US gun violence: Counselling ties high suicide incidence to easy firearm access in homes
The risk of death by suicide in the United States is higher when guns are easily accessible in a home, research finds. However, keeping firearms unloaded and locked away in homes resulted in a decreased suicide and homicide incidence in the past five years, according to the findings. This was...
Biden’s defence: We gave Afghans a chance to shape their future, but they lacked the will to fight for it
US President Joe Biden said he stands “squarely behind” his decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan in remarks prompted by the rapid takeover of the country by Taliban forces in recent days. Speaking to reporters assembled in the East Room at the White House, Biden set out the strategic...
How overmedication may lead to 150,000 premature deaths, 4.6m inpatients and cost US taxpayer $62 billion
When the risk of the medications outweighs their potential benefits, patients are in danger of significant health consequences. Every day, 750 older adults are hospitalised due to serious side-effects from their medications, including falls, allergic reactions and internal bleeding. With each additional medication prescribed, the risk of an adverse reaction...
US records more firearm-related deaths than any other wealthy nation, 2020 was deadliest in 20 years
Maeve Wallace has studied maternal health in the United States for more than a decade, and a grim statistic haunts her. Five years ago, she published a study showing that being pregnant or recently having had a baby nearly doubles a woman’s risk of being killed. More than half of...
Against the wall: Judge allows Democrats to peek into Donald Trump’s tax records for two years
A federal judge has granted House Democrats access to two years of former President Donald Trump’s tax records. The Democratic lawmakers investigating Trump will be able to see his personal financial records from 2017 and 2018, US District Court Judge Amit Mehta of Washington ruled on Wednesday. House Democrats will...
Fate: Three brothers killed by different trains, on different days in one week
Two brothers were killed after being hit by a train as they mourned their other brother, who died in the same spot. Pablo Tiquiram Us, 29, and Jose Chilambalam Tiquiram Us, 20, died in Charlotte, North Carolina, after the light rail train struck them on Tuesday. In a sad irony,...
Biden terms social media public enemies that kill people, subvert democracy and invade privacy
The federal government’s campaign to reform internet platforms dramatically escalated this week. The Surgeon General cited disinformation as a public health menace. The White House press secretary called on Facebook to remove 12 accounts that may be responsible for as much as 65 per cent of the Covid disinformation on...
Years-old dirt in US spy agency resurfaces as investigation into Capitol insurrection starts
A long-percolating conflict between two prominent alumni of the CIA’s secretive internal watchdog office has burst into public view, creating a headache for the House’s investigation of the January 6 Capitol riot. David Buckley is now the top Democratic staffer on the select committee investigating the insurrection. But 11 years...
US military changing war strategies after a war game exposed its vulnerability
The US military put its warfighting strategy to the test in a wargaming exercise last fall and it did not go well, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General John Hyten has said and multiple defence outlets reported the feeling of distraught. “Without overstating the issue, it failed...
President Biden, PM Kadhimi seal deal to end US combat mission in Iraq
President Joe Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Mtafa al-Kadhimi have sealed an agreement to formally end the US combat mission in Iraq by the end of 2021, but US forces will still operate there in an advisory role. The agreement comes at a politically delicate time for the Iraqi government...
