Category Archives: US News

Marvel faces backlash over AI-generated opening credits

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Social media users condemned use of AI -generated opening credits for Secret Invasion premiering this week on Disney+

Marvel’s Secret Invasion, a new television series which launched on Disney+ this week, has received backlash online after it was revealed that its opening credits were generated by artificial intelligence.

In an interview with Polygon on Wednesday, director Ali Selim confirmed that AI operated by a company called Method Studios produced the opening sequence to the new series, which stars Samuel L Jackson as Marvel fixture Nick Fury.

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Titanic sub search team still hearing underwater noises, says US Coast Guard

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Sounds are ‘inconclusive’, says US Coast Guard captain, but focus of search relocated to that area

Search teams in the Atlantic trying to locate the missing Titan submersible said they were still hearing underwater “noises” on Wednesday, but added that the sounds were “inconclusive” and not confirmation the crew was still alive.

A US Coast Guard captain, Jamie Frederick, told a lunchtime briefing “several flights” of Canadian P3 aircraft had heard the noises, reported by several media outlets as “banging”, on Tuesday and Wednesday, and that the focus of the search was relocated to that area.

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‘India is now a linchpin’: US looks to Narendra Modi’s visit to counter China

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The Biden administration will try to strengthen US-India ties while the Indian leader looks to shore up votes for next year’s election

The symbolism of the visit will be hard to avoid. As Narendra Modi arrives in Washington DC on Wednesday – the capital of a country he was once prohibited from visiting for almost 10 years – he will join the ranks of Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela and Volodymyr Zelenskiy as one of the few leaders to address a joint session of Congress more than once.

Statements from US officials ahead of the visit have been rapturous on the subject of US-India relations, praising the “significant defence partnership” and describing it as “a unique connection between the world’s oldest and largest democracies”. Before his departure from India, Modi said: “This special invitation is a reflection of the vigour and vitality of the partnership between our democracies.”

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Republicans crying wolf over Hunter Biden have hurt their own cause

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The GOP is obsessed with the president’s son, but the party’s attacks make it difficult to discern legitimate concern from crazy conspiracies

“Sweetheart deal!” “Two-tiered justice!” “Mere traffic ticket!”

Republicans had their applause lines ready on Tuesday when Joe Biden’s son Hunter struck a plea deal over unpaid taxes, and gun possession while being a drug user, that is likely to keep him out of prison.

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Gas stoves emit benzene levels above secondhand smoke, US study finds

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Even low doses of airborne benzene raise the risk of a variety of cancers, including lymphomas and leukemia

Using a gas stove can raise indoor concentrations of benzene, a cancer-linked chemical, to above what’s found in secondhand smoking or even beyond levels found next to oil and gas facilities, a new study has found.

The research, which measured benzene levels in 87 homes in California and Colorado, found that gas and propane stoves frequently emitted benzene at rates well above healthy benchmarks set by the World Health Organization and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

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Judge strikes down Arkansas ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors

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Ruling states that the prohibition violated due process and equal protection rights of transgender youth and families

A federal judge struck down Arkansas’ first-in-the-nation ban on gender-affirming care for children as unconstitutional Tuesday, the first ruling to overturn such a prohibition as a growing number of Republican-led states adopt similar restrictions.

US district Judge Jay Moody issued a permanent injunction against the Arkansas law, which would have prohibited doctors from providing gender-affirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers or surgery to anyone under 18.

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Hunter Biden plea deal: Republicans hit out at US president’s son over minor federal charges – as it happened

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More Republicans are condemning Hunter Biden’s plea deal.

New York representative Elise Stefanik released a statement on the plea deal, calling out “a two-tiered system of justice” that purportedly benefited Biden.

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Who’s unhoused in California? Largest study in decades upends myths

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Most unhoused people are from in state and desire to find housing, while Black and older people are disproportionately affected

Nearly half of all unhoused adults in California are over the age of 50, with Black residents dramatically overrepresented, according to the largest study of the state’s homeless population in decades.

University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) research released on Tuesday also revealed that 90% of the population lost their housing in California, with 75% of them now living in the same county where they were last housed. The study further found that nearly nine out of 10 people reported that the cost of housing was the main barrier to leaving homelessness.

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Groundbreaking youth-led climate trial comes to an end in Montana

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Ruling could take weeks to emerge in trial for Held v Montana, which is the first constitutional climate trial in US history

A groundbreaking climate trial came to an early close on Tuesday as lawyers on each side presented a very different picture of who can be held responsible for the climate crisis.

Attorneys representing the lawsuit’s young challengers said Montana officials and agencies must be held accountable for exacerbating the crisis, and thereby violating the plaintiffs’ state constitutional rights. But the defense argued that climate change is a global problem, and that if Montana is contributing to it, plaintiffs should work to change that through the legislature.

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Missing Titan sub’s air supply dwindling as search yields no results

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Rescue teams race to find crew of the submersible Titan, which went missing during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic

US Coast Guard officials said on Tuesday afternoon that the crew of the submersible Titan, which went missing in the Atlantic during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic, had about 40 hours of breathable air remaining, if they are still alive.

Capt Jamie Frederick also told reporters at a media briefing that a massive sea and air search that began on Sunday night for the vessel and five men aboard, and which has so far covered 7,600 sq miles of a remote area of the ocean, had “not yielded any results”.

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Three men including ex-NYPD officer convicted of harassing Chinese exile

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Prosecutors say ‘Operation Fox Hunt’ is a Beijing effort to pressure Chinese nationals in the US to return home to face charges

A former New York City police sergeant and two Chinese citizens living in the US have been convicted of various charges in a trial showcasing Chinese efforts to pressure expatriates into returning home, part of a program called “Operation Fox Hunt”.

Michael McMahon, who now works as a private investigator, Zheng Congying and Zhu Yong were accused of taking part in scare tactics aimed at a former Chinese official.

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Best and worst case scenarios to explain Titan’s loss of contact with surface

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The missing submarine had enough oxygen to sustain those onboard for four days, but limited air is far from the only hazard

For an expedition as hazardous as the Titan’s descent to the Titanic, there is a long list of onboard systems that need to be checked and a host of environmental hazards that must be identified and assessed before the voyage begins.

“When you are putting people in a potentially dangerous position like this you want to be absolutely sure everything’s checked through before getting under way,” said Stefan Williams, a professor of marine robotics at the University of Sydney. “We have an extensive checklist before we put anything in the water.”

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Tropical Storm Bret forecast to strengthen into hurricane

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Storm approaching eastern Caribbean Leeward and Windward Islands in aggressive weather pattern early in the season

Tropical Storm Bret is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane as it approaches the eastern Caribbean’s Leeward and Windward islands, with meteorologists noting that the weather pattern is unusually early and aggressive for the Atlantic cyclone season that formally began on 1 June.

It is only the second hurricane to form in the tropical Atlantic in June since record keeping began, according to forecasters. The previous June hurricane was the 1933 Trinidad hurricane.

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Xi and Blinken exchange warm words while refusing to budge

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Meeting between US secretary of state and Chinese leader was a diplomatic coup, but yielded few breakthroughs

Antony Blinken’s meeting with Xi Jinping on Monday may have lasted only 35 minutes, but both sides insisted that it represented progress in the strained relationship. The two men exchanged warm words while both refusing to budge on their respective core interests.

That the US secretary of state was able to meet China’s leader at all was a diplomatic coup for the highly anticipated visit. Blinken is the highest-ranking US official to visit Beijing since 2018, but until he arrived in the Chinese capital it was not confirmed that he would meet China’s leader.

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Missing Titanic submarine: US and Canadian teams search for tourist vessel

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Race against time to find craft that went missing on Sunday with five people onboard, including British billionaire

US and Canadian rescue teams are scrambling to search for a tourist submarine that went missing during a voyage to the Titanic shipwreck with a British billionaire among the five people onboard.

Hamish Harding is the chair of the private plane firm Action Aviation, which said he was one of the mission specialists on the OceanGate Expeditions vessel reported overdue on Sunday evening about 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland.

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Americans mark Juneteenth with celebrations, parades and reflection

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US’s newest federal holiday commemorates emancipation of last enslaved people after civil war

Americans across the country celebrated Juneteenth, marking the relatively new national holiday on 19 June with cookouts, parades and other gatherings as they commemorated the end of slavery after the civil war.

While many have treated the long holiday weekend as a reason for a party, others urged quiet reflection on America’s often violent and oppressive treatment of its Black citizens.

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Titanic tourist submersible: desperate search for sub missing with five onboard

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French expert and British explorer believed to be among five onboard submersible missing in north Atlantic since Sunday

Search and rescue teams were racing against time on Monday to find a tourist sub that went missing in the north Atlantic while on a dive to the wreck of the Titanic.

The US Coast Guard said “a small submarine with five persons onboard” had gone missing in the vicinity of the Titanic wreck and that the vessel had the capacity to be submerged for 96 hours, but it was unclear whether it was still underwater or had surfaced and was unable to communicate.

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Judge orders Trump lawyers not to disclose evidence in documents case

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Motion was filed by prosecutors to restrict storage and use of discovery material turned over to defense in classified papers case

A Florida judge handed prosecutors in Donald Trump’s classified documents lawsuit a significant victory on Monday by ruling the former president cannot publicly disclose any of the evidence against him.

Trump, who was arraigned in Miami last week on a 37-count indictment over his improper storage and handling of classified materials at his Mar-a-Lago resort, can also only view, but not retain, any of the evidence under the direct supervision of his lawyers, the order from the magistrate judge, Bruce Reinhart, stated.

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Antony Blinken and Xi Jinping hold ‘candid’ talks in Beijing

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Meeting between China’s president and US secretary of state takes place at time of heightened tension

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has wrapped up a rare trip to Beijing where he met China’s president, Xi Jinping, concluding a high-stakes visit aimed at stabilising spiralling relations.

Speaking at a press briefing in Beijing before his departure, Blinken said he had had “an important conversation” with Xi during the 35-minute encounter and stressed it was the responsibility of both countries to find a path forward.

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Well-funded Christian group behind US effort to roll back LGBTQ+ rights

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Advocacy groups condemn Alliance Defending Freedom as ‘a danger to every American who values their freedoms’

With the US besieged by a rightwing culture war campaign that aims to strip away rights from LGBTQ+ people and others, blame tends to be focused on Republican politicians and conservative media figures.

But lurking behind efforts to roll back abortion rights, to demonize trans people, and to peel back the protections afforded to gay and queer Americans is a shadowy, well-funded rightwing legal organization, experts say.

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