Category Archives: US News

Israel tries to appease US with proposals for Gaza as Blinken heads to Middle East

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Washington wants concessions from the Netanyahu administration, as critics say plans lack detail or commitment

Israeli officials are scrambling to head off mounting frustration in Washington in the run-up to a potentially difficult meeting between the top US diplomat and Benjamin Netanyahu by offering a series of policy proposals on Gaza that critics say lack detail or commitment.

The US has offered staunch support to Israel since the outbreak of its war with Hamas three months ago but is anxious to secure some concessions from Netanyahu to lower regional tensions and help avert a wider conflict in the Middle East.

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Met rejects calls to investigate Prince Andrew after release of Epstein files

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Scotland Yard suggest recently unsealed documents containing allegations of sexual assaults do not provide new information

The Metropolitan police has rejected calls to launch an investigation into Prince Andrew, after the release of court documents relating to the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Accusations against Prince Andrew, including allegedly groping a woman’s breast during an encounter involving a puppet version of the prince and claims he sexually assaulted Virginia Giuffre when she was 17, were given a new airing in the unsealing of 1,200 pages by a US court.

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FDA approves program to allow Florida to import Canadian prescription drugs

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State will be first to import drugs under federal program that Florida governor says could save consumers $150m in first year

A public health policy that won rare backing from both the Biden and Trump administrations looks ready to open a flow of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada to Florida, ending a decades-long block on the importation of certain pharmaceuticals to the US.

The federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted the state approval under a drugs importation program that seeks to lower the cost of medicines for US consumers without imposing additional risks to their health or safety.

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Second wave of court documents related to Jeffrey Epstein unsealed

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More than 300 additional pages deepen the picture of Epstein’s elite orbit while resurfacing old claims

A new batch of documents related to the disgraced financier Jeffery Epstein’s sexual abuse were released on Thursday.

The additional 19 documents, totaling around 300 pages, add to the more than 900 pages of documents already unsealed on Wednesday evening, the release of which prompted an online frenzy that crashed a website hosting the documents.

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New York mayor sues bus operators that brought migrants from Texas for $708m

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Lawsuit announced by Eric Adams says 17 bus companies violated state law by transporting 33,000 people to the city

New York City has sued 17 charter bus companies that transported migrants from Texas, the mayor, Eric Adams, announced on Thursday.

The lawsuit, filed in New York state court in Manhattan, says the city is seeking $708m from the firms because that was the cost it incurred to house the migrants and provide services to them over the past two years.

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Al Sharpton says ousted Harvard chief was ‘scapegoat’ in fight against diversity

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Civil rights leader hosts protest outside office of alumnus who spearheaded campaign to remove Claudine Gay and criticized DEI

The civil rights leader the Rev Al Sharpton hosted a protest outside the office of the Harvard alumnus Bill Ackman on Thursday after Ackman criticized diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at Harvard following the resignation of the former university president Claudine Gay.

“[Ackman] declared war on DEI. He declared war on affirmative action. He’s defining himself as a rightwinger in terms of dealing with racial equality,” Sharpton told the Guardian during the protest alongside his organization, National Action Network, outside Ackman’s office in New York City.

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Sixth-grader killed and five people wounded in Iowa high school shooting

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Investigators believe suspect died of self-inflicted gunshot wound, and at least one of the victims is a school administrator

Police said that a 17-year-old suspect killed a sixth grader and wounded five others in a shooting early Thursday at a high school in the small town of Perry, Iowa.

The suspect was identified as Dylan Butler, a 17-year-old student at Perry high school, officials said at a news briefing on Thursday afternoon. He was found dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound by responding officers.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed reporting

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Police clear Berkeley’s historic People’s Park in surprise midnight operation

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In latest move by University of California, Berkeley, law enforcement agencies arrested protesters and erected barrier

In a midnight operation, hundreds of police officers descended on People’s Park in Berkeley, California, to clear out the activists and unhoused campers occupying the area, to make way for the construction of a housing complex for students.

By dawn, the park that was once the centre of the 1960s antiwar and counterculture movement was walled off with shipping containers and surrounded by police.

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US Department of Justice sues Texas over new state immigration law

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Suit is aimed at stopping a law allowing police to detain people suspected of crossing the US border without authorization

The US Department of Justice has sued Texas and its Republican governor, Greg Abbott, to block a new and controversial state immigration law from going into effect.

After threatening the state with legal action after last year’s passage of SB4, a new Texas law which allows state police to arrest any person they suspect has crossed the US-Mexico border without authorization, the justice department did so on Wednesday. Immigration and border control officially falls under the purview of the federal government – not individual states.

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Carrefour pulls PepsiCo products in four EU countries over price hikes

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Stores in France, Italy, Spain and Belgium will no longer stock PepsiCo drinks, Lay’s and Doritos crisps and Quaker cereals

The French supermarket chain Carrefour has said it will stop selling PepsiCo products in stores in four European countries because the global food company has put its prices up by too much.

Shelves at Carrefours in France, Italy, Spain and Belgium will from Thursday carry signs saying the store will no longer stock PepsiCo products such as fizzy drinks, Lay’s and Doritos crisps and Quaker cereals “due to unacceptable price increases”.

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Trial of Salman Rushdie’s attacker postponed because of author’s memoir

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Rushdie’s book about the incident will be published in April, but the delay ‘will not change the ultimate outcome’ of the trial says district attorney

The trial of the man accused of stabbing Salman Rushdie has been postponed because of the publication of the author’s memoir about the attack.

A lawyer representing Hadi Matar, who was charged with attacking Rushdie on stage in New York state in 2022, successfully petitioned judge David Foley to delay the trial shortly before it was due to begin on 8 January.

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Release of Epstein documents crashes court website but details are less scandalous

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The majority of those whose names appear in the documents are not accused of wrongdoing and have been mentioned previously

When legal documents related to the case of convicted sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein were made public on Wednesday night, it caused an online frenzy that crashed the court website hosting the files in minutes.

More than 900 pages of papers were unsealed late in the day, identifying numerous Epstein associates and public figures as mentioned in proceedings of the case Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre filed against Ghislaine Maxwell in 2015.

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Transatlantic slavery continued for years after 1867, historian finds

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Exclusive: Evidence found by Hannah Durkin includes ships landing in Cuba in 1872, and people held in Benin in 1873

Historians have generally assumed that the transatlantic slave trade ended in 1867, but it actually continued into the following decade, according to new research.

Dr Hannah Durkin, an historian and former Newcastle University lecturer, has unearthed evidence that two slave ships landed in Cuba in 1872. One vessel, flying the Portuguese flag, had 200 captives aged from 10 to 40, and the second is believed to have been a US ship with 630 prisoners packed into its hold.

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Sandy Hook parents press gunmakers to stop marketing weapons of war to kids

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Families of children killed in massacre call out manufacturers’ push to sell weapons to adolescents

Parents of children massacred in the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting are stepping up their anti-gun violence campaign by exposing how the firearms industry is marketing weapons of war specifically to vulnerable adolescents.

In a fresh stage in their battle to staunch the rising loss of life from mass shootings, Sandy Hook parents are pressuring gun manufacturers to stop what they say is a cynical and aggressive effort to sell military-style weapons to young and impressionable Americans. They are alarmed by a shift in tone in gun advertising in which, they say, major companies have consciously decided to boost profits by targeting kids as young as 10.

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Documents linking associates to Jeffrey Epstein unsealed | First Thing

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Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, David Copperfield and Prince Andrew among high-profile names in court documents. Plus, 20 easy, mind-expanding ways to be more creative

Good morning.

Numerous court documents identifying associates of the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were made public last night.

Epstein’s elite circle was huge. What was the source of his $580m fortune? The documents released shed some light on the circumstances of Epstein’s lifestyle, but they do not answer any of the pending questions about his financial arrangements with wealthy men, and how he came to amass such a fortune.

Where can we see the unsealed court papers? Hundreds of pages of documents linked to Epstein associates were made public on Wednesday. You can read them here in full.

What was behind the campaign to get her sacked? Some of the activists who campaigned most prominently against Gay made clear this week that their broader aim was opposing “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) programs in all US universities and attacking DEI as a movement, not just opposing the choices of one individual Harvard president.

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Republicans seek to override Ohio governor’s veto of trans rights bill

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Mike DeWine defied his party on gender-affirming care for youths and now legislature is set to reconvene early to push law through

A legislative showdown is brewing in Ohio after Governor Mike DeWine split from his party to veto a bill that would impose substantial new restrictions on the lives of trans children.

The bill, HB 68, prohibits doctors from providing gender-affirming care to trans youths. It also blocks transgender female student athletes from participating in girls’ sports.

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Courtroom video shows defendant attacking judge in Nevada

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Mary Kay Holthus and court officials injured in incident which has led to new charges against Deobra Delone Redden

A defendant has attacked a judge during a felony battery case, dragging her to the floor and sparking a brawl involving court officials and attorneys, officials and witnesses have said.

In a violent scene captured on courtroom video on Wednesday, Deobra Delone Redden jumped over a defence table and the judge’s bench, knocking the Clark county district judge Mary Kay Holthus from her seat and against a wall then pulled her to the floor. She sustained some injuries but was not sent to hospital, courthouse officials said.

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‘I can ride the bus. I can walk the streets’: the joy of freedom for Rohingya resettled in the US

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A diplomatic breakthrough has allowed 62 refugees to start a new life in America. Yet a million still remain in fear and poverty in the Bangladeshi camps

After 23 hours on his first international flight, it was only after stepping off the plane in the United States that Nurul Haque finally felt the relief of escaping the refugee camps of Bangladesh, where he was born.

Haque was among the first Rohingya refugees allowed to leave Bangladesh in more than a decade. The 62 people who have flown to the US since late last year might be few, but resettlement has given them hope of opportunity and security that was denied them in Bangladesh.

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US soldier’s family rescued from Gaza in secret operation – report

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The mother and uncle of Ragi A Sckak were taken from Gaza in an operation coordinated by the US, Israel and Egypt, according to a US official

The mother and uncle of a US service member were rescued from the fighting in Gaza in a secret operation coordinated by the US, Israel, Egypt and others, according to a US official speaking to the Associated Press.

It is the only known operation of its kind to extract American citizens and their close family members during the months of devastating ground fighting and Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.

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Unsealed Jeffrey Epstein court papers – read document in full

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Hundreds of pages of documents linked to Epstein associates were made public on Wednesday. You can read them here in full

Court documents linked to associates of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have been made public on Wednesday.

The unsealed papers run to almost 950 pages and list people including Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton.

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