Category Archives: US News

Democrats decry House censure vote as ‘attempt to silence’ Jamaal Bowman

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Republican-led resolution against Democrat who pulled fire alarm called a waste of time and another attack on person of colour

Democrats accused Republicans of wasting time and pursuing “another attempt to silence a person of colour”, after the New York progressive Jamaal Bowman was formally censured for pulling a fire alarm in a congressional office building.

“This censure of Representative Bowman is yet another attempt to silence a person of colour in this chamber,” the Michigan representative Rashida Tlaib said.

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US chocolate mogul charged over deaths of Canadian animator and partner in Dominica

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Jonathan Lehrer, 57, and alleged accomplice appear in court after bodies of Daniel Langlois and Dominique Marchand were found

An American chocolatier and his alleged accomplice have been charged in the Caribbean island of Dominica with the murder of a Canadian animation innovator and eco-resort owner and his partner days after their bodies were found in a burned-out car.

Jonathan Lehrer, 57, and Robert Snider appeared in magistrates court in Roseau, the capital, on Wednesday to face charges relating to the murders of Daniel Langlois and Dominique Marchand. They did not enter a plea.

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US to conduct flights within Guyana amid Venezuela territorial dispute

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US and Britain express support for Guyana over Maduro threat to seize a third of its territory while Brazil calls for peaceful solution

The United States has said it would conduct flight operations within Guyana that build on its routine engagement, as Britain and Brazil expressed concerns about growing border tensions between Guyana and Venezuela.

The long-running spat over the oil-rich Essequibo region, which is being heard by the international court of justice (ICJ), escalated over the weekend when voters in Venezuela rejected the ICJ’s jurisdiction and backed the creation of a new Venezuelan state.

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Nikki Haley says TikTok makes people ‘17% more antisemitic, more pro-Hamas’

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Republican presidential contender mocked for claim about Chinese-owned app during primary debate on Wednesday night

The former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley claimed during the Republican presidential primary debate on Wednesday that watching TikTok made people “17% more antisemitic, more pro-Hamas” every 30 minutes.

“We really do need to ban TikTok once and for all and let me tell you why,” Haley said. “For every 30 minutes that someone watches TikTok every day they become 17% more antisemitic, more pro-Hamas based on doing that.”

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Washington faces showdown over fresh UN resolution for Gaza ceasefire

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US may feel impelled to protect Israel with veto again as UAE prepares security council motion

The Biden administration faces a showdown at the UN security council in the next 48 hours at which it may feel impelled to use its veto to protect Israel by rejecting calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.

The United Arab Emirates, the Arab country on the 15-strong security council, said it would table a resolution on Thursday for debate on Friday after the UN secretary general, António Guterres, and most Islamic states called for a humanitarian ceasefire.

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Revealed: how top pop stars are used to ‘launder the reputation’ of Koch family

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Stand Together Music, part of rightwing billionaire Charles Koch’s advocacy network, collaborates with Pitbull, Machine Gun Kelly and others

Last September, the rapper Killer Mike was DJing hip-hop classics like Snoop Dogg’s Ain’t No Fun at a music festival afterparty in Louisville, Kentucky. “The inspiration for the night’s set is freedom of speech, so say what the fuck you want!” he told a crowd of hundreds. Killer Mike, half of the duo Run The Jewels, is known for speaking out against police brutality and racial injustice, as well as campaigning for Bernie Sanders.

But this night’s set was co-sponsored by Stand Together Music, an organization backed by the libertarian billionaire Charles Koch, who made his fortune in fossil fuels. Other sponsors of the party included the free-speech group Fire (which has received millions of dollars in contributions from the Charles G Koch charitable foundation), as well as the music outlet Spin, an official partner of Stand Together Music.

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Meta platforms are marketplaces for child predators claims lawsuit

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Facebook and Instagram ‘enabled adults to find, message and groom minors’ for sexual exploitation, alleges state of New Mexico legal filing

Meta has allowed its social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram, to become marketplaces for child predators, the state of New Mexico alleges in a lawsuit filed against the company and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.

The lawsuit claims that Meta “proactively served and directed [children] to egregious, sexually explicit images through recommended users and posts – even where the child has expressed no interest in this content”. It claims Meta “enabled adults to find, message and groom minors, soliciting them to sell pictures or participate in pornographic videos”. The company is also accused of fostering unmoderated user groups devoted to facilitating and selling child sexual exploitation content.

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Personal attacks dominate Republican presidential debate | First Thing

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Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Chris Christie and Ron DeSantis make case to be alternative to Donald Trump. Plus, how a community in France learned to go zero waste

Good morning.

The fourth Republican presidential debate opened and closed with deeply personal clashes as the four candidates on stage pressed their case to be the viable alternative to Donald Trump, the far-and-away frontrunner who again declined to participate.

Where was Trump? The former president, whom Chris Christie, a former governor of New Jersey, derided as a “dictator” and a “bully” who “doesn’t have the guts to show up” to the debate, spent the evening at a fundraiser in Florida. Trump, who faces 91 federal charges in four cases, several of which are related to his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost, has sought to portray himself as the inevitable nominee who does not need to take part in debates.

How has Israel responded? Israel’s UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, has reacted angrily, saying the secretary general invoked article 99 to pressure Israel, accusing the UN chief of “a new moral low” and “bias against Israel.”

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McDonald’s to take on Starbucks with retro-style stores called CosMc’s

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New restaurants – serving more complex, customisable drinks – will be trialled in the US

McDonald’s is launching a new kind of restaurant, CosMc’s, a retro-style store with treats and customisable drinks including “s’mores cold brew”, “churro frappes” and “turmeric latte” that could rival chains such as Starbucks.

The fast food company said it would open its first pilot site in a Chicago suburb near its headquarters this month, as part of efforts to “solve the 3pm slump”, when it gets fewer customers between the lunch and dinner rush.

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Georgia prosecutors predict jail sentences in Trump 2020 election case

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Exclusive: Fulton county prosecutors say in emails their legal careers will continue long after defendants go to jail

Fulton county prosecutors have signaled they want prison sentences in the Georgia criminal case against Donald Trump and his top allies for allegedly violating the racketeering statute as part of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, according to exchanges in private emails.

“We have a long road ahead,” the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, wrote in one email. “Long after these folks are in jail, we will still be practicing law.”

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Visualised: how all of G20 is missing climate goals — but some nations are closer than others

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As world leaders gather at Cop28, these charts show how far away the major economies are from their targets

Not a single G20 country has policies in place that are consistent with the Paris agreement’s goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C and meeting their “fair share” of emissions reduction.

The assessment, based on data up to 5 December provided by the Climate Action Tracker, comes as leaders gather in Dubai for the Cop28 conference.

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Virginia museum to return 44 stolen or looted works to Egypt, Italy and Turkey

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Virginia Museum of Fine Arts says it received ‘irrefutable evidence’ 44 ancient art objects had been stolen or looted

Virginia’s state-run fine arts museum has begun the process of returning 44 pieces of ancient art to their countries of origin after law enforcement officials presented the institution with what it called “irrefutable evidence” that the works had been stolen or looted.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts announced in a news release on Tuesday that it had “safely delivered” the pieces to the Manhattan district attorney’s office in New York, which it said had conducted an inquiry into the artworks as part of a broader investigation, along with the Department of Homeland Security. The DA’s office will facilitate the return of the objects to Italy, Egypt and Turkey, according to the Richmond museum.

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Kevin McCarthy, ousted House speaker, says he will leave Congress at end of the year – US politics live

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McCarthy, who was ousted from the House weeks ago, said in his announcement, ‘I’m leaving the House but not the fight’

Former speaker Kevin McCarthy has announced that he will resign from the House at the end of the year.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed published on Wednesday and titled “I’m leaving the House but not the fight,” McCarthy said that he had decided to depart the House at the end of this year and “serve America in new ways”.

I know my work is only getting started. I will continue to recruit our country’s best and brightest to run for elected office. The Republican Party is expanding every day, and I am committed to lending my experience to support the next generation of leaders.”

“I never could have imagined the journey when I first threw my hat into the ring. I go knowing I left it all on the field—as always, with a smile on my face. And looking back, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Only in America.”

“Common sense should dictate that we need to secure our own border in addition to helping Ukraine and Israel secure theirs. In the greatest country on Earth, we do not have to choose between protecting our homeland and defending our allies.

My support for Israel and Ukraine is unwavering but it does not supersede my commitment to my own country. We need major, structural reforms to limit the number of illegal crossings at our southern border and regain operational control.

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George Santos reportedly making six figures by selling Cameo videos

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Disgraced lawmaker generating more income making personalized videos than previous salary as US congressman

The disgraced lawmaker George Santos is reportedly making six figures by selling videos on the platform Cameo, generating more income than his previous salary as a US congressman, Semafor first reported.

Santos, a former Republican representative from New York state, was expelled from Congress last Friday following a blistering ethics report that detailed his misuse of campaign funds.

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US charges Russians with war crimes for allegedly torturing American in Ukraine

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Four soldiers accused of kidnapping and torturing American from his home in Ukrainian village in 2022

The US justice department has filed war crime charges against four members of the Russian military accused of abducting and torturing an American during the invasion of Ukraine in a case that’s the first of its kind.

The four Russians are accused of kidnapping the American from his home in a Ukrainian village in 2022. The American man was beaten and interrogated while being held for 10 days at a Russian military compound, before eventually being evacuated with his wife, who is Ukrainian, US authorities said.

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Taylor Swift lambasts music industry and says Kim Kardashian feud ‘took me down psychologically’

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In a lengthy interview as she is named Time’s person of the year, Swift speaks about toll of high-profile spat, and criticises music industry over treatment of young stars

Taylor Swift has spoken of the psychological damage of her feud with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, and lambasted the music industry over its treatments of young pop stars, in a new interview with Time, which has named her their person of the year.

After a year in which she has been at the centre of cultural conversations for her massively lucrative Eras tour, Swift spoke damningly of what she sees as a short-termist approach by record labels to replace, rather than nurture its stars. “By the time an artist is mature enough to psychologically deal with the job, they throw you out at 29, typically,” she says. “In the 90s and 00s, it seems like the music industry just said: ‘OK, let’s take a bunch of teenagers, throw them into a fire, and watch what happens. By the time they’ve accumulated enough wisdom to do their job effectively, we’ll find new teenagers.’” She said her solution was to change style with each new album project: “I realised every record label was actively working to try to replace me. I thought instead, I’d replace myself first with a new me. It’s harder to hit a moving target.”

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Texas police arrest suspect after six people killed in spree of violence

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Shane James, 34, charged with two counts of murder over series of shootings that also left three injured including two police officers

Police in Austin have arrested a man after a series of shootings that left six people dead and three people injured, including two police officers and a bicyclist, over the course of eight hours.

Austin’s interim police chief, Robin Henderson, said at a news conference early on Wednesday that the violence occurred in two separate incidents across two central Texas communities. He said police were not aware the incidents were connected until after they arrested the man, named as 34-year-old Shane James.

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Eric Trump will not testify at fraud trial after father claims he told him not to

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Donald Trump claims he told his son not to testify since ‘His young life has already been unfairly disturbed and disrupted enough’

Eric Trump will not testify at his father’s fraud trial against the Trump Organization Wednesday despite being scheduled to take the stand for over a week.

“I told my wonderful son, Eric, not to testify tomorrow at the RIGGED TRIAL,” Donald Trump wrote late on Tuesday night in a rant against the trial. Trump said that his son “already testified PERFECTLY”.

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The White House is changing its tune on Israel – but does it matter in practice?

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Biden’s rhetoric toward the Netanyahu government is toughening. But critics say his words aren’t backed up by the threat of action

A soaring civilian death toll and a deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza has jolted the Biden administration into a stark change of rhetoric towards the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Out has gone cavalier White House disavowals against “drawing red lines” for Israel in Gaza; in have come blunt invocations of international law and the need to limit civilian casualties to a minimum.

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Republican lawmakers walk out of Ukraine aid talks after Zelenskiy cancels

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Ukrainian president had been expected to join Zoom call but ‘something came up at the last minute’

Several Republican senators walked out of a classified briefing on Ukraine Tuesday as it descended into a row over the border crisis, after the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, unexpectedly canceled a video-link appearance to appeal for continued US funding.

Zelenskiy had been due to update the senators on the latest developments in the conflict with Russia and press for them to support a procedural vote expected Wednesday on an emergency aid package that includes more than $60bn for Kyiv.

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