Former congressman plans to formally announce his presidential campaign on Thursday, an El Paso TV station reported
The Democratic rising star Beto O’Rourke is jumping into the race for president, he told a Texas TV station in a text message Wednesday.
The Democrat, who has publicly mulled a run for months, confirmed his plans in a text to KTSM of El Paso, where he served as a US representative.
Continue reading...Investigation by federal prosecutors adds to laundry list of inquiries since the Cambridge Analytica revelations one year ago
Facebook is under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors examining its data-sharing deals with other major technology companies, according to the New York Times.
A New York grand jury has subpoenaed records from “at least two prominent makers of smartphones and other devices”, the Times reported, citing two unnamed sources.
Continue reading...The approval puts Congress on a collision course with Donald Trump in an unprecedented rebuke of his foreign policy
The Senate has voted to end US support for the Saudi Arabian-led coalition’s war in Yemen, bringing Congress one step closer to a unprecedented rebuke of Donald Trump’s foreign policy.
Lawmakers have never before invoked the decades-old War Powers Resolution to stop a foreign conflict, but they are poised to do just that in the bid to cut off US support for a war that has triggered a humanitarian catastrophe.
Continue reading...FAA supported the grounding saying it had uncovered information in the Ethiopia crash that was similar to the Indonesia crash in October
Donald Trump grounded Boeing’s 737 Max fleet on Wednesday, days after the second fatal crash involving the plane in five months.
Issuing an emergency order, Trump said all 737 Max jets in the US would now be grounded. “Planes that are in the air will be grounded if they are the 737 Max. Will be grounded upon landing at their destination,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Continue reading...Paul Manafort, the former Donald Trump campaign chairman, was told by a judge on Wednesday that he is a liar and fraud who will spend a total of seven and a half years in prison.
Related: Paul Manafort charged by New York prosecutors with 16 further crimes
Continue reading...As rentals with companies such as Airbnb proliferate in the area, raising rent and property taxes, officials are enacting laws to protect local residents
New Orleans’ Treme is regarded as the nation’s oldest African American neighborhood, but some of its residents, like Darryl Durham, now say that legacy is fading quickly.
Related: Nowhere for people to go: who will survive the gentrification of Atlanta?
Continue reading...Users in Australia, the US, Europe and Asia report problems with various applications for several hours
Google has been hit by outages in a host of countries around the world, with users reporting issues with Gmail, Google Drive, Hangouts and Google Maps for several hours.
Various websites that track Gmail problems and outages, showed a spike in users reporting problems with the email service from about 1pm AEDT (2am GMT).
Continue reading...Gavin Newsom’s executive order means 737 death row inmates will not be executed during his tenure
California’s governor is set to issue a moratorium on capital punishment in the US’s most populous state, providing a reprieve for hundreds of inmates sentenced to death.
On Wednesday morning, Gavin Newsom is expected to sign a new executive order that will put in place an executive moratorium on the death penalty, meaning 737 inmates awaiting execution in California will not be put to death during the governor’s tenure.
Continue reading...Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin were among 50 charged in scheme to get children into universities via bribery and cheating
There are 50 people charged in the case, including actors Felicity Huffman, known for her role on the TV show Desperate Housewives and the feature film Transamerica, and Lori Loughlin, a cast member on the TV series Full House. Defendants in the case include parents and college athletics coaches.
Continue reading...Venezuela’s chief prosecutor has asked the country’s supreme court to open an investigation into opposition leader Juan Guaidó for alleged involvement in the “sabotage” of the country’s power grid.
Related: US pulls all staff from Venezuela as Maduro blames blackout on 'demonic' Trump plot
Continue reading...Plan to shut 21 international offices of USCIS and transfer duties to domestic offices and State Department’s embassies and consulates
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service announced that it will close all 21 of its immigration offices abroad. It will shift the duties performed at those offices which include processing applications from potential immigrants to domestic employees and to the State Department.
The Trump administration is preparing to shutter all 21 international offices of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a move that could slow the processing of family visa applications, foreign adoptions and citizenship petitions from members of the military.
USCIS Director L. Francis Cissna said in an email to staff Tuesday that he is working to transfer those duties — now performed by employees worldwide — to domestic offices and the State Department’s embassies and consulates. He wrote that if the State Department agrees, the agency would move to close its international field offices in coming months “in an effort to maximize our agency’s finite resources.”
In an interview with Breitbart, Donald Trump hinted at new regulation of big tech companies like Google and Facebook.
“I understand a lot of people wanting to look into it. I mean normally I’d like to say let it be free, let it all be free, but it’s not free. It’s really run by a small number of people,” said Trump.
Continue reading...Scheme helped wealthy Americans buy their children’s way into elite universities including Yale, Georgetown and Stanford
US federal prosecutors have charged the Hollywood actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, along with almost 50 other people, over a $25m scheme to help wealthy Americans buy their children’s way into elite universities including Yale, Georgetown, Stanford and the University of Southern California.
Huffman appeared in court in Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon, where a magistrate judge said she could be released on a $250,000 bond. The judge ordered the Desperate Housewives star to restrict her travel to the continental United States. Huffman’s husband, the actor William H Macy, attended his wife’s initial court appearance. He has not been charged and authorities have not said why.
Continue reading...The platform briefly blocked some of Warren’s ads attacking it. Her response: ‘Curious why I think FB has too much power?’
Elizabeth Warren could not have asked for a better illustration for her point.
The US senator and Democratic candidate for president took aim at Facebook on Monday evening after the social network briefly blocked her campaign from running advertisements that just happened to call for breaking up Facebook.
Continue reading...Federal Aviation Administration increasingly isolated in maintaining plane is safe as EU countries halt flights
Boeing and the US aviation authorities have come under increasing pressure to ground the 737 Max despite repeated reassurances as the European Union and numerous other countries halted flights and Donald Trump weighed in following a second fatal crash involving the plane in less than five months.
US regulators, airlines and the manufacturer have become increasingly isolated in maintaining that the plane is safe.
Continue reading...Former search executive Amit Singhal was reportedly forced to resign after an employee claimed he groped her at an off-campus event
Google paid the former search executive Amit Singhal $35m in an exit package when he was reportedly forced to resign after a sexual assault investigation, according to court documents released on Monday.
Details of the exit package were revealed as part of a shareholder lawsuit against the company, one that followed a published report of payouts Google made to executives accused of sexual misconduct.
Continue reading...The US has begun building parts for a new ground-launched cruise missile in anticipation of the end of a cold war treaty that banned them, the Pentagon has confirmed.
The Trump administration declared on 1 February it was no longer bound by the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty and would withdraw completely in August, pointing to the deployment of a new Russian missile which the US has complained for more than six years was a violation of the agreement.
Continue reading...President’s 2020 plan signals intent to reignite a political fight that has already led to a record 35-day partial government shutdown
Donald Trump’s latest budget request, which demands billions of dollars for a border wall at the expense of social safety nets and environmental protections, was dismissed on Monday as “dead on arrival” and “breathtaking in its degree of cruelty”.
Related: Fox News condemns host Jeanine Pirro's attack on Ilhan Omar – live
Continue reading...Experts worry that injecting sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere could put some regions at risk
A new study contradicts fears that using solar geoengineering to fight climate change could dangerously alter rainfall and storm patterns in some parts of the world.
Related: Geoengineering may be used to combat global warming, experts say
Continue reading...Woman in her 30s returned to the zoo to apologise after she was treated in hospital for her injuries
A jaguar has clawed an Arizona woman who climbed over a barrier to take a picture at the Wildlife World Zoo near Phoenix, officials said.
Mobile phone video of the incident showed at least one gash on the woman’s left forearm as she writhed on the ground in pain after the attack on Saturday.
Continue reading...A company run by a donor to Donald Trump claimed it could provide Chinese clients with a chance to mingle and take photos with the president, along with access to his private club in Palm Beach, Florida.
Related: Trump in Super Bowl selfie with founder of spa in prostitution case
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