Category Archives: US News

Panel finds 9/11 defendant unfit for trial after CIA torture rendered him psychotic

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Ramzi bin al-Shibh was one of five defendants facing trial in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people in the 9/11 attacks by al-Qaida

A military judge at Guantánamo Bay has ruled a 9/11 defendant incompetent to stand trial after a military medical panel found that the man’s sustained abuse in CIA custody years earlier had rendered him lastingly psychotic.

A Guantánamo military commission spokesman, Ronald Flesvig, confirmed on Friday the ruling by Judge Col Matthew McCall. The ruling means Ramzi bin al-Shibh will not be tried together with his four 9/11 co-defendants, whose case will now proceed without him.

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White House planning for government shutdown after chaos on Capitol Hill

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House leaves for weekend without solution to shutdown threat in sight amid hard-right Republican opposition to McCarthy plans

The Republican-led US House of Representatives has all but disappeared for the long weekend after abruptly wrapping up its work on Thursday when the embattled speaker, Kevin McCarthy, failed to advance a stopgap government spending bill, as members continued to clash with just days left to avert a federal shutdown.

The White House on Friday planned to begin telling federal agencies to prepare for a shutdown, AP reported, citing a government official.

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US Jews and Israelis denounce judicial overhaul as Netanyahu addresses UN

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Thousands demonstrate against what they see as attack on Israel’s institutions but New York protest lacks Palestinian presence

Thousands of Israelis and American Jews have protested outside the United Nations in New York, as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, spoke before the UN general assembly in an address railing against Iran and making a case for Israeli-Saudi peace.

About 3,000 people attended the protest against the Netanyahu government’s efforts to overhaul Israel’s judiciary, a plan that critics say will decimate Israel’s democratic institutions. Organizers say it was the largest anti-government action held outside Israel since the start of the wave of protests that have rocked the country since Netanyahu’s government took office at the start of this year.

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The vast majority of NFTs are now worthless, new report shows

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Two years after tech trend that swept up artists and celebrities, researchers estimate 23 million people hold worthless investments

Tens of thousands of NFTs that were once deemed the newest rage in tech and dragged in celebrities, artists and even Melania Trump have now been declared virtually worthless.

According to a new report by dappGambl that reviewed data from NFT Scan and CoinMarketCap, 69,795 out of 73,257 NFT collections have a market cap of 0 Ether, leaving 95% of those holding NFT collections – or 23 million people – with worthless investments.

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US Capitol rioter who attacked photographer sentenced to five years

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Rodney Milstreed ‘prepared himself for battle’ with steroids and a wooden club disguised as flagpole, prosecutors say

A man who attacked an Associated Press photographer and threw a flagpole and smoke grenade at police officers guarding the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, was sentenced in a federal court on Friday to five years in prison.

Rodney Milstreed, 56, of Finksburg, Maryland, “prepared himself for battle” on January 6 by injecting steroids and arming himself with a four-foot wooden club disguised as a flagpole, prosecutors said.

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Zelenskiy secures $325m in new US aid even as Republican support wanes

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Ukraine president delivers upbeat message on war progress during second White House visit since Russian invasion

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy worked to shore up US support for Ukraine on a whirlwind visit to Washington on Thursday, delivering an upbeat message on the war’s progress while facing new questions about the flow of US dollars that for 19 months have helped keep his troops in the fight against Russian forces.

The Ukrainian leader received a far quieter reception than the hero’s welcome he was given last year from Congress, but also won generally favorable comments on the next round of US aid he says he needs to stave off defeat.

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‘Not sure where the airplane is’: bizarre 911 call details events before F-35 crash

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Four-minute recording involves a South Carolina resident trying to explain to a puzzled dispatcher how ‘we got a pilot in the house’

A military pilot whose advanced fighter jet went temporarily missing over the weekend is heard repeatedly requesting an ambulance in a perplexing 911 call from the South Carolina home where he had parachuted to safety, according to an audio recording released Thursday to the Associated Press.

The four-minute recording captures the bizarre circumstances for the three unidentified people involved: a North Charleston resident calmly explaining that a pilot just parachuted into his backyard, the pilot who doesn’t know what became of his F-35 jet and a puzzled dispatcher trying to make sense of it all.

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Former speaker John Bercow ‘to star in The Traitors US’

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British ex-politician, a cult figure in the US, will reportedly appear alongside Love Island’s Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu

Former House of Commons speaker John Bercow is reportedly starring in the upcoming series of TV show The Traitors US, alongside Love Island winner Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu.

The former MP will feature alongside reality TV stars from Big Brother, Dancing With The Stars and RuPaul’s Drag Race, according to media reports.

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More fentanyl found under trapdoor in New York daycare where infant died

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Police make discovery in investigation after child dies and three others hospitalized after appearing to have been exposed to drug

Police investigating a New York City daycare where a one-year-old boy died of alleged fentanyl exposure have discovered additional fentanyl hidden in a space underneath the center’s floor.

Following a tip about a trapdoor in the floor, authorities on Wednesday night and Thursday searched the Divino Niño daycare center in the Bronx again after fentanyl residue was found underneath a mat earlier this month where children had napped, ABC reports.

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Lost Michigan toddler found asleep in woods using family dog as furry pillow

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One dog provided support and another kept watch as two-year-old girl was found three miles from Upper Peninsula home in slumber

A two-year-old girl who walked away from her home in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula alongside two family dogs was found in the woods hours later sleeping on the smaller dog like a furry pillow, state police said.

“She laid down and used one of the dogs as a pillow, and the other dog laid right next to her and kept her safe,” Lt Mark Giannunzio said on Thursday. “It’s a really remarkable story.”

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McCarthy says hard-right Republicans ‘want to burn whole place down’

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Conference fails to approve procedural motion to take up defense spending bill as government shutdown looms

The House Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy, was dealt his second humiliating defeat of the week on Thursday, when his conference again failed to approve a procedural motion as members continued to clash over government spending levels with just days left to avert a federal shutdown.

With no clear path forward in Republicans’ negotiations, the House concluded its work on Thursday without any stated plan to reconvene on Friday.

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Exclude fossil fuel firms from Cop28 if they only want to obstruct, says ex-UN chief

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‘My patience ran out,’ said Christiana Figueres, who for years had advocated oil companies should be involved in policymaking talks

Fossil fuel companies should not be included in the Cop28 climate summit if they continue to block climate action, the UN’s former climate chief told reporters on Thursday.

“If they are going to be there only to be obstructors, and only to put spanners into the system, they should not be there,” said Christiana Figueres, who was pivotal to the delivery of the landmark Paris climate agreement in 2015.

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One person dead after bus carrying schoolchildren crashes in New York

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Dozens hurt, at least five of them badly, after vehicle carrying students from Long Island to a band camp in Pennsylvania collided

A charter bus carrying schoolchildren to a band camp crashed on a New York highway on Thursday, killing one person and hurting dozens of others, police said.

The wreck happened on Interstate 84 in the town of Wawayanda, about 45 miles (72km) north-west of New York City, state police said.

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Crown prince confirms Saudi Arabia will seek nuclear arsenal if Iran develops one

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White House hopes to secure nuclear cooperation deal with Riyadh as Chinese influence grows in Middle East

The Saudi crown prince has confirmed his country would seek to acquire a nuclear arsenal if Iran developed one, throwing fresh doubt on a possible US-Saudi nuclear cooperation deal currently under negotiation.

Joe Biden’s Democratic allies in the US Senate have warned his administration will face a tough battle for approval of a deal normalising relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia if it includes substantial nuclear cooperation with Riyadh, because of distrust of Saudi intentions.

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Saudi Arabia ‘getting closer’ to normalising relations with Israel, crown prince says

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In a rare interview with Fox News, Mohammed bin Salman said major progress must be made in creation of a Palestinian state

A potential normalisation deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and what those negotiations could mean for the Palestinians, are top of the news agenda in the Middle East after the two countries and the US signalled progress on the matter on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York.

In a rare interview with western media, Riyadh’s powerful crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, told Fox News on Wednesday that ongoing talks with Israel meant the prospect of normalised relations was “getting closer every day”.

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Yemen’s southern leaders say ‘bad’ peace deal cannot be imposed

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Leaders seeking south Yemen’s independence say they have been sidelined from talks between Saudi Arabia and Houthi rebels

Leaders of the Southern Yemen independence movement have said they have been sidelined from the critical talks held in Riyadh between Saudi Arabia and Houthi rebels on the future of Yemen. They warned any peace deal cannot be imposed upon the south, saying possible Iranian control of the strategic Bab el-Mandeb waterways was at stake.

After an unprecedented five days of meetings with the Saudi defence minister, Khalid bin Salman, Houthi leaders returned on Tuesday to their capital, Sana’a, saying the talks were positive. It was the first official meeting between the Saudis and Houthi rebels since the Saudi military intervention in 2015 and reflects Saudi Arabia’s determination to end the conflict.

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Zelenskiy calls for Russia to lose UN veto power; UN chief says ‘humanity has opened gates of hell’ on climate – live

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Ukrainian president says war impossible to stop while Russia vetoes all efforts at peace; Guterres condemns world leaders’ inaction on climate crisis

The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, addressed UN ambassadors at the annual general assembly on Tuesday where he accused America of fanning the flames of violence in Ukraine, prompting protests from Israel’s representative to the UN.

Raisi claimed any Iranian-made drones hitting Ukrainian cities had been sold before the war started and said he was in favour of peace in Ukraine, on the same day that Tehran hosted a Russian defence delegation led by its defence minister, Sergei Shoigu.

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White House says Republicans turned Garland hearing into ‘circus’ – live

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Attorney general is grilled by Trump-aligned lawmakers on House judiciary committee

The judiciary committee’s highest-ranking Democrat Jerry Nadler then got a turn to question Merrick Garland, and asked him what would happen if the FBI was defunded.

“Defund the FBI” has become a rallying cry for extreme rightwing Republicans such as representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz as well as the presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who claim the law enforcement agency has become politicized.

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Ex-Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson claims Rudy Giuliani groped her on January 6

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Exclusive: in a new book, Hutchinson describes incident in which the former New York mayor put his hand ‘under my blazer, then my skirt’

Cassidy Hutchinson, the former Trump aide turned crucial January 6 witness, says in a new book she was groped by Rudy Giuliani, who was “like a wolf closing in on its prey”, on the day of the attack on the Capitol.

Describing meeting with Giuliani backstage at Donald Trump’s speech near the White House before his supporters marched on Congress in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election, Hutchinson says the former New York mayor turned Trump lawyer put his hand “under my blazer, then my skirt”.

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How should UK, US and Australia respond to Canada-India row?

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Justin Trudeau’s accusation that India may be behind Sikh separatist killing puts western leaders in awkward position

Canada’s accusation on Monday that India may have been behind the car park murder of the Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Najjar in June – which New Delhi rejects outright – comes at an uncomfortable and unwelcome time for Britain, the US and Australia.

London, Washington and Canberra have all been prioritising closer ties with New Delhi, seeing it not just as a strategic bulwark against the fast-rising China, but also as a partner in the economic isolation of Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.

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