Private army led by Ivan Aleksandrovich Maslov accused of acquiring weaponry for use in Ukraine
The United States has imposed sanctions on the head of the Wagner group in Mali, accusing the Russian private army of using the country as a conduit for arms and military equipment for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
The US Treasury said Ivan Aleksandrovich Maslov works closely with Malian officials to build Wagner’s presence in Mali and elsewhere in Africa.
Continue reading...Gregory Rodriguez faces 96 counts including rape, sodomy, sexual battery and rape, prosecutors say
A former correctional officer at the biggest women’s prison in California has been arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting at least 13 inmates over the past nine years, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Gregory Rodriguez, who worked at the Central California Women’s Facility, faces 96 counts including rape, sodomy, sexual battery and rape under color of authority, the Madera county district attorney’s office said in a news release.
Continue reading...Florida governor’s campaign gets off to shaky start after launch was marred by glitches
The House has finished its legislative work for the week, and members are preparing to go home for Memorial Day weekend without a deal reached on raising the debt ceiling.
The House speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy, told reporters this morning that debt ceiling talks continued well past midnight last night, and negotiators are working around the clock until a deal is reached.
Continue reading...Shares in US tech firm jump by 25% in early trading as quarterly revenue forecast excites investors
The value of the US tech company Nvidia has soared by a quarter after it predicted a boom in demand for its computer chips to meet the needs of artificial intelligence products such as ChatGPT.
Nvidia’s share price rose by 25% in early trading on the back of the announcement, and gave it a market valuation of more than $940bn (£760bn) after stock markets opened on Wall Street on Thursday, up from $755bn on Wednesday evening.
Continue reading...The Guardian visited Angola in 2001 as the long civil war – aggravated by the interventions of Henry Kissinger – between Unita and the government neared its end. The images show how the conflict affected the people and landscape around the city of Kuito in Bie province
After largely ignoring the continent for years, Henry Kissinger, who shaped US foreign policy from 1969 to 1976 as secretary of state, became involved in successive crises in Ethiopia, Angola and Rhodesia in the 1970s.
The US intervention in Angola complicated the emerging conflict there that followed Portugal’s withdrawal from its African colonies after the fascist dictatorship was overthrown in a coup in Lisbon. Concerned that the communist MPLA forces would sweep to power and open the way for Soviet influence, Kissinger led the US into a lengthy involvement in Angola.
Top, a boy runs past a bullet-scarred government building in Kuito. A woman chops the stump of a tree. Refugees camped out near Cuemba deforested the area to provide shelter and fuel for cooking and heat. Bottom, mother and child at the Cuemba refugee camp. A family waits to be seen by doctors at a medical centre run by Médecins Sans Frontières in Camacupa
Continue reading...Park staff say calf was a potential hazard to people after man touched the animal, causing it to be shunned by its herd
A man who picked up a bison calf in Yellowstone National Park caused it to be shunned by its herd, prompting park officials to kill the animal rather than allow it to be a hazard to visitors.
Park officials defended the decision to kill the newborn bison.
Continue reading...Police say a hunter might have fired the shot in Spanish Fork, 50 miles from Salt Lake City
Utah police were investigating after a two-year-old boy was struck in the head by a stray bullet as he played outside at his day care. Authorities now suspect the wayward round came from a bird hunter’s gun.
Two adult caretakers found the toddler injured on Monday.
Continue reading...Stay Safe book, produced by a law enforcement consulting firm in Houston, was sent home in backpacks of children
Texas schoolchildren as young as four years old are being given Winnie-the-Pooh cartoon books, teaching them to “run, hide, fight” if a gunman enters their building.
Parents and teachers in the Dallas area have expressed alarm and concern that the Stay Safe book, produced by a law enforcement consulting firm in Houston, has been sent home in the backpacks of children in pre-kindergarten and elementary classes.
Continue reading...Musician’s family says items for sale are ‘clearly stolen’, but Boston auction house claims it bought them after Petty’s former home was foreclosed in 2015
The family of the late musician Tom Petty has accused a Boston auction house of stealing his clothing in order to sell it at auction, urging fans and collectors to not buy the items while it pursues legal action.
RR Auction house currently has more than 40 items of Petty’s clothing listed for auction, including jackets, bags, boots, hats and T-shirts. On its website, the auction house claims it acquired the clothes after Petty’s first wife, Jane Benyo Petty, lost their family home in Encino to foreclosure in 2015.
Continue reading...Florida governor announces candidacy for the Republican nomination
With the executive and legislative branches locked in a standoff over raising the debt ceiling, let’s check on the third branch of government: the judiciary. The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports that supreme court chief justice John Roberts gave a speech in which he vowed that the court would maintain the highest ethical standards, despite allegations of improper ties between some justices and parties with interests in their cases:
The chief justice of the US supreme court, John Roberts, said he and the other justices were working to hold themselves to the “highest standards” of ethical conduct.
Continue reading...Targets include US military facilities on Guam that would be key in an Asia-Pacific conflict, say Microsoft and western spy agencies
A state-sponsored Chinese hacking group has been spying on a wide range of US critical infrastructure organisations and similar activities could be occurring globally, western intelligence agencies and Microsoft have warned.
“The United States and international cybersecurity authorities are issuing this joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) to highlight a recently discovered cluster of activity of interest associated with a People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-sponsored cyber actor, also known as Volt Typhoon,” said a statement released by authorities in the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK – countries that make up the Five Eyes intelligence network.
Continue reading...Source says ‘we removed equipment after building a custom studio at our expense … we did not tear down the studio’
As Tucker Carlson prepares to take his show to Twitter, Fox News, the network which fired the primetime opinion host last month, has dismantled the studio it built in a barn at his home in Maine.
“Fox came in last week and got all their shit out of there,” DailyMail.com quoted Patrick Feeney, who it said was managing work to rebuild the studio, as saying.
Continue reading...Stars such as Mick Jagger, Angela Bassett and Magic Johnson pay tribute to the singer who has died at 83
An outpouring of tributes has emerged online following the death of legendary vocalist and performer Tina Turner.
Turner died at 83 years old at her home in Switzerland following her battle with a long illness after she was diagnosed with intestinal cancer in 2016 and underwent a kidney transplant a year later.
Continue reading...Democrats and Republicans continue to trade pointed remarks, underscoring that agreement is not in reach to avoid default
Lawmakers exchanged sharp criticism about who was to blame for the protracted standoff over the debt ceiling on Wednesday.
As the country nears its deadline to avoid a federal default, talks between Joe Biden and the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, continued on Wednesday, as negotiators met again to hash out the details of a potential deal. But both parties simultaneously trade pointed remarks, underscoring that an agreement is not yet in reach.
Continue reading...Convicted murderer faces charges after being indicted over allegations he schemed to steal settlement money from clients
The convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh is facing federal charges for the first time after being indicted on 22 financial fraud counts over allegations he schemed to steal settlement money from clients.
The indictments unsealed on Wednesday do not appear to reveal any new allegations against the once-prominent South Carolina attorney now serving life without parole for killing his wife and younger son.
Continue reading...Citations of Chinese research have risen because of sequencing of Covid-19 genome
China has overtaken the US to become the biggest contributor to nature-science journals, in a sign of the country’s growing influence in the world of academic research.
The Nature Index, which tracks data on author affiliations in 82 high quality journals, found that authors affiliated with Chinese institutions are more prolific than their US counterparts in physical sciences, chemistry, Earth and environmental sciences. The only category in which the US is still in the lead is life sciences.
Continue reading...Jensen Huang says Chinese firms will ‘just build it themselves’ if they cannot buy from US
The US risks causing “enormous damage” to its tech industry if it continues restrictions on trade with China, according to the chief executive of the chipmaker Nvidia.
Jensen Huang said curbs introduced by the Biden administration, which include restricting the export to China of advanced chips made with US technology, had left the business with “our hands tied behind our back”.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Huang said: “If [China] can’t buy from … the United States, they’ll just build it themselves. So the US has to be careful. China is a very important market for the technology industry.”
Artificial ‘culinary companion’ will suggest meals based on what you have in your refrigerator and has a chatbot feature
As media companies sort through the ways artificial intelligence will impact their operations, BuzzFeed on Tuesday launched Botatouille, a personalized recipe generator powered by generative AI.
In addition to Botatouille, which BuzzFeed describes as, “the first AI-powered culinary companion” that suggests recipes based on factors like what you already have in your refrigerator, there’s also a chatbot feature that allows people to ask culinary questions while they cook, according to a press release from the company.
Continue reading...The social network has floundered since the tech billionaire took over – political live streams may give the platform relevance
The news that Ron DeSantis will launch his presidential campaign during a live Twitter appearance with Elon Musk marks the tech billionaire’s latest attempts to shore up engagement with the social network at a moment of crisis for the company.
The event – which will take place Wednesday on Twitter Spaces, a live stream feature that is often broadcasted at the top of Twitter’s feed – was confirmed by Musk on Tuesday afternoon. Speaking at the Wall Street Journal CEO Summit, Musk called the Florida governor’s decision “ground breaking” and said it won’t be the last political event that Twitter will host.
Continue reading...The law, which the governor has promised to sign, will ban abortion before most people know they are pregnant
South Carolina’s state senate approved an anti-abortion bill on Tuesday that would ban most abortions at about six weeks, a period when most people are unaware they are pregnant.
During a special session to decide whether the bill advances to the governor, who has promised to sign it, the Republican-controlled senate launched into a heated debate over the ban.
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