Australia detains alleged key player in North Korean tobacco smuggling scheme after US request

Exclusive: Jin Guanghua was arrested by the AFP in Melbourne last year and is facing extradition to the US

A Chinese national has been quietly arrested and detained in Australia for 11 months at the request of US authorities investigating an alleged tobacco smuggling conspiracy that generated an estimated A$1.1bn (US$700m) in revenue to North Korea.

Jin Guanghua, 52, was arrested by the Australian federal police in Melbourne last March. Described in US court documents as an Australian resident, Jin was kept in custody in Melbourne for several months before being transferred to immigration detention while awaiting extradition.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Two police officers and firefighter fatally shot after call in Minneapolis suburbs

A suspect in the shooting also died, officials say, and another officer was injured responding to call for help in Burnsville

A desperate call for help from a home in suburban Minneapolis early on Sunday turned deadly for two police officers and a firefighter who were fatally shot at the scene, according to officials.

A suspect in the shooting also died, officials said.

Continue reading...

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib tells fellow Democrats: reject Biden in primary

Michigan representative tells state voters to pick ‘uncommitted’ option over White House support for Israel’s strikes on Gaza

The progressive US congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has called on her fellow Michigan Democrats to vote “uncommitted” in the state’s presidential primary election – at the expense of the party’s incumbent, Joe Biden – in late February.

Appearing in a video posted to X on Saturday by Listen to Michigan, a political campaign to encourage the state’s voters to vote “uncommitted” in the 27 February primary, Tlaib justified her stark display of displeasure with Biden by alluding to Israel’s military strikes on Gaza, which local authorities say have killed nearly 29,000 Palestinians since last October.

Continue reading...

Ronald Reagan’s daughter says he would be ‘appalled’ by current political tenor

‘He didn’t understand lack of civility. He didn’t understand attacking another person,’ says Patti Davis of former US president

The daughter of former president Ronald Reagan has hit out at contemporary White House politics, saying she thinks her late father would be “appalled” by the personal tenor of current political discourse.

“I think he’d be appalled … it was just more civilized,” Patti Davis told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. “He didn’t understand lack of civility. He didn’t understand attacking another person. … He didn’t understand cruelty. And that’s what we’re dealing with now.

Continue reading...

New York archdiocese calls funeral for trans activist at cathedral ‘scandalous’

Pastor of St Patrick’s Cathedral condemns service for Cecilia Gentili after she was celebrated as being ‘mother of all whores’

The Roman Catholic archdiocese of New York City has condemned a funeral service for the transgender activist Cecilia Gentili at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral after congregants cheered her for being celebrated as “the mother of all whores”.

The packed funeral – organisers reported 1,400 mourners – took place on Thursday, 10 days after the Argentinian-born Gentili, 52, died at her Brooklyn home.

Continue reading...

US man sues Powerball lottery after being told his apparent $340m win was error

Game’s administrators said their website only showed John Cheeks’s numbers as the winning combination by mistake

A man who thought he had won a $340m Powerball jackpot is suing the lottery after the game’s administrators said their website only showed his numbers as the winning combination by mistake.

Washington DC resident John Cheeks purchased a Powerball lottery ticket at the center of the dispute on 6 January 2023. Although Cheeks did not see the Powerball drawing the following day, he saw his numbers posted on the DC lottery’s website two days later.

Continue reading...

New York governor seeks to quell business owners’ fears after Trump ruling

Kathy Hochul says law-abiding businesspeople have ‘nothing to worry about’ after question on state’s commercial climate

The New York governor has told business owners in her state that there is “nothing to worry about” after Donald Trump was fined $355m and temporarily banned from engaging in commerce in the state when he lost his civil fraud trial Friday.

In an interview on the New York radio show the Cats Roundtable with the supermarket billionaire John Catsimatidis, Kathy Hochul sought to quell fears in some quarters that the penalties handed to Trump for engaging in fraudulent business practices could chill the state’s commercial climate.

This article was amended on 18 February 2024 to correct a misspelling. An earlier version referred to “venal” rather than “venial” sin.

Continue reading...

Trump launches gold high top sneaker line a day after $350m court ruling

‘Never Surrender High-Tops’ cost $399 and arrive on the market just after judge hands former US president huge penalty

Donald Trump has launched his own sneaker brand, a day after a New York judge ordered him to pay $354.9m in penalties for fraudulently overstating his net worth to dupe lenders.

“I’ve wanted to do this a long time,” the former US president said, as he unveiled what he called the first official Trump footwear at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia, a gathering that bills itself as the “The Greatest Sneaker Show on Earth.”

Continue reading...

Texas earthquake of 4.7 magnitude largest of 30 in area in past three weeks

No immediate reports of major damage or injuries after quake struck at 12.32am about 45 miles south-east of San Antonio

An earthquake of 4.7 magnitude that struck early Saturday morning near a small Texas city – one of several earthquakes that have occurred in the area in recent days – could be felt dozens of miles away, including in San Antonio.

There were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries from the earthquake, which struck at 12.32am and was centered about 2 miles (3km) south-east of Falls City, according to the United States Geological Survey. Falls City, which has a population of about 500 people, is about 45 miles (72km) south-east of San Antonio.

Continue reading...

Volodymyr Zelenskiy pleads for more arms as frontline Ukrainian city falls

Retreat from Avdiivka deals military blow and hands initiative to Putin as war’s second anniversary looms

Volodymyr Zelenskiy issued a desperate plea for fresh arms on Saturday as his army commanders announced that Ukrainian troops were pulling out of the key eastern city of Avdiivka, handing Moscow its first major military victory since last May, just days before the second anniversary of the Russian invasion.

Ukraine’s leader told the Munich Security Conference that the slowing of weapons supplies was having a direct impact on the frontline and was forcing Ukraine to cede territory.

Continue reading...

Patrick Mahomes visits sisters injured in Super Bowl parade shooting

Champion quarterback makes hospital visit to Madison and Melia Reyes, who were hit by gunfire in Kansas City mass shooting

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his wife, Brittany, visited two young sisters who were both shot in the legs during Wednesday’s parade for the reigning Super Bowl champions.

The Mahomeses on Thursday paid a call to 10-year-old Madison Reyes and Melia Reyes, age eight, at Children’s Mercy hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, where they were recovering from surgeries.

Continue reading...

Home explosion near Washington DC kills one firefighter and injures 11

Firefighters were called to home in Sterling, Virginia, by report of gas smell, and explosion took place 30 minutes later, officials said

One firefighter was killed and nine others were injured on Friday when an explosion in a Washington DC suburb leveled a home where they were investigating a gas leak. Two other people were also injured.

The firefighters were called to the home in Sterling, Virginia, by a report of a gas smell shortly after 7.30pm and a fiery explosion took place about 30 minutes later, officials said.

Continue reading...

Boy injured in Osteen church shooting lost ‘portion of his frontal lobe’

Samuel Moreno-Carranza’s grandmother posted about boy’s condition, who was injured when police killed the shooter – his mother

A boy who was shot in the head at celebrity Joel Osteen’s Houston megachurch on 11 February has lost “a portion of his frontal lobe” while recovering at the hospital, according to his grandmother.

In a Facebook post three days after the shooting, Walli Carranza said her seven-year-old grandson – Samuel Moreno-Carranza – “has lost a major part of what makes us who we are” after “half of his right skull [had] to be surgically removed during two surgeries done in less than 24 hours”. Samuel had endured “cardiac arrest multiple times, and no one can determine whether he has significant brain activity because his scalp tissue is too friable” to let doctors attach electroencephalogram wires to him, Carranza added in a post that doubled as a criticism of the US’s lack of meaningful gun control.

Continue reading...

Biden visits scene of 2023 Ohio rail disaster – a year too late, critics say

President pledged to get cleanup job done and pushed for protective measures as protesters held ‘anti-Biden’ rally

Joe Biden on Friday surveyed the federal cleanup in East Palestine, Ohio, more than a year after an explosive fire from a derailed train carrying hazardous chemicals – and the president saw up close the lingering hostility from victims still angry that he waited so long to visit.

The White House has said Biden was waiting for the right moment to visit. The mayor invited him.

Continue reading...

Elton John to auction off 900 items worth $10m from former Atlanta home

Silver boots, Banksy original, pinball machine and more going under hammer at Christie’s, New York

Fans of Sir Elton John’s flamboyant style will next week have the chance to splash out on his snappiest Versace looks in a huge 900-plus lot auction that includes the contents of the Rocket Man’s $7.2m (£5.7m) Atlanta apartment.

Christie’s auction house in New York’s Rockefeller Center has been transformed into a John emporium for two live – and six online – sales of the singer’s collection, including several pairs of his trademark thick rim spectacles and a vast art collection that features a Love, Lust and Devotion section dedicated to his treasure trove of male art.

Continue reading...

Biden threatened ‘consequences’ over Navalny, but he has few options

Sanctions already imposed on Russia over Ukraine have not deterred the Kremlin. Will unconventional approaches work?

When Joe Biden met Vladimir Putin in 2021, the leaders staring at each other across the library of a Geneva lakeside villa, the US president warned there would be “devastating consequences” for Moscow if Alexei Navalny died in Russian custody.

Biden was reminded of those words on Friday following Navalny’s sudden, mysterious death in a Russian penal colony, and his response was to point out that the warning had been delivered three years ago and that, in the intervening time, Putin had “faced a hell of a lot of consequences”.

Continue reading...

Very cool: trees stalling effects of global heating in eastern US, study finds

Vast reforestation a major reason for ‘warming hole’ across parts of US where temperatures have flatlined or cooled

Trees provide innumerable benefits to the world, from food to shelter to oxygen, but researchers have now found their dramatic rebound in the eastern US has delivered a further, stunning feat – the curtailing of the soaring temperatures caused by the climate crisis.

While the US, like the rest of the world, has heated up since industrial times due to the burning of fossil fuels, scientists have long been puzzled by a so-called “warming hole” over parts of the US south-east where temperatures have flatlined, or even cooled, despite the unmistakable broader warming trend.

Continue reading...

With business empire on brink of abyss, tycoon Trump recasts himself as victim

Former president’s business fortune risks slipping from his grasp after ruling, while he marches closer to the Republican nomination

From Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue to the Trump Building on Wall Street, the Trump World Tower by the United Nations to the Trump International overlooking Central Park, Donald Trump has stamped his name in golden letters on skyscrapers across New York City.

This real estate empire was the springboard for Trump’s ascent from tabloid fodder to reality TV stardom, and ultimately the presidency, all built on his self-projected image as America’s most famous businessman.

Continue reading...

Donald Trump banned from running businesses in New York for three years – live

Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay more than $350m in fines and barred him from running New York businesses for three years

Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis’ father took the stand now, testifying about threats she faced at the home he lived in with her in 2019 and 2020, before she moved to a new place after people outside her house called her slurs and threatened her there.

John Floyd, Willis’ dad, was asked about her romantic relationships and how often he saw people she had dated, including special prosecutor Nathan Wade. He said he hadn’t met Wade until 2023, and a previous boyfriend he saw often in earlier years was a disc jockey. (Previous testimony from a former friend of Willis claimed the two started dating much earlier than they’d claimed.)

Continue reading...

Donald Trump ordered to pay over $350m in New York financial fraud case

Trump also banned from running any New York corporation or entity for three years in devastating blow for ex-president

Donald Trump, his eldest sons and associates have been ordered to pay over $350m by a New York judge who found them guilty of intentionally committing financial fraud over the course of a decade.

“The frauds found here leap off the page and shock the conscience,” judge Arthur Engoron wrote in his decision. In a devastating blow for the former president who had built his reputation as a successful real estate developer, Engoron barred Trump and two other executives from serving as officers or directors of any corporation or entity in New York for three years. His sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr, were banned for two years.

Continue reading...