Swedish police investigate three unexplained deaths at an electric vehicle battery plant (2024)

A leading international rights group says Iraqi authorities in Baghdad and the administration in the semi-autonomous northern Iraqi Kurdish region have arbitrarily detained and deported Syrian refugees home to their country. The New York-based Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that it has documented cases in which Iraqi authorities deported Syrians even though they had legal residency or were in the process of being registered with the U.N. refugee agency. Syrians have also reported being arrested in raids at their workplace or on the streets, and, in two cases, at residency offices while trying to renew their permits.

Thursday

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Killer Mike is expected to avoid charges over a physical altercation that led to his arrest at the Grammys earlier this year after the rapper recently completed community service. The Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office says Thursday that Killer Mike “successfully completed the office’s hearing process, including a community service requirement that was imposed.” In February, he was escorted in handcuffs by police at Crypto.com Arena and detained. Mike, who real name is Michael Render, says an “over-zealous” security guard contributed to the altercation soon after he won three awards for him at the Grammys’ Premiere Ceremony.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson says he expects the state to put together an aid plan by the end of the year to try to keep the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals in Missouri. Parson said Thursday that Missouri's plan likely would require legislative approval, but he doesn't anticipate calling lawmakers into a special session before his term ends in January. Missouri is seeking to counter Kansas, which approved a plan last week to try to lure the teams across the state line with bonds that would finance up to 70% of the cost of new stadiums.

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 27, 2024--

A Florida man who is a past winner of the “American Ninja Warrior” TV reality show has been sentenced to just over 10 years in federal prison for enticing an underage girl to travel across state lines so they could have sex. Andrew Drechsel will also have to serve 15 years of supervised release after his prison term is completed, and must pay the victim $100,000 in restitution. He pleaded guilty to the enticement charge and a charge of possessing child sex abuse material in June 2023. Drechsel won season 11 of the NBC television show. He was living in Hamden, Connecticut, at that time, while the victim lived in New Jersey.

Maryland is looking to help people with a history of marijuana-related offenses to get jobs in the state’s legal cannabis industry. Gov. Wes Moore announced the new workforce development program on Thursday. It comes just a week after he signed an executive order pardoning people for more than 175,000 cannabis-related charges. The Cannabis Workforce Development Program will be offered for free to eligible applicants as the statee looks to reduce barriers to employment. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis starting July 1. The state will offer training to people interested in the jobs, but it won't be mandatory.

A teenager in Ohio accused of making a hit list and planning a mass killing at a high school near Cincinnati has pleaded guilty to reduced charges of inducing panic. Prosecutors on Thursday dropped a charge against the 14-year-old of conspiracy to commit aggravated murder. He had been charged in February. Prosecutors say the teen exchanged text messages with a Colorado man about gassing the school and killing students and staff. The county public defender’s office said shortly after the teen’s arrest that he had significant mental health challenges and that he was impressionable. The man was not charged.

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev has turned down a government proposal to lead the country’s delegation to NATO’s July summit in Washington D.C. His press office said Thursday that among the reasons behind the refusal is that he was not consulted while it worked out the official position of the country and its commitments regarding the war in Ukraine. The decision comes on the heels of heated debates between pro-Russian and pro-Western parties in Bulgaria about whether Radev, as the commander-in-chief of the military, should represent the country at the NATO summit. Radev has often been criticized by political opponents for his Kremlin-friendly position in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Emergency officials have ordered an evacuation after a freight train derailed in suburban Chicago. WGN-TV reports the train derailed in the village of Matteson on Thursday morning. No injuries have been reported. Workers are trying to determine whether any hazardous materials have leaked from the train. Officials ordered residents within a mile of the incident to evacuate. A message on the village's Facebook page warns people to plan to for a “long-term” evacuation and take medication and supplies with them when they leave. WLS-TV reports the train is from the Canadian National Railway Company. Messages The Associated Press left for village officials and Matteson Police Chief Michael Jones seeking more details weren't immediately returned.

LONDON, U.K., June 27, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — To mark the first anniversary of its launch, the Old Vine Registry held a One-Year-On webinar for the wine trade, media and old-vine enthusiasts. The hosts, Old Vine Registry Manager, Alder Yarrow, and co-founder of The Old Vine Conference,…

ATLANTA — When Kevin Costner believes in a project that nobody else does, he has funded it himself. Sometimes, he’s hit it out of the park as in 1990′s Oscar winning film “Dances with Wolves.” Sometimes, he whiffs as in 1997′s often mocked “The Postman.”

A federal bankruptcy judge has stopped an effort by the parents of a boy killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting to begin collecting on some of the $50 million they won in a lawsuit against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin won a defamation lawsuit in Texas against Jones in 2022 over his claims that the 2012 shooting that killed 26 people was a hoax. Other victims' relatives won more than $1.4 billion in a similar lawsuit in Connecticut. Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston said Thursday that Lewis and Heslin can't continue collection efforts in a Texas state court because a federal bankruptcy trustee is liquidating Jones' assets, including his media company.

DALLAS — Sen. Ted Cruz hosted a field hearing Wednesday in Dallas to discuss deepfake revenge p*rn and his new legislation tackling the issue.

No injuries reported after train derails in Chicago suburb; workers look for possible hazardous materials leak.

He’s the guy who messed with Usain Bolt. He’s the guy who was crying behind the tinted sunglasses at the last Olympics when he won the gold medal. Andre De Grasse manages to stay under the radar most of the time, but has a knack for turning up big when the Olympics roll around. If someone, anyone, is going to put a stop to Noah Lyles and what, at times, feels like the American’s singlehanded quest to make athletics great again, it could very well be this 29-year-old Canadian, De Grasse. He is the defending champion at 200 meters.

A team of investigators led by former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch recommended Northwestern enhance its hazing prevention training in the wake of a scandal that rocked the school’s athletic department. Though the report released Thursday by the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP stated “the results of our review have been largely positive,” investigators found room for improvement when it came to preventing hazing during a nearly year-long review. Lynch and her team interviewed more than 120 people, including current and former student-athletes, non-athlete students, coaches, athletic administrators and staff, faculty, university administrators and trustees.

Fredis Beleris, an ethnic Greek politician jailed in Albania for vote-buying, says he hopes his election this month to the European Parliament will help boost the rule of law in Albania. Beleris told The Associated Press in an interview from prison that he would have preferred to serve as mayor of the southern Albania community he was elected to lead last year, before his arrest and conviction. His case has soured relations between Balkan neighbors Greece and Albania.

The Carolina Hurricanes said the governing body for PNC Arena has approved a development agreement to create a long-discussed mixed-use district around the arena. The project includes entertainment, retail and office space, as well as a music venue, apartments and a hotel. In a statement, the Hurricanes also said the Centennial Authority officially approved and signed the lease extension for the Hurricanes to remain at PNC Arena at least through the 2043-44 season. That extension was first agreed to last summer. That will jumpstart a $300 million project to upgrade the 25-year-old home to the Hurricanes and North Carolina State's men’s basketball team.

Tennessee investigators say the former Chattanooga police chief has been indicted on charges that she illegally registered to vote in the state and falsely filled out government documents. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigations said Thursday that a grand jury in Hamilton County handed down a 17-count indictment against Celeste Murphy this week. Murphy had been overseeing the Chattanooga Police Department since 2022 but resigned Wednesday. She turned herself in to a jail Thursday and was released on a $19,000 aggregate bond. Murphy has been under investigation since April after the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported conflicting residency claims on her tax forms in Georgia and voter forms in Tennessee.

Israeli authorities: 68 sick and injured children and their companions leave Gaza in first medical evacuation since May.

Albany Times Union. June 25, 2024.

A private school teacher who says she was fired after driving an 18-year-old student to get an abortion is suing New Hampshire’s Department of Education and officials she says falsely suggested she circumvented state law. The commissioner of education mentioned the teacher in an essay published in April, saying she allegedly took a student for an abortion without parental knowledge. But in a lawsuit filed Monday, the teacher says the student was 18 and thus not subject to New Hampshire's parental notification law. The teacher sued the commissioner and Education Department after her teaching license was revoked this month. She says her due process rights were violated and that the department is pushing a false narrative. The department declined to comment.

PHILADELPHIA — Members of Bryn Mawr College's Board of Trustees will meet with students this fall to discuss the school's endowment and investment strategies, the liberal arts college's outgoing president announced last week.

A Georgia appeals court has ruled a woman who was suffering from a psychotic break stemming from mental illness when she caused a fatal car crash can use an insanity defense at trial. That Michelle Wierson caused the wreck was not in dispute. But her lawyers said her mental state at the time absolves her of liability under Georgia law. Prosecutors wanted the court to bar Wierson from using an insanity defense. But if that defense was allowed, they wanted to introduce evidence they say shows she wasn’t taking all of her medication. The appeals court on Tuesday sided with Wierson on both issues.

NEW YORK — Jessica Biel stood by her man, Justin Timberlake, at the pop star’s Madison Square Garden show Tuesday night, following his DWI arrest in the Hamptons.

A giant sinkhole has swallowed the center of a soccer field in Illinois. Video shows the gaping hole taking down a large light pole and leaving a chasm at least 100 feet wide and up to 50 feet deep. The field at Gordon Moore Park in Alton, Illinois was built above an area where limestone is mined deep underground. No injuries were reported after the sinkhole opened Wednesday in an artificial turf soccer field at Alton’sGordon Moore Park. Security video shows a soccer field light pole disappearing into the ground along with benches and artificial turf. Alton Parks and Recreation Department's director, Michael Haynes, says the hole is estimated to be at least 100 feet wide and 30 feet to 50 feet deep. The park and roads around it are now closed indefinitely.

A Dutch beach volleyball player convicted and imprisoned eight years ago for raping an underage girl in Britain has qualified for the Paris Olympics. Steven van de Velde and partner Matthew Immers were one of two men’s teams from the Netherlands that qualified for the beach volleyball competition. Van de Velde was sentenced to four years in prison in Britain after being convicted in 2016 of having sex with an underage girl he reportedly got to know online. He says he will bear the consequences of the biggest mistake of his life. The sport's governing bodies say he has met all the requirements to compete at the Paris Games.

Kentucky will start taking applications Monday to sell, process or grow medical marijuana for the state program launching at the beginning of 2025. Doctors and advanced practice registered nurses also can begin applying for permission to certify patients who need the drug. Kentucky lawmakers passed legislation in 2023 to legalize medical cannabis for people suffering from a list of debilitating illnesses. Gov. Andy Beshear signed the measure into law. Since then, his administration has been working on regulations governing the program.

ATLANTA — Six people were arrested Thursday morning after blocking a Cobb County road in protest of the Israel-Hamas war, according to officials.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Anthony Borges now owns Nikolas Cruz’s name, according to his lawyer.

MIAMI — A system in the deep Atlantic has a growing chance of strengthening into a named storm over the weekend in the Caribbean, the National Hurricane Center said.

Man on trial for threatening to kill presidential candidates found dead as jury was deciding verdict, court filings say.

SEATTLE — Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell wants to quadruple the size of Seattle's official police alternative and make an additional 18 people available to respond to 911 calls that may not need an armed officer.

Two people were killed and five others injured during a gang-related shooting in Southern California’s high desert. The shooting occurred Wednesday and was announced by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department on Thursday. Deputies were called to the scene in the city of Lancaster shortly before 6 p.m. Wednesday for a reported gunshot victim. Deputies found two men with gunshot wounds, both of whom later died at the hospital. Authorities later discovered that the five other victims had been taken to the emergency room for gunshot wounds. The sheriff’s department did not provide additional details about why investigators believe the shooting was gang-related.

A New Hampshire man on trial for threatening the lives of presidential candidates last year has been found dead while a jury was deciding his verdict. A court filing said “the government has learned that the defendant is deceased.” The jury began weighing the case against 30-year-old Tyler Anderson of Dover on Tuesday after a trial that began Monday. A message seeking comment from Anderson’s lawyer was not immediately returned. Anderson had been indicted by a federal grand jury in December on three counts of sending a threat using interstate commerce. The U.S. Attorney’s office did not name the presidential candidates. When Anderson was arrested, a spokesperson for Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said that texts were directed at his campaign.

LOS ANGELES — Neil Young and Crazy Horse are taking a break from the road, canceling the remaining shows of their Love Earth tour.

George Mason has given Tony Skinn a one-year contract extension after a strong debut as men's basketball coach. The school announced the deal Thursday that ties him to the Patriots through 2028-29. Skinn's team won 20 games, the first time it reached that total in 13 years. Athletic director Marvin Lewis said the school was committed to Skinn and excited about the future under his leadership. Skinn thanked the school's administration and said he could not wait for next season to arrive to continue building on last year's success. The school did not announce financial terms.

Officials in Slovakia say a train collided with a bus in southern Slovakia, leaving at least four people dead and five injured. The deaths and injuries have been confirmed by Slovakia’s rescue service. Police said the accident took place shortly after 5 p.m. (1500 GMT) in the town of Nove Zamky. Video footage showed that the engine of the train was on fire.