Category Archives: US News

Senate aide investigated over supplying Ukraine forces with sniper gear – report

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Actions of Kyle Parker might have crossed legal bounds that could make him an unregistered foreign agent, New York Times reports

A senior staffer who advises the US Senate on Russia policy is under investigation for making trips to Ukraine in military uniform and supplying the country’s armed forces with privately donated sniper equipment, it was reported on Monday.

The actions of Kyle Parker, chief of staff to the Helsinki commission that informs senators on issues of European security, might have crossed legal and ethical grounds that could make him an unregistered foreign agent, according to the New York Times, which reviewed a confidential report by the commission’s director and general counsel.

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US yacht couple probably thrown into sea by fugitives, Grenada police say

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Ralph Hendry, 66, and Kathy Brandel, 71, probably dead after catamaran was seized by escaped prisoners in Caribbean last week

A US couple whose catamaran was hijacked last week in the Caribbean by three escaped prisoners were probably thrown into the ocean and died, according to police in Grenada.

The announcement is a blow to those who were independently helping search for Ralph Hendry, 66, and Kathy Brandel, 71, and had hoped they were still alive.

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Joe Biden says ‘good sex’ is key to long lasting marriage, book on US first ladies claims

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President ‘tamped down on his public bedroom declarations’ ahead of winning the presidency, Katie Rogers writes

President Joe Biden has joked to aides that the key to a long and lasting marriage is “good sex,” according to a new book about the nation’s first ladies, that casts a spotlight on his 47-year romance with Jill Biden.

“American Woman – The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, from Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden,” was authored by New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers and comes out this week.

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Six out of 10 South Carolina Republican primary voters think Biden wasn’t legitimately elected

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Exit polls show election denialism has become mainstream among Republicans despite studies finding no widespread fraud in 2020

More than 60% of South Carolina Republican primary voters said they don’t believe Joe Biden was legitimately elected, according to exit polls, the latest data point that underscores how election denialism has become a mainstream belief in the Republican party.

Eighty-seven percent of those who don’t believe the US president was legitimately elected supported Donald Trump, according to a CNN exit poll of South Carolina primary voters. Just 12% supported Nikki Haley. Among those who believe Biden legitimately won in 2020, the results were nearly flipped 81% supported Haley, while 19% supported the former president.

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Year three of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may be Zelenskiy’s toughest yet

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Political pressure at home, splintering international support and prospect of Trump’s re-election make for existential threats

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has an unenviable task over the coming months. As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine enters its third year, the Ukrainian president has a very difficult balancing act to manage.

Ukrainian society is exhausted by the war and international support is splintering, leading to a critical shortage of ammunition at the front. At the same time, most Ukrainians are not willing to countenance the idea of a peace deal, given that there would be few mechanisms to force Russia to abide by it, and would risk merely giving Moscow time to replenish its forces and strike Ukraine again.

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Texas’s San Antonio airport will get a 420lb autonomous security robot

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City council approves year-long contract with Knightscope to rent a K5 robot to respond to door alarms at the airport

An autonomous robot is due to become the latest addition to San Antonio International Airport’s security apparatus.

Following a 7 to 3 vote on Thursday by the San Antonio city council, city officials approved a year-long contract with Knightscope, a California-based developer of autonomous security robots, to rent its K5 robot for $21,000.

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Former NFL star Richard Sherman arrested on suspicion of DUI

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  • Amazon Prime analyst arrested in Bellevue, Washington
  • 35-year-old pleaded guilty to first-degree negligent driving in 2022

Former NFL star Richard Sherman was arrested early Saturday on suspicion of driving under the influence, according to the Washington State Patrol.

In a probable cause statement, Trooper Jordan Hazzard-Thomas, who helped respond to the traffic stop, reported talking to Sherman and noticing “the odor of intoxicants” and that Sherman’s eyes appeared to be “bloodshot and watery.”

Sherman was stopped by the Washington State Patrol for going 79 mph within a 60 mph zone at about 2 am local time, according to a first appearance document obtained by CNN.

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Michigan governor says not voting for Biden over Gaza war ‘supports second Trump term’

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Gretchen Whitmer responds to calls by some Democrats to vote ‘uncommitted’ in Michigan’s primary on Tuesday

Gretchen Whitmer, the Michigan governor, pushed back on calls to not vote for Joe Biden over his handling of the Israel-Gaza conflict, saying on Sunday that could help Trump get re-elected.

“It’s important not to lose sight of the fact that any vote that’s not cast for Joe Biden supports a second Trump term,” she said on Sunday during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union. “A second Trump term would be devastating. Not just on fundamental rights, not just on our democracy here at home, but also when it comes to foreign policy. This was a man who promoted a Muslim ban.”

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Newsom launches abortion ads in Republican states to fight ‘war on women’

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Series of new advertisements target Republican efforts to criminalize abortions and a ‘war on travel’ for reproductive care

California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, is launching a series of new advertisements in Republican states targeting Republican efforts to criminalize having an abortion and “a war on travel” for reproductive care.

The first advertisement by Campaign for Democracy, Newsom’s political action committee (Pac), will air this week in Tennessee, where lawmakers are considering legislation that would make it illegal for anyone who helps a minor obtain an abortion without permission from their parents. Anyone found guilty of the offense could face between three and 15 years in prison.

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Screen Actors Guild awards 2024: Oppenheimer dominates with big wins

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Christopher Nolan’s historical epic picked up three major acting awards while The Bear and Succession shared the big TV wins

Christopher Nolan’s hit biopic Oppenheimer has dominated this year’s Screen Actors Guild awards.

The cast of the biographical epic won for best ensemble, ahead of Barbie and Killers of the Flower Moon. Cillian Murphy picked up male actor in a leading role, which was also contested by Paul Giamatti and Jeffrey Wright. “This is extremely, extremely special to me because it comes from you guys,” he told the audience at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium.

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Trump soundly defeats Nikki Haley in South Carolina Republican primary

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Result called for Trump almost immediately after polls close as former South Carolina governor suffers stinging home-state loss

Donald Trump defeated Nikki Haley in her home state of South Carolina, a stinging setback that narrows her vanishingly thin path to the nomination.

The Associated Press called the South Carolina primary for Trump right when polls closed at 7pm ET, in a clear indication of his large victory in Haley’s home state. Trump locked in approximately 60% of the vote, with Haley hovering at about 40%.

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Another loss, but Haley presses on for Republicans not ready to crown Trump

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The Republican contender has exasperated her rival by not dropping out, but she believes not everyone in the party is enamored of Trump

Losing South Carolina is almost always a bad omen for presidential hopefuls and defeat in a candidate’s home state is viewed as irrevocable. But as the last Republican standing between Donald Trump and the Republican party nomination, Nikki Haley thrilled supporters on Saturday by deftly capitalizing on her small but consistent show of support from voters desperate for an alternative.

Trump was declared the winner within one minute of polls closing in the Palmetto State, an unsurprising but nevertheless stinging rebuke for Haley at the hands of the voters who twice elected her governor.

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US ambassador Caroline Kennedy prepares for Shitbox Rally across outback Australia

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At a fundraising sausage sizzle ahead of the rally, Kennedy quoted the words of her father explaining why the US wanted to land a man on the moon

The US ambassador to Australia might become the first person to complete the charity Shitbox Rally with a blacked-out, armoured SUV in tow.

Caroline Kennedy is to swap her chauffeured BMW for the driver’s seat of beat-up Ford Falcon, driving from Adelaide to Perth in April in a car worth less than $1,500 to raise money for cancer research.

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US and UK launch missile strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen

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Joint statement says 18 sites across eight locations were targeted, including missile storage facilities

The US and UK carried out strikes against 18 Houthi targets including underground weapons and missile storage facilities in Yemen on Saturday in the latest round of military action against the Iran-linked group that continues to attack shipping in the region.

The strikes were against Houthi targets across eight locations and also included air defence systems, radars, and a helicopter, officials said.

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‘My ultimate and absolute revenge’: Trump gives chilling CPAC speech on presidential agenda

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Unbound and unhinged, ex-president vilifies immigrants before devolving into bizarre riffs, including calling himself ‘total genius’

Donald Trump styled himself as a “proud political dissident” and promised “judgment day” for political opponents in an address that offered a chilling vision of a democracy in imminent peril.

In classic carnival barker form, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination accused Joe Biden of weaponising the government against him with “Stalinist show trials”. He pledged to crack down on border security and deliver the biggest deportation in US history if he wins the 5 November election.

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Trump defeats Haley: South Carolina 2024 primary results in full

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Voters resoundingly choose Donald Trump over the state’s former governor Nikki Haley – see the results in full

South Carolina’s Republican voters went to the polls on Saturday to choose a candidate for president, with two significant choices left: the state’s former governor, Nikki Haley, and former president Donald Trump.

Haley lost the New Hampshire primary last month by about 11 points, and polling suggested Trump would defeat his former ambassador to the United Nations by about 2-1 in her home state.

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South Carolina Republican primaries: Haley defiant as Trump confident of win

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Former governor Nikki Haley urged supporters to turn out in large numbers as Donald Trump declared he’s ‘coming like a freight train’ in November

South Carolinians headed to the polls on Saturday to cast their ballots in the Republican presidential primary, as the state’s former governor, Nikki Haley, fights to hang on in a race still dominated by Donald Trump.

At her primary eve rally in Mount Pleasant, just outside of Charleston, Haley had called on her supporters to turn out in large numbers on Saturday.

When to expect South Carolina results

Key dates for the 2024 election

Who’s running for president?

Haley’s steep odds in South Carolina

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How a TikTok clip led demand for 177-year-old sourdough starter to rise

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US enthusiasts who follow the tradition of sharing dough are now receiving about 1,000 requests a week, up from 30 to 60

“There’s an old pioneer tradition” dating from the earliest days of the colonisation of the US west, says Mary Buckingham, “that you shared your bread starter with anyone who asked.”

Which was all very well until TikTok came along.

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Flaco, New York City’s beloved owl, dies after striking building

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The bird escaped last year after vandals damaged his enclosure at Central Park Zoo

The Eurasian eagle owl named Flaco, which escaped New York City’s Central Park Zoo last year, has died after crashing into a building in Manhattan, officials said late on Friday.

Flaco went down after striking a building on West 89th Street and people reported the injured owl to the Wild Bird Fund (WBF), a statement from the Central Park Zoo said. WBF staffers soon found Flaco unresponsive and pronounced him dead at the scene.

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Hollywood A-list directors band together to save historic LA theater

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Jason Reitman, Christopher Nolan and Steven Spielberg among those leading charge to buy the iconic Village theater

This week, a group of A-list Hollywood directors, including JJ Abrams, Guillermo del Toro, and Gina Prince-Bythewood, took a group photo outside of one of Los Angeles’ historic movie theaters.

This wasn’t an Oscars event. Instead, the directors were announcing they were “the new caretakers of the Village Theater in Westwood”.

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