Category Archives: US News

Jeffrey Epstein allegedly tried to extort Bill Gates over extramarital affair

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Convicted sexual offender reportedly threatened to expose Gates’s relationship with Russian bridge player Mila Antonova

The convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein appeared to threaten Bill Gates and tried to blackmail the multi-billionaire over his extramarital affair with a Russian bridge player, according to a new report published by the Wall Street Journal.

Speaking to the Journal, sources familiar with the matter said that after Epstein found out about the Microsoft co-founder’s affair with Russian bridge player Mila Antonova, he threatened Gates into reimbursing him for tuition costs that Epstein had initially covered for Antonova to attend software coding school.

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Trans girl denied graduation ceremony after US school’s dress-code ruling

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ACLU says verdict of federal judge not to reverse decision in Gulfport, Mississippi is ‘as disappointing as it is absurd’

A transgender girl in Mississippi did not participate in her high school graduation ceremony Saturday because school officials told her to dress like a boy and a federal judge did not block the officials’ decision, an attorney for the girl’s family said.

Linda Morris, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Women’s Rights Project, said the ruling handed down late Friday by federal judge Taylor McNeel in the Mississippi city of Gulfport “is as disappointing as it is absurd”.

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Zelenskiy secures fresh US military aid at G7 as Russia hails ‘liberation’ of Bakhmut

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Joe Biden says US doing everything possible to strengthen Ukraine’s defences in war with Russia

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has secured fresh military aid from the US during a day of frantic diplomatic activity at the G7 summit, as Russia claimed a battlefield victory in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

Joe Biden announced military assistance worth up to $375m (£300m) to Kyiv, telling Zelenskiy the US was doing everything possible to strengthen Ukraine’s defences in its war with Russia.

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New York Christian university fires two staff for including pronouns in emails – reports

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Former employees at Houghton University say administrators claimed pronouns in signatures violated new school policy

A New York Christian university terminated two employees for putting pronouns in their respective email signatures, these former workers allege, according to reports.

Raegan Zelaya and Shua Wilmot, who were residence hall directors at Houghton University, said that administrators told them to take the words “she/her” and “he/him” off of their email signatures.

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US rapper Post Malone helps Scottish musician fund downpayment for house

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Local musician Gregor Hunter Coleman was playing in Glasgow pub when star made ‘life-changing’ offer

The US rapper Post Malone helped a Scottish musician fund the downpayment for his first home, according to reports.

The Sunflower crooner’s viral, widely reported act of kindness unfolded at a pub in Glasgow, Scotland, named Wunderbar last week. Post Malone walked into the bar while Gregor Hunter Coleman, an area musician, was playing, BBC Scotland reported.

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Australia, India, Japan and US take thinly veiled swipe at China

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Beijing clearly target of joint statement by Quad group calling for ‘stability in Indo-Pacific maritime domain’

The leaders of the Quad group – Australia, India, Japan and the United States – delivered a thinly veiled swipe at Beijing’s behaviour on Saturday at a summit in Hiroshima.

The US president, Joe Biden, and his three partners in the group did not mention China by name but the communist superpower was clearly the target of language in a joint statement calling for “peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific maritime domain”.

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Viral story of migrants displacing unhoused veterans from hotels turns out to be false

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Leader of non-profit organization accused of fabricating stories about veterans being kicked out of hotels in upstate New York

Recent reports about how migrants displaced unhoused veterans from upstate New York hotels have turned out to be false after circulating widely among rightwing media outlets.

In an odd saga involving apparently altered receipts and paid unhoused actors, the chief executive of Yerik Israel Toney Foundation (YIT) – a non-profit organization focused on housing military veterans – has been accused of fabricating stories about unhoused veterans getting kicked out of hotels to make space for migrants.

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Providing Ukraine with F-16 jets a ‘colossal risk’ for west, Russia says

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Warning comes after Joe Biden said US would back joint effort to train Ukrainian pilots to fly fighter jets

Providing Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets would be a “colossal risk” for western nations, a senior Russian minister has warned, as Washington and London reasserted their commitment to equipping the embattled nation with the military hardware it needs.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has been pushing western allies to supply the jets for months, with Downing Street saying on Saturday that the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, had again discussed the matter with him at the G7 summit in Japan.

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Boy who saved sister by hitting would-be kidnapper with slingshot speaks: ‘I had to’

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Owen Burns, 13, says he grabbed the closest thing after he heard his eight-year-old sister’s screams in Alpena Township, Michigan

A Michigan boy who recently channeled his inner David and warded off his sister’s hulking, would-be kidnapper by shooting him with a slingshot has said he grabbed the unconventional weapon because he was “freaking out” at the unfolding danger and it was the closest thing.

“It just felt like I was scared, and I had … to do” something, 13-year-old Owen Burns told CNN on Friday. “Cause if I didn’t … she would’ve been taken away or … worse.”

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Family of teen shooter who killed three says he struggled with mental illness

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New Mexico 18-year-old killed three women and injured six others in mass shooting on Monday in Farmington

The family of an 18-year-old high school student who took three of more than a dozen guns to which he had access and killed three elderly women without provocation in New Mexico on Monday has claimed he was struggling with his mental health before the attack.

The shooter, who was armed with at least three guns and wore body armor before police killed him, “was fighting a battle of mental illness that he lost”, his family asserted on Friday in a statement, according to the Albuquerque Journal.

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Atlanta politicians face pressure to vote against giving $31m to ‘Cop City’

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City council to vote on giving taxpayer money to controversial project as state characterizes opposition as work of ‘terrorists’

Pressure is growing on Atlanta politicians to vote against giving $31m to a police and fire department training center known as “Cop City”, even as the state continues to characterize opposition to the project as the work of “terrorists”, and the city’s mayor doubles down on the notion it is needed for “public safety”.

Atlanta’s city council will soon vote on giving taxpayer money to the controversial scheme, which is months behind schedule due to protests. The Atlanta Police Foundation, the organization behind it, is also apparently coming up short in sought-after $60m in corporate funding.

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Mother of girl who died in US border patrol custody says agents ignored her

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Mabel Alvarez Benedicks says eight-year-old daughter ‘cried and begged for her life’ but did not receive hospital care for influenza

The mother of an eight-year-old girl who died in US border patrol custody said on Friday that agents repeatedly ignored pleas to hospitalize her medically fragile daughter as she felt pain in her bones, struggled to breathe and was unable to walk.

Agents said her daughter’s diagnosis of influenza did not require hospital care, Mabel Alvarez Benedicks said in an emotional phone interview. They knew the girl had a history of heart problems and sickle cell anemia.

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Joe Biden apologises to Anthony Albanese after cancelling Sydney Quad meeting at last minute

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US president and Australian prime minister launch joint initiative to accelerate transition to clean energy

The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has met the US president, Joe Biden, on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Japan and signed an agreement to advance climate and clean energy action.

Albanese is holding a round of key talks at the G7 summit as some of the world’s most powerful leaders convene, with a rescheduled Quad meeting on the agenda.

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Debt ceiling talks briefly resume as US default deadline creeps closer

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Janet Yellen, the treasury secretary, has said that without action the US will cease to be able to pay its debts around 1 June

Negotiations for a deal to raise the US debt ceiling and thereby avoid a default with potentially catastrophic consequences for the world economy briefly resumed Friday before concluding with no progress cited by either side.

Republicans had returned to the bipartisan talks with the White House on Friday evening, hours after negotiations had come to an abrupt stop earlier in the day.

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FBI broke own rules in January 6 and BLM intelligence search, court finds

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Critics decry ‘egregious’ abuse after Fisa court shows repeated violations related to vast foreign intelligence database

FBI officials repeatedly violated their own standards when they searched a vast repository of foreign intelligence for information related to the January 6 insurrection and racial justice protests in 2020, according court order released Friday.

FBI officials said the thousands of violations, which also include improper searches of donors to a congressional campaign, predated a series of corrective measures that started in the summer of 2021 and continued last year. But the problems could nonetheless complicate FBI and justice department efforts to receive congressional reauthorization of a warrantless surveillance program that law enforcement officials say is needed to counter terrorism, espionage and international cybercrime.

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LA Pride pulls out of Dodgers’ Pride Night after drag nun group is disinvited

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The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a non-profit order of queer and trans ‘nuns’, were left out after objection from conservatives

LA Pride has pulled out of an annual Pride Night hosted by the Dodgers after the team disinvited a non-profit drag group from the event.

Earlier this week, the Los Angeles Dodgers rescinded an invitation to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a well-known San Francisco order of queer and trans ‘nuns’ that has existed since the 1970s, amid opposition from conservative Catholics. The group, which does does charitable and protest work in addition to its street drag show performances, was set to receive an award during a ceremony before a 16 June game against the San Francisco Giants.

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Nebraska legislature passes 12-week abortion ban after bitter struggle

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Draft law, which governor has promised to sign, also puts restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors

The Nebraska state legislature on Friday approved a 12-week abortion ban and restrictions on gender-affirming care for children in a move so contentious that lawmakers on both sides have said they may be unable to work together in the future.

Conservative lawmakers wrangled just enough votes to end a filibuster and pass a bill with both measures. The Republican governor, Jim Pillen, who pushed for the bill and met with various lawmakers to shore up support, has promised to sign it into law.

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Ex-chief of Brazil’s Indigenous agency charged over murders of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips

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Marcelo Xavier accused of indirectly contributing on the grounds that he failed to take steps to protect workers in Amazon

Federal police have brought criminal charges against the former head of Brazil’s Indigenous protection agency for alleged acts of omission they believe indirectly paved the way for the murders of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips in the Amazon last year.

Brazil’s former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro made Marcelo Xavier the head of the Indigenous agency Funai in July 2019, six months into his environmentally devastating four-year administration.

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Indigenous nation in US seeks to block billion-dollar port project in Canada

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Lummi Nation in Washington state says it holds transboundary rights and that Canada has failed to ‘consult and accommodate’

A tribal nation in the United States is seeking to block approval for a multibillion dollar port expansion in Canada, arguing that it holds transboundary rights and should have been included in consultation process.

The effort to block approval of a controversial new container terminal project in Vancouver marks the first major attempt to use a recent landmark decision by the Canadian supreme court, which found that some Indigenous peoples living in the US have rights in Canada.

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Hyundai and Kia settle lawsuit worth $200m over vehicle theft due to TikTok

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A trend on the app, which started spreading in 2021, challenged users to steal cars made by the automakers using a USB cable

Hyundai and Kia have agreed to settle a consumer class-action lawsuit worth $200m over rampant thefts of the vehicles because of a TikTok trend.

In February, the Korean automakers said they would offer software upgrades to 8.3m US vehicles to help curb a stark increase in thefts using a method popularized on TikTok and other social media channels.

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