “President Cristina” during her public appearances. Although Fernández, who is not related to current president Alberto Fernández, had already said she wouldn’t run for president, she often played coy in public speeches. The vice president published her statement days before allies had announced a big rally in downtown Buenos Aires on May 25, which is a national holiday in Argentina, to push her to run. With both the president and vice president out of the running, all eyes are now likely to set on Economy Minister Sergio Massa, a center-right Peronist who has long had presidential ambitions although his tenure in the office he took on last year has not gone as he hoped. Massa had said his goal was for monthly inflation to decelerate to 3% by April. Instead, it accelerated to 8.4%. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide

Lori Vallow was indicted by a grand jury in Maricopa County for conspiracy to commit the murder of Brandon Boudreaux more than a year ago, Justin Lum of Fox 10 Phoenix reports. Vallow was charged on 24 February 2022 under the late Allister Adel, who was the county attorney at the time, he reports. Per to the indictment, Vallow and her late brother Alex Cox agreed that “at least one of them or another would engage in conduct constituting the offence of first-degree premeditated murder” on 2 October 2019. Police in Gilbert, Arizona, say Cox shot at Mr Boudreaux outside his home from the back of a jeep after he returned home from the gym that morning. This is the third time that Cox is named as a co-conspirator in a grand jury indictment of Vallow. First in the murder charges for which she was convicted in Idaho; second on the murder conspiracy charge in the death of Charles Vallow in Chandler, Arizona; and now third in the attempted murder of Mr Boudreaux. On Friday, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office in Arizona announced that in addition to pursuing charges against Vallow over the murder of her fourth husband Charles Vallow, they also plan to prosecute her in the attempted murder of Mr Boudreaux. It was not known that she had been indicted by a grand jury at that point. The Attorney’s Office made the announcement after Vallow was found guilty on all six charges at her trial for the murder of her children Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow, and for her role in the conspiracy to murder her current husband’s late wife Tammy Daybell. In July 2019, two months before the murders of the children, Charles Vallow was shot dead by Cox at the family home. He claimed he shot his brother-in-law in self-defence. The preponderance of evidence at Vallow’s trial in Boise, Idaho, suggests that his death was the first step in a wider plot by Vallow and her current husband Chad Daybell to rid their lives of “obstacles” as they termed their spouses and her children, as the court heard in text messages entered into evidence. Mr Boudreaux was married to Vallow’s niece Melani Pawlowski (she remarried in November 2019 to Ian Pawlowski, who testified at Vallow’s trial). Melani was very close to Vallow and believed in many of the same bizarre doomsday prophecies espoused by her and Mr Daybell. This ultimately ended her marriage to Mr Boudreaux with whom she shared custody of their five children. From evidence heard at Vallow’s trial, it is apparent that he too was considered an “obstacle” and — in their beliefs — a “dark” spirit had possessed him. Google location data showed Alex Cox travelling to and from Gilbert, Arizona, from Idaho in early October 2019. On 2 October an attempt was made on the life of Mr Boudreaux when he was shot at after returning home from the gym. He had earlier taken his older children to school and dropped the youngest off at Ms Pawlowski’s home. The shots were fired from the back window of a grey Jeep Wrangler that had had its back spare tyre removed. Video footage from a storage facility in Idaho showed Mr Cox and Vallow placing the spare tyre in a storage facility the day before he drove south to Maricopa County and then taking it back out a few days later. Mr Boudreaux gave heartbreaking testimony at Vallow’s trial about the end of his marriage to Ms Pawlowski and broke down as he recalled having to be the person who identified JJ Vallow’s remains. Questions linger over Ms Pawlowski’s involvement in the attempt on her former husband’s life. She was present in court in Boise for Vallow’s trial as her husband testified, but did not take the stand herself much to the surprise of those closely watching the case. Other women — Zulena Pastenes and Melanie Gibb — who were close to Vallow and involved in the strange rituals she conducted as part of their shared beliefs about the second coming did testify. Mr Cox died suddenly in December 2019, after telling Ms Pastenes — whom he had married shortly before — that he feared he would be the “fall guy” for Mr Daybell and his sister. Read More Lori Vallow has been convicted of her children’s murders. What happens next? Who is Lori Vallow? Mom-of-three, beauty queen – and now convicted killer Lori Vallow had two alleged accomplices in her children’s murders. One will never face justice Lori Vallow’s nephew-in-law says she’s not ‘inherently evil’ as she faces new charges for his attempted murder

Authorities in New Mexico have identified a gunman who killed three and wounded six others in Farmington as 18-year-old high school student Beau Wilson. The teenager was armed with three weapons including an AR-15-style rifle when he began firing randomly at cars and houses in the New Mexico city of Farmington on Monday, authorities said. He was killed by police after wounding two officers. Police said the three victims included an elderly mother in her 90s and her daughter, who was aged in her 70s. The third victim was also in their 70s. The assault weapon had been legally purchased and belonged to a family member of the suspect, police said at a press conference on Tuesday. Wilson, a Farmington High School senior, roamed across a quarter mile area of the city just before 11am targeting “whatever entered his head to shoot at”, Police Chief Steve Hebbe said. At least six houses and three cars were shot at, while state and local police responding to 911 calls also came under heavy gunfire. Breaking more to come Read More New Mexico shooter, 18, roamed community armed with three guns firing randomly at cars and homes, police say A pregnant woman reported her boyfriend’s abuse. He wasn’t arrested until after her murder over an abortion Texas boy, 12, accused of fatally shooting Sonic employee with assault rifle after he asked friend to stop urinating in parking lot

A Pennsylvania man who has been accused of hiding in an OnlyFans model's attic told a judge that she wanted his attention, according to court documents. Mauricio Guerrero, 19, appeared for a hearing on Friday in Stafford County Superior Court in Dover, Pennsylvania, according to WMUR. Mr Guerrero was charged with four counts of burglary for allegedly breaking into a woman's house, photographing her while she slept and hiding in her attic. Mr Guerrero met the woman on the website OnlyFans in 2021. The defendant told the judge that the woman wanted him to be "obsessed" with her, and to act like "a stalker." He said that "she liked it," ascribing his actions to their dynamic. During testimony on Thursday, the victim said she was often drunk when she chatted with Mr Guerrero on the website, and said she does not remember many of their conversations. Mr Guerrero recounted his version of their conversations. “We talked about meeting up, about me coming up. Between that we talked about having intercourse,” he said. Prosecutors claim that Mr Guerrero traveled to her home in New Hampshire six times, and noted the victim refused to see him several times. She admitted that on one visit they did spend time together and had sex. She told the court she continued communicating with him because she liked the way their conversations made him feel. Mr Guerrero's defence team claim he believed the two were in a relationship based on the pair's conversations. When they asked him how he got into the house, he said he entered through the house's back door, and admitted he "tried to use the crowbar." Mr Guerrero was arrested on 9 February after the victim called police to report that she heard someone in her home. "Officers on scene located a male suspect on the roof of the residence. After an on-scene investigation, the male was taken into custody for the charge of Burglary. The investigation was furthered, and information was obtained that the suspect was known to the victim from online social media," the Somersworth Police Department said in a statement posted to its Facebook page. Police said at the time that Mr Guerrero had been staying at an Airbnb in Portsmouth, and that he was in the home "with the intent to commit theft and invasion of privacy." Investigators found a video on his phone of the victim sleeping naked in her bed. Mr Guerrero admitted to recording the video, and the victim said she never gave him permission to film her, according to a detective's affidavit. Police said the victim initially agreed to meet with Mr Guerrero because he had offered to buy her a TV and a fireplace for her apartment. “She said he seemed nice at first and she gave him her address because he wanted to buy her a TV and fireplace for her apartment in Dover,” a police affidavit explains. “She never really wanted to meet him, but he was very pushy.” Read More Pennsylvania man charged with hiding in OnlyFans model’s attic and secretly filming her OnlyFans star Christina Ashten Gourkani dies of heart attack after ‘medical procedure’, aged 34 OnlyFans model files $6.3bn revenge porn lawsuit against ex-boyfriend after he posted graphic images following split

A 12-year-old boy has been charged with murder after he allegedly shot and killed a Sonic employee in northern Texas, police said. The boy and a 20-year-old, Angel Gomez, visited a Sonic restaurant in Keene, Texas on Sunday night. Mr Gomez allegedly began acting unruly in the parking lot and began urinating near the restaurant, prompting an employee, Matthew Davis, 32, to confront him, according to CBS News. The confrontation between Mr Davis and Mr Gomez escalated into violence, at which point the 12-year-old allegedly grabbed an assault rifle the two had been traveling with and shot the Sonic employee several times, according to police. The boy fired at least six shots from the rifle, according to KTVT's reporting. Mr Gomez and the 12-year-old then fled the scene. Police were called in response to the shooting, where they found Mr Davis lying in the parking lot around 9:40pm. Mr Davis was reportedly struggling to breathe when they found him. He was rushed to a hospital for surgery but ultimately died from his injuries. Mr Gomez reportedly returned to the Sonic after the shooting and was arrested on murder charges. Police then tracked down the juvenile in Rio Vista, approximately 15 miles away, and took him into custody on murder charges. Law enforcement searched the home and located several firearms. A cross was erected and flowers have been left at the Sonic in memory of Mr Davis, who was the father to a 10-year-old son, according to NBC5. Jane Baggett, a local resident who stopped by the Sonic to contribute to the memorial, said she was regretful there was nothing more the community could do for Mr Davis. “I wish there was more that we could do, but right now if they could just see that support and love, and maybe, even if we didn’t know him, [know] his life mattered to many of us,” she told NBC5. A spokesperson for Sonic also released a statement acknowledging the attack. “We are saddened to learn about the tragedy involving a franchised team member in Keene, TX. The franchisee is cooperating fully with local authorities as they conduct their investigation.” A GoFundMe has been established to help pay for Mr Davis' funeral costs. Read More New Mexico shooter, 18, roamed community armed with three guns firing randomly at cars and homes, police say A pregnant woman reported her boyfriend’s abuse. He wasn’t arrested until after her murder over an abortion New Mexico gunman who killed 3 and injured 6 shot randomly at cars, houses, police say

Healthcare providers caring for pregnant patients in the months after the US Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Roe v Wade have been unable to provide standard medical care in states where abortion is effectively outlawed, leading to delays and worsening and dangerous health outcomes for patients, according to an expansive new report. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling last year, individual reports from patients and providers have shed some light on the wide range of harm facing pregnant women in states where access to abortion care is restricted or outright banned. But a first-of-its-kind report from the University of California San Francisco captures examples from across the country, documenting 50 cases in more than a dozen states that enacted abortion bans within the last 10 months, painting a “stark picture of how the fall of Roe is impacting healthcare in states that restrict abortion,” according to the report’s author Dr Daniel Grossman. “Banning abortion and tying providers’ hands impacts every aspect of care and will do so for years to come,” he said in a statement accompanying the report. “Pregnant people deserve better than regressive policies that put their health and lives at risk.” The report collected anonymised narratives from providers who observed complications facing their patients. The most common scenario involved preterm pre-labor rupture of membranes (PPRM), in which the amniotic membrane surrounding the fetus breaks. In several of the cases, patients developed a severe infection, including cases that put patients in hospital intensive care units. Patients in many cases were instead sent home and told to return to a hospital when labor started or when they experienced signs of an infection. In one case, a patient returned to a hospital’s intensive care unit two days after her water broke at roughly 16 to 18 weeks of pregnancy in a state where abortion is banned. “The anesthesiologist cries on the phone when discussing the case with me,” the physician wrote, according to the report. “If the patient needs to be intubated, no one thinks she will make it out of the [operating room].” The report notes that “miraculously” the patient survived. Following the termination of the pregnancy, the patient asked the doctor whether any of them broke the law. “She asks me: could she or I go to jail for this?” the doctor said, according to the report. “Or did this count as life-threatening yet?” Providers also described other cases where patients showed evidence of inevitable pregnancy loss, but their care teams had their “hands tied” under state laws. Health providers also submitted stories of patients experiencing ectopic pregnancies. Delays to treat one patient resulted in a ruptured ectopic pregnancy that required surgery to remove her fallopian tube. Another patient was denied an abortion for a Caesarean scar ectopic pregnancy, a life-threatening condition where a pregnancy implants in the scar of a prior Caesarean section. Other physicians reported the inability to treat patients with fetal anomalies and patients who faced delays receiving treatment for miscarriages. “Unfortunately, this report confirms that our fears about abortion bans are valid,” said Dr Chloe Zera, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist and associate professor at Harvard Medical School. “As someone who cares for patients who have high-risk pregnancies, I need to be able to provide care consistent with evidence-based guidelines,” she said in a statement accompanying the report. “This research underscores the completely preventable harm that is now happening to our patients because of barriers to abortion care.” The report also outlines the moral dilemmas facing physicians operating in states or treating patients from states that have outlawed the potentially life-saving care they previously provided. Some physicians said they were considering quitting or relocating, or noted the immense coordination required between health providers in multiple states to treat patients, and outlined the ways in which restrictive state laws have complicated other care unrelated to abortion. In one case, a physician refused to remove an intrauterine device for a patient who was between 10 and 12 weeks pregnant, despite the partially expelled IUD posing a risk for infection or miscarriage. “The doctor did not feel comfortable” removing the IUD, one physician wrote, according to the report. “The context provided was concern over the recent changes in law that create [the] possibility for felony charges for providers causing abortion in our state shortly after the Roe decision was overturned.” During a “heated exchange” among health providers, “the doctor [said] the patient had... been examined by the nurse practitioner, who was unable to visualize the IUD, and that ‘even if I could see it and it was easily removable, I wouldn’t remove it because of the law,’” according to the physician’s description in the report. “Abortion bans that block providers from offering standard medical care have the greatest impact in states like Texas that have some of the poorest indicators of maternal health,” according to Dr Kari White, lead investigator of the Texas Policy Evaluation Project at The University of Texas at Austin. “Pregnant people should be able to rely on their healthcare provider to provide the best possible care, regardless of where they live,” she said in a statement accompanying the report. More than a dozen states, mostly in the South, have effectively outlawed or severely restricted access to abortion care after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization last June. Read More Alabama Republicans would charge abortion patients with murder under proposed legislation Louisiana Republicans refuse rape and incest exceptions to state’s sweeping anti-abortion law North Carolina governor vetoes 12-week abortion ban, launching Republican override showdown A Texas man sued his ex-wife’s friends for allegedly helping her with an abortion. Now they’re suing him Supreme Court preserves abortion drug approval as legal case plays out

The man suspected of attacking Virginia congressman Gerry Connolly’s staff with a baseball bat appears to have been captured on a doorbell camera chasing a woman with a baseball bat just minutes before the attack at Mr Connolly’s office. The footage, uploaded to Twitter, shows a woman screaming while running through a person’s backyard, while being chased by a man holding a bat. Just minutes later, around 10.50 am, on Monday a suspect turned up at Mr Connolly’s district office and attacked two of his staffers with a metal baseball bat, striking one on the head and the other on the side. It is unclear if the metal baseball bat used to attack the staffers was the same bat that appears in the doorbell footage video. The suspect was identified as 49-year-old Xuan-Kha Tran Pham by the City of Fairfax Police Department. According to a statement from Mr Connolly, the two staffers who were hit received “non-life threatening injures” and were transported to the hospital. One police officer also sustained minor injuries. “I have the best team in Congress. My District Office staff make themselves available to constituents and members of the public every day. The thought that someone would take advantage of my staff’s accessibility to commit an act of violence is unconscionable and devastating,” Mr Connolly said in a statement. Fairfax Police said they arrived within five minutes of the call to police and took Mr Pham into custody. He is currently being held at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center without bail on warrants of one count of felony aggravated malicious wounding and malicious wounding. Police are unsure of the motive behind the attack on the staffers, but said they were coordinating with the US Capitol Police and Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Washington Field Office. The attack is the latest in a string of violent threats made against members of Congress. In February, Representative Angie Craig (D-MN) was attacked outside her Washington DC apartment. Last year, a man attacked then-Representative Lee Zeldin (R-NY) who was campaigning for governor at the time. In addition, a man broke into the San Francisco home of then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and assaulted her husband Paul Pelosi. Read More A suspect looking for a Virginia congressman attacked two of his staffers with a baseball bat. What happened? Congressman’s staffers hospitalised after baseball bat attack at Virginia office An assault on congressional staff shows how all too commonplace political violence has become What we know about baseball bat attack on Virginia congressman’s staff Biden to mark Jewish American Heritage Month with Broadway stars, speak out on antisemitism Man with baseball bat attacks Virginia congressman's staffers; suspect in custody

A young girl who was abducted by her mother in Illinois has finally been found safe six years later after a North Carolina store owner recognised her from a Netflix show. Kayla Unbehaun was nine years old when she vanished without a trace while in the care of her mother Heather Unhebhaun. It was 4 July 2017 and Kayla had gone for a visit with her mother, who only had visitation rights and not full custody of her daughter. The next day, Kayla’s father – who had full custody – went to pick her up from her mother’s house in Wheaton, Illinois, to find his daughter and her mother missing. A search was launched to track down the abducted child but, for years, the trail went cold. But Kayla’s story wasn’t forgotten and the case was featured in an episode of Netflix’s “Unsolved Mysteries” series, titled “Abducted by a Parent”. Last month, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) then released an age-progression photo to show how Kayla may look now at the age of 15. Now, almost six years on, a chance sighting more than 600 miles away in North Carolina has finally led authorities to locate the missing child. An unidentified owner of a store in Asheville had spotted Kayla, now aged 15, in a local shopping centre and recognised her from the Netflix show, reported WSOC. The Good Samaritan called police who found Kayla and took her into protective custody. Ms Unbehaun was arrested and charged with one count of child abduction, according to the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office. She is being held on $250,000 bond and further charges are also possible. The NCMEC – which posted alerts to try to find Kayla over the past five-plus years – shared a message from Kayla’s father celebrating the news that his daughter had been found safe. “I’m overjoyed that Kayla is home safe. I want to thank the South Elgin Police Department, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and all of the law enforcement agencies who assisted with her case,” he said. “We ask for privacy as we get to know each other again and navigate this new beginning.” Over the years, Kayla’s father Ryan had continued to promote his daughter’s case on the Facebook page “Bring Kayla Home”. On 6 January, he posted a birthday message to his missing daughter and spoke of his hopes that they would be reunited soon. “Happy 15th birthday, Kayla. I love you and miss you so much. I can’t wait for the day that I get to see you again, hoping each day I wake up will be the day,” he said. “It could never come soon enough. I think of you every day hoping and praying that you are safe, happy and that you will come back into my life soon.” Read More Lori Vallow has been convicted of her children’s murders. What happens next? Missing boy, 4, found dead after search in South Boston Lori Vallow is facing life in prison for her children’s murders. We only know one side of the story