Category Archives: US News

At least seven people dead as tornadoes slam US south

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First responders search for possibly trapped survivors or further victims in Georgia and Alabama after storm eased Thursday night

First responders are searching for any trapped survivors and any additional victims in on Friday after a massive storm system whipping up severe winds and spawning tornadoes cut a deadly path across the US South the day before, killing at least seven people in Georgia and Alabama.

A twister damaged buildings and tossed cars in the streets of historic downtown Selma, Alabama. Houses were torn off their foundations and property was smashed up and flattened by flying debris and ripped up trees.

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Apple’s Tim Cook to take 50% pay hit after shareholder feedback

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‘Target compensation’ for CEO down from $99.4m in 2022 to an expected $49m for current year

The Apple chief executive, Tim Cook, is expected to have his pay cut by almost 50% this year to about $49m (£40m) after the billionaire boss asked the company to “adjust his compensation” in the light of feedback from shareholders disappointed at the fall in the company’s share price.

Cook, 62, who became CEO after the death of the co-founder Steve Jobs in 2011, was paid $99.4m in 2022 and $98.8m in 2021. But the company said in a regulatory filing late on Thursday night that it had set a “target compensation” of $49m for 2023.

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Bills to regulate toxic ‘forever chemicals’ died in Congress – with Republican help

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Lobbying industry flexed muscle to ensure bills that aimed to set stricter standards on PFAS compounds went nowhere

All legislation aimed at regulating toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” died in the Democratic-controlled US Congress last session as companies flexed their lobbying muscle and bills did not gain enough Republican support to overcome a Senate filibuster.

The failure comes after public health advocates and Democratic lawmakers expressed optimism at the legislative session’s outset that bills that would protect the public from dangerous exposure to the chemicals could gain sufficient bipartisan support.

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Rightwing group pours millions in ‘dark money’ into US voter suppression bid

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Tax filings reveal advocacy arm of Heritage Foundation spent $5m on lobbying in 2021 to block voting rights in battleground states

The advocacy arm of the Heritage Foundation, the powerful conservative thinktank based in Washington, spent more than $5m on lobbying in 2021 as it worked to block federal voting rights legislation and advance an ambitious plan to spread its far-right agenda calling for aggressive voter suppression measures in battleground states.

Previously unreported 2021 tax filings from Heritage Action for America, which operates as the foundation’s activist wing, shows that it spent $5.1m on contracting outside lobbying services. The outlay comes on top of $560,000 the group invested in its own in-house federal lobbying efforts that year, as well as registered lobbying by Heritage Action staffers in at least 24 states.

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First Thing: Trump plans tour of presidential campaign events

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Events aim at giving ex-president a narrative reset after being criticized for his ‘low energy’ and inactivity, sources say. Plus, how menopause can destroy mental health

Good morning.

Donald Trump is scheduled to venture out of his Mar-a-Lago resort and conduct a swing of presidential campaign events later this month, ramping up efforts to secure the Republican nomination after facing criticism around the slow start to his 2024 White House bid, according to sources familiar with the matter.

What else is happening? The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, appointed a special counsel on Thursday to investigate Joe Biden’s retention of classified documents from his time as vice-president. The move to name Robert Hur, a former Trump-appointed federal prosecutor and former top justice department official, was a rapid decision from Garland to insulate the department from possible accusations of political conflicts or interference.

How do the Trump and Biden cases regarding classified documents differ? While Trump appears to have wilfully obstructed efforts to recover them, leading to the FBI raid, Biden’s team said they cooperated fully and immediately returned the documents to the National Archives as soon as they were discovered. Read more here.

What tributes have been paid to Presley? John Travolta said on Instagram: “Lisa baby girl, I’m so sorry. I’ll miss you but I know I’ll see you again.” Meanwhile, Bette Midler said: “I’m in shock. So beautiful and only 54 years old; I can’t actually comprehend it.”

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Trump to ramp up efforts to secure 2024 Republican nomination after slow start

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Events aim at giving ex-president a narrative reset after being criticized for his ‘low energy’ and inactivity, sources say

Donald Trump is scheduled to venture out of his Mar-a-Lago resort and conduct a swing of presidential campaign events later this month, ramping up efforts to secure the Republican nomination after facing hefty criticism around the slow start to his 2024 White House bid, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The former US president is expected to travel to a number of early voting states for the Republican nomination – the specific states have not been finalized – around the final weekend of January, the sources said, where he is slated to announce his state level teams.

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Democratic lawmakers demand Biden revoke Bolsonaro’s visa after Brazil riot

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Former president entered the US after his election loss and is staying in Florida

Dozens of Democratic lawmakers, including some of the top members of the House foreign affairs committee, sent a letter to Joe Biden on Thursday demanding former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s diplomatic visa be canceled in the wake of the rampage in Brazil’s capital by his supporters.

“We request that you reassess his status in the country to ascertain whether there is a legal basis for his stay and revoke any such diplomatic visa he may hold,” said the letter. It continued: “The United States must not provide shelter for him, or any authoritarian who has inspired such violence against democratic institutions.”

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US government logs more than 500 UFO reports with hundreds unexplained

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Although many are attributed to drones or balloons, others point to the spying capabilities of rival nations

The US government is examining 510 UFO reports, more than triple the number in its 2021 file. While many were caused by drones or balloons, hundreds remain unexplained, according to a report released on Thursday.

The 2022 report (pdf) by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) said that 247 “unidentified anomalous phenomena” or UAP reports have been filed with it since June 2021, when it revealed that it had records of 144 sightings of suspicious aerial objects under examination.

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White House pledges to cooperate with special counsel over classified documents – as it happened

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Attorney general Merrick Garland may announce the appointment of a special counsel to handle the matter of the classified documents discovered at Joe Biden’s properties, Bloomberg News reports.

Garland is scheduled to make a public address at 1.15pm, though the justice department has not said what the speech will be about. In November, Garland appointed veteran prosecutor Jack Smith to handle the investigation into government secrets found at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, as well as his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

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Wisconsin Republican who bragged about low turnout faces calls to resign

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Robert Spindell, who sits on state election commission, told party members to be ‘proud’ of low voting figures in Democratic areas

A top Republican election official in Wisconsin is facing calls to resign from his role after boasting about lower turnout last year in Black and Hispanic areas of Milwaukee.

Robert Spindell is one of three GOP appointees on the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC), the six-member bipartisan body that oversees elections in the state. He is also the chair of the Republican party in the fourth congressional district, which includes Milwaukee. After last year’s election, he sent an email to fellow Republicans touting the party’s “well thought out multi-faceted plan” that resulted in a drop in voter turnout in the city, which is home to a majority of Wisconsin’s Black population.

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Trump appointee named special counsel in Biden papers investigation

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Robert Hur chosen by US attorney general after classified materials discovered in Delaware and Washington

The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, appointed a special counsel on Thursday to investigate Joe Biden’s retention of classified documents from his time as vice-president.

The move to name Robert Hur, a former Trump-appointed federal prosecutor and former top justice department official, was a rapid decision from Garland to insulate the department from possible accusations of political conflicts or interference.

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Dramatic spike in rain has helped counter California’s extreme drought, data reveals

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Roughly 46% of state remains categorized in ‘severe drought’, a sharp shift from more than 71% just last week

A weeks-long onslaught of heavy rain has made a notable dent in California’s extreme drought, new data shows, even as the state braces for another round of punishing storms with no reprieve in sight until next week.

The storms have killed at least 18 people so far, with more fatalities likely to be confirmed in the coming days. The dramatic increase in precipitation has raised sunken reservoirs and boosted the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada range, putting the state in a much better position to weather warm and dry days that probably lie ahead.

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Revealed: Exxon made ‘breathtakingly’ accurate climate predictions in 1970s and 80s

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Oil company drove some of the leading science of the era only to publicly dismiss global heating

The oil giant Exxon privately “predicted global warming correctly and skilfully” only to then spend decades publicly rubbishing such science in order to protect its core business, new research has found.

A trove of internal documents and research papers has previously established that Exxon knew of the dangers of global heating from at least the 1970s, with other oil industry bodies knowing of the risk even earlier, from around the 1950s. They forcefully and successfully mobilized against the science to stymie any action to reduce fossil fuel use.

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Republican-controlled House pushes for new abortion restrictions

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Bills not expected to advance in Senate but underscore Republican majority’s legislative priorities ahead of 2024 election

The Republican-led House on Wednesday pressed ahead with a pair of anti-abortion measures, despite warning signs that the issue had galvanized the opposition in the wake of the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade last year.

Voting mostly along party lines, Republicans first approved a bill that would compel doctors to provide care for an infant who survives an attempted abortion – an occurrence that is exceedingly rare.

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Exclusive: more than 70 US and Brazilian lawmakers condemn Trump-Bolsonaro alliance

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Congresswoman Ilhan Omar leads joint statement focused on Sunday’s riots in Brasília and January 6 insurrection

More than 70 progressive US and Brazilian lawmakers have condemned the collaboration between the Bolsonaro family and Trumpists in the US aimed at overturning elections in both countries, and called for those involved to be held to account.

“As lawmakers in Brazil and the United States, we stand united against the efforts by authoritarian, anti-democratic far right actors to overturn legitimate election results and overthrow our democracies,” said the joint statement, led by Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar.

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House’s Republican majority gets to work with two abortion measures – as it happened

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House to vote on medical protections for ‘babies that survive an attempted abortion’ and ‘attacks on pro-life’ groups and churches

Venture to certain corners of conservative media today and you’ll find lots of discussion of gas stoves. The Guardian’s Alaina Demopoulos explains why:

After Joe Biden’s administration announced it was considering regulating – or banning – gas stoves, Richard Trumka of the US consumer product safety commission (CPSC) offered some words of clarity: “To be clear, CPSC isn’t coming for anyone’s gas stoves,” he tweeted.

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Storm-ravaged California scrambles as fresh atmospheric river rolls in

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Newest round of storms expected to produce torrential downpours and gale force winds along the northern coast

California is facing a new round of brutal storms that will bring torrential downpours and gale force winds in the north as the state scrambles to clean up and repair widespread damage amid a break in the weather.

The state has been ravaged by a relentless string of storms that have killed at least 17 people – a number the governor warned was likely to grow. The bout of extreme weather has closed highways, knocked out trees and infrastructure and cut power to thousands of people. More than half of California’s 58 counties have been declared disaster areas.

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Michael Flatley diagnosed with ‘aggressive’ form of cancer

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Riverdance star has undergone surgery and is in care of doctors, according to Instagram account

Michael Flatley, best known for his Riverdance show, has been diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of cancer.

A post on the Irish dancer and director’s Instagram account said: “Michael Flatley has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. He has undergone surgery and is in the care of an excellent team of doctors.”

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George Santos says he won’t resign as fellow Republicans call on him to quit

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Chair of Nassau county committee says Santos ran ‘a campaign of deceit, lies and fabrication’ to win third district

The Republican George Santos said on Wednesday he would not resign from Congress less than a week after being sworn in, despite calls to do so from the chairman of his district committee and a fellow New York representative, amid continuing scrutiny of Santos’s mostly made-up résumé and growing calls for campaign finance investigations.

In a tweet, Santos said: “I was elected to serve the people of the New York third district not the party and politicians, I remain committed to doing that and regret to hear that local officials refuse to work with my office to deliver results to keep our community safe and lower the cost of living.

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‘Cool’: nine-year-old finds rare, ancient shark tooth on Maryland beach

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Molly Sampson found an Otodus megalodon shark species tooth at a beach near her home in Maryland while hunting for fossils

For Christmas, nine-year-old Molly Sampson and her sister Natalie, 17, asked their parents for one thing: insulated waders, to “go shark’s-tooth hunting like professionals”, said Molly’s mother, Alicia Sampson.

When the waders arrived from Santa, Molly told the Guardian, she declared that she would be looking “for a Meg”, or megalodon tooth, and ventured to Maryland’s Calvert Beach to hunt fossils on Christmas Day with Natalie and their father, Bruce Sampson.

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