Category Archives: US News

Bolivia’s former top anti-drug official to be extradited to US for drug trafficking

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Maximiliano Dávila Pérez, arrested in Bolivia in 2022, was accused of using his position to help transport cocaine

Bolivia’s highest court on Wednesday approved the extradition of the country’s former top anti-narcotics official to the US to face charges of trafficking narcotics.

Maximiliano Dávila Pérez briefly served as Bolivia’s top counter-narcotics official in 2019, before then president Evo Morales resigned. He later served as a police commander in Bolivia under the government of the current president, Luis Arce.

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First Thing: Trump victory ‘not a mandate for radical change’

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US expert says models showed voters did not seek sweeping transformation. Plus: hiker found alive after 50 days lost

Good morning.

Despite Donald Trump’s decisive victory in the presidential election, a political scientist who developed a model that correctly predicted his sweep of battleground states warns that voters have not necessarily given the president-elect a mandate to make radical changes.

What did Trump’s Ukraine envoy pick controversially propose? The retired lieutenant general Keith Kellogg has written that the US could help end the war by withdrawing weapons from Ukraine if it does not enter peace talks – and giving even more weapons to Ukraine if Russia does not do the same.

What’s Musk’s latest big idea? The tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has been tapped to run a “department of government efficiency” has said he wants to “delete” the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal watchdog that helps protect consumers from predatory financial practices.

Did they discuss tariffs? No, according to Sheinbaum, but she nevertheless said that her conversation with Trump had reassured her that no tit-for-tat tariff battle would be needed in future.

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Trump cabinet picks shaped by new power centers in his orbit

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Boris Epshteyn, Susie Wiles and JD Vance hold outsized influence in the president-elect’s administration selections

Donald Trump’s picks for the incoming administration are being shaped by a combination of different power centers including one-man influences like top Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn and combined groups led by chief of staff Susie Wiles and vice-president-elect JD Vance.

The president-elect appears to have settled on a number of cabinet nominees himself without being aggressively pushed by advisers, including Pete Hegseth for defense secretary, Marco Rubio for secretary of state and Russ Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget.

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Even in blue Colorado, vaccine advocates worry about RFK Jr’s appeal and ‘medical freedom’ movement

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Growing rates of infectious disease in state’s most populous region could indicate increased ‘vaccine hesitancy’

In deep blue Colorado, one of the only states that did not shift right in the 2024 presidential election, vaccine advocates see openings for Robert F Kennedy Jr.

An environmental lawyer and the nation’s most prominent propagator of vaccine misinformation, Kennedy is now the embodiment of where left meets right – the scion of a political dynasty who first ran as a Democratic presidential candidate and is now slated to join president-elect Trump’s administration as the nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services.

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Tesla owners turn against Musk: ‘I’m embarrassed driving this car around’

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The electric car brand was once a liberal favourite – but the CEO’s embrace of Trump has led to an angry backlash

As Elon Musk has embraced Donald Trump and various far-right conspiracy theories, he has left behind an aghast cohort of Tesla owners who suddenly feel embarrassed by their own cars. Many of them are now publicly displaying their dismay at Musk on their vehicles.

Sales of anti-Musk stickers have boomed since the world’s richest man declared his support for Trump and helped propel him to victory in the US presidential election, as owners of Teslas, the car brand headed by Musk, try to distance themselves from the South African-born multibillionaire.

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How climate policies reduce air pollution saving lives and money

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Early deaths from air pollution in US could be reduced by between 4,000 and 15,000 a year by 2035, study shows

The burning of fossil fuels that harms our climate also produces air pollution that damages ecosystems and harms our health. But we fail to tally up the benefits of reduced air pollution in our climate policies, and overlook opportunities to tackle these problems together.

A reminder of this failure is illustrated in a new study which has found that reduced air pollution from net zero policies in the US could result in a health gain of between $65bn (£51bn) and $128bn in 2035 alone.

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Bomb threats target Democratic Congress members from Connecticut

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Jim Himes, Joe Courtney and John Larson report threats to their homes, a day after Trump cabinet picks targeted

Several Democratic members of Congress from Connecticut have been targeted by bomb threats on their homes, the lawmakers or their offices said on Thursday.

Jim Himes, Joe Courtney and John Larson all reported that their homes were the subject of bomb threats. Police who responded said they found no evidence of a bomb on the lawmakers’ properties.

This happened a day after a number of Donald Trump’s most prominent cabinet picks and appointees reported that they had received bomb threats and “swatting attacks”, in which perpetrators initiate an emergency law enforcement response against a victim under false pretences.

Courtney’s Vernon home received a bomb threat while his wife and children were there, his office said.

Himes said on Thursday morning he was notified of the threat against his home during a Thanksgiving celebration with his family. The US Capitol police and Greenwich and Stamford police departments responded.

Himes extended his family’s “utmost gratitude to our local law enforcement officers for their immediate action to ensure our safety”. He added: “There is no place for political violence in this country, and I hope that we may all continue through the holiday season with peace and civility.”

Larson also said on Thursday that East Hartford police responded to a bomb threat against his home.

The threats follow an election season marked by violence. In July, a gunman opened fire at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, grazing him in the ear and killing one of his supporters. The Secret Service later thwarted a subsequent assassination attempt at Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course in Florida, when an agent spotted the barrel of a gun poking through a perimeter fence while Trump was golfing.

Among those who received threats on Wednesday were New York representative Elise Stefanik, Trump’s pick to serve as the next ambassador to the UN; Matt Gaetz, Trump’s initial pick to serve as attorney general; Oregon representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who Trump chose to lead the Department of Labor, and former New York congressman Lee Zeldin, who has been tapped to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.

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Mexican president claims ‘no potential tariff war’ with US after call with Trump

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Sheinbaum says she had cooperative talks with president-elect who threatened 25% tariff against Mexico on Tuesday

Claudia Sheinbaum has said her “very kind” phone conversation with Donald Trump, in which they discussed immigration and fentanyl, means “there will not be a potential tariff war” between the US and Mexico.

The president of Mexico spoke to reporters on Thursday following Trump’s threat earlier in the week to apply a 25% tariff against Mexico and Canada, and an additional 10% tariff against China, when he takes office in January if the countries did not stop all illegal immigration and fentanyl smuggling into the US.

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Trump’s Ukraine envoy pick proposed forcing peace talks by withdrawing US weapons

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In a co-authored document presented to Trump in April, Keith Kellogg also said US should give Ukraine more weapons if Russia doesn’t join negotiations

Donald Trump’s plan to tap the retired US lieutenant general Keith Kellogg as US envoy to Ukraine and Russia has triggered renewed interest in a policy document he co-authored that proposes ending the war by withdrawing weapons from Ukraine if it doesn’t enter peace talks – and giving even more weapons to Ukraine if Russia doesn’t do the same.

Trump is said to have responded favorably to the plan – America First, Russia & Ukraine – which was presented to him in April and was written by Kellogg and the former CIA analyst Fred Fleitz, who both served as chiefs of staff in Trump’s national security council from 2017 to 2021.

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Mark Zuckerberg dines with Trump at Mar-a-Lago despite former feud

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Meta CEO reportedly wants to support president-elect after previously banning him from Instagram and Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg has become the latest former Donald Trump critic to make his way Mar-a-Lago to break bread with the incoming US president.

The tech mogul had banned Trump from the social media sites Instagram and Facebook, which he owns, following the January 6 riot that the president-elect egged on in an attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 election.

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Elon Musk calls to ‘delete’ US finance consumer watchdog agency

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Tech billionaire tapped by Trump posts on X about wanting to eliminate Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)

Elon Musk has said he wants to “delete” the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal watchdog that helps protect consumers from predatory financial practices.

The tech billionaire, who has been tapped to run a “Department of Government Efficiency” in the incoming Donald Trump administration, posted “Delete CFPB” on X, the social media site he owns. He added a declaration that the agency, which employs 1,700 people and has an annual budget of close to $700m, is an example of “too many duplicative regulatory agencies” in Washington.

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Trump victory not a mandate for radical change, top election forecaster says

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US expert who predicted outcome says models showed voters were unhappy with economy but did not seek sweeping transformation

Despite Donald Trump’s decisive victory in the presidential election, a political scientist who developed a model that correctly predicted his sweep of battleground states warns that voters have not necessarily given the president-elect a mandate to make radical changes.

In a paper released with little fanfare three weeks before the vote, Cornell University professor of government Peter Enns and his co-authors accurately forecast that Trump would win all seven swing states, based on a model they built that uses state-level presidential approval ratings and indicators of economic health.

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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs denied bail for a third time over ‘serious risk’ of witness tampering

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Judge rules that the court ‘doubts the sufficiency of any conditions’ that place trust in Combs to follow bail rules

Sean “Diddy” Combs has been denied bail for the third time by a judge in New York City who described him as a “serious risk” for witness tampering.

Prosecutors had previously accused Combs of trying to contact prospective witnesses from jail in an attempt to create “narratives” to influence public opinion as well as potential jurors for his impending sex trafficking trial.

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Trump Pentagon pick Pete Hegseth’s books foreground anti-Muslim rhetoric

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Hegseth’s conspiracy theory- and falsehood-laden book American Crusade depicts Islam as historic enemy of west

Donald Trump’s defense secretary pick Pete Hegseth, who has the crusader motto “deus vult” tattooed on his arm, has put bigoted anti-Muslim rhetoric at the center of several of his published books, according to a Guardian review of the materials.

Hegseth, especially in 2020’s American Crusade, depicts Islam as a natural, historic enemy of the west; presents distorted versions of Muslim doctrine in “great replacement”-style racist conspiracy theories; treats leftists and Muslims as bound together in their efforts to subvert the US; and idolises medieval crusaders.

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First Thing: Canada leaders agree to unite against Trump tariff threat

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Deputy PM says ‘we need to be smart, strong and united’. Plus: plastic lobbyists in rearguard action

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Good morning.

Canada’s federal government and the premiers of the 10 provinces have agreed to work together against a threat by Donald Trump to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian imports, with one official saying the country was already examining possible retaliatory measures.

What are tariffs? A tariff is a tax on imports, or foreign goods brought into a country, paid for by the importing companies. The way that tariffs work, in Trump’s mind, is that high tariffs will incentivize American companies to move their manufacturing from abroad to the US.

What did political commentators have to say? Jeet Heer, a writer for the leftwing Nation magazine, said: “Is it too much to ask for a little humility and self-reflection from the people whose strategies failed badly?”

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Massachusetts farmers turn cranberry bogs back to wetlands in $6m initiative

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Restoration projects awarded grants to convert defunct bogs to bring environmental benefits and restore wildlife

As millions of cranberries were being harvested for Thursday’s US Thanksgiving holiday, Massachusetts farmers were working to convert defunct cranberry bogs to back to wild wetlands, amid climate crisis woes.

Several restoration projects were awarded $6m in grants to carry out such initiatives, state officials announced this week.

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UK hospitality group Loungers to be bought by US firm for £338m

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London-listed company strikes deal with Fortress Investment Group, although shareholder approval needed

The cafe bar business Loungers has agreed to be bought by a US investment group in a deal that values it at about £338m.

Fortress Investment Group said it had made an offer for the UK hospitality group through a newly formed investment vehicle.

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Canada leaders agree to unite against Trump tariff threat amid reports of retaliatory measures

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Deputy PM says ‘we need to be smart, strong and united’ after meeting on threat by US president-elect of a blanket 25% tax on imports from Canada

Canada’s federal government and the premiers of the 10 provinces have agreed to work together against a threat by US president-elect Donald Trump to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian imports, with one official saying the country was already examining possible retaliatory measures.

“We agreed that we need to be smart, strong and united in meeting this challenge,” deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters on Wednesday after a virtual meeting with the premiers called by the prime minister, Justin Trudeau.

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Democrats win California House seat from Republican incumbent – as it happened

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This live coverage is ending now, thanks for following along. You can read the latest on Democrats winning a California house seat here:

Leavitt wrote that the threats transpired Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, and included bomb threats and swatting, which refers to false reports of a crime to prompt police raids on a person’s home.

Law enforcement “acted quickly,” wrote Leavitt, adding that “President Trump and the entire Transition team are grateful for their swift action.”

Leavitt did not say who specifically was targeted.

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Democrat Derek Tran ousts Republican rival in key California House seat

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Son of Vietnamese refugees beats Michelle Steel in seat drawn to give Asian Americans stronger voice in capital

Democrat Derek Tran ousted Republican Michelle Steel in a southern California House district Wednesday that was specifically drawn to give Asian Americans a stronger voice on Capitol Hill.

Steel said in a statement: “Like all journeys, this one is ending for a new one to begin.” When she captured the seat in 2020, Steel joined Washington state Democrat Marilyn Strickland and California Republican Young Kim as the first Korean American women elected to Congress.

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