Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie announces 2024 presidential run – as it happened

House Republicans say they plan to vote on holding FBI director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress for declining to turn over a document outlining an unverified allegation of corruption against Joe Biden.

As the Associated Press reports, Republican House oversight committee chair James Comer along with GOP senator Chuck Grassley last month said they had heard the FBI possesses a document detailing “an alleged criminal scheme” “relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions” between a foreign national and Biden when he was vice-president. While Comer and other Republicans have played up the allegation, they haven’t offered any proof to substantiate it.

Three months before saboteurs bombed the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline, the Biden administration learned from a close ally that the Ukrainian military had planned a covert attack on the undersea network, using a small team of divers who reported directly to the commander in chief of the Ukrainian armed forces.

Details about the plan, which have not been previously reported, were collected by a European intelligence service and shared with the CIA in June 2022. They provide some of the most specific evidence to date linking the government of Ukraine to the eventual attack in the Baltic Sea, which U.S. and Western officials have called a brazen and dangerous act of sabotage on Europe’s energy infrastructure.

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US judge hears rightwing thinktank’s challenge over Prince Harry visa

Heritage Foundation, which claims duke may have lied about past drug use on application, wants US government to release records

A federal judge has given the US government a week to decide how to respond to a rightwing thinktank that alleges Prince Harry may have lied about past drug use on his visa application.

The Duke of Sussex moved to southern California with his wife, Meghan Markle, an American citizen, and their young family in 2020 after they left British royal life and embarked on new projects, including the release of his memoir, Spare in January.

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Family furious after coroner says death of Tasered man is ‘unexplained’

Keenan Anderson’s cousin and BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors disappointed at ‘gaslighting’ from coroner

The Los Angeles county coroner on Friday released the official autopsy of a man who died after being repeatedly Tased and restrained by Los Angeles police officers, declaring the manner of death to be “undetermined”, a conclusion that has sparked outrage from advocates and his family.

Keenan Anderson died on 3 January after LAPD officers held him down while responding to a traffic accident. Anderson was repeatedly Tased, and he yelled “they’re trying to kill me” before he became unconscious. He suffered a fatal heart attack at a hospital four hours later.

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Richer people pay more: California’s dramatic change to electricity bills

Some higher-income residents – who already enjoy subsidies for solar – oppose paying more than low-income households

California will soon become the first state to determine residents’ electricity fees based on their income as part of a new effort to spur households toward full electrification and bring down the state’s soaring electricity costs for low-income Californians.

Electricity bills are made up of fixed costs as well as fees that vary based on the amount of electricity residents use. Last year, the state passed a law giving the California public utilities commission a 1 July 2024 deadline to determine a fixed charge for household electric bills based on people’s income.

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‘Forget all the excuses’: Arnold Schwarzenegger expresses regret over groping claims

In the forthcoming documentary Arnold, the actor says of the historical allegations that ‘it doesn’t really matter what time it is … it was wrong’

Arnold Schwarzenegger has revisited historical allegations of groping in a new documentary series about his life and career.

In 2003, shortly before his re-election as governor of California, the Los Angeles Times published a report detailing claims of groping by six women across three decades.

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Black woman in Florida fatally shot through front door by white neighbor

Ajike ‘AJ’ Owens killed after allegedly trying to retrieve iPad taken from her child, while shooter has not been arrested or charged

A Black mother of four in Florida was killed by a white neighbor who shot her through a front door as the victim attempted to retrieve an iPad taken from her child, civil rights attorney Ben Crump has said.

In a Twitter post on Monday, Crump said the death of Ajike “AJ” Owens, 35, at a housing complex in Ocala on Friday evening was an “unjust killing” and lamented that the shooter had not been arrested or charged.

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Son of late CIA director cautions against far-right extremism in the US

In 1945, then OSS agent Richard Helms sent son a letter on Hitler’s stationery saying ‘there can be nothing that’s worse’ than Nazism

A man who was three years old when his father – an American intelligence operator – sent him a letter on a vanquished Adolf Hitler’s stationery has declared himself disgusted by US extremist groups who still admire the former Nazi ruler.

“Those people have no idea – the history and foulness of that,” Dennis Helms, the son of the late Richard Helms, the CIA director from 1966 to 1973, said of the presence of neo-Nazis and antisemitism in the US. “There can be nothing that’s worse … I can’t say enough bad about that.”

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Hollywood actors union overwhelmingly votes to strike if talks fail with studios

Sag-Aftra president Fran Drescher tells more than 60,000 union members she is proud of them

Actors represented by the Hollywood union Sag-Aftra have overwhelmingly voted to strike if they don’t agree on a new contract with major studios, streamers and production companies by 30 June.

On Monday 65,000 members of the guild, which represents more than 160,000 screen actors, broadcast journalists, announcers, hosts and stunt performers, voted, with 98% supporting a strike if negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) fail.

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Wolverine spotted for the second time ever in California in the last 100 years

While wolverines are native to California, they’ve been essentially extinct from the state since the 1920s

A wolverine was spotted three times last month in the eastern Sierra Nevada, a rare occurrence for an animal that’s only been seen one other time in California over the last 100 years, state wildlife officials said.

While wolverines are native to California, they’ve been essentially extinct from the state since the 1920s – likely the result of hunting and fur trapping in the decades following the gold rush, though records from the time don’t indicate what exactly caused the population to decline.

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Tim Scott booed by audience on The View for defending Ron DeSantis

Republican presidential candidate sided with the Florida governor claiming children were being ‘indoctrinated’ about LGBTQ+ issues

Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott was booed by a television audience – and rescued by Whoopi Goldberg – after he defended Florida governor Ron DeSantis and claimed American children were being “indoctrinated” regarding LGBTQ+ issues.

The South Carolina senator, 57, also accused hosts of ABC’s The View of voicing a “dangerous, offensive, disgusting message to send to our young people today”, in contending that his success is an exception in a systemically racist society.

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Mike Pence officially enters 2024 US presidential race, pitting himself against former boss Donald Trump – as it happened

Former vice president filed papers on Monday; Democrats criticise Haley on abortion stance after CNN town hall

Donald Trump’s lawyers are at the justice department today to argue to top officials that the former president should not be charged over the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago, the Washington Post reports.

The attorneys at the meeting include John Rowley and James Trusty, who last month sent a letter to attorney general Merrick Garland, asking for a meeting and complaining about the investigation into Trump, which is led by special counsel Jack Smith.

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Cryptocurrency exchange Binance hits back at SEC lawsuit, saying allegations ‘simply wrong’ – as it happened

This blog is now closed. You can read the full report here: Binance accused of mishandling funds

Here’s a quick summary of what happened today:

The US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange, the most serious action taken by US regulators against the company.

The SEC said that Binance operated a shell company, Binance.US, to skirt federal regulators, along with diverting customer funds to outside entities.

Binance issued a response to the SEC’s lawsuit saying that it had been complying with regulators’ “questions” and was looking to negotiate a settlement with the agency.

In the aftermath of news of the complaint, the price of Bitcoin fell below $26,000 for the first time since March.

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Newsom threatens kidnapping charges after Florida dumps migrants at church

Governor tweets ‘You small, pathetic man … Kidnapping charges?’, directed at DeSantis after migrants left outside Sacramento church

California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, on Monday branded his rightwing Republican Florida counterpart, Ron DeSantis, a “small, pathetic man”, and appeared to threaten kidnapping charges for an episode in which a group of migrants was dumped at a Sacramento church.

Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general, said in a statement that 16 South Americans abandoned outside the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento on Friday were “in possession of documentation purporting to be from the state of Florida”, and may have been duped into boarding charter flights via New Mexico after entering the US in Texas.

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Cornel West announces US presidential campaign with the People’s party

The 70-year-old activist, intellectual and democratic socialist said on Twitter that he will be a candidate for the 2024 contest

Cornel West, the 70-year-old activist and public intellectual, announced on Monday that he is running for president in the 2024 election as a candidate for the People’s party. West made the announcement in a video posted to Twitter, saying that he had “decided to run for truth and justice”.

“I come from a tradition where I care about you,” West said. “I care about the quality of your life, I care about whether you have access to a job with a living wage, decent housing, women having control over their bodies, healthcare for all.”

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Trump-era officials under fire as nuclear fund for Bikini islanders is squandered

Former staff have criticized the interior department for ignoring the risk of fraud after the Trump administration ceased scrutiny of a $59m fund for nuclear survivors, which is now depleted

Former staff have lashed the US Department of the Interior for failing to predict that a 2017 decision to lift oversight from a $59m trust fund for Pacific Islanders displaced by American nuclear testing would lead to the fund’s exhaustion through mismanagement and alleged fraud.

Tom Bussanich, who in 2017 was a senior official in the department’s Office of Insular Affairs, said that he “would have bet money that there would have been issues with the trust fund and that the money would have been wasted”. Allen Stayman, a former director of the Office of Insular Affairs, dismissed the office as “the agency of acquiescence”.

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Saudi Arabia warns Snapchat users that ‘insulting’ regime is a criminal offense

Users of the social media app have faced legal consequences for posts – some private – that are critical of Saudi authorities

Saudi state media issued an explicit warning that it is a criminal offense to “insult” authorities using social media apps such as Snapchat, the California-based messaging app whose chief executive recently forged a new “cooperation” deal with the kingdom’s culture ministry.

The threat – which was originally televised in April and then deleted – has gained new resonance as more cases emerge in which Snapchat users and influencers in the kingdom have been arrested by authorities and, in some cases, sentenced to decades-long prison sentences.

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Barbie film required so much pink paint it contributed to worldwide shortage

The film’s production designer Sarah Greenwood says ‘the world ran out of pink’ during construction of Barbieland and lifesize versions of the doll’s Dreamhouse

Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Barbie film required so much pink paint during construction that it wiped out an entire company’s global supply.

Speaking to Architectural Digest, Gerwig and the film’s production designer Sarah Greenwood, spoke about the construction of Barbieland, which is almost entirely fluorescent pink, from the lifesize versions of the doll’s famous “Dreamhouse” to the roads and lamp-posts.

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US jets pursue light aircraft over Washington DC before it crashes in Virginia

The fighter jets caused a sonic boom over the US capital that sent some residents into a brief panic

US authorities scrambled fighter jets to intercept an unresponsive light aircraft that violated the airspace over the Washington DC area and later crashed into mountainous terrain in south-west Virginia, officials have said.

Four people were onboard the Cessna Citation plane, according to CNN, which cited an unnamed source. Police said rescuers had found no survivors onboard the plane.

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Directors union reaches tentative deal with Hollywood studios as writers strike

Agreement comes as writers remain on strike and actors are currently holding a strike authorization vote

The Directors Guild of America (DGA) which represents film and television directors announced late on Saturday that it had reached a tentative agreement with Hollywood’s major studios, averting a possible work stoppage.

The development comes as Hollywood writers are currently on strike and actors represented by the Sag-Aftra union are currently holding a strike authorization vote.

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Bowel cancer patients could be spared radiotherapy, US study suggests

Doctors found some patients could rely on chemotherapy and surgery alone to treat the disease

Thousands of bowel cancer patients could be spared radiotherapy, a study suggests, after doctors discovered they could rely on chemotherapy and surgery alone to treat their disease.

Radiotherapy has been used to treat bowel cancer patients for decades, but the side-effects can be brutal. It can cause problems that negatively affect quality of life, including infertility, the need for a temporary colostomy, diarrhoea, cramping and bladder problems.

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