Category Archives: US News

Apec summit ends with unity on WTO reform but not Gaza or Ukraine

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US gathering of Pacific Rim leaders most notable for meeting between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, seen as a sign of easing China-US relations

Pacific Rim leaders have shown divisions over the wars in Ukraine and Gaza after a two-day summit of the Apec forum, while pledging support for reform of the World Trade Organization.

The 21 economies that make up the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum – among them Russia, China, the US and Australia – did not mention either conflict in their final joint communique. Instead an accompanying chair’s statement noted the bloc had “exchanged views on the ongoing crisis in Gaza”.

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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and singer Cassie settle abuse lawsuit one day after filing

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Settlement to their ‘mutual satisfaction’ announced in a statement released on Friday evening without details being disclosed

Sean “Diddy” Combs and singer Cassie said on Friday that they have settled a lawsuit containing allegations of beatings and abuse by the music producer.

Combs, a hip-hop icon and the founder of Bad Boy Records, was accused of rape and abuse in a major lawsuit filed by Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, that alleges he used his powerful network to keep her trapped in a violent relationship with him.

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Ex-owners of sex work site Backpage convicted of prostitution scheme

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Michael Lacey, Scott Spear and John Brunst, all men in their 70s, created complicated system to try to outwit US government

Three former owners of the website Backpage, a site mainly known as a place where sex workers advertise their services, have been convicted for federal crimes including promoting prostitution and money laundering, the US Department of Justice announced on Friday.

The recently convicted trio, Michael Lacey, 75, Scott Spear, 72, and John “Jed” Brunst, 71, came to own Backpage in 2010. Since then, the government says, they encouraged sex work ads by creating a system for “johns”, or customers, to leave reviews about the sex workers they had engaged with. Website workers and an automated system filtered out words that made it obvious that sex was being offered in exchange for money.

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Mike Johnson to publicly release 44,000 hours of sensitive January 6 footage

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US House speaker to make good on promise to far-right Republicans including Matt Gaetz and Donald Trump

House speaker Mike Johnson said Friday he plans to publicly release thousands of hours of footage from the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, making good on a promise he made to far-right members of his party when he was campaigning for his current job.

“This decision will provide millions of Americans, criminal defendants, public interest organizations and the media an ability to see for themselves what happened that day, rather than having to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials,” Johnson said in a statement.

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New Hampshire police yet to identify suspect in fatal hospital shooting

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Shooter killed security guard, who has been identified, and was shot dead by a state police officer on security duty

An armed individual walked into the lobby of a state psychiatric hospital in New Hampshire on Friday and shot dead a former police chief working as a security guard before a state police officer on duty at the facility shot and killed the suspect, officials said.

New Hampshire state police initially had reported “multiple victims” from the shooting, but no one else, including the trooper who confronted the suspect, was injured in the gun violence, which erupted at about 3.30pm ET at the New Hampshire state hospital in Concord, the state capital, according to Mark Hall, the state police colonel.

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Trump unleashes outrage at court clerk online barely an hour after gag order paused

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New York judge temporarily lifted gag order, opening window through which Trump could vent his unrestrained feelings

Barely an hour after a gag order prohibiting Donald Trump from commenting about court staff at his civil fraud trial in New York was temporarily lifted, he was at it again – unleashing a blitzkrieg of social media outrage at a clerk who has become the lightning rod for the former president’s rage.

On Thursday afternoon a New York appeals court judge, David Friedman, paused a gag order that had been placed on Trump last month. The move opened a window through which Trump could vent his unrestrained feelings.

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‘Miracle dog’ returned to family after staying with owner who died hiking

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Finney the jack russell terrier had survived after spending more than 10 weeks by her owner when he died on a mountain hike

A faithful dog who survived after spending more than 10 weeks by her owner when he died on a mountain hike is safely back with the rest of her human loved ones – and back on the trails – the family has said.

Rich Moore, 71, of Pagosa Springs, Colorado, died of hypothermia while hiking in the San Juan mountains in the south of the state in August.

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As the NRA fades, a more zealous US pro-gun group rises as a lobbying power

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Gun Owners of America, formed in belief NRA was ‘too liberal’, spent $3.3m lobbying against gun control and boasts 2m members

A zealous gun rights group, even more uncompromising than the once formidable National Rifle Association, is emerging as a force in US politics with a mission to oppose efforts at gun control and ease further America’s already lax regulations on firearms.

Last year the Gun Owners of America (GOA) spent $3.3m on lobbying, a record sum for the hardline foe of gun control that now claims over 2 million members and activists, and has previously operated in the shadows of the larger NRA.

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‘Immediate possibility of starvation’ in Gaza, UN warns | First Thing

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World Food Programme says Gaza faces massive food gap, as IDF claims to have uncovered a Hamas tunnel shaft at the Shifa hospital complex. Plus: ‘forever chemical’ waste, and André 3000’s debut album

Good morning.

The UN World Food Programme warned yesterday that the Gaza Strip now faced a “massive” food gap and widespread hunger, and nearly the entire population of the Palestinian enclave was in desperate need of food assistance.

The news agency AFP is reporting that a large deployment of Israeli troops raided the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank overnight. The IDF did not immediately comment.

Three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone strike on Jenin, the head of the Palestinian ambulance service told Reuters on Friday. It is unclear if this was part of the raid on the refugee camp.

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Trump classified documents trial running about four months behind schedule

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Judge Aileen Cannon put off setting deadline for Trump to submit notice about what classified information he intends to use at trial

Donald Trump’s trial on charges that he retained classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club and obstructed justice is running about four months behind schedule after the federal judge presiding in the case in Florida declined to set a crucial filing deadline until at least next March.

The US district judge Aileen Cannon put off setting a deadline for Trump to submit a notice about what classified information he intends to use at trial – currently set for May – until after a hearing next year that almost certainly precludes the pre-trial process from finishing in time.

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US industry disposed of at least 60m pounds of PFAS waste in last five years

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Estimate in new EPA analysis is probably ‘dramatic’ undercount because ‘forever chemical’ waste is unregulated in US

US industry disposed of at least 60m pounds of PFAS “forever chemical” waste over the last five years, and did so with processes that probably pollute the environment around disposal sites, a new analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data finds.

The 60m pounds estimate is likely to be a “dramatic” undercount because PFAS waste is unregulated in the US and companies are not required to record its disposal, the paper’s author, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer), wrote.

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Australia news live: school strike for climate protests draw huge crowds in Melbourne and Sydney; Albanese says Apec leaders ‘very interested’ in Tuvalu deal

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‘A ceasefire is where we need to get to,’ Zoe Daniel says

Asked by RN Breakfast host Patricia Karvelas if she supports calls for a ceasefire, Zoe Daniel says:

If you call for a ceasefire, you’re letting down the Jewish community, if you don’t you’re allowing death and destruction to happen in Gaza.

At the end of the day, if I say to you right now, yes, I support ceasefire, that will make zero difference to what is happening in in Gaza.

I’m a former foreign correspondent. I know the logistics of this, of course, a ceasefire is where we need to get to, but you have a terrorist organisation in the middle of this. If there’s just a ceasefire, and there’s no capacity there to try to dismantle Hamas, does that allow Hamas to regroup? What does that actually lead to? That said, I’ve said to you before, very clearly, and I still stick to the position that the Israeli government has to adhere to international law and the rules of war, and I think, in some ways, has not been.

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New York judge suspends Trump gag order in fraud trial, citing free speech

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Trial judge Arthur Engoron had imposed gag order last month after the former president maligned a court clerk

A New York appeals court judge on Thursday paused a gag order that barred Donald Trump from commenting on court staffers in his civil fraud trial. The trial judge had imposed the gag order last month and later fined Trump $15,000 for violations after the former president made a disparaging social media post about a court clerk.

In his decision, Judge David Friedman of the state’s intermediate appeals court cited constitutional concerns about restricting Trump’s free speech. He issued a stay of the gag order, allowing Trump to comment freely about court staff while a longer appeals process plays out.

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David DePape found guilty in hammer attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband

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Rightwing conspiracy theorist convicted of attempted kidnapping and assault in 2022 attack on Paul Pelosi

David DePape, the rightwing conspiracy theorist who attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband in their San Francisco home, has been convicted of attempted kidnapping and assault.

The federal jury’s decision on Thursday comes after a dramatic trial in which Paul Pelosi testified about the “traumatic” hammer attack he suffered on 28 October 2022, days before the midterm elections. DePape also took the stand in his defense, saying he had planned to interrogate the former House speaker and post footage of her online.

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Democratic leadership says ceasefire protest ‘exceeded a peaceful demonstration’ and commends police amid activist criticism – as it happened

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Another video posted online appeared to show Capitol police officers rolling their bikes over candles that were laid out to mourn the 11,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes.

In a caption accompanying the video, Jewish Voice for Peace Action said:

“Last night, in DC Jews and allies carried out a vigil and a nonviolent, moral act of civil disobedience to call on Democrats to support a ceasefire to save Palestinian and Israeli lives. Within moments, police brutally assaulted peaceful protestors, injuring over 90.”

“Every hour of this horrific bombardment, more Palestinians are killed. Every hour, the lives of the hostages hang in the balance. Every hour increases the risk of a broader regional war, endangering the lives of millions of people across the entire region.

We the base of the Democratic party are here to say if you care about Palestinians, if you care about Israelis, if you care about Jews, if you care about humanity, we need you to call for a ceasefire, a hostage exchange, a deescalation, and to chart a path toward freedom and safety for all. Instead of heeding our call for a ceasefire, police violently attacked nonviolent protesters with pepper spray.”

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Dozens arrested in San Francisco after ceasefire protest shuts down Bay Bridge

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Demonstration by about 200 people urging Gaza ceasefire shut down commuter route and formed a human chain between cars

Dozens of protesters were arrested on Thursday after shutting down a portion of the San Francisco Bay Bridge as part of a demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The protest blocked all westbound traffic on the bridge – a key commuter route into the city that sees roughly 260,000 vehicles daily – as San Francisco hosts the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum. The city has seen numerous demonstrations in response to the forum from activists decrying corporate profits, environmental abuses and the Israel-Hamas war.

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Pro-Palestinian student group sues DeSantis over ‘deactivation’

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Florida chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine say order by Republican governor violates their free speech rights

A pro-Palestinian student group in Florida is suing the state’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, and the university system for trying to “deactivate” it in a manner that violates the students’ free speech rights.

The University of Florida chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (UF SJP) filed the suit on Thursday in a federal court in Gainesville. It calls on the court to block what amounts to one of the first attempts in the US to silence a pro-Palestinian student group amid the roiling fallout of the Israel-Hamas war on American campuses.

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Protesters urging Gaza ceasefire accuse Washington police of violence

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Ceasefire Now Coalition says 90 activists injured by police using violent tactics to break up protest outside DNC headquarters

Protesters against Israel’s military offensive in Gaza were locked in a battle of words with Washington police on Thursday after accusing officers of violently breaking up a demonstration on Capitol Hill that organisers insist was peaceful.

Leaders of the Ceasefire Now Coalition said 90 of their activists were injured in confrontations that took place after they staged a candlelit vigil outside the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters on Wednesday evening.

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Georgia judge in Trump case rules to block release of ‘sensitive’ material

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Fulton county’s Scott McAfee issues order after outlets published details of videotaped statements from former Trump lawyers

The Fulton county judge overseeing the 2020 election subversion case against Donald Trump and his top allies in Georgia issued on Thursday a protective order against the release of certain discovery materials, ruling that further leaks of evidence could taint the jury pool before trial.

The order entered by the Fulton county superior court judge Scott McAfee came after media outlets published details of videotaped statements that the former Trump lawyers Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro gave as part of their plea deals.

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EU foreign affairs chief tells Israel not to be ‘consumed by rage’ in response to Hamas attacks

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Josep Borrell says ‘one horror does not justify another’ and calls for unconditional release of hostages

The EU foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, has urged Israel not to be “consumed by rage” in its response to the Hamas attacks of 7 October as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, acknowledged splits in Europe on the conflict.

Speaking from Kibbutz Be’eri – where at least 85 of the 1,200 people killed that day died and from where about 30 of the more than 240 were kidnapped – Borrell said “Israel must be defended”, but, “one horror does not justify another: innocent civilians, including thousands of children, have died in recent weeks.

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