Category Archives: US News

‘Reckless’: Fury among rights groups as Facebook lifts Trump ban

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Civil rights groups voice anger at ‘unethical’ decision, while others say the public has an interest in hearing directly from candidates for political office

The news that Meta will allow Donald Trump back on Facebook and Instagram following a two-year ban has been met with fury and indignation among civil rights and online safety advocates.

The former US president will be allowed to return to the platforms “in coming weeks” but “with new guardrails in place to deter repeat offences”, Meta’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, wrote in a blogpost explaining the decision on Wednesday.

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Justin Roiland dropped from two more TV shows after domestic abuse charges

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Roiland, who has pleaded not guilty, will no longer work on Hulu shows Solar Opposites or Koala Man, as well as being dropped from Rick and Morty

Justin Roiland has been dropped from two more animated shows, Solar Opposites and Koala Man, after being charged with felony domestic violence against a former girlfriend, a day after he was dropped from hit series Rick and Morty.

US network Hulu announced on Wednesday that it had “ended our association with Justin Roiland”, a day after Rick and Morty distributor Adult Swim released a similar statement saying he would no longer voice the titular characters or work as showrunnner.

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Trump’s Facebook and Instagram ban to be lifted, Meta announces

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Ex-president to be allowed back ‘in coming weeks … with new guardrails in place’ after ban that followed January 6 attack

In a highly anticipated decision, Meta has said it will allow Donald Trump back on Facebook and Instagram following a two-year ban from the platforms over his online behavior during the 6 January insurrection.

Meta will allow Trump to return “in coming weeks” but “with new guardrails in place to deter repeat offenses”, Meta’s president of global affairs Nick Clegg wrote in a blogpost explaining the decision.

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Pence documents discovery sparks scrutiny on US classification system – live

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Some lawmakers on both sides now asking if discoveries mean it’s time to look at how government manages its secrets

Joe Biden will at 12 pm eastern time speak about the United State’s support for Ukraine, amid reports that Washington plans to send its Abrams tanks to help Kyiv defend against the Russian invasion.

Earlier in the day, the White House announced the American president had spoken to president Emmanuel Macron of France, Britain’s prime minister Rishi Sunak, chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany and prime minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy “as part of our close coordination on support for Ukraine.”

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US joins Germany in sending tanks to Ukraine as Biden hails ‘united’ effort

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President lauds ‘unflagging commitment to Ukraine’ as officials approve 31 M1 Abrams tanks to add to Germany’s 14 Leopard 2A6s

Joe Biden has approved sending 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, a significant escalation in the US effort to counter Russian aggression as international reluctance to send tanks to the battlefront falls away.

The reversal of the US’s previous position came after Germany confirmed it will make 14 of its Leopard 2A6 tanks available for Ukraine’s war effort, and give partner countries its permission to re-export other battle tanks to aid Kyiv.

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Suspicious death of ‘Pin’ the vulture adds to Dallas zoo’s mysterious woes

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News comes after unusual activity at the zoo that included one of its clouded leopards missing

A lappet-faced vulture at the Dallas zoo has died from a suspicious wound in its Wilds of Africa habitat. Officials called the mysterious death of 35-year-old Pin “devastating” and are offering a $10,000 reward for any information.

The announcement follows a bout of unusual activity at the zoo. Last week it shut down after it reported one of its two clouded leopards, Nova, was missing. A zoo spokesperson assured the public the 25lb cat didn’t pose a threat to humans and Nova was found later that day on zoo grounds near her habitat.

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Discovery at Pence’s home brings question: why were classified documents left unsecure?

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Similar incidents involving Pence, Biden and Trump lead to calls for tightening how documents are handled – and whether the US is over-classifying

The discovery of classified documents at the home of former US vice-president Mike Pence, following similar incidents involving Joe Biden and Donald Trump, is bringing new scrutiny to government procedures for handling and securing its most delicate secrets.

The justice department and FBI are looking into how about a dozen classified-marked papers came to be found last week in an unsecure location at Pence’s Indiana residence, two years after he and Trump left office.

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Razzie awards remove 12-year-old from worst actress category after backlash

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The group behind the awards faced widespread criticism after nominating the young star of Firestarter

The organisers of the Razzie awards have removed the 12-year-old actor Ryan Kiera Armstrong from the worst actress category after backlash.

The young actor, also known from Black Widow and The Tomorrow War, was included in the annual list of worst of the year nominees for her performance in the thriller Firestarter, a remake of the Stephen King adaptation starring Drew Barrymore. Armstrong was 11 at the time of filming.

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Virginia school ‘couldn’t be bothered’ to stop boy with gun, teacher’s lawyer says

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Abigail Zwerner, seriously wounded in attack by six-year-old, plans to sue school district as superintendent sacked

Concerned teachers and employees warned administrators at a Virginia elementary school three times that a six-year-old boy had a gun and was threatening other students in the hours before he shot and wounded a teacher, “but the administration could not be bothered” and didn’t call police, remove the boy from class or lock down the school, a lawyer for the teacher said.

Diane Toscano, an attorney for Abigail Zwerner, told reporters on Wednesday she had notified the Newport News school board that the 25-year-old Richneck elementary school teacher plans to sue the school district over the 6 January shooting, which left Zwerner with serious injuries.

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‘Soho grifter’ Anna Sorokin developing Delvey’s Dinner Club reality TV series

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Convicted fraudster and inspiration behind Inventing Anna is creating a series in which she hosts dinner parties in her apartment

Anna Sorokin, the convicted con artist who went by the name Anna Delvey, subject of a viral New York magazine story and inspiration for the Netflix series Inventing Anna, is reportedly working on her next act: a reality TV series.

The Russian-born former “Soho grifter”, who is currently under house arrest after overstaying her visa, will host “celebrities, moguls and glitterati” for dinner parties in her Manhattan apartment for an unscripted series tentatively titled Delvey’s Dinner Club, according to a statement from producers on Wednesday. Sorokin, who just turned 32, was released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention last October after overstaying her visa; she already completed her sentence for her 2019 conviction for attempted grand larceny.

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Western unity is critical, but Ukraine needs more than tanks to win this war

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Washington joins Berlin in agreeing to send tanks – but offer will only go so far to keep Russians at bay

It has felt like an interminable wait, but in fact Germany’s hesitation over Leopard 2 tanks lasted only a few days. Berlin has got what it wanted – more cover from the US – although it had to pretend at one point it didn’t want it.

With Washington agreeing, in principle, to send some of its gas-guzzling Abrams tanks at some point, chancellor Olaf Scholz has scored a diplomatic victory. Berlin is now not alone in sending homemade tanks to Ukraine and can portray itself as not simply being bullied into agreement.

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US airport worker warned before being sucked into jet engine

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Alabama crew had ‘safety huddle’ about how to move around the plane and employee who was killed received warning to stay back

A worker at an airport in Alabama who died after being sucked into a jet engine this past New Year’s Eve had been warned repeatedly about the dangers of going near it, federal investigators revealed this week.

The Montgomery regional airport employee, along with other colleagues of the facility’s ground crew, had undergone a “safety huddle” about how to move around the plane at the center of the case 10 minutes before it arrived at the gate on 31 December, and there was another similar briefing just before the aircraft arrived at the gate, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in a report Monday.

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Older suspects in California shootings defy typical mass shooter profile

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Given the rarity of the subjects, researchers know relatively little about the older perpetrators of mass public shootings

As California, and the United States, reel from two devastating mass shootings in three days that have left 18 people dead and many more injured, detectives are combing through the crime scenes in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay in search of motives.

One aspect they will have to grapple with that makes the California tragedies stand out from the grim pack of American gun massacres is the older age of the shooters. In both cases the alleged killers were in their 60s and 70s, placing them in a very rare group.

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McCarthy vows to block Schiff and Swalwell from House intel panel

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Move seen as retribution against House Democrats who booted Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar from their committees

Speaker Kevin McCarthy reiterated Tuesday that he will block Democratic Representatives Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell of California from serving on the House committee that oversees national intelligence, saying the decision was not based on political payback but because “integrity matters, and they have failed in that place”.

In the previous Congress, Democrats booted Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona from their committee assignments for incendiary commentary that they said incited potential violence against colleagues.

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US poised to send dozens of Abrams tanks to Ukraine in policy U-turn – reports

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Decision comes just days after Washington argued against sending the Abrams and follows reports Berlin will send Leopard tanks to Ukraine

The United States appears poised to start a process that would eventually send dozens of its M1 Abrams battle tanks to Ukraine, US media reported, in a reversal that could have significant implications for Kyiv’s efforts to repel Russian forces.

The development prompted swift reaction from Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, who said it would be a “blatant provocation”.

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Washington Circle K shooter apparently kills self as police close in

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Police say 21-year-old Jarid Haddock ‘just walked in and started shooting’, killing three in a ‘random situation’

A 21-year-old man wanted in connection with the random killing of three people at a convenience store in Yakima, Washington, early Tuesday shot and killed himself as officers approached him behind some warehouses several hours later, authorities said.

Yakima police chief Matt Murray said in a video message posted online that a woman called 911 on Tuesday afternoon. The caller reported that the man had used her phone to make a call.

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Musk tells court he lacked ‘specific’ funding to take Tesla private

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CEO of electric carmaker says finance was ‘not an issue’ but he did not have binding commitments from investors

Elon Musk expected strong financial support when he tweeted that he would take Tesla private in 2018, but lacked specific commitments from potential backers, according to testimony he gave on his third day of questioning in a San Francisco federal court.

Musk is accused of defrauding investors by driving up the price of Tesla stock by tweeting on 7 August 2018 that he had “funding secured” to take the electric carmaker private.

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Washington Post condemns Pompeo for ‘vile’ Khashoggi ‘falsehoods’

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Fred Ryan says former secretary of state ‘outrageously misrepresents’ Post journalist murdered by Saudi Arabian regime

The publisher of the Washington Post, Fred Ryan, has blasted the former secretary of state Mike Pompeo for “outrageously misrepresenting” and “spreading vile falsehoods” about Jamal Khashoggi, the Post columnist murdered by the Saudi Arabian regime in 2018.

“It is shameful that Pompeo would spread vile falsehoods to dishonor a courageous man’s life and service and his commitment to principles Americans hold dear as a ploy to sell books,” Ryan said.

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Judge to rule on releasing Georgia grand jury report into Trump election meddling – live

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Jurors recommended making public the report into efforts to overturn results of 2020 election

A judge in Atlanta will at 12 pm eastern time convene a hearing to determine whether to release a special grand jury’s report into attempts by Donald Trump and his allies to meddle in the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

The jurors have recommended making the report public, and Fani Willis, the district attorney in Fulton county, which encompasses Georgia’s capital, is using its findings to determine whether to bring charges in the investigation, which has centered on the attempts by top Trump allies like attorney Rudy Giuliani and senator Lindsey Graham to convince state officials to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state. It’s unclear if Willis is considering charges against Trump in the case. Attorneys for the former president said yesterday they will not attend the hearing, and that Trump has not committed any crimes.

The shift in the U.S. position follows a call on Jan. 17 between President Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in which Mr. Biden agreed to look into providing the Abrams tanks against the judgment of the Pentagon. A senior German official said that the issue had been the subject of intense negotiation between Washington and Berlin for more than a week and appeared to be on the way to resolution.

Military officials have argued publicly that the Abrams tanks require a substantial amount of training and logistics support and therefore aren’t appropriate for this moment in the conflict.

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DeSantis calls to end jury unanimity for Florida death penalty cases

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Republican governor suggests ‘super-majority’ should suffice in state that has required jury unanimity in capital cases since 2017

Florida’s rightwing Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, wants to end the constitutional requirement that juries in his state are unanimous when handing down death sentences.

“Fine, have a super-majority,” DeSantis told the Florida Sheriffs Association on Monday. “But you can’t just say one person votes no, and therefore the death penalty is not given.”

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