Donald Trump is the first former president in US history to face federal criminal charges – is this a gamechanger or just another chapter in the drama?
He really might be going to prison.
Donald Trump just became the first former president in American history to face federal criminal charges.
Continue reading...Ex-president is being prosecuted for violating Espionage Act and obstruction over documents held at Mar-a-Lago and has been summoned to court next week
Federal prosecutors have charged Donald Trump over his retention of national security documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them, according to multiple people familiar with the matter, a historic development that poses the most significant legal peril yet for the former president.
The exact nature of the indictment, filed in federal district court in Miami, is unclear because it remains under seal and the justice department had no immediate comment.
Continue reading...Experts have warned that the US program is too tightly squeezed to produce Australia’s additional subs, which are meant to fill a capability gap
A United States nuclear powered submarine program – which Australia is depending on to provide up to five boats under the Aukus deal – has hit a two-year delay.
The latest report from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) said that performance on the construction of the Block V Virginia class nuclear-powered submarine “continues to degrade”. Supply chain issues, severe workforce shortages and limited physical capacity mean the US is struggling to meet its target of building two ships a year.
Continue reading...Employees get preview of chatbots similar to ChatGPT for Messenger and WhatsApp
Facebook’s owner, Meta, announced new artificial intelligence-focused tools in an internal company meeting on Thursday and outlined its plan after months of financial struggle.
The company confirmed a New York Times report that employees were given a sneak peek of new products it has been building, including ChatGPT-like chatbots planned for Messenger and WhatsApp that could converse using different personas.
Continue reading...Orange smoky skies might be a new phenomenon for those on the east coast, but for the American west, it’s just the average summer
It was a sight all too familiar to Californians: orange skies and thick smoke blanketing the sky, emitting the eerily out-of-place smell of a campfire.
But this time the scenes were in New York City, as smoke from more than 400 wildfires darkened the famous skyline and gave the US its worst day of air pollution in recent history.
Continue reading...Facility would allow Beijing to gather electronic communications from US but Cuba dismisses report as ‘unfounded’
China has reached a secret deal with Cuba to establish an electronic eavesdropping facility on the island roughly 100 miles (160km) from Florida, the Wall Street Journal has reported, but the US and Cuban governments cast strong doubt on the report.
Such a spy installation would allow Beijing to gather electronic communications from the south-eastern United States, which houses many US military bases, as well as to monitor ship traffic, the newspaper reported.
Continue reading...Joran van der Sloot, already serving 28-year sentence, faces fraud and extortion charges linked to Alabama teen missing since 2005
Peruvian police have handed over a convicted Dutch murderer to US FBI agents for transfer to the United States, where he faces extortion and fraud charges related to the killing of the Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway two decades ago.
Joran van der Sloot, a Dutch national from the Caribbean island of Aruba, is set to face charges in the United States related to the mysterious disappearance and presumed murder of Holloway, an 18-year-old from a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, who vanished during a high school graduation trip to Aruba in 2005.
Continue reading...US vice-president said administration working with Canada to tackle the crisis; Canadian PM accuses opposition leader of fighting climate plan
Protesters are set to descend upon the White House on Thursday amid growing anger among climate activists at Joe Biden for allowing a controversial gas pipeline in Appalachia to be fast-tracked.
Several hundred protesters are expected to demand Biden “reclaim his climate legacy” by blocking the Mountain Valley pipeline, a 300-mile pipeline that will bring fracked gas from West Virginia to southern Virginia.
Continue reading...Carlson attorney Bryan Freeman accuses network of attacking first amendment rights amid dispute over post-firing settlement
Responding to Fox News’s contention that Tucker Carlson was in breach of contract when he debuted his Twitter show this week, a lawyer for the fired hard-right host accused the network of attacking his client’s first amendment rights.
“Fox defends its very existence on freedom of speech grounds,” said attorney Bryan Freedman in response to reports, first by Axios, about a letter to Carlson from a lawyer for Fox.
Continue reading...Millions of Americans remain under air pollution warnings as schools close and air travel is disrupted
Toxic smoke from Canadian wildfires could linger over vast swathes of the US for days, officials warned, as millions of Americans remained under air pollution warnings.
Across the eastern US residents were again urged to stay inside and limit or avoid outdoor activities on Thursday, as schools in some cities closed, sporting events were canceled, and air travel was disrupted.
Continue reading...Influential founder of Christian Coalition and fixture of talkshow 700 Club ran for Republican presidential nomination in 1988
The religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, who led the Christian Coalition and ran for president as a Republican, has died.
On Thursday, the Christian Broadcasting Network announced his death. No cause was given. He was 93.
Continue reading...Ethics expert says ex-New Jersey governor must answer questions over George Gilmore, pardoned on Trump’s last day in office
A leading US ethics expert said the former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who this week launched a presidential campaign aimed at taking down Donald Trump, owes the American public an explanation of why and how he secured a pardon for a powerful New Jersey Republican, issued on Trump’s last day in the White House.
“We just don’t know the answer to that,” Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew), said. “And I think we should.”
Continue reading...Supporters of clean energy say they expect further battles ahead to prevent state’s progress in solar and wind from being unwound
In the scramble before the end of Texas’s legislative session last week, a must-pass bill was amended to impose new costs upon renewable energy. This came amid a barrage of anti-solar and wind power measures pushed forward by Republicans to reshape a state that has become the US’s powerhouse of clean energy.
But the conservative lawmakers had help.
Continue reading...Eric Adams remarks come as city briefly ranked world’s worst for air pollution; more firefighters to be mobilised as over 200 blazes are out of control
Over 200 “out of control” fires are currently burning across Canada as experts warn that air quality will continue to deteriorate.
Leyland Cecco reports from Toronto:
Continue reading...Former US vice president says was proud to stand by Trump but goes on to criticise attempts to overturn election result in Iowa campaign launch
We’re about an hour away from Mike Pence’s campaign launch in Iowa, and a CBS News reporter at the event noticed something telling in his campaign’s arrangements for the media.
As noted below, the password for the wifi provided to journalists seems to be a reference to Pence’s refusal to go along with Trump’s demand that he block Congress’s certification of Joe Biden’s election win on January 6:
Continue reading...Actor was helped off stage from her one-woman show Prima Facie after city’s poor air quality prompted breathing issues
Jodie Comer stopped her one-woman show Prima Facie on Broadway because of breathing difficulties owing to New York’s air crisis.
According to eyewitnesses, the award-winning star of Killing Eve, tipped to win a Tony award this weekend, was 10 minutes late for the matinee performance. After three minutes of the show, she announced that she couldn’t proceed.
Continue reading...Pence says Trump ‘demanded I choose between him and the constitution’ and that someone like that ‘should never be president again’
Mike Pence officially announced he is running for the Republican presidential nomination in a video posted early Wednesday and formally addressed a crowd of supporters in Ankeny, Iowa, on Wednesday afternoon.
In his speech, the former Indiana governor chastised Donald Trump for his “reckless” actions on 6 January 2021, took swipes at Joe Biden and singled out “enemies of freedom” around the world, including a three-second frame of Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, and China’s president, Xi Jinping, in the video.
Continue reading...Virginia representative calls for more gun safety policies after suspect was arrested for killing two people and wounding five
A high school student and a relative were killed on Tuesday evening at a mass shooting at the young man’s graduation event in Richmond, Virginia, where five other people were shot and wounded.
Gunfire rang out outside a downtown theater, where the graduation ceremony had just ended, causing hundreds of attendees to flee in panic, weep and clutch their children, authorities and witnesses said.
Continue reading...Congressman Adam Schiff condemns ‘acts of violence’ as punches thrown outside meeting about designating June as Pride month
Democratic politicians across California condemned a volatile anti-gay protest outside a suburban Los Angeles school board meeting on Tuesday, as the school board heard public comment on whether to officially designate June as LGBTQ+ Pride month.
Footage from a local television station showed crowds of people shoving, kicking and throwing punches outside a school district building in Glendale, California.
Continue reading...Eastern US states including New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut issue alerts as hundreds of wildfires burn in Canada
Tens of millions of people in the US were under air quality alerts on Wednesday, as smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted south, turning the sky in some of the country’s biggest cities a murky brown and saturating the air with harmful pollution.
States across the east, including New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut, issued air quality alerts, with officials recommending that people limit outdoor activity.
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