Category Archives: US News

Twitter owes ex-employees $500m in severance, lawsuit claims

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Former head of employee benefits files proposed class action over workers laid off after Elon Musk acquired company

Twitter allegedly refused to pay at least $500m in promised severance to thousands of employees who were laid off after Elon Musk acquired the company, a lawsuit filed on Wednesday claims.

Courtney McMillian, who oversaw Twitter’s employee benefits programs as its “head of total rewards” before she was laid off in January, filed the proposed class action in San Francisco federal court.

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Catholic chaplain who sexually abused Louisiana students jailed for five years

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Patrick Wattigny, former high school chaplain who resigned in 2020, pleads guilty to molesting two minors at school

The former chaplain of a Roman Catholic high school in Louisiana has pleaded guilty to molesting two minors whom he met through his work and was ordered to spend five years in prison.

Patrick Wattigny’s plea and sentence on Wednesday came after both of his victims strongly advocated for a harsher punishment. One victim, who was present, described how Wattigny spent time grooming him in the mid-1990s. The victim said Wattigny told him he could help him gain entry to heaven, then took him to a rectory to fondle his genitals. Wattigny also used his fingers to rape the victim while masturbating.

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US and UK call for more gratitude from Kyiv after Zelenskiy’s Nato complaint

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Comments come after Ukrainian leader complained his country had not been given firm timetable for joining alliance

Britain’s defence secretary and the US national security adviser have suggested Ukraine ought to show more gratitude for the help it has received from the west, in response to Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s complaints that his country has not been issued a firm timetable or set of conditions for joining Nato.

Their unscripted remarks – at two different events on the margins of the second day of the Nato summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius – appeared to prompt a change of tack from the Ukrainian leader on Wednesday, who later said he was “grateful to all leaders of Nato countries” for their support and help.

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Arkansas warned over ‘life-threatening’ flash floods; Florida ocean temperatures hit record high – as it happened

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California governor launches campaign aimed at protecting residents from extreme heat; US president says extreme heat and floods linked to climate

The National Weather Service in New Orleans has warned of scattered storms that are expected to deliver flash flooding in the area later today.

Rainfall is expected to reach 2 to 5 inches per hour (or more at times), with the potential flash floods likely to take place mainly from late morning through the evening hours.

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Emmys 2023: Succession’s final season scores 27 nominations

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The acclaimed business drama leads the pack with The Last of Us, The White Lotus and Ted Lasso following

The final season of Succession has dominated this year’s Emmy nominations with 27 nods.

The acclaimed HBO series picked up 14 acting nominations including recognition for Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin and Sarah Snook. It marks the first time in Emmys history that three performers from the same show have scored lead actor nominations in the same category.

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Wray calls conspiracy theories of FBI involvement in January 6 ‘ludicrous’ – live

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FBI director Christopher Wray appears before House panel as White House condemns Republican attacks on law enforcement

In his testimony to the House judiciary committee, the FBI director, Christopher Wray, decried conspiracy theories promoted by rightwing figures such as former Fox News host Tucker Carlson as well as some Republican lawmakers that the bureau’s agents were involved in the January 6 insurrection.

Wray’s comments came in an exchange with Democratic congressman Steve Cohen, who asked Wray whether Ray Epps, a man Carlson and others have claimed was a government agent and provoked the storming of the US Capitol, worked for the FBI.

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House Republicans grill FBI director as Democrats deride attacks on agency

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Hearing comes as Republicans have accused FBI and DoJ of political bias in investigations of Trump and Biden’s son

House Republicans grilled the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Christopher Wray, at a frequently contentious committee hearing on Wednesday. While Republicans accused the FBI of political bias in its handling of investigations into Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, Democrats derided the attacks on the bureau as a smokescreen driven by conspiracy theories.

The Republican chair of the House judiciary committee, Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio, kicked off the hearing with a litany of complaints about the FBI’s alleged targeting of rightwing leaders and activists, lamenting the supposed “double standard that exists now in our justice system”. Jordan suggested that the allegedly misguided leadership of Wray, a Trump appointee, could jeopardize government funding for the FBI’s planned new headquarters.

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Idaho sued over law banning adults from helping minors get abortions

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Lawsuit challenges statute that under-18s must get permission from parent or guardian before leaving state for an abortion

Abortion rights advocates sued the Idaho government on Tuesday, claiming a state law that prohibits adults from helping minors get an abortion is unconstitutional.

Idaho has one of the strictest abortion bans in the nation, forcing patients to seek care in neighboring states such as Oregon and Washington, where the procedure is legal. But in April, Idaho lawmakers passed legislation requiring any person under 18 to get permission from a parent or guardian before traveling out of state to get an abortion. The controversial law marks the first major push since the fall of Roe v Wade in 2022 to explicitly block people from traveling across state lines to access abortion.

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US vinyl sales up 21.7% for first half of 2023, report finds

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Vinyl boom continues with another major leap and Taylor Swift’s Midnights leading the pack

Vinyl sales in the US are up 21.7% for the first half of 2023 over the same period last year, according to a new music industry report.

The vinyl resurgence is itself not new – 2022 marked the 17th consecutive year that sales of vinyl records rose, according to Luminate’s music midyear report. But the growth rate this year has reassured experts that the vinyl market did not hit a natural plateau after surging during the pandemic, which caused a 108% increase in 2021.

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Opioid crisis: US and China at odds over influx of fentanyl

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Antony Blinken speaks at launch of US-led coalition to address synthetic drug threats

Who is responsible for the United States’ opioid epidemic? According to the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, the culprits are “transnational criminal enterprises” who need to be tackled via international law enforcement operations.

But according to Chinese state media, “the fentanyl crisis in the United States is demand-driven”, primarily by “the users themselves”.

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Residents of US south-west swelter under record-breaking heatwave

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Relentless temperatures upwards of 100F leave millions under extreme heat warnings and outdoor events cancelled

Record-breaking heat is baking the US south-west this week, putting millions under extreme heat warnings as temperatures upwards of 100F (38C) hit Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and southern California for days on end.

Even desert residents accustomed to scorching summers are feeling the relentless grip of the heat. Phoenix, which hit a 12th consecutive day of 110F on Tuesday, could see its longest ever heatwave.

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Ex-Manson follower Leslie Van Houten released from prison after 53 years

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Van Houten, now 73, is out on parole after her conviction for participating in the 1969 LaBianca murders at age 19

Leslie Van Houten, who was sentenced to life for participating in the infamous murders by the Charles Manson cult when she was 19, walked free from a California prison on Tuesday after 53 years behind bars.

Van Houten, now 73, was convicted for helping Manson’s followers carry out the 1969 killings of Leno LaBianca, a grocer in Los Angeles, and his wife, Rosemary.

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Geological mystery in California as homes slowly slide into canyon

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Cause of landslide that destroyed a dozen homes remains unclear as officials say nothing can be done to stop descent

Three days after a landslide destroyed a dozen hillside homes in southern California, the cause of the disaster is still unclear, even as the homes continue their slow descent into a canyon.

Sixteen people have been displaced since the land between the homes began shifting and sliding over the weekend.

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Extreme US weather: Vermont flooding ‘nowhere near over’, says governor – as it happened

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Phil Scott says damage is ‘historic and catastrophic’; parts of the US south and southwest are suffering extreme heat

Vermont’s governor Phil Scott gave a press conference earlier, saying that while the sun was expected to come out in Montpelier, the flooding was “nowhere near over”.

He was speaking as his state was dealing with up to two months’ worth of rain in two days. The rain had left “countless” roads washed out.

…What is heat stress and what causes it?

It occurs when the body experiences a buildup of heat, at a level that is more than what it can release. “The human body has this fantastic ability to cool through sweat evaporation,” said Uwe Reischl, professor in the school of public and population health at Boise State University. But even when the body is producing sweat, the evaporation can be limited due to humidity in the air.

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Trump not entitled to immunity in Carroll defamation lawsuit, DoJ says

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In reversal justice department says presidency doesn’t shield Trump from lawsuit, paving way for possible trial in January

The justice department has reversed its position on defending former US president Donald Trump in a lawsuit brought by writer E Jean Carroll, paving the way for a possible trial in January.

The department said in a court filing on Tuesday that it can no longer conclude Trump was acting in his capacity as president when he made allegedly defamatory statements about Carroll in 2019.

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Iowa Republicans consider six-week abortion ban during special session

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Bill faces few hurdles from being passed as state’s house, senate and governor’s office are all Republican-controlled

Iowa’s state legislature held a special session on Tuesday ahead of voting on a bill the same day that would ban most abortions at around six weeks of pregnancy, when most people don’t yet know they are pregnant. The state is the latest in the country to vote on legislation restricting reproductive rights after the overturning of Roe v Wade last year, which ended the nationwide constitutional right to abortion.

Iowa’s Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, called for the special session last week, vowing to “continue to fight against the inhumanity of abortion” and calling the “pro-life” movement against reproductive rights “the most important human rights cause of our time”. Lawmakers in the GOP-controlled legislature will debate house study bill 255, which was released on Friday and seeks to prohibit abortions at the first sign of cardiac activity except in certain cases such as rape or incest.

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Zelenskiy fails in effort to secure invitation to join Nato at Vilnius summit

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Leaders of military alliance sign off on declaration that does not give Ukraine firm membership timetable

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has failed in a last-ditch effort to secure an invitation for Ukraine to join Nato after leaders of the 31 countries signed off on a declaration that did not give a firm timetable or clear conditions for its eventual membership.

The frustrated Ukrainian president had accused Joe Biden and other leaders present at a summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, of showing disrespect and complained that there was “no readiness” to invite his country to join.

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California man charged with femicide in deaths of three women in Mexico

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Mexican authorities will seek to extradite Bryant Rivera of the Los Angeles area for the death of Angela Carolina Acosta Flores

US authorities have arrested a California man accused of killing three women in the Mexican border city of Tijuana and crossing back and forth across the international line after each of the deaths, which occurred over the course of nearly a year starting in 2021.

According to US court records, 30-year-old Bryant Rivera, a resident of the Los Angeles suburb of Downey, was arrested on 6 July on a femicide charge in the strangulation death of Angela Carolina Acosta Flores, whose body was found in a hotel room in Tijuana on 25 January 2022.

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US aid policies undermined success of Afghanistan mission, says watchdog chief

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Poor oversight, lack of understanding and weak collaboration between allies contributed to ease of Taliban takeover, conclude US and UK aid bodies at London conference

America’s huge, badly-coordinated and politically-driven aid programme in Afghanistan engendered the corruption that undermined its entire mission and turned Afghans away from the western coalition, according to the head of a US aid watchdog.

“We did not really understand Afghanistan or how it worked as a country,” John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (Sigar), told a conference at the defence and security thinktank the Royal United Services Institute.

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Head of US-based thinktank charged with acting as China agent

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Gal Luft, director of a Washington-based organization is accused of recruiting and paying a former adviser to Donald Trump

The head of a US thinktank has been charged with acting as an unregistered agent of China, as well as seeking to broker the sale of weapons and Iranian oil, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said.

Gal Luft, a citizen of the United States and Israel, is accused of recruiting and paying a former high-ranking US government official on behalf of principals based in China in 2016, without registering as a foreign agent as required by law.

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