Category Archives: US News

‘He sounded great’: David Crosby was working on new album when he died, musicians reveal

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Folk-rock pioneer ‘writing, playing, singing his ass off and preparing a fantastic show’ in his final days, says guitarist Steve Postell

David Crosby was working on a new album and planning to tour again until the day he died, according to musicians who worked with the folk-rock pioneer in his final days.

The founding member of the Byrds, and Crosby, Stills and Nash died last week at the age of 81. But other artists who were working with Crosby on new music told Variety that his death had came as a shock, as he’d been rehearsing for a new tour and “seemed practically giddy” about new songs he was working on.

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Monterey Park shooting: suspect dead of self-inflicted gunshot wound, police say – as it happened

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Suspect in shooting at southern California dance studio identified as 72-year-old man

“It is important that we be there for them and to provide the support they need in a time of healing,” Henry Lo, mayor of Monterey Park, said of the victims and their families at Sunday morning’s press conference.

In addition to 10 fatalities, 10 other victims were injured in the shooting and their current conditions vary from “stable” to “critical,” police said.

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Women’s marches take place across country on 50th anniversary of Roe v Wade – live

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More than 200 events in 46 states to protest supreme court decision that struck down the federal right to an abortion in US

Passionate signs and pins have been popping up all across the country as thousands of people took to the streets to demonstrate their opposition towards the removal of federal protections of reproductive rights.

Rachel O’Leary Carmona, the executive director of the Women’s March, addressed crowds in Madison, Wisconsin, on Sunday as thousands descended upon the state’s capital to demonstrate for reproductive rights.

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Ten dead in shooting after lunar new year festival near Los Angeles

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Deceased include five men and five women as police identify suspect as 72-year-old man who died of self-inflicted gunshot

Ten people were killed and at least 10 others hospitalized after a gunman opened fire in a ballroom dance studio on Saturday night in a city close to Los Angeles.

The mass shooting, one of California’s worst in recent memory, happened hours after a lunar new year festival that attracted tens of thousands of revelers in Monterey Park, a majority-Asian American city.

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Biden to name Jeff Zients as new chief of staff after Ron Klain exit – reports

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Zients had worked at the White House before as the top official for coordinating the US response to the Covid-19 pandemic

Joe Biden will name as his new chief of staff Jeff Zients, a former top official for coordinating the US response to the coronavirus pandemic, after it had emerged on Saturday that the US president’s current chief, Ron Klain, plans to step down, according to US media reports.

Zients departed his pandemic-related White House role last April, but had been back since fall, assisting Klain ahead of and after November’s midterm elections, and will now take over the top job, the Washington Post reported on Sunday.

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Hundreds gather to mourn Lisa Marie Presley at Graceland memorial service

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People pay their respects at Memphis mansion that singer inherited from her father, rock legend Elvis Presley

More than a thousand mourners gathered in Graceland on a chilly, grey Sunday morning to pay their respects to singer Lisa Marie Presley at the Memphis, Tennessee, mansion she inherited from her father, rock legend Elvis Presley.

Presley died on 12 January at the age of 54. Earlier that day, she had been rushed to a Los Angeles-area hospital after reportedly suffering cardiac arrest at her home. She is survived by her daughters, actress Riley Keough and 14-year-old twins Finley and Harper Lockwood.

I’ve had my life and enjoyed every second,
But as it is, another life beckoned.

It’s important to know that I have not gone,
And I hope that, on you all, my light has shone.

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Justice department finds more classified documents at Joe Biden’s home

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New search turns up six more items from tenures as vice-president and in the Senate

A new search of President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware by the US justice department found six more items, including documents with classification markings, a lawyer for the president said in a statement Saturday night.

Some of the classified documents and “surrounding materials” dated from Biden’s tenure in the Senate, where he represented Delaware from 1973 to 2009, according to his lawyer, Bob Bauer. Other documents were from his tenure as vice-president in the Obama administration, from 2009 through 2017, Bauer said.

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Ron DeSantis moves to permanently ban Covid mandates in Florida

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Governor proposes legislation to ban mask requirements and outlaw ‘discrimination based on vaccine status’

Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis has announced a proposal to permanently ban Covid mandates in the state.

In a press release issued earlier this week, DeSantis said that he has proposed legislation to “make permanent Covid freedoms in Florida”, adding that the “strong pro-freedom, anti-mandate action will permanently protect Floridians from losing their jobs due to Covid vaccine mandates, protects parents’ rights, and institutes additional protections that prevent discrimination based on Covid vaccine status”.

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Ron Klain to reportedly step down as Biden chief of staff

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New York Times reports Klain to announce departure in coming weeks, following two grueling years since president took office

Ron Klain, Joe Biden’s chief of staff, is reportedly set to step down from his position, in what will be the biggest change to the US president’s inner circle of advisors since he took office two years ago.

Klain will announce his departure in the coming weeks, according to the New York Times, after telling colleagues that he is ready to move on following a grueling period of successes and frustrations that stretch back to Biden’s successful 2020 election campaign.

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Elizabeth Holmes tried to ‘flee’ US with one-way Mexico ticket, prosecutors say

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New court filing says ex-Theranos founder booked flight departing 26 January last year, shortly after fraud conviction

The disgraced founder of Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes, made an “attempt to flee the country” by purchasing a one-way ticket to Mexico after she was found guilty on four counts of fraud last January, according to prosecutors.

In the new filing on Thursday, prosecutors said that “contrary to defendant’s assertion that she has a ‘flawless record with US Pretrial Services’ and claim that no evidence suggests she will flee while she pursues her appeal … the incentive to flee has never been higher and defendant has the means to act on that incentive.”

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Jeremy Renner broke more than 30 bones in snowplough accident

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Actor thanks people for messages of support since he was run over by six-tonne machine earlier this month

The actor Jeremy Renner has revealed he broke more than 30 bones during his serious snowplough accident.

Renner, known for playing the bow and arrow-wielding Hawkeye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, was airlifted to hospital with serious injuries on 1 January after he was accidentally run over by his six-tonne ploughing machine while trying to help a family member.

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Delight as dolphins spotted in New York’s Bronx River

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Encouraging sign for river that suffered as dumping ground for waste from nearby factories

Dolphins have been spotted frolicking in New York City’s Bronx River, an encouraging sign of the improving health of a waterway that was for many years befouled as a sewer for industrial waste.

A pair of dolphins was seen gliding through the river’s waters on Monday, the New York City parks department confirmed, near a small park in the city’s Bronx borough. The Bronx river rises north of New York City and cuts through the Bronx before terminating in the East River, the estuary that separates the Bronx and Manhattan from the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn.

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Over the moon! Buzz Aldrin marries ‘long-time love’ on his 93rd birthday

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Second man to walk on the moon says he and Anca Faur are ‘as excited as eloping teenagers’

Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, has announced that he got married to his long-term partner on his 93rd birthday.

The retired astronaut celebrated his birthday on Friday and said on Twitter that he “tied the knot” with Dr Anca Faur, 63, in a small ceremony in Los Angeles.

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Top Tennessee pair fired after damning review of state’s execution protocol

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Report revealed multiple executions in recent years carried out without proper testing of lethal injection drugs

Two top Tennessee officials have been fired by the corrections department after an independent report revealed striking errors in the state’s lethal injection execution protocol.

According to official documents reviewed by the Tennessean newspaper, the deputy commissioner and general counsel, Debra Inglis, was fired, as well as inspector general Kelly Young, on 27 December.

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Arizona’s new attorney general to use election fraud unit to boost voting rights

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Democrat Kris Mayes will repurpose unit created by Republican predecessor to focus on protecting voting access

A unit created under the former Republican attorney general of Arizona to investigate claims of election fraud will now focus on voting rights and ballot access under the newly elected Democratic attorney general.

The Democratic attorney general, Kris Mayes, told the Guardian that instead of prosecuting claims of voter fraud, she will “reprioritize the mission and resources” of the unit to focus on “protecting voting access and combating voter suppression”. Mayes won the attorney general’s race in November against election denier Abe Hamadah by just 280 votes, a race that went to a state-mandated recount.

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‘Memes to dreams’: viral Popeyes boy finally reaps reward of online fame

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Dieunerst Collin, who became internet famous as a child for video of him at fast-food chain, signs advertising deal with company

A decade has passed, but at last the star of the internet meme showing a boy glancing sideways in confusion with a cup in his hand while standing in line at a Popeyes is capitalizing on his viral fame.

Dieunerst Collin, an 18-year-old player for the football team at Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio, can finally cash in on his online fame thanks to a change in policy from an organization which governs collegiate sports in the US that in 2021 enabled student athletes to earn money from sponsorship opportunities.

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Republican legislators introduce new laws to crack down on drag shows

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Bills in at least eight states seek to restrict drag performances as part of a broader rightwing backlash against LGBTQ+ rights

Across the United States Republican politicians are seeking to bring in new laws that crack down on drag shows as part of a broader backlash against LGTBQ+ rights sweeping through rightwing parts of America.

Legislators in at least eight states have introduced legislation aiming to restrict or censor the shows, according to a new report from a leading freedom of speech group. A total of 14 bills have been introduced across Arizona, Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.

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Julian Sands: helicopter search under way for missing actor

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Search for 65-year-old, who went missing while hiking in Mt Baldy, California, being conducted by air due to hazardous weather

The search for British actor Julian Sands continues nearly a week after he was reported missing while hiking in a treacherous area of California’s San Gabriel Mountains, where at least two other hikers have already perished this winter.

The search for the 65-year-old actor is currently being conducted “via helicopter only”, the San Bernardino county sheriff’s department said Friday afternoon, because the risk of avalanches around Mt Baldy has continued to make on-the-ground rescue efforts too dangerous.

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Biden accused of hypocrisy as he seeks extradition of Julian Assange

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Ad-hoc tribunal of legal experts and supporters pressures US administration to drop ‘attack on press freedom’

Joe Biden has been accused of hypocrisy for demanding the release of journalists detained around the world while the US president continues seeking the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from Britain to face American espionage charges.

The campaign to pressure the Biden administration to drop the charges moved to Washington DC on Friday with a hearing of the Belmarsh Tribunal, an ad hoc gathering of legal experts and supporters named after the London prison where Assange is being detained.

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‘We’re not done’: abortion opponents hold first March for Life since fall of Roe

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Anti-abortion activists descend on Washington for annual march and commit to continue fighting to limit reproductive rights

Thousands of abortion opponents descended on Washington DC for the annual March for Life on Friday, the first time since achieving its foundational objective: persuading the supreme court to overturn Roe v Wade.

Each year around the anniversary of the landmark 1973 decision that once established a constitutional right to abortion, anti-abortion activists have come to the nation’s capital to march, plead and pray for a post-Roe America where abortion wasn’t just banned but was “unthinkable”.

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