Category Archives: US News

Design flaws not suspected ‘at this time’ with Boeing Max 9 jets, investigators say

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Boeing faces fresh scrutiny after door panel blows out of brand new plane, leaving a hole ‘the size of a refrigerator’

US aviation investigators were on the ground in Oregon on Sunday trying to figure out what caused a door panel to blow out of a brand new Boeing passenger jet just minutes after takeoff, forcing pilots to make an emergency landing with a hole “the size of a refrigerator” in the side of the plane.

The American jet maker was facing fresh scrutiny as regulators temporarily grounded the Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft after a section of a plugged exit door on an Alaska Airlines flight detached 16,000ft (4,877 meters) above Portland, Oregon, on Friday with 171 passengers and six crew on board. The weeks-old plane had been modified, requiring fewer emergency exits because it had fewer seats.

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Israel says Gaza fighting could last a year, amplifying fears of regional war

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Comments from senior defence officials come during tour by US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, intended to defuse tensions

Israeli defence officials and former senior intelligence officers have said they expect fighting in Gaza to continue for at least a year, raising the prospect of thousands more civilian casualties, a deepening humanitarian crisis and a continuing grave threat to regional stability.

In a briefing, R Adm Daniel Hagari, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), said the centre and south of Gaza, where military efforts are now focused, was “dense and saturated with terrorists” with “an underground city of branching tunnels”.

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US defense secretary says he takes ‘full responsibility’ for secret hospitalisation

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Lloyd Austin apologises for lack of disclosure but questions about medical procedure and the secrecy surrounding it remain unanswered

US defense secretary Lloyd Austin has said he takes “full responsibility” for secrecy surrounding an ongoing, week-long hospitalisation for a still-unspecified medical condition.

Austin, who is 70, was admitted on New Year’s Day to Walter Reed national military medical center for what the Pentagon has said were “complications following a recent elective medical procedure”, a fact the defence department kept under wraps for five days.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report

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Trump avoids mention of US Capitol attack on 6 January anniversary

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Three years after insurrection, Trump was in Newton, Iowa, currying support before the 15 January Republican caucus

Donald Trump largely ducked speaking about the January 6 attack on the US Capitol during a campaign speech Saturday, which he delivered on the third anniversary of the insurrection, reflecting the degree to which Republican voters have absolved the former president of responsibility for that day’s deadly consequences.

Trump’s remarks came a day after Joe Biden appeared in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and spoke about how his presidential predecessor had urged his supporters to “fight like hell” shortly before they staged the Capitol attack.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed reporting

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Blinken returns to Middle East and warns of risk war could spread

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US secretary of state begins visit to region as fears grow Israel could expand Gaza conflict to Lebanon

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has returned to the Middle East for the fourth time in three months as he warned Israel’s war against Hamas risked spreading throughout the region.

Recent intensifying violence between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, increasing attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, and strikes by Tehran-linked groups on US bases in Iraq, have created an increasingly febrile atmosphere across the Middle East.

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Actor Christian Oliver’s ex-wife pays tribute to him and children killed in plane crash

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Actor and daughters, 12 and 10, died along with pilot on Thursday after small plane they were in crashed into Caribbean Sea

A Los Angeles pilates instructor who recently lost her two daughters and their father – actor Christian Oliver – has paid tribute to her girls and her former husband, saying their deaths are “deeply felt by all who knew” them.

Jessica Klepser’s remarks about Oliver and their daughters – Madita Maia and Annik Luna Klepser, ages 12 and 10, respectively – were contained in a statement published late Friday on Instagram by Wundabar Pilates, the studio where she works.

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Election denier Kristina Karamo voted out as Michigan Republican party chair

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Critics say the QAnon conspiracy theorist, in the position less than a year, failed to deliver on funding promises

A group of Michigan Republicans voted on Saturday to remove Kristina Karamo as state party chair after months of infighting and slow fundraising raised concerns her leadership would hurt the party’s chances in the key swing state in 2024.

Karamo, a former community college instructor and election-denying activist who was elevated to her post in February, has indicated she would not respect Saturday’s vote, setting the stage for a potentially messy court battle over party leadership.

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Testify under oath about Jeffrey Epstein abuse scandal, Prince Andrew urged

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Duke of York must answer to claims in new documents while ‘facing all the trappings of the law’, says victims’ lawyer

Prince Andrew must testify under oath about his role in the Jeffrey Epstein abuse scandal so that he faces the threat of prison if he lies, a lawyer for several of Epstein’s victims has said.

Amid growing calls for a police investigation into allegations of sexual assault against the royal, Spencer Kuvin, a Florida-based attorney, told the Observer that the Duke of York “needs to answer for what is now coming out” and should give his account with “all the trappings of the law” so that he is legally obliged to tell the truth.

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US orders Boeing 737 Max 9 planes grounded after Alaska Airlines blowout

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Nearly 200 planes grounded as FAA investigates Saturday flight from Portland, Oregon, in which a cabin panel blew out in mid-air

US regulators have ordered the temporary grounding of 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft following a cabin panel blowout late Friday that forced a brand-new airplane operated by Alaska Airlines to make an emergency landing.

“The FAA is requiring immediate inspections of certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes before they can return to flight,” said Mike Whitaker, a Federal Aviation Administration administrator, on Saturday. “Safety will continue to drive our decision-making as we assist the NTSB’s [National Transportation Safety Board] investigation into Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.”

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Former NRA chief of staff admits wrongdoing before corruption trial

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Joshua Powell, one of five defendants in lawsuit including former CEO Wayne LaPierre, has agreed to pay $100,000

A former chief of staff to Wayne LaPierre – who resigned as the National Rifle Association’s chief executive on Friday – has agreed to a $100,000 settlement in connection with a civil lawsuit filed by the New York attorney general’s office.

As part of the settlement announced on Saturday, Joshua Powell – one of five defendants in the lawsuit against the NRA, a gun-rights organization – admitted to wrongdoing in failing to fulfill his fiduciary responsibilities and misusing charitable funds.

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Pentagon reveals that defense secretary has been hospitalized since Monday

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Press secretary acknowledged Lloyd Austin was admitted five days ago after minor elective procedure

The US defense secretary Lloyd Austin has been hospitalized since Monday due to complications after a minor elective medical procedure, his press secretary said, in the first official acknowledgement that Austin had been admitted five days earlier to Walter Reed national military medical center.

Air Force Maj Gen Pat Ryder said Friday that Austin was “recovering well”, but it was not clear when the secretary would be released from the hospital.

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Wife of financier who called for Harvard head’s exit faces plagiarism allegations

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After Claudine Gay was ousted amid accusations of plagiarism, Neri Oxman was accused of copying from Wikipedia in dissertation

The wife of Bill Ackman, the hedge fund billionaire who accused Claudine Gay of being a plagiarist and led calls for her resignation as Harvard president, is now facing allegations of plagiarism herself.

Neri Oxman, a prominent former professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has apologized after Business Insider identified multiple instances in which she lifted passages from other scholars’ work without proper attribution in her 2010 dissertation. She also pledged to review the primary sources and request the necessary corrections.

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Trump tells Iowans to ‘get over’ school shooting at campaign event

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Former president made the comment 36 hours after one student was killed and seven people wounded during the first day of school

Donald Trump told an audience at a campaign event on Friday in Iowa to “get over” a deadly shooting at a high school in the state a day earlier.

After offering sympathy and emotional support for the victims of the shooting in Perry, Iowa, and their families, Trump said at the event in Sioux Center: “It’s just horrible – so surprising to see it here. But we have to get over it. We have to move forward.”

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US and EU launch twin diplomatic mission to calm tensions in Middle East

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Escalation of violence comes as US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and Europe’s Josep Borrell begin tours of the region

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The most senior diplomats from the US and the EU launched a dual diplomatic offensive in the Middle East on Saturday aimed at calming tensions that threaten chaos and wider conflict across the region.

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, began a five-day tour of the region with meetings in Turkey and the EU’s most senior diplomat Josep Borrell, visited the Lebanese capital Beirut.

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Third batch of Jeffrey Epstein documents unsealed

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Latest documents bring renewed attention to Prince Andrew and claims the royal ‘spent weeks’ at Epstein’s Palm Beach home

New batches of documents related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse were released on Friday afternoon, bringing renewed attention to his longtime friendship with Prince Andrew and prior claims that the royal “spent weeks” at the late financier’s Palm Beach home.

Juan Alessi, Epstein’s former house manager, said he routinely saw famous faces around the south Florida house – including the Duke of York. Alessi also said he saw Andrew’s wife, Sarah Ferguson.

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Fired-up Biden shows gloves are off in January 6 anniversary speech

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In address near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, US president tore into Donald Trump like never before, including calling him a ‘loser’

This time it’s personal. On Friday Joe Biden tore into his predecessor Donald Trump as never before. He brimmed with anger, disdain and contempt. He apparently had to stop himself from swearing. So much for “when they go low, we go high” – and plenty of Democrats will be just fine with that.

If Biden was seeking to jolt his half-conscious 2024 re-election campaign into life, this may have done the trick. The palpable loathing of Trump took a good 10 or 20 years off him. Keep hating like this and he might do a Benjamin Button all the way to election day.

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Ex-police officer sentenced to 14 months in jail for killing Elijah McClain in 2019

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Randy Roedema, found guilty of criminally negligent homicide, is the first official to be sentenced in the 23-year-old’s killing

A former Colorado police officer convicted in the 2019 killing of Elijah McClain was sentenced to 14 months in county jail on Friday.

Randy Roedema, an ex-Aurora police department (APD) officer, was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault in October. He is the first official to face jail time for the killing of McClain, a 23-year-old whose death led to years of protests and calls for reforms.

This story was amended on 6 January 2024 to clarify that Peter Cichuniec and Jeremy Cooper are paramedics, not EMTs.

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Biden accuses Trump of ‘assault on democracy’ and says ‘it’s what he’s promising for the future’ – as it happened

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We are going to hear a lot about January 6 at 3.15pm today, when Joe Biden marks the third anniversary of the deadly attack on the Capitol with a speech that doubles as the start of his presidential campaigning in 2024.

Republican presidential contenders, by contrast, tend to have little to say about the insurrection, even when asked directly. A questioner at CNN’s town hall in Iowa last night asked Ron DeSantis for his views on the attack, and the Florida governor responded with a brief condemnation, then changed the subject. Here’s the moment:

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Biden attacks Trump as grave threat to democracy in rousing 2024 speech

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On eve of January 6 anniversary, US president condemns likely rival and warns voters ‘democracy is on the ballot’ in November

A day before the third anniversary of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, Joe Biden delivered a pointed speech to warn voters against re-electing Donald Trump, criticizing the likely Republican presidential nominee as a fundamental threat to democracy in an attempt to shape the dynamics of the 2024 election.

“Today we’re here to answer the most important of questions: is democracy still America’s sacred cause?” Biden said. “Today, I make this sacred pledge to you: the defense, protection and preservation of American democracy will remain, as it has been, the central cause of my presidency.

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Shia LaBeouf mulls plan to become deacon after Catholic confirmation

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Actor, 37, received sacrament on New Year’s Eve and Capuchin friar Alexander Rodriguez says he wishes to be a deacon ‘in the future’

The Hollywood actor Shia LaBeouf is seeking to becoming a Catholic deacon after receiving the sacrament of confirmation on New Year’s Eve.

A California-based chapter of the Capuchin Franciscans, a Catholic religious order, shared the news in a Facebook post on Tuesday alongside photos of the 37-year-old actor smiling next to several of the organization’s members.

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