Russian military trainers arrive in Niger as African country pulls away from US

West African state turned to Russia to help in fight against insurgents throwing into doubt future of operations with US

Russian military trainers have arrived to reinforce Niger’s air defenses as the west African country pulls away from close cooperation with the US in counterterrorism efforts, turning instead to Moscow for help as it fights Islamist insurgents.

State television in the country broadcast footage of Russian military trainers arriving in the country aboard a plane equipped with military supplies late on Thursday. Two Russian trainers were filmed in front of the plane wearing military uniforms, caps and face coverings.

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While Biden and Kishida exchange praise in Washington, Japan is asking ‘what if Trump’?

Despite warm words from the US and Japanese leaders during their summit this week, back in Japan the spectre of a second Trump White House looms large

Joe Biden was effusive in his praise for Japan and its “bold” prime minister, Fumio Kishida, during a state visit that took place this week amid new and growing security threats in the Asia-Pacific, wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and months of political uncertainty ahead for both leaders.

The first ladies, Jill Biden and Yuko Kishida, exchanged gifts and hugs, there was talk of cherry blossoms and a state banquet menu inspired by Japanese cuisine – and even a half-decent joke from Kishida about the Flintstones.

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Driver in fatal Texas crash was using Ford’s auto driving system, officials say

Investigators say data from electric Mustang Mach E shows ‘Blue Cruise’ was in use when SUV struck a stopped car in San Antonio

The driver of a Ford electric SUV involved in a February fatal crash in Texas was using the company’s partially automated driving system before the wreck, federal investigators said Thursday.

Data from the 2022 Mustang Mach E SUV showed that Ford’s “Blue Cruise” driver-assist system was in use ahead of the 24 February crash, according to a preliminary report released Thursday by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

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Biden pledges to defend Philippines from any attack in South China Sea

US president describes defence commitment to the Philippines and Japan as ‘ironclad’ as Beijing accuses Manila of violating Chinese sovereignty

Joe Biden has pledged to defend the Philippines from any attack in the South China Sea, as he hosted the first joint summit with Manila and Tokyo amid growing tensions with Beijing.

“The United States’ defence commitments to Japan and to the Philippines are ironclad,” the US president said on Thursday as he met the Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos and Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida.

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Stockton to pay $6m to settle lawsuit over man who died during arrest

Shayne Sutherland, 29, died in California after being held face down, a year before a law banned maneuvers that lead to asphyxia

The city of Stockton, California, has agreed to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Shayne Sutherland, a 29-year-old who died after being held face down by police officers in 2020, for $6m, the family’s attorneys announced Thursday.

Sutherland’s mother, Karen Sutherland, said that nothing can replace her son, but that the settlement feels like an acknowledgement of responsibility from Stockton police, which she had been hoping for.

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Tennessee legislature passes bill banning marriage between first cousins

Proposal sails through, with one vocal opponent saying gay first cousins do not risk having a child with birth defects

The Republican-led Tennessee legislature has overwhelmingly voted to send the Republican governor, Bill Lee, a proposal that would ban marriage between first cousins.

The statehouse cast a 75-2 vote on Thursday on the bill after the senate previously approved it without any opposition.

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Aid ‘still not reaching Gaza’, as top US official warns famine has started

Samantha Power becomes first US official to confirm famine, while aid workers decry continuing lack of help

A surge in aid into Gaza that Benjamin Netanyahu promised Joe Biden a week ago has so far failed to materialise, aid workers say, as the US aid chief confirmed that famine was beginning to take hold in parts of the besieged coastal strip.

A key port has not been opened to aid shipments, and a new crossing into northern Gaza has officially opened but UN agencies are not yet allowed to use it, even though they provide the vast majority of food aid for the territory.

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Man arrested in Alabama bombing outside state attorney general’s office

Kyle Benjamin Douglas Calvert, 26, allegedly put stickers on state buildings with antifa, anti-police and anti-Ice sentiments

An Alabama man has been charged with detonating an explosive device outside the state attorney general’s office.

In a statement on Wednesday, the justice department announced that authorities had arrested 26-year-old Kyle Benjamin Douglas Calvert of Irondale on charges of malicious use of an explosive and possession of an unregistered destructive device.

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Sam Bankman-Fried appeals FTX fraud convictions and 25-year prison sentence

Ex-CEO and former crypto mogul, 32, was found guilty of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy to launder money in November

Sam Bankman-Fried appealed his fraud convictions and 25-year prison sentence on Thursday.

The ex-CEO of the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange was found guilty on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy to launder money in November and sentenced to more than two decades in federal prison in late March. The former crypto mogul, 32, had signaled he would contest the court’s rulings shortly after he learned of his sentence. It’s not yet clear on what grounds Bankman-Fried will argue for an appeal, which could take years.

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Trump and Mike Johnson push for redundant ban on non-citizens voting

Planned bill to ban already illegal practice is latest Republican step to spread falsehoods about immigration and voter fraud

Donald Trump and the House speaker, Mike Johnson, plan to push for a bill to ban non-citizens from voting, the latest step by Republicans to falsely claim migrants are coming to the country and casting ballots.

Voting when a person is not eligible – for instance if they lack US citizenship – is already illegal under federal law. It is unclear what the bill Johnson and the former president will discuss in their Friday press conference at Mar-a-Lago will do to alter that. But it is one more way for the former president to focus on election security and to ding the Biden administration over the situation at the US-Mexico border, a key issue for likely Republican voters this November.

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US seeking to deter Iran from strike on Israel, officials say

US declaring commitment to Israeli security while also working to prevent regional war, say officials

The US is seeking to deter Iran from carrying out a retaliatory strike against Israel with concerted declarations of commitment to Israeli security, while at the same time trying to prevent the outbreak of a major regional war, officials in Washington have said.

US officials still believe that a direct Iranian missile or drone strike is possible within the next few days, in retaliation for the Israeli bombing of an Iranian consular building in Damascus on 1 April, which killed a top Islamic Revolutionary Guards general and six other Guard officers.

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Japanese leader asks US to overcome ‘self-doubt’ about global leadership

Fumio Kishida warns of risks from China in address to Congress and says Japan determined to do more to share responsibility

Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, on Thursday called on Americans to overcome their “self-doubt” as he offered a paean to US global leadership before a bitterly divided Congress.

Warning of risks from the rise of China, Kishida said that Japan – stripped of its right to a military after the second world war – was determined to do more to share responsibility with its ally the United States.

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Fishermen saved by ‘Help’ message on same tiny island where ‘SOS’ saved three others

Three rescued in the Pacific after making message in the sand with palm fronds, just as another group had done four years prior

Three fishermen stranded on a remote Pacific atoll for more than a week were rescued after spelling out the word “Help” in the sand using giant palm fronds.

A crew from the US Coast Guard cutter Oliver Henry plucked the men, in their 40s, from Pikelot atoll, part of the Federated States of Micronesia, to safety on Tuesday after their message was spotted from the air.

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EPA has limited six ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water – but there are 15,000

Rules celebrated for reducing exposures, but experts say it’s not enough and will lead to ‘an endless game of Whac-a-Mole’

Strong new limits for some PFAS compounds in drinking water set by the US Environmental Protection Agency this week are being celebrated for how far they go in reducing exposures to the dangerous chemicals.

But public health advocates say the rules merely represent a first step that is limited in its impact on the broader PFAS crisis because they do not directly prevent more pollution or force the chemical industry to pay for cleanup.

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Tim Kaine: Biden knows Netanyahu ‘played’ him in early months of Gaza war

Senator and leading foreign policy voice in Democratic party tells the Guardian Biden has come to realise the limits of his influence

Senator Tim Kaine, a former vice-presidential nominee and leading foreign policy voice in the Democratic party, has said Joe Biden now understands that Benjamin Netanyahu “played” him during the early months of the war in Gaza but “that ain’t going to happen any more”.

In an interview with the Guardian on Tuesday, Kaine accused the prime minister of making Israel “dramatically less safe” and hurting its longstanding relationship with the US, and said the US president had come to realise the limits of his influence.

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Biden races to commit billions to climate action as election looms

Biden administration hopes funding will spur enduring cuts to planet-heating emissions no matter who is in White House

Amid rising global temperatures and a looming election against an opponent who has indicated he will gut his climate policies, Joe Biden’s administration is shoveling billions of dollars into efforts it hopes will spur enduring cuts to planet-heating emissions, no matter the occupant of the White House.

In recent weeks, large tracts of funding has been announced by the administration to help overcome some of the thorniest and esoteric challenges the world faces in driving down carbon pollution, seeding the promise of everything from the advent of zero-emissions concrete to low-pollution food production, including mac and cheese and ice-cream, to driving the uptake of solar panels and electric stoves in low-income households.

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Five Georgia students rescue a woman and her two children from drowning car

The Kappa Alpha Theta members jumped into action to save Cori Craft and her two sons after their SUV veered off into a creek

With her two sons accompanying her, Cori Craft had just accidentally driven her SUV into a creek in rural Georgia, and she couldn’t find her phone to summon help as the car rapidly sank.

Thoughts that she and her family could soon drown started to flood her mind. But then she heard a voice call out and ask if she was OK. Her reply that she was not OK was the only thing five college sorority members needed to hear to work together to pull Craft and her boys out – and then resuscitate one of the children by performing CPR on him.

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Arizona’s Republican leaders block attempt to repeal abortion ban

Democrats stymied after state supreme court rules that 1864 law with no exceptions for rape or incest can go into effect

Arizona’s state Republican leadership halted an effort by Democrats on Wednesday to repeal an 1864 law banning almost all abortions, which the state supreme court this week ruled could go into effect.

The move came after Republican lawmakers in the state had denounced the court’s decision, including some who previously expressed support for the law. Donald Trump and other high-profile Republicans, such as the Senate candidate Kari Lake, had also declared their opposition to the ruling with Lake urging lawmakers to “come up with an immediate commonsense solution that Arizonans can support”.

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Mass use of guided bombs driving Russian advances, says Ukraine

Up to 500 ‘drop-and-forget’ bombs containing foreign components being fired every week, government says

The mass use of “drop-and-forget” guided bombs containing foreign components is driving Russian advances in Ukraine, with up to 500 now being fired a week, according to a Ukrainian government analysis.

High explosive and cluster bombs fitted with “UMPC” guiding systems with a range of 40-60km (25-37 miles) are now said to be a central threat on the frontline, forcing back Ukrainian forces.

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