Category Archives: US News

Biden signs bipartisan bill banning imports of Russian uranium

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Ban, to begin in about 90 days, is White House’s latest effort to apply pressure on Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine

Joe Biden has signed into law a bipartisan bill that bans the import of enriched uranium from Russia, in the latest effort by Washington to apply further pressure on Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine.

The ban on imports of the fuel for nuclear power plants begins in about 90 days, although it allows the Department of Energy (DOE) to issue waivers in case of supply concerns, up until 2028.

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Man who crashed truck into White House barriers in 2023 pleads guilty

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Sai Varshith Kandula from Missouri, who was carrying a Nazi flag at time of arrest, said he hoped to overthrow the US government

A Missouri man pleaded guilty on Monday to crashing a rented truck into metal barriers surrounding the White House in May 2023, admitting that he had been “fueled by the ideology of Nazi Germany” and hoped to overthrow the US government.

Sai Varshith Kandula, 20, from Chesterfield, Missouri, and also a citizen of India, pleaded guilty to a single count of damaging federal property. He faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced in August.

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Kristi Noem banned by two more Native tribes in South Dakota

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Governor, plagued by dog-killing story, unwelcome in 20% of her state after she accused tribal leaders of benefiting from cartels

Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor who was once considered one of Donald Trump’s top vice-presidential contenders, has been banned from nearly one-fifth of the state after two more tribes voted to prohibit her from their lands.

The move by the Yankton Sioux tribe and the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate tribe last week follows criticism from the governor who has – without evidence – accused tribal leaders of “personally benefiting” from drug cartels. The Oglala, Rosebud, Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Sioux tribes banished Noem earlier this year.

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Michael Cohen: Stormy Daniels payment needed Trump sign off and he told me to ‘figure this whole thing out’ – live

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Former Trump lawyer tells trial that ex-president said, ‘Just do it. Go meet up with Allen Weisselberg and figure this whole thing out’

More people here this morning in support of Donald Trump, per poolers:

JD Vance, the Ohio senator who is being floated as a potential Republican running mate to Trump

Tommy Tuberville, the Republican senator of Alabama

Boris Epshteyn, a longtime Trump aide who was charged with conspiracy, fraud and forgery in Arizona

Jason Miller, a Trump campaign adviser

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Kendrick Lamar’s Drake diss track debuts at number one in the US

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Rapper’s scathing song Not Like Us, from his headline-grabbing rap beef with Drake, becomes his fourth Billboard chart-topper

Kendrick Lamar has won the culture-consuming rap beef with Drake, at least as far as Billboard hits are concerned, as his diss track Not Like Us debuted at No 1 on the US Hot 100.

The scathing track, which alleges that the Canadian hit-maker is a “certified pedophile”, is Lamar’s fourth No 1 song, after a feature on Future and Metro Boomin’s Like That earlier this year, 2017’s Humble and his verse on Taylor Swift’s 2015 track Bad Blood.

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Hundreds of ‘emaciated’ and stranded pelicans turn up along California coast

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State’s department of fish and wildlife says the brown pelicans are showing signs of malnutrition, but that the cause is still unclear

Hundreds of starving and stranded brown pelicans have turned up along the California coast in recent weeks in what wildlife advocates have described as a “crisis”.

In Newport Beach in southern California, lifeguards came upon two dozen sick pelicans on a pier last week. The Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach, the non-profit caring for the animals, said they had treated more than 100 other birds who were anemic, dehydrated and extremely underweight.

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Ex-US military intelligence official says he quit over ‘moral injury’ of Gaza war

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Harrison Mann, who resigned from Defense Intelligence Agency in November, said he kept quiet about motives out of fear

A former US military intelligence official released a letter on Monday that explained to his colleagues at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) that his November resignation was in fact due to “moral injury” stemming from US support for Israel’s war in Gaza and the harm caused to Palestinians.

Harrison Mann, an army major, would be the first known DIA official to quit over US support to Israel. A US airman fatally set himself on fire in February outside Israel’s embassy in Washington and other military personnel have protested.

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George Clooney to make Broadway debut in Good Night, and Good Luck

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The actor will play the lead in a stage adaptation of his Oscar-nominated journalism drama from 2005

George Clooney is set to make his Broadway debut in a stage adaptation of his 2005 journalism drama Good Night, and Good Luck.

The actor’s sophomore feature as director will be transformed into a play set to premiere in spring 2025. Clooney, who played Fred W Friendly in the original, will now take on the role of Edward R Murrow.

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Human remains found on Florida beach identified as woman last seen in 1968

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Mystery of Mary Alice Pultz finally resolved when remains of Maryland woman dug up four decades ago identified

Human remains dug up four decades ago on a Florida beach have finally been identified as those of a Maryland woman who went missing in 1968, supposedly disappearing with her then-boyfriend.

The mystery of Mary Alice Pultz was finally resolved last week when a Florida sheriff’s office said that it had identified the remains found in a shallow grave on Crescent Beach, 50 miles south of Jacksonville, in April 1985.

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Smiles, waves and flashed body parts: video portal links Dublin and New York

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Dubliners urged to give ‘Irish welcome’ via interactive sculpture, but bad behaviour has also been on display

Rain sluiced down on a grey Dublin afternoon but the crowd clustering around the portal ignored the downpour and waved at a man cycling towards the screen on a sunny morning in Manhattan.

He gazed back, waved and wobbled before recovering his balance and vanishing down Fifth Avenue, eliciting a cheer from the sodden observers on North Earl Street.

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Weather tracker: Geomagnetic storms trigger northern lights

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Strong solar flares produce breathtaking displays across Europe and the US, with southern lights illuminating skies in New Zealand

Night skies were lit up around the world by a spectacular display of the northern lights on Friday, with sightings seen widely across Europe, the US and even New Zealand (as the southern lights). The lights occur when charged particles emitted from the sun reach the Earth’s atmosphere and collide with gases around the magnetic poles triggering breathtaking night-time auroras.

In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a “severe” G4 geomagnetic storm event, but by Friday evening it announced conditions had reached “extreme” G5 levels, the highest level on the space weather scale, for the first time since October 2003.

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Arm owner SoftBank reports £1.2bn profit as it shifts towards AI

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Tech investor led £800m funding round into UK self-driving car software company Wayve

The Japanese tech investor SoftBank made a profit for the second consecutive quarter as it tries to turn its performance around before big planned investments in artificial intelligence.

SoftBank reported net income of 231bn yen (£1.18bn) in the first three months of 2024, compared with a 57.6bn yen loss in the same period last year, according to financial results published on Monday.

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Michael Cohen says Trump told him to bury Stormy Daniels story: ‘Just take care of it’

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Former fixer tells hush-money trial Trump was ‘really angry’ after account of alleged sexual liaison with adult film star emerged

Donald Trump told his one-time fixer Michael Cohen to bury Stormy Daniels’s account of an alleged sexual liaison weeks before the election, demanding that he “just take care of it”, according to trial testimony in Manhattan court on Monday.

“This was a disaster, a fucking disaster,” Cohen, after he took the stand, recalled Trump saying. “Women will hate me.”

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Bob Menendez corruption trial to begin: ‘I look forward to proving my innocence’

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Trial for New Jersey senator will start Monday as he insists he’s innocent of 16 felony charges, including bribery and extortion

The criminal corruption trial of Democratic US senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey is scheduled to get under way in a Manhattan federal court Monday, with prosecutors preparing a colorful tale of a greedy politician with a fondness for gold bullion, fast cars, and almost half a million dollars in cash found hidden around his home.

Menendez, 70, insists he is innocent of the 16 felony charges brought against him by the US attorney’s office of the southern district of New York, including bribery, extortion, obstruction, and acting as a foreign agent.

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Three people killed and 12 wounded in shooting at Alabama May Day party

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About 1,000 were at party when altercation began and gunfire erupted, resulting in victims that sheriff says are mostly ‘younger’

Three people were killed and at least 12 were wounded Saturday night in a shooting at party in south Alabama.

Andre Reid with the Baldwin county sheriff’s office’s investigation division told WALA-TV that about 1,000 people were attending a May Day party near the community of Stockton when an altercation started and gunfire erupted. Reid said most of the victims were “younger people”.

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Christie’s says $850m auctions to go ahead as planned despite cyberattack

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Sales to proceed despite failing to regain control of its website as staff and cybersecurity scramble to fix issue

The success of New York’s spring art auctions was in jeopardy Sunday, a day after auction house Christie’s confirmed that its website had been hacked, potentially shutting out some bidders on $850m worth of art work going up for bid this week.

Yet despite failing to regain control of its website, Christie’s said that its auctions – the most important of the year in the art world – would go ahead in person and by phone.

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‘Strategic and moral mistakes’: US politicians step up condemnation of Israel

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Democrat warns Hamas could become stronger if Israel wages all-out Rafah assault, while Blinken offers more measured comments

Politicians in the US on Sunday stepped up their denunciation of Israel over its conduct in Gaza, with a leading Democratic senator accusing the key American ally of “strategic and moral mistakes” – and secretary of state, Antony Blinken, saying it was testing the boundaries of international law.

In an interview on CNN’s State of the Union, the Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy, a member of the Senate foreign relations committee, warned that Hamas was likely to become stronger if Israel waged an all-out assault in Rafah.

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Trump praises fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter during rally speech

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Ex-president calls Hopkins’ cannibalistic Lecter ‘late, great’ while condemning ‘people who are being released into our country’

Donald Trump on Saturday praised fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter “as a wonderful man” before segueing into comments disparaging people who have immigrated into the US without permission.

The former president’s remarks to political rally-goers in Wildwood, New Jersey, as he challenges Joe Biden’s re-election in November were a not-so-subtle rhetorical bridge exalting Anthony Hopkins’ cannibalistic Lecter in Silence of the Lambs as “late [and] great” while simultaneously condemning “people who are being released into our country that we don’t want”.

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Sporadic pro-Palestinian protests staged during college commencements

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Small demonstrations held on Saturday, including at Virginia Commonwealth University and University of Wisconsin-Madison

Small pro-Palestinian protests popped up sporadically on Saturday as colleges and universities from North Carolina to California held commencement ceremonies, including dozens of graduating students at Virginia Commonwealth University who walked out on an address by Republican governor Glenn Youngkin.

While some of the estimated 100 students and family members who left during Youngkin’s speech showed support for Palestinians, others held signs signaling opposition to his policies on education, according to WRIC-TV.

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#FreeBritney movement resurges after star’s hotel fight sparks conservatorship fears

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The costs of fame in the US are playing out for the singer as specter of return to an old, unhappy chapter of life looms

Britney Spears has known the highs and lows of how the US treats its celebrities, traveling from Mickey Mouse club child actor to teen pop icon, to global superstar – and then more than a decade under legal conservatorship after a mental health crisis before winning freedom, for the first time perhaps, to be herself.

But now there are fears of a new chapter in Spears’s saga, or the return to an old unhappy one, after she reportedly had a late-night fight with her boyfriend at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles resulting in paramedics being called and pictures of a barefoot pop princess, mostly naked save for a pillow and a blanket, appeared in the tabloids.

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