Category Archives: US News

‘Significant increase’ in online threats as potential Trump indictment looms – as it happened

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Most threats are directed at law enforcement and government officials, report says, after ex-president urged supporters to protest

Lindsey Graham is one of Donald Trump’s allies in the Senate, so it was little surprise that he predicted dire consequences if the former president is indicted, CNN reports:

He also criticized Florida governor and Trump’s chief rival for the Republican presidential nomination next year Ron DeSantis for his comments yesterday about the potential charges. “I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair. I just, I can’t speak to that,” DeSantis said.

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US calls conditions in Rwanda’s detention centres harsh to life-threatening

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Ally’s criticism will be hard to dismiss as UK tries to push through £120m migrant scheme

Britain’s closest ally, the US, has criticised Rwanda’s dire human rights record, describing conditions in the country’s detention centres as harsh to life-threatening.

The British home secretary, Suella Braverman, took a group of journalists on a trip last week to reveal details of her £120m scheme to send all migrants arriving in the UK through irregular means to Rwanda whether they claim asylum or not. The legality of the scheme is due to be tested shortly in the UK court of appeal.

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US citizen jailed for criticising Saudi Arabia’s rulers freed

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Saad ibrahim Almadi was arrested in 2021 for social media posts on Yemen and the killing of Jamal Khashoggi

A US citizen sentenced to 19 years in a Saudi prison for social media posts criticising the kingdom’s rulers has been released, his son has said.

Saad Ibrahim Almadi, a 72-year-old of Saudi origin, was arrested in 2021 for what his son, Ibrahim, described as “mild” Twitter posts on topics including the war in Yemen and the 2018 killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

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Fox News and Dominion face off in $1.6bn defamation fight in court

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The voting machine company is suing the news channel over its disingenuous coverage of various outlandish election claims

Lawyers for Fox News and the voting equipment company Dominion faced off in a Delaware courtroom on Tuesday in the latest phase of Dominion’s closely watched $1.6bn defamation suit against the media company for spreading election lies.

Both sides offered dueling narratives of Fox’s liability for spreading false information. The network presented outlandish claims about Dominion while knowing it was false, lawyers for Dominion said. Fox’s lawyers, by contrast, said that the network was merely airing newsworthy claims by the former president that any reasonable viewer would have understood to be allegations. The judge overseeing the case unexpectedly extended the hearing to Wednesday to give both sides more time to make their case.

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Biden orders release of intelligence on potential links between Covid and Wuhan lab

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Move poses political risk for US president, who has a difficult relationship with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping

A bill requiring the release of intelligence materials on potential links between the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan has been signed into law by US president Joe Biden.

“We need to get to the bottom of Covid-19’s origins … including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Biden said in a statement. “In implementing this legislation, my administration will declassify and share as much of that information as possible.

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Missouri emergency rule would limit gender-affirming care for minors

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Directive sidesteps Republican-controlled state legislature, which wasn’t able to pass similar legislation before recess

Missouri’s Republican attorney general on Monday said he will limit access to gender-affirming care for minors, sidestepping the GOP-led state senate as it struggles to pass a law banning the practice for children completely.

As hundreds of activists rallied at the state capitol to pressure lawmakers to act on the bill, Andrew Bailey announced plans to file an emergency rule.

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Biden vetoes Republican effort to overturn socially conscious retirement rule

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President rejects legislation to overturn a labor department rule Republicans have denounced as ‘woke capitalism’

Joe Biden issued the first veto of his presidency on Monday, rejecting legislation to overturn a labor department rule related to an investment strategy for Americans’ retirement plans that Republicans have derided as “woke capitalism”.

“The legislation passed by the Congress would put at risk the retirement savings of individuals across the country. They couldn’t take into consideration investments that would be impacted by climate, impacted by overpaying executives,” Biden said in an Oval Office video released by the White House. “And that’s why I decided to veto it.”

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Four Oath Keepers members convicted of obstruction in January 6 trial

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The four were also convicted of conspiracy stemming from an insurrection at the Capitol in failed effort to keep Trump in office

Four people associated with the far-right Oath Keepers militia were convicted on Monday of conspiracy and obstruction charges stemming from the insurrection at the US Capitol in 2021 by extremist supporters of Donald Trump in a failed attempt to keep him in office, in the latest trial involving members of the antigovernment group.

A Washington DC jury found Sandra Parker, of Morrow, Ohio, Laura Steele, of Thomasville, North Carolina, William Isaacs, of Kissimmee, Florida, and Connie Meggs, of Dunnellon, Florida, guilty of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and other felony charges.

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JPMorgan and Deutsche to face lawsuits over Jeffrey Epstein ties

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Manhattan judge allows central accusations that banks benefitted from ties to sex trafficker to proceed

A US judge has ruled that a pair of lawsuits accusing two major banks of knowingly benefitting from ties to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein can proceed, though in a narrower form than had been initially filed.

The four-page ruling by Manhattan district judge Jed Rakoff granted motions by JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank to dismiss some counts against them, but permitted the central claims brought by Epstein accusers and the US Virgin Islands to proceed.

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US aid worker and French journalist freed after years held hostage in Africa

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Jeffery Woodke and Olivier Dubois, who had been kidnapped by jihadists in the Sahel, were released in Niger

A US aid worker and a French journalist who had been kidnapped by jihadists in the Sahel and held for years have been released.

American aid worker Jeffery Woodke and French freelancer Olivier Dubois emerged from a plane that landed on Monday at an airport in Niamey, the capital of Niger.

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House Republicans rally to Trump’s defense with call for DA Alvin Bragg to testify – as it happened

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Chairs of three committees demand testimony from district attorney, who is overseeing Stormy Daniels hush money case

In messages viewed by the Guardian, a Trump campaign insider predicts that the former president will not attempt to avoid appearing for arraignment in New York City, if or when an expected indictment over his hush money payment to Stormy Daniels is handed down.

“He will go to NYC for sure,” the insider wrote, adding: “No video arraignments.”

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Rupert Murdoch to marry for fifth time at 92: ‘I knew this would be my last’

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Billionaire mogul will marry Ann Lesley Smith, 66, whom he met in September of 2022. ‘We share the same beliefs,’ Smith says

The billionaire mogul Rupert Murdoch, whose conservative media empire spans the globe, is engaged to marry for the fifth time at the age of 92 years old, he told an interviewer in his own tabloid newspaper, the New York Post.

“I was very nervous. I dreaded falling in love – but I knew this would be my last. It better be. I’m happy,” Murdoch said of his new fiancee, Ann Lesley Smith, 66, whose late husband was Chester Smith, a country singer as well as radio and TV executive.

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Miami Beach imposes curfew on unruly crowds as spring break turns deadly

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Police in Florida city implement midnight-to-six ban after two fatal shootings and could do likewise next weekend

Two deadly shootings and unruly crowds which police have struggled to control during spring break prompted officials in the Florida city of Miami Beach to impose a curfew late on Sunday – and there could be a similar one next weekend.

City officials said in a news release that they implemented a curfew from 11.59pm Sunday until 6am Monday, and another is likely to be put in place on Thursday through next Monday, 27 March. The curfew mainly affected South Beach, spring breakers’ most popular party spot.

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‘Heinous, calculated’: Colorado dentist suspected of wife’s murder by poisoning

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James Toliver Craig, 45, of Aurora held for murder after taking wife Angela to hospital with severe headaches and dizziness

In what authorities have called a “heinous, complex and calculated murder”, a dentist from the Denver area is facing accusations that he poisoned his wife and killed her.

James Toliver Craig, 45, of Aurora, Colorado, came under scrutiny after he drove his 43-year-old wife Angela to a hospital on Wednesday night as she complained of severe headaches and dizziness, according to police. Her condition quickly worsened, and medical staff placed her on a machine meant to help her breathe before declaring her dead.

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Trump hails prospect of testimony from ex-Cohen adviser in hush money case

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Robert J Costello, scheduled to appear before New York grand jury on Monday, likely to question Trump accuser’s credibility

• Trump calls on supporters to protest as potential indictment looms

Donald Trump has cheered the news that a former adviser to Michael Cohen will testify before a Manhattan grand jury investigating the ex-president’s alleged role in hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Robert J Costello, a one-time legal adviser to former Trump attorney Cohen, is scheduled to appear before the grand jury on Monday, where he is expected to give testimony “attacking the credibility of Cohen’s statements”, Associated Press reported.

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Fate of 1,000 trafficked lab monkeys at center of US investigation in limbo

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Long-tailed macaques at risk of being killed, or laundered or re-trafficked if returned to Cambodia, animal welfare groups say

More than a thousand Cambodian monkeys at the center of a US government investigation into wildlife trafficking are at risk of being killed or returned to their country of origin, laundered and re-trafficked, animal welfare groups say.

The monkeys’ plight first came to light last year when the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) asked the animal rights organization Peta about finding a sanctuary for 360 monkeys. Born Free USA, and the US Department of Justice (DoJ) later joined the discussions and the number of monkeys increased to over 1,000 as talks progressed.

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‘Good old friend’: Putin offers praise for Xi ahead of first trip to Russia since Ukraine invasion

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Russian president lauds Xi ahead of meeting, while Beijing calls for a ‘rational way’ out of the crisis

Vladimir Putin has praised “good old friend” Xi Jinping in a newspaper article published in China on the eve of a state visit by the Chinese president that will reaffirm the leaders’ strong ties and provide Moscow with an opportunity to emphasise that it has not been isolated by the global community.

The two leaders, who are believed to share a strong personal relationship, will meet one-on-one on Monday, followed by an informal lunch, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said.

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Trump in panic mode as he braces for likely charges in Stormy Daniels case

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Manhattan district attorney expected to file criminal charges against ex-president for payment to adult film star in 2016

Donald Trump is bracing for his most legally perilous week since he left the White House, with the Manhattan district attorney likely to bring criminal charges against him over his role in paying hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels, as he huddled this weekend to strategize his legal and political responses.

The former US president has posted in all-caps on his Truth Social platform that he expected to be “ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK” and called for his supporters to engage in protests – an ominous echo of his tweets urging protests in the lead-up to the January 6 US Capitol attack.

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Alex Jones reportedly concealing funds to avoid $1.5bn payout to Sandy Hook families

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The conspiracy theorist was ordered to pay the families of the victims damages for claims that 2012 shooting was a hoax

Rightwing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones appears to be moving his money to friends and family in an attempt to avoid paying out nearly $1.5bn in damages to the families of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, a new report reveals.

Last year, Jones was ordered to pay the huge damages following his years-long claims on his digital platform Infowars that the mass shooting was a hoax staged by the government to take away guns from Americans.

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Manhattan DA warns of ‘attempts to intimidate’ after Trump calls for protest

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Alvin Bragg is expected to bring an indictment against Trump this week over hush payments to adult actor Stormy Daniels in 2016

The Manhattan district attorney widely expected to bring an indictment against Donald Trump this week has vowed that his staff will not be intimidated after the former US president called for his supporters to protest any action against him.

Trump triggered a flurry of frantic headlines and statements from his political allies on Saturday when he posted a message on social media claiming he was set to be arrested this Tuesday on charges of hush payments to adult actor Stormy Daniels.

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