Category Archives: US News

Musk’s influence on Trump could lead to tougher AI standards, says scientist

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Tycoon might help president-elect realise race for artificial general intelligence is a ‘suicide race’, says Max Tegmark

Elon Musk’s influence on a Donald Trump administration could lead to tougher safety standards for artificial intelligence, according to a leading scientist who has worked closely with the world’s richest person on addressing AI’s dangers.

Max Tegmark said Musk’s support for a failed AI bill in California underlined the billionaire’s continued concern over an issue that did not feature prominently in Trump’s campaign.

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Trump to appoint Stephen Miller, immigration hardliner, as deputy chief of policy

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Miller worked in the first Trump administration as a senior adviser and is known for his extremist rhetoric

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to announce that he will appoint immigration hardliner and close adviser, Stephen Miller, as his White House deputy chief of staff for policy.

Miller worked in the White House during Trump’s first administration, serving as a senior adviser to Trump and as director of speechwriting. He played a key role in developing several of Trump’s immigration policies, including the Muslim travel ban and the family separation policy.

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Trump to reportedly appoint immigration hardliner Stephen Miller to top White House job – live

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The architect of Trump’s immigration policy is expected to become the deputy chief of staff for policy, CNN reports

US president-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday that Tom Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), will be in charge of the country’s borders in his new administration.

Homan’s areas of control will include “the southern border, the northern border, all maritime, and aviation security”, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. Trump added that “border czar” Homan will be in charge of the deportation of illegal immigrants.

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Airlines halt flights to Haiti after plane hit by gunfire

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Spirit Airlines flight heading from Florida to Port-au-Prince diverted to Dominican Republic after flight attendant was grazed by bullet, amid broader violence in Haiti’s capital

Haiti’s international airport shut down on Monday after gangs opened fire at a commercial flight landing in Port-Au-Prince, prompting some airlines to suspend operations as the country swore in a new interim prime minister who promised to restore peace.

The Spirit Airlines flight headed from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Port-Au-Prince was just hundreds of feet from landing in Haiti’s capital when gangs shot at the plane, striking a flight attendant who suffered minor injuries, according to the airline, the US embassy and flight tracking data.

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US climate envoy says fight against climate crisis does not end under Trump

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Even if president-elect rolls back climate progress, John Podesta reaffirms commitment to a clean planet at Cop29

The US climate envoy John Podesta said the fight “for a cleaner, safer” planet will not stop under a re-elected Donald Trump even if some progress is reversed, speaking at the Cop29 UN climate talks on Monday as they opened in Baku, Azerbaijan.

“Although under Donald Trump’s leadership the US federal government placed climate-related actions on the back burner, efforts to prevent climate change remain a commitment in the US and will confidently continue,” said Podesta, who is leading the Biden administration’s delegation at the annual talks.

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Asthma linked to memory problems in children, research suggests

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Condition appears to affect episodic memory but researchers did not assess how it caused deficits

Children who have asthma can experience memory problems, according to research in the USthat is the first to link the two conditions.

The research also found that the earlier a child developed asthma, the greater the damage to their memory. The findings highlight the need to view asthma as a potential source of cognitive difficulty in children, the study’s lead author said.

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Trump demands Senate allow him to circumvent hearings to appoint cabinet

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Trump urges support from Rick Scott, John Thune and John Cornyn for ‘recess appointments’ while US Senate is paused

Donald Trump has demanded that the three frontrunners to lead the Senate allow him to appoint officials to his new administration without confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill, as a future Republican government began to take shape the week after his election victory.

In a demonstration of his political muscle, the US president-elect urged support for “recess appointments”, which allow the president to make appointments while the Senate is temporarily paused, and can be used to circumvent the confirmation process, which can result in appointments being delayed or blocked.

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Man who allegedly disguised killing as bear attack captured in South Carolina

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Nicholas Wayne Hamlett arrested almost one month after police found body of Steven Lloyd of Tennessee

Authorities in South Carolina have captured a man who allegedly murdered a hiker in woodlands in Tennessee then attempted to disguise the killing as a bear attack.

Nicholas Wayne Hamlett was arrested in Columbia on Sunday night almost one month after police found the body of the hiker, Steven Lloyd of Knoxville, Tennessee, close to the Cherahola Skyway in Monroe county, 80 miles north-east of Chattanooga.

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Aid to Gaza falls to lowest level in 11 months despite US ultimatum to Israel

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US government wrote to Israel a month ago threatening sanctions if there was no increase in humanitarian supplies

The amount of aid reaching Gaza has dropped to the lowest level since December, official Israeli figures show, despite the US having issued a 30-day ultimatum last month threatening sanctions if there was no increase in humanitarian supplies reaching the territory.

The ultimatum was delivered on 13 October, so will expire on Tuesday or Wednesday. It is unclear what measures Israel’s apparent failure to fulfil US demands will trigger, but they may include a temporary halt to the supply of some munitions or other military assistance.

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Trump reportedly tells Putin to not escalate war in Ukraine; Rick Scott emerges as front-runner for Senate leader role – live

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Trump told Russian president to not escalate war with Ukraine, Washington Post reports; multiple conservatives endorse the Florida senator as the next leader

Here is a video report on the protests against Donald Trump in New York and Washington DC mentioned earlier:

Protests against Donald Trump erupted in the US on Saturday as people on both coasts took to the streets in frustration about his re-election.

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Mattel apologises after Wicked movie dolls mistakenly link to porn website on packaging

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Toy company advises parents to ‘discard the product packaging or obscure the link’ on Glinda and Elphaba dolls

The toy company Mattel says it is taking “immediate action” after mistakenly printing a pornographic website address on the packaging for dolls released to tie in with the upcoming Wicked film.

Over the weekend, individuals began sharing photos online of the dolls’ packaging, which showed a link to wicked.com, instead of wickedmovie.com. The address was printed on boxes for Glinda and Elphaba dolls, the main characters in Wicked, played in the film adaptation by Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo respectively.

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New York state parks employee dies while battling wildfires

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Dariel Vasquez died when tree fell on him as he battled major brush fire along the New York-New Jersey border

A New York parks employee died battling one of a number of wildfires in New Jersey and New York amid dry conditions that have prompted air quality warnings in both states, authorities said on Sunday.

The Eastern Dutchess county fire and rescue said the New York state forestry service reported that the worker died when a tree fell on him Saturday afternoon as he battled a major brush fire along the New York-New Jersey border, officials said.

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One person killed and 16 injured at Alabama university homecoming event

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Shooting at Tuskegee University is fourth reported at homecoming events in US within the last three weeks

One person was killed and 16 others were injured when gunfire erupted at Tuskegee University in Alabama on Sunday, the fourth reported shooting at homecoming events across the US within the last three weeks.

The Tuskegee shooting occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning. The person who was killed was not affiliated with the university, and their parents have been notified, according to the university.

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Judith Jamison, acclaimed dancer and Alvin Ailey artistic director, dies aged 81

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Jamison joined Alvin Ailey’s dance company in 1965 and performed there for 15 years, premiering solo Cry in 1971

Judith Jamison, an acclaimed dancer and choreographer who for two decades was artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, died on Saturday in New York, at the age of 81.

Her death came after a brief illness, according to a post on the company’s Instagram page.

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Sweep of swing states rubs salt in Democrats’ wounds as Trump prepares to meet Biden

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Trump to visit Oval Office on Wednesday as Biden says he will ‘ensure a peaceful and orderly transition’

Donald Trump was declared the winner in Arizona early on Sunday, completing the Republicans’ clean sweep of the so-called swing states and rubbing salt in Democrats’ wounds as it was announced that the president-elect is scheduled to meet with Joe Biden at the White House on Wednesday to discuss the presidential handover.

In a national campaign that was projected as being extremely close but he ended up winning handily, the result in Arizona gives Trump 312 electoral college votes, compared with Kamala Harris’s 226. The state joins the other Sun belt swing states – Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina – and the three Rust belt states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in voting Republican. All were expected to be extremely competitive but all went for Trump, though by fairly close margins.

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‘He hears me’: Trump’s Wall Street fixer prepares to assemble obedient administration

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Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick is planning to stack the incoming White House staff with Trump loyalists

Scrambling to construct an administration in the wake of his shock victory eight years ago, Donald Trump looked far beyond his inner circle, and those who ardently embraced his agenda. Not this time.

The president-elect has charged Howard Lutnick, a longtime friend, and one of the few high-profile figures in corporate America to vocally endorse his campaign, with recruiting officials who will deliver, rather than dilute, his agenda.

A masculinity researcher on the Democrats’ ‘fatal miscalculation’

Election deniers use Trump victory to sow more doubt over 2020 result

What a second Trump presidency means for big US tech firms

Who could be in Trump’s new administration

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Trump wins Arizona, completing sweep of all seven battleground states, AP declares

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Donald Trump now has what is expected to be a final total of 312 electoral college votes, with Kamala Harris securing 226

Donald Trump has won the presidential election in Arizona, the Associated Press declared on Saturday, completing a clean sweep of all seven battleground states and locking in a decisive electoral college victory over the Democratic vice-president, Kamala Harris.

Trump, who had secured the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the White House by early Wednesday, now has what is expected to be a final total of 312 votes to Harris’ 226.

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Republicans on the verge of clinching control of the US House

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With votes still being counted from general election, a win would be critical for Trump to advance agenda

Republicans on Saturday appeared close to clinching control of the US House of Representatives, a critical element for Donald Trump to advance his agenda when the president-elect returns to the White House in January.

With votes still being counted from the 5 November general election, Republicans had won 212 seats in the 435-member House, according to Edison Research, which projected on Friday night that Republican Jeff Hurd had enough votes to keep Republican control of Colorado’s third congressional district.

Trump wins the presidency – how did it happen?

With Trump re-elected, this is what’s at stake

Abortion ballot measure results by state

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Anti-Trump protests erupt across US from New York City to Seattle

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Thousands of people take to streets to protest threats to reproductive rights and pledges of mass deportations

Protests against Donald Trump erupted in the US on Saturday as people on both coasts took to the streets in frustration about his re-election.

Thousands of people in major cities including New York City and Seattle demonstrated against the former president and now president-elect amid his threats against reproductive rights and pledges to carry out mass deportations at the start of his upcoming presidency.

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Trump ally: Ukraine focus is to achieve ‘peace and stop the killing’

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Spokesperson for Trump’s presidential transition effort said Bryan Lanza had not been speaking on behalf of president-elect

A senior adviser to Donald Trump said that the incoming US administration’s priority for Ukraine will be achieving peace rather than helping it regain territory captured by Russia in the almost three years of the war.

In an interview with the BBC, broadcast on Saturday, Bryan Lanza, who has been a political adviser to Trump since his 2016 presidential campaign, began to elaborate on the strong signals the now president-elect had been sending to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on the campaign trail.

Trump wins the presidency – how did it happen?

With Trump re-elected, this is what’s at stake

Abortion ballot measure results by state

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