The San Francisco district attorney has alleged Nima Momeni planned to kill Lee and left him to ‘slowly die’
The man accused of fatally stabbing Cash App founder Bob Lee has pleaded not guilty to murder.
Nima Momeni, 38, was arraigned on Thursday in a San Francisco courtroom on a single murder charge in Lee’s death last month.
Continue reading...Staffers raise concerns about inclusivity and accountability after US environmental organization says it needs to cut costs
The Sierra Club, one of the US’s oldest and largest environmental advocacy groups, is going through a turbulent restructuring, which a union has issued two formal complaints about and warned could lead to more than 100 job losses.
Some staff also raised questions about how the changes might affect its recent efforts to improve workplace culture following allegations of misconduct, and boost inclusivity in the aftermath of scrutiny over the racial views of its founder, the conservationist John Muir.
Continue reading...Fans describe decision to go ahead as ‘outrageous’ and call on US star to reschedule Emilia-Romagna event
Bruce Springsteen has been criticised in Italy for going ahead with a concert in Ferrara on Thursday evening after the northern Emilia-Romagna region was hit by deadly floods.
Fans of “The Boss” urged him on social media to reconsider out of respect for the dead and homeless after torrential rains caused landslides and made rivers break their banks.
Continue reading...Republican-led group expected to lobby Ben Wallace at informal lunch meeting during Westminster visit
A Republican-led group of China hawks from the US Congress will visit Westminster on Friday where they are expected to meet the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, for lunch and press for the UK to take a tougher line on Beijing.
The 11-strong delegation is led by the Republican congressman Mike Gallagher, who chairs a high-profile, newly created China committee. Some fear a strident anti-Beijing tone will alienate centrist and left-leaning politicians in the UK.
Continue reading...Jack Teixeira was admonished repeatedly for accessing and taking notes on intelligence documents, says court filing
Jack Teixeira, the US air national guard member charged with being behind the so-called Pentagon leaks of highly classified military documents, was warned repeatedly over his mishandling of classified material, according to a court filing.
Justice department lawyers made the disclosure in court papers that urged Teixeira be kept behind bars while he awaits trial in the case stemming from the most consequential intelligence leak in years. The judge is expected to hear more arguments on Friday before issuing a ruling.
Continue reading...Members voted along party lines to refer a resolution to remove the lying congressman to the House ethics committee
Republicans successfully sidestepped an effort to force them into a vote to expel George Santos, the New York representative, from Congress, which could have narrowed their already slim four-seat majority.
The House voted along party lines, 221-204, to refer a resolution to expel the congressman to the House ethics committee, with Santos himself joining his Republican colleagues in voting to do so.
Continue reading...Greg Gianforte, the governor, signed legislation prohibiting mobile app stores from offering the video-sharing platform by next year
Montana has became the first US state to ban TikTok after the governor signed legislation prohibiting mobile application stores from offering the app within the state by next year.
The move is among the most dramatic in a series of US escalations against TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance. TikTok has come under increasing scrutiny over its ties to China, amid concerns that such links could pose a national security threat.
Continue reading...Report says giving semaglutide once a week gave ‘historically unprecedented’ results
Nearly half of children who were assigned the “skinny jab” lost enough weight to no longer be classed as clinically obese, according to research.
The study, led by Dr Aaron Kelly, the co-director of the Center for Pediatric Obesity Medicine at the University of Minnesota, looked at 201 adolescents who were classed as clinically obese.
Continue reading...Company averts a trial to determine damages as drug-related deaths surged by 41% in the city in the first quarter of this year
San Francisco has reached a $230m settlement with Walgreens over the corporation’s role in the city’s unprecedented opioid crisis.
The settlement is the largest ever awarded to a local government amid years of continuing, nationwide opioid-centered litigation, according to San Francisco’s city attorney.
Continue reading...The MIT linguist says the late sex offender helped on a ‘technical matter’ related to his and his late wife’s finances
Jeffrey Epstein helped move $270,000 for renowned linguist Noam Chomsky and also paid $150,000 to Bard College president Leon Botstein, the Wall Street Journal has reported.
According to the newspaper, and also confirmed by Chomsky and Botstein, the late sex offender and financier had financial dealings with the two academics and had met with them multiple times.
Continue reading...Donna Deegan becomes city’s first female mayor by beating Daniel Davis, Republican backed by hard-right governor
In a major electoral upset on Tuesday, voters in Jacksonville elected their first female mayor, defeating a Republican backed by business leaders and endorsed by Ron DeSantis, the state governor and prospective presidential candidate.
Jacksonville is the most populous Florida city, with about 950,000 residents. Donna Deegan, a Democrat, earned 52% of the vote, beating Daniel Davis. About 217,000 people voted, a turnout of 33%.
Continue reading...Twitter owner and Tesla chief defends tweet about George Soros after being accused of antisemitism
Elon Musk has said he will continue sending controversial tweets even it loses him money, as he defended himself against accusations of antisemitism over tweets about George Soros.
The Twitter owner and Tesla chief executive said he is “allowed to say what I want to”, as he defended a tweet posted on Tuesday saying the billionaire financier “reminds me of Magneto” – the Jewish villain in the X-Men series.
Continue reading...National security adviser confronted apparently intoxicated man at 3am then told his protectors what happened, report says
The US Secret Service was investigating after an apparently intoxicated and confused man walked past agents and into the Washington home of Joe Biden’s national security adviser.
Jake Sullivan confronted the man and told him to leave, the Washington Post first reported, of an incident that happened at about 3am one night in late April. There were no signs of forced entry.
Continue reading...Ex-prosecutors express criticism as key Republican allies attempt to derail investigations into former president
As Donald Trump’s legal troubles mount at the federal, state and local levels, the ex-president and his lawyers are banking on their political allies in the Republican party to make attacks on a New York prosecutor who has charged Trump with criminal offenses and to also get them to help derail investigations that endanger his 2024 campaign.
Former prosecutors and members of both parties have voiced strong criticism about the drives by Trump, his lawyers and Republican House allies to attack prosecutors who have filed charges against Trump, or are investigating him, calling such moves antithetical to democratic principles and the rule of law, as well as fruitless.
Continue reading...Leaders will instead meet on sidelines of G7 in Hiroshima this weekend. Plus, how mifepristone became a target of the US anti-abortion movement
Good morning.
Anthony Albanese has confirmed the Sydney Quad meeting will not go ahead, after the US president, Joe Biden, pulled out of his Australian visit to deal with domestic issues.
When will the trip be rescheduled for? It is not known when Biden will be able to reschedule his Australia trip. The postponement, due to hostile negotiations with the Republican-heavy US Congress over the government’s debt ceiling, comes at a delicate time in the US’s engagement with the Pacific region. The visit was supposed to help cement the US’s renewed interest in the Indo-Pacific and help quell regional concerns over the Aukus agreement.
What does the legislation say? Last week, Republicans had rushed the bill through the house, drawing criticism from other legislators and abortion rights advocates. The 46-page bill, in addition to banning abortion after 12 weeks, extends the waiting period for people seeking abortions to 72 hours, requires providers to send sensitive information to the state department of health and human services, and requires clinics to obtain special licensing that would result in clinic closures throughout the state.
Continue reading...Sheeran prevails two weeks after winning copyright case that also alleged similarities with Marvin Gaye’s 1973 hit
Ed Sheeran has defeated a second lawsuit that alleged he imitated Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On for his song Thinking Out Loud, two weeks after he prevailed in another high-profile copyright case regarding the two songs.
A district judge in Manhattan, Louis Stanton, dismissed the case that had been brought against Sheeran by Structured Asset Sales (SAS), a company owned by an investment banker David Pullman. Pullman essentially owns a portion of Let’s Get It On, namely part of the song’s copyright originally belonging to Ed Townsend, who wrote the song with Gaye in 1973.
Continue reading...Leaders of Japan, India, US and Australia will instead meet on sidelines of the G7 in Hiroshima this weekend
Anthony Albanese has confirmed the Sydney Quad meeting will not go ahead, after US president Joe Biden pulled out of his Australian visit to deal with domestic issues.
Early Wednesday morning Albanese was still hopeful the meeting with the leaders of India and Japan could proceed with a senior representative from the US, but hours later he confirmed the event was off.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...State assembly member introduced law to prohibit tax-deductible donations from being used to expel Palestinians from their land
New York’s state assembly is to consider legislation to stop registered charities from sending tens of millions of dollars a year to fund illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
State assembly member, Zohran Mamdani, has introduced the “Not on our dime!: Ending New York funding of Israeli settler violence” act to prohibit tax-deductible donations from being used to expel Palestinians from their land and other activities widely regarded as war crimes under the Geneva conventions.
Continue reading...President had been due to address parliament next week, the first US leader in 10 years to do so, as part of Asia tour
President Joe Biden has cancelled a visit to Australia, the second leg of his upcoming Asia trip, due to the slow-motion crisis building in Washington over the US debt ceiling.
Biden is to attend a three-day summit of G7 leaders that starts on Friday in Hiroshima, Japan, and will return to the US on Sunday.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...Areej al-Sadhan sues on behalf of her brother, Abdulrahman, who was sentenced to 20 years for account mocking Saudi government
A US activist has filed a racketeering lawsuit against Twitter and senior Saudi officials on behalf of her brother, a Saudi aid worker who was forcibly disappeared – and then later sentenced to 20 years in jail – for using a satirical and anonymous Twitter account to mock the Riyadh government.
The lawsuit by Areej al-Sadhan alleges that Twitter has become a “participant tool” in a campaign of transnational repression by Saudi authorities as part of the company’s effort to monetise its relationship with the kingdom. Saudi Arabia is Twitter’s second-largest investor, after Elon Musk.
Continue reading...