Category Archives: US News

Former hitman sentenced to 25 years in prison killing of gangster Whitey Bulger

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Ex-mafia associate Fotios ‘Freddy’ Geas convicted of fatally bludgeoning notorious Boston gangster in 2018

A former mafia hitman already serving life in prison was sentenced to 25 years on Friday in the 2018 fatal prison bludgeoning of notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger.

Prosecutors said Fotios “Freddy” Geas used a lock attached to a belt to repeatedly hit the 89-year-old Bulger in the head hours after he arrived at Hazelton, a troubled US penitentiary, from another lockup in Florida in October 2018. Defense attorneys disputed that characterization on Friday, saying Geas hit Bulger with his fist.

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American-Turkish woman shot dead at anti-settler protest in West Bank

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Witnesses say Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was fired at by Israel Defense Forces soldiers positioned in nearby field

An American-Turkish dual national has been shot dead – reportedly by Israeli troops – while participating in a protest against settler expansion in the occupied West Bank.

Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old volunteer with the anti-occupation International Solidarity Movement, died in hospital on Friday after being shot in the head during a protest in Beita, near Nablus, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

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South Park creators to ignore Trump when show returns in 2025

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‘I don’t know what more we could possibly say about Trump,’ Matt Stone tells Vanity Fair in rare interview

The creators of the Emmy-winning series South Park intend to ignore Donald Trump when the irreverent animated show returns for a 27th season in 2025, they said in a rare interview.

“I don’t know what more we could possibly say about Trump,” Matt Stone told Vanity Fair in reference to the former US president whose life is seemingly consumed by unadulterated drama.

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Georgia teacher was trying to protect his students when he was killed, witnesses say

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Students say that Richard Aspinwall left his classroom after the shooting started to try protect them

Richard Aspinwall, the mathematics teacher and football coach who was one of two teachers killed in Wednesday’s high school shooting in Georgia, was trying to protect the children in his classroom when he was killed.

His attempt to protect the teens in his care was one of new details that have emerged about the four victims killed in the gun rampage by a fellow student at Apalachee high school, in the small city of Winder.

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Heatwave across US west breaks records for highest temperatures

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Hottest summer on record continues, with millions from Phoenix to Los Angeles to Seattle under heat alerts

An intense heatwave across the US west has brought unusually warm temperatures to the region – some of the highest of the season – and broken heat records.

Millions of Americans from Phoenix to Los Angeles to Seattle are under heat alerts. Even before this latest bout of extreme weather, which began on Wednesday and is expected to last through the weekend, summer 2024 was already considered the hottest summer on record.

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Backlash for JD Vance after calling school shooting a ‘fact of life’

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Republican vice-presidential candidate was criticized for tone-deafness after comments at campaign rally in Arizona

America’s ideological split over gun control has spilled over into the presidential campaign after JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, voiced regret that school shootings had “become a fact of life” in the US.

Vance’s comments – in the wake of the latest deadly shooting, at Apalachee high school in Georgia – ignited a political row after Democrats depicted them as evidence of a lack of empathy while Republicans claimed the remarks had been taken out of context.

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Georgia school shooting suspect makes first court appearance

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Colt Gray, 14, faces murder charges and his father has been charged over his alleged involvement in supplying the gun

The 14-year-old charged with killing two fellow students and two teachers at his Georgia high school made his first court appearance on Friday – with his father, who was arrested late on Thursday, set to appear shortly afterwards.

Colt Gray appeared in person, dressed in green prison scrubs and hands and ankles shackled to his waist at the hearing in Barrow county courthouse, having previously been understood to be planning to attend by video link. He traveled from the youth detention facility in which he is being held. He is being detained there as a juvenile, even though he is expected to be tried as an adult.

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Campaigners press US to ban Israel arms sales after UK’s partial halt

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Activists say Britain’s decision bolsters case for Congress to follow suit and may embolden opposition to Biden policy

The UK decision to suspend some arms exports to Israel has bolstered the case for Congress to follow the example of its ally, US campaigners for a ban have said.

The campaigners are pressing the US Senate and the house to pass a joint resolution of disapproval blocking authorisation for an unprecedented $20bn (£15.2bn) weapons sale. The massive transfer was notified to Congress last month when it was in recess.

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Harris campaign raised $361m in August, triple the amount of Trump campaign

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The Trump team raised $130m in same month, with $285m cash in hand compared with Harris’s $404m

Kamala Harris raised triple the amount of her opponent in this election, Donald Trump, last month, in what her campaign claimed was the best grassroots fundraising month in presidential history.

With less than 60 days until the 2024 presidential election, the campaign team for Harris, the Democratic party’s nominee for president, following the departure of US president Joe Biden from his re-election race in July, announced on Friday that it raised $361m in the month of August.

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Owner of 7-Eleven rejects $39bn takeover offer from Canadian rival

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Japanese group says Couche-Tard plan undervalues firm, but leaves door open to higher offer

The parent company of the global convenience store chain 7-Eleven has rejected a near $39bn (£29.6bn) takeover offer from a Canadian rival, arguing it “grossly undervalues” the company.

Last month, Tokyo-based Seven & i revealed that it had received a bid from Alimentation Couche-Tard setting the scene for what could be Japan’s biggest ever foreign takeover.

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China says it is ending foreign adoptions, prompting concern from US

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US diplomats seeking clarity for hundreds of families in the process of international adoption

The Chinese government is ending its international adoption programme, and the US is seeking clarification on how the decision will affect hundreds of American families with pending applications.

At a daily briefing on Thursday, Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, said Beijing was no longer allowing intercountry adoptions of children from China, with the only exception for blood relatives to adopt a child or a stepchild.

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Trump tells Jewish donors they would be ‘abandoned’ if Harris is elected

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In Las Vegas summit speech, Republican candidate paints potential Harris presidency in cataclysmic terms for Israel

Donald Trump told Jewish donors on Thursday that they would be “abandoned” if Kamala Harris becomes president.

In his speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas, the Republican presidential candidate also said he would ban refugee resettlement from “terror-infested” areas such as Gaza and arrest “pro-Hamas thugs” who engage in vandalism, an apparent reference to the college student protesters.

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Woman dies 18 years after Amish village mass shooting left her severely injured

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Rosanna King was just six when gunman shot her and nine other girls, killing five, in Pennsylvania community in 2006

A woman who was severely injured when a gunman killed five girls and wounded her and four other girls during a mass shooting at their one-room, rural Amish schoolhouse has died 18 years later, a funeral director said on Thursday.

Rosanna King, 23, died at her home in the farming community of Paradise, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday and a funeral is planned there on Friday, according to an obituary from Furman Home for Funerals in Leola.

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Russian TV presenter charged with violating US sanctions and money laundering

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Dimitri Simes, who had contacts in Donald Trump’s orbit, charged as White House targets Kremlin influencers before US presidential elections

US investigators have indicted a prominent Russian state television personality and his wife for violating sanctions and money laundering as the White House targets Kremlin influence operations ahead of the US presidential elections.

Dimitri Simes, a television presenter and producer for Russia’s state-owned Channel One, was charged with receiving over $1m (£759,000) in compensation, a personal car and driver, a stipend for a flat in Moscow, Russia, despite the television station’s designation in 2022 by the US’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. He and his wife, Anastasia, were charged with money-laundering to hide the proceeds of his work for Channel One.

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Georgia school shooting: teen suspect was interviewed over threats last year

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Officials say 14-year-old charged with fatally shooting four at Apalachee high school used assault-style rifle

The 14-year-old boy charged with fatally shooting two students and two teachers with an assault-style rifle at a high school in Georgia on Wednesday had previously been interviewed by investigators, with his father insisting the teenager did not have unsupervised access to the family’s guns.

The small city of Winder is in deep shock and mourning over the shooting at Apalachee high school, about 50 miles from Atlanta, as the victims who died were named.

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Hunter Biden offers unusual guilty plea in tax case in surprise back-and-forth

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US president’s son, who previously pleaded not guilty, seeks new plea deal wherein he would not admit to allegations

Hunter Biden offered to plead guilty to federal tax charges but avoid admitting any wrongdoing, in an unusual, last-minute legal maneuver that federal prosecutors quickly opposed.

The surprise back-and-forth unfolded on Thursday morning as the president’s only surviving son entered a Los Angeles courthouse for the start of his tax-avoidance trial.

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Kamala Harris will win election, predicts leading historian Allan Lichtman

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Polling ‘Nostradamus’, said to have correctly forecast since 1984 all races except Gore’s loss, says Trump on track to lose

Allan Lichtman, the historian dubbed the “Nostradamus” of US presidential elections, has predicted that Kamala Harris will win the White House in November’s poll.

Having previously warned the Democrats of the dangers of removing Joe Biden from the ticket, Lichtman nevertheless forecast that the vice-president, who became the party’s nominee after the president withdrew in July, would be elected in a video for the New York Times.

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Retired New Orleans priest accused of child rape found competent – but trial could be delayed

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Lawrence Hecker, 92 and diagnosed with dementia, will be evaluated again to see if he is capable of defending himself

A court-ordered psychiatrist evaluated self-acknowledged child molester and retired priest Lawrence Hecker for a third time on Thursday, declaring him “fragilely competent” to stand trial on rape and kidnapping charges.

New Orleans criminal court judge Benedict Willard stopped short of declaring Hecker competent to stand trial and assist in his own defense but kept a 24 September trial date in place.

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UK signs first international treaty to implement AI safeguards

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Also signed by the EU, US and Israel, the declaration aims to mitigate the threats that AI may pose to human rights, democracy and the rule of law

The UK government has signed the first international treaty on artificial intelligence in a move that aims to prevent misuses of the technology, such as spreading misinformation or using biased data to make decisions.

Under the legally binding agreement, states must implement safeguards against any threats posed by AI to human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The treaty, called the framework convention on artificial intelligence, was drawn up by the Council of Europe, an international human rights organisation, and was signed on Thursday by the EU, UK, US and Israel.

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US conservative influencers say they are ‘victims’ of Russian disinformation campaign

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Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson addressed allegations that a company they were associated with had been paid to publish videos with messages in favour of Russia

A number of high-profile, conservative influencers in the US have said they are “victims” of an alleged Russian disinformation campaign, after the Biden administration accused Moscow of carrying out a sustained campaign to influence the outcome of November’s presidential elections.

Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson published statements on Wednesday evening addressing allegations that a US content creation company they were associated with had been provided with nearly $10m from Russian state media employees to publish videos with messages in favour of Moscow’s interests and agenda, including over the war in Ukraine.

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