Category Archives: US News

At least one dead after US military plane crashes off Japanese coast

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Status of five other personnel aboard Osprey aircraft not known after incident off Yakushima island, off southern Kyushu coast

A crew member who was recovered from the ocean after a US military Osprey aircraft carrying six people crashed on Wednesday off southern Japan has been pronounced dead, coast guard officials said.

The cause of the crash and the status of the five others on the aircraft were not immediately known, a coastguard spokesperson, Kazuo Ogawa, said. Initial reports said the aircraft was carrying eight people, but the US military later revised the number to six, he said.

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First Thing: Deal to keep 1.5C hopes alive is within reach, says Cop28 president

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Sultan Al Jaber says progress means ‘unprecedented outcome’ is possible. Plus, why the UK and Greece are arguing about marbles

Good morning.

An “unprecedented outcome” that would keep alive hopes of limiting global temperature rises to 1.5C is within reach, the president-designate of Cop28 has said – adding that even Saudi Arabia is expected to come to the UN climate summit with positive commitments.

Who is going to Cop28? World leaders and heads of state and government will attend the first few days of the fortnight of talks, including the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, King Charles and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen. Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, are not expected to attend but will send high-level representatives. Pope Francis has cancelled his trip to the summit on the advice of doctors concerned about his recent flu-like symptoms, the Vatican said.

What has the White House national security council spokesperson said? John Kirby told reporters: “Now you have an added population of hundreds of thousands more in the south that you didn’t have before [the Israelis] moved into Gaza City. And so it’s even all that more of an added burden on Israel to make sure … that they have properly accounted for … the extra innocent life that is now in south Gaza.”

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Pope revokes privileges of conservative US cardinal critical of church’s reform

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In second radical action in a month, pontiff hits back at retired prelate Raymond Burke, one of his most vocal critics

Pope Francis has decided to punish one of his highest-ranking critics, Cardinal Raymond Burke, by revoking his right to a subsidized Vatican apartment and salary in the second such radical action against a conservative American prelate this month, according to two people briefed on the measures.

Francis told a meeting of the heads of Vatican offices last week that he was moving against Burke because he was a source of “disunity” in the church, said one of the participants at the 20 November meeting. The participant spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to reveal the contents of the encounter.

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Iowa rights groups sue over law banning LGBTQ+ books and discussion in school

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Suit by several families and organizations seek to have law declared as violation of students’ and teachers’ free speech

Several families are suing to stop Iowa’s new law that bans books from school libraries, forbids teachers from raising LGBTQ+ issues and forces educators in some cases to out the gender identity of students to their parents.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa and Lambda announced the federal lawsuit on Tuesday, saying the law passed earlier this year by the Republican-led legislature and enacted this fall “seeks to silence LGBTQ+ students, erase any recognition of LGBTQ+ people from public schools, and bans books with sexual or LGBTQ+ content”.

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Charlie Munger, right-hand man of Warren Buffett, dies aged 99

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Vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway – and a billionaire in his own right – died at a California hospital, company says

Charlie Munger, the veteran right-hand man of billionaire stockpicker Warren Buffett, has died aged 99.

The vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett’s sprawling empire, became known for his sharp investment strategies – and tongue – as they transformed it from a textile manufacturing enterprise into a global investment powerhouse.

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Rosalynn Carter memorial service: Jimmy Carter joins mourners at Atlanta church – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. You can read the latest full report from the service here:

While Super Pac AFP Action’s endorsement of Nikki Haley may represent a boost to her presidential campaign, all signs point to the former United Nations ambassador facing a steep hill to climb to catch up to Donald Trump’s lead among Republican voters.

Polls consistently show him as the far-and-away favorite for the GOP’s nomination, with Haley and Florida governor Ron DeSantis vying for a distant second place. Nonetheless, Karoline Leavitt, spokeswoman for Trump-supporting Super Pac Make America Great Again Inc, released a statement slamming AFP Action’s endorsement:

The Ron DeSantis campaign finally got it right when they bitterly attacked Americans for Prosperity for being a vessel of globalist shills. That’s exactly why AFP backed Ron Desantis in his 2018 and 2022 gubernatorial races.

Everything old is new again. The Republican primary is split between career politicians who are tools of the billionaire class and the one man who delivers for the American people. Americans for Prosperity has already lit millions of dollars on fire this primary only to watch President Donald Trump’s lead grow. No amount of money can break the bond President Trump has with voters. He kept his promises.

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Jimmy Carter, Biden and Clintons pay tribute at Rosalynn Carter memorial

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Jimmy Carter, 99, left hospice care at home for service for his late wife, but Trump, Obama and Bush did not attend

A tribute service for Rosalynn Carter took place on Tuesday, as politicians and public figures gathered to celebrate the former first lady’s life following her death last Sunday.

Former president Jimmy Carter, 99, attended the tribute for his late wife of 77 years, traveling from his hospice care at home to the Glenn Memorial church in Atlanta. His attendance marks a rare public appearance for the former president, who has been in home hospice care for 10 months.

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US university presidents to testify before Congress over claims of antisemitic protests on campuses

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Heads of Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Institute of Technology will be questioned

The presidents of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, three of the country’s most prestigious universities, are set to testify before a congressional committee next week on claims that antisemitic protests have taken place on their campuses, marking the latest window into ongoing tensions sparked by the Israel-Hamas war.

Next Tuesday, Harvard’s Claudine Gay, Penn’s Liz Magill and MIT’s Sally Kornbluth will stand before the House education and workforce committee, a body chaired by Virginia Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina.

“Over the past several weeks, we’ve seen countless examples of antisemitic demonstrations on college campuses. Meanwhile, college administrators have largely stood by, allowing horrific rhetoric to fester and grow,” said Foxx in a statement introducing the hearing, which is titled Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism.

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Robert De Niro says anti-Trump speech censored at Gotham awards ceremony

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Actor said that his address had been edited to remove polemic against falsifying history

Robert De Niro said that his speech at the Gotham awards in New York was censored without his knowledge due to his anti-Trump comments.

De Niro came to the stage as part of the Gotham historical icon and creator tribute for the Martin Scorsese-directed Killers of the Flower Moon, and after reading out some remarks about the film, said that the first part of his speech had been removed from the prompter.

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UN human rights experts express alarm over PFAS pollution in North Carolina

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Evidence of Chemours-operated plant contaminating region is ‘alleged human rights violations’, say experts appointed by council

A new investigation by human rights experts appointed by the United Nations has expressed alarm at evidence of pollution from a North Carolina PFAS manufacturing plant, describing it as “alleged human rights violations and abuses against residents”.

The ongoing PFAS crisis in North Carolina has been linked to a Fayetteville Works plant operated by Chemours, a chemical giant that was spun off from DuPont in 2015.

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Georgia prosecutors oppose plea deals for Trump, Meadows and Giuliani

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Exclusive: sources say Fulton county prosecutors unwilling to offer deals to key trio, preferring instead to force them to trial

Fulton county prosecutors do not intend to offer plea deals to Donald Trump and at least two high-level co-defendants charged in connection with their efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, according to two people familiar with the matter, preferring instead to force them to trial.

The individuals seen as ineligible include Trump, his former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, and Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

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Man who scammed California Jewish community out of $7m gets seven years

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Sassi Mizrahi sentenced to federal prison after he and his brother targeted over 40 people in San Fernando Valley in Ponzi scheme

A southern California man has been sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison after he and his younger brother scammed more than 40 people out of $7m in investments. Their fraud targeted victims from the San Fernando Valley’s orthodox Jewish Israeli community.

From 2012 to 2019, Sassi and his brother and co-defendant Motty Mizrahi ran an investment and money management firm called MBIG Company that boasted risk-free investments and an annual return rate of 30% to double the original investment, according to court records. To add legitimacy to MBIG, Motty Mizrahi also passed himself off as a licensed broker, certified accountant and veteran trader.

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Florida state official lay collapsed for 24 minutes outside Ron DeSantis’s office

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Peter Antonacci, the chief elections fraud official, died after a heated meeting in the governor’s office and slumped in the hallway

Ron DeSantis’s chief elections fraud official collapsed after abruptly leaving a “contentious” meeting in the Florida governor’s office, then lay dead or dying for almost half an hour in the hallway outside until he was found, an investigation published Monday has revealed.

Previously unreported details of the September 2022 death of Peter Antonacci in the Tallahassee capitol building appeared on the website of the Florida Bulldog, an independent online watchdog of the state’s politics and government.

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Activists calling for Gaza ceasefire begin hunger strike outside White House

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Activists including Cynthia Nixon say they are launching five-day fast ‘to showcase the actions of President Biden’

Leftwing activists including the actor Cynthia Nixon, famous for her role in Sex and the City, have begun a hunger strike outside the White House aimed at pressing Joe Biden into demanding a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

The five-day fast was launched to coincide with what had been the scheduled end of a four-day truce in Israel’s military offensive into the Palestinian coastal territory, during which the Palestinian group Hamas released dozens of hostages. Israel has also released several batches of Palestinian prisoners, most of them women and minors. The truce was later extended by a further two days following mediation from Egypt and Qatar.

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Biden condemns shooting of Palestinian students in Vermont

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President says ‘there is no place for violence or hate in America’ after suspect arrested on Sunday

Joe Biden has expressed horror at the shooting of three Palestinian students in Burlington, Vermont and, amid heightened tensions with the crisis in Israel and Gaza reverberating in the US, reiterated on Monday that “there is no place for violence or hate in America”.

A suspect was arrested on Sunday after the shootings the night before that wounded the men, police said, adding that contrary to media reports the shooter did not speak before firing.

Edward Helmore and Chris Stein contributed reporting

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Joe Biden and first lady ‘horrified’ by Vermont shooting of three Palestinian students – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. You can read our full report here:

Police in Vermont on Sunday announced the arrest of a suspect in the shooting of three Palestinian students, the Guardian’s Chris Michael reports. Here’s the latest on the story:

A suspect was arrested on Sunday in the shooting of three Palestinian students in Burlington, Vermont the night before, police said, adding that contrary to media reports the shooter did not speak before firing.

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Pro-Gaza ceasefire activists shut down Manhattan Bridge for hours

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Jewish Voice for Peace estimates more than 1,500 protesters calling for permanent ceasefire blocked cars amid holiday traffic

New York peace activists calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza staged their most dramatic action to date on Sunday, closing down the Manhattan Bridge for three hours as people were returning from the Thanksgiving break.

Organizers with the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice For Peace (JVP) estimate more than 1,500 protesters blocked traffic on the bridge connecting lower Manhattan to Brooklyn as they chanted “let Gaza live” and other messages calling for a permanent ceasefire in the Palestinian territory where Israel and Hamas have warred since October.

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Meta designed platforms to get children addicted, court documents allege

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Instagram and Facebook parent company also knowingly allowed underage users to hold accounts, unsealed legal complaint says

Instagram and Facebook parent company Meta purposefully engineered its platforms to addict children and knowingly allowed underage users to hold accounts, according to a newly unsealed legal complaint.

The complaint is a key part of a lawsuit filed against Meta by the attorneys general of 33 states in late October and was originally redacted. It alleges the social media company knew – but never disclosed – it had received millions of complaints about underage users on Instagram but only disabled a fraction of those accounts. The large number of underage users was an “open secret” at the company, the suit alleges, citing internal company documents.

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Liz Truss backs Trump with call for Republican presidential victory

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Short-lived PM does not mention frontrunner for nomination by name but says ‘I hope a Republican will be returned in 2024’

Liz Truss, the shortest-serving prime minister in British history, who was memorably shown to have a shorter shelf life than a lettuce, has in effect backed Donald Trump in next year’s US presidential election.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Truss – who spent just 49 days in No 10 Downing Street before being turfed out by her own Conservative party in large part for pitching the UK economy into crisis – said she wished for a Republican president next.

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Oregon teachers reach tentative deal to end strike after three weeks of no school

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Portland school district reaches agreement with teachers’ union allowing 45,000 students to resume classes

Oregon’s largest school district said late on Sunday it had reached a tentative agreement with its teachers’ union and roughly 45,000 students would be back in school on Monday after more than three weeks without classes.

The agreement must still be voted on by teachers who have been on the picket line since 1 November over issues of pay, class sizes and planning time. It must also be approved by the school board, but the union agreed that classes could resume while those votes go forward. Portland Public Schools students missed 11 days of school before the district began its weeklong Thanksgiving break.

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