Category Archives: US News

US intelligence ignored warnings of violence ahead of Capitol attack

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Agencies ‘failed to sound the alarm’ and downplayed threats even as building was being stormed on 6 January, Senate report says

A new report detailing intelligence failures leading up to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol said government agencies responsible for anticipating trouble downplayed the threat even as the building was being stormed, in an attempt to stop certification of Joe Biden’s election victory.

The 105-page report, issued by Democrats on the Senate homeland security committee, said intelligence personnel at the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other agencies ignored warnings of violence in December 2020.

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Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide blamed on jail’s ‘negligence and misconduct’

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US justice department watchdog cites failure to assign a cellmate and problems with surveillance cameras as factors in his death

The disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein was able to kill himself due to a “combination of negligence and misconduct” by authorities at a federal jail in New York City, a US justice department watchdog concluded.

Epstein hanged himself in his cell at the Metropolitan correctional center in Manhattan in August 2019, while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

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Cleaner accidentally ruins decades of US college’s research by turning off freezer

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Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York sues cleaner’s employer after freezer turned off to mute ‘annoying alarm’

A cleaner at a college in New York state accidentally destroyed decades of research by turning off a freezer in order to mute “annoying alarm” sounds.

The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), in Troy, is suing the cleaner’s employer, alleging improper training. According to a lawsuit filed in the New York supreme court in Rensselaer county earlier this month, the university is seeking more than $1m in damages, the Times Union newspaper reported.

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Current heatwave across US south made five times more likely by climate crisis

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Latest ‘heat dome’ event over Texas and Louisiana, plus much of Mexico, driven by human-cause climate change, scientists find

The record heatwave roiling parts of Texas, Louisiana and Mexico was made at least five times more likely due to human-caused climate change, scientists have found, marking the latest in a series of recent extreme “heat dome” events that have scorched various parts of the world.

A stubborn ridge of high pressure has settled over Mexico and a broad swath of the southern US over the past three weeks, pushing the heat index, a combination of temperature and humidity, to above 48C (120F) in some places.

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JPMorgan to pay Jeffrey Epstein victims $290m in lawsuit settlement

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District judge Jed Rakoff approved the ‘very large’ amount in addition to a $75m payout agreement with Deutsche Bank

A US judge on Monday granted preliminary approval to JPMorgan Chase’s $290m settlement with women who said Jeffrey Epstein abused them and that the largest US bank ignored the late financier’s sex trafficking.

The approval was issued by US district judge Jed Rakoff at a hearing in Manhattan federal court.

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Kamala Harris warns of threats to LGBTQ+ rights during visit to Stonewall

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‘We won’t be deterred,’ says Kamala Harris, urging Americans to fight for LGBTQ+ equality amid rightwing attacks

Kamala Harris urged Americans to continue to battle for equality in the face of fresh waves of anti-LGBTQ+ action and rhetoric by conservatives, as she made a surprise visit to the historic Stonewall Inn in New York City on Monday.

The US vice-president celebrated the bar’s place in gay rights history while warning that many queer Americans are living “in fear” as rightwing legislatures pass draconian anti-LGBTQ+ laws and Republican leaders step up hostile rhetoric and conspiracy theories, particularly aimed at transgender and non-binary people.

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Co-creator of lithium-ion battery and the oldest Nobel winner dies at age 100

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John Goodenough’s research enabled the technological revolution that powers most of our gadgets and tools

John Goodenough, who shared the 2019 Nobel prize in chemistry for his pioneering work developing the lithium-ion battery that transformed technology with rechargeable power for devices ranging from cellphones and computers to pacemakers and electric cars, has died at 100, the University of Texas announced on Monday.

Goodenough died on Sunday at an assisted living facility in Austin, Texas, the university announced. No cause of death was given.

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Biden says US played no role in Russia’s Wagner mutiny: ‘We were not involved’

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The short-lived rebellion by the mercenary group posed a serious challenge to Vladimir Putin’s rule in Russia

Joe Biden has described the Wagner mercenary group’s brief mutiny against the Russian government as part of an internal power struggle, in which he said the US played no role.

“We made clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it,” Biden said during an event at the White House on Monday. “We’re going to keep assessing the fallout of this weekend’s events and the implications for Russia and Ukraine. But it’s still too early to reach a definitive conclusion about where this is going.”

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List of witnesses against Trump cannot be secret in documents case, judge rules

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US district court judge Aileen Cannon also scheduled a hearing to start the discovery process for classified documents

The federal judge presiding over the criminal prosecution of Donald Trump in the classified documents case ruled against the government in her first pre-trial order on Monday, denying a request from federal prosecutors to file a list of potential witnesses against the former US president under seal.

“The government’s motion does not explain why filing the list with the court is necessary; it does not offer a particularized basis to justify sealing the list from public view,” the US district court judge Aileen Cannon wrote.

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Ron DeSantis accused of ‘stupid’ move with timing of New Hampshire event

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2024 presidential hopeful schedules event in competition with Donald Trump speech to Republican women

Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign is struggling in the crucial state of New Hampshire and may have made the situation worse by scheduling an event on Tuesday in competition with a speech by Donald Trump to Republican women, prompting one prominent strategist to call the move “stupid”, Politico reported.

“It’s the worst strategic move he has exhibited thus far,” the New Hampshire Republican strategist, Mike Dennehy, told the website. “It’s just stupid, actually. You don’t take on the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women.”

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After Roe’s overturn, Republicans target trans rights using extremist rhetoric

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Republican presidential candidates attacked trans people and the LGBTQ+ community at a gathering of the religious right last week

Americans are “frustrated and anxious”, lamented former vice-president Mike Pence. The country is “in a precarious position” assessed North Carolina’s lieutenant governor Mark Robinson. And Glenn Jacobs, a former professional wrestling star and current mayor of Knox county, Tennessee, declared that “these are hard times”.

What could be the cause of such hardship? To the Republican presidential candidates who spoke in Washington DC on Friday at a major gathering of the religious right, the culprit was American society’s acceptance of transgender people and the broader LGBTQ+ community.

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Obama remarks on India’s treatment of Muslims ‘hypocritical’ – minister

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Indian finance minister hits out after former US president said Modi government should protect rights of Muslims

India’s finance minister has derided comments by the former US president Barack Obama that Narendra Modi’s government should protect the rights of minority Muslims, accusing Obama of being hypocritical.

During the Indian prime minister’s state visit to the US last week, Obama told CNN that the issue of the “protection of the Muslim minority in a majority-Hindu India” would be worth raising in Modi’s meeting with the US president, Joe Biden.

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Aston Martin agrees deal to make electric vehicles with US firm Lucid

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British carmaker to use components from Lucid to produce luxury high-performance battery electric models

Aston Martin has struck a deal with the US firm Lucid to start making “ultra-luxury high-performance electric vehicles” from 2025.

The British luxury carmaker, whose losses more than doubled last year to almost £500m, has struck a cash and shares deal valued at £182m in which Lucid will take a 3.7% stake in London-listed Aston Martin.

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‘We can’t rest or relent’: Pence reiterates support of staunch abortion restrictions

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Former vice-president hails Dobbs decision as ‘historic victory’ but says it didn’t go far enough and urges a nationwide abortion ban

Despite their unpopularity with the American public, former Republican vice-president and 2024 White House hopeful Mike Pence doubled down Sunday on his hard-line support of staunch abortion restrictions, saying: “We just can’t rest or relent until we restore the sanctity of life.”

Pence – in an interview on Fox News Sunday – made clear that he viewed bringing the elimination of abortion “to the center of American law” as both essential and “a winning issue” for the Republican party trying to wrest back control of the Oval Office.

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Montana officials testing Yellowstone River water at site of rail bridge collapse

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The EPA, which is working with the state rail authority on the cleanup, has not detected any toxic gases downwind of the site

Authorities on Sunday were testing the water quality along a stretch of the Yellowstone River where mangled cars carrying hazardous materials remained after crashing into the waterway following a bridge collapse.

The seven mangled train cars that were carrying hot asphalt and molten sulfur when they fell Saturday morning remained in the rushing river on Sunday near the town of Columbus, about 40 miles (roughly 64km) west of Billings. The area is in a sparsely populated section of the Yellowstone River valley, surrounded by ranches and farmland.

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New Jersey man flies 23m miles with lifetime United pass ‘like a sultan’

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Since paying $290,000 for the ‘best investment’ of his life in 1990, Tom Stuker was flown more miles than the Apollo 11 moon trip

A US man who bought a lifetime pass from United Airlines three decades ago has “lived like a sultan” ever since, according to a report, flying multiples of miles more than the Apollo 11 spacecraft in the process.

Tom Stuker, from New Jersey, paid $290,000 for the pass in 1990, according to the Washington Post, a decision he said is the “best investment of my life”.

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Republicans’ enduring fealty to Trump on display at conference after his indictment

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Ex-president lashes out at prosecutors and tells conservative audience that his two indictments are a ‘great badge of courage’

Republicans’ enduring loyalty to Donald Trump was on vivid display at a conservative conference this weekend, convened just two weeks after the former president was indicted on 37 federal charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents.

Addressing this year’s Road to Majority conference Saturday, Trump lashed out against federal prosecutors, who have accused the former president of intentionally withholding classified documents from authorities and obstructing justice in his efforts to keep those materials concealed. Trump, who could soon face additional charges in Washington and Georgia, told the friendly crowd that he considered each of his two indictments so far to be “a great badge of courage” as he ran to unseat Democratic incumbent Joe Biden.

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Wagner rebellion reveals ‘cracks’ in Putin government, says Blinken

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Secretary of state says mutiny may help Ukraine counteroffensive after Yevgeny Prigozhin calls off advance on Moscow

A day after renegade Wagner mercenaries almost sparked a civil war in Russia, the top US diplomat has said the uprising showed “real cracks” in Vladimir Putin’s government and may offer Ukraine a crucial advantage as it conducts a counteroffensive that could influence the outcome of the war.

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said the upheaval triggered by the aborted advance on Moscow by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenaries on Saturday was far from over. Neither Prigozhin nor Putin have been heard from since coming to a last-minute agreement on Saturday to avert clashes near Moscow between mercenaries and regular Russian troops.

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Harvard professor who studies honesty accused of falsifying data in studies

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Francesca Gino, a prominent Harvard Business School professor, allegedly has falsified results in behavioral science studies

In an ironic twist in the world of behavioral science, a Harvard professor who studies honesty has been accused of data fraud.

Over the last few weeks, allegations have surfaced against Francesca Gino, a prominent Harvard Business School (HBS) professor who has been accused of falsifying results in several behavioral science studies.

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