Category Archives: US News

JP Morgan to snap up most of failed US bank First Republic

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US banking titan to buy ‘all deposits and substantially all assets’ in deal brokered by regulators to contain banking failures

JP Morgan is to acquire most of the failed California bank First Republic, in a takeover brokered by regulators as the US races to contain a series of banking failures that has echoes of the 2008 global financial crisis.

After weekend talks to prevent a further escalation of the US banking crisis, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) confirmed that First Republic had collapsed and would be taken over by JP Morgan. The regulator is providing $50bn (£39.9bn) of financing as part of the deal.

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Hollywood writers and studios hold talks as strike deadline looms

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Writers Guild of America could call stoppage as early as Tuesday if pay agreement is not reached

Negotiators for Hollywood writers and film and television studios are engaged in 11th-hour talks in an effort to avert a strike that would disrupt TV production across an industry grappling with seismic changes.

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) could call a work stoppage as early as Tuesday if it cannot reach a deal with companies such as Walt Disney and Netflix. A strike would be the first by the WGA in 15 years.

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US rail companies grant paid sick days after public pressure in win for unions

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Leading railroads give four paid sick days after years in which workers weren’t allowed to call in sick the morning of their shift

US freight rail companies nearly spurred a nationwide railroad strike last fall by refusing to grant paid sick days, but in a surprise move welcomed by workers, those railroads have recently granted paid sick days to almost half their workforce.

After being roundly criticized for not offering paid sick days, the leading rail companies – BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific – have granted many of their 93,000 workers four paid sick days a year through labor negotiations, with an option of taking three more paid sick days from personal days.

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‘I won’t be 80’: Michael J Fox describes struggles with Parkinson’s

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The actor, who was diagnosed aged 29, said advancing disease had caused him a string of injuries but he was still able to remain optimistic

Back to the Future star Michael J Fox described Parkinson’s as a “gift that keeps on taking” in an interview on CBS Sunday Morning, in which he described his struggles with the illness.

The 61-year-old activist and former Hollywood actor was diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson’s disease a year after Back to the Future Part III was released in 1990.

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Florida principal who lost job over ‘pornographic’ David statue visits Italy

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Hope Carrasquilla, forced to resign after parents condemned Michelangelo’s statue as pornography, invited to Florence

A Florida principal who resigned after parents at her school decried Michelangelo’s David statue as pornography has traveled to Florence, Italy, following invitations from the museum director and mayor of Florence.

Hope Carrasquilla, the former principal of Florida’s Tallahassee Classical school, touched down in Florence on Friday and visited the Accademia Gallery with her family where David’s statue resides.

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Time running out for US financial firms to bid for ailing bank First Republic

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Deadline of Sunday set for companies such as JPMorgan Chase to table offer for California bank whose shares have plummeted

US regulators are racing to secure the sale of California bank First Republic, which is on course to become the third American lender to fail this year, a sequence of collapses that has drawn uncomfortable parallels with the 2008 global financial crisis.

Half a dozen US banks are in the running to take over stricken First Republic, according to reports over the weekend, with leading bidders including JPMorgan Chase, Citizens Financial and PNC Financial Services.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ‘not planning’ to run for Senate seat in 2024

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Decision clears way for incumbent New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand to run for re-election unopposed by congresswoman

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will not run for a seat in the US Senate next year, according to her office, clearing the way for incumbent New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat, to run for re-election unopposed by the progressive congresswoman.

“She is not planning to run for Senate in 2024. She is not planning to primary Gillibrand,” Lauren Hitt, Ocasio-Cortez’s spokesperson, told Politico.

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Florida’s rightwing governor Ron DeSantis backs Kemi Badenoch’s ‘war on woke’

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Republican expected to run for nomination supports UK business secretary’s attempt to stop the left ‘corrupting British society’

Florida’s rightwing governor, Ron DeSantis, has backed UK business secretary Kemi Badenoch in taking on what he calls “the woke”.

DeSantis, who is expected to challenge Donald Trump for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election, met Badenoch and foreign secretary James Cleverly on a visit to London this week.

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Texas man who killed five, including eight-year-old boy, could ‘be anywhere’

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Suspect in fatal shooting of neighbors after noise complaint could be as far as ‘10 or 20 miles’ from murder scene, sheriff says

The man suspected of killing five people, including an eight-year-old boy, with an AR-15-style weapon after neighbors asked him to stop shooting in his yard could be anywhere by now, authorities in Houston, Texas, have said.

The manhunt for 38-year-old Francisco Oropeza could now be as wide as “10 or 20 miles” from the murder scene, San Jacinto county sheriff Greg Capers told reporters late Saturday, more than 24 hours after the shooting occurred near the town of Cleveland, about 45 miles north of Houston.

Associated Press contributed to reporting

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Why Britain has become the top destination for US ‘bleisure’ invasion

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American visitors to the UK have risen sharply in number – and it may be because they are choosing to mix business with leisure

It’s the travel trend that never quite took off. Ever since American trader Ben Hockett made millions during the 2008 global financial crisis by trading online from an Exmouth pub, travel marketers have tried to sell the concept of mixing holidays with work.

But now blended travel – or “bleisure”, as it was known in the 00s heyday of portmanteau neologisms – seems to be having a moment.

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‘Fearful and trigger happy’: flooded with guns and paranoia, the US reels from shootings

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Permissive self-defense and gun laws spotlighted by recent shootings in which victims approached gunmen by mistake

Waldes Thomas and Diamond Darville were driving for the grocery delivery service Instacart near Miami in mid-April when they drove the order up to the wrong address.

Thomas, 19, and Darville, 18, reportedly told authorities they were backing away from the home when the owner emerged with his son, grabbed on to the driver’s window and fired a gun three times at their car. Antonio Caccavale, who didn’t hit anyone, later reportedly claimed to police who investigated the encounter that he shot because he feared for his and his son’s lives as Thomas and Darville’s car ran over his foot and struck a boulder.

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Old ghosts of Staley – and Epstein – haunt Barclays once again

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A new lawsuit against its former boss does not involve the bank, but awkward questions may be asked at this week’s AGM

Barclays could be forgiven for thinking it was out of the woods after parting ways with its chief executive, Jes Staley, in 2021, amid regulators’ concerns over his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

At the time, the board – which had already backed the boss over a separate whistleblower scandal in 2018 – seemed assured by Staley’s account of events. The bank even expressed disappointment over his departure as he prepared to challenge a (yet-to-be-released) UK investigation into the way he had characterised his ties to the disgraced financier.

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Biden reduces sentences of 31 people convicted of nonviolent drug offences

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White House announces offenders to be moved to home confinement and they will not have to pay remainder of fines

President Joe Biden has ordered the federal prison sentences of 31 people to be reduced, punishments which were given to them after nonviolent drug-related convictions.

In an announcement released on Friday, the White House revealed that those whose sentences were commuted would be under home confinement until a 30 June expiration date for their respective punishments. The plan is for them to then be on supervised release, with the duration of that based on their original sentence.

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US health authorities reportedly plan to stop tracking Covid on community level

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Instead of using colour-coded system focusing on spread of virus by county the CDC will track hospitalisation rates

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reportedly plans to stop tracking the spread of Covid-19 on the community level across the country, signalling what could be the federal government’s readiness to reconsider priorities in its approach to the pandemic despite the World Health Organization’s declaration that it is still ongoing.

Instead of using its colour-coded Covid-19 tracking system that focuses on the spread of the virus by counties, the CDC will pivot its tracking focus mostly to hospitalisation rates, CNN first reported on Friday.

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Man resumes date after leaving to shoot dead ‘scammer’ over $40, police say

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Erick Aguirre arrested on count of murder after allegedly shooting Elliot Nix while on a date at Texas burger restaurant

What started as a date at a Texas burger joint earlier this month ended with one of the participants going to jail after allegedly murdering someone else over $40 and carrying on with the rest of the date as if nothing happened, according to authorities.

Erick Aguirre, 29, stepped away from a dinner date he had with a woman to grab a pistol from his car and shoot 46-year-old Elliot Nix dead after Aguirre learned from a restaurant employee that he had been scammed by a parking attendant, investigators have said.

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Texas man fatally shoots five neighbors after noise complaint, sheriff says

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Police are searching for suspect in after shooting in Cleveland, in which one of the victims was an eight-year-old child

After neighbors complained about the noise he was making, a Texas man went next door with an AR-15-style rifle and shot them, killing five people – including an eight-year-old child – as well as wounding three others at a home in Cleveland, Texas, on Friday night.

Law enforcement patrolling the community more than 40 miles outside of Houston were searching for Francisco Oropeza, 38, who had been intoxicated and fled the scene, the sheriff of San Jacinto county, Greg Capers, told reporters on Saturday.

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Judge in archdiocese bankruptcy case recuses himself over donations scandal

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Greg Guidry gave thousands to archdiocese before ruling in favor of New Orleans church in case involving nearly 500 clergy sexual abuse victims

A federal judge overseeing a bankruptcy filing from the US’s second-oldest Roman Catholic archdiocese has recused himself from the case amid scrutiny of his donations to the church as well as his close professional relationship with an attorney representing archdiocesan affiliates in insurance disputes.

Greg Guidry, who was appointed to the judicial bench at New Orleans’s federal courthouse by the Donald Trump White House in 2019, issued an order after 8pm on Friday recusing himself from a role handling appeals in a contentious bankruptcy involving nearly 500 clergy sexual abuse victims.

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Tom Ford bows out as creative director at namesake fashion label

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Longtime associate Peter Hawkings announced as successor after sale of brand last November to Estée Lauder

The American fashion designer Tom Ford is retiring from the eponymous brand he co-founded in 2005, after its sale to Estée Lauder last November.

Ford’s longtime associate Peter Hawkings will succeed him as creative director, while Guillaume Jesel becomes chief executive and president, taking over from Domenico de Sole, the brand’s other co-founder.

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Far-right California county’s bid to hand count votes will cost millions

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The move to a costly and experimental hand-count system comes as half the workforce is readying to strike over wages

In Shasta county, a deep red enclave in far northern California, officials are intensifying their push to replace voting machines with a costly and experimental hand-count system that could cost an additional $4m over two years.

The decision of the far-right majority on the region’s governing body, the Shasta county board of supervisors, to press ahead with the controversial plan comes as half the county’s workforce is preparing to strike over wages. Officials on the board recently said the county did not have enough money to pay requested wage increases for workers.

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