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More than a dozen people nationally have been charged with threatening election workers by a special Justice Department unit

By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON A federal judge sentenced former far-right Proud Boys leader Joseph Biggs to 17

People who use marijuana were found to have higher levels of lead and cadmium in their blood and urine, in comparison to those who do not use weed, according to a new study. The team of researchers at Columbia University analysed data from blood and urine samples collected between 2005 and 2018 as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a program conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics. They looked at samples of 7,254 people who said they had used marijuana in the last 30 days. Participants were examined for levels of heavy metals and 358 people were found to have 27 per cent higher blood lead levels than those who said they didn’t use either marijuana or tobacco. There were also 22 per cent higher levels of cadmium in those marijuana users according to the research, which was published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Researchers also found that the urine samples showed similar results. High levels of cadmium can cause stomach irritation, abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, according to Better Health. Researchers found that although tobacco is the main source of cadmium exposure in the general population, the study showed similar exposure levels among cannabis users. “For both cadmium and lead, these metals are likely to stay in the body for years, long after exposure ends,” Tiffany Sanchez, an author of the study and an assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health said to NBC News. As cannabis plants can absorb heavy metals from soil - the new findings demonstrate that heavy metals in cannabis plants can also wind up in the human body. “Previous studies have measured metals in marijuana plants, products, or marijuana smoke,” study authors have said. Lead exposure can be particularly harmful to children and pregnant women. In adults, chronic exposure to lead increases the risk of high blood pressure, heart problems and kidney damage. “Our study wasn’t able to tease apart whether or not self-reported cannabis users were using medical or recreational cannabis, so we can’t say definitively if medical cannabis users specifically had higher metal levels,” Sanchez said as reported by CNN. “This is something that should be evaluated in future studies.” Heavy metals bind to parts of your cells that prevent your organs from doing their job, according to the Cleveland Clinic and symptoms of heavy metal poisoning can be life-threatening and can cause irreversible damage. “Immunocompromised people, such as those going through chemotherapy, may be at greater risk from metal exposure or from other common cannabis contaminants like molds. However, this is very much an understudied area,” Sanchez added. On Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services recommended that the Drug Enforcement Administration ease restrictions on marijuana by moving it from Schedule I drug to Schedule III. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that the agency has responded to President Joe Biden’s request “to provide a scheduling recommendation for marijuana to the DEA.” “We’ve worked to ensure that a scientific evaluation be completed and shared expeditiously,” he added. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement that HHS had recommended that marijuana be moved from a Schedule I to a Schedule III controlled substance. “HHS has done the right thing,” Schumer said. “DEA should now follow through on this important step to greatly reduce the harm caused by draconian marijuana laws.” Rescheduling the drug would reduce or potentially eliminate criminal penalties for possession. Marijuana is currently classified as a Schedule I drug, alongside heroin and LSD. According to the DEA, Schedule I drugs "have no currently accepted medical use in the United States, a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision, and a high potential for abuse." Additional reporting from agencies Read More Biden health agency recommends classifying marijuana as lower-risk, opening potential for major policy changes Seth Rogen reveals why he smokes marijuana ‘all day, every single day’ Rugby star Ugo Monye: Boarding school shaped my career and my personality Queen Latifah calls for more ‘inclusive healthcare’ for people with obesity As Simon Cowell shares positive therapy experience, how can it help even if you aren’t in crisis?

Whale hunting is set to return in Iceland despite hopes the temporary ban would remain. Iceland‘s minister of food, agriculture and fisheries, Svandís Svavarsdóttir, announced on Thursday that this summer’s temporary ban on whaling would be lifted in a move international marine conservation organisation OceanCare has described as ‘disappointing’, A suspension on whaling was put in place by the Icelandic government in June, set to expire in August 2023, due to animal welfare concerns. It came after monitoring by Iceland’s Food and Veterinary Authority on the fin whale hunt found that the killing of the animals took too long based on the main objectives of the Animal Welfare Act. An investigation found that around 40% of hunted whales did not die instantly, with an average time to death of 11.5 minutes. Iceland’s Food and Veterinary Authority found that two whales had to be shot four times. One of the whales took almost an hour to die, while the other took almost two hours. In anticipation of the ban being lifted, two Icelandic whaling vessels left port yesterday to resume whale hunting, OceanCare said. The organisation said they are “gravely disappointed” that the ban has been lifted, and claimed the decision could mean that there will now “be a race to kill as many whales as possible in the remaining weeks of reasonable hunting weather” before whale hunting season ends in mid-September. “It is deplorable that this cruel practice has been allowed to resume,” said Nicolas Entrup, OceanCare’s director of International Relations. “We are bitterly disappointed by the decision which entirely goes against the clear facts that are available to the government and people of Iceland. We can almost be certain that the Icelandic whalers will not meet the imposed requirements. “This cruel, unnecessary and outdated practice needs to stop,” he said. Meanwhile, animal protection charity Humane Society International called Svavarsdóttir’s decision “devastating” and “inexplicable”. Ruud Tombrock, HSI’s executive director for Europe, said: “It is inexplicable that minister Svavarsdóttir has dismissed the unequivocal scientific evidence that she herself commissioned, demonstrating the brutality and cruelty of commercial whale killing. “There is simply no way to make harpooning whales at sea anything other than cruel and bloody, and no amount of modifications will change that. Whales already face myriad threats in the oceans from pollution, climate change, entanglement in fish nets and ship strikes, and fin whale victims of Iceland’s whaling fleet are considered globally vulnerable to extinction. “With the need for whale protection so critical. this is a devastating rejection of a once-in-a-generation opportunity to end the slaughter at sea. “There is a new shameful entry in the conservation history books―Iceland had a chance to do the right thing and it chose not to.” Iceland’s whaling season runs from mid-June to mid-September. Annual quotas authorise the killing of 209 fin whales, but none were killed between 2019-2021 due to a dwindling market for whale meat. Some 148 fin whales were killed in 2022 during whaling season. Iceland, Norway and Japan are the only countries in the world that have continued whale hunting in the face of fierce criticism from environmentalists and animal rights’ defenders. OceanCare said the lifting of the ban calls into question the announced phase-out of whaling over the next few years. A decision about Iceland’s self-allocated whaling quota for the next several years is expected towards the end of this year. In 2009, several countries including the UK, the US, Germany, France, Portugal and Spain condemned Iceland’s whaling policy. Japan, which is the biggest market for whale meat, resumed commercial whaling in 2019 after a three-decade hiatus. Read More Iceland suspends annual whale hunt due to ‘animal welfare concerns’ – and may never bring it back Humpback whale spotted off Cornwall coast in rare sighting Humpback whale found on beach died after entanglement in creel lines, tests show Italy's Meloni visits Naples suburb where 2 girls were allegedly raped by youths, pledges crackdown Putin’s forces pushed back by Ukraine counteroffensive after ‘largest’ drone strike Zelensky makes long-range weapon claim after strike deep inside Russia

Up to 9in (23cm) of rain and life-threatening flash flooding could hit parts of eastern North Carolina.

Who is General Brice Nguema, the man who overthrew the president he was supposed to protect?

Ohio State coach Ryan Day has chosen quarterback Kyle McCord as the starter for Saturday's season opener at Indiana

Under heavy security, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni on Thursday visited and pledged to improve safety at a Naples suburb where drug traffickers operate largely with impunity, organized crime wields influence and two girls were allegedly raped repeatedly by local youths. Meloni spent a few hours at the invitation of the local parish priest in the Green Park neighborhood in the town of Caivano, where the girls, cousins ages 11 and 12, were allegedly assaulted. The trip was an occasion for Meloni to show that her nearly year-old right-wing government is tough on crime and attentive to people living in largely neglected areas of the country. After meeting with the Rev. Maurizio Patriciello, a school principal and other local figures, Meloni promised that an abandoned, rundown sports complex, the suspected site of some of the alleged rapes, would be repaired and operational by spring. She said 10 million euros ($11 million) have been allocated to repair and make operational the complex, which includes swimming pools and tennis courts. The work will be carried out by the Italian army's engineering corps, and that once the complex reopens, it will be run by police athletic organizations. Meloni decried the alleged rapes as “an inhuman act, an infamous crime that has really shocked everyone." She said there probably “are more stories like this than those that surface in crime news.” Still, “we won't limit ourselves to dutiful condemnation and dutiful solidarity,'' said Meloni, whose far-right Brothers of Italy party has been leading in opinion surveys since her election nearly a year ago. She said her visit to Green Park makes it clear that “no-man's lands cannot exist in Italy." Meloni pledged a crackdown against “criminality, illegality, drugs" and said the number of police and local justice officials will be increased. The Camorra crime syndicate, whose illicit businesses include drug trafficking, holds significant influence in Naples and its suburbs, which include some of Italy's most impoverished areas. “I believe she (Meloni) will keep her word," about the sports center's renaissance, Patriciello said. Residents have complained for years that drugs are openly sold in the neighborhood's squares and streets, even as children pass by on their way to school or play. After the alleged rapes came to the attention of authorities, the cousins were placed in the temporary custody of caregivers while investigators determine if their parents were aware of their whereabouts during the days of the attacks. In 2013, a 6-year-old girl was killed by being thrown from a terrace of one of Green Park's rundown apartment buildings, allegedly by a pedophile who had abused her. The suspect was the companion of her mother's friend, according to Italian news reports. A year earlier, a 3-year-old boy was killed in a fall from an upper-story window of the same building in unclear circumstances. Meloni cited both children's deaths. The Caivano area includes farmlands that were contaminated a decade ago by the Camorra's multibillion-dollar racket involving disposing toxic waste, mainly from industries in the wealthy north that asked no questions about where the garbage went, so long as it was disposed at a fraction of the costs of legal removal. Many parents then marched in protest, fearing that their children's health was compromised from eating local produce. Ahead of Meloni's arrival, there were fears of big protests over her government's drastic slashing of a minimum-income assistance program, which was begun several years ago by populist former Premier Giuseppe Conte. The protests didn't materialize. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Partner of Italy PM Meloni faces backlash over rape comments: ‘Avoid getting drunk’ Italian leader tones down divisive rhetoric but carries on with pursuit of far-right agenda Putin’s forces pushed back by Ukraine counteroffensive after ‘largest’ drone strike

Young-adult romance would seem like a fertile genre for Netflix's periodic adventures in interactivity, allowing viewers to make decisions for the protagonist and even select the guy they'd like to see her pick. Yet "Choose Love" strains the storytelling to fit the gimmick, in a special that does its central character no favors by making her race through the trio of suitors suddenly in her life.

Critics are pushing to reform ethics standards for the nine justices of the US Supreme Court.

VIDEO: Large bull rides shotgun in old police car. Gets pulled over.

Named for the trees that once covered the islands, Cedar Key, Florida, is located about four miles out in the Gulf of Mexico and connected to the mainland by a single road that crosses over four small, low bridges.