Category Archives: US News

Joe Biden issues executive order against Israeli settlers in West Bank

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Financial sanctions and visa bans imposed on four individuals as US frustration with Israel grows

Joe Biden has issued an executive order targeting Israeli settlers in the West Bank who have been attacking Palestinians, amid fast-growing frustration in Washington at Israel’s trajectory in the midst of its war in Gaza.

The order initially imposes financial sanctions and visa bans against four individuals, and US officials said they were evaluating whether to punish others involved in attacks that have intensified during the Israel-Hamas war.

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US orders reprisal strikes against Iranian-backed militia

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Strikes expected to take place in Syria and possibly Iraq, after three US soldiers were killed at a base in Jordan

The US has ordered a series of reprisal strikes to be launched over more than one day against an Iranian-backed militia, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has said.

Austin said all drones in the region attacking the US were of Iranian origin. The retaliatory strikes are expected to hit militia in Syria and possibly Iraq, though Austin did not specify the timing or precise location.

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Israel’s campaign in Gaza ‘plausibly’ amounts to genocide, US court finds

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But federal judge in California says lawsuit aimed at stopping US military support for Israel is outside court’s jurisdiction

A federal court in California has ruled that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza “plausibly” amounts to genocide, but dismissed a case aimed at stopping US military support for Israel as being outside the court’s jurisdiction.

“There are rare cases in which the preferred outcome is inaccessible to the court. This is one of those cases,” the US district court in the northern district of California ruled. “The court is bound by precedent and the division of our coordinate branches of government to abstain from exercising jurisdiction in this matter.

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Donald Trump’s ‘sex and bribes’ data protection case rejected by UK court

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Ex-US president took action over allegations he took part in ‘perverted acts’ and bribed Russian officials

Donald Trump’s data protection claim for damages over allegations in the “Steele dossier” that he took part in “perverted” sex acts and gave bribes to Russian officials has been dismissed by a high court judge in London.

Mrs Justice Steyn agreed with Orbis Business Intelligence, the company founded by the former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, who compiled the contentious material, that the case should not go to trial.

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These business leaders secretly funded Mayor Eric Adams’s re-election effort, donors say

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Three donors say that they – and, in two cases, their spouses – were reimbursed for donations to the New York City mayor’s 2025 campaign, a tactic that violates state law


Political contributions to New York mayor Eric Adams totaling more than $10,000 were secretly bankrolled by business people tied to the city’s hotel and construction industries, according to three individuals listed as donors in government records.

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‘It was forced’: grieving parents unfazed by sorry tech CEOs at US Senate hearing

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Many parents held up images of the children who died after falling prey to abusers on apps such as Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat

Mark Zuckerberg apologized to the parents of children who killed themselves after being subjected to online sexual exploitation during a US Senate hearing Wednesday. Evan Spiegel offered condolences to parents whose children obtained deadly illegal drugs via Snapchat. The words were too little, too late for their intended audience, though. The grieving guardians expressed only frustration with the social media CEOs’ responses to their plight and to questions from members of Congress.

“I’m not happy with the answers the CEOs are giving. They can’t give a straight answer. Not even ‘yes’ or ‘no,’” said Tammy Rodriguez, the mother of Selena Rodriguez, who was 11 when she died by suicide three years ago after being solicited for sexually exploitative content by strangers on Instagram and Snapchat.

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House passes US bill to expand child tax credit and revive business tax breaks

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Lawmakers pass a $79bn tax cut package with broad bipartisan support, giving both parties coveted policy wins

The House accomplished something unusual Wednesday in passing, with broad, bipartisan support, a roughly $79bn tax cut package that would enhance the child tax credit for millions of lower-income families and boost three tax breaks for business, a combination that gives lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle coveted policy wins.

Prospects for the measure becoming law are uncertain with the Senate still having to take it up, but for a House that has struggled to get bills of consequence over the finish line, the tax legislation could represent a rare breakthrough. The bill passed by a vote of 357-70.

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China hacking threatens US infrastructure, FBI director warns, as Volt Typhoon botnet foiled

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Chris Wray tells House committee there has been been far too little public focus on a sleeper cyber threat that affects ‘every American’

US officials say they have disrupted a state-backed Chinese effort to plant malware that could damage civilian infrastructure, as the head of the FBI warned that Beijing was positioning itself to disrupt daily life in America were the US and China ever to go to war.

The operation disrupted a botnet of hundreds of small office and home routers based in the US that were owned by private citizens and companies that had been hijacked by the Chinese hackers to cover their tracks as they sowed malware.

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‘I just got laid off’: news startup the Messenger abruptly shutters after a year

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Employees blindsided by news that company blew through $50m investment, will offer no severance and will cut off healthcare

The Messenger, a news startup launched last year with a $50m investment and a nonpartisan perspective, is shutting down, according to multiple news reports.

In a staff email, the publication’s founder, Jimmy Finkelstein, wrote that the company had pursued all options “over the past few weeks, literally until last night” but made the “painful” decision to shut down the site effective immediately after failing to raise “sufficient capital to reach profitability”.

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John Podesta to succeed John Kerry as Biden’s top climate adviser

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Senior adviser will take over responsibilities, but not title, of John Kerry, who stepped down to work on Biden’s re-election campaign

The White House senior adviser John Podesta will add international climate policy to his job responsibilities, replacing the special climate envoy, John Kerry, as the top US official on international climate issues, the White House said on Wednesday.

Kerry announced in mid-January that he would step down from the climate job to work on Joe Biden’s re-election campaign. Podesta will take over Kerry’s responsibilities, though not his title, when he departs, probably this spring, the White House said.

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FTX scraps plan to revive exchange and will repay billions to customers

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Cryptocurrency exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried ‘an irresponsible sham created by a convicted felon’, lawyer says

FTX has abandoned efforts to restart its crypto exchange, instead opting to liquidate all assets and return funds to customers, a company attorney said on Wednesday.

The exchange, founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, has been negotiating for months with potential bidders and investors, but none were willing to put in enough money to rebuild it, FTX attorney Andy Dietderich said at a bankruptcy court hearing in Delaware.

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Aircraft crashes on San Francisco Bay Area city street, killing pilot

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No one else on board single-engine plane that crashed at busy junction along golf course by Buchanan Field airport in Concord

The pilot of a single-engine plane was killed on Tuesday when the aircraft crashed on a city street near a small San Francisco Bay Area airport, authorities said.

The crash was reported at about 11am at a busy intersection along a golf course adjacent to Buchanan Field airport in Concord, officials said.

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Teamsters union pays $2.9m to settle racial discrimination lawsuit

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Exclusive: union’s president, Sean O’Brien, accused of having ‘publicly humiliated’ Black and Hispanic workers

Thirteen former Black and Hispanic employees for the Teamsters International Union filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the union and its president, Sean O’Brien, alleging racial discrimination over their firings after O’Brien assumed the helm in March 2022.

The lawsuit was filed in Washington DC last February, alleging violation of the DC Human Rights Act. The Teamsters paid $2.9m to settle the lawsuit, according to three union officials.

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Five charged with murder over fatal shootings of six men in Mojave desert

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Bodies were found at remote crossroads on 23 January in California desert in what investigators say was dispute over marijuana

Prosecutors filed murder charges Tuesday against five suspects in the fatal shootings of six men at a remote dirt crossroads in the southern California desert after what investigators said was a dispute over marijuana.

The suspects each face six felony counts of murder with a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, the San Bernardino county district attorney’s office said in a statement. They were each also charged with six felony counts of robbery.

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Boeing has ‘much to prove’ following cabin panel blowout, CEO says

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Aircraft maker suspends financial guidance as it grapples with ‘serious challenge’ of winning back trust amid 737 Max 9 crisis

Boeing faces a “serious challenge” to win back the confidence of regulators and airlines, its CEO has said, as the aircraft maker faces intense scrutiny after a cabin panel blowout.

Dave Calhoun acknowledged the business has “much to prove” since a brand-new 737 Max 9 jet was forced into an emergency landing earlier this month.

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California man who tried to blame twin brother for two rapes jailed for 140 years

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Kevin Konther, 58, convicted of rape of girl in 1995 and woman in 1998, confessed to crimes in secret recordings

A California man who attempted to blame his identical twin brother for rapes he committed in the 1990s has been sentenced to 140 years in prison.

Kevin Konther, 58, of Highland, California, was sentenced after being convicted of the rapes of a girl in 1995 and a woman in 1998, the Orange county district attorney’s office said in a statement.

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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Iran not seeking war with US but ‘not afraid of it’, says military chief

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Head of Islamic Revolutionary Guards defiant as US prepares ‘very consequential response’ to drone attack on Jordan base

The head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) has vowed the country is not afraid of war with the US, as the Pentagon weighs how directly to respond to the killing of three US servicemen in a drone attack in Jordan.

The IRGC commander-in-chief, Maj Gen Hossein Salami, said: “We hear some threats from American officials about targeting Iran. We tell them that you tested us and we know each other. We do not leave any threat unanswered, and we do not look for war, but we are not afraid of it. This is the well-known truth.”

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Russian billionaire loses Sotheby’s fraud case over artworks including Salvator Mundi

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Oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev had accused Sotheby’s of conspiring with dealer over pieces including Salvator Mundi, which later became the most expensive art sold at auction

A US federal jury has ruled in favour of Sotheby’s at a trial in which the Russian billionaire oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev accused the auction house of defrauding him out of tens of millions of dollars in art sales.

Rybolovlev had accused Sotheby’s of conspiring with Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier to trick him into paying inflated prices for four works including Salvator Mundi, a depiction of Christ attributed to Leonardo da Vinci that would become the most expensive artwork sold at auction.

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New York to expand definition of rape after E Jean Carroll’s case against Trump

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Current definition was factor in Carroll’s sexual abuse case, which was highlighted by Governor Kathy Hochul at bill ceremony

New York will expand its legal definition of rape to include various forms of nonconsensual sexual contact, under a bill signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul on Tuesday.

The state’s current limited definition was a factor in writer E Jean Carroll’s sexual abuse and defamation case against Donald Trump. The jury in the federal civil trial rejected the writer’s claim last May that the former president had raped her in the 1990s, instead finding Trump responsible for a lesser degree of sexual abuse.

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Man who threw Molotov cocktails at Ohio church gets 18-year prison term

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Aimenn Penny, 20, had firebombed the church in Chesterland in protest of a planned drag brunch and children’s story hour

An Ohio man, who had allegedly been a member of a neo-Nazi ‘white lives matter’ group, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for firebombing a church that planned to host drag events, the US justice department announced on Tuesday.

After making and throwing two Molotov cocktails at the Community Church of Chesterland in Chesterland, Ohio, on 25 March 2023, Aimenn Penny was arrested on federal charges for using fire to commit a federal felony, malicious use of explosive materials, and possessing a destructive device.

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