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Heat warnings in place until today
In Arizona’s largest metro area, Phoenix and surrounding communities flirted with a high of 115 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday.
The National Weather Service in Phoenix is forecasting 116 degrees for Monday, just two degrees off the record high for that date set in 1907, before temperatures drop a few degrees for the next three days.
In Nevada, the first excessive heat warning of the summer runs through Monday evening for the Las Vegas metro area.
Daytime cooling centers are open across the region. Elsewhere, the heat and severe weather remained a concern throughout the southeast.
Kansas shooting leaves 9 hurt
Police in Kansas say a shooting in a nightclub left seven people with gunshot wounds and an additional two victims hospitalized after being trampled as people rushed outside.
Wichita Police Lt. Aaron Moses says shots were fired just before 1 a.m. Sunday in the City Nightz nightclub. Moses says seven people were shot and two were “trampled” during the mass exodus out the club.
Moses says no one was killed, but one person was critically injured. All the victims were being treated at an area hospital.
Moses says shots were fired from at least four guns during the incident.
He says a person whom police believe was one of several shooters was arrested.
Prosecutor in Biden case denies claims
WASHINGTON — The federal prosecutor leading the investigation of President Joe Biden’s son Hunter is pushing back against claims that he was blocked from pursuing criminal charges in Los Angeles and Washington.
And the investigator denies retaliating against an IRS official who disclosed details about the case.
U.S. Attorney David Weiss in Delaware is responding in a letter to House Republicans.
Weiss is defending the lengthy investigation into Hunter Biden’s financial dealings that ended last month with a plea with the Justice Department that likely spares Biden from time behind bars.
Weiss also is making clear that the case is an active criminal investigation and there’s little else he can divulge at this time.
Biden’s trip meant to boost NATO
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will head to Europe at week’s end for a three-country trip intended to bolster the international coalition against Russian aggression as the war in Ukraine extends well into its second year.
The main focus of Biden’s five-day visit will be the annual NATO summit, held this year in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Also planned are stops in Helsinki, Finland, to commemorate the Nordic country’s entrance into the 31-nation military alliance in April, and Britain, for a meeting with King Charles III.
The NATO meeting comes at the latest critical point in the war.
Ukraine’s president says counteroffensive and defensive actions are underway as troops start to recapture territory in the southeastern part of the country.
California hotel workers on strike
LOS ANGELES — Thousands of hotel workers in Southern California walked off the job Sunday, demanding higher pay and better benefits in what the union is calling the largest strike in its history.
Cooks, room attendants, dishwashers, servers, bellmen and front desk agents at hotels were picketing outside major hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
Members of Unite Here Local 11 voted 96 percent in favor of authorizing the strike. The union is seeking better wages, improved health care benefits, higher pension contributions and less strenuous workloads.
A coalition of hotels accused union leaders of canceling a bargaining session and refusing to come to the table.
Man convicted of price-gouging
CHICAGO — An Illinois businessman has been convicted of price-gouging on N95 masks during the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that 62-year-old Krikor Topouzian of Winnetka was convicted Thursday in federal court following a bench trial.
He could face up to a year in prison when he is sentenced Oct. 10. Prosecutors accused Topouzian of buying about 80,000 N95 masks in March and April of 2020 for about $5 per mask and then selling them for about $20 per mask.
The masks had been labeled “scarce materials” during the pandemic as part of the Defense Production Act.
He boasted about making as much as $80,000 per day.
Tornado in Canada wrecks homes
DIDSBURY, Alberta — A tornado that struck near a
town in the Canadian province of Alberta has wrecked homes and killed livestock, but caused no serious injuries.
Environment and Climate Change Canada issued a warning at 1:50 p.m. local time Saturday for a tornado near Didsbury, a town located about 145 miles south of Edmonton, Alberta.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they received reports of a large tornado in the county along a major highway. The tornado’s width was one-half mile to 1.2 miles.
Police said numerous homes were damaged but Cpl. Gina Slaney said there were no known injuries.
UK police have new expanded powers
LONDON — New, and expanded powers for U.K.
police have taken effect.
The measures include targeting activists who stop traffic and building works with protests.
Authorities have repeatedly condemned environmental protest groups including Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion.
The groups have staged high-profile protests at the busiest highways and roads. Police in the U.K. will have powers from Sunday to move static protests.
Critics argue the toughened laws are a threat to the right to protest. But U.K. officials say the measures aim to stop “disruption from a selfish minority.”
Authorities say that protesters found guilty of “tunnelling” or digging underground tunnels to obstruct the building of new infrastructure works could face three years in prison.