Newsif Blog

The LA County Sheriff's Department has insisted a huge SWAT response and armed standoff with a carjacker was not related to the ambush of deputies in Compton over the weekend - despite huge speculation it was - as tensions continue to mount across the city. Deonte Murray, 36, was arrested Tuesday over an alleged carjacking that resulted in a high speed police chase and the suspect holing up in a trash bin at the back of an apartment building in Lynwood, authorities said late Tuesday.   The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said there is no known connection between Murray and the gunman who shot two deputies in the head at the weekend, after conflicting reports from law enforcement sources and a massive police presence including helicopters, bomb squads and K-9 units drafted in to hunt for the suspect.  Two officers - 31-year-old Claudia Apolinar and her 24-year-old male colleague – were shot multiple times as they sat inside their patrol car outside the Metro Blue Line st

The Federal Trade Commission is preparing a possible antitrust lawsuit against Facebook after a year of investigating whether the social media giant is stifling competition through acquisitions, according to a source.   The consumer trust watchdog is gearing up to file a suit against the social media giant before the end of 2020, an unidentified person familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal.  The FTC, headed by Republican chairman Joseph Simons, has spent more than a year carrying out a probe into Facebook's practices and whether the company has broken antitrust laws and used its dominant position in the tech sector to stamp out competition. News of a possible suit comes after founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was brought before the commission last month to testify under oath for two days as part of the investigation. The Federal Trade Commission is preparing a possible antitrust lawsuit against Facebook after a year of investigating whether the social media giant is

Joe Biden was mocked by viewers last night after pulling out his phone and playing the megahit 'Despacito' at a Hispanic campaign event in Florida.  A grinning Biden played the song into a microphone after being introduced by its Puerto Rican-American singer Luis Fonsi at the event in Tampa, as the Democratic nominee seeks Hispanic backing in one of the chief battleground states.  But critics accused Biden of 'pandering' and mocked him for playing a song whose title translates as 'Slowly' - evoking Donald Trump's nickname 'Slow Joe'.  Trump himself shared an edited video in which the song was changed to 'F*** The Police' by N.W.A., with the president asking: 'What is this all about?'.    Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden played 'Despacito' on his phone as he took to the stage to deliver a speech at a Hispanic Heritage Month kickoff event in Kissimmee, Florida Trump retweeted a doctored version of the video that playe

A young father faces a fight to walk again after shattering both his legs in a horrific balcony fall while on a 'dream holiday' with his family.  Jamie Moylan, from Birkenhead, Merseyside, was rushed to hospital in the early hours of Saturday morning after plunging to the ground while saying goodbye to friends in Turkey. The 26-year-old was given emergency surgery to both legs after doctors reportedly told his partner Mia Hodgson they were going to amputate his foot. Jamie Moylan, pictured with his partner and daughter, faces a fight to walk again after shattering both his legs in a horrific balcony fall while on a 'dream holiday' in Turkey But Jamie is still in Turkey and it is not yet known whether he will ever walk again after the accident. Now his family are frantically trying to raise enough money to pay the hospital bills and to organise to bring him home for more treatment. Mia told the Liverpool Echo that the couple, and their three-year-old daughter Amaya, were

A population of giant scorpions reaching up to 9cm is exploding in regional Victoria. La Trobe University researchers discovered hundreds of burrows while scouring the Mallee region of Victoria.  Ecologist Heloise Gibb said researchers were shocked at the size and density of the scorpions they spotted while searching the area at night. Scorpions reaching up to 9cm in length have been found in regional Victoria Researchers found up to 600 scorpion burrows per hectare in parts of north-western Victoria 'They are definitely big in size, up to 9cm in length' Dr Gibb told Daily Mail Australia. 'They are not a new species, but we've just found that they're bigger and there's a lot of them with a really high density in the area.' The scorpions were found by researchers using UV-proof glasses and torches, as they glow with a fluorescent light in the dark. 'They glow in white, blue and green and are very bright,' Dr Gibb said. 'It makes them really ea

A second wave of Covid-19 in Britain would not be nearly as bad as the first because we are better at containing and treating the virus now, Government officials have claimed. The experts believe a combination of local lockdowns, social distancing measures and medical breakthroughs would substantially reduce both the death rate and number of cases. Hopes are also high that vaccines could be available as early as next spring, with a 'long pipeline' of promising jabs being trialled. In addition, early signs from the southern hemisphere indicate that any flu outbreak will be less severe than in previous years. It comes as top Belgium scientist Jean-Luc Gala said Belgium's rising infection rate is 'completely normal' and ongoing lockdown measures should be relaxed. He told French-language newspaper La Dernière Heure that 'people no longer suffer from the coronavirus, but measures to stop it.' He said people should not worry as the virus 'is circulating in a

New South Wales has recorded 10 new cases of coronavirus overnight. Six of those cases are within returned travellers completing their mandatory hotel quarantine, while four are linked to previously known cases. One of the newly diagnosed cases attended a JB Hi-Fi store in Penrith Plaza, in western Sydney, on Sunday September 13 between 4pm and 4.30pm. Any customers who visited the store at the same time has been urged to remain on high alert and seek testing immediately if any symptoms develop. Three of the new cases are linked to a staff member at Concord Emergency Department, and include a student who attended Blue Mountains Grammar School while infectious late last week. One of the newly diagnoses cases attended a JB Hi-Fi store in Penrith Plaza, in western Sydney, on Sunday September 13 between 4pm and 4.30pm A household contact of that student also tested positive, but had not recently attended school. Another close contact of the student has also since tested positive to COVID-1

To order a print of this Paul Thomas cartoon or one by Pugh, visit Mailpictures.newsprints.co.uk or call 0191 6030 178.  

Security guards labelled by Victoria's Chief Medical Officer Brett Sutton as the 'wrong cohort' for the state's bungled hotel quarantine scheme refused to sanitise their hands over religious beliefs.  As the public inquiry into Victoria's disastrous COVID-19 hotel quarantine efforts approaches its conclusion, it was revealed Dr Sutton was oblivious as to who was actually guarding infected travellers within the designated Melbourne hotels.  In an email sent by Dr Sutton to Federal Chief Health Officer Brendan Murphy on June 22, Dr Sutton expressed his concern about the private security firms, which by then had been linked to an outbreak.  Security guards working at Victoria's hotel quarantine had refused to use hand sanitiser over religious beliefs Professor Brett Sutton at the Hotel Quarantine Inquiry on Wednesday  An email sent by Dr Brett Sutton revealing his concerns upon learning that private security guards had led to an outbreak of COVID-19 'We've