Palestinian Americans sue state department on behalf of relatives stuck in Gaza

Americans were provided flights from Israel after the 7 October Hamas attacks, but those in besieged Gaza Strip cannot leave

American citizens trapped in the Gaza Strip and their families in the US are lawyering up after weeks of desperate and futile attempts to exit the war zone, which has been under heavy bombardment by Israel since Hamas’s attacks on 7 October.

Nearly a dozen lawsuits have been filed or are set to be filed against the US state department, according to the Arab American Civil Rights League.

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Judge signals she could delay key dates in Trump’s classified documents trial

US district judge Aileen Cannon expressed concern current timetable would clash with Trump’s 2020 election subversion trial

The federal judge presiding in Donald Trump’s criminal case related to his retention of national security documents at Mar-a-Lago appeared inclined to delay the scheduling of the trial, expressing concern that the timetable would clash with Trump’s 2020 election subversion trial in Washington.

The US district judge Aileen Cannon did not specify what changes she would make to the pre-trial timetable at a hearing on Thursday, but signaled she would make adjustments to certain deadlines – which could have the net effect of pushing back the start of the trial.

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Scarlett Johansson takes legal action against use of image for AI

The actor’s likeness was used in an online advertisement without her permission

Scarlett Johansson has taken legal action against an AI app that used her name and likeness in an AI-generated advertisement without her permission.

The 22-second ad, posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, by an image generating app called Lisa AI: 90’s Yearbook & Avatar, used real footage of Johansson to generate a fake image and dialogue for her.

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Republican to quit House citing party’s reliance on ‘lie’ of stolen 2020 election

Colorado congressman Ken Buck will not seek re-election saying party must ‘project to the public what the truth is’

A leading conservative congressman announced his retirement, in large part because his Republican party “continues to rely on this lie that the 2020 election was stolen”.

“I have decided I’m not going to seek re-election,” Ken Buck of Colorado told MSNBC on Wednesday, after news that Kay Granger of Texas, the longest-serving Republican congresswoman, will also step down next year.

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Sam Bankman-Fried built ‘pyramid of deceit’, jurors hear in closing arguments

Founder of FTX platform, 31, painted by prosecution as scammer and liar who defrauded customers out of billions of dollars

Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto fraud trial neared its end with closing arguments on Wednesday in Manhattan federal court following weeks of testimony that lifted the veil of FTX’s stunning collapse – and a broader murkiness surrounding digital currency markets. The prosecution quickly painted Sam Bankman-Fried as an unabashed scammer rather than the image of the wayward math nerd proffered by the defense throughout the trial, saying he created a “pyramid of deceit” with his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX.

Assistant US attorney Nicholas Roos also used Bankman-Fried’s own testimony against him.

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US should place ‘no limit’ on civilian casualties Israel inflicts, senator says

However, Republican senator Lindsey Graham says, Israel should be ‘smart’ and try to limit casualties ‘the best they can’

The US should place “no limit” to civilian casualties Israel might inflict in Gaza in response to the Hamas terror attacks of 7 October, a senior Republican senator said.

Speaking to CNN, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was asked: “Is there a threshold for you, and do you think there should be one for the United States government, in which the US would say, ‘Let’s hold off for a second in terms of civilian casualties?’”

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‘Disturbing’: US infant mortality rises at highest rate in 20 years

CDC data shows rate rose 3% last year but experts say they are not sure why statistic that has been falling should have risen sharply

The US infant mortality rate rose 3% last year – the largest increase in two decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

White and Native American infants, infant boys and babies born at 37 weeks or earlier had significant death rate increases. The CDC’s report, published Wednesday, also noted larger increases for two of the leading causes of infant deaths – maternal complications and bacterial meningitis.

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First Thing: Rafah crossing open to people for limited evacuation from Gaza

Border crossing open for first time in weeks to allow evacuation of injured Palestinians and foreign passport holders. Plus, one man’s search for the world’s greatest sandwich

Good morning.

The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt has opened for the first time in more than three weeks of brutal conflict to allow the evacuation of dozens of injured Palestinian people requiring hospital treatment and hundreds of foreign passport holders.

What are Israel’s aims in launching Gaza ground invasion? Verifiable information is hard to come by but the limited evidence emerging from the combat zone suggests the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are seeking to encircle Gaza City, probably as a prelude to trying to capture what was the capital of the strip. Ben Barry, an analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Israel’s military had been set contradictory political goals by the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

What has Netanyahu said about the death of Israeli soldiers during the IDF campaign against Hamas in Gaza? The prime minister has issued a statement. “Our soldiers have fallen in the most just of wars, the war for our home,” he said.

Judge Arthur Engoron previously ruled that Trump and his family business committed fraud. Engoron is using this trial – focused on remaining claims of conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying business records – to decide on punishment.

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‘Expect the unexpected’: Trump fraud trial becomes family affair

Donald Jr, Eric and Ivanka scheduled to give evidence with father this week in case against Trump Organization

Donald Trump’s fraud trial becomes a family affair this week as three of his children, and the former president himself, prepare to be called to the witness stand in New York.

Trump’s appearances in court so far have been controversial, to say the least. The former president has railed against the prosecution, calling it a “witch-hunt”, and has been threatened with jail for attacking one of the court’s clerks on social media.

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‘There is no ban’: Republicans test-drive new abortion messaging

Ad released in Virginia part of well-funded effort to portray Democrats as abortion extremists and Republicans as reasonable compromisers

The ad opens with the sound of a fetal heartbeat.

“Most people believe that abortion at the moment of birth is wrong, far beyond any reasonable limit. Not Virginia Democrats,” a female narrator says, just before the sound of a baby cooing and crying. “They fought to make late-term abortions the rule, not the exception.”

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Republicans welcome local benefits of climate law despite voting against it

Nancy Mace and Marjorie Taylor Greene among those accused of hypocrisy over efforts to gut landmark Inflation Reduction Act

At least a dozen Republican members of Congress have welcomed clean energy investment flowing to their electorates following Joe Biden’s landmark climate bill, even as they launch fresh attempts to dismantle the legislation.

The group of conservative lawmakers, including the House of Representatives members Nancy Mace, Clay Higgins and Marjorie Taylor Greene, have all recently praised the arrival of new renewable energy, battery or electric vehicle jobs in their districts even after voting against last year’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which was loaded with incentives for clean energy projects.

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Top Biden officials urge Congress to pass military aid for Israel and Ukraine

In hearing interrupted by protesters, Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin try to beat Republican attempts to kill $106bn package

The Biden administration took its quest for emergency military aid for Israel and Ukraine to Capitol Hill on Tuesday in an all-out effort to overcome House Republican attempts to decimate a $106bn package while cutting key parts of the White House’s domestic policy.

In a stormy session interrupted several times by demonstrators, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and defense secretary Lloyd Austin, told a Senate hearing that assistance to both countries was closely linked and should not be decoupled, as demanded by leading Republicans who are keen to back Israel but oppose any further help for Ukraine.

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Biden expected to meet with Xi Jinping next month for ‘constructive’ talks

White House comments come after China’s foreign minister made rare visit to Washington to pave way for Xi to meet Biden

Joe Biden is expected to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a summit in San Francisco in November for “constructive” talks, the White House said on Tuesday.

The comments came days after China’s foreign minister made a rare visit to Washington to pave the way for Xi to meet Biden at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit.

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Maine gunman’s family alerted sheriff five months before shootings

Concern over Robert Card’s mental health dated back to last summer after a training facility episode sparked an evaluation

Five months before the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the New England state of Maine, the gunman’s family alerted the local sheriff that they were becoming concerned about his deteriorating mental health while he had access to firearms, according to authorities.

After the alert, the Sagadohoc county sheriff’s office reached out to officials of Robert Card’s army reserve unit, which assured deputies that they would speak to Card and make sure he got medical attention, sheriff Joel Merry said.

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Kansas cannot enforce abortion pill law or impose 24-hour wait, judge rules

Preliminary order before 2024 trial comes months after Kansans voted to protect abortion rights in state constitution

Kansas cannot enforce laws that would force abortion patients to wait 24 hours for the procedure or be given anti-abortion talking points, a judge ruled on Monday.

The move comes months after Kansans overwhelmingly voted to protect abortion rights in the state’s constitution.

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Arab American backing for Biden sinks over ‘rock-solid’ Israel support

Poll from AAI shows increase in discrimination against Arab Americans and increase in support for Donald Trump

Arab American support for Joe Biden has fallen in the wake of his response to the latest bout of violence between Israel and Hamas, a new poll from the Arab American Institute (AAI) shows. The same poll showed a sharp increase in reports of discrimination against members of the community.

Following Hamas’s deadly 7 October attacks, which killed 1,400 Israelis, Biden has repeatedly proclaimed the US’s “rock-solid and unwavering support” for Israel, which has responded by tightening its blockade and bombarding the Gaza Strip. More than 8,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to health officials in the coastal territory.

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UC Berkeley’s Taylor Swift class will examine her ‘enduring value’

Business school will offer a course studying the pop icon, following the success of her Eras tour and Taylor’s Version project

California’s UC Berkeley college will next year offer its students an unusual option for their studies in the form of a course about the pop icon Taylor Swift, whose current Eras tour has made her a billionaire.

Given the Eras project’s huge success, the course is being offered by Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. It will be called Artistry and Entrepreneurship: Taylor’s Version and start next spring, according to NBC News.

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Australia must lobby US for ‘no first use’ of nuclear weapons, says ex-minister Gareth Evans

Exclusive: Former foreign minister says it is ‘sheer dumb luck’ that arms have not been used in the past 78 years and urges leadership on control measures

The Labor luminary Gareth Evans has urged Australia to lobby the US to promise “no first use” of nuclear weapons, warning that global arms control agreements “are now either dead or on life support”.

The former foreign minister says that in the wake of sealing the Aukus nuclear-powered submarine deal, the Albanese government should give “some comfort to ALP members and voters that we are really serious about nuclear arms control”.

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Pittsburgh in ‘extreme embrace’ with fossil fuel lobbyists, research finds

Several of the city’s governmental, environmental and cultural institutions share lobbyists with fossil fuel companies

Dozens of governmental, educational, cultural and environmental organizations across the city of Pittsburgh have hired lobbying firms who work with planet-heating fossil fuel companies, new research shows.

The Pennsylvania city has almost entirely divested its pension funds from fossil fuels and plans to dramatically cut its planet-heating pollution. Yet in 2023, it employed lobbyists who also worked for ExxonMobil and seven other fossil fuel companies.

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US woman charged with hosting parties with alcohol for teens and encouraging sexual assault

Seventeen alleged victims testified at grand jury hearing, where Shannon Marie O’Connor was indicted on 63 charges

A woman accused of hosting parties for her teenage son and his friends in northern California where she encouraged them to drink and sexually assault intoxicated girls was charged on Monday with more than five dozen felony and misdemeanor counts.

Shannon Marie O’Connor, 49, was indicted by a grand jury in Santa Clara county on 63 charges including child endangerment for furnishing alcohol to minors and aiding and abetting sexual assault, the Mercury News reported.

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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