Author: Lewis Fletcher

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Pamela Smith remembers vividly the last time she saw her only son alive. It was 3:18 a.m. on July 3, 2016, in Fresno, California, and 22-year-old Jackson Smith was lying motionless on a table in an emergency room while a nurse performed chest compressions. Earlier that night, he had taken an oxycodone pill laced with fentanyl, and then he stopped breathing. Within seconds of his mother entering the emergency room, he died. Since then, Smith has dedicated her life to fighting the fentanyl crisis. This year, that has meant advocating for some of the more than…

US households’ balance sheets might not be as healthy as experts think. That’s what Barclays argues in a recent note, at least. Household finances have been strong for years after US government took an aggressive response that shielded Americans from the worst impact of Covid-19 lockdowns and left them flush with cash. Now, while companies are still hiring and there are few obvious signs of strain, Americans’ monthly personal savings have started to lag: On closer look, “middle class balance sheets [now] look weaker than broad metrics suggest,” write Barclays strategists in a recent note. They continue: As might be…

Hues of pink, purple and green streaked the skies in North America overnight in a dazzling display of Northern Lights. Weather officials said the aurora, which was seen from California to New York, as far south as Arizona and north into Canada, was “fairly unusual”. The event was categorised as a “severe geomagnetic storm” and received the second highest rating in strength, a G4. The strongest would be a G5. A less severe storm is expected this weekend. “We got more of an impact than we expected,” Bill Murtagh, programme co-ordinator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Space Weather…

As if caught in an ever more powerful vortex, US treasury secretary Janet Yellen was this week wrenched this way and that over the issue of how much support the government and financial authorities should provide to wealthy uninsured bank depositors. On Tuesday, she told a meeting of bankers the government was ready to extend the bailout of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank depositors, some of them holding tens of millions of dollars in their accounts, to such depositors at other banks if necessary. This was correctly recognized as an implicit guarantee by the government that it was backing…

The shocking twists and turns from The White Lotus may have faded from memory slightly as new shows have become the latest water cooler moment (looking at you, The Last of Us) but that doesn’t mean the series about pretty awful rich people isn’t still making waves. As Jennifer Coolidge continues to soak up award after award for her portrayal of “derpy” Tanya, Airbnb is keeping the interest going with the offer to stay at one of the amazing villas featured in season two of the Sicilian-set dramedy. Villa Tasca has been listed on the home-sharing site and those familiar with the show will recognise…