US

The US Department of Justice has closed its investigation into the racist murder of Emmett Till (14). The black boy was murdered 66 years ago in Mississippi because a white woman said he touched her and made sexual innuendo.   His death gave impetus to the American civil rights movement. The woman, Carolyn Bryant Donham, said in an interview for a book that her statement was partly a lie. Because of those statements, the investigation into the murder was reopened in 2018, but justice has not proven the lies. The murder took place after Bryant Donham accused till of whistling at her. Later, the woman also said that Till grabbed her by the waist and made sexual comments. Her husband Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam kidnapped the boy. After beating and shooting him, they du...

The US Congress has avoided a government shutdown one day before the deadline. The US Senate on Thursday (69-28) voted in favour of a proposal to continue financing the federal government until at least February 18.   The proposal had already been approved by the US House of Representatives (221-212) earlier in the day. In October, the House of Representatives had approved an increase in the debt ceiling until December 3. Without an extension, a shutdown was threatened. As a result, the US government is close to limiting the total amount it can borrow. If the ceiling is not raised in time, the country will no longer be able to meet all its financial obligations. Then specific government departments would have to close.

Fox News reports that an American woman gave birth to a baby weighing no less than 6.4 kilograms earlier this month. "Finnley had a lot of attention in the hospital," said the mother, who had to process nineteen miscarriages in the past.   Flemish boys weigh on average about 3.45 kilos at birth. Finnley Patonai, a boy from Glendale, Arizona, weighed almost 3 pounds more. "My water broke when I stood on the scale with the gynaecologist," says mother Cary Patonai. "That's why my planned cesarean section was brought forward by a day. It was estimated that he would weigh 6.25 kilos." But that apparently wasn't enough for Finnley because his final birth weight would be 150 grams more: 6.4 kilos. It also measures no less than 60 centimetres. "He was already that big, and I also had almos...

A US Navy fighter plane crashed in Death Valley National Park on Monday, the Navy reports. The pilot was able to jump out of the plane and suffered minor injuries.   It concerns an F/1-18F Superhornet, which crashed on Monday. The pilot was treated at a Las Vegas hospital and released from the hospital Monday night.   The plane crashed in a remote area of the park. No one else was injured. The Navy will help clear the crash site.

Conservative radio host Phil Valentine from the American city of Nashville has died from the effects of the coronavirus. He regularly downplayed the vaccines and regularly spread fake news about the virus. Valentine was 61 years old.   Phil Valentine was a notorious vaccine doubter with a talk show on radio station 99.7 WWTN-FM in Nashville, Tennessee. He said about the corona vaccine, among other things: "I have a shallow risk of getting corona and dying from it if I get it. So why would I risk a heart attack or paralysis by getting vaccinated?" He was also a proponent of Ivermectin, an anti-parasite drug circulating in conservative circles as "the panacea against corona." On his show, he released a self-written parody of the Beatles song Taxman, called Vaxman. He makes fun of mas...