FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida: McDonald’s and a franchise holder are at fault after a hot Chicken McNugget from a Happy Meal fell on a little girl’s leg and caused second-degree burns, a jury in South Florida found in a case reminiscent of the famous hot coffee lawsuit of the 1990s.
A second jury will determine how much McDonald’s USA and its franchise owner, Upchurch Foods, will pay the child and her mother, the South Florida SunSentinel reported.
Thursday’s decision was split, with jurors finding the franchise holder liable for negligence and failure to warn customers about the risk of hot food, and McDonald’s USA liable for failing to provide instructions for safe handling of the food. McDonald’s USA was not found to be negligent, and the jury dismissed the argument that the product was defective.
“Our sympathies go out to this family for what occurred in this unfortunate incident, as we hold customer safety as one of our highest priorities,” McDonald’s owner-operator Brent Upchurch said in a statement. “We are deeply disappointed with today’s verdict because the facts show that our restaurant in Tamarac, Florida did indeed follow those protocols when cooking and serving this Happy Meal.”
Jurors heard two days of testimony and arguments about the 2019 episode that left the 4-year-old girl with a burned upper thigh.
Philana Holmes testified that she bought Happy Meals for her son and then-4-year-old daughter at a drive-thru window at a McDonald’s in Tamarac, near Fort Lauderdale, the SunSentinel reported. She handed the food to her children, who were in the back seat.
After she drove away, her daughter started screaming. The mother testified she didn’t know what was wrong until she pulled over to help the girl, Olivia Caraballo, who is now 7, the newspaper reported. She saw the burn on the girl’s leg and took photos on her iPhone, which included audio clips of the child’s screams.
The sound of the girl’s screams were played in court. The child, who is autistic, did not testify, the newspaper reported.
Lawyers for McDonald’s noted that the food had to be hot to avoid salmonella poisoning, and that the nuggets were not meant to be pressed between a seat belt and human flesh for more than two minutes.
The girl’s parents sued, saying that McDonald’s and the franchise owner failed to adequately train employees, failed to warn customers about the “dangerous” temperature of the food, and for cooking the food to a much higher temperature than necessary.
While both sides agreed the nugget caused the burns, the family’s lawyers argued the temperature was above 200 degrees (93 Celsius), while the defense said it was no more than 160 degrees (71 Celsius).
The case is likely to stoke memories of the McDonald’s coffee lawsuit of the 1990s, which became an urban legend of sorts about seemingly frivolous lawsuits, even though a jury and judge had found it anything but.
A New Mexico jury awarded Stella Liebeck, 81, $2.7 million in punitive damages after she was scalded in 1992 by hot coffee from McDonald’s that spilled onto her lap, burning her legs, groin and buttocks, as she tried to steady the cup with her legs while prying the lid off to add cream outside a drive-thru.
She suffered third-degree burns and spent more than a week in the hospital.
She had initially asked McDonald’s for $20,000 to cover hospital expenses, but the company went to trial. A judge later reduced the $2.7 million award to $480,000, which he said was appropriate for the “willful, wanton, reckless” and “callous” behavior by McDonald’s.
McDonald’s found liable for hot Chicken McNugget that burned girl
https://arab.news/8hkj7
McDonald’s found liable for hot Chicken McNugget that burned girl
- A second jury will determine how much McDonald's USA and its franchise owner, Upchurch Foods, will pay the child and her mother
- Thursday's decision was split, with jurors finding the franchise holder liable for negligence and failure to warn customers about the risk of hot food
Five things to know about the St Catherine monastery in Egypt's Sinai
- The monastery was founded by Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the sixth century at the biblical site of the burning bush at the foot of Mount Sinai
- According to UNESCO, "the entire area is of immense spiritual significance" to Christianity, Islam and Judaism
CAIRO: Nestled in the Sinai mountains, the ancient St Catherine's Monastery has been the centre of recent tensions after an Egyptian court ruled last week that it sat on state-owned land.
Dating back to the sixth century BC, the UNESCO World Heritage Site is the world's oldest continuously inhabited monastery, attracting hundreds of pilgrims and tourists every year.
Following warnings from the authorities and Orthodox Church in Greece that the ruling threatens the monastery's status, a government delegation is travelling from Athens to Cairo on Wednesday to discuss the situation.
The monastery was founded by Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the sixth century at the biblical site of the burning bush at the foot of Mount Sinai, where Moses was believed to have received the 10 commandments, according to the world's three major monotheistic religions.
It was named for Saint Catherine of Alexandria, whose remains are housed in the church, along with rare iconography and manuscripts.
It is headed by the Archbishop of Mount Sinai and Raithu, under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
According to UNESCO, "the entire area is of immense spiritual significance" to Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
The organisation says the monastery is "the property of the Greek Orthodox Church and belongs to the Archdiocese of Sinai".
Last Wednesday, an Egyptian appeals court ruled that the monastery "is entitled to use" the land and the archaeological religious sites dotting the area, all of which "the state owns as public property".
The ruling, only a brief of which has been published by Egyptian media, has drawn criticism from the Orthodox patriarchates in Athens, Jerusalem and Istanbul.
Archbishop Ieronymos, head of the Greek Orthodox church in Athens, warned the monastery's property could now be "seized and confiscated".
Egypt has defended the court ruling, saying it "consolidates" the site's sacred status.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Egypt was "fully committed to preserving the unique and sacred religious status of Saint Catherine's monastery", in a phone call with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Mitsotakis meanwhile emphasised the importance of "preserving the pilgrimage and Greek Orthodox character of the monastery".
The delegation from Athens is expected to lay out its position on Wednesday.
According to Greece's state news agency, that position "is supported by a UNESCO document, which proves that Egypt had acknowledged in writing since 2002 that the ownership of the land and buildings belongs to the Greek Orthodox Church and the Archdiocese of Sinai".
Construction began in March 2021 in the Saint Catherine area, which includes the eponymous town and a nature reserve, for a government megaproject known as the 'Great Transfiguration' of Saint Catherine.
The project aims to bring upwards of a million tourists a year to the serene mountain village.
Its many construction projects include an events hall, hundreds of hotel rooms and a new residential area housing hundreds of units.
Observers say the project has harmed the reserve's ecosystem and threatened both the monastery and the local community.
According to a report by World Heritage Watch, the project has "destroyed the integrity of this historical and biblical landscape".
UNESCO in 2023 requested that Egypt "halt the implementation of any further development projects", conduct an impact evaluation and develop a conservation plan.
The government, which is campaigning for former tourism and antiquities minister Khaled al-Enany to head UNESCO from October, said in January that 90 percent of the project was complete.
The peaks and valleys around Saint Catherine attract large groups of hikers, peaking at 2,000 visitors to Mount Sinai in a single day last December, local authorities reported.
The area, 1.5 kilometres (one mile) above sea level, is particularly popular with both Egyptians and foreign tourists seeking a reprieve from overcrowded Red Sea resorts elsewhere in Sinai.
The area is home to the Jabaliya tribe, whose name derives from the Arabic word for "mountain".
Said to be the descendants of the Roman soldiers who came to guard the monastery in its early days, they maintain a close connection to Saint Catherine, with many working as tour guides today.
For decades, they have been calling for better infrastructure, including reliable water supply, emergency services and telecommunications coverage to improve their work and daily life.
According to World Heritage Watch, they are currently outnumbered by the thousands of labourers building the megaproject.
A falling tree in Venice injures a dozen people, including foreign tourists
MILAN: Foreign tourists were among a dozen people injured when a 50-year-old tree fell next to a bus stop in the Italian lagoon city of Venice on Monday, authorities said.
The oak tree fell on a group of people waiting in a shaded area at Piazzale Roma, the last stop for buses and taxis ferrying visitors to and from the lagoon city from the mainland, city officials said. It wasn’t immediately clear why the tree fell.
The most seriously injured was a 30-year-old Italian woman, who was sitting on a wall near the tree with her two small children when the tree fell, Italian media reported. The woman was in critical condition with abdominal injuries, while her children weren’t seriously injured and placed under psychological care, according to hospital officials.
Another Italian woman in her 50s also was in critical condition after suffering chest injuries.
A video from the scene showed the tree had snapped at the trunk, just above the roots.
“The tree was apparently healthy,” Francesca Zaccariotto, the city’s top public works official, told the news agency ANSA. She added that the tree was monitored along with others in the city, and there had been no signs indicating a possible collapse.
A 60-year-old American was under observation for a head injury, a 70-year-old American suffered facial injuries, and two tourists from Eastern Europe suffered multiple bruises. Four other Italians were slightly injured.
Strauss’ ‘Blue Danube’ is beamed into space as Vienna celebrates with a concert
- The European Space Agency’s big radio antenna in Spain beamed the waltz into the cosmos Saturday
- Operators aimed the dish at Voyager 1, the world’s most distant spacecraft more than 24 billion kilometers away
VIENNA: Strauss’ “Blue Danube” waltz has finally made it into space, nearly a half-century after missing a ride on NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft.
The European Space Agency’s big radio antenna in Spain beamed the waltz into the cosmos Saturday. Operators aimed the dish at Voyager 1, the world’s most distant spacecraft more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away. Traveling at the speed of light, the music was expected to overtake Voyager 1 within 23 hours.
The Vienna Symphony Orchestra performed the “Blue Danube” during the space transmission, which actually sent up a version from rehearsal. It’s part of the yearlong celebration marking the 200th birthday of Johann Strauss II, who was born in Vienna in 1825. The Strauss space send-off also honors the 50th anniversary of ESA’s founding.
Launched in 1977 and now in interstellar space, each of the two Voyagers carries a Golden Record full of music but nothing from the waltz king. His “Blue Danube” holds special meaning for space fans: It’s featured in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi film “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
Bee alert: US police warn after 250 million insects escape
- Roads in the region, which nestles the border with Canada and is just 30 miles from Vancouver, have been closed as bee experts help with the clean-up
LOS ANGELES, United States: A truck crash that set 250 million bees free has sparked warnings in the western US, with police telling people to avoid swarms of the stinging insects.
The accident happened in Washington state in the far northwest of the country, when a semi trailer carrying a load of hives overturned.
“250 million bees are now loose,” wrote Whatcom County Sheriff on its social media page.
“AVOID THE AREA due to the potential of bee escaping and swarming.”
Roads in the region, which nestles the border with Canada and is just 30 miles from Vancouver, have been closed as bee experts help with the clean-up.
While some beekeepers aim only to produce honey, many others rent out their hives to farmers who need the insects to pollinate their crops.
In Marseille, a shadow becomes art in Banksy’s latest street mural
- On Friday, the elusive British street artist confirmed the work by posting two images on his official Instagram account
MARSEILLE, France: The lighthouse appeared overnight. Painted on a wall tucked away in a quiet Marseille street, its beam aligned perfectly with the real-life shadow of a metal post on the pavement. At its center, stenciled in crisp white, are the words: “I want to be what you saw in me.”
Banksy had struck again.
On Friday, the elusive British street artist confirmed the work by posting two images on his official Instagram account — without caption or coordinates. Fans quickly identified the location as 1 Rue Félix Frégier, in the Catalans district of Marseille’s 7th arrondissement, near the sea.
Since then, crowds have gathered at the site. Tourists snap photos. Children point. Locals who usually walk past the building stop to take a closer look.
There is no official explanation for the phrase. But its emotional pull is unmistakable — a quiet plea for recognition, love or redemption. Some speculate it references a country ballad by Lonestar. Others call it a love letter. Or a lament. Or both.
The image is deceptively simple: a lone lighthouse, dark and weathered, casting a stark white beam. But what gives it power is the way it plays with light — the real and the painted, the seen and the imagined. The post in front of the wall becomes part of the piece. Reality becomes the frame.
Marseille’s mayor, Benoît Payan, was quick to react online. “Marseille x Banksy,” he wrote, adding a flame emoji. By midday, the hashtag #BanksyMarseille was trending across France, and beyond.
Though often political, Banksy’s art is just as often personal, exploring themes of loss, longing and identity. In recent years, his works have appeared on war-ravaged buildings in Ukraine, in support of migrants crossing the Mediterranean and on walls condemning capitalism, Brexit, and police brutality.
The artist, who has never confirmed his full identity, began his career spray-painting buildings in Bristol, England, and has become one of the world’s best-known artists. His mischievous and often satirical images include two male police officers kissing, armed riot police with yellow smiley faces and a chimpanzee with a sign bearing the words, “Laugh now, but one day I’ll be in charge.”
His work has sold for millions of dollars at auction, and past murals on outdoor sites have often been stolen or removed by building owners soon after going up. In December 2023, after Banksy stenciled military drones on a stop sign in south London, a man was photographed taking down the sign with bolt cutters. Police later arrested two men on suspicion of theft and criminal damage.
In March 2024, an environmentally themed work on a wall beside a tree in north London was splashed with paint, covered with plastic sheeting and fenced off within days of being created.
Despite the fame — or infamy — at least in Marseille, not everyone walking past noticed it. Some didn’t even know who Banksy was, according to the local press.
On Instagram observers say this Marseille piece feels quieter. More interior.
And yet, it is no less global. The work arrives just ahead of a major Banksy retrospective opening June 14 at the Museum of Art in nearby Toulon featuring 80 works, including rare originals. Another exhibit opens Saturday in Montpellier.
But the Marseille mural wasn’t meant for a museum. It lives in the street, exposed to weather, footsteps and time. As of Friday evening, no barriers had been erected. No glass shield installed. Just a shadow, a beam and a message that’s already circling the world.
