Category Archives: US News

Biden says US needs fair tax code to ‘make this country great’ in speech on $7.3tn budget plan – live

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US president tells audience in New Hampshire: ‘I’m a capitalist. Make all the money you want. Just begin to pay your fair share in taxes’

Joe Biden is issuing a budget plan Monday aimed at getting voters’ attention: tax breaks for families, lower healthcare costs, smaller deficits and higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations.

Unlikely to pass the House and Senate to become law, the proposal for fiscal 2025 is an election-year blueprint about what the future could hold if Biden and enough of his fellow Democrats win in November. The president and his aides previewed parts of his budget going into last week’s State of the Union address, with plans to provide the fine print on Monday.

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California officer shoots and kills boy, 15, holding gardening tool

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Civil rights advocates call for release of police bodycam video after Ryan Gainer killed on Saturday by deputy responding to 911 call

A sheriff’s deputy in southern California shot and killed a 15-year-old boy who was holding a gardening tool, officials said.

The San Bernardino county sheriff’s department was responding to a 911 call on Saturday from a family reporting that a boy, identified as Ryan Gainer, was attacking his family at their home in Apple Valley, east of Los Angeles. The department said he was holding a 5ft gardening tool and approaching the first deputy who arrived at the scene when the deputy shot him. Gainer was later taken to a hospital where he died.

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Bitcoin price nears $73,000 in fresh record high

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Cryptocurrency rises as UK financial regulator says it will allow trading of crypto-backed securities

Bitcoin has reached a new record price of almost $73,000 (£57,000), as the UK financial regulator said it would allow the trading of cryptocurrency-backed securities.

The cryptocurrency hit a fresh high of $72,720 as of Monday evening having last week overtaken its previous November 2021 high of nearly $69,000.

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Biden housing secretary Marcia Fudge resigns

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US president praises legacy of ‘fierce advocate’ Fudge, 71, who says she is leaving with ‘mixed emotions’

Housing and urban development secretary Marcia Fudge announced Monday that she would resign her post, effective March 22, saying she was leaving “with mixed emotions”.

A former mayor of Warrensville Heights, Ohio, and later an Ohio representative in Congress, Fudge, 71, served as HUD secretary since the start of Joe Biden’s administration.

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Biden gets campaign boost from coalition of youth voters

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Endorsement from 15 groups marks launch of Students for Biden-Harris amid concerns over president’s age

A coalition of youth voters on Monday gave Joe Biden’s re-election campaign a welcome shot in the arm amid swirling concerns over the president’s age and mental acuity.

The endorsement from 15 groups of mostly gen Z and young millennial voters was announced to mark the launch of Students for Biden-Harris, an initiative from the campaign designed to recapture the support of younger voters who helped propel Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House in 2020.

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Trump asks to delay hush-money trial until supreme court weighs immunity claim

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Trial set to begin on 25 March, one of four federal criminal cases the presumptive Republican presidential nominee faces

Donald Trump on Monday asked the New York judge overseeing his criminal case on charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star to delay the trial until the US supreme court finishes reviewing his claim of presidential immunity in a separate case.

The hush money trial is set to begin on 25 March in a New York state court in Manhattan.

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Al Pacino to release ‘revealing’ memoir in October

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Sonny Boy, the actor’s first memoir, will cover his upbringing in New York, Hollywood career and thoughts on ‘love and purpose’

The Oscar-winning actor Al Pacino’s memoir Sonny Boy is set to release this October.

The book, launched by Penguin Random House, is the “memoir of a man who has nothing left to fear and nothing left to hide”, according to a statement from the publisher. “All the great roles, the essential collaborations, and the important relationships are given their full due, as is the vexed marriage between creativity and commerce at the highest levels.”

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West won’t stop Houthi attacks unless it works with Yemeni authorities, say experts

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Calls for closer collaboration made after multiple Houthi drone strikes on ships in Red Sea over weekend

Western efforts to stop Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea will fail unless the US and its allies build stronger intelligence and military relations with the UN-recognised government in Yemen, politicians and experts are warning.

Yemen’s ambassador to the UK has warned the Houthis have to be confronted and driven away from Red Sea ports such as Hodeidah. Similar calls were made by members of the Yemeni government coalition when they visited London last month.

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Next stop for Democratic ‘uncommitted’ vote campaign for Gaza: Washington

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After successes in Michigan, Minnesota and Hawaii, local organizers urge voters to keep pressure on Biden for ceasefire

The movement among Democrats to cast a Gaza protest vote against President Joe Biden in the primary election moves to Washington state on Tuesday.

Organizers with Vote Uncommitted WA have been working for two weeks to ramp up outreach to voters via phone, text, online and in-person connections to explain how they can use their primary ballots to check “uncommitted delegates” to send a message to Biden in support of a permanent ceasefire.

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US defence contractor paid commissions to Saudi firm later alleged to be conduit for bribes

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Harris had longstanding relationship with ABTSS, later alleged by British prosecutors to have handled or received illegal payments

One of the largest military contractors in the US paid commissions to a Saudi company later alleged to have been a conduit for bribes for the kingdom’s royal family.

A document disclosed in a UK criminal trial revealed that Harris Corporation, now L3Harris, paid commissions to the Saudi company for over two decades for services in the kingdom.

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Bitcoin hits new record high above $70,000; US investor ends Currys chase – business live

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Live, rolling coverage of business, economics and financial markets as exchange-traded funds help biggest cryptocurrency rally

The European Commission’s use of Microsoft email and office software broke its own privacy rules, an EU privacy watchdog has ruled.

Microsoft’s software transferred personal data outside the EU, breaching privacy rules, according to the European Data Protection Supervisor.

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US airlifts embassy staff out of Haiti as gangs besiege political area

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Officials say marines deployed for night-time evacuation amid intense fighting in Port-au-Prince, while German and EU representatives also leave

The US military has carried out an operation in Haiti to airlift non-essential embassy personnel from the country and added US forces to bolster embassy security, after dozens of heavily armed gang fighters tried to seize the political quarter of its capital, Port-au-Prince.

The German foreign ministry meanwhile said its ambassador joined other EU representatives in leaving for the Dominican Republic on Sunday.

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Europe is unprepared for risks from Russia and Trump, says Airbus boss

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Aerospace group chief executive urges UK and Europe to pool efforts and merge fighter jet programmes

Europe is unprepared for war with Russia or the risk that Donald Trump could withdraw the US from Nato and needs to ramp up spending on defence equipment, the boss of Airbus has said.

Guillaume Faury, the chief executive of Europe’s biggest aerospace and defence company, said it was a “defining moment” for the continent’s defence industry, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 brought war to western Europe’s borders.

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Oscars 2024: your catchup with all the action from Hollywood’s biggest night

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From Billie to Barbie and Pacino to the pins, here’s where to get up to speed with the winners, the losers, the talking points and the dud moments

Just want to know who won? Here’s our list of winners and all those nominated, or you can relive every minute of the ceremony in our live blog.

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Netanyahu says Biden ‘wrong’ after US president criticises approach to Gaza war

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Israeli prime minister hits back after Biden says war is hurting Israel more than helping it

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has rejected Joe Biden’s comment that his approach to the war in Gaza is “hurting Israel more than helping Israel”, escalating a dispute between the leaders.

Over the weekend, the US president said Netanyahu “must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken” in Gaza and that his stance was detrimental to Israel’s interests.

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‘Isn’t it past your jail time?’: Jimmy Kimmel wins cheers at Oscars with Trump jibe

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Oscars host makes comment onstage after ex-president writes scathing review of Kimmel on his Truth Social platform

Jimmy Kimmel threw a jab at Donald Trump while onstage at the Oscars less than an hour after the ex-president penned a scathing Truth Social post about the talkshow host.

On Sunday, just ahead of the last award of the night – best picture – getting doled out to Oppenheimer, Kimmel addressed the crowd at the 96th Academy Awards to share a review he had received about his performance as host of the ceremony.

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Oppenheimer wins best picture Oscar as Emma Stone pulls surprise win

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Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster picked up seven awards while Poor Things star won over Lily Gladstone for best actress

Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster biopic Oppenheimer has triumphed at this year’s Oscars taking home seven awards including best picture, best actor and best director.

The drama, telling the story of the “father of the atomic bomb”, lost the box office battle to Barbie during last summer’s Barbenheimer showdown but has now won the awards war with Greta Gerwig’s Mattel comedy winning just one Oscar for best original song.

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Christopher Nolan wins his first ever Oscar for directing Oppenheimer

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Nolan wins prize at the Academy Awards after losing out in 2018 when he was nominated for Dunkirk

Christopher Nolan has won the best director Oscar for Oppenheimer at the Academy Awards, currently taking place in Los Angeles.

This is the first time Nolan has won the award, having previously been nominated for Dunkirk in 2018. He was considered the strong favourite for the statuette, having won a series of best director awards in the run-up to the Oscars, including a Golden Globe, Bafta, Critics Choice award and Directors Guild of America prize. At the Oscars, Nolan saw off a strong field, which included Martin Scorsese (for Killers of the Flower Moon), Justine Triet (for Anatomy of a Fall) and Yorgos Lanthimos (for Poor Things).

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Matthew Perry, Richard Lewis, Glenda Jackson and Alexei Navalny remembered at Oscars

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Annual sequence devoted to recently deceased figures in the film industry also recognised Tom Wilkinson and William Friedkin

Prominent figures from the Hollywood and global film industry were honoured in the Oscars’ traditional in memoriam segment at the 96th Academy Awards, currently taking place in Los Angeles.

The names and brief clips were soundtracked by Andrea and Matteo Bocelli singing It’s Time to Say Goodbye, and preceded by a short clip of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, who died last month.

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Palestinian town of Jericho names street after US soldier who set himself on fire

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Aaron Bushnell, who died last month, ‘sacrificed everything’ for Palestinians, says mayor of Jericho

The Palestinian town of Jericho has named a street after Aaron Bushnell, the US air force member who set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington to protest against the war in Gaza.

The 25-year-old, who died on 25 February, “sacrificed everything” for Palestinians, said the mayor of Jericho, Abdul Karim Sidr, as the street sign was unveiled on Sunday.

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