Category Archives: US News

US-bound plane returns to Tokyo after man allegedly bites flight attendant

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Incident reportedly happened on All Nippon Airways flight with man, 55, arrested after plane brought back to Tokyo

A drunk US man allegedly bit the arm of a flight attendant on a passenger jet headed to Seattle from Tokyo on Tuesday night, forcing the plane’s return to the Japanese capital, according to local reports.

The attack happened over the Pacific Ocean on All Nippon Airways flight 118, Japan’s Kyodo News reported. Crew members restrained a 55-year-old American man accused of biting an attendant on the arm, and police arrested him after the Seattle-bound plane was brought back to Tokyo’s Haneda airport.

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Five people killed by tractor trailer on snowy interstate in Pennsylvania

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Victims had got out of minivan that lost control and another vehicle in Lackawanna county before being struck

Five people were struck and killed by a tractor trailer on Interstate 81 in snowy north-eastern Pennsylvania after they had left their vehicles following another crash, state police said on Wednesday.

A minivan had lost control and hit a median on the northbound interstate in Lackawanna county at about 5.30pm on Tuesday. Four people got out of the van as well as a person who had been following them in a separate car, police said. All were hit by the passing tractor trailer.

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Ron DeSantis insists US is ‘not a racist country’, echoing claim by Nikki Haley

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Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate concedes country has faced ‘challenges’ over dealing with race

The hard-right Florida governor Ron DeSantis says the US is “not a racist country”, echoing a controversial claim by Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who is also trying to deny Donald Trump the Republican presidential nomination.

“Well, the US is not a racist country,” DeSantis told a CNN town hall this week in New Hampshire. “And we’ve overcome things in our history. You know, I think the founding fathers – they established a set of principles that are universal.”

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Republicans’ bid to hold Hunter Biden in contempt appears to be suspended

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New discussions with president’s son’s attorneys could lead to him testifying in the near future

Efforts by House Republicans to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress appear to be in suspension following new discussions with his attorneys that could lead to the president’s son testifying in the near future.

The development follows Biden’s surprise appearance at a congressional oversight committee meeting last week during which the Republicans complained he was refusing to make himself available in defiance of their subpoena for closed-door testimony.

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The Houthis and the Red Sea crisis – podcast

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Attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea by the Houthi rebel group in Yemen have been met with airstrikes from the UK and US. Patrick Wintour reports

Since the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October and Israel’s military response in Gaza, there has been an effort by western leaders led by the US to avoid the conflict spreading to the wider region. That attempt looks increasingly tenuous now. US and UK airstrikes have targeted the Houthi rebel group in Yemen after a series of attacks by the group on commercial ships in the Red Sea.

As Patrick Wintour, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, tells Michael Safi, the Houthis say they are targeting Israeli-linked ships in an attempt to force a ceasefire. In doing so they are are positioning themselves as the foremost champions of Palestinians in the region. In reality, they have struck shipping interests beyond Israel and ignored warnings from the US to desist. Now, with Washington promising further strikes if necessary, the threat of a wider regional escalation is growing and with it the danger of a far more deadly conflict.

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Iowa caucuses: Asa Hutchinson suspends campaign; Haley says she’s ‘better choice for America’ – US politics live

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Hutchinson, who came sixth in caucuses, congratulates Trump on win; Haley tries to regain momentum with attack ad on Biden and Trump

Nikki Haley has said in a new campaign advert attacking Donald Trump and Joe Biden that she is the “better choice” for America, as the former South Carolina governor tries to regain momentum after narrowly losing to Ron DeSantis in the Iowa caucuses.

Haley puts herself forward as the better choice than Biden and Trump, whom the narrator in the ad suggests “are the two most-disliked politicians in America”.

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US military says it seized Iranian weapons bound for Houthis

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Search still under way for the two Seals involved in mission targeting supply of arms to Yemeni rebels

US Navy Seals boarded a boat heading for Yemen and seized Iranian-made missile components and other weaponry bound for Houthi forces, in an operation in which two Seal commandos went missing, the US military has said.

US Central Command (Centcom) posted pictures of the missile parts on X, including what appeared to be the components of a complete small missile, rocket motors and guidance systems, as well as a photograph of the small cargo vessel that was allegedly carrying the arms.

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Trump’s 30-point Iowa lead boosts his confidence for New Hampshire win

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Trump’s victory in Iowa intensifies skepticism that any of his opponents will be able to overtake him in the Republican primary

Donald Trump will continue on to the New Hampshire primaries more confident than ever about capturing the Republican nomination after the former president secured a 30-point win in the Iowa caucuses on Monday.

Trump won 51% of the vote in Iowa, giving him the largest margin of victory in the history of the state’s Republican caucuses, further securing his position as the Republican frontrunner who will face President Joe Biden in November. Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, secured a distant second-place finish with 21% of the vote, while Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador, trailed in third place with 19%. The entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who came in fourth, dropped out of the race following his disappointing performance, as did the former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson.

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Asa Hutchinson drops out of race for Republican presidential nomination

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Former Arkansas governor, a stalwart conservative, was willing to sharply criticize Donald Trump

The former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, a stalwart conservative willing to sharply criticize Donald Trump, has suspended his beleaguered bid for the White House the day after the Iowa caucuses.

“My message of being a principled Republican with experience and telling the truth about the current front runner did not sell in Iowa,” he said in a statement. “I stand by the campaign I ran. I answered every question, sounded the warning to the GOP about the risks in 2024 and presented hope for our country’s future.”

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Alleged Long Island serial killer indicted on new murder charge of fourth victim

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Rex Heuermann was indicted for killing Maureen Brainard-Barnes, whose remains were found in marshland along Gilgo Beach

The accused Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann has been indicted on a new murder charge in the killing of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who investigators believe was the first of the “Gilgo Four” to be killed, according to an indictment unsealed on Tuesday.

The unsealing of the indictment came after authorities announced Heuermann would face “a major development” in the investigation of the Gilgo Beach killings, which all targeted sex workers and lay unsolved for more than a decade.

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Six people missing in Missouri in clutches of online cult, police say

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Family members believed loved ones are followers of group founded by Rashad Jamal, a convicted child molester

Six people – including two children – who disappeared from their homes in eastern Missouri last summer are believed to be in the clutches of an eccentric online cult run by a convicted child molester, police say.

Family members of those missing are also convinced their loved ones are followers of a group founded by Rashad Jamal, a rapper and self-styled new age prophet serving an 18-year sentence in Georgia after his conviction in August.

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Democrats seize on Iowa results to campaign on threats posed by Trump

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Kamala Harris reminds voters of Trump’s role in overturning Roe v Wade as unstated core of campaign is Biden can beat him again

Top Democrats did not react to Donald Trump’s crushing win in the Iowa caucuses on Monday with the dismay that might have been expected. Instead, the victory of the twice-impeached, 91-times criminally charged former president was heralded as an early beginning to the battle for the White House itself.

Called early, Trump’s victory came by 30 points over the hard-right Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, who edged the former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley for second. Only one of 99 Iowa counties did not go for Trump: Johnson county, which includes the University of Iowa, was won by Haley, the relative moderate left in the race – by a single vote.

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Iowa caucuses 2024 live: Trump wins state as Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis vie for second and third place

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Former US president beats Republican rivals in first state to choose their Republican candidate

Florida senator Marco Rubio formally endorsed Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign on Sunday, effectively snubbing his state’s own governor Ron DeSantis.

In a social media post, Rubio cited his work with Trump to expand child tax credit as well as sanctions placed on Cuba and Venezuela as reasons for throwing his support behind the former president. Rubio added:

I support Trump because that kind of leadership is the ONLY way we will get the extraordinary actions needed to fix the disaster Biden has created.

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Donald Trump wins in Iowa as first contest kicks off 2024 presidential race

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AP called race for Trump rapidly, while caucusgoers in much of the state were still casting ballots, a sign of his wide lead in the race

Donald Trump won the US’s first election contest of 2024, easily fending off a winnowed field of Republicans who failed to gain as much traction as the cult of personality surrounding the former president.

The Associated Press called the race for Trump rapidly, while caucusgoers in much of the state were still casting ballots, a sign of the wide lead the former president has in the race.

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Kamala Harris warns US freedom is under ‘profound threat’ in MLK Jr day speech

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US vice-president speaks at South Carolina event honoring the civil rights leader, urging voters to ‘roll up our sleeves’

Kamala Harris issued a plea to Black voters on Martin Luther King Jr Day to join with Democrats to win the 2024 election and to stave off what she said were threats to US democracy posed by Republicans who look set to overwhelmingly back Donald Trump at their first state nomination contest today in Iowa.

The US vice-president, the headliner at the NAACP’s annual King Day at the Dome event in Columbia, South Carolina, said that freedom in the country is under “profound threat”, and cited the supreme court’s overturning of Roe v Wade, long lines for voting, Republican-backed book bans and the prevalence of gun violence.

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Vivek Ramaswamy urges supporters not to believe polls in final Iowa pitch

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Republican presidential candidate makes final appearance in Iowa hours ahead of caucuses

Vivek Ramaswamy, the biotech entrepreneur who has gone all in on Iowa to jumpstart his presidential bid, urged supporters not to believe the polls during a final appearance at a Cedar Rapids brewery hours ahead of Monday night’s caucuses.

Ramaswamy has visited all 99 counties in Iowa twice and even rented an apartment in Des Moines during the final stretch of the campaign. He said on Monday he had done nearly 400 events in the state.

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US election season begins as Iowa Republicans brave cold in first caucuses

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Latest polls place Donald Trump as clear frontrunner for party’s nomination in first round of voting in 2024 primary

Iowa Republicans braved brutally cold temperatures on Monday evening to participate in the state’s presidential caucuses, as Donald Trump remains the clear frontrunner in the race for his party’s nomination.

The caucuses began at 7pm CT and marked the first round of voting in the 2024 presidential primary. They will offer the most tangible insight yet into whether any of Trump’s primary opponents, particularly the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, and the former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, have managed to diminish his significant polling advantage in the race. Trump has maintained that advantage for months, even as he has been charged with 91 felony counts across four criminal cases.

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White House targeted in ‘swatting’ attack while Joe Biden is away

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Multiple emergency personnel sent to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue following hoax call at 7.03am on Monday

The White House on Monday became the latest victim of a growing US problem of “swatting”: the summoning of large numbers of law enforcement personnel and other first responders to a hoax emergency incident.

Multiple Washington DC fire and ambulance crews rushed to the White House following an emergency call that was received at 7.03am, a spokesperson for District of Columbia fire and emergency medical services said. Joe Biden was not at the residence, and the call was later traced to a fake number.

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Two US Navy Seals missing off Somalia in mission to intercept Iranian weapons

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Navy searches Gulf of Aden for Seals who fell into the water when trying to board vessel carrying Iranian missile parts to Somalia

US Navy ships and aircraft combed areas of the Gulf of Aden for two missing US Navy Seals on Monday as details emerged about their mission to board and take over a vessel carrying components for medium-range Iranian ballistic missiles headed for Somalia, a US defense official said.

Officials have said that the Seal mission was not related to Operation Prosperity Guardian, the ongoing US and international mission to provide protection to commercial vessels in the Red Sea, or the retaliatory strikes that the United States and the United Kingdom have conducted in Yemen over the past two days.

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Houthi missile fired at US warship shot down as Red Sea tensions rise | First Thing

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US Central Command says missile from Houthi-controlled area of Yemen was launched towards USS Laboon before being shot down by fighter jets. Plus, is booing at the theatre actually a good thing?

Good morning.

US fighter aircraft shot down an anti-ship cruise missile fired from a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen at one of its warships in the Red Sea, the US military said on Sunday night.

What else is happening in the Middle East? The White House has said “it’s the right time” for Israel to scale back its military offensive in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli leaders again vowed to press ahead with their offensive against Hamas. The comments exposed the growing differences between the close allies on the 100th day of the war on Sunday.

Does Haley have a good chance of being nominated? Not while Trump is still in the running. The poll underscored the profound challenges that Haley – and any other Republican not named Donald Trump – faces in the quest for the nomination. Trump easily beat all of his opponents in the Iowa poll, capturing the support of 48% of likely caucus-goers.

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