Category Archives: US News

Save those holiday-gift lottery tickets: Mega Millions jackpot surpasses $1bn

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Odds of winning jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350, compared with 1 in 24 for any Mega Millions prize, and tickets cost $2

The Mega Millions jackpot has surpassed $1bn after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn on Christmas Eve. That means the estimated jackpot for Friday’s drawing is $1.15bn, potentially the fifth-largest jackpot in the game’s history.

“We know that many people will likely receive tickets to Friday’s drawing as holiday gifts, and what a gift that would turn out to be if you ended up with a ticket worth a $1.15bn jackpot,” Joshua Johnston, lead director for the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a Wednesday statement.

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Ex-drug lord Fabio Ochoa walks free in Colombia after 20 years in US prisons

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Victims of Medellín cartel demand justice as some express dismay former mob boss faces no charges in Colombia

The return of the former drug trafficker Fabio Ochoa to Colombia following his deportation from the United States has reopened old wounds among victims of the Medellín cartel, with some expressing dismay at the Colombian authorities’ decision to let Ochoa walk free.

Some of the cartel victims said they were hoping the former drug lord will at least cooperate with ongoing efforts by human rights groups to investigate one of the most violent periods of Colombia’s history and demanded that Colombian prosecutors also take Ochoa in for questioning.

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Mauritius holds out on Chagos Islands deal over Diego Garcia lease

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UK government accused of ‘nitpicking about compensation’ after being told to pay more to retain military base

Mauritius is holding out over a deal to gain control of the Chagos Islands from the UK, leaving ministers less than a month to rescue the agreement.

The government in Mauritius, which took office last month, has made clear it is dissatisfied with the terms negotiated by the previous administration. Over the weekend the deputy prime minister accused the British government of “nitpicking about the compensation”.

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Pete Hegseth says Donald Trump ‘supports us fully’ as he arrives on Capitol Hill to charm senators – US politics live

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Trump’s Pentagon pick says president-elect spoke to him on Thursday morning as media reports say Hegseth faced HR investigation over Fox Christmas party antics

Pete Hegseth has continued promoting his nomination for defense secretary on X, writing:

Maybe it’s time for a [defense secretary] who has…

Led in combat. Been on patrol for days. Pulled a trigger. Heard bullets whiz by. Called in close air support. Led medevacs. Dodged IEDs.

We’re going to confirm @PeteHegseth !

The importance of a warrior for the war fighter cannot be overstated. The Secretary of Defense must be clear-eyed, mission-oriented, and vigilant on behalf of the men and women they lead. I appreciate @PeteHegseth’s willingness to serve. The scrutiny of the nomination process and transparency matter. I look forward to his hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

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Biden library reportedly under threat by Democrats enraged by Hunter pardon

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Senior party figures consider withholding contributions to presidential library to express anger at pardon for son

Senior Democrats are reportedly considering withholding contributions to Joe Biden’s future presidential library amid a mounting backlash over his decision grant a blanket pardon to his son Hunter.

The threat has emerged as simmering anger among congressional Democrats – already building over the president’s insistence on seeking a second term before belatedly stepping aside as the party nominee in favour of Kamala Harris – has burst into the open over Sunday’s pardon, which Biden had previously vowed not to give.

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Urgent manhunt for UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting suspect enters second day

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Bullet casings with the words ‘deny’, ‘defend’ and ‘depose’ found at scene where Brian Thompson was killed

An urgent manhunt continued on Thursday in New York City as police combed through a vast network of private and public surveillance cameras and pursued leads in search of the person who shot and killed the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, the previous morning.

Investigators deployed drones and dogs as well as sifting through data related to public-use electric bikes from the company Citi Bike, as the suspect remained at large after what police chiefs said was a targeted killing.

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Volunteers fill in for ‘Pancho Claus’ after Tex-Mex Santa has heart attack

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Richard Reyes has delivered Christmas gifts to low-income children in Houston area for decades in his red zoot suit

A heart attack and subsequent surgery are preventing the Mexican-American version of Santa known to generations of Texas children as Pancho Claus from suiting up this Christmas.

Yet members of Richard Reyes’s community have taken it upon themselves to organize toy drives – and even don his iconic look – to keep his spirit alive for his scores of believers.

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Twenty Minnesota ballots went missing in key race that hinges on 14 votes

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Race for state house seat, which will determine whether Republicans win control of chamber, separated by 14 votes

Twenty ballots went missing in a Minnesota precinct this November, the type of error that would typically result in an internal investigation but not receive much public attention. But the implications are much greater right now, as the race for the district’s state house seat is separated by 14 votes, and that seat will determine whether Republicans win control of the chamber.

The missing ballots, which were probably the result of human error, were never counted. Officials tried to track them down, only to learn that they had been sent to the shredder.

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How climate risks are driving up insurance premiums around the US – visualized

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‘Tight correlation’ between premium rises and counties deemed most at risk from climate crisis, experts say

Concern over the climate crisis may evaporate in the White House from January, but its financial costs are now starkly apparent to Americans in the form of soaring home insurance premiums – with those in the riskiest areas for floods, storms and wildfires suffering the steepest rises of all.

A mounting toll of severe hurricanes, floods, fires and other extreme events has caused average premiums to leap since 2020, with parts of the US most prone to disasters bearing the brunt. A climate crisis is starting to stir an insurance crisis.

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Bitcoin price hits record-high $100,027 as Trump win fuels crypto fever

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Largest cryptocurrency, prone to volatile market surges, lifts amid hopes of lighter regulation with Trump’s return

Bitcoin has crossed $100,000 for the first time, scaling a fresh record high amid a euphoric rally sparked by Donald Trump’s election victory.

The world’s largest and most valuable cryptocurrency – prone to volatile market surges and routs – has been lifted in recent weeks by hopes that the president-elect’s return to the White House will usher in a new era of lighter regulation and supportive policies.

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Memphis police ‘regularly violate’ Black people’s rights, justice department finds

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Report marks end of inquiry launched after death of Tyre Nichols, who died after being beaten following traffic stop

The Memphis police department uses excessive force and discriminates against Black people, according to the findings of a US Department of Justice investigation launched after the beating death of Tyre Nichols after a traffic stop in 2023.

A report released on Wednesday marked the conclusion of the investigation that began six months after Nichols was kicked, punched and hit with a police baton as five officers tried to arrest him after he fled a traffic stop.

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California school shooting leaves two students injured and suspect dead

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Authorities say hospitalized students are five and six, and man on scene was found dead of self-inflicted gunshot

Two students were injured in a school shooting in northern California, officials said on Wednesday afternoon, and the suspected shooter is dead. The injured students are five and six years old, according to KCRA, Sacramento’s NBC affiliate station. The students are being treated for the injuries, Butte county sheriff, Kory Honea told reporters on Wednesday.

The shooting took place at the Feather River School of Seventh-Day Adventists in Oroville, a city of 20,000 people in the state’s far north. Honea told media that around 1pm his office began receiving calls from the school about an individual on campus firing shots at students. Deputies responded immediately, Honea said, and found a man on scene dead of what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot.

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Many Americans’ cellphone data being hacked by China, official says

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Cyber-espionage group ‘Salt Typhoon’ targeting ‘at least’ eight US telecom and telecom infrastructure firms

A large number of Americans’ metadata has been stolen in the sweeping cyber-espionage campaign carried out by a Chinese hacking group dubbed “Salt Typhoon”, a senior US official told journalists on Wednesday.

The official declined to provide specific figures but noted that China’s access to America’s telecommunications infrastructure was broad and that the hacking was ongoing.

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Trump names Peter Navarro, jailed for contempt of Congress, trade adviser

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President-elect says Navarro, his former White House trade adviser, will focus on tariffs

Donald Trump said he would name former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro as senior counselor for trade and manufacturing.

Navarro made headlines earlier this year when, in March, he was jailed for contempt of Congress.

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UnitedHealthcare CEO’s wife calls shooting ‘senseless killing’ as police release images of suspect – as it happened

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A driver who witnessed the incident, described the gun as a “silent” and “black gun.”

In an interview with ABC News, driver Amar Abdelmula said that he heard “the shot” adding: “It was silent gun, black gun.”

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New York police search for person suspected of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO in ‘brazen’ attack

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Police look for suspect who shot and killed Brian Thompson, 50, outside Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan

The CEO of UnitedHealthcare, one of the US’s largest health insurers, was shot dead on Wednesday in midtown Manhattan, police confirmed in a press conference.

Brian Thompson, 50, was shot outside the Hilton hotel at 1335 Avenue of the Americas just after 6.45am after arriving early for the company’s annual investor conference. A man wearing a mask approached him and fired at him repeatedly, police said.

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Mexico announces record drug seizure one week after Trump threatens tariffs

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Soldiers and marines discover drugs in Sinaloa, while separately authorities arrest more than 5,200 migrants

Mexican security forces have impounded more than a ton of fentanyl pills in what officials have called the biggest seizure of the synthetic opioid in the country’s history.

Soldiers and marines found the fentanyl at two properties in the northern state of Sinaloa, late on Tuesday – exactly a week after Donald Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico unless the two neighbouring countries cracked down on the flow of immigrants and drugs across their borders with the US.

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Mexico says Canada wishes it had its ‘cultural riches’ amid tariffs feud

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Leaders cast the other as ill-prepared after Trump threatens to apply 25% taxes on goods from both countries

Mexico’s president has said Canadians “could only wish they had the cultural riches” of her country as tensions mount between the two nations, caught in a feud over tariffs and trade exacerbated by Donald Trump.

The US president-elect threatened in a social media post last week to apply devastating levies of 25% on all goods and services from both countries, and to keep them in place until “such time as drugs, in particular fentanyl, and all illegal aliens stop this invasion of our country!”

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California Democrat Adam Gray unseats Republican as last House race decided

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Adam Gray wins by fewer than 200 votes, leaving Democrats with 215 House seats and Republicans 220 this election cycle

Democrat Adam Gray captured California’s 13th congressional district on Tuesday, unseating Republican John Duarte in the final US House contest to be decided in the 2024 elections.

Gray’s win in the farm belt seat that cuts through five counties means Republicans won 220 House seats this election cycle, with Democrats holding 215 seats.

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China bans exports of key microchip elements to US as trade tensions escalate

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Semiconductor restrictions on China announced by Washington a day earlier prompt retaliation involving critical minerals including gallium and germanium

The Chinese government has said it will ban exports to the US of some key components in making semiconductors, escalating trade tensions a day after Washington announced curbs targeting China’s ability to make advanced chips.

Among the materials banned from export were the metals gallium, antimony and germanium, China’s commerce ministry said in a statement that cited “national security” concerns.

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