Republican presidential candidate Will Hurd said Sunday he was working toward "hitting all the requirements" to qualify for next month's first GOP primary debate in Milwaukee. But when it came to the requirement to pledge support for the eventual GOP nominee -- even if that is former President Donald Trump -- Hurd said, "I can't lie to get access to a microphone."

Members of the Rastafari religion and political movement have for decades been persecuted and imprisoned for their ritualistic use of marijuana

The city of Birmingham, Alabama was preparing to bury a fallen hero after a firefighter was killed during a shooting at the fire station. Jordan Melton, 29, died following the attack which also wounded fellow firefighter Jamal Jones. Crime Stoppers of Metro Alabama was offering a reward of $45,000 for tips leading to an arrest. Melton and Jones were on duty on 12 July at Fire Station 9 in the Norwood area of Birmingham when shots were reported around 8.30am, police said in a release. It appeared the shooting had occurred near the station bay doors. Both firefighters were transported to hospital. Mr Jones was listed in serious condition, according to a fire department statement, but survived. Mr Melton, who had graduated from the academy one month earlier, died from his injuries on 17 July. “You could not be around Recruit Melton and not smile,” Battalion Chief Stan Frierson, from Birmingham Fire & Rescue Service, tweeted. “I am known as a person who doesn’t smile often, but every time we spoke, it would end wit (sic) him saying, Chief, smile. I want [to] tell anyone you could not be around him and not smile.” A public visitation for Mr Melton will be held on Tuesday followed by a public viewing and funeral on Wednesday in Birmingham. “Know that we’re exhausting every resource to find answers and justice for Jordan’s loved ones,” Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin tweeted last week. “Jordan paid the ultimate price for his service to our city, we will not let that sacrifice be in vain.” Police told WVTM13 that the attack was targeted and the suspect(s) had a personal conflict with one of the firefighters. Read More This Alabama town disbanded its police force over a racist text. Here’s what happened next Fargo police officer's funeral scheduled; 2 other officers remain hospitalized after shooting Six suspects arrested for Alabama birthday party shooting that left four people dead and 32 injured Alabama church shooter gets life for killing 3 at potluck Firefighter killed while battling cargo ship fire is posthumously promoted during funeral

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Sharon Horgan has opened up about having post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after her eldest daughter was diagnosed with meningitis as a baby. The Irish actor, who will star in the forthcoming BBC One drama Best Interests with Michael Sheen, said she drew on the experience in order to play her character in the new series. Horgan’s daughter survived the life-threatening illness, but it left an “aftershock” on her mother. “We were so unbelievably lucky and we know that,” the Bad Sisters star told The Times in a new interview, published today (Sunday 11 June). “But the aftershock – there’s definitely PTSD and I dealt with any of my second daughter’s illnesses with blind panic because you always think, ‘If it can happen, why couldn’t it happen again?’” Both of Horgan’s daughters, Sadhbh and Amer, are now teenagers. She shares them with her ex-husband, Jeremy Rainbird. Best Interests tells the story of Nicci (Horgan), a mother who sues the NHS after doctors decide her Marnie (Niamh Moriarty) should be taken off life support after her condition, muscular dystrophy, deteriorates. Horgan stars opposite Sheen, who plays Nicci’s husband Andrew. In the show, Andrew is torn between his love for Marnie and his unwillingness to support his wife’s case. The friction between Nicci and Andrew shows that they “had a real relationship that has difficulties”, Horgan said. “When things get really, really bad, the accusations are there, a certain amount of finger-pointing, which happens anyway, just even in normal parenting,” she explained. After her divorce from Rainbird in 2019, Horgan said the adjustment to co-parenting made her doubt if she was a good mother. During an appearance on Desert Island Discs in 2020, she told host Lauren Laverne: “I was fun mum for years. I entirely thought that was my role but that changes when you co-parent. “Everything changes and you take on a lot more roles and I am much more practical than I was, and I think that is a positive thing.” She continued: “It had some dips in the middle where I thought, ‘Oh, that thing I thought I was, which was a good mother, I am not entirely sure about’. “When you bring anything like that into your kid’s life it’s tricky, when you turn the roles upside down, but it balances out and everything eased back.” Read More Shapewear is booming, and body image experts are worried: ‘It’s really dangerous’ Chris Hemsworth thanks wife Elsa Pataky for her ‘forgiveness’ Kelis addresses Bill Murray dating rumours for the first time Sharon Horgan opens up about ‘aftershock’ after daughter’s meningitis Jamie Foxx’s rep addresses conspiracy Covid vaccine left actor ‘paralyzed and blind’ Debate sparker over parent who wouldn’t give her daughter any birthday cake

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Following New York City Mayor Eric Adams' announcement last week that the city will bus some migrants to hotels in nearby counties temporarily, officials in Orange County filed two lawsuits on Friday attempting to stop the plan -- even as some migrants have already arrived.

The stones and fireworks flew towards the police from the hands of protesters, and it was not long before vehicles were ablaze – acrid black smoke drifting into the air and mixing with the tear gas released into the crowds by officers. “This is war”, said one protester as he loaded his pockets from a flower bed in preparation for the advancing police. These were the latest clashes in a spate of violence stretching into a third evening in the wake of a teenager shot dead by police during a traffic stop in the Paris suburb of Nanterre. The officer involved in the shooting of 17-year-old Nahel M is facing preliminary charges of voluntary homicide and was placed under arrest, as President Emmanuel Macron struggles to contain spiralling public anger over the killing. There have been more than 180 arrests, with around 40,000 officers deployed across France on Thursday evening to quell any further clashes, with around 5,000 in the Paris suburbs alone. Local authorities in Clamart, about five miles from central Paris, imposed a nighttime curfew until Monday. Valerie Pecresse, who heads the greater Paris region, said all bus and tram services were halted after 9pm as people prepared for more violent protests. “It's millions of euros of public service gone up in smoke, it's millions of public money from working-class neighbourhoods,” Ms Pecresse said of the clashes. “It's irresponsible, it's wrong, and it has to stop.” The afternoon began with the largely peaceful march – with thousands participating – in honour of the French-Algerian teenager, led by his mother Mounia. That was in stark contrast to the clashes across the previous two nights, where fires were set and official buildings like town halls were attacked. As for the march, Nahel’s mother was leading the crowd from the roof of a rented van when the procession came to a halt at the Place Nelson Mandela in Nanterre – just metres away from where her son was shot – when the tear gas rolled in. She later told broadcaster France 5 that she doesn’t resent the whole police force - just the officer who fired the lethal shot that killed her son. "I don't blame the police," Mounia said, before adding that the officer "didn't have to kill my son". A police presence had been notably absent throughout the 90-minute ”marche blanche” for Nahel on Thursday afternoon, but the crowd’s chants were directed at them: “No justice, no peace”. When the lines of officers finally appeared, those mourning Nahel’s death finally had a target for their anger. There had been no signs of violence before the first canisters of tear gas dropped into the crowd, but as soon as the clouds began to billow, dozens of protesters retaliated with fireworks pointed in the direction of armoured police cars. Loose concrete was thrown at nearby buildings, smashing their glass facades, while a nearby digger was set alight. Protesters scrawled “Vengeance for Nahel” across buildings and bus shelters. The unrest has spread to other French cities, from Toulouse in the south to Lille in the north, as frustrations over police violence erupted in scenes reminiscent of the Paris riots of 2005. Then, unrest convulsed France for three weeks and forced then-president Jacques Chirac to declare a state of emergency. That wave of violence erupted in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois and spread across the country following the death of two young people electrocuted in a power substation as they hid from police. Two officers were acquitted in a trial 10 years later. This time the spark was the shooting of Nahel during Tuesday's morning rush hour. He initially failed to stop after the Mercedes AMG he was driving, with two passengers inside, was spotted in a bus lane. Two police officers caught up with the car in a traffic jam. When the car made to drive off, one officer fired at close range through the driver's window. Nahel died from a single shot through his left arm and chest, Nanterre public prosecutor Pascal Prache said. He added: "The public prosecutor considers that the legal conditions for using the weapon have not been met". Lawyers for Nahel's family have called the killing "an execution". A view shared by Green party leader Marine Tondelier who said that "what I see on this video is the execution by police of a 17-year-old kid, in France, in 2023, in broad daylight". The officer has acknowledged firing a lethal shot, the prosecutor said, telling investigators he wanted to prevent a car chase, fearing he or another person would be hurt after the teenager allegedly committed several traffic violations. The lawyer for the charged officer, Laurent-Franck Lienard, told French media: "Having devoted his life to protecting people and ensuring the law is respected, he is now being detained for having had to use his firearm as part of his job." Nahel – who was too young to own a full driving license in France – was known to police for previously failing to comply with traffic stop orders, Mr Prache said. Police initially said one officer had shot at the teenager because he was driving his car towards him. That version was quickly contradicted by a video circulating on social media. The video shows two police officers beside a Mercedes AMG car, with one shooting at the driver at close range as he pulled away. Nahel was an only child raised by his single mother, who is studying for an electrician’s certificate, according to French media. He had also joined a community rugby project. The lawyers for his family said he was “well liked” locally, while his grandmother Nadia called him a “good, kind boy”. Tuesday's killing was the third fatal shooting during traffic stops in France so far in 2023, down from a record 13 last year, a spokesperson for the national police said. A figure that was noted by some of the placards in the march. There were three such killings in 2021 and two in 2020, according to a Reuters tally, which shows the majority of victims since 2017 were Black or of Arab origin. President Macron has called the killing “unforgivable” but at an emergency meeting to discuss the crisis on Thursday he called the attacks on public buildings and other violence “totally unjustifiable”. “The professionals of disorder must go home,” the interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, said, speaking from the northern town of Mons-en-Baroeul, where several municipal buildings were set alight. He said while there is no need yet to declare a state of emergency – a measure taken to quell weeks of rioting in 2005 – he added: “The state’s response will be extremely firm.” He also said that scores of police had been injured throughout the clashes with protesters. Residents around Nanterre are preparing for a long night on Thursday, with parking spaces emptying around the centre as people fear their car being set alight. Several burnt-out vehicles still line the road from last night, with authorities unable to clear it in time before today’s trouble broke out. Several fires were already burning by late-evening – with one engulfing the ground floor of a building, where a bank is located – and the sound of sirens could be heard all over Nanterre. “The whole sky is black,” says one protester, who asked not to be named. “The police caused this mess.” Read More French suburbs are burning. How a teen's killing is focusing anger over police tactics France police shooting latest: Paris commune implements overnight curfew after officer charged with homicide Riots in Paris: Where are the French riots and why are they happening? French suburbs are burning. How a teen's killing is focusing anger over police tactics Who is Nahel? The teen shot dead by police in France France’s highest administrative court says the soccer federation can ban headscarves in matches

Thunderstorms and heavy rain have caused flooding in Wrexham, leading to some “structural damage” to the Racecourse Ground, home of Wrexham AFC. A hospitality suite on Sunday 18 June was cleared of diners enjoying a Father’s Day meal due to the flooding. “Wrexham AFC can confirm the 1864 Suite was evacuated during the third sitting of today’s Father’s Day meals at the Racecourse Ground,” the statement read. “In the wake of the torrential rain that hit the region late this afternoon, some structural damage has resulted in a large leak inside the Macron Stand reception area.” The statement added that all diners were safely evacuated. Read More Moment Rob Burrow and his children cross finish line of Father’s Day fun run Wyndham Clark knows he made late mother ‘proud’ with US Open win Dias ‘threw up’ in Grealish’s mother’s bag during treble celebrations, Ederson says