Category Archives: US News

Bruce Willis diagnosed with dementia, family says

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Family of Die Hard and Pulp Fiction actor, 67, releases statement to share diagnosis following acting retirement owing to aphasia

Bruce Willis, who retired from acting last May as a result of aphasia, has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, his family announced on Thursday.

In a statement posted to the website for the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration, the Die Hard actor’s family – wife Emma Heming, ex-wife Demi Moore and daughters Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel and Evelyn – revealed Willis’s aphasia had progressed into a diagnosis of dementia. Problems with language and memory, which instigated rumors about his cognitive state and prompted his retirement in May 2022, are “just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces”, they wrote.

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Findings in Georgia Trump report could be enough to bring criminal charges

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The partial release of the grand jury report signals the investigation already contains legitimate evidence of perjury

The release of a portion of the Fulton county special purpose grand jury’s report marks a new step toward potential criminal charges holding Donald Trump and his allies accountable for election interference.

Georgia was crucial in the 2020 presidential election, providing a key victory for Joe Biden and drawing the intense focus of Trump and his backers.

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Virginia governor clears path for ‘extreme’ bill allowing police to seek menstrual histories

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Glenn Youngkin blocks bill passed in Democratic-led state senate to ban search warrants for menstrual data on tracking apps

The Republican governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, appears to have thwarted an attempt to stop law enforcement obtaining menstrual histories of women in the state.

A bill passed in the Democratic-led state senate, and supported by half the chamber’s Republicans, would have banned search warrants for menstrual data stored in tracking apps on mobile phones or other electronic devices.

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FBI searched University of Delaware in Biden documents investigation

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The justice department is looking into how classified documents came to be found in Joe Biden’s home and former office

The FBI searched the University of Delaware in recent weeks for classified documents as part of its investigation into the potential mishandling of sensitive government records by Joe Biden.

The search, first reported by CNN, was confirmed to the Associated Press by a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The person would not say whether anything was found.

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Pompeo says Israel has biblical claim to Palestine and is ‘not an occupying nation’

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Trump’s secretary of state makes comments on podcast to defend former administration siding more openly with Israel

Mike Pompeo, the former US secretary of state, has defended Israel’s decades-long control of the Palestinian territories by claiming that the Jewish state has a biblical claim to the land and is therefore not occupying it.

Pompeo told the One Decision podcast that his religious beliefs, US strategic interests and his view of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, as a “known terrorist” underpinned his support as the Trump administration’s top diplomat for the shift in US policy away from mediating a two-state solution and toward more openly siding with Israel.

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China claims US balloons flew over Tibet and Xinjiang as spying row rumbles on

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US deputy secretary of state says Beijing is claiming ‘a gazillion balloons by the US over China … That is absolutely not true’

Diplomatic friction has worsened between the United States and China after Beijing claimed, without evidence, that US high-altitude balloons flew over its Xinjiang and Tibet regions, and threatened unspecified measures against US entities for undermining Chinese sovereignty.

Washington and Beijing are locked in a tussle over flying objects after the US military this month shot down what it called a Chinese spy balloon over the coast of South Carolina. Beijing said it was a civilian research vehicle mistakenly blown off course, and that Washington overreacted.

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Ohio residents demand answers two weeks after toxic chemical train derailment

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Train operator Northern Southern failed to appear at community meeting in East Palestine, citing concern for their staff’s safety following disaster

Hundreds of residents of the Ohio village upended by a freight train derailment and the subsequent burning of some of the hazardous chemicals on board, have questioned officials over potential health hazards.

Norfolk Southern, the rail operator, did not join Wednesday night’s meeting in East Palestine – which was billed as an open house gathering with local, state and federal officials – because of concerns for their staff’s safety.

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One killed and three hurt in shooting at Texas mall near site of 2019 mass killing

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One person in custody after shooting in Cielo Vista shopping center, near Walmart where 23 people were killed in racist attack

Police in El Paso, Texas, say one person was killed and three other people were wounded in a shooting on Wednesday in a shopping mall.

One person has been taken into custody, El Paso police spokesperson Sgt Robert Gomez said. No immediate information was given about that person.

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US could default this summer unless $31.4tn debt ceiling is raised, CBO warns

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Historic federal debt default could occur before July, cautions non-partisan agency

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Wednesday said the US treasury department will exhaust its ability to pay all its bills sometime between July and September, unless the current $31.4tn cap on borrowing is raised or suspended.

In a report issued alongside its annual budget outlook, the non-partisan CBO cautioned that a historic federal debt default could occur before July if revenue flowing into the treasury in April – when most Americans typically submit annual income tax filings – lags expectations.

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Arizona highway closes after nitric acid leaks from tanker truck crash

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Residents near the deadly accident on Interstate 10 outside Tucson told to evacuate on Tuesday

The deadly crash of a commercial tanker truck caused hazardous material to leak onto Interstate 10 outside Tucson on Tuesday, shutting down the key highway through Arizona and forcing evacuations near the accident.

Residents within a half-mile (800 meters) were ordered to leave and those within a mile (1.6km) were told to shelter in place for several hours after liquid nitric acid was determined to be leaking from the tanker, the Arizona department of public safety said.

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Haunting new footage of Titanic wreckage to be released

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More than 80 minutes of rare and mostly unseen video was taken during pioneering 1986 expedition

Haunting new footage of the wreck of the RMS Titanic was set to be released on Wednesday, taken during the pioneering 1986 expedition that gave the first glimpses of the doomed ocean liner since its notorious sinking on its maiden voyage more than seven decades before.

The cache of more than 80 minutes of the rare and mostly unseen video comes from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) of Massachusetts, which partnered with French explorers in the discovery of the ship’s remains.

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Rats! New York mayor fined $300 over rodents at Brooklyn property

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Eric Adams gets split decision while spokesman says: ‘One decision is clear, however: the mayor still hates rats’

In the latest round of his long battle against rats, the New York mayor, Eric Adams, scored a split decision on Tuesday when a hearing officer dismissed one summons while upholding another citing Adams for not doing enough to keep rodents at bay at his Brooklyn townhouse.

Adams was fined $300. A spokesperson, Fabien Levy, said the mayor was “grateful” one summons was dismissed and would consider his options about the second.

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Republicans blocked gun reform laws a year before Michigan State shooting

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Democrats attempted to advance bills requiring secure storage of firearms and expanding background checks for gun buyers

Less than a year before a gunman attacked Michigan State University’s campus on Monday, killing three students and injuring five, Republican legislators in the state rejected an opportunity to change gun regulations.

In the aftermath of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, Michigan Democrats attempted to advance bills requiring secure storage of firearms and expanding background checks for gun buyers. Six months earlier, a shooting at Oxford high school near Detroit had also reinvigorated Democratic efforts to change Michigan gun laws. But the gun bills were blocked by Republicans, who controlled both chambers of the state legislature.

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One in 20 US homicides are committed by police – and the numbers aren’t falling

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Police killings of any sort account for nearly 5% of all homicides, with at least 1,192 people killed by law enforcement in 2022

In the US, an estimated one in 20 gun homicides are committed by police, as law enforcement killings have failed to decrease despite years of nationwide protests.

Law enforcement officers killed at least 1,192 people in 2022, the highest number recorded in a decade, according to Mapping Police Violence, a prominent non-profit database of police killings. More than 1,100 people were killed by the police in both 2020 and 2021. The vast majority of these deaths were police shootings.

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The hacking and disinformation team meddling in elections | First Thing

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Tal Hanan, the mastermind of the ‘Team Jorge’ unit, claims covert involvement in 33 presidential elections. Plus, the truth about caffeine

Good morning.

A team of Israeli contractors who claim to have manipulated more than 30 elections around the world using hacking, sabotage and automated disinformation on social media has been exposed in a new investigation.

How did undercover reporters catch “Team Jorge” disinformation operatives on camera? For more than six months, undercover reporters posed as consultants working on behalf of a businessman who wanted to delay an African election.

How does the unit spread disinformation? Advanced Impact Media Solutions, or Aims, which controls more than 30,000 fake social media profiles, can be used to spread disinformation at scale and at speed. It is sold by “Team Jorge”.

What’s happening in France? France’s most-watched news channel, the 24-hour BFMTV, has suspended one of its longest-serving presenters and launched an internal investigation into news packages linked to an Israeli disinformation unit calling itself “Team Jorge”.

What else did Whitmer say? “We know this is a uniquely American problem … Our children are scared to go to school. People feel unsafe in their houses of worship, or local stores. As parents, we tell our kids it’s going to be OK. But the truth is words are not good enough. We must act and we will.”

Who were the victims? They have been named as Alexandria Verner, Brian Fraser and Arielle Anderson. All three came from the suburban Detroit area.

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Chagos islanders must get full reparations for forced exile, says NGO

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Human Rights Watch also demands trial for ‘appalling colonial crime’ of expulsion – and continuing ill treatment – of Chagossians

The UK should pay full and unconditional reparations to generations affected by its forcible displacement of Chagos Islands inhabitants in the 1960s and 70s, an action that constituted a crime against humanity, Human Rights Watch has said.

The NGO said that individuals should be put on trial for the expulsion of Chagossians when the UK retained possession of what it refers to as British Indian Ocean Territory, or BIOT, after Mauritius gained independence in 1968.

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‘She exemplified kindness’: Michigan mourns three killed in campus shooting

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University students Alexandria Verner, Brian Fraser and Arielle Anderson were all from suburban Detroit area

One was a fraternity chapter president. Another was a science student with fond memories of her days as a high-school athlete, and the third was a frequent volunteer who wanted to become a surgeon.

Family and friends mourned the deaths of three Michigan State University students killed in a Monday night shooting that critically wounded five others.

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Three objects shot down after Chinese spy balloon may be benign, White House says

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Flying objects could be commercial- or research-linked, while US military admits first shot at object over Lake Huron missed

Three unidentified objects shot down by US fighter jets since Friday may turn out to be balloons connected to “benign” commercial or research efforts, a White House official said on Tuesday.

The US has not found any evidence to connect the objects to China’s balloon surveillance program nor to any other country’s spy program, national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, told reporters.

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Missouri man freed after serving nearly three decades in prison for 1994 murder

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Lamar Johnson, convicted to life for the killing, was released after judge found ‘reliable evidence of actual innocence’

A Missouri judge on Tuesday overturned the conviction of a man who has served nearly 28 years of a life sentence for a killing that he has always said he didn’t commit.

Lamar Johnson, 50, closed his eyes and shook his head slightly as a member of his legal team patted him on the back when Judge David Mason issued his ruling. In coming to his decision, Mason explained that there had to be “reliable evidence of actual innocence – evidence so reliable that it actually passes the standard of clear and convincing”.

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Biden drops candidate’s nomination to human rights post over Israel remarks

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Professor says his selection was dropped for describing Israel as an ‘apartheid state’ and accusing Jeffries of being ‘bought’ by Aipac

The Biden administration has withdrawn the nomination of a leading law professor to an international human rights post, for describing Israel as an “apartheid state” and accusing the top Democrat in Congress of being “bought” by pro-Israel groups.

James Cavallaro, of Wesleyan and Yale universities, said he was told by the US state department on Tuesday it had dropped his selection to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) “due to my statements denouncing apartheid in Israel/Palestine”.

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