Category Archives: US News

Cop28 deal will fail unless rich countries quit fossil fuels, says climate negotiator

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G77 president Pedro Pedroso warns deal risks failing if polluters like UK, US and Canada don’t rethink plans to expand oil and gas

The credibility of the Cop28 agreement to “transition away” from fossil fuels rides on the world’s biggest historical polluters like the US, UK and Canada rethinking current plans to expand oil and gas production, according to the climate negotiator representing 135 developing countries.

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Pedro Pedroso, the outgoing president of the G77 plus China bloc of developing countries, warned that the landmark deal made at last year’s climate talks in Dubai risked failing.

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Houthi-US fight may be imbalanced but that doesn’t mean it will be brief

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US has military might but rebels can still shut down shipping, spelling prolonged suffering for Yemeni civilians

The latest round of US bombing against Houthi targets in Yemen comes as little surprise, and raises with it the prospect of an extended military campaign affecting a nation already impoverished by years of war.

The assault implies an effective recognition by Washington that any effort to try to completely halt the attacks on western shipping in the southern Red Sea will require repeated intervention because of the Yemeni group’s capacity and determination to resist.

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Madonna sued over late concert start by fans who ‘had to get up early’ the next morning

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The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, is seeking class action status for attenders of all other Celebration tour shows in the US that started late

Two Madonna fans in New York City are suing the pop star for starting her concert late, claiming that they “had to get up early to go to work” the next morning.

In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in Brooklyn federal court, Michael Fellows and Jonathan Hadden say they bought tickets to a 13 December show at Barclays Center as part of Madonna’s Celebration tour.

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The race for the moon – podcast

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The space race of the 20th century put the first person on the moon. Now a new race to the lunar surface – with new global players – is just getting going. Robin McKie reports

Robin McKie is the science editor of the Observer. Over the last 42 years, he’s covered everything from advances in genetics and new discoveries in physics to the urgent scientific issues raised by the Covid pandemic. But one topic excites him more than any other: space – and, more specifically, the moon.

He tells Michael Safi how the first crewed mission to the moon in 1969 captured the imagination of his generation and why the modern-day missions are something to be newly excited by.

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Experimental use of pig liver to filter blood externally offers hope for patients

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Surgeons at University of Pennsylvania attached modified organ from pig to brain-dead human body

Surgeons externally attached a pig liver to a brain-dead human body and watched it successfully filter blood, a step toward eventually trying the technique in patients with liver failure.

The University of Pennsylvania announced the novel experiment on Thursday, a different spin on animal-to-human organ transplants. In this case, the pig liver was used outside the donated body, not inside – a way to create a “bridge” to support failing livers by doing the organ’s blood-cleansing work externally, much like dialysis for failing kidneys.

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Outrage as Oklahoma Republican’s bill labels Hispanic people ‘terrorists’

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Lawmaker JJ Humphrey seeks punishments for ‘acts of terrorism’ and defines terrorist as ‘any person who is of Hispanic descent’

An Oklahoma lawmaker is facing backlash for proposing a discriminatory bill that deems people of Hispanic descent as “terrorists”.

The Republican state representative JJ Humphrey introduced the bill, HB 3133, which seeks to combat problems in the state, such as drug and human trafficking, and lay out punishments to those who have committed these “acts of terrorism”.

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Judge hints that Trump’s election interference trial might be delayed

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The case was automatically frozen after the ex-president appealed judge’s decision to reject his motion to toss criminal charges

The federal judge overseeing the criminal case against Donald Trump over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results indicated on Thursday that the scheduled trial date would not hold as a result of the case being frozen while the former US president appeals to have the charges dismissed.

The US district judge Tanya Chutkan last summer scheduled the trial in Washington DC to start on 4 March – allowing Trump and his team seven months to prepare his defense – and has taken pains to ensure that date would not be delayed.

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Hunter Biden to appear before House Republicans for private deposition

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Agreement ends months of defiance from president’s son, who had insisted on testifying publicly

Hunter Biden has agreed to appear before House Republicans for a private deposition next month, ending months of defiance from the president’s son, who had insisted on testifying publicly.

The House oversight committee announced on Thursday that the two parties have come to an agreement for Hunter Biden to sit for a deposition on 28 February.

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US carries out fifth strike against Houthis as Biden admits bombing isn’t stopping attacks

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Defiant Houthi leader mocks US president and calls for boycott of Israeli goods as Biden tells reporters attacks are ‘going to continue’

The US has carried out a fifth strike against Houthi rebel targets in Yemen, even as Joe Biden acknowledged that bombing the rebels has yet to stop their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.

Late on Thursday US warplanes targeted anti-ship missiles that “were aimed into the southern Red Sea and prepared to launch,” according to US Central Command.

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Netanyahu tells US he opposes creation of Palestinian state after Gaza war

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PM rebuts White House by saying all territory west of Jordan River would be under Israeli security control

Israel’s prime minister has told the Biden White House that he rejects any moves to establish a Palestinian state when Israel ends its offensive against Gaza, and that all territory west of the Jordan River would be under Israeli security control.

Benjamin Netanyahu has sought to obstruct the establishment of a Palestinian state throughout his political career, despite occasional lukewarm endorsements of the idea.

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Dominican officials arrest Tekashi 6ix9ine on domestic violence charges

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US rapper scheduled to appear in court on Thursday and is being held in a Santo Domingo jail

Authorities in the Dominican Republic have arrested the US rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine, who is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday on charges of domestic violence.

The rapper, whose real name is Daniel Hernández, is being held at a jail in the capital, Santo Domingo, where he was arrested on Wednesday, officials said.

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Generic drugs in the US are too cheap to be sustainable, experts say

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Non-brand-name drugs are one inexpensive part of the healthcare system but they’re driving some manufacturers out of business

Generic drugs are the singularity of American healthcare – they are too cheap. And it’s driving some manufacturers out of business altogether.

Drug prices regularly sparks recrimination and outrage on Capitol Hill, such as a recently announced investigation by Senate Democrats and Bernie Sanders into the price of albuterol inhalers.

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Alarm as Alabama man to be executed via gas method rejected by veterinarians

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Death row prisoner Kenneth Smith, 58, to be killed via nitrogen-gas procedure animal scientists have ruled out for ethical reasons

Alabama is preparing to execute a death row inmate using nitrogen gas, an experimental method that veterinarians in the US and across Europe have deemed unacceptable as a form of euthanasia for most animals.

Barring last-minute appeals, Kenneth Smith, 58, is scheduled to be judicially killed on 25 January using a previously untested technique. Alabama’s department of corrections is proposing to strap him to a gurney, apply a respirator mask to his face, then force him to breathe pure nitrogen which would cause oxygen deprivation and death.

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First Thing: Israeli president labels Tehran ‘empire of evil’

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Isaac Herzog also tells Davos that Gaza’s population is ‘entrenched in network of terror’. Plus, Greenland losing 30m tonnes of ice every hour

Good morning.

Israel’s president has told the Davos conference that there is an “empire of evil” emanating from Tehran, which must be faced by a very strong coalition, and that Gaza’s population is entrenched in a network of terror.

What else is happening in the Middle East? The US military has fired another wave of missile strikes against Houthi-controlled sites, marking the fourth time in a week that it has directly targeted the group in Yemen. Meanwhile, Pakistan has launched retaliatory strikes against militants in Iran in response to attacks by Tehran that targeted sites within Pakistan’s borders allegedly belonging to a Sunni separatist militant group.

What did her lawyer say? “Mr Trump has been sitting at the back table and has been loudly saying things throughout Ms Carroll’s testimony,” said the attorney Shawn Crowley. “It’s loud enough for us to hear it. [So] I imagine it’s loud enough for the jury to hear it.”

What was Trump saying? “He said it is a ‘witch-hunt’, it really is a con-job,” Crowley told the judge.

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‘Different rules’: special policies keep US supplying weapons to Israel despite alleged abuses

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Revealed: review of internal state department documents shows special mechanisms have been used to shield Israel from US human rights laws

Top US officials quietly reviewed more than a dozen incidents of alleged gross violations of human rights by Israeli security forces since 2020, but have gone to great lengths to preserve continued access to US weapons for the units responsible for the alleged violations, contributing – former US officials say – to the sense of impunity with which Israel has approached its war in Gaza.

An estimated 24,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed by Israeli forces since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, a death toll that has spurred condemnation of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US president Joe Biden, who has been criticized for failing to rein in Israel’s “indiscriminate” bombing of Gaza.

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‘Good boy’: dog saves Philadelphia neighborhood from potentially explosive gas leak

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Kobe the husky becomes internet hero for video of him digging hole in concrete – leading his owner to detect presence of gas

Some dogs earn the affectionate title of “good boy” for obeying their owners’ commands to sit or fetch. Others earn it by saving their neighborhoods from grappling with a potentially explosive gas leak days before Christmas.

Philadelphia’s Kobe the husky belongs in the latter category, according to a viral Instagram video published by his owner that has vaulted him to the status of internet hero.

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Sheryl Sandberg to leave board of Facebook parent Meta

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Former chief operating officer was lead architect of Facebook’s digital advertising-driven business model

Sheryl Sandberg is to step down from the board of Facebook’s parent company, Meta, nearly two years after quitting her executive role at the business.

Sandberg was the lead architect of Facebook’s digital advertising-driven business model as Meta’s chief operating officer.

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US woman jailed for 26 years over mother’s suitcase murder in Bali

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Heather Mack, 28, pleaded guilty to helping boyfriend kill Sheila Wiese-Mack in 2014 to gain access to $1.5m trust fund

An American woman who pleaded guilty to helping kill her own mother and stuffing the body in a suitcase during a luxury vacation in Bali has been sentenced to 26 years in prison.

Judge Matthew Kennelly gave Mack credit for the approximately two years she spent in custody in Chicago awaiting trial since her return to the US in 2021. Mack’s attorney Michael Leonard said her formal sentence will be about 23 years total.

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Light aircraft that crashed into ocean off California could be built from kit

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Body of San Francisco woman, 27, recovered near site of crash involving single-engine plane believed to be carrying four people

A plane that crashed into ocean south of San Francisco on Sunday was a light aircraft that can be built from a kit, authorities have said.

Officials also said on Tuesday that they had identified a body that was found in the water near where the Cozy Mark IV plane crashed as a 27-year-old San Francisco resident.

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Ron DeSantis says Republicans will lose if Donald Trump becomes presidential nominee – US politics live

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Florida governor says former president’s mounting legal issues will be a distraction in US 2024 elections

When E Jean Carroll first took the stand, Trump could be seen whispering to his lead attorney, Alina Habba. He sat with slightly hunched shoulders as Carroll testified.

Following Carroll’s initial remarks, one of her attorneys, Roberta Kaplan, asked the former Elle columnist questions about her career. Jurors heard how Carroll ascended from writing articles for high-profile publications to landing the columnist position, as well as a talkshow and authoring multiple books.

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