Category Archives: US News

View on Israel-Gaza emerges as rare divide for California’s Senate hopefuls

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Democratic rivals Adam Schiff, Barbara Lee and Katie Porter have near identical platforms and Israel-Gaza could be a deciding factor

As three leading California Democrats vie for a rare opening in the Senate, the Israeli offensive in Gaza has exposed rare fault lines in the candidates’ otherwise aligned platforms.

Following Hamas’s attack on Israel last month, all three leading candidates in the race to fill Dianne Feinstein’s seat – representatives Barbara Lee, Adam Schiff and Katie Porter – condemned the group’s actions. But as Israel ramped up its attacks on Gaza in retaliation, their divergent approaches to foreign policy became clear.

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Democrats voted not to expel Santos because it would set dangerous precedent, lawmaker says

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Jamie Raskin says it was ‘an easy call’ because Santos hasn’t been convicted of a crime, though he faces 23 federal criminal charges

Thirty-one Democrats voted not to expel the Republican lawmaker George Santos from the US House of Representatives because he has not been convicted of any crime and to eject him would set a dangerous precedent for Republicans to expel their ideological opponents, a leading congressman said.

“For me this was an easy call,” said Jamie Raskin of Maryland, a law professor and influential progressive who sat on the January 6 committee and was lead manager in Donald Trump’s impeachment for inciting the attack on Congress.

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Blinken arrives in Tel Aviv to meet Netanyahu | First Thing

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The US secretary of state is expected to call for localized pauses in fighting to allow aid into Gaza. Plus: Nicolas Cage and the power of dreams

Good morning.

The US secretary of state has arrived in Tel Aviv to meet the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as Israel’s military pushes further into Gaza City.

Israeli forces have “completed the encirclement of Gaza City” and are fighting “with full force”, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), with troops surrounding it from several directions and deepening the ground offensive inside the city.

The IDF is on “very high alert” along Israel’s border with Lebanon, with a speech expected this afternoon from Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

In the US, the House of Representatives passed a Republican plan to provide $14.3bn in aid to Israel as it fights Hamas, despite Democrats’ insistence that the plan has no future in the Senate and the White House’s promise of a veto.

The White House has condemned Fox News over its “sickening attack on the rights and dignity” of Arab Americans after the rightwing channel’s host Jesse Watters seemed to advocate violence.

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US House passes $14.3bn aid package for Israel despite Democratic opposition

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Led by House speaker Mike Johnson, Republican plan passes Thursday 226-196 as Biden threatens veto

The US House of Representatives on Thursday passed a Republican plan to provide $14.3bn in aid to Israel as it fights Hamas, despite Democrats’ insistence it has no future in the Senate and the White House’s promise of a veto.

The measure passed 226-196, largely along party lines, with most Republicans supporting the bill and most Democrats objecting.

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Breonna Taylor neighbor tells of horror as police bullets flew past sleeping son

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Chelsey Napper tells court she was ‘scared to death’ on night Taylor, 26, was shot dead by Louisville police in botched raid

Breonna Taylor’s neighbor recalled her horror as police bullets flew into her apartment near her sleeping son as a federal trial for the former Louisville officer who fired those shots began Thursday.

Former Louisville police officer Brett Hankison fired 10 shots during the botched raid in March 2020 that left Taylor dead, though it was another officer who fatally shot the 26-year-old Black woman. Hankison, 47, is charged with two federal civil rights violations for endangering Taylor, her boyfriend and Taylor’s neighbors, who shared a wall with her apartment. None of Hankison’s shots hit anyone.

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Trump sons deny knowing of financial statements at heart of $250m fraud trial

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Donald Jr says he ‘relied upon accountants’ for financial statements while Eric says he ‘never had anything to do’ with them

Trump’s eldest sons claimed on Thursday that they had no knowledge of the financial statements at the heart of the family’s $250m fraud trial.

Eric and his older brother Donald Trump Jr claimed in court that they had relied on accountants and others to make sure their financial records were correct.

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Eric Trump testifies ‘I don’t recall’ when asked about involvement in Trump Organization valuation – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. For more on this trial, read our latest report:

Prosecutor Colleen Faherty asked Donald Trump Jr whether it’s a fair statement that he was generally familiar with the overall finances of the Trump Organization between 2011 and the present.

“I would think so, yes,” Trump Jr replied, Law360’s Stewart Bishop reports.

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Memphis police officer pleads guilty in fatal beating of Tyre Nichols

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Desmond Mills Jr is one of five officers charged in the beating death of the Black man who called for his mother as he was attacked

A former Memphis police officer pleaded guilty on Thursday in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols, becoming the first of five officers charged to reverse course, with prosecutors recommending up to 15 years in prison.

Desmond Mills Jr entered his plea during a hearing at the Memphis federal courthouse as part of a larger agreement to settle charges in state court as well. It was not immediately clear if any of the other officers would follow suit.

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FBI raids home of New York mayor’s top campaign fundraiser

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Brianna Suggs questioned by corruption squad as Eric Adams cancels several Washington DC meetings

The home of a consultant with ties to the New York city mayor, Eric Adams, was raided by the FBI on Thursday.

Brianna Suggs, Adams’s top campaign fundraiser, was questioned by the FBI’s public corruption squad as they searched her house in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, the New York Times reported.

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The great powers signed up to Sunak’s AI summit – while jostling for position

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Even China is part of the UK’s ‘Bletchley declaration’ – but Britain is not the only country ambitious to lead on the issue

Sitting in a purpose-built hut in the grounds of the historic Bletchley Park country estate, British officials believed they had pulled off a diplomatic coup.

On stage in front of them was the UK’s technology secretary, Michelle Donelan, and behind her were high-level representatives from the US and China, together for the first time to discuss the international regulation of artificial intelligence.

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Biden says 74 Americans with dual citizenship evacuated from Gaza

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The evacuees were able to cross from the Gaza Strip into Egypt, the US president said on Thursday

The United States has been able to get 74 Americans with dual citizenship out of the Gaza Strip, Joe Biden said at the White House on Thursday, one day after evacuees began crossing into Egypt.

“Good news, we got out today 74 American folks, dual citizens,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office at the start of a meeting with the president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader.

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Buffy Sainte-Marie Indigenous roots controversy rocks Canada First Nations

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New documentary threatens to tarnish folk singer’s reputation as a cultural icon who fought tirelessly for social justice movements

Allegations in a documentary that the popular American folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie misrepresented her Indigenous roots have rattled First Nations communities in Canada, where she claims to have been born, highlighting the complex legacy of an artist whose decades-long career is defined by advocating for Indigenous rights.

Sainte-Marie describes herself as a “Cree singer-songwriter” has long traced her identity to the Piapot First Nation reserve in Saskatchewan, where she claims she was born in 1941. Sainte-Marie says she was taken from her biological mother when she was an infant and raised by a white family in the US.

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China and US reportedly agree to rare nuclear arms control talks

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Talks expected on Monday would be first since Obama administration and follow visit to Washington by Wang Yi, Chinese foreign minister

China and the United States will reportedly discuss nuclear arms control next week, the first such talks since the Obama administration.

The talks would be led on Monday by Mallory Stewart, a senior state department official, and Sun Xiaobo, the head of the arms control department at China’s foreign ministry, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

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US House vote fails to expel Republican George Santos after 23 federal charges

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The lying representative from New York retained his seat with fewer than two-thirds of the chamber supporting the resolution

A vote to expel Republican lawmaker George Santos from the US House of Representatives failed on Wednesday when fewer than two-thirds of the chamber supported the resolution, preserving Republicans’ narrow 221-212 majority.

Santos on Friday pleaded not guilty to a 23-count federal indictment accusing him of crimes including laundering funds to pay for his personal expenses, illegally receiving unemployment benefits and charging donors’ credit cards without their consent.

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Man charged in Tupac Shakur killing loses bid for lawyer representation

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Duane Keith ‘Keffe D’ Davis remains unrepresented after missing deadline set by judge for agreement terms, says lawyer

The former southern California street gang leader charged with killing Tupac Shakur in 1996 in Las Vegas has lost his bid to be represented at his arraignment by the lawyer who spoke publicly about his defense two weeks ago.

Attorney Ross Goodman told the Associated Press on Wednesday that Duane Keith “Keffe D” Davis could not meet terms of an agreement that a judge on 19 October gave them two more weeks to reach. Goodman did not specify a reason for the impasse.

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Bob Knight, tempestuous Hall of Fame basketball coach, dies aged 83

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Bob Knight, the brilliant and combustible coach who won three NCAA titles at Indiana and for years was the scowling face of college basketball, has died. He was 83.

Knight’s family made the announcement on social media on Wednesday night.

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UK, US, EU and China sign declaration of AI’s ‘catastrophic’ danger

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Bletchley summit communique does not agree to set up testing hub in UK, as some in government had hoped

The UK, US, EU, Australia and China have all agreed that artificial intelligence poses a potentially catastrophic risk to humanity, in the first international declaration to deal with the fast-emerging technology.

Twenty-eight governments signed up to the so-called Bletchley declaration on the first day of the AI safety summit, hosted by the British government. The countries agreed to work together on AI safety research, even amid signs that the US and UK are competing to take the lead over developing new regulations.

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Trump Jr distances himself from documents at center of fraud trial: ‘I don’t recall’

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Donald Trump’s eldest son testifies in New York civil trial, claiming repeatedly: ‘I don’t recall’

Donald Trump Jr took the stand in the ongoing fraud trial against his father and the family business on Wednesday and tried to distance himself from the financial statements at the center of the case.

Trump’s eldest son, 45, is the first family member to testify in the civil trial brought by the New York attorney general, Letitia James. His younger brother Eric is expected to testify on Thursday, with Trump and his daughter Ivanka expected in court next week.

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Donald Trump Jr tells court ‘I don’t recall’ in response to questions at Trump family fraud trial – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. You can see our latest full report below:

The state’s expert witness, Michiel McCarty, is still on the stand. Prosecutors pulled up a report McCarty compiled where he calculated banks lost out on $168m because the Trump Organization had inflated the value of four of their properties, including 40 Wall Street, Trump Doral in Miami and the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago.

Here’s an image of what was shown in the courtroom:

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