President vows to continue work to stop ‘epidemic of gun violence’ after praising supreme court ruling that disarms domestic abusers
The supreme court’s chief justice John Roberts wrote the opinion in United States v Rahimi, which upheld a law that bans domestic abusers from carrying guns.
“An individual found by a court to pose a credible threat to the physical safety of another may be temporarily disarmed consistent with the Second Amendment,” Roberts wrote.
Continue reading...The black-belt ‘group of good Samaritans’ rescued an employee at a Texas cellphone store ‘just in time’
A family of taekwondo instructors fought off a man who was sexually assaulting a woman next to their dojo in Texas and detained him until sheriff’s deputies could arrive to arrest him, according to authorities.
In a statement issued Thursday, the sheriff of Harris county – which encompasses Houston – thanked Han An, his wife, Hong An, and their three children Hannah, Simon and Christian for what he called “quick action in protecting others”.
Continue reading...CDK said in a letter to its 15,000 customers that it ‘did not have a an estimated time frame for resolution’
A cyber outage at a major retail software provider for automobile dealers entered its third consecutive day on Friday, delaying car sales throughout North America, the affected companies said. The software provider, CDK, said there was no end in sight.
“The CDK outage is impacting automotive dealerships across the US and Canada, including a portion of BMW Group dealers,” a spokesperson for BMW North America told Reuters.
Continue reading...Alvin Bragg has received onslaught of threats against him and other officials since guilty verdict in hush-money trial
Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who prosecuted Donald Trump in his felony trial, has asked a judge to extend a gag order against the ex-president after an onslaught of threats and harassment against him and other officials since the guilty verdict.
The gag order was placed on Trump before the start of the felony trial. It prevented the former president from attacking witnesses, court staff, jurors and relatives of Judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw the trial.
Continue reading...California family lets Diesel ‘live his best life’ with his new herd after he got loose on a camping trip
A donkey spotted apparently living with a herd of wild elk in a video that went viral on the internet has been identified as Diesel, a once beloved pet who had apparently run away five years ago.
The video was taken earlier this year, when Max Fennell, a hunter in northern California, filmed a group of wild elk apparently hanging out with a donkey who appeared to be a member of their herd.
Continue reading...Footage was unsealed in court action by families of victims who claim Saudi government was complicit in event
A 25-year-old video has come to light of a man identified by the FBI as a Saudi intelligence agent filming locations in the center of Washington three months before Al-Qaida decided to carry out the 9/11 attacks.
The footage, shot in the summer of 1999 and in the possession of the FBI, was unsealed in a court action by families of the victims of 9/11, who claim that Saudi Arabia’s government was complicit in the event, which the country’s rulers deny. It was obtained by CBS and shown on the 60 Minutes program.
Continue reading...State department warns such a move could destabilise the peninsula, as South Korea considers arming Ukraine
Vladimir Putin’s suggestion that Russia could supply weapons to North Korea is “incredibly concerning”, a senior US official has said, days after Putin and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, signed a defence pact that requires their countries to provide immediate military assistance if either is attacked.
Matthew Miller, a US state department spokesperson, said the provision of Russian weapons to Pyongyang “would destabilise the Korean peninsula, of course, and potentially … depending on the type of weapons they provide … violate UN security council resolutions that Russia itself has supported”.
Continue reading...Manhattan prosecutors decline to pursue charges against dozens of students who occupied building in April protest
Dozens of pro-Palestinian student protesters arrested in April after occupying and barricading a building at Columbia University in New York City have had all criminal charges against them dropped, Manhattan prosecutors said at a court hearing.
The hearing at the Manhattan criminal courthouse came seven weeks after Columbia administrators called in hundreds of armed and heavily armored police officers to the university’s campus in a high-profile law-enforcement response that was broadcast live on national news channels.
Continue reading...Incumbent Bob Good, chair of far-right Freedom Caucus, appeals for patience as votes counted in congressional race
The conservative US representative Bob Good is asking for “patience from the people of Virginia’s fifth district over the coming weeks” as he hopes the final ballot count from Tuesday’s primary will allow him to fend off a fellow Republican challenger endorsed by former president Donald Trump.
Good, who chairs the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, currently trails state senator John McGuire by a little more than 300 votes as elections officials finalize their vote counts and mail-in ballots continue to trickle in.
Continue reading...Chinese firm recounts talks with US government that ended abruptly and says it spent $2bn to draft security agreement
New legal filings from the Chinese tech firm ByteDance have challenged the US government’s “unconstitutional singling out of TikTok”, revealing fresh details about failed negotiations over a potential ban of the platform.
Legislation signed in April by Joe Biden gives ByteDance until 19 January to either divest TikTok’s US assets or face a ban. ByteDance claims in its new filings that such divestiture is “not possible technologically, commercially, or legally” and accuses the US government of refusing to engage in any serious settlement talks after 2022.
Continue reading...Crypto tycoons claim Biden has ‘openly declared war against crypto’ in lengthy critique of administration policy
Cryptocurrency tycoons the Winklevoss twins have each donated $1m in bitcoin to Donald Trump’s campaign and pledged to vote for the former president in November, claiming Joe Biden had “openly declared war against crypto”.
Trump is “pro-Bitcoin, pro-crypto, pro-business”, Cameron Winklevoss declared on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday. “And he will put an end to the Biden Administration’s war on crypto.”
Continue reading...Agents also conducted searches at two homes owned by members of the politically influential Duong family
Federal authorities have raided a home belonging to the mayor of Oakland, California, as part of an investigation that included a search of at least two other houses, officials said on Thursday.
The raid took place on Thursday morning, when FBI agents carried 80 boxes out of a four-bedroom home that property records link to Sheng Thao, who is serving her first term as the city’s mayor.
Continue reading...Wrapped in bald eagle packaging, 21kg of cocaine was found off the Florida Keys coast
Boaters have discovered $1m worth of cocaine off the coast of the Florida Keys, authorities announced.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, the Monroe county sheriff’s department announced that recreational boaters discovered a package containing approximately 21kg (61lbs) of packaged cocaine around seven miles (11km) off Islamorada, a village of islands in the Florida Keys.
Continue reading...Ksenia Karelina was detained in January during a trip to visit family and faces up to 20 years in prison
A Russian American ballerina who lives and works in Los Angeles has gone on trial for treason over an alleged donation of $50 to a pro-Ukrainian charity, in the latest court case to raise tensions between Washington and Moscow.
Ksenia Karelina, 32, was detained by police in the city of Yekaterinburg in late January while on a trip to visit her family in Russia.
Continue reading...Merger with International Paper moving at ‘absolutely full steam’ in face of separate interest from Brazil’s Suzano
The boss of the FTSE 100 company DS Smith has said its £5.8bn takeover by a US rival is going at “absolutely full steam”, despite concerns it could be derailed by another packaging sector merger.
Miles Roberts, DS Smith’s chief executive, said merger work with International Paper was “going very well” and that he definitely expected the deal to complete.
Continue reading...Researchers find extreme heat four times more likely than at turn of millennium and urge reduction in fossil fuels
The deadly heatwave that scorched large swaths of Mexico, Central America and the southern US in recent weeks was made 35 times more likely due to human-induced global heating, according to research by leading climate scientists from World Weather Attribution (WWA).
Tens of millions of people have endured dangerous day – and nighttime temperatures as a heat dome engulfed Mexico – a large and lingering zone of high pressure that stretched north to Texas, Arizona and Nevada, and south over Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
Continue reading...Michael Fellows and Jason Alvarez have dismissed their suit with prejudice, having previously argued that the late concert had impacted their sleep
Two Madonna fans have dropped their lawsuit against the singer for starting her show two hours late, having previously argued they had to get up early the next day.
In January, Michael Fellows and Jason Alvarez filed a class action case against the singer, Brooklyn venue the Barclays Center and her tour promoters Live Nation after she came on stage at 10.30pm at the Barclays Center on 13 December.
Continue reading...Actor is due to go to trial over death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was killed on set of Rust
Fewer than three weeks before actor Alec Baldwin is due to go on trial in Santa Fe, New Mexico, prosecutors have said that he “engaged in horseplay with the revolver”, including firing a blank round at a crew member on the set of Rust before the tragic accident occurred.
Baldwin is facing involuntary manslaughter charges in the 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Continue reading...Law passed requiring text to be displayed in every public school classroom, although lawsuits against it are expected
Louisiana has become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom under a bill signed into law by the Republican governor, Jeff Landry, on Wednesday.
The GOP-drafted legislation mandates that a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” be required in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities. Although the bill did not receive final approval from Landry, the time for gubernatorial action – to sign or veto the bill – has lapsed.
Continue reading...US says dams killed off salmon, inundated villages and burial grounds, and spirited wealth away from tribes
The US government, in a report published on Tuesday, acknowledged for the first time the harms that federal dams have inflicted on Native American tribes in the US Pacific north-west.
The report by the interior department details the “historic, ongoing and cumulative impacts of federal Columbia River dams on Columbia River Basin Tribes”, including how dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers have devastated salmon runs, inundated villages and burial grounds, and deprived tribal members of the ability to exercise traditional ways of life.
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