Category Archives: US News

Florida surgeon general’s Covid vaccine claims harm public, health agencies say

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‘Fueling vaccine hesitancy undermines effort’ to protect lives, warns letter to Dr Joseph Ladapo sent by FDA and CDC

US health agencies have sent a letter to the surgeon general of Florida, warning that his claims about Covid-19 vaccine risks are harmful to the public.

The letter was sent to Joseph Ladapo on Friday by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It was a response to a letter Ladapo wrote to the agencies last month, expressing concerns about what he described as adverse effects from Covid vaccines.

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Sunak heads to US to unveil latest news on Australian nuclear sub deal

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Latest phase of Aukus scheme comes amid concerns about growing threat from China

Rishi Sunak will fly to San Diego on Sunday to unveil plans for supplying Australia with nuclear-powered submarines under the Aukus scheme amid concerns about the growing threat from China.

A major announcement 18 months in the making is expected when the UK prime minister meets his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese, and US president Joe Biden.

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Michael Cohen to testify in Donald Trump hush-money investigation

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His appearance comes as the inquiry into the $130,000 the former president paid to Stormy Daniels comes to an end

Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer and intermediary in the Stormy Daniels hush-money affair, is scheduled to testify before a Manhattan grand jury on Monday about payments made to the adult film performer, according to a report on Saturday.

Cohen’s appearance before a grand jury convened by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg comes as prosecutors are believed to be nearing the end of an investigation into payments totaling $130,000 that Trump made to Daniels shortly before the 2016 election to stop her discussing their alleged affair.

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USD Coin value falls after revealing $3.3bn held at Silicon Valley Bank

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The stablecoin fell as low as $0.87 as Circle broke the news that its reserves were at the collapsed lender

The value of the world’s fifth-biggest cryptocurrency, USD Coin (USDC), slumped to an all-time low on Saturday after Circle, the US firm behind the coin, revealed that $3.3bn of the reserves backing it were held at Silicon Valley Bank.

USDC is a stablecoin – cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a stable value – USDC’s value is supposed to mimic the dollar. But the coin broke its 1:1 dollar peg and fell as low as $0.87 on Saturday morning.

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Biden denies reports that Alaska oil drilling project has been approved

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Signing off on the Willow plan would place the president’s political career in conflict with climate-minded Democrats

The Biden administration has denied reports that it has authorized a key oil drilling project on Alaska’s north slope, a highly contentious project that environmentalists argue would damage a pristine wilderness and gut White House commitments to combat climate crisis.

Late Friday, Bloomberg was first to report citing anonymous sources that senior Biden advisers had signed off on the project and formal approval would be made public by the Interior Department next week.

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Silicon Valley Bank chief pressed Congress to weaken risk regulations

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CEO Greg Becker personally led the bank’s half-million-dollar push to reduce scrutiny of his institution – and lawmakers obliged

This story was first published in the Lever

Eight years before the second-largest bank failure in American history occurred this week, the bank’s president personally pressed Congress to reduce scrutiny of his financial institution, citing the “low risk profile of our activities and business model”, according to federal records reviewed by the Lever.

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How a trip to Mexico for cosmetic surgery turned deadly for US quartet

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Deaths of two of four Americans kidnapped in Matamoros place spotlight on cartels’ impunity – and on medical tourism

Latavia “Tay” Washington McGee had scheduled an abdominal operation that many mothers have, and she chose to have the operation done in Mexico, where medical costs are cheaper – and where she had previously gone for other cosmetic procedures.

A cousin and a couple of friends joined her to share the 1,400-mile drive from her home town of Lake City, South Carolina, to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, just south of the US-Mexico frontier.

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Podcaster and husband allegedly killed by stalker in Washington state

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Zohreh Sadeghi, 33, and Mohammed Naseri, 35, found dead along with Texas trucker Ramin Khodakaramrezaei who died by suicide

A Texas truck driver allegedly broke into the home of a woman who hosted a podcast to which he listened and killed her as well as her husband before dying by suicide in what authorities are describing as a stalking case.

Authorities identified the victims as 33-year-old podcaster Zohreh Sadeghi and her husband Mohammed Naseri, 35, according to the Daily Beast. The suspect, meanwhile, is Ramin Khodakaramrezaei, a 38-year-old trucker.

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‘Poster child for nimbyism’: California sues city over lack of affordable housing

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State officials launch lawsuit against wealthy city of Huntington Beach to force it to build new homes

California officials are suing Huntington Beach, a wealthy coastal city lambasted by the state’s governor as the “poster child for nimbyism”, in an attempt to force it to build more affordable housing.

Defiant Huntington Beach officials have filed their own lawsuit in response, pledging to fight any attempt by the state to “urbanize” their affluent, majority-white community.

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Ron DeSantis visits Iowa as Republican 2024 race heats up – as it happened

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Joe Biden continues his attacks on the GOP’s far right wing. Following his remarks earlier on this month’s strong jobs figures, he’s taken to Twitter.

“Extreme Maga [Make America Great Again] House Republicans are showing us what they value: tax breaks for the rich. They demand the biggest Medicare benefits cut in decades, ship jobs overseas, defund law enforcement, devastate our national and border security. It’s a gut punch to the middle class,” the US president tweeted earlier this afternoon.

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California drenched as new atmospheric river brings thunderstorms and winds

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Several flood advisories issued as Governor Gavin Newsom declares states of emergency in 21 counties

There is no end in sight for California’s brutally wet winter as yet another atmospheric river storm collided with the state on Friday, bringing torrential downpours, thunderstorms and wind. The National Weather Service issued a slew of flash flood warnings and watches for already inundated areas from the San Francisco Bay, to the central coast and the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, with more stormy weather expected through the weekend.

Snow-covered mountain towns in the Sierra Nevada foothills braced for another round of heavy precipitation. So much snow has fallen across the ranges that residents are still struggling to dig out days after earlier storms; now, warmer rains are threatening more damage to towns and buildings by adding more weight to snow-heavy roofs that could cause them to crumple.

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Ron DeSantis visits Iowa as presidential bid speculation intensifies

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Rightwing governor of Florida – and most likely rival to Trump for the 2024 nomination – promotes his book in the early voting state

The Republican Ron DeSantis greeted fans in Iowa on Friday, marking the Florida governor’s first visit this election cycle to the early voting state and intensifying speculation over when he might announce his 2024 presidential bid.

DeSantis delivered remarks to a full crowd at a casino in Davenport on Friday morning, and later appeared in Des Moines with the governor of Iowa, Republican Kim Reynolds, to promote his new book, The Courage to be Free.

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Newark unveils Harriet Tubman memorial to replace Columbus statue

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Queen Latifah and Pia Wilson take part in celebration of abolitionist in New Jersey city

Newark’s Mayor Ras Baraka, community leaders and celebrities including the musician and actor Queen Latifah and writer Pia Wilson led celebrations of a new monument to the abolitionist Harriet Tubman this week. The ceremony was a historic final step in replacing a Christopher Columbus statute that was removed from a square in the New Jersey city following the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

Gone is an ode to Columbus, who engaged in the kidnapping, enslavement and killing of Indigenous people in the Caribbean. Instead is now a depiction of Tubman, a legendary racial justice activist. Known as the “Moses of her people”, Tubman, who escaped slavery herself, helped other enslaved people gain their freedom amid great danger, acting as what was known as a conductor of the Underground Railroad during the civil war.

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Silicon Valley Bank fails in largest bank collapse since 2008 crisis

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US regulators seize SVB’s assets after a run on the bank, as global institutions monitor situation closely

US regulators rushed to seize the assets of top tech lender Silicon Valley Bank on Friday after a run on the bank, marking the largest failure of such an institution since the height of the financial crisis more than a decade ago.

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the nation’s 16th largest bank, failed after depositors – mostly technology workers and venture capital-backed companies – hurried to withdraw their money this week as anxiety over the bank’s situation spread.

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Donald Trump Access Hollywood tape can be used in civil rape trial, judge rules

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E Jean Carroll can use tape of former president boasting of touching women’s genitals without consent in New York trial

The tape of Donald Trump boasting about sexual aggression towards women that detonated late in the 2016 election campaign but did not prevent him from winning the presidency will be permitted at a forthcoming civil trial in New York.

A federal judge ruled on Friday that the columnist E Jean Carroll can use the 2005 remarks by Trump, caught on tape in conversation with an Access Hollywood TV show personality, in support of her lawsuit accusing Trump of raping her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s.

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Canada: inquiry into police unit accused of excessive force against green activists

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Officers with C-IRG accused of ripping off protesters’ masks and pepper-spraying them during protest in British Columbia

Canada’s federal police force has opened an investigation into a controversial unit tasked with overseeing environmental protests, following hundreds of complaints that officers used excessive force, disregarded court orders and violated protesters’ rights.

The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission, a watchdog arm of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said on Thursday it would examine the activities of the community-industry response group, or C-IRG, based in British Columbia.

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Prosecutors seek to question Trump lawyer before grand jury in classified papers case

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Investigators are looking at invoking an exception that can bypass attorney-client privilege if legal advice is used for furthering crime

Federal prosecutors involved in the criminal investigation of Donald Trump’s retention of classified documents argued to a US judge on Thursday that one of the former US president’s lawyers should answer more questions before a grand jury over objections of attorney-client privilege.

US prosecutors have been seeking to invoke the so-called crime-fraud exception that allows them to compel testimony about communications between an attorney and a client when they have evidence to suggest legal advice was used in furtherance of a crime.

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Biden budget includes billions for Pacific islands in bid to ‘out-compete’ China

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Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau stand to benefit as White House warns of Beijing’s intent and ability to ‘reshape the international order’

Alarmed by China’s success in wooing Pacific island nations, the Biden administration is proposing to spend billions from its federal budget to keep three of those countries in the US orbit.

President Joe Biden’s spending plan, released on Thursday, includes more than $7.1bn in funding for the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau. The money is included in the $63.1bn request for the state department and the US Agency for International Development.

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California declares state of emergency as subtropical storm moves over state

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Governor has 21 counties under emergency orders while 16m people in the state are under flood watch warnings

An impending atmospheric river and rapidly melting snow has put communities across California on high alert for flash flooding, mudslides and rockslides as the subtropical storm surge moves over the state. Rivers and streams could also quickly rise beyond capacity and breach, the National Weather Service warned. Overall, some 16 million people are under flood watch warnings.

The state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has declared a state of emergency for 21 counties, including some mountain communities still digging themselves out from the snow. “The state is working around the clock with local partners to deploy life-saving equipment and first responders to communities across California,” Newsom said on Wednesday evening. “With more dangerous storms on the horizon, we’ll continue to mobilise every available resource to protect Californians.”

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Norfolk Southern’s call to burn derailed train cars ‘jaw-dropping’, Senate hears

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Local official tells panel of chaotic response Ohio derailment and operator’s chief executive makes first appearance before Congress

Norfolk Southern’s decision to call for the burning of five derailed train cars in East Palestine, Ohio, was “jaw-dropping” and a consequence of poor communication by the railroad, a local emergency management official told a Senate panel on Thursday.

Eric Brewer, director and chief of hazardous materials response for the emergency services department in Beaver county, Pennsylvania, just over the state line from East Palestine, described to the chamber’s environment and public works committee an initially chaotic response to the 3 February derailment.

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