Category Archives: US News

Trump administration suspends $5bn electric vehicle charging program

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Highway agency ordered states to no longer spend funds allocated under Biden’s EV charging station program

The Trump administration has ordered US states to suspend a $5bn electric vehicle charging station program in a further blow to the environmental movement since the president’s return to the White House.

In a memo issued on Thursday to state transportation directors, the transportation department’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) ordered states not to spend any funds allocated to them under the Biden administration as part of the national electric vehicle infrastructure (NEVI) program.

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Trump’s Gaza plan suggests his pro-settler advisers are in the ascendant

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Idea of US occupying Gaza and pushing out the Palestinians delights Israel’s pro-settler movement and its US allies

When Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Washington this week, his first stop was to meet evangelical Christian leaders, who have cheered on Israel in the war in Gaza in an alliance with the country’s pro-settler rightwing government. For both constituencies, Israel’s right to annex the occupied Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank is a matter of faith and, they hope, a matter of time.

Both constituencies cheered this week as Donald Trump announced his half-baked plan to “take over” Gaza, an idea he had only tinkered with before Tuesday evening, when it tumbled out to the obvious surprise of his closest aides.

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Trump’s meme coin sparks more than 700 copycats posing as official crypto

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Army of digital imposters uses names associated with president’s family in apparent bid to deceive investors

Despite once calling cryptocurrency “a scam”, Donald Trump made a theoretical fortune of billions after launching a self-named and highly controversial meme coin immediately before his second inauguration in January.

Now an army of digital imposters is trying to cash in on the president’s name and online presence to make their own crypto killing, according to a report in the Financial Times that details hundreds of “copycat and spam coins” uploaded to Trump’s official wallet in cyberspace.

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US-Panama relationship was ‘very strong’. Then Trump upended the diplomatic playing board

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US had made inroads against Chinese influence in Panama, but Trump’s demands could help Beijing expand its regional power

When Panama’s then president Juan Carlos Varela was invited to the White House in June 2017, Donald Trump said the Panama canal was doing “pretty well” and described the bilateral relationship as “very strong”.

Just days earlier, Varela had broken ties with Taiwan to establish diplomatic relations with China, but there was no indication that this snub to a key US ally had clouded the meeting.

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US election commission chair says Trump tried to fire her illegally

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Ellen Weintraub of Federal Election Commission rejects letter from president that claims she has been removed

United States Federal Election Commission commissioner and chair Ellen Weintraub said on Thursday she received a letter from Donald Trump that purports to fire her but added that the action was illegal.

In a post on X, Weintraub attached the January 31 letter signed by Trump which said: “You are hereby removed as a member of the Federal Election Commission, effective immediately.”

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A$AP Rocky’s prosecutors rest case at his felony trial over two assault charges

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Five witnesses called in eight days, including accuser A$AP Relli, who was on stand for three day’s worth of testimony

Los Angeles county prosecutors rested their case on Thursday at the trial of rapper and fashion mogul A$AP Rocky, who is charged with firing a gun at a former friend on a Hollywood street in 2021.

They called five witnesses in eight days of testimony, including two police officers, a police detective and a firearms expert.

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Trump administration disbands taskforce targeting Russian oligarchs

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US attorney general issues memo to break up effort started after 2022 Ukraine invasion to target those close to Kremlin

The US justice department under Donald Trump is disbanding an effort started after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine to enforce sanctions and target oligarchs close to the Kremlin.

A memo from the attorney general, Pam Bondi, issued during a wave of orders on her first day in office but not previously reported, said the effort, known as Task Force KleptoCapture, will end as part of a shift in focus and funding to combating drug cartels and international gangs.

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Netanyahu gives Trump ‘golden pager’ in apparent reference to Lebanon attack

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Photos show gift, reportedly nod to Israel’s deadly attack on Hezbollah, during which devices simultaneously detonated

Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly gave Donald Trump a “golden pager” during their meeting in Washington DC this week, in an apparent reference to Israel’s deadly attack against Hezbollah in Lebanon last year.

In photos circulating online, the golden pager can be seen mounted on a piece of wood, accompanied by a golden plaque that reads in black lettering: “To President Donald J. Trump, Our greatest friend and greatest ally. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”

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Trump doubles down on Gaza takeover proposal despite bipartisan opposition

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President says territory would be ‘turned over’ to US by Israel as it emerges idea was not discussed with aides

Donald Trump has restated his proposal to take over Gaza amid widespread opposition – even from his own supporters – saying the territory would be “turned over” to the US by Israel after it concludes its military offensive against Hamas.

Trump reinforced his commitment to the idea in a rambling post on his Truth Social network on Thursday, even as it emerged that the proposal – announced without warning during a White House visit by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister – was purely his own and had not been subject to detailed discussion with aides.

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Panama accuses US of peddling ‘intolerable falsehood’ about canal

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President José Raúl Mulino denies making a deal that US ships can transit the canal free of charge

The president of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, has accused the US of peddling a “quite simply intolerable falsehood” about the Panama canal, as Donald Trump’s pledge to “take back” the waterway continued to poison relations between the two countries and cause alarm around Latin America.

The US state department claimed late on Wednesday the Central American country had agreed to no longer charge US government vessels to pass through its canal – a move that would supposedly save Washington millions of dollars a year.

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Makeup artist tried to remove Adrien Brody’s nose by mistake on set of The Brutalist

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Actor says nose mistaken for prosthetic by new makeup artists: ‘I said, ‘That doesn’t come off!’

A makeup artist on The Brutalist tried to remove Adrien Brody’s nose believing it to be a prosthetic, the actor has revealed.

Speaking to Jimmy Fallon earlier this week, Brody said that a new makeup artist began “busily working away with a solvent on my nose”.

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Thieves steal 100,000 eggs from trailer in Pennsylvania as prices spike

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Police search for culprit in Antrim township heist as US egg prices continue to rise amid bird flu outbreak

Police in Pennsylvania are hunting for thieves who stole 100,000 eggs from the back of a trailer, amid a US-wide spike in the price of eggs that has triggered panic-buying in some shops.

The eggs were lifted from the back of Pete & Gerry’s Organics’ distribution trailer on Saturday at about 8.40pm in Antrim township, according to police. There have been no arrests yet.

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Racial gap widened in deaths among US mothers around childbirth in 2023

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Black women died at rate nearly 3.5 times higher than white women, CDC data shows

Black women in the US died at a rate nearly 3.5 times higher than white women around the time of childbirth in 2023, as maternal mortality fell below pre-pandemic levels overall but racial gaps widened, according to federal health data released Wednesday.

In 2021 and 2022, the maternal death rate for Black women was about 2.6 times higher than white women.

The maternal death rate for white women dropped from 19 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2022 to 14.5 per 100,000 in 2023.

The rate for Black women went from 49.5 to a little above 50, though the report says that increase was not statistically significant.

The rate for Hispanic women dropped from about 17 to about 12.

The rate for Asian Americans fell from about 13 to about 11.

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US supreme court may revive doctrine that would curb federal agencies’ power

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Case on nondelegation doctrine comes after conservative court substantially curbed regulatory power in recent years

The US supreme court may soon revive an obscure, pro-big business legal doctrine that could make it virtually impossible for the US government to develop new laws and regulatory rules that protect Americans.

The theory, called the “nondelegation doctrine”, could also potentially invalidate large pieces of bedrock American laws and protections put in place since the first Congress.

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Rubio accuses South Africa of ‘anti-Americanism’ and snubs G20 meeting

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US secretary of state repeats remarks by Donald Trump about ‘expropriation of private property’ in African nation

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has accused South Africa of “anti-Americanism” and refused to attend a G20 meeting in Johannesburg later this month, as diplomatic ties sour between the two countries under Donald Trump’s administration.

Rubio made the announcement on X, where he repeated the US president’s unfounded claim that South Africa was expropriating private property.

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Israel tells army to prepare plans for Palestinians ‘who wish to leave’ Gaza

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Order comes after Donald Trump suggested US take over territory and resettle its residents elsewhere

Israel’s defence minister has ordered the military to prepare plans to allow Palestinians “who wish to leave” Gaza to exit, after Donald Trump suggested the US take over the territory and resettle its residents in other countries.

A Hamas official attacked the proposal as a “declaration of intent to occupy” Gaza, as Egypt, which Trump named as a possible destination for Palestinians, launched an intense behind-the-scenes diplomatic campaign to block it going further.

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Trump might want to revive America’s imperial heyday – but does his base?

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The president’s Gaza proposal is a signal that old-school, blunt-force US expansionism seems to be back in fashion

Donald Trump’s proposal that the US take ownership of the Gaza Strip, expel and resettle the people there, and turn Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East” has outraged Palestinians, shocked the international community and even confused many of his own conservative voters.

Yet the announcement seems like yet another sign that the president, while sometimes distancing himself from the neoconservative foreign policies that entangled the US in Iraq and Afghanistan, is willing to pursue – or at least entertain pursuing – an undisguised US imperialism that has more in common with the expansionism of Teddy Roosevelt and Andrew Jackson, the 19th- and early 20th-century presidents associated with some of American’s most brazen and violent conquests.

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On the edge: Massachusetts home at peril of tumbling into bay from erosion

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Multimillion-dollar home perched at edge of Cape Cod Bay in Wellfleet affected by erosion accelerated by climate crisis

The waters of Cape Cod Bay are coming for the big brown house perched on the edge of a sandy bluff high above the beach. It’s just a matter of when.

Erosion has marched right up to the concrete footings of the multimillion-dollar Massachusetts home where it overlooks the bay. Massive sliding doors that used to open onto a wide deck, complete with a hot tub, are now barricaded by thin wooden slats that prevent anyone from stepping through and falling 25ft to the beach below.

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Judge blocks Sandy Hook families’ settlement over Alex Jones bankruptcy

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Texas judge says he cannot approve deal between families who won suits over false remarks about 2012 mass shooting

A bankruptcy judge has blocked a proposed settlement between the families of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting victims who sued conspiracy theorist Alex Jones over his false remarks about the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school.

On Wednesday, judge Christopher Lopez of the US bankruptcy court for the southern district of Texas said he was unable to approve the proposed settlement between the families and Jones’s bankruptcy trustee. Lopez claimed that their efforts to divide Jones’s assets exceeded his court’s authority.

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Ten thousand Kroger-owned grocery store workers strike in Colorado

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Two-week strike begins as union for King Soopers alleges surveillance of workers and pushes to gut health benefits

Ten thousand workers at Kroger-owned King Soopers grocery stores in Colorado begin a two-week unfair labor practice strike on Thursday.

The union, United Food and Commercial Workers local 7, whose contract expired last month, voted 96% in favor of authorizing the strike.

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