Category Archives: US News

Two charged with murder over Kansas City Super Bowl parade shooting

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Suspects charged with second-degree murder in shooting at Chiefs’ victory parade that left one person dead and 22 injured

Two men were charged on Tuesday afternoon with murder in connection with a mass shooting in Kansas City on 14 February that killed one person and wounded 22 others at a rally for the Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs, according to prosecutors.

As celebrations were winding up for the Chiefs and thousands of fans, after they returned triumphantly having won the Super Bowl in Las Vegas the previous weekend, gunfire erupted among the crowd.

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US to unveil major Russia sanctions in wake of Alexei Navalny death

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Joe Biden declines to give details but says sanctions will coincide with second anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine

The US will announce a major package of sanctions against Russia on Friday prompted by the death of political opposition leader Alexei Navalny but also devised as retaliation for the two-year war Vladimir Putin initiated against Ukraine, Joe Biden said on Tuesday.

The US president spoke to reporters on the south lawn of the White House as he headed for a campaign fundraising trip to California, starting with a flight to Los Angeles.

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‘I refuse to quit’: Nikki Haley declares no fear of retribution from Trump

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‘I feel no need to kiss the ring,’ says Republican candidate as she turns up rhetorical heat ahead of South Carolina primary

A defiant Nikki Haley on Tuesday declared no fear of retribution from Donald Trump as she persists in her efforts to compete against the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, saying: “I feel no need to kiss the ring.”

Haley approaches the South Carolina primary on Saturday, her home state where she was previously governor, a long way behind Trump but turning up the rhetorical heat.

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New York man pleads guilty to running ‘Breaking Bad-style’ meth lab

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‘Brilliant’ scientist Matthew Leshinsky turned himself in after calling the police to report a burglary at his lab in Suffolk county

A New York man, whose attorney said is a “brilliant” scientist who researched drug addiction “for the public good”, has pleaded guilty to running a meth lab in a case that prosecutors compare to the series Breaking Bad.

But Matthew Leshinsky’s chemistry skills took him only so far. The 23-year-old was busted for running the meth operation in Ronkonkoma, New York, after calling the police to report a burglary at his cannabis analyzing side-hustle, Quantitative Laboratories.

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Elizabeth Warren urges regulators to block Capital One’s takeover of Discover

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Senator says $35bn deal merging two of the largest US credit card firms would ‘threaten financial stability’ and reduce competition

Senator Elizabeth Warren has urged regulators to block Capital One’s $35bn takeover of Discover Financial, arguing that combining two of the US’s largest credit card companies would harm consumers and challenge financial stability.

The blockbuster deal would inevitably lead to higher costs and fees for cardholders, according to the leftwing senator.

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Russia arrests US dual national over alleged $51 Ukrainian charity donation

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Ksenia Khavana faces up to 20 years in prison for treason amid Kremlin crackdown

The White House has said it is seeking information after Russia announced it had arrested a dual US-Russian citizen on treason charges, accusing her of collecting funds for Ukrainian organisations and openly opposing the Russian war in Ukraine.

A Russian legal NGO, First Dept, said the woman, named by the media in Russia as Ksenia Khavana, may stand accused of transferring $51 (£40) to a Ukrainian charity on 24 February 2022, the day Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine. She faces up to 20 years in prison.

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At least 60% of US population may face ‘forever chemicals’ in tap water, tests suggest

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Federal tests of one-third of water systems find 70 million Americans exposed to PFAS – suggesting 200 million affected overall

About 70 million people are exposed to toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” in US drinking water, new testing from the Environmental Protection Agency has found.

But the testing completed to date has only checked about one-third of the nation’s public water systems, meaning the agency is on pace to find over 200 million people are exposed, or at least 60% of the US population.

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In reversal, Nebraska governor accepts federal dollars to feed low-income kids

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Jim Pillen breaks with 14 other Republican governors to enroll in Summer EBT, a new food program for school vacation months

Nebraska’s governor announced this week that the state would accept federal dollars to help feed children from low-income families, breaking away from the more than a dozen other Republican governors around the US who have refused to do so.

Just last month, Jim Pillen joined 14 other Republican governors in opting not to enroll in Summer EBT, a new federal food program that provides low-income families with a monthly payment of $40 per child during summer vacation. In participating states, families with children in free or reduced-price school lunch programs will get $40 per qualifying child on an electronic benefits transfer (EBT) card throughout each of the three summer months. That money can be used to purchase groceries and food from farmers’ markets.

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Michigan server who got $10,000 tip says she was fired in ensuing dispute

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Linsey Huff’s lawyer says restaurant’s owners sacked her for refusing to name names in conflict over money

A Michigan restaurant server who recently received a $10,000 tip on a $32 tab says the establishment has since fired her amid a dispute over how many of her co-workers deserved a share of the remarkably large gratuity.

The story of the tip that Linsey Huff earned while waiting on a table at the Mason Jar Cafe in the western Michigan community of Benton Harbor on 5 February initially went viral on corners of the internet dedicated to uplifting news because it had been left by a patron who wanted to honor a late friend.

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Trump’s trial calendar becomes clearer – as do his delay tactics

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Hush-money trial will begin on 25 March, with federal case on allegations over 2020 election hinging on supreme court action

Donald Trump’s legal calendar is coming into sharper relief after a New York judge affirmed last week that the ex-president’s first criminal trial – on charges that he manipulated the 2016 election by concealing hush money payments to an adult film star – will proceed to trial in Manhattan next month.

A federal case in Washington over the former president’s alleged plot to overturn the 2020 election had been expected to go first. But when Trump filed appeals on grounds of presidential immunity last year, the presiding US district judge, Tanya Chutkan, was forced to put the case on hold.

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Three men go on trial in New York over Eagles’ Hotel California manuscript

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Glenn Horowitz, Craig Inciardi and Edward Kosinski accused of conspiring to own and try to sell Eagles manuscripts

In the mid-1970s, the Eagles were working on a spooky, cryptic new song.

On a lined yellow pad, Don Henley, with input from his band co-founder Glenn Frey, jotted thoughts about “a dark desert highway” and “a lovely place” with a luxurious surface and ominous undertones. And something on ice, perhaps caviar or Taittinger – or pink Champagne?

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First Thing: Court considers Assange’s last-ditch bid to fight US extradition

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If extradited, a US conviction could mean life in prison for the Wikileaks founder. Plus, the groundbreaking stories of Black astronauts

Good morning.

Lawyers for the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, will on Tuesday begin a final attempt to prevent his extradition to the US, where, if convicted, he may be sentenced to life imprisonment.

Where is Assange now? He has been in Belmarsh prison, south-east London, for almost five years.

What will his lawyers argue? That his extradition would be punishment for political opinions, and a breach of the European convention on human rights.

What could his US sentence be? His lawyers say that, if convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison.

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Ex-Honduran leader praised by Trump faces trial in US for running ‘narco-state’

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Juan Orlando Hernández stands trial in a New York courtroom on Monday accused of taking millions in bribes from drug traffickers

Five years after he was lavished with praise by Donald Trump for “stopping drugs at a level that has never happened” – and two years after he was extradited in shackles to the US – the former Honduras president Juan Orlando Hernández is to stand trial in New York on Monday, accused of overseeing a “narco-state” and accepting millions in bribes from drug traffickers, including the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Hernández is the first former head of state to face drug trafficking charges in the United States since another former US ally, the Panamanian strongman Gen Manuel Noriega, over 30 years ago.

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After a bad legal week for Trump, even worse could be on the horizon

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The ex-president is scrambling to come up with $450m after the judgment in his fraud trial as the next case looms

Donald Trump was already reeling from multiple legal setbacks when a New York judge last week handed the former president a staggering defeat in his civil fraud case, ordering him to pay roughly $450m to the state after finding him liable for conspiracy to manipulate his net worth.

The decision by Justice Arthur Engoron capped a bad legal week for Trump, who had watched his lawyers attempt to get access to sealed filings in a classified documents case in Florida and then watched his lawyers lose their attempt to delay his first criminal trial in New York.

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US could send long-range missiles to Ukraine if funding passes – report

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White House prepared to send weapons that could strike inside Crimea if Congress approves $60bn aid package

Joe Biden’s White House is prepared to send long-range tactical missiles to Ukraine if Congress approves a new funding package, according to a US media report on Monday.

Citing two unnamed officials, NBC News said that the administration was willing to send a variant of the missiles – known as Atacms (army tactical missile systems) – if a new $60bn aid package approved by the Senate, but held up for now by congressional Republicans, becomes law.

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Fears of more floods – and possibly tornadoes – as another storm hits California

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North sees strong winds while central coast at risk of ‘significant flooding’ as storm moves south toward Los Angeles

The latest in a series of wet winter storms gained strength in California early on Monday, with forecasters warning of possible flooding, hail, strong winds and even brief tornadoes as the system moves south over the next few days.

Gusts topped 30mph (48kph) in Oakland and San Jose as a mild cold front late on Saturday gave way to a more powerful storm on Sunday, according to the meteorologist Brayden Murdock with the National Weather Service office in San Francisco.

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Trump acknowledges Navalny’s death days later, without mentioning Putin

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Ex-president links Russian opposition leader’s death to his own political grievances after criticism from Haley

Donald Trump has offered a belated acknowledgement of the purportedly sudden death of Alexei Navalny, three days after the Russian opposition leader collapsed in one of Russia’s penal colonies. But Trump failed to join with – or acknowledge – international outrage at Navalny’s political nemesis, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

“The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country,” Trump posted on his Truth Social network. The former US president and presumptive Republican White House nominee added: “It is a slow, steady progression, with CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down a path to destruction.”

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American man admits rape and murder of woman near German castle

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Defendant, 31, met two US women on path in Marienbrücke and pushed them down ravine, prosecutors say

An American man has admitted to charges of murder and rape after he allegedly pushed two US women down a ravine, fatally injuring one of them, near Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany last year.

The 31-year-old defendant admitted to the charges during the start of his trial, the German news agency dpa reported. Defendants in the German legal system do not formally enter pleas to charges.

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John Oliver offers to pay Clarence Thomas $1m a year if he resigns from supreme court

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Late-night host gives justice, under fire over undisclosed donations, 30 days to accept offer, which includes a tour bus

The late-night talkshow host John Oliver has offered to pay Clarence Thomas $1m annually – as well as give him a $2m tour bus – if the Republican judge resigns from the US supreme court.

Oliver made the proposal on Sunday’s episode of his HBO show Last Week Tonight, saying the supreme court justice had 30 days to accept or it would expire.

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Wisconsin adopts new legislative maps, giving Democrats chance to win state

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Governor’s signature marks end of long fight over legislative lines and greatly reduces the Republican bias baked into current maps

The Wisconsin governor, Tony Evers, has signed into law a pair of new state legislative maps, undoing a Republican gerrymander that has shaped Wisconsin politics for more than a decade and giving Democrats a chance at winning control of the state in future elections.

“It’s a new day for Wisconsin,” said Evers at a press conference on Monday to cheers from a room of anti-gerrymandering activists.

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