Category Archives: US News

Does Biden’s unwavering support for Israel risk his chance for re-election?

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Half of young Americans are skeptical of US support for Israel, and campus protesters demand a ceasefire in Gaza

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

On Wednesday night, Joe Biden basked in the pageantry of a state dinner – white-jacketed violinists, golden chandeliers dotted with pink roses, a vivid wall display of 3D paper flowers. But soon after toasting the Australian prime minister in a pavilion on the White House south lawn, the US president had to step away to be briefed on a deadly mass shooting in Maine.

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Tributes pour in for ‘comedic genius’ Matthew Perry, dead at 54

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Justin Trudeau and Adele among public figures to speak fondly of actor best known as Chandler Bing in Friends

World leaders and Hollywood stars have hailed the “comedic genius” of Friends star Matthew Perry after the actor’s death at 54.

The American-Canadian star, best known for playing Chandler Bing in the sitcom Friends, was found dead in an apparent drowning at his Los Angeles home on Saturday.

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‘We will heal together’: Maine residents relieved as shooter found dead

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After three days of lockdown, fear and grief, residents of Lewiston and Lisbon prepare to move forward as manhunt ends

The terrified residents of Lewiston, Maine, were afforded a sense of relief amid their shock and grief on Saturday after the “armed and dangerous” gunman who had kept them on lockdown since killing 18 people on Wednesday was found dead.

The body of suspected shooter Robert Card, 40, was found on Friday evening near a recycling area 10 miles from Lewiston, with what the authorities confirmed on Saturday was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

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Mike Pence suspends campaign for Republican presidential nomination

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The former vice-president to Donald Trump says that after prayer and deliberation he concludes ‘it is not my time’

Mike Pence, the former vice-president under Donald Trump, has suspended his campaign to become the Republican nominee for president in the 2024 election.

Pence announced at an event held by the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas on Saturday that he was dropping out of the race, in which he has been lagging, along with others, far behind frontrunner Trump.

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UAW and Stellantis close to tentative agreement in Illinois

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Negotiators will outline terms to local union officials on Saturday, including reopening automaker’s Belvidere plant, sources say

The United Auto Workers (UAW) reached a tentative labor deal with Chrysler owner Stellantis on Saturday, two sources said, moving closer to securing record wage hikes and a new life for a Jeep factory shut down earlier this year.

The tentative deal is a big step towards ending the first simultaneous strike against the so-called “Detroit Three” automakers, and will follow a template set just days ago by UAW and Ford, including a 25% wage hike over the 4.5-year-long contract.

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New York animal control officer arrested in yorkie dognap plot

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Hope the purloined pooch was returned to Jeannine Staller after she was told by Scott Casterline that her dog was dead

A New York state animal control officer was arrested after selling a stolen pet and telling the owner that the animal had died, authorities have said.

Scott Casterline, 51, was arrested on Thursday and charged in connection with stealing the dog, a nine-year-old Yorkshire terrier called Hope, and later selling it while working as an animal control officer, according to a press release from the Steuben county sheriff’s office.

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Ukraine look to Las Vegas as model for ousting Russians from gambling sector

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Officials to take inspiration from way US authorities rooted out Italian mob in Nevada in bid to reduce Russian exploitation of industry

Ukrainian officials seeking to oust Russian actors from its gambling industry are going to emulate the methods of the US authorities in the 1980s when they rooted out the Italian mob from the casinos of Las Vegas.

Gambling was legalised in Ukraine after a 10-year ban shortly before the full-scale invasion in February 2022 and has since continued to be a profitable avenue for Russians who want to make money in the country and collect the personal data of Ukrainian gamblers.

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Joe Biden and Xi Jinping meeting a step closer, says US

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US president and senior aides meet with Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, after which White House says it is ‘working towards’ top-level talks

The US and China have agreed to work towards setting up a meeting between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping after the US president met with China’s foreign minister on Friday.

Biden has invited Xi to San Francisco in November for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit. The Chinese president has not yet confirmed he will come.

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Maine shootings: gunman suspected of killing 18 people found dead

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Army reservist Robert Card, 40, was suspected in two shootings that also injured 13 in Lewiston on Wednesday night

A suspect in the killing of 18 people and wounding of 13 in two mass shootings in Maine has been found dead, according to the Associated Press, after authorities issued arrest warrants for multiple counts of murder and launched a huge manhunt for him.

Robert Card, who was wanted in connection with the shootings at Schemengees Bar and Grille and at Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley in Lewiston, is believed to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a law enforcement official told the AP.

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Maine shootings: ‘more and more concern’ as search for suspect goes on

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Shelter in place order for the region rescinded almost 48 hours after the shooting even as ban on hunting continues on

Maine authorities continued a massive manhunt on the second day of their intensive search for an army reservist accused of fatally shooting 18 people and wounding 13 at a bowling alley and a bar in the town of Lewiston.

People scoured the woods and searched hundreds of acres of family-owned property. They event sent dive teams with sonar to the bottom of a local river and scrutinized a possible suicide note as they hunted for Robert Card who disappeared shortly after the massacre.

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US appeals court tosses lawsuit over Texas migrant transportation restrictions

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A three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based court found that immigration advocates lacked the legal authority to sue Abbott

A US federal appeals court on Friday sided with Greg Abbott, the Texas governor, on technical grounds over a 2021 executive order that restricted transport of migrants through the state, saying a lower court should dismiss a related legal challenge.

In a 2-1 split, a three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based fifth US circuit court of appeals found that immigration advocates lacked the legal authority to sue Abbott over the transportation prohibition.

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Colombian ex-army officer gets life in prison for killing of Haiti president Jovenel Moïse

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Retired army officer Germán Alejandro Rivera García, 45, is second of 11 suspects detained and charged in Miami

A retired Colombian army officer has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in the 2021 assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moïse, which caused unprecedented turmoil in the Caribbean nation.

Germán Alejandro Rivera García, 45, is the second of 11 suspects detained and charged in Miami to be sentenced in what US prosecutors have described as a conspiracy hatched in both Haiti and Florida to hire mercenaries to kidnap or kill Moïse, who was slain at his private home near the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on 7 July 2021.

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US asks Qatar to ‘turn down the volume’ of Al Jazeera news coverage

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Secretary of state Antony Blinken made request of Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed during frantic trip to Doha

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has reportedly asked Qatar to moderate Al Jazeera’s coverage of Israel’s war against Hamas, amid concerns within the Biden administration that the channel is inflaming public opinion and heightening the risks of a wider conflict.

Blinken raised the satellite news channel’s coverage with the Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, according to the website Axios, which said the US’s top diplomat had disclosed the request in a meeting with US Jewish leaders.

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Judge orders Ivanka Trump to testify in family’s civil fraud trial – US politics live

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Donald Trump’s daughter could appear on witness stand in New York civil fraud trial as early as next week

George Santos has been a target of protesters and hecklers from practically the day he arrived in the Capitol, and there were plenty of those waiting for him as he departed federal court this morning:

Santos was there to enter a “not guilty” plea to a slate of new federal charges, and learn he would stand trial on the allegations on 9 September.

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Maine shooting: police lift shelter in place as search continues for suspected shooter – as it happened

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Maine police diving team searches Androscoggin river with air support overhead

Sauschuck said that law enforcement is going to be “putting divers in the water along the Androscoggin River”.

He added that the divers will be checking for evidence and for “potential bodies”.

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Sam Bankman-Fried admits to ‘large mistakes’ in crypto fraud trial testimony

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Bankman-Fried says his biggest mistake was not implementing a dedicated risk management team for crypto trading platform FTX

Sam Bankman-Fried admitted to making management mistakes while at the helm of FTX, his former multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency empire, during testimony in his defense at trial.

“I made a number of small mistakes and a number of large mistakes,” Bankman-Fried, 31, said in sharing his version of the rise and fall of crypto trading platform FTX. The biggest mistake, he said, was not implementing a dedicated risk management team.

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Maine shooting victims included parents, bowlers and members of the deaf community

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Gunman killed 18 people in attacks at a restaurant and a bowling alley, and details are now emerging of those who died

The mass shooting in Maine left 18 people dead in attacks by a gunman at a restaurant and a bowling alley in Lewiston on Wednesday night.

The fatalities included an avid bowler, staff at the alley and at the eatery – one of whom ran at the shooter with a knife to try to stop him – parents, a group from the local deaf community gathering for a games night, and a father and son. The ages of those so far confirmed dead range from 14 to 76, while many others were wounded.

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New House speaker Mike Johnson praised ‘18th-century values’ in speech

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Louisiana congressman told audience at 2013 anti-abortion event Americans should live by 250-year-old religious and moral values

Before entering elected office, Mike Johnson, the new Republican speaker of the US House, praised “18th-century values” and told an audience that Americans should live by them when it came to morality and religion.

In video footage of a forum hosted in 2013 by Louisiana Right to Life, an anti-abortion group, Johnson, a devout Baptist and then an attorney for rightwing groups and causes, is asked about the “condition of conscience” in Europe and Canada regarding abortion policy.

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George Santos pleads not guilty to new fraud charges

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Republican accused of making tens of thousands of dollars in unauthorized charges on credit cards belonging to campaign donors

US congressman George Santos pleaded not guilty on Friday to revised charges accusing him of several frauds, including making tens of thousands of dollars in unauthorized charges on credit cards belonging to some of his campaign donors.

The New York Republican appeared at a courthouse on Long Island to enter a plea to the new allegations. He had already pleaded not guilty to other charges, first filed in May, accusing him of lying to Congress about his wealth, applying for and receiving unemployment benefits, even though he had a job, and using campaign contributions to pay for personal expenses like designer clothing.

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Why did the US launch airstrikes on Syria and what happens next?

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The war in Gaza risks developing into a wider conflict, but for now, the actions seem to be more about messaging between Washington and Tehran

Over the last 10 days, US military bases in eastern Syria and western Iraq have been hit by rockets and drones. There have been 22 such attacks, although details are sketchy and some may not have been counted. More than 20 US service personnel have been injured, though not seriously, and a civilian contractor died of cardiac arrest.

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