List of All Articles with Tag 'news'

At least six people are dead and dozens injured in a string of weekend violence and mass shootings across the U.S. The shootings — in Chicago, Washington state, Pennsylvania, St. Louis, Southern California and Baltimore — follow a surge of violence over the past several years that experts say accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic

More than 400 wildfires are raging across Canada, and misinformation about the blazes is spreading as well, particularly on TikTok. As Media Matters for America (MMFA) noted in a recent analysis, videos on TikTok claiming the fires were started intentionally by helicopters, arsonists, and “directed energy weapons” have garnered millions of views this month, with the false ideas in these videos then spreading to other social media platforms. Only a few of the most viral false videos have been taken down, the analysis notes. Further scrutiny of such claims provides easy evidence to the contrary, with Canadian officials attributing the fires to a combination of lightning strikes, human accidents, and dry, climate crisis-fueled conditions across the country. “We are already seeing one of the worst wildfire seasons on record,” Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, said in a statement earlier this month. “We must prepare for a long summer.” Other videos about the fires featured clips from a controlled burn by fire officials, as well as what was actually a 2015 wildfire, MMFA found. The Independent has contacted TikTok for comment. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes including large numbers in Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia. Hundreds of firefighters have arrived from countries like Australia, New Zealand, the US, South Africa, Chile, Costa Rica and France to assist the exhausted Canadian crews. As The Independent has previously reported, misinformation spreads quickly on TikTok during ongoing disasters, thanks in part to public distrust of government officials and an increasingly anti-science bent in US politics. “Social media can be helpful. It alerts people to a situation. It’s a way for widespread dissemination,” Dr Erin Haynes, professor of preventive medicine and environmental health at the University of Kentucky told The Independent in March in the wake of the Ohio train derailment disaster. “But because of that it allows widespread dissemination of false information, so it can go both ways. You have to be very cautious when using social media. Fact-check, find the source of that information.” Read More Canadian wildfire smoke gives Minnesota city the worst air in the US Satellites capture Canadian wildfire smoke pouring into US Midwest Wildfire smoke from Canada might be a problem ‘all summer’

Americans across the country are observing the relatively new Juneteenth federal holiday with festivals, parades, cookouts and other gatherings

After appointees of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took over Walt Disney World’s governing district earlier this year, its firefighters were among the few employees who publicly welcomed them with open arms

President Joe Biden will highlight climate commitments made by his administration and announce new federal funding for climate resilience projects as part of a three-day trip to the Bay Area in Northern California that begins Monday, according to a White House official.

Leave it to Rickie Fowler to find that brilliant combination of hydration, product placement and doing what the kids like

By Edward McAllister and David Lewis DAKAR/NAIROBI Mali's unexpected demand for the departure of U.N. peacekeepers may herald

A Greek news web site has published excerpts from the depositions of two survivors of Wednesday's deadly shipwreck off southwestern Greece

Prominent North Carolina civil rights leader Bishop William J. Barber II delivered his final sermon as the pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church as he retired after 30 years.

A man stabbed a pit bull to death in New York City’s Central Park after a verbal dispute with the dog’s owner

Three men face federal charges for allegedly vandalizing homes associated with two New Hampshire journalists, authorities said, in suspected acts of retaliation for a published article.

Triple-digit temperatures have prompted severe weather and another round of heat advisories across much of the southern United States