Two people were shot dead and another wounded by a Rhode Island man accused of peeping into a teenage girl’s bedroom window. James Harrison, 52, was later shot and killed by police after a chase and standoff with law enforcement in Johnston County, according to authorities. Officials say that Harrison’s 83-year-old mother, Janet Harrison, who lived with him in Johnston, was one of the victims, reported WPRI. Also fatally shot was his neighbour, 44-year-old Thomas “TJ” May, while his 15-year-old daughter was shot and taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Police say they were initially called to the May family home on Tuesday night after a report of loud banging noises outside a bedroom window. Harrison was allegedly seen outside the window with a ladder, and Mr May sought to file a trespass order to keep him off the family’s property, reported WPRI. The police were unable to make contact with Harrison and returned at 7.30am the following morning to speak to him. The officer said that when he arrived at the home he was the suspect driving away making a hand gesture “consistent with shooting a firearm”, the police stated. The teenage girl was then found on the front lawn suffering from gunshot wounds, and May was found in the garage of the property with a gunshot wound to the head. When police entered Harrison’s home they found that his mother had also been killed. Harrison was spotted two hours later at a cemetery and following a police chase he crashed his vehicle into a large rock. He then got out of the vehicle and pointed a firearm at officers who shot him dead. Rhode Island State Police and the state’s Attorney General’s Office will be investigating the officer-involved shooting. Read More Texas grand jury indicts man in fatal shooting of rapper Takeoff Texas parents fret over Winnie the Pooh being used to teach kids about school shootings U.S. cities reporting fewer killings hope crime strategies promote peace this summer Family Feud star faces trial for allegedly shooting wife to death years after joking about marriage on show Eleven-year-old boy shot by police after mother asked him to call 911 about domestic disturbance

The US condemned Kosovo’s government following clashes between police and ethnic Serbs that broke out when protesters tried

Alex Murdaugh’s accomplice and friend Corey Fleming is now cooperating with the FBI over the convicted killer’s scheme to steal millions of dollars from his dead housekeeper’s family. Fleming, a longtime friend and law school classmate of the disgraced legal scion, accepted a plea deal with federal prosecutors this week over his involvement in Murdaugh’s financial fraud schemes. He appeared in federal court in South Carolina on Thursday where he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. At the court hearing, Fleming confessed that he had taken part in one of Murdaugh’s financial schemes – and admitted that he knew what he was doing when he did so. Prosecutors allege that Murdaugh orchestrated a financial fraud scheme which included stealing almost $4.3m from the estate of Gloria Satterfield and its insurance carriers. Satterfield was the Murdaugh’s longtime housekeeper who died in a mysterious “trip and fall” accident at the prominent family’s 1,700-acre Moselle estate in South Carolina in 2018 – the same property where Murdaugh shot dead his wife Maggie and adult son Paul three years later. Following her death, Murdaugh recommended that Satterfield’s sons hire his friend and fellow attorney Fleming to represent them in bringing a wrongful death claim against him, so that they could collect from his homeowner’s insurance policies. The insurance companies ultimately settled the estate’s claim for more than $4m – two payments of $505,000 and $3.8m. Murdaugh and Fleming then stole the settlement money for themselves and the housekeeper’s sons didn’t get a dime. Much of the stolen money was funneled through a fake “Forge” bank account which sought to imitate the legitimate and totally unrelated business Forge Consulting. In accepting the plea deal, Fleming admitted that he helped Murdaugh steal the insurance money meant for Satterfield’s sons and has agreed to cooperate with the FBI and US Attorney’s office in the case. He has also agreed to submit to polygraph tests and to turn over his law licences in South Carolina and Georgia. He faces up to five years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000 when he is sentenced at a later date. He was released Thursday on a $25,000 unsecured bond. He is also facing separate state charges over the Satterfield case. Ronnie Richter, an attorney representing the Satterfield family, welcomed Fleming’s guilty plea. “This was a good day for justice because this is the first time anyone associated with the Satterfield case has pleaded guilty to anything,” he said. Fleming’s plea deal comes the same week that Murdaugh was indicted on a slew of new charges over their scheme. The South Carolina Attorney General’s Office announced on Wednesday that a federal grand jury had returned a 22-count indictment against the 54-year-old disgraced legal dynasty heir, charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. The convicted killer was already awaiting trial on more than 100 financial crimes charges over a decade-long multi-million-dollar fraud scheme where Murdaugh stole millions from his law firm and legal clients – a scheme he confessed to orchestrating when he took the stand at his murder trial. But, now he has been hit with a further 22 charges for what prosecutors describe as three separate schemes to steal money from personal injury clients he represented through his law firm. As well as the scheme with Fleming, prosecutors allege that Murdaugh ran a second scheme from at least September 2005 to September 2021, where he allegedly routed and redirected clients’ settlement funds into his own pocket including by directing his law firm colleagues to pay the funds directly into his personal account. In the third scheme, Murdaugh and his banker Russell Laffitte allegedly conspired from July 2011 to October 2021 to commit wire fraud and bank fraud. Laffitte, who was CEO of Palmetto State Bank at the time, acted as Murdaugh’s personal banker and as a custodian or conservator for some of his law firm clients. Laffitte then conspired to defraud those clients, with the two men diverting the money to themselves. Laffitte was convicted in November of financial fraud charges in connection to Murdaugh’s alleged white collar fraud schemes. Murdaugh faces up to 30 years in prison on the highest charges of wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in the new indictment. His other financial charges already amount to more than 700 years in prison if convicted. Even without the financial charges, Murdaugh will already spend the remainder of his life in prison after he was found guilty on 2 March of murdering his wife Maggie and son Paul on the family’s Moselle property back on 7 June 2021. Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison the day after the verdict. Satterfield, who worked for the family for more than 20 years, was found at the bottom of the steps leading into the family’s home. She never resumed consciousness and died from her injuries three weeks later on 26 February. At the time, Murdaugh claimed that she had tripped over the family’s dogs and hit her head, and her death was regarded as an accidental fall. However, her death certificate cited her manner of death as “natural” and no autopsy was ever carried out. Questions have been swirling around Satterfield’s death for the past few years as the string of deaths, stolen money and corruption surrounding Murdaugh came to light. In September 2021, an investigation was reopened into her death and investigators said they planned to exhume her body. Satterfield’s death isn’t the only mystery death tied to the South Carolina legal dynasty. A homicide investigation has also been opened into the 2015 death of Stephen Smith, who was found dead in the middle of a road in Hampton County. The openly gay 19-year-old had suffered blunt force trauma to the head and his death was officially ruled a hit-and-run. But Smith’s family have long doubted this version of events, with the Murdaugh name cropping up in several police tips and community rumours. At the time of his murder, Paul was also awaiting trial for the boat crash death of Mallory Beach. Read More Alex Murdaugh indicted on 22 new financial fraud charges for stealing money from dead housekeeper’s family Audio reveals Alex Murdaugh blaming dogs for housekeeper’s death – after he walked back claim five years later Stephen Smith’s body is exhumed after murder near Murdaugh home – as family offers $35k reward to catch killer

The day after the state’s Republican governor signed the ban into law, a judge in South Carolina has blocked a measure outlawing abortion at roughly six weeks of pregnancy. Abortion rights advocates and civil rights groups filed a lawsuit moments after Governor Henry McMaster announced his signature on the bill. South Carolina’s latest law – which could extend the sweeping restrictions and outright bans on abortion care across the entire US South, and threaten legal access to care for millions of Americans – is nearly identical to a bill that was blocked by the state Supreme Court last year. The decision on Friday means the state’s abortion regulations revert to previous rules that allow for abortion care up until about 20 weeks after after fertilization. “The status quo should be maintained until the Supreme Court reviews its decision,” Judge Clifton Newman said. “It’s going to end up there.” His decision on 26 May comes just four months after the state’s Supreme Court permanently struck down a similar measure, which the court determined ran afoul of the state’s constitution. Restrictions on abortion care “must be reasonable and it must be meaningful in that the time frames imposed must afford a woman sufficient time to determine she is pregnant and to take reasonable steps to terminate that pregnancy,” Justice Kaye Hearn wrote in the majority opinion on 5 January. More than a dozen states, mostly in the South, have outlawed most abortions or severely restricted access within the year after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which revoked a constitutional right to abortion care that was affirmed by the decision in Roe v Wade for nearly half a century. South Carolina remains the only state south of Virginia without severe restrictions or outright bans on abortion care past the 12th week of pregnancy. Most of those states have moved to ban abortion in nearly all cases with limited or no exceptions. Last year, lawmakers in South Carolina failed to adopt an anti-abortion law that would ban nearly all abortions in the state, but a six-week ban took effect shortly after the Supreme Court’s ruling on 24 June. In a statement following the governor’s signature on the latest six-week ban, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre lambasted Republican lawmakers who are “dismantling women’s rights across the South, putting their health and lives in jeopardy. “ South Carolina’s ban will cut off access to abortion for women in the state and those across the entire region for whom South Carolina is their closest option for care,” she added. This is a developing story Read More North Carolina Republicans approve 12-week abortion ban as sweeping restrictions spread across US South Senator who voted for anti-trans bill that passed by one vote admits she wasn’t paying attention From the Civil War to today's mattress sales, Memorial Day is full of contradiction GOP leaders in Kansas back off threat to sue Democratic governor over education funding DeSantis pushes past embarrassing campaign start, outlines travel schedule for early state visits

Ron DeSantis suffered yet another technical glitch as he continued to plough ahead with his 2024 campaign run following Wednesday’s disastrous Twitter Spaces launch. The Florida governor appeared on Newsmax on Thursday night to speak about his priorities as he hopes to get the Republican vote for the presidential race. But, during his appearance – and in the midst of an attack on the NAACP’s travel advisory – the show suffered a technical problem, with the screen freezing. This marks the second time in two nights that Mr DeSantis’ campaign launch has been plagued by tech issues after his hotly-anticipated launch fell flat on Wednesday night. The Florida governor, 44, chose to announce his presidential run in an unconventional way – in a Twitter Spaces event with Elon Musk and David Sacks. But, the event got off to a rocky start when it crashed several times and the sound repeatedly dropped out. Since then, he has been going on the rounds of rightwing media, taking aim at his main GOP rival Donald Trump. In one interview he said, if elected president, he would consider pardons for those charged with January 6 offences, including Mr Trump. Read More DeSantis v Disney: Why Florida’s governor is at war with the Mouse Ron DeSantis says he will consider pardon for Trump if elected DeSantis for President? This is what the polls say His 2024 launch was laughable but DeSantis could be more dangerous than Trump

As competition builds for the Republican Party 2024 presidential nomination, Donald Trump’s legal woes also continue to mount as a maintenance worker has made a shocking claim about the handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. The worker recalled helping to move boxes into a storage room just one day before the Department of Justice visited Mar-a-Lago seeking the papers, reported The New York Times. The worker didn’t know what the boxes contained at the time. The timing of the move is suspicious and a sign that obstruction may have taken place, according to The Washington Post, which also reports a “dress rehearsal” of such a move took place even before a subpoena for the boxes was issued. This comes as Mr Trump’s attorneys have called for a meeting with Attorney General Merrick Garland, in what marks the clearest sign yet that an indictment could be on the horizon over the classified documents case. Mr Trump also appeared in court by video for a second hearing in his criminal hush money case on Tuesday, and E Jean Carroll has amended an outstanding defamation case against the former president – while Ron DeSantis entered the 2024 race. Read More Donald Trump Jr says his father has the ‘charisma of a mortician’ in bungled attack video Trump staff moved boxes of documents at Mar-a-Lago day before DoJ visit, report says Who are the Oath Keepers, extremist group whose leader has been sentenced to 18 years for Capitol riot

The war in Ukraine could last for “decades” with long periods of fighting interspersed by truces, one of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s most senior aides has predicted. “This conflict will last a very long time, most likely decades,” former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said during a visit to Vietnam. “As long as there is such a power in place, there will be, say, three years of truce, two years of conflict, and everything will be repeated,” the deputy chairman of Putin’s powerful security council continued, while reiterating Moscow’s claim that Ukraine is a Nazi state. On the frontline, Russia’s Wagner mercenaries have started handing over positions in Bakhmut to the regular Russian military, five days after claiming to have completed the capture of the devastated eastern Ukrainian city. But Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said Wagner has only handed over positions on the city’s outskirts and “inside the city itself Wagner fighters remain”. Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has said he is ready to return his forces to Bakhmut if the regular army is struggling. Read More Russia has started deploying tactical nuclear warheads to Belarus, says Lukashenko As the Ukraine war spills into Russia, a dangerous new front is about to explode The Russians out for revenge on Putin Roger Waters ‘dresses as SS officer’ and projects Anne Frank’s name onto stage during gigs in Germany

Five French soldiers have been charged with failing to assist 27 people who drowned trying to cross the Channel in the worst small boats disaster on record. A judicial source said nine people in total had been placed in custody over the tragedy and five were formally charged. The AFP news agency reported that those charged included three women and two men on duty at the Channel rescue centre at the time. The disaster sparked a row between the UK and France as each side tried to blame the other for failing to rescue the deceased. It took the UK and French coastguards 12 hours to respond following the first Mayday call. Call records released to lawyers by the French authorities as part of an investigation into the disaster found that the first distress call to the French coastguard was logged shortly before 2.15am on 21 November 2021. The boat overturned at around 3.15am. Shortly afterward, at 3.30am, a passenger reported that some of the group, mostly Iraqui kurds, were in the water. The French authorities replied: “Yes, but you are in English waters, Sir.” Those on board made more than 20 distress calls between 3.40am and 7.30am at sunrise. At around 2.00pm the rescue services arrived at the scene and all but two of the group had drowned or died of exposure. Throughout the course of the night the UK coastguard, responsible for logging emergency calls and coordinating search and rescue missions in the Channel, continued to deny that the dinghy was in British waters, repeatedly telling the passengers to call the French coastguard. The records from France suggest that the boat entered British waters at 2.30am. The charges were welcomed by a spokesperson for Utopia 56, an organisation representing the migrants. "We can only be delighted that things are progressing from a criminal point of view," said Flore Judet. According to AFP those in custody were from the French rescue service Cross Gris Nez, in charge of rescues in the Channel. Cross Gris Nez declined to comment. The Paris court in charge of the investigation was not immediately available for comment. Read More Migration by numbers: What’s really driving the surge in people coming to the UK? Immigration is a great British success story – politicians should tell the truth about it Scarred by war, Ukrainian children carry on after losing parents, homes and innocence Asylum backlog at record high as charities brand human cost of delays staggering Labour leads Tories in poll on immigration as figures set to show migration rise Starmer would stop lower wages for overseas workers used to fill UK jobs

The UK government is planning to deport thousands of asylum seekers per month from next year, a person

Climate change is killing the elderly in Japan and the government wants to stop it. An average of

Donald Trump Jr called his father a “mortician” in an apparent slip of tongue while attempting to ridicule Ron DeSantis’s glitch-ridden 2024 presidential campaign on Twitter. Former president Donald Trump’s eldest son was mocking Mr DeSantis for his troubled campaign launch on Twitter Spaces, which was marred by technical glitches. He played an audio clip of what he claimed was “8 minutes of silence” during Mr DeSantis’s campaign launch and echoed his father’s description of it as a “DeSaster”. “It was a hashtag disaster. It took a long time for Elon Musk to barely figure out how and what was going on. It took two charismatic billionaires like Elon Musk and David Sacks to carry DeSantis through this where he basically read an op-ed about what he is gonna do,” he said. However, while trying to boost his father’s candidacy, he unintentionally referred to Mr Trump as a mortician – an undertaker whose job is to prepare dead bodies and organize funerals. “Trump has the charisma of a mortician... And the energy that makes Jeb Bush look an Olympian,” he said, referring to the doomed 2016 Republican campaign of Jeb Bush, son of former president George HW Bush. Donald Trump Jr continued his rant without realizing his error. He went on to mock the Florida governor, saying the “failed” launch was indicative of future failures. He said Mr DeSantis would regret running against his father. The clip of his gaffe went viral, receiving over a million views and prompting a trolling spree. “Someone needs to tell him he got it all wrong if he’s trying to hype his father,” a Twitter user said. Another user Allene Lewis quipped: “This is rich! For the first time in Donny He’s life he spoke truth about daddy. “It was that extra bump that Jr did right before recording this,” one said. “There’s no F******g way you make a mistake like this unless your subconscious WANTS you to make a mistake like this,” another said. Ron DeSantis’s hotly-anticipated 2024 campaign launch fell flat on Wednesday night when it was marred by technical glitches. The Florida governor, 44, chose to announce his presidential run in an unconventional way – in a Twitter Spaces event with Elon Musk and David Sacks. But, the event got off to a rocky start when it crashed several times and the sound repeatedly dropped out. Read More Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement Trump news – latest: New allegations in Mar-a-Lago boxes case as Trump attorneys ask for Garland meeting Florida mom who tried to ban Amanda Gorman’s book has ties to far-right groups Ron DeSantis news – live: DeSantis floats pardoning Trump and Jan 6 rioters after ‘train wreck’ Twitter launch

Material collected in a three-day hunt for evidence over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann will be sent to Germany for testing, the Portuguese police have confirmed. Officers concluded their search of the Algarve reservoir on Thursday, where key suspect Christian Brueckner reportedly visited “some days” after the three-year-old vanished on May 3, 2007. Using sniffer dogs and a tractor-based tree-cutter, authorities have been scouring Barragem do Arade reservoir in the Algarve - around 31 miles inland from where the McCanns were staying. On Tuesday, officers acting on “credible information” were said to be seeking any fragments of clothing and old rags that could be related to her disappearance, as reported by the Daily Mail. A source close to the investigation told Reuters there was nothing tangible to report while German prosecutor Christian Wolters played down hopes, adding: “Of course, there is a certain expectation, but it is not high.” Brueckner has denied any involvement and is currently behind bars in Germany for raping a 72-year-old woman in the same part of Portugal. Read More Madeleine McCann police give update as they end search of Portugal reservoir Police flatten area of woodland and dig holes in Madeleine McCann searches Who is Christian Brueckner? Madeleine McCann suspect and the accusations against him Madeleine McCann case: Timeline of the missing child’s disappearance