Category Archives: US News

Teenager pleas guilty to attacking California sea lion in viral video

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Tyler Muehl, 18, could face a year in prison for kicking marine animal four times on La Jolla coast

An 18-year-old California man has admitted he kicked a sea lion in a video that went viral recently – while referring to himself by the name of an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) competitor – and has pleaded guilty to a federal crime.

Tyler Muehl, of San Diego’s La Jolla neighborhood, faces up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine after acknowledging in court on Thursday that he violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act’s prohibition on harassment of wildlife, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

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Picasso print stolen from Milwaukee art gallery in 2018 found by landlord while cleaning apartment

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Torero print, one of 30 known to exist signed by Picasso, was stolen from Bill DeLind’s gallery in 2018

Bill DeLind thought the Picasso print that was stolen from his Milwaukee gallery in 2018 was gone forever. But then police called last week and asked him to look at an artwork that a local landlord found while cleaning out a vacant apartment.

DeLind immediately recognized the stolen Torero print, one of 30 known to exist signed by Picasso.

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Trump threatens to declare strait of Hormuz ‘territory of the United States’

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Seriousness of remark made in New York on Friday, and whether it signaled new policy ​position, not clear

Donald Trump has threatened to declare the strait of Hormuz as “a territory of the United States” as his administration struggles to conclude the war with Iran.

During a speech at a police academy on Long Island, New York, on Friday, the US president said he would “pretty soon” designate the waterway – a crucial chokepoint for global trade, through which about a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil supplies typically pass – a US territory.

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US Forest Service chief reportedly pressed staff for more support for wildfire near his ranch

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Michael Boren requested more aircraft for 7-acre Cabin Creek fire, some of which were diverted from other fires

Michael Boren, the US undersecretary of agriculture for natural resources and environment who oversees the US Forest Service, reportedly pressed agency staff last month to deploy more aircraft to a 7-acre (2.8-hectare) fire that was burning near his Idaho ranch, according to a Washington Post report on Friday.

The Cabin Creek fire in Idaho began on about 12 July as a result of an unattended campfire, and spread across several acres in Idaho’s Sawtooth national forest. By 15 July, the forest service said that the fire was 100% contained.

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American missionary kidnapped in Niger freed after nine months

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Kevin Rideout, who was abducted by unknown assailants in Niamey, said to be in good health and in care of US officials

An American missionary who was kidnapped in Niger in October has been released, his organisation has said.

Serving in Mission International said Kevin Rideout “is in good health in the care of US officials” and would soon be reunited with his extended family.

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BP to develop offshore gasfield in Venezuela with firms linked to Trump administration

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Move will be one of first large-scale foreign investments in country since US ousted leader Nicolás Maduro in January

BP has answered Donald Trump’s call for oil companies to help rebuild Venezuela’s fossil fuel industry with new plans to develop a large offshore gasfield.

BP will partner with two oil firms with close links to the Trump administration to develop the second phase of the Loran gasfield, in one of the first large-scale foreign investments in Venezuela since the US ousted its leader Nicolás Maduro in January.

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Ryanair window that passenger was partly sucked out of was broken by engine debris, report finds

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Fan blade broke off shortly after takeoff on 10 July flight from Greece to Germany, preliminary findings show

Broken engine parts were responsible for shattering a window on a Ryanair plane, causing a passenger to be partly sucked out mid-flight in July, US investigators have said.

A preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found an engine fan blade broke off shortly after takeoff on the 10 July flight from Greece to Germany shattering the window and damaging the fuselage.

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Luigi Mangione hearing fuels speculation of a guilty plea in federal case

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Mangione also faces separate state trial over killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan, due to start on 8 September

A hurriedly scheduled hearing for Luigi Mangione’s federal case in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is set for later on Friday morning, fueling speculation that he might plead guilty in these proceedings.

Mangione faces two stalking counts in his federal case, as well as murder and weapons charges in a separate New York state case. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases. Both the federal and state cases could lead to a life prison sentence.

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Three men executed on same day in US for the first time in 15 years

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Rare scheduling in Oklahoma, Tennessee and Alabama underlines the renewed appetite in US for state killings

Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez was put to death by the state of Oklahoma, in the first of three executions scheduled for Thursday in a rare triple procedure that underlines the renewed appetite in the US for state killings.

Just one hour later, Darrell Hines was put to death by the state of Tennessee, and at 6pm local time in Alabama, that state executed Jeremy Williams.

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Massachusetts teen accused of killing mother and brother used ChatGPT

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District attorney says Arjun Aravind, 17, used internet and AI to search for fantasy stories regarding killing of his family

A Massachusetts teenager accused of killing his mother and younger brother is being held without bail as authorities investigate a double-murder case that prosecutors say is connected to his use of ChatGPT.

Arjun Aravind, 17, appeared Thursday morning for his arraignment in Concord district court, where a not-guilty plea was entered on his behalf to murder and several additional charges.

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Kennedy Center board votes again to renovate building and inscribe Trump’s name on it – report

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The center has until next week to present plan to judge who had blocked earlier rehab and name change

The board of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington is said to have voted once again to move forward with Donald Trump’s controversial plan to temporarily shutter the building for substantial renovations, as well as to inscribe the US president’s name on the facade of its building, despite a federal order for his name to be removed from the signage.

The board – mostly handpicked, staunch allies of the president – voted “to close the Kennedy Center’s main building, while keeping a newer addition to the campus, known as the Reach, open for limited programming and to operate as an active memorial to John F Kennedy”, according to the New York Times, which was first to report the results.

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Judge dismisses Trump lawsuit that claimed Harvard failed to protect Jewish students

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Federal court rules administration failed to plausibly show ongoing violation of civil rights law

A US federal ⁠judge ⁠has dismissed ​the Trump administration’s lawsuit that ⁠claimed ​Harvard ‌University failed ‌to protect Jewish ‌and Israeli students from harassment in the aftermath of the war in Gaza.

In a ruling on Thursday morning, US district ‌judge Richard Stearns in ​Boston said the administration’s lawsuit – ⁠filed in March – failed to plausibly ​show ​an ongoing ​violation ‌of ​federal ​civil rights law on Harvard’s campus.

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Israeli troops force families from homes amid settler terror campaign in West Bank

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Former PM of Israel calls events ‘concerted and meticulous attempt at ethnic cleansing’ against Palestinians

Israeli troops have forced two Palestinian families to leave their besieged West Bank homes, the day after a top Israeli commander personally promised he would end a violent settler campaign to drive them out.

Israeli soldiers also took over eight other homes in Qusra early on Thursday, telling the village’s mayor, Abdul Azim Wadi, that the buildings were needed for a days-long operation to remove the settlers. They later relinquished six. Settlers still roam the village.

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Top Forbes editor reportedly fired after receiving $6m from business associate

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Randall Lane left his job last month after accepting money from founder of firm that does business with magazine

The top editor of Forbes left his job last month and was reportedly dismissed for accepting $6m from the founder of a firm that does business with the magazine.

The New York Times reported this week that Randall Lane was paid by RJ Shook, whose company, Shook Research, worked with Forbes since 2016 to publish rankings of wealth advisers. The payment was made after Shook sold a majority stake in the company to a private equity firm a year ago.

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Travis Kelce says wedding to Taylor Swift was ‘the best night of my life’ in first official comments

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Kelce’s remarks on his marriage to Swift at Madison Square Garden comes weeks after the event, which remains shrouded in mystery

American football star Travis Kelce has described his secretive early July wedding to pop sensation Taylor Swift as “the best night of my life.”

“I appreciate everybody who came out and celebrated and, you know, had fun with us,” the Kansas City Chiefs player told a briefing.

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Wisconsin Democrats chose a middle path – will it lead to victory in November?

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Democratic socialist Francesca Hong fell just short as David Crowley strives for unity for the general election

Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist, was on course to win the party’s nomination for Wisconsin governor on Wednesday by a clear margin, according to the polls – presaging the latest in an extraordinary wave of leftwing victories across the country, challenging the party’s establishment.

It was not to be. In a photo finish after a messy campaign, David Crowley eked out a win by a few thousand votes over Hong, raising questions over the limits of the progressive movement that has swept through Democratic contests in recent months.

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‘Unrig the economy for working people’: the California candidate who wrote updated labor laws

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Marni von Wilpert helped draft Protecting the Right to Organize act, and now wants work toward implementing it

Legislation that would modernize federal labor law began with a handful of lawyers meeting, of all places, in an ice-cream shop.

“We wrote for hours what we would do to amend the National Labor Relations Act,” said Marni von Wilpert, a member of the San Diego city council who was then an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Bringing together “our collective experience as labor lawyers over the years, really trying to unrig the rules so that working people could have a fair shot”.

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Trump plays down Air Force One plane switch as criticism grows over ‘decoy’ passengers – US politics live

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President says Secret Service wanted him on ‘different plane’ due to threat as Democrats call for congressional briefing

President Donald Trump’s administration is to spend ⁠at least $900m ​for construction projects on the White House grounds, ⁠the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing records.

Instead of ⁠securing money directly from ​Congress, the administration ‌has gathered ‌funding from other agencies and private ‌donors and directed it to an account that holds a few million dollars for routine maintenance of the ‌White House, the report said.

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Drone footage shows rare bird’s-eye view of stingrays off New York coast

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With wing spans up to 3ft, the shy cownose ray species typically arrive in Long Island waters in the warmer months

Drone footage of dozens of stingrays in the ocean off New York has captivated beachgoers and marine enthusiasts, offering a rare bird’s-eye view of a species that scientists say has visited the area for decades.

The footage was captured las`t Friday off the coast of Southampton on the Long Island peninsula by Joanna Steidle, a Hamptons-based professional drone pilot known for her aerial ocean shots. It shows cownose rays gliding through the water en masse near the surface.

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Trump’s secret flight switch indicates severity of assassination threat by Iran

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Iran lost top leaders in the war and US ‘humiliation ... a form of revenge’, say experts, after administration’s flight ruse

Since the joint US-Israeli strikes in February that killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and scores of other senior Iranian officials on the first day of the war, a revenge plot to kill Donald Trump should not have appeared far-fetched.

But the US administration’s elaborate ruse to spirit Trump off of Air Force One in Turkey last month indicates a credibility to the Iranian threat that has surprised many in Washington – including the Trump aides and journalists left on the jet that may have remained the target of an Iranian missile strike.

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