Category Archives: US News

WHO calls on US to share information on Covid-19 origins after China lab claims

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World Health Organization’s director general says the politicisation of research into Covid’s origins was making the scientific work harder

The World Health Organization has urged all countries to reveal what they know about the origins of Covid-19, after claims from several US government agencies that a Chinese lab leak was behind the disease were furiously denied by Beijing.

“If any country has information about the origins of the pandemic, it’s essential for that information to be shared with WHO and the international scientific community,” the WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Friday.

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Singin’ the coups: Donald Trump releases single with January 6 prisoners

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Former president drops charity song on streaming sites recorded with men imprisoned for their role in attack on US Capitol

Donald Trump has released a charity single, recorded with a choir of men held in a Washington DC prison for their parts in the deadly January 6 insurrection he incited.

On Friday, Justice for All by Donald J Trump and the J6 Prison Choir was available on streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.

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Trump rival Nikki Haley seeks support from Republicans ‘tired of losing’

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Ex-UN ambassador and 2024 contender presents herself as face of ‘new generation’ in pitch to CPAC crowd still wedded to Trump

The Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley ventured on to Donald Trump’s stomping grounds on Friday, seeking support from rank-and-file Republicans who are “tired of losing”.

In remarks to a half-full ballroom at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Haley presented herself as the face of a “new generation” of Republican leaders, making her pitch to a crowd still overwhelmingly loyal to Trump, her 76-year-old former boss and rival for the party’s nomination..

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Midwest and north-east US brace for powerful storm and possible tornadoes

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Storm system leaves thousands without power in Texas and Louisiana and is heading east toward New England

A relatively powerful storm system headed east on Friday threatened the midwest and north-east US with heavy snow after spawning likely tornadoes in Texas and Louisiana which damaged homes, businesses, a university campus and left thousands without power.

The Tennessee and Ohio valleys are bracing for high winds and potential tornadoes as the storms roll on toward New England, according to officials.

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Joe Biden meets Olaf Scholz in effort to keep Ukraine strategies aligned

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German chancellor’s working visit to the White House focuses on continuing support for Kyiv

Joe Biden has hailed Olaf Scholz for Germany’s “critical military support” for Ukraine, acknowledging in a White House meeting that, in the face of stiff domestic political resistance, such backing had been “very difficult” for the chancellor.

The meeting of the US and German leaders on Friday comes shortly after the first anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and at a time when both are facing political challenges to their efforts to maintain the flow of military and economic support to Kyiv.

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FBI grilled Leonardo DiCaprio over ties to Malaysian fugitive financier – report

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Files show actor had relationship with Jho Low, on the run over links to 1MDB scandal, and Kim Kardashian was also interviewed

New details have emerged of the actor Leonardo DiCaprio’s ties to Jho Low, the Malaysian financier turned fugitive currently wanted by international authorities over his links to one of the world’s largest corruption scandals.

On Thursday, Bloomberg revealed previously undisclosed details from FBI documents in which authorities interviewed DiCaprio in 2018 about his relationship with Low, who is accused of involvement in a money-laundering scheme of over $4.5bn being siphoned from the Malaysian state investment fund, also known as 1MDB.

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CPAC: Nikki Haley calls out Republicans’ failure to win voters’ confidence – as it happened

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2024 contender points out in speech the party has lost popular vote in seven of last eight presidential elections

Politico has the scoop on a policy proposal of sorts from Donald Trump, in his run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

The former president, who of course made his name in real estate, wants to hold a contest to design and build “up to 10 new ‘Freedom Cities’, built from the ground up on federal land”.

… an investment in the development of vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicles; the creation of ‘hives of industry’ sparked by cutting off imports from China; and a population surge sparked by ‘baby bonuses’ to encourage would-be-parents to get on with procreation.

It is all, his team says, part of a larger nationwide beautification campaign meant to inspire forward-looking visions of America’s future.

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UK chip designer Arm chooses US-only listing in blow to Rishi Sunak

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PM had held talks with firm’s owner SoftBank in effort to make London first choice for tech flotations

The Cambridge-based chip designer Arm is to pursue a US-only listing this year, dealing a major blow to Rishi Sunak’s ambitions to make London the first choice for tech company flotations.

The company, which is owned by the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, confirmed its preferred plan of seeking a US-only main listing later this year, spurning the UK despite heavy lobbying by successive prime ministers.

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Alex Murdaugh found guilty of murder of wife and son

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South Carolina lawyer, 54, to be sentenced on Friday after jury returns guilty verdict following three hours of deliberation

Richard “Alex” Murdaugh has been found guilty of the murders of wife Maggie and son Paul, after a six-week televised trial that culminated with the defendant unexpectedly taking the stand to plead his innocence.

The jury returned with the verdict after three hours of deliberation. Murdaugh was found guilty on two counts of murder and two weapons-related charges.

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First Thing: Alex Murdaugh found guilty of murder of wife and son

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Verdict in case of prominent South Carolina lawyer accused of 2021 double homicide. Plus, scientists discover how whale got voice

Good morning.

Richard “Alex” Murdaugh has been found guilty of the murders of wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, after a six-week televised trial that culminated with the defendant unexpectedly taking the stand to plead his innocence.

Prosecutors said Murdaugh sought to distract from his financial crimes. The 54-year-old had been held in jail in South Carolina since October 2021 on felony counts of fraud, after millions of dollars went missing from a settlement involving the death of a housekeeper.

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Steven Spielberg says antisemitism today is ‘standing proud with hands on hips like Hitler’

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The director, whose Oscar-nominated film The Fabelmans depicts the racial abuse he faced in the 60s, said he was very surprised by its current resurgence

Steven Spielberg has spoken out about his impression of the current levels of antisemitism in the US.

Speaking on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Spielberg was asked whether the abuse faced in 1960s California by the young Jewish hero of his new film, autobiographical drama The Fabelmans, was something he recognised today.

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Covid was top line-of-duty death for US police for third year running in 2022

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Report shows pace has slowed, however, with 70 law enforcement deaths recorded in the line of duty

Covid was the top cause of death in the line of duty for American law enforcement for the third year in a row in 2022, according to a recent report, though the pace has slowed.

When the pandemic first hit, many law enforcement officers did what they could to lower the risks of catching Covid-19 – taking some reports over the phone rather than in person, trying to limit contact within departments and with the public.

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Leaked audio reveals US rail workers were told to skip inspections as Ohio crash prompts scrutiny to industry

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Exclusive: employee says manager told her to stop marking cars for repair, as Ohio derailment brings hard look at industry’s record of blocking safety rules

In leaked audio heard by the Guardian, a manager for one of the US’s largest rail companies can be heard explaining to a former carman that they should stop tagging railcars for broken bearings. The manager says doing so delays other cargo.

The disclosure comes as federal agencies investigate the derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. A wheel-bearing failure was cited as the cause of the crash in a preliminary report released by the National Transportation Safety Board.

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House ethics committee opens investigation into George Santos – live

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Subcommittee will look into alleged campaign violations and sexual misconduct by Republican who admitted to lying

The question of Joe Biden‘s 2024 plans hangs over the issues conference, as Democrats wait to see when the president will officially announce his reelection campaign.

Biden declined to make those plans official last night as he spoke at the conference, but repeatedly expressed the need to “finish the job that needs to be done”.

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Republican sorry for suggesting ‘hanging by a tree’ as execution method

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Tennessee lawmaker Paul Sherrell faced fierce criticism for ‘grotesque suggestion’ in southern state with history of lynchings

A Tennessee Republican lawmaker apologised after suggesting “hanging by a tree” could be added to a bill concerning methods of execution in the state.

Paul Sherrell, a state representative from Sparta, made the suggestion on Tuesday, during discussion of an amendment which would allow execution by firing squad in Tennessee.

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House ethics committee announces investigation into George Santos

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Bipartisan panel will look into alleged misconduct by Republican congressman who has admitted to lying about his résumé

The House ethics committee has opened an investigation into George Santos, the Republican lawmaker who admitted to lying about his résumé in his campaign to represent part of New York City’s suburbs in Congress’s lower chamber.

A bipartisan statement from the committee’s GOP chair, Michael Guest, and the Democratic ranking member, Susan Wild, said the panel voted to create a subcommittee to look into alleged misconduct by Santos.

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Native Hawaiians to be sentenced for hate crime attack on white man

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Christopher Kunzelman was renovating a home in a village on Maui in 2014 when the men referred to him as ‘haole’ and beat him

In a case that reflects Hawaii’s nuanced and complicated relationship with race, two Native Hawaiian men are scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday for a federal hate crime in the brutal beating of a white man who tried to move into their remote traditional fishing village.

A jury convicted Kaulana Alo-Kaonohi and Levi Aki Jr in November, finding that they were motivated by Christopher Kunzelman’s race when they punched, kicked and used a shovel to beat him in 2014. His injuries included a concussion, two broken ribs and head trauma.

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Unprecedented snowfall on US west coast is ‘once-in-a-generation’ event

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California governor declares state of emergency in 13 counties while Portland, Oregon, sees second snowiest day in history

The west coast of the US, from Oregon to the mountains of California and the golf courses of Phoenix, has received nearly unprecedented levels of snowfall this week in what officials are calling a “once-in-a-generation” event.

The mountainous regions of California have received so much snowfall – more than 40ft of snow since the start of the season – that entire towns have shut down as they are virtually cut off from the rest of the state. The governor has declared a state of emergency in 13 counties due to the unusual snowfall.

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Starbucks condemned for ‘intimidation’ of US union organizers

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Bernie Sanders moves to summon chief executive Howard Schultz to Senate committee to explain repeated anti-union violations

Starbucks is under fire over the company’s response to unionization efforts as senator Bernie Sanders threatens to call its chief executive before his committee on alleged labor violations and staff petition for it to end “intimidation” of organizers.

Sanders, chairman of the Senate health, education, labor and pensions (Help) committee, announced on Wednesday that the committee will be voting on whether to issue a subpoena to compel the Starbucks chief, Howard Schultz, to testify about Starbuck’s federal labor law violations, and to authorize a committee investigation into labor-law violations committed by major corporations.

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Russia accuses west at G20 of blackmail and claims it has China’s support

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Stormy meeting in Delhi breaks up without joint statement as west and Moscow spar over Ukraine

Russia has accused the west of blackmail and threats and claimed it had China’s support for its position at a stormy meeting of G20 foreign ministers in India, dominated by the war in Ukraine.

The event broke up with no joint communique, only a summary of the meeting prepared by the host, India, the group’s current chair.

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