Category Archives: US News

Gunman in ‘Pizzagate’ conspiracy attack fatally shot by North Carolina police

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During traffic stop, officers fire at Edgar Welch, 2016 shooter at eatery mistakenly thought to be center of pedophile ring

The gunman involved in the 2016 “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory attack on a Washington DC pizza restaurant that was mistakenly thought to be at the center of a pedophile ring has died after being shot by police in North Carolina during a traffic stop.

In a news release issued on Thursday, North Carolina’s Kannapolis police department announced that Edgar Maddison Welch died from his wounds caused by two police officers who fired at him after he pulled out a handgun during a traffic stop on Saturday.

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US Senate advances Laken Riley Act, which would detain undocumented immigrants for theft

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Laken Riley Act passed House on Tuesday by 264 to 159, showing Democrats are feeling pressure over immigration

The US Senate advanced a bill calling for the detainment of undocumented immigrants charged with theft-related crimes on Thursday, as Donald Trump and fellow Republicans press their hardline immigration agenda after their victories in the November elections.

The overwhelmingly bipartisan vote was 84 to nine, as dozens of Democratic senators joined Republicans in supporting the motion to begin debate on the bill. But some Democrats who voted to advance the legislation indicated that they wanted to see amendments to the proposal, raising questions about how many of them would support its final passage.

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Greenland’s prime minister calls for calm after Trump comments

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Pro-independence Múte Egede says Greenland must stay unified after becoming centre of US-Denmark spat

Greenland’s prime minister has called for unity, urging citizens not to panic, after being thrown into a geopolitical battle between the US and Denmark by Donald Trump’s interest in taking control of the territory.

Múte Egede said he understood people may be concerned after the incoming US president declined to rule out using military and economic force to gain control of Greenland, but called on his fellow citizens to “put aside differences and stand together”.

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US seizure of Greenland is ‘not going to happen’, says David Lammy

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UK foreign secretary plays down idea of Trump taking control, in speech exposing differences with president-elect

The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, has said a US military seizure of Greenland is not going to happen, as he played down Donald Trump’s threats to seize the territory from Denmark.

“No Nato countries have gone to war [with each other] since the establishment of Nato, and I do not envisage that,” he said, adding: “It is not going to happen.”

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Kurdish general urges Trump to leave US troops in north-east Syria

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Exclusive: SDF leader says removal of 2,000-strong force would leave door open for Islamic State resurgence

The leader of the Kurdish forces that control north-eastern Syria has called on Donald Trump to maintain a US military presence in the region, warning that a retreat would risk a resurgence of Islamic State in the country.

Gen Mazloum Abdi, the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said IS had increased its strength in the desert after seizing arms from the collapsed Assad regime, while the Kurdish forces were coming under increased pressure from Turkey and its Syrian proxies.

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‘Essential’: nearly 400 incarcerated firefighters deployed as LA battles wildfires

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The firefighters earn $5.80-$10.24 per day plus $1 an hour when responding to active emergencies, according to CDCR

Hundreds of incarcerated firefighters are helping battle the destructive blazes that are rapidly spreading across southern California as a powerful windstorm devastates the region.

The California department of corrections and rehabilitation (CDCR) said on Wednesday that it had deployed 395 imprisoned firefighters across 29 crews while the county fights multiple out-of-control blazes fueled by extreme winds and dry conditions. The incarcerated crews are embedded with the California department of forestry and fire protection (Cal Fire) and its nearly 2,000 firefighters, who have been stretched thin from several simultaneous emergencies.

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Billy Crystal, Cary Elwes and Eugene Levy among celebrities to lose homes in California fires

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Crystal ‘heartbroken’ after losing family home of 46 years in historic fires that have killed five and destroyed more than 1,100 buildings

Billy Crystal, Paris Hilton and Eugene Levy are among celebrities who have lost their homes in the wildfires tearing through several neighbourhoods of Los Angeles, which have killed at least five people and destroyed more than 1,100 buildings so far.

Six wildfires were raging across Los Angeles county. The affluent Pacific Palisades, where many famous Hollywood names live, has been devastated since the fires began on Tuesday. On Wednesday night, another fire broke out in Runyon Canyon in the Hollywood Hills, with the Los Angeles fire department ordering an immediate evacuation of parts of the neighbourhood.

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‘We’re done’: owner of Walter White’s house in Breaking Bad puts it on market – for $4m

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Modest family home in Albuquerque has a price tag fit for a meth kingpin – but owner Joanne Quintana warns buyers to prepare for hundreds of visitors a day

The modest suburban home used as Walter White’s family abode in Breaking Bad is officially on the market for US$4m – almost 10 times the median sale price in its neighbourhood.

The ranch-style house in Albuquerque, New Mexico has four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a back yard pool, which featured in crucial scenes in the show. The median price of a house in the same postcode is $421,000, according to real estate company Zillow.

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British IS members in Syria should be allowed home, says Trump’s counter-terror pick

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Sebastian Gorka says letting people in prison camps return to Britain would benefit the ‘special relationship’ with US

British nationals being held in Syrian prison camps for fighting on behalf of Islamic State should be allowed to return to the UK, Donald Trump’s incoming counter-terrorism chief has said.

Any country that wants to be a “serious ally” to the United States should commit to the international fight against the extremist group by repatriating its citizens, according to Sebastian Gorka.

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Quaker group pulls NYT ad over paper’s refusal to let it call Israel’s Gaza bombing ‘genocide’

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Organization said paper’s refusal ‘outrageous attempt to sidestep the truth’, choosing ‘silence over accountability’

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker organization that advocates for peace, said on Monday the group cancelled a planned advertisement in the New York Times in response to the paper refusing to allow it to refer to Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide.

“The refusal of The New York Times to run paid digital ads that call for an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza is an outrageous attempt to sidestep the truth,” said Joyce Ajlouny, general secretary for the AFSC, in a press release. “Palestinians and allies have been silenced and marginalized in the media for decades as these institutions choose silence over accountability. It is only by challenging this reality that we can hope to forge a path toward a more just and equitable world.”

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‘América Mexicana’: Mexico’s president responds to Trump with renaming of her own

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Claudia Sheinbaum joked about renaming the entire continent in retort to Trump’s ‘Gulf of America’ comments

Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president, has responded to Donald Trump’s proposal to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America with a counter-proposal to rename North America.

Standing before a global map in her daily press briefing, Sheinbaum proposed dryly that the continent should be known as “América Mexicana”, or “Mexican America”, because an 1814 founding document that preceded Mexico’s constitution referred to it that way.

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Blinken says Trump’s push for US to take over Greenland is ‘not going to happen’ – US politics live

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Outgoing secretary of state says Trump’s idea is ‘obviously not a good one’, while Department of Justice plans to withhold part of Jack Smith’s report

Greenland is an autonomous part of Denmark, and the Danish foreign minister said they would be open to discussing security concerns over the island with Donald Trump’s administration, but downplayed the possibility of it becoming part of the United States. Here’s more, from the Guardian’s Patrick Wintour, Kim Willsher and Miranda Bryant:

Denmark has said it is open to dialogue with Donald Trump about his legitimate security concerns after the incoming US president said he was prepared to use economic tariffs or military force to seize control of Danish-administered Greenland.

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Los Angeles wildfires force thousands to flee as blazes spread out of control

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Over 30,000 ordered to evacuate as flames rip through coastal Pacific Palisades and other inland fires spread fast

Residents of Los Angeles have fled deadly wildfires engulfing the suburbs of the west coast megalopolis, as firefighters struggled to contain the flames overnight amid fears they would worsen on Wednesday morning.

California officials ordered more than 30,000 people to evacuate their homes as hillside blazes ripped through the coastal Pacific Palisades neighbourhood. People escaped by car and on foot.

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Biden says he warned Trump not to ‘settle scores’ with political adversaries

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President is considering whether to grant pre-emptive presidential pardons to Liz Cheney and Anthony Fauci

Joe Biden said he told Donald Trump not to follow through on his campaign vows to pursue retribution against his political adversaries once he returns to the White House.

Talking to USA Today, Biden said he proffered the advice when he hosted Trump at the White House in November after his election victory over Kamala Harris. The president-elect did not respond directly but did not reject the suggestion, Biden said.

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Why is Donald Trump talking about annexing Greenland?

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The US president-elect has refused to rule out military force to take control. This is why it is important – and what Greenlanders think

Hours after his son Donald Trump Jr touched down in the Greenlandic capital, Nuuk, on Tuesday in a Trump-branded plane, the US president-elect, Donald Trump, held a press conference in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, where he refused to rule out using military force to make Greenland part of the US, and threatened to impose “very high” tariffs on Denmark, of which Greenland is an autonomous territory, if it gets in his way.

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Wicked, A Complete Unknown and Shôgun lead Screen Actors Guild nominations

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This year’s SAG noms see a strong showing for music-led films while Nicole Kidman, Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie are snubbed

Music-led films Wicked and A Complete Unknown and TV shows Shôgun and The Bear lead this year’s Screen Actors Guild nominations, it was announced this morning.

Blockbuster musical Wicked heads up the film side with five nominations including for actors Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey, as well as the ensemble. It was also nominated for stunt ensemble. The film, based on the long-running Broadway hit, has made more than $680m at the global box office.

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Fire reaches Getty Villa museum grounds in California, but structures not burned

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Fueled by major windstorm, Pacific Palisades fire touches museum site but officials say collection safe

A rapidly spreading wildfire in southern California reached the grounds of the Getty Villa museum north of Santa Monica on Tuesday, but officials said no structures had burned and the collection was safe.

The Pacific Palisades fire, fueled by a major windstorm and prompting mass evacuations in Los Angeles county, burned some trees and vegetation on site at the Getty Villa, but museum leaders said the galleries and archives were protected.

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Biden designates two new national monuments after advocacy from tribes

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Chuckwalla and Sáttítla monuments in California will be safeguarded against extraction and energy development

Joe Biden will designate two new national monuments in California in his last days in office, after tribes and environment groups asked him to take urgent action.

The designation of the Chuckwalla monument in southern California and the Sáttítla monument in the far north of the state will place 840,000 acres (339,935 hectares) of land under protection, shielding it from extraction and energy development.

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Appeals court hears case that could dilute Black voters’ power in Louisiana

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Fifth circuit, seen as primed for the Maga era, hears arguments challenging state’s newly created maps

A federal appeals court heard arguments Tuesday in a case that could further erode voting rights protecting minority voters or solidify that Louisiana’s legislative maps diluted Black voters’ power.

The fifth circuit court of appeals, which hears cases brought for appeal from Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, will weigh in on Nairne v Landry, a case in which a federal judge in Louisiana ruled the Republican-controlled legislature had violated section 2 of the Voting Rights Act with its newly created maps.

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US imposes sanctions on senior Hungarian government minister

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US treasury accuses Antal Rogán, a close aide of leader Viktor Orbán, as key to ‘system of corruption’

The United States has imposed sanctions on a senior member of the Hungarian government for alleged corruption, in a move which Budapest said it would challenge as soon as Donald Trump takes office.

The US treasury accused Antal Rogán, a close aide of the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, of using his role to secure financial benefits for himself and his political allies.

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