Former US president denies director’s claims that he insisted on appearing in 1992 film in exchange for filming in his hotel
Donald Trump has denied claims made by the director Chris Columbus that he “bullied his way into” appearing in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
The former US president said on his social media platform Truth Social, that the film’s production team were “begging me to make a cameo appearance”.
Continue reading...President faces pressure from Republican critics and Democratic allies as he struggles to address what both sides agree is a crisis
Heading into the heat of the 2024 election season, Joe Biden is weighing major changes to US immigration policy that would toughen border enforcement and address an issue that has emerged as one of the president’s biggest political vulnerabilities ahead of a likely rematch against his anti-immigration rival Donald Trump.
But it is also a risk for Biden, who entered the White House in 2021 promising to “restore humanity and American values to our immigration system” after Trump’s four-year crackdown on immigration.
Continue reading...UN high commissioner for human rights says there is ‘rapid deterioration’ of rights in West Bank. Plus, how instant noodles took over the world
Good morning.
A UN report published today deplored what it said was a “rapid deterioration” of human rights in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and urged Israeli authorities to end violence against the Palestinian population there.
What else is happening? The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has demanded a “lasting ceasefire” in Gaza during a call with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, his office has said, as an escalating humanitarian crisis grips the Palestinian territory.
On what basis was Trump disqualified? The Colorado court’s ruling marked the first time in history that section 3 of the US constitution’s 14th amendment – the so-called disqualification clause – had been used to deem a presidential candidate ineligible for the White House.
Continue reading...Arizona conspiracy theorist who was arrested in connection to Queensland terrorist attack seeking to have charges dismissed
A US conspiracy theorist linked to the Wieambilla shooters has argued he was not seriously expressing an intent for violence when he said “the devils come for us, they fucking die”, and as such should be protected by the US constitution’s first amendment.
Donald Day Jr, a conspiracy theorist in Arizona, was recently arrested by FBI agents in connection with last year’s religiously motivated terrorist attack on a remote Queensland property in Wieambilla.
Continue reading...Duo’s music ‘will always trump almost anything that Daryl does on his own or I do on my own’ says Oates, weeks after Hall filed to stop him selling his share of their rights
John Oates, half of the hugely successful pop rock duo Hall & Oates, has opened up about his partnership with Daryl Hall amid their ongoing and fractious legal battle.
Hall, 77, is suing Oates, 75, in an initially confidential lawsuit that came to light in November when Hall also filed for and received a temporary restraining order against Oates in a Nashville court.
Continue reading...Tom and brother Dick’s groundbreaking CBS show was pulled when they took a stance against Vietnam war and for civil rights
Tom Smothers, half of the comedy group the Smothers Brothers, has died at the age of 86.
Smothers was described as “not only the loving older brother that everyone would want in their life”, but as “a one-of-a-kind creative partner”, according to a statement by his brother Dick Smothers on Wednesday shared by the National Comedy Center.
Continue reading...Security officials keen to arrange meeting as ‘time running out’, according to reports
The Israeli military expanded its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip to the densely populated urban refugee camps in the central part of the territory as the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was reported to have refused requests from security officials to make plans for control of Gaza after the war with Hamas ends.
Over the last few days, three requests to the prime minister’s office were conveyed on behalf of the directors of the Mossad, the Shin Bet, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff and the defence ministry to arrange a meeting on decisions relating to “the day after” Israel declares it has achieved its goals against the Palestinian militant group in control of the Gaza Strip, Israel’s Channel 12 reported on Tuesday night.
Continue reading...Lawsuit says companies gave NYT content ‘particular emphasis’ and ‘seek to free-ride’ on paper’s investment in its journalism
The New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft over the use of its content to train generative artificial intelligence and large-language model systems, a move that could see the company receive billions of dollars in damages.
The copyright infringement lawsuit, filed in a Manhattan federal court on Wednesday, claims that while the companies copied information from many sources to build their systems, they give New York Times content “particular emphasis” and “seek to free-ride on the Times’s massive investment in its journalism by using it to build substitutive products without permission or payment”.
Continue reading...US government commission barred imports and sales of some smartwatches following dispute with medical-tech firm Masimo
Apple scored a victory on Wednesday when a US appeals court paused a government commission’s import ban on some of the company’s popular Apple smartwatches following a patent dispute with a medical-technology firm, Masimo.
The tech giant had filed an emergency request for the US court of appeals for the federal circuit to halt the order, after appealing the US International Trade Commission’s (ITC) decision that it had infringed Masimo’s patents.
Continue reading...The 14-year-old was then allegedly shot and wounded by his 15-year-old brother in retaliation; both are now in custody
A Florida woman holding her 11-month-old son in a baby carrier was fatally shot by her 14-year-old brother while trying to defuse an argument over Christmas gifts he was having with a 15-year-old brother who also was armed, authorities said.
The 15-year-old brother then shot his 14-year-old brother, though not fatally, for killing their sister on Sunday in Largo, Florida, which is located in the Tampa metro area, the Pinellas county sheriff’s office said in a news release.
Continue reading...Amid fears of authoritarianism, oldest US president likely to face off against first president to be criminally charged
The 60th US presidential election, which will unfold in 2024, will be quite unlike any that has gone before as the US, and the rest of the world, braces for a contest amid fears of eroding democracy and the looming threat of authoritarianism.
It will be a fight marked by numerous unwanted firsts as the oldest president in the country’s history is likely to face the first former US president to stand trial on criminal charges. A once aspirational nation will continue its plunge into anxiety and divisions about crime, immigration, race, foreign wars and the cost of living.
Continue reading...Two men stumbled across the wreck of Matthew Reum’s vehicle – and were surprised to find the injured driver inside
Two fishers discovered an Indiana man – alive – inside the wreckage of his car after it crashed on 20 December, leaving the man stuck for six days.
On Tuesday, Mario Garcia and his son-in-law Nivardo De La Torre had been looking for fishing holes when they discovered a vehicle in a shallow creek beneath an Interstate 94 bridge in Portage, Indiana, they said during a press conference on Tuesday evening.
Continue reading...Three US soldiers were injured in a drone attack in northern Iraq, which Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah group claimed credit for
Joe Biden ordered the US military to carry out retaliatory airstrikes against Iranian-backed militia groups after three US service members were injured in a drone attack in northern Iraq.
A national security council spokesperson, Adrienne Watson, said one of the troops suffered critical injuries in the attack that occurred earlier on Monday. The Iranian-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups, under an umbrella of Iranian-backed militants, claimed credit for the attack that utilized a one-way attack drone.
Continue reading...Israel appears to be receiving munitions from stockpile, but there has been little transparency
Their precise location is classified, but somewhere in Israel there are multiple closely guarded warehouses that contain billions of dollars’ worth of weapons owned by the US government.
Long shrouded in secrecy, the warehouses are part of an extensive but previously little-known stockpile now facing scrutiny as pressure mounts on the Biden administration over its support for Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
Continue reading...Court voted 4-3 last week that ex-president was ineligible to run for White House again under US constitution’s insurrection clause
Colorado police are working with the FBI to investigate threats directed at justices of the state’s supreme court after its decision to remove Donald Trump from the presidential primary ballot.
The court voted 4-3 last week that the former president was ineligible to run for the White House again, citing a rarely used clause in the US constitution and his role in the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.
Continue reading...Republican convicted over false statements about payment from billionaire should not have been tried in Los Angeles, court says
An appellate court on Tuesday reversed a 2022 federal conviction against former Nebraska congressman Jeff Fortenberry, ruling that the Republican should not have been tried in Los Angeles.
Fortenberry was convicted in March 2022 on charges that he lied to federal authorities about an illegal $30,000 contribution to his campaign from a foreign billionaire at a 2016 Los Angeles fundraiser. He resigned his seat days later after pressure from congressional leaders and Nebraska’s Republican governor.
Continue reading...Freezing weather affecting more than a million people expected in parts of South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado
Snow, freezing rain and high winds are hitting the northern plains and upper midwest states, with the National Weather Service warning that “blizzard conditions for central South Dakota into parts of Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado [are] resulting in difficult to near impossible travel” soon after Christmas.
Parts of South Dakota were expected to receive up to 13in of snow, with wind gusts as high as 55 mph, according to the weather forecasting agency. The conditions affecting more than a million people could last through early Wednesday, forecasters said.
Continue reading...Becky Hill, who Murdaugh’s lawyers accuse of jury-tampering, alleged to have plagiarized passages in memoir from BBC article
The court clerk who helped steer the murder trial of South Carolina’s Alex Murdaugh and has since been hit with accusations of jury-tampering – potentially leading to a retrial – is now embroiled in a plagiarism controversy.
Soon after the trial, in which Murdaugh was convicted of killing his wife and son near a dog kennel at their Low Country home, Becky Hill published a book named Behind the Doors of Justice: the Murdaugh Murders.
Continue reading...Legalization advocates say reclassifying drug to schedule III from schedule I doesn’t resolve state and federal law conflicts
The US government appears poised to announce next year the most sweeping changes in decades to how it handles marijuana, the psychoactive drug dozens of states allow to be sold from storefronts, but which federal law considers among the most dangerous substances.
Evidence suggests that Joe Biden’s administration, responding to a policy the president announced last year, is working on moving marijuana to schedule III of the Controlled Substance Act (CSA), a change from its current listing on the maximally restrictive schedule I. That would lessen the tax burden on businesses selling the drug in states where it is legal, and potentially change how police agencies view enforcement of marijuana laws.
Continue reading...Blaze reported about 2am but was quickly contained and family living at property escaped safely
Beyoncé’s childhood home in Houston caught fire early on Christmas morning, though the family living there escaped safely.
The fire was reported at about 2am on Monday. The local fire department arrived on the scene of the two-story brick house within three to five minutes, the Houston Chronicle reported.
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