Category Archives: US News

Trudeau to announce US-Canada asylum deal after Biden talks

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Move following meetings in Ottawa with the US president will in effect close a controversial border crossing

Justin Trudeau’s government has announced a major shift in how Canada and the US handle asylum claims, a move that effectively closes a controversial border crossing, after meetings in Ottawa on Friday with Joe Biden.

Under the deal, which Canadian officials hope will temper the increase in irregular border crossings in recent months, Canada will bring in 15,000 more South and Central American migrants to Canada. The prime minister’s office said in a statement the agreement would ensure more “fairness” in migration between the two countries.

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‘Reckless’ Trump rhetoric could get someone killed, top Democrat warns

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House leader Hakeem Jeffries condemns former president over behavior related to expected indictment in New York

Donald Trump’s incendiary rhetoric over his expected indictment in New York could “get someone killed”, the Democratic leader in the US House warned.

“The twice-impeached former president’s rhetoric is reckless, reprehensible and irresponsible,” Hakeem Jeffries, from New York, told reporters at the Capitol in Washington.

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US teens say they have new proof for 2,000-year-old mathematical theorem

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New Orleans students Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson recently presented their findings on the Pythagorean theorem

Two New Orleans high school seniors who say they have proven Pythagoras’s theorem by using trigonometry – which academics for two millennia have thought to be impossible – are being encouraged by a prominent US mathematical research organization to submit their work to a peer-reviewed journal.

Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson, who are students of St Mary’s Academy, recently gave a presentation of their findings at the American Mathematical Society south-eastern chapter’s semi-annual meeting in Georgia.

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Denver school students rally for gun safety at state capitol after shootings

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Students from at least five local high schools called on legislators to take action to address gun violence after two recent incidents

More than a thousand Denver high school students protested over gun violence in their schools, rallying on Thursday and Friday at Colorado’s capitol after yet another such incident had occurred.

Students from at least five Denver high schools gathered late on Thursday to demonstrate after a fatal shooting at an area high school earlier this week, following another one last month.

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TikTok CEO questioned on China concerns at landmark hearing | First Thing

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Shou Zi Chew attempts to play down concerns over data and privacy as lawmakers call for ban on Chinese-owned app. Plus, majority of trans adults are happier after transitioning

Good morning.

The chief executive of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, was forced to defend his company’s relationship with China, as well as the protections for its youngest users, at a testy congressional hearing on Thursday that came amid a bipartisan push to ban the app entirely in the US over national security concerns.

What are the key takeaways from TikTok hearing in Congress? Chew defended TikTok’s privacy practices, stating they are are in line with those of other social media platforms, adding that in many cases the app collects less data than its peers. “There are more than 150 million Americans who love our platform, and we know we have a responsibility to protect them,” Chew said. Here are some of the other key criticisms Chew faced at yesterday’s landmark hearing, and what could lie ahead.

Did the strikes kill anyone? Yes. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported: “US strikes targeted a weapons depots inside Deir ez-Zor city, killing six pro-Iran fighters, and two other fighters were killed by strikes targeting the desert of Mayadine and near al-Boukamal.”

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Joni Mitchell teams up with Cameron Crowe to script her biopic

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Legendary folk star is reportedly offering input into screenplay for drama film about her life

Cameron Crowe, the director of Almost Famous and Jerry Maguire, is developing a new drama film with Joni Mitchell about her life.

According to a story on the entertainment site Above the Line – which was subsequently reposted on Mitchell’s own website – the project is not a documentary and Mitchell has been collaborating with Crowe on the script for the past two years.

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Plan to test for dioxins near Ohio train derailment site is flawed, experts say

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Test relies on visual inspection of ash to then check soil for toxins, which is ‘unlikely to give a complete picture’ of contamination

A plan to test for toxic dioxins near the site of a February train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio, is flawed and unlikely to find the dangerous substances, independent chemical pollution researchers in the US who reviewed the testing protocol told the Guardian.

Initial soil testing already revealed dioxin levels hundreds of times above the threshold that Environmental Protection Agency scientists have found poses a cancer risk, but that sampling was limited in scope.

Arcadis will largely rely on visual inspections of the ground to find evidence of dioxins, instead of systematically testing soil samples that may contain the compounds, which is standard protocol.

The plan does not say how low the levels of dioxin the company will check for will be.

Testing will only be conducted up to two miles from the accident site when ash has been found up to 20 miles away.

The testing is limited to soil and does not include food or water.

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‘Tours are no longer fun’: Neil Young lambasts Ticketmaster for ripping off fans

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Singer-songwriter says ‘the old days are gone’ amid wider consternation at ticketing company’s pricing policies

Neil Young has lambasted Ticketmaster over its concert ticketing policies, saying “concert tours are no longer fun” due to what he sees as exploitative pricing.

Young wrote on his website:

It’s over. The old days are gone. I get letters blaming me for $3,000 tickets for a benefit I am doing. That money does not go to me or the benefit. Artists have to worry about ripped off fans blaming them for Ticketmaster add-ons and scalpers. Concert tours are no longer fun. Concert tours not what they were.

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Authorities raid Beijing offices of US Mintz Group detaining five Chinese staff

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Company offering corporate due diligence services says it received no legal notice of a case against it

Chinese authorities have raided the office of a US firm in Beijing, shutting down its operations and detaining five Chinese staff, the company has said.

Mintz Group, which has offices in 18 cities around the world and offers corporate analysis and due diligence services, said it received no legal notice about the reasons for the unannounced raid.

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‘Like a war zone’: Congress hears of China’s abuses in Xinjiang ‘re-education camps’

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Pair tell of witnessing or experiencing torture and brainwashing, as Republicans and Democrats vow to document ‘genocide’

Two women who say they experienced and eventually escaped Chinese “re-education” camps provided first-hand testimony to members of the US Congress on Thursday night, offering harrowing accounts of life in detention while urging Americans not to look away from what the US has declared a continuing genocide of Muslim ethnic minorities.

Speaking before a special bipartisan House committee at the start of Ramadan, Gulbahar Haitiwaji, a Uyghur woman, said she spent nearly three years in internment camps and police stations, during which she was subjected to 11 hours of daily “brainwashing education” that included singing patriotic songs and praising the Chinese government before and after meals.

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Escaped cow that tore through Brooklyn finds home at sanctuary

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Canarsie cow to meet fellow celebrity escapees at rescue center where animals live on vast pasture: ‘She’ll be ecstatic’

It’s been one hell of a week for the Canarsie cow, a black angus calf who started this week on her way to a slaughterhouse and will end it settling into her new home on a New Jersey farm.

After she escaped a truck hauling her from a Pennsylvania farm to certain death at Saba Live Poultry in Canarsie, Brooklyn, she went on a rampage through the streets. Slaughterhouse employees and workers at a nearby pizza shop tried to catch up with her, in a chase that lasted several minutes.

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Majority of trans adults are happier after transitioning, survey finds

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Washington Post and KFF study found 78% of respondents said living as different gender from birth increased satisfaction in life

A large majority of transgender adults say that transitioning has made them more satisfied with their life, according to a new survey.

The survey conducted by the Washington Post and KFF is the largest nongovernmental survey of transgender adults that uses random samplings.

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US strikes Iran-backed group in Syria after deadly attack on coalition base

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Airstrikes in retaliation to attack on base in north-east by suspected Iranian-made drone that killed US contractor

The US military has carried out airstrikes against Iran-backed forces in retaliation for an attack that killed an American contractor and wounded five US troops.

A day after the deadly attack on US personnel in Syria, which Washington blamed on a drone of Iranian origin, sources said a US base in Syria’s north-east was targeted in a new missile attack. US officials said there were no US casualties in the incident on Friday.

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Man was ‘fun-loving’ before Gwyneth Paltrow ski collision, daughter testifies

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Polly Sanderson-Grasham said seeing her father’s state after the incident was like ‘a slap in the face’

The daughter of the man who collided with Gwyneth Paltrow on a ski slope, has said seeing her father’s state after the incident was like “a slap in the face”.

Polly Sanderson-Grasham said that following the crash in 2016, her father was unable to “see the forest for the trees” and got “lost in the minutiae” of things.

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Vertigo: remake of Hitchcock thriller set to star Robert Downey Jr

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Actor in talks to take on role made famous by James Stewart in remake written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight

A remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 thriller Vertigo is in the works with Robert Downey Jr “eyeing” the lead role.

According to Deadline, Paramount Pictures has given the film the go-ahead with the Iron Man star producing and potentially taking on the role of the obsessive detective made famous by James Stewart.

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NHL’s Blackhawks will not wear Pride jerseys due to Russian anti-LGBTQ laws

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  • Team says wearing jerseys could endanger Russian player
  • Pride jerseys have sparked debate among NHL teams

An NHL team with a Russian player has decided against wearing special warmup jerseys to commemorate Pride night, citing an anti-gay Kremlin law that could imperil Russian athletes when they return home.

The Chicago Blackhawks, who have an additional two players with connections to Russia, will not wear Pride-themed warmup jerseys before Sunday’s game against Vancouver because of security concerns involving the law, which expands restrictions on supporting LGBTQ rights. Vladimir Putin signed the law in December.

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TikTok hearing: CEO Shou Zi Chew testifies before US Congress amid looming ban – as it happened

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App’s future in doubt as Biden administration threatens to ban it entirely in the country

Representative Diana DeGette is bringing up the WSJ report again and asking Chew for comment. He said that he’d have to get back to them because whether ByteDance would be forced to sell TikTok is still developing so he doesn’t have specifics but that Project Texas would protect US users no matter what.

“Does TikTok share user information … overseas?” Degette asked. Chew said in the past, yes but with Project Texas that would no longer be the case. He reiterated that the efforts to protect user data through Project Texas is more than any other company has done.

Representative Richard Hudson asked Chew about the reports that ByteDance employees have accessed user data of US journalists in order to investigate an internal leak of information. Chew says TikTok condemns this behavior.

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Los Angeles hit by strongest tornado in three decades: ‘It got very loud’

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Violent funnel with gusts reaching up to 110mph ripped through roofs and scattered debris high into the air

The National Weather Service (NWS) has confirmed that the violent funnel of swirling winds that ripped through roofs and scattered debris high into the air near downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday was indeed a tornado – and the strongest one the area has seen in more than three decades.

It was the second tornado to touch down in southern California this week in an area unaccustomed to facing that particular kind of extreme weather. “It’s definitely not something that’s common for the region,” said NWS meteorologist Rose Schoenfeld, noting that the last time the weather service’s LA office sent out tornado assessment teams was in 2016.

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TikTok CEO grilled for over five hours on China, drugs and teen mental health

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Shou Zi Chew attempts to play down concerns over data and privacy as lawmakers call for ban on Chinese-owned app

The chief executive of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, was forced to defend his company’s relationship with China, as well as the protections for its youngest users, at a testy congressional hearing on Thursday that came amid a bipartisan push to ban the app entirely in the US over national security concerns.

The hearing marked the first ever appearance before US lawmakers by a TikTok chief executive, and a rare public outing for the 4o-year-old Chew, who has remained largely out of the limelight as the social network’s popularity soars. TikTok now boasts tens of millions of US users, but lawmakers have long held concerns over China’s control over the app, which Chew repeatedly tried to assuage throughout the hearing. “Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country,” Chew said in Thursday’s testimony.

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Manhattan prosecutor says Trump created ‘false expectation’ of imminent arrest – as it happened

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In an excerpt from her forthcoming book, CNN supreme court analyst Joan Biskupic reveals a body where the conservative majority fortified by Donald Trump is driving forward with decisions to change America – even as some of its members try to appear conciliatory in public.

She also describes chief justice John Robert’s decision to quickly move Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s papers from her office after she died in 2020, which offended some of her aides used to more relaxed transitions between justices.

Within days of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s memorial service in late September 2020, boxes of her files and other office possessions were moved down to a dark, windowless theater on the Supreme Court’s ground floor, where – before the ongoing pandemic – tourists could watch a film about court operations.

Grieving aides to the justice who’d served 27 years and become a cultural icon known as the “Notorious RBG” sorted through the chambers’ contents there.

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